Nik’s hands trembled violently, flint and steel slipping against each other as golden spores danced around his fingers. "I can’t—the spores—they’re making everything slick—"
"Just do it!" Lyra shouted, her knife flashing as she darted around the creature, keeping its attention divided.
Apollo felt the gold in his veins pulse weakly, his exhaustion a crushing weight. ’Keep it together,’ he commanded himself. ’They need you conscious.’
Nik steadied himself against a mushroom stalk, drew a deep breath, and struck the flint hard against steel. The spark that leapt forth was small, insignificant in any normal circumstance, but as it touched the dense cloud of spores surrounding them, sothing miraculous happened.
The spark caught, igniting a pocket of spores that flared with shocking brilliance. That first fla triggered another, then another, spreading through the golden haze like lightning through storm clouds. Within heartbeats, ribbons of fire raced through the air, connecting in a web of light that illuminated the entire clearing.
The creature recoiled, its eyeless head jerking backward. For the first ti, it made a sound, a guttural, rattling roar that shook the very stalks around them. The noise vibrated through Apollo’s chest, primordial and terrifying, like the death cry of sothing ancient that had never known fear until this mont.
"It’s working!" Renna shouted as flas spread in streaks across the clearing.
The fire cast the creature in horrific relief, illuminating details Apollo’s exhausted mind had missed before. Its skin wasn’t rely mottled but patterned with what looked like deliberate markings, whorls and spirals that pulsed with sickly golden light. Where the flas touched its hide, the spores clinging to its body ignited, causing it to thrash in evident pain.
Thorin seized the mont, charging forward with renewed purpose. His glowing axe seed to drink in the firelight, blazing brighter as he swung it in a vicious arc toward the creature’s leg. "Co on, you bastard!" he roared, all his earlier fear transford into battle fury. "Let’s see what color you bleed inside!"
The axe bit deep, drawing another stream of golden ichor that imdiately caught fire as it t the burning spores.
The creature staggered, montarily off-balance, and Lyra darted in from the side. Her knife found the exposed tendons at the back of its knee, slicing with surgical precision. The beast’s leg buckled, forcing it to catch itself with one massive hand against the ground.
Renna circled behind, striking at the joint where its spine t its skull. Her blade skittered off the bony protrusion there but left a shallow cut that wept more of the burning golden fluid.
Apollo forced himself to remain upright, channeling what little energy he had left into maintaining the weak golden glow that emanated from his skin. It wasn’t much, nothing like the divine radiance he once commanded, but it helped cut through the disorienting effects of the spores, giving his companions monts of clarity in the chaos.
The creature, wounded and surrounded, lashed out with terrible force. Its massive claws ripped through a nearby mushroom stalk, tearing it from the ground with a wet, sucking sound.
The entire trunk, easily as thick as Apollo’s torso, ca crashing down toward Renna, who rolled aside at the last mont. Another stalk followed, then another, the beast systematically destroying the clearing around them in its rage.
"Look out!" Thorin shouted as a massive cap detached and plumted toward Lyra. She threw herself sideways, narrowly avoiding being crushed beneath its weight.
The creature drew in a massive breath, its chest expanding to an impossible size. Then it exhaled deliberately, sending a fresh wave of dense spores billowing through the clearing. The golden cloud was so thick it montarily snuffed several of the floating fire ribbons, plunging sections of the clearing back into shadowy confusion.
Apollo felt the spores settle in his lungs, the whispers returning with brutal intensity. They weren’t rely sounds now but a chorus of distinct voices, each speaking directly into his mind with terrible clarity.
’Join us,’ they seed to say. ’Return to the gold. Return to what you were.’
His knees buckled as the voices pressed against his consciousness, threatening to pull him under. The gold in his veins responded to their call, burning painfully as it tried to answer. Apollo caught himself on a nearby stalk, forcing air into his lungs.
’Not yet,’ he thought fiercely. ’I will not fall here.’
Through the golden haze, he saw Nik fumbling at his belt pouch, producing a small rag that glead wetly in the firelight. "Oil!" the young man shouted, his voice cracking with desperate inspiration. "I have lamp oil!"
He held the rag aloft, looking wildly around the clearing. "Lyra! Can you—?"
Lyra understood imdiately. She positioned herself opposite Nik, knife raised. "Throw it high!" she called.
Nik hurled the oil-soaked rag into the air, where it tumbled in a graceful arc through the spore-thick atmosphere. Lyra tracked it with her hunter’s eye, then threw her knife with perfect precision. The blade sliced through the fabric just as it passed over a ribbon of fla.
The result was spectacular. The oil ignited in a brilliant burst that expanded outward, consuming spores in a rapidly widening sphere of fire. The conflagration raced through the clearing, montarily turning night to day as it devoured the golden particles suspended in the air.
The creature scread, a sound so unlike its earlier roar that Apollo barely recognized it as coming from the sa being. High and keening, it pierced through the crackling of flas and the collapse of burning mushroom stalks.
The clearing had beco a furnace. Everywhere Apollo looked, fire consud the fungal forest. Mushroom caps burned like massive torches overhead, dropping flaming debris that ignited new blazes wherever it landed.
Light and shadow flickered wildly, transforming the familiar into the nightmarish from one mont to the next.
Through the inferno, Apollo could see the creature faltering at last. Its wounds glowed like molten gold in the firelight, its massive body visibly weakening as more of its life fluid leaked onto the burning ground. It swayed unsteadily, those terrible eyeless sockets fixed on sothing only it could perceive.
Thorin, emboldened by the beast’s vulnerability, charged forward one final ti. His axe swung in a perfect overhead arc, splitting deep into the creature’s shoulder. The wound gaped wide, pouring golden ichor that caught fire as it t the air.
Renna struck simultaneously, her knife finding purchase in the back of the creature’s leg. She sliced across the muscle there, severing tendons with expert precision. The limb gave way, forcing the beast to its knees.
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