Chapter 373: Floral Dungeon Part 9

After seeing how the plant reacted to being attacked by any form of elemental based magic the group knew that it would be impossible to rely on the mages all that much in the upcoming fight. Unless they wanted lightning strikes, fireballs, and blast of water coming flying their way during the entire fight from any of the vines around it. "Do any of you guys know some decent none elemental spells?" Joshua asked as he turned to look at the three mages of the group along with Henry who could use a bit of offensive magic himself if needed.

"I know a few, but they aren't all that powerful. Plus my soul beast won't be able to use its bonus effects with those types of spells." Robin said with a frown now that she knew that she couldn't just strike the abomination down with lightning.

"Same for me. Though my non-elemental spells are more trap oriented like a lot of my water based magic." Brook said interjecting herself into the conversation. She wouldn't have been able to use water magic very effectively in the fight anyways so she wasn't two disappointed by the situation, but at least with water magic she could have tried to dry out the flower so that the core would be more exposed.

"My non-elemental spells are decent, but nowhere near as strong as my fire based spells." Julia said with a sigh.

"Well then here's how we're going to do things. Since we can't use elemental magic offensively then we'll have Henry focus on boosting up all of the mages non-elemental attacks to give them more of a punch. Alongside Aito and Katsumi I want all of you putting constant pressure on that barrier. Even if it won't absorb the element of your attacks it will still protect the flower. We need to wear it down so that the close range fighters can get in close and destroy the core." Joshua said getting nods of understanding.

"So then I'm guessing us close range fighters are going to rush into the crater and try to get close enough to destroy the core while they pressure it." Amy said excitedly. She hadn't been able to get to involved in any of the fights in the forest since plants weren't quite as easy to tear apart with her style of fighting, but destroying a core was right up here alley.

"That's the idea behind things, but we won't be going in as a group. This creature will easily surround us on all sides if we go in that way and eventually wear us down with its ability to continuously heal itself. Titus might be able to rip through the vines like nothing, but even he will get restrained if the plant is able to put his entire focus on him alone." Joshua replied.

"So were dividing its attention until one of us gets a clear shot at the core?" Henry asked. "Seems to be the best way to go under the circumstances."

"Ivan, Jayce, Marcus, and Allen will stay back with the mages and long range fighters to defend them. I'm sure some of the vines will rush out here in an attempt to attack them with the barrier under constant fire. They'll need your protection so that they can keep the barrier under attack." Joshua said turning to the four guys he called out.

"You got it boss!" Jayce replied as he set up his shield and took up position in front of the back line ready to create his shield wall at any moment.

"The rest of us will go in spread out and try to split up the plant's attention. It will most likely go after Titus and Cinder more than us, but the more chaotic we make things the easier it will be for one of us to get a clear shot at the core. Once we break through that barrier we'll take it down as quickly as possible." Joshua finished his explanation as he hefted his scale blade in preparation for his assault.

"I'll stay back and help boost up the power of the mages with Flutter." Lilly said getting a nod from Joshua. "I'll have Jade go along with Amy so that she will have a better shot at getting close to the core."

"Great. All I need is one good punch to shatter it." Amy said while jabbing in front of herself playfully.

"The moment the first barrage of non-elemental spells lands the rest of us need to charge in." Joshua said before giving the mages the go ahead. Julia took the lead and started channeling a spell with Robin and Brook following soon after. Henry quickly cast a support spell that would amplify the damage of their spells while Lilly brought out flutter who buffed up all of their intelligent and wisdom stats while Lilly amplified Flutters boost ability even more. With that the spells would pack as big of a punch as possible.

Julia's spells was the first to fire off and it resembled one of Joshua's aura blast, but with a lot more range. It didn't have the power that Joshua was able to create up close with a similar attack, but with all of the power ups given to Julia the spells soared through the air at a quick pace that the vines weren't able to get in the way of. This time when it slammed into the barrier the entire thing shimmered, but it didn't absorb the energy like it did last time. It was a sign that the plant wasn't able to retaliate from such attacks which was the go ahead sign for the rest of the mages to keep up the attacks. Even so the barrier only shimmered after such a powerful attack which proved it was fairly sturdy and could take a lot of damage.

Robin followed up with a unique neutral spell of her own that was a combination of two different spells. The first portion of the spell created these flat barriers in the air that were placed apart from each other. At first Joshua didn't know what Robin was up to, but the second she channeled her second spell he could see what she was after. The second spell created a large beam that shot toward the closest barrier that Robin had set up beforehand and bounced off of it before slamming into the next barrier. This continued over and over causing the beam to move in all sorts of directions that the vines weren't able to react to before it flashed past them with a shifted angle from the last barrier that sent it towards the large shield around the flower.

The beam grew stronger and stronger each time it was reflected off of one of the barriers until finally slammed into the large dome like barrier around the flower. The barrier shivered some more showing signs of being damaged which only encouraged Robin to charge up another spell to keep up the assault. All of the small barriers that she created in the air would keep shifting around making it hard for the vines to form up a barricade in front of her attacks.

In brooks case she used a spell that created several volleyball sized spheres of energy that floated in the air like bubbles. They floated towards the sub-boss in a steady pace, but many of them were being destroyed by the vines that were trying their best to stop all of them. There were so many of them though so a few would always get by and crash into different parts of the massive plant including the barrier. Because of the large amount of energy spheres the vines were too busy trying to destroy them all to focus on some of the more powerful spells from Julia and Robin.

The three mages kept up the assault giving Joshua and the rest of the closed range fighters a chance to charge in. Some of the vines still lunged in the direction of the mages even with the chaos that was going on, but Jayce and Ivan blocked them off while Allen cut them down and Marcus used grenades to blow apart large clumps of vines that were getting to close for comfort.

Since Joshua could tell that the mages were well defended he had no problem rushing directly past the barrier of vines that were too busy trying to block all of the mages' attacks. Joshua leaped past them and dived into the crater, but he wasn't through all of the defenses of the sub-boss just yet. There were several smaller vines all around the inside of the crater that were constantly trying to shoot and grab all of the guild members that had made their way inside. This was even more of a factor when it came to Titus and Cinder because of their size.

In Titus's case all of the vines rushed towards him the second he tore off one of the large vines on the outside of the crater. He was big enough to bull rush through some of the vines, but eventually the shear amount of vines inside of the crater would be able to hold him down. That's why Titus created a spore cloud the second he made it inside of the crater. His goal wasn't to make it to the flower, but to draw the attention of the vines away from all of the closed range fighters of the group. His spores quickly paralyzed the vines nearby before he started growing his own plants in the area to put up a fight. The giant gorilla took up the attention of most of the vines inside of the crater with his own plants constantly tearing them apart.

Cinder on the other hand couldn't rely on her elemental abilities so instead she started forming threads all over the crater as she used her speed to out maneuver all of the vines. Her web quickly started tangling up several of the vines making it difficult for them to move. The large plant tried to break the threads with its massive roots, but Cinder would quickly tear into them with her legs and throw up more webs to slow down the motion of the vines and roots even more. Her method was even more effective then Titus's since she held up the vines and kept them from being able to grow back and attack from another angle.

With most of the vines in front of the plant held up Joshua rushed forward towards the massive plant ready to take it down. Just before he reached it a few giant roots shot out of the ground in front of him, but Adrian and Victor rushed forward cutting through them creating a path for the others to move through. Joshua, Natsumi, and Amy all rushed through getting right underneath the giant plant.

When they looked up they could see the large barrier under constant attack as it shimmered in and out as if it was about to break. The giant white petals of the flower stretched out and folded around the core in an attempt to defend it as the barrier started to falter. Joshua wasn't sure if those petals were strong enough to block the mages assault, but he wasn't risking it. He quickly started lunging up the plant with Amy and Natsumi following close behind.

As they rushed up the plant two massive vines unwrapped themselves from the top of the plant and shot down towards them, but Natsumi used one of the talismans she had gotten from Titus increasing her strength greatly. She then cut through one of the vines with a powerful slashes before blocking the other one and pinning it down with her blade. This gave Joshua and Amy the chance to rush forward as the barrier started to collapse from all of the spells smashing into it.

Seeing this as the perfect opportunity to land a fatal strike to its core Joshua stopped when he got within blinking range and grabbed his sister. Before blinking the both of them directly in front of the massive white petals the moment the barrier collapsed. Joshua had Light project a large shield behind them to keep the few spells still coming their way from hitting them from behind as he coated his scale blade in aura and lunged towards the petals.

With an aura blast filled strike that was empowered by will, Joshua tore straight through the petals creating a gap that lead straight to the core. The following echo strike formed a large crack on the core causing the petals on the flower all around them to start to wilt. Before it could put up any more resistance Amy came in swiftly from behind Joshua with an aura filled fist that shattered the core causing all of the vines in the crater to go stiff. The moment Joshua felt the usual surge of experience he knew the battle was over.