Chapter 364: Dungeon Guardian makes its Stand

As the flames from Julia's spell started to die down they were all able to get a clearer view of the dome to see if her spell had any effect. The flames seemed to have done the trick as the dome made out of spores started to fade away into ash floating through the air. All the smoke caused from the flame tornado still hid whatever was inside the dome from view, but with a quick wind spell from Henry that kicked up a large gust, they were able to see what the spores were hiding.

Inside the dome of spores a massive flower was curled in on itself. The red coloring of the flower was similar to the other spore generating flowers they had come across while pushing through the forest, but the size of the flower was on a completely different level from the other ones. As they all watched the flower open up as if it was blooming before their eyes they could see that it was generating more spores to replace the ones that had been burnt away by Julia's spell. When the flower fully opened they could see that it wasn't nearly as defenseless as the other ones had been.

Instead of being just a pretty flower with large petals there to protect itself like the others, this flower had bristle like thorns all along its petals that seemed ready to shoot out at any moment. From the vibrant red coloring of the bristles Joshua was certain that they were probably poisonous in some way. If there was one thing he knew about nature that he kept in mind from his time at his grandparent's farm it was that color meant danger when it came to a forest. It didn't matter if that color came from interesting flowers or bizarre animals, if it seemed overly colorful there was probably a reason for it.

Outside of the bristles that seemed ready to be shot out at any time there were also several vines that were springing out of the ground around the flower that were as thick as Joshua's arms with thorns all along them. They were swaying back and forth ready to strike out at any moment. The flower itself didn't seem mobile, but that didn't mean that they could just stand around and attack it from afar. The spores around the flower were now swirling around it like a barrier of some sort. From Julia's attempt to burn the entire thing down earlier when it was surrounded in a dome Joshua knew that the spores were able to block off spells launched from a distance.

They would need to get in close if they wanted to do any real damage to the flower, but the spores would certainly have some sort of effect on anyone that got to close. Titus could counteract the spores with his own while Joshua's aura would protect him, but for everyone else they would have to fight from a distance. Joshua quickly used observe on it to see what they were dealing with and was surprised when he read the title of the plant. It was called Corrupted Floral Guardian which was a good sign that they were at the entrance to the dungeon. It had four stars by its name and was level seventy-nine which proved it would be much more of a challenge than the others flowers they had come across beforehand. Luckily they had cleared out all of the other corrupted plants in the area to make things easier on themselves.

Joshua looked around the bottom of the flower to see if he could make out the entrance to the dungeon and was surprised when he saw one of the massive leaves at the base of the flower covering up what looked like some sort of stairs that descended down into the ground. "It seems the flower is guarding the entrance to the dungeon. We'll have to take it down if we want to get inside." Joshua said getting the attention of the others. "Titus, Cinder and I will go in close to do as much damage as possible where the spores can't block our assault. Everyone else try to give as much support as possible without giving the spores a chance to infect you."

Titus nodded in understanding while Cinder grew excited at the upcoming battle as a wave of cold air flushed from her body. Everyone nodded as they took up position to take on the creature. The flower seemed to be waiting for them to make the first move. Its goal was simply to protect the entrance to the dungeon so it wouldn't attack unless they got to close. The moment Joshua charged forward the flower took action as well. Its vines dived into the ground and started burrowing their way towards him and the rest of the group in an attempt to take them out right away.

Joshua could feel his strength grow in several different ways as he made his approach. He could feel his aura empowering his body as he let his aura shroud surround him and help keep the spores from being able to easily get to him. He could feel Flutters power boost as well alongside Light jumping into his aura preparing to help out as well. A green glow surrounded his body as one of Henry's buff surrounded him increasing the weight of his attacks when he attacked or blocked and another red glow soon followed that would make his counter attacks more powerful. The wave of buffs just made him feel invincible as he charged into battle and that wasn't even all of the buffs he could feel strengthening him.

By the time Joshua had reached the flower one of the vines shot out of the ground and tried to capture him. He felt his movement speed shoot up while all of the vines seemed to slow down. With the violin and guitar going off in the background he knew the reason for this and started to dodge around the vines while cutting them down a proceeding forward. Titus and Cinder followed right after him fending off the vines in their own way. Titus used his spores to paralyze them for a moment before tearing through the ones that were directly in his path while Cinder's frost froze any vines that got to close to her as she quickly rushed past.

When they got closer they noticed how massive the flower was as it towered over Titus who was the largest beast out at the moment. It was at least twice his height and much more spread out than the giant gorilla, but that didn't seem to intimidate Titus or Cinder. When the flower realized its vines weren't going to be able to stop the massive creatures that were rushing towards it none stop it decided to take up a new approach. The vines stopped trying to slow them down and instead shot past them to go after the rest of the group. Some of the vines would shoot up out of the ground and block off some long range spells from Julia and Robin, but the rest continued to shoot towards that group.

Since the group had faced several weaker versions of this flower up to this point they knew exactly what to do to hold it off. Jayce and Ivan set up a shield wall to block off any vines that tried to shoot out at the group while the close ranged fighters got to work cutting down and tearing all of the vines apart before they could get to the mages and long ranged fighters. Unlike with Julia, Aito's bullets had no problem getting past the vines and attacking the massive flower. He made sure to shoot off incendiary rounds just to do some extra damage, but the spores would always cause the bullets to explode early before they could reach the flower. The flames would take out a large amount of spores, but they would be replaced in an instant by the flower.

Brook seeing the situation the group was in decided to help make things easier for Julia and Aito with a spell that sent a down pour of water into the area that seemed to increase to growth of the vines which strengthened the flower somewhat, but at the same time made it impossible for the spores to stay in the air. This made it possible for Julia's faster flame spells to pass by the vines and hit the flower along with Aito's bullets. The rain may have weakened the fire, but with Julia strengthening it with her magic the flames were able to cling onto the flower and slowly burn it even with the rain.

When Joshua reached the flower it already had flames burning it in spots, but it wasn't enough to put the thing out of commission. Instead of using its vines to hold him off along with Titus and Cinder the flower suddenly reared up as it roots started to shoot out of the ground and block their path forward. The roots were much thicker than the vines and immediately tried to squash them as they slammed down back to the ground. Titus roared as he caught two of the massive roots and held them up in the air. When it came to the other two roots that tried to slam down onto Cinder and Joshua they were taken care of by Cinder who created two large ice pillars and smashed them into the roots.

The massive roots weren't able to force their way down, but they had stopped Titus and Cinder's momentum for a moment. The flower started shooting several of the bristled down at them, but the two giant beast companions both had their own ways of defending themselves. Cinder coated her entire body in a layer of ice that was too thick for the small bristles to penetrate all the way through. Titus on the other hand had Lilly help him out as dirt rose up from the ground and started to surround his body making it impossible for the bristles to get to his fur and skin. Lilly used her earthen armor ability for this as she watched the battle from a distance.

The bristles that headed in Joshua's direction were easily knocked aside with an energy slash before he leaped over the roots and launched himself at the now defenseless flower. Its spores had been taken out of the picture by the rain, its vines were off in the distance trying to attack the rest of the group, and its roots were being held in place by Cinder and Titus. This gave Joshua a clear shot as he rushed forward and started tearing the massive flower apart. Its bristles kept trying to shoot him down, but with his aura hardening activated they didn't do anything more than tickle him as he pushed through and kept cutting large portions of the flower apart.

When the flower looked like it was about to fall apart it was suddenly pulled out of the ground by Titus and Cinder. The moment its massive frame was held up in the air by Titus he started absorbing its energy from its roots while Cinder started freezing the plant killing off any lingering life force that it had left that might have made it possible to put up a struggle. When the plant died a surge of energy filled up Joshua and he could tell that he was getting rather close to a level up which brought a smile to his face.

Titus tossed the husk of the massive flower away causing it to break apart as its roots crumbled and its vines withered away completely. Joshua smiled as he jumped off the massive plant before the gorilla tossed it and looked down at what the plant had been covering up this entire time. In front of him was a massive stair case big enough for even Titus to walk down in his full form. There was a small glow that could be seen way down into the stairs and the vines that surrounded the walls on the inside all pointed to this being the dungeon they were looking for.