Standing past the dark water across from Barry was a hunched 7ft tall gray, wrinkly skinned old hag with long white messy hair. Good hygiene was something to be considered when looking at her, but even that wouldn’t be enough to fix her perplexion of warts and terrible skin. Her outfit was a mix between brown dyed hide and earthy materials, a mossy witches cap sat on her head, a root staff with different colored blood beads and bell chimes was gripped in one hand. The hag’s pupils were a mix between yellow and green, creepy and cryptic to look at.
‘Is she supposed to be a witch? Calista is a witch who looks gothic, but she’s not hideous unlike this raggedy hag.’ Barry thought, as he readied himself for whatever came next after being dragged into the cave. The entrance behind him had just been closed off by roots, presumingly the spellcaster’s doing.
Based on how Barry seemed to be studying her, the hag couldn’t help but ask what was on his mind. “My, my, am I really that breathtaking for you to stare so much at me? Flattery is always welcomed in my home.”
“Flattery?” Barry had a revolting look on his face, he couldn’t believe what she had just said. “The hell is there to like about your appearance, a fountain of youth is what you need. And I don’t even think that can help fix you.”
The hag was hurt by his response, she wasn’t expecting him to counter her with such harsh words. “Gah! You maggot, I was hoping for you to be the first to compliment by good looks. But alas, I will have you suffer just like the rest you’ve seen before being dragged here.”
Barry quickly scanned his current surroundings, planning out his next course of action as he replied back to the hag without stressing. “Ah, yeah, that’s right. I happened to see your horrid hobby of basically farming blood with leeches. What’s up with that? Care to fill me in.” There was another entrance at the other end of the cave, leading to someplace else.
“Tsk, tsk, a hardworking woman like me never reveals her secrets to just anyone. But I’ll tell you this, leeches can provide an abundance of different uses. One of which are those delectable candies you’ve probably seen in the cells.” The hag reached into one of her pouches, grabbing a few pieces of blood marbles he had seen before, watching her munch on them. “Hmmm, sweet and savory. Would you care to try? A kind gesture from Ms.Epple.”
Watching her consume those blood snacks made Barry vexed. The way she smiled with those crooked yellow teeth and sinister grin, made him want to break her nose and cave in her teeth. He remained silent, refusing to reply, mentally preparing himself to engage her instead after observing his new surroundings.
His cold and serious expression made the hag assume she had done something upsetting. “Oh I’m sorry, does this churn your stomach? Ah, I should have been more considerate of how you humans feel. Maybe once you’ve tried some, then you’ll-”
In almost an instant, Barry kicked off the ground, landing on top of the water and began jetting towards the wicked bitch. With his trident in hand and his leviathan mutagen in effect, his speed on water was nearly doubled, genuinely startling his opponent. “Ack! How in the-”
Carrying his momentum forward into one mighty thrust, his trident pierced forward with precision, striking against his foe…or so he thought. “You rude animal! How can you attack me while I’m eating!?” Ms.Epple was not who he had struck, but rather a figure made of stone and sludge.
He turned around to the sound of her voice, now seeing Ms.Epple next to the entrance he first came from. ‘What was that? Was that some sort of decoy? I fucking hate tricks like these, so tedious.’ Barry charged back towards her with a burning desire to seal their end.
Now with an understanding of how fast Barry was on water, the hag wasted no time to initiate a solution to his capabilities. She swiftly weaved the essence of magic within her, utilizing her staff as the instrument while chanting a few words. The effect stirred up the dark water, raising a wall of sludge and muck in front of Barry, causing him to collide into it. His body was then swallowed into it, dragging him down into the abyss.
“Wooowee, what a troublesome intruder he was.” Ms.Epple peered at the dark water, grinning at the thought of Barry drowning in her pool of leeches. Just imagining him being feasted on her cuties brought great satisfaction to her day. “Aaaaah, what a treat he will be later. I’ll collect his body once I-”
In what seemed like a jumpscare from a horror movie, completely stunning the hag, was a hand erupting from the water’s surface. It gripped her unbearable face tightly, pulling her off the ground due to Barry’s fierce emergence. And with a mighty throw, Barry hurled her body at a wall. The impact knocked the wind out of her as she fell to her hands and knees, screeching in pain. “Wha- You- You little pest!”
Standing back on land, Barry’s body was covered with a bunch of black, spiky leeches which were currently draining the life out of him. He ripped each one of them off as he approached the hag with murderous intent, ignoring the inflicting pain of needle-like teeth and barbs being torn off.
Ms.Epple gazed at Barry as she rose back up, his grim eyes locked onto hers, informing her all she needed to know about the type of person he was and how serious he was about sealing her in a coffin. ‘He’s a lot different than most other adventurers who have come to ruin my hobby. I was sure he wouldn’t be able to break free from the sludge and leeches…curses.’
Barry carefully watched the hag's next move as he approved, unsure what other tricks she would have up her sleeve, magic tricks and all. He twirled his trident around for a moment before hurling it at her chest dead center, wanting to see what her answer would be so he could react in accordance.
This type of action forced Ms.Epple to do something before she was skewered by his attack, making her whisk away on the other end of the pool and placing another decoy in her previous position to take the hit. But the moment she did this, a handaxe was chucked towards her, slicing a part of her shoulder. “Aaagh! How dare-”
Not wasting a moment, Barry was already zooming across the water and had just lunged at the Ms.Epple with his trident to impale her through the chest. The hag instinctively raised walls of stone to shield herself, though it only managed to dampen the force behind it a bit, still suffering tears into her arms. She continued to protect herself from his endless assault. ‘This adventurer is too relentless! I’ll have to deal with him later.’
Pressure was piling up on Ms.Epple so much that Barry believed that he would be able to deliver a lethal blow through her rushed defenses. But just when he felt like he was going to wound her, Ms.Epple managed to whip up a counterattack with a wave of sludge to suppress his aggression. This resulted in Barry backing up, yet still getting caught by his legs, hindering his movement.
Now given some breathing room, Ms.Epple shifted to the exit leaving out of the cave. “I’ll be back to deal with you later! For now, I’ll have you play with one of my dearest pets. Hopefully you’ll have calmed down after being drained of all that savagery!”
And with a wave of her staff, the chimes clanged together that resonated into an ominous tune. Barry watched as violent ripples formed in the water, along with a massive crowd of small leeches rising up with their maws nipping in the air. ‘This can’t be good. I can’t be delayed any further.’ Barry shook off the sludge and made haste towards the hag making her escape.
Suddenly, out the corner of his eye, a lengthy black tentacle with spikes whipped out directly at him, obstructing his path and causing him to recoil. ‘Don’t tell me…’ Another appendage was launched at him, this time being swiped across. He leaped over it, slashing at it with the tip of his pronged trident to inflict some damage at this monstrosity. ‘Is this one of those leeches but-’
The tentacles retracted back into the water for a brief moment as a creature from the dark abyss emerged to engage against Barry for harming its caretaker. ‘...bigger.’ Indeed, it was a vastly larger spiky leech with appendages that had vampiric suckers. The beast gurgled loudly at Barry as sludge began to spew out from its maw at him. There were fist sized beady eyes around where its maw was, googling Barry as its next victim.
He dashed away to avoid getting caught, Barry also realized that the hag had made her escape, presumingly gone to deal with his group personally. The other entrance had been sealed shut as well with dense roots, effectively trapping Barry inside with the monster inside to entertain him. ‘This is such a fucking hassle. Now I have this thing to deal with.’
Barry tried to close the gap between him and the monster with his enhanced speed on water, smaller leeches flung themselves at him in an attempt to latch on but were swiped away. ‘I’m faster than this bloodsucker on water. I should be able to make quick work of it.’ He thought, winding up his next attack at the monster.
Yet, once he was within close proximity, he was unleashed a surprise attack from the beast he was not expecting. The spikes on its body suddenly extended outwards, nearly catching Barry off guard and nicking his body as he retracted his approach. ‘I thought those spikes were just for show. I’ll have to find another method to slay it.’
And so it was a stand-off between Barry against the large leech monster and its swarm of children. He was determined to overcome this hurdle in order to personally finish off the wicked bitch of the swamp for tormenting the ones in her cells. ‘Just one bullshit after another I have to handle before things get messy topside.’
His battle would resume, as the scene then shifted back to what was currently going on back outside of the hags domain. Anna had returned back to the rest of the group to relay their discovery, but upon her return after explaining everything, an unexpected return of a couple trolls revisited them…
“Not only did we lose Mudflap! But we lost Kibbles too!” Gobbles roared in a panicked state, as him and his friends frantically searched for their lost buddies. Their exploration had taken them all the way to the area of which was the hag’s den, along with Barry’s group. “Where could they be!?”
Ron had shrouded himself and the party inside an illusionary boulder to conceal their presence from the trolls. He was the most freaked out person apart from the rest of the group, wondering what were the chances of the trolls wandering all the way back to them. “This doesn’t make sense! How is it that these trolls coincidentally make it all the way back to us!? Just leave us alone!”
“Hey, hey. Calm down.” Luna told him, afraid that the trolls were going to hear them. “Why don’t you just make another Kibbles for them. Problem solved right?”
“I mean, I can.” Ron replied, lowering his voice this time. “But then I would have to explain to their entire group why Kibbles disappeared, I don’t think I’ll be able to trick them a second time. Besides, this will only be a temporary solution until Kibbles disappears, and these guys might appear once again to slow us down.”
“Then what do you suggest we do? Wait it out until they leave?” Anna asked, she didn’t want the group to be stuck in hiding for too long since Barry was all on his own inside the unknown cave, home to some stranger.
“Uh, probably. That’s what I would suggest.” Ron said, he really didn’t want to interact with the trolls because of the chance they might find out Kibbles was never a real person and how they would react.
One of the trolls looked onwards towards the willow tree cave in the center of the large mass of swamp water. “Hey, looky there! Maybe Kibbles and Mudflaps went inside there, I’ll check it out.” The troll’s friends agreed and remained still, observing on land.
The murky water reached the troll’s waist as he swam across with some difficulty maneuvering through it due to the sludge, but that did not stop the troll from seeking out the cave. However, it would be what he felt after a bit of swimming that caused him to slow down. “Ack! Something’s biting me- Agh! What the-”
Everyone watched as the troll began flailing around in the water, reaching down to his lower body and yanking a handful of squirming leeches that had nipped through his thick green skin were sucking the blood out of him. “Huh? Black leeches? Water is full of-”
Suddenly, the troll felt something spiky wrap around his legs before tugging him to the side, shifting him a couple of inches. “Something is pulling my leg! It hurts!”
Resistance against this unseen force was shown, the restrained troll tried to swim back to land with all his might to escape. But even still, the conditions he had placed himself in had put him at a disadvantage. “Don’t worry! We will come to help you!” Gobbles reassured, as he stormed into the leech infested water with the other troll.
Ron and the others continued to spectate on the sidelines in concealment within their illusionary boulder. It was a complete struggle fest just watching the trolls do their best to help the first troll escape, only to see the other two experience the same difficulties. Something was definitely in the water trying to pull them down, it was strong enough to contest with the trolls all together.
“What could be strong enough to give these trolls trouble?” Anna questioned, they already knew that the water was infested with leeches but what else could there be lurking inside. “Should we do something to help them out?”
Ron was shocked to even hear her suggest that. “Help the trolls? What reason do we have to help them? We’ve been hiding from them since they’ve shown up. What if they’re the ones who’ve eaten the tamafrogs friends.”
“Now you’re starting to sound like Barry.” Luna said. “I’ll admit, these trolls sounded scary as you described them. But how they reacted to meeting Kibbles and how they showed concern for his disappearance says otherwise. I don’t think they’ve even seen any tamafrogs.”
All eyes shifted back at the struggling trolls, they were slowly making progress back to land, yet their bodies were getting covered more and more with vampiric leeches. The three trolls could feel their energy waning the longer they remained inside the water, it was unclear whether they would be able to make it out or not. Ron clenched his teeth with uneasiness, he wasn’t sure if the right thing to do was to help them.
It was then that during this crucial moment, that the group witnessed a phenomenon going on around the trio of trolls. “What is that?” Anna pointed out above the struggling brutes. “It looks like there’s dust falling on the trolls?”
Yellow and green dust of some kind was indeed dropping down upon the trolls, coming into contact with them to which was absorbed into their skin. “Huh? Where did dust come from?” Gobbles wondered, he didn’t feel any different aside from the pain he was getting from the leeches.
The first troll, however, was beginning to show exhaustion, his movements becoming more groggy. “I…I don’t…feel so…” And to everyone’s surprise, the troll’s eyes rolled back as he fell unconscious and sunk underwater.
“No!” Gobbles shouted, feeling a surge of adrenaline coursing through his body, quickly acting to try and retrieve his friend. He looked to his other pal that was with him, only to see the same thing happen, two friends now lost into the leech infested waters. “Nooo!”
Sorrow was felt within Ron’s group, even though they never really knew the trolls personally, just seeing Gobbles yell in grief made them feel sorry for Gobbles. It was just Gobbles, in a fit of rage, doing his best to retrieve his drowned friends. That was when Ron made his decision. “Alright, let’s help them.”
But just when Ron was about to dispel their coverage, Anna stopped him with a wave of her hand. “Wait, that dust we saw. That had to have been magic, which means…” She recalled the illusionary wall her and Barry encountered and how there must have been some sort of spell alarm they triggered. She scanned the surroundings with her focused eyes to spot any anomalies, to which she did. “There.”
It was hard to see, but there was an invisible figure of some kind beside a tree on the outside of the swamp water. The way it blended into the environment looked distorted and off, and as she observed it more intensely, she saw a wisp of crimson red aura emitting from it, albeit small.
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The others required some more time to see what she was talking about, but were able to see what she was referring to. “I’m going to sneak over there and get the jump on them. They must be the home owner of the cave, Barry was assuming. Wait here.” Anna suggested, before teleporting away and stealthily making her way towards them.
Anna swiftly reached the other end of this invisible being, stopping on a branch above the figure. She leered at the figure, preparing to launch a sneak attack when she heard the figure talk to herself. “Hehe, three more trolls to add to my collection alongside the other one. What gifts dropped at my doorstep. I’m hoping that the wild human inside is sickly weak by the time I’m done capturing these ones.”
From what Anna could understand from what this person was monologuing about, the lost troll that the others were looking for had been kidnapped by this person. But the other thing was that the person had done something to Barry, who must have been the ‘wild human’ she was referring to. This heightened Anna’s killing intent, seeing her target as a malicious threat needing to be eliminated.
Gripping her tomahawk and dagger in hand, Anna engaged. She dove down at the invisible being’s position, driving her weapons into their body and getting a pain inducing screech from them. Their invisibility spell deactivated completely, unveiling the hideous hag that was none other than Ms.Epple. “AGH! WHAT THE!”
Out of impulse, Ms.Epple’s body was replaced by tree roots that protruded thorns to inflict harm on her assailant. Anna was able to back away, only suffering a small cut, repositioning herself and scanning her surroundings to locate her enemy. ‘She’s done something to Barry. I knew that idiot was going to get himself into more trouble on his own.’
“More guests showing up uninvited, how rude of you to do so. Did you drag any others with you by chance?” Ms.Epple’s voice appeared to be coming from all over the place as Anna heard. “I also find it very offensive whenever a nobody interrupts my hobby.”
Anna did not reply to the hag, choosing to remain silent, fully concentrating on finding Ms.Epple. She wasn’t completely sure, but there happened to be the sound of munching near some bushes at a certain distance. The tree branches began to warp in shape, stretching outward like whips at Anna, in an attempt to retrain her. Anna utilized her gifted agility to weave around, as she made her way towards the suspicious sounds of eating. When she was close by, Anna hurled her tomahawk and left it to chance, in hopes of striking her invisible foe.
“GAH! Again! That fucking hurts!!” Ms.Epple was hit on her shoulder, bleeding a considerate amount. Anna retracted her tomahawk, approaching Ms.Epple at high speed. “How is it that you can still see me!? AGH! I’ve had it! There is no capturing you, I will have you on a pike and put on display when I’m done with you!” The hag stuffed a handful of blood beads into her mouth, munching and swallowing them, their healing properties taking effect and recovering her wounds.
The hag began to polymorph the environment into her own personal minions. Converting organic material such as treebark and bushes into viscous, mindless creatures such as sharp-clawed lizards, schools of fist-sized wasps, and feral looking panthers. With the combination of her minions and manipulation of the environment around them, Ms.Epple started to give Anna more trouble than she was expecting.
And as the two were brawling it out, Ron and the others decided it was time to assist Gobbles who was the last remaining troll struggling to get out of the swamp after losing two of his pals. Luna suggested that since her passive ability granted her near immunity to having her movement being hindered, that it was probably safer for her clones to be sent out to help. Especially if it was infested with leeches and something larger lurking in that is capable of dragging trolls down.
Together, Luna sent her clones to reach Gobbles which had no difficulties maneuvering in the water, while Kat asked her friendly ghost Dusk to give Puck a ride on her shield to hover over with some spectral rope supplied by Abe’s carriage. Abe made sure to tie the other end to his carriage in order to pull him out. Ron went off to try and assist Anna since his abilities were of no use for this situation.
Fatigue was getting to Gobbles, his consciousness slowly fading away if he was not taken out of the water anytime soon. Gobbles thought he was seeing things when Puck and Luna’s clones arrived to help him. “Huh? Where did tiny people come from?” The troll muttered.
Puck hopped off his floating shield, landing on the troll’s shoulders with his rope in hand. “No worries, Puck and friends help you. We’ll get you out of here.” The Kobold started wrapping the rope around his shoulders, aided by Luna’s clones in the water who were covered with leeches but appearing unaffected by them, despite taking bits of damage. It seemed that since Luna’s clones weren’t living beings and rather constructs of magic, that they were resistant to the leeches.
Confused and bewildered by the unexpected help he was receiving, Gobbles just accepted their help instead of resisting. Puck and Luna fended off any leeches that jumped at them while Abe began hauling the troll's large body with his carriage.
Their efforts to save Gobbles from his seemingly impending doom appeared to be working, the troll’s body close to land when a sudden occurrence appeared. “Grrr, something is grabbing my legs. I’m too weak to break free from it.” Gobbles informed the others.
Luna’s clones submerged deep into the murky water to check out what was giving them issues. Through the swarm of leeches, there were lengthy spiky black tentacles wrapped around Gobbles legs. Armed with some handaxes, Luna’s clones began hacking away at the tentacles as fast as they could. And with a multitude of clones working together, they managed to cut away at the appendage to see it retract away due to sufferable wounds.
Gobbles extraction proceeded as planned, Kat manifested multiple chains with her black magic to help pull the troll out faster until he was fully brought out to land. Everyone continued to work hard by removing all the leeches from his body. It only took them less than 2 minutes to cleanse him from the creatures. “Why?” Gobbles questioned their reason for helping. “Why help me?”
Puck was the first to speak to the green giant. “You don’t look like bad guy, you just want to find friends. That’s why we helped.” His words made Gobbles feel thankful inside, seeing smaller beings show kindness to him instead of outright hatred and fear.
“Y-Yeah, we saw you and your friends in trouble.” It was Kat’s turn to speak, although a bit hesitant at first. “Honestly, we were hiding and saw the whole thing happening and could have helped but didn’t know how you would react. I’m sorry for what happened to your pals…”
Despite hearing Kat comment about standing idly by, Gobbles understood where she was coming from and was at least glad that they were able to pull him out. Ripples began to form from the water, as numerous leeches surfaced along with long black spiky tentacles, gathering everyone's attention. “That must be the swamp monster I saw!” Luna warned, getting the group to back away.
Slowly, but surely, Gobbles strength was coming back since there were no longer any leeches constantly sucking the life out of him. He stood up in front of the smaller beings, preparing to fight off the monster that drowned his buddies. From the bayou emerged a massively thick black spiky leech, flailing tentacles around its tentacles, noming at the air before spewing heavy sludge at them all.
Gobbles scooped up his three saviors as he scampered away from the ranged attack. Abe vanished his carriage before opting to deliver some retaliation at the creature with his bow and arrows in order to draw aggro. This got the creature’s attention, allowing Gobbles to stop and let everyone down. The entire group spread out to divide the creature’s attention while dishing out damage from afar just as Abe was doing. As long as they were able to avoid being grappled by the monster’s tentacles which would most certainly drag them into its domain.
Although it cost Puck more mojo to hurl constant fireballs compared to his other fiery capabilities, it was the only thing he could do in order to inflict damage from afar. Luna swapped to her slingshot, as did her clones, and aimed for the creature’s eyes with mana empowered stones; her goal was to potentially hinder the beast’s vision. As for Kat, she ordered Dusk to shield everyone from any sludge while she applied consistent arrows of black magic at it while being mindful to shield others with black magic barriers herself.
The troll acted freely, being there to block and defend any attacks coming at the team since he lacked proper ranged attacks aside from chucking stone and uprooted trees at the monster. Two tentacles were about to slam against Puck but were caught and grappled by Gobbles just in time, although the barbs from the appendages stung a bit, it was nothing compared to the pain of witnessing his other troll friends being drowned.
“Wow, you very strong!” Puck praised the jolly green troll, reminding him of Buford the werewolf.
Appreciation filled Gobbles, it felt good to be praised by someone else. “Hehe, that’s right. And I’ve got a lot more strength in me to kill this leech!” He gripped harder on the squirming tentacles, exerting more tension and force as he attempted to rip it apart. In a couple of moments, both of the tentacles tore apart, squirting green liquid from their wounds. The monster sounded off with loud gurgles, presumingly it screeching in agony.
The monster was more irritated than before and began firing off barbs from its body in all directions, causing everyone to take cover and avoid this sudden outburst. The team's battle would continue on as the scene shifted to Ron who was actively trying to help Anna against the fey hag. Invisibility was not a spell he was capable of using just yet, but he was still able to make his body blend in with the environment which did about the same thing.
Ms.Epple’s shapeshifted minions were able to keep Anna occupied for sometime as she pressured Anna with thorns and snake-like roots. There’d be times where Anna was able to inflict damage with her weapons, but Ms.Epple would consume some of her blood candy in order to heal herself.
“You look a bit weak in the knees dear, care for a break inside my lovely home?” Ms.Epple mocked, she had been focusing hard on Anna’s legs to cripple her speed. “Maybe a leech treatment is what you need to get that blood flowing inside yah.”
Anna hated not only the fact that this hag kept healing herself with some blood candy, but also that her legs were being targeted heavily. She had a mana capacity and couldn’t just spam her teleport repeatedly like she wanted to escape every situation. Not only that, but the shifting environment was under the hags' control which made it difficult for her to maneuver. ‘I’ll hack your yapping head off for sure. If only you weren’t so slippery with those decoys of yours.’
Some of Ms.Epple’s minions rushed Anna in close-quarters, yet were swiftly dispatched with a bit of finesse as Anna moved on to chase down Ms.Epple. She planned on snatching the hag’s blood-candies, but missed her chance due to Ms.Epple merging with a tree in order to escape. Her arm was then restrained by roots and vines to keep her in place. ‘I might be a hypocrite when I say this, but fuck teleportation. I hate it when others can do it too.’
Ms.Epple reappeared elsewhere in the swamp, cackling hysterically. “Hehe, no, no, no deary. These candies are for me.” She took a breather after putting distance between each other, yet felt a presence behind herself. “Hmm? Who- Ack!”
She saw Anna appear up close with her weapons in hand. The hag instinctively conjured a spray of thorns to deal with her, missing entirely as Anna weaved around behind some trees to avoid getting hit. “I knew you were quick with some flashy teleportation, but how did-”
Again, Anna reappeared out of the corner of her eye, it was too late for her to counterattack so she left a root statue in her place to take Anna’s attack instead. “Feisty are you. Were you holding back this entire time or what!?” Ms.Epple began studying Anna more closely this time, she watched as Anna’s figure dashed away behind some trees again.
“This woman was always fast during our first encounter, but I find it hard to believe that she caught up to me that quick after whisking away…” Ms.Epple pulled out some more of her blood candies, specifically ones with blue hues. These kinds would replenish her mana reserves, which was how she was able to use her abilities so willy-nilly.
Just as Ms.Epple was about to consume some of her blood candies, they spilt out of her hands from shock after seeing a tomahawk cutting through the air towards the hag at head level. Despite having just seen Anna moments before, she still raised a shield of roots to block the attack. The weapon hacked into the roots, embedding itself into it briefly till it returned back to the direction it came from. Something seemed off by this attack, there wasn’t as much impact as she was expecting behind it unlike before. Ms.Epple quickly checked the damage done to her makeshift shield with amusement. There was no physical damage done to it. ‘Interesting…’
She paused and waited for another sneak attack which came a few moments after, with Anna making another appearance via her teleportation. This time Ms.Epple only focused on protecting her vital parts and chose to accept any other attack aside from lethal ones. Anna plummeted down to drive her weapons into Ms.Epple, who couldn’t help but flinch just a bit.
Pain was one of the feelings that Ms.Epple was expecting, and she did feel it…yet it wasn’t as painful as she was anticipating. Upon opening her eyes, she checked herself and saw minor wounds on herself. It was slightly painful to the touch, but as she rubbed them more, the pain subsided and the wounds vanished completely. It became clear to her what was really going on.
“Haha!” She laughed hysterically. “How amusing this whole exchange is, I really thought I was a goner there. However, I find it odd that you stopped there. I was practically leading myself wide open for you.”
She began channeling her magical aura around as a way to detect anything irregular within her domain. That was when she found something peculiar nearby, there was a figure blending into the scenery almost masterfully, but their own magical aura was still somewhat detectable. A smile creeped around Ms.Epple’s face, wondering who this new challenger was.
With some mumbling words and a bit of hand gestures, the unforeseen person’s legs were grappled by roots at first and eventually covering their entire body. ‘I’ve been caught!?’ It was Ron, he was sure that he was doing a good job of masking his aura. His body was then pulled towards the hag, now completely visible to her.
“Ah! It makes so much sense now. No wonder our whole fight seemed so real, it was you orchestrating that poor theatric act.” Ms.Epple mocked, as she brushed her ugly hands across Ron’s cheek with delight. “Oh ho, a full blooded elf, that you are, and young too. I’ll enjoy making some smuckers out of your blood later.”
Ron thought about using his rune-gloves to freeze and shatter the roots, but wasn’t sure how he’d be able to escape her reach after. “How about you work on your complexion first before even thinking of touching me. Everything about you is screaming for help.” Ron fired back, taking a page out of Barry’s book of insults.
Once again, another hateful comment from another person, soured Ms.Epple’s mood. She couldn’t stand the disrespect she was getting today, her temper reaching high. “I will ensure that your stay inside my home will be a very homely experience.”
Suddenly, Ron watched as Anna appeared in view from behind the hag, rushing to free him. The roots enveloping Ron started to tighten, making it harder for Ron to breathe as he uttered a few more words. “Now…Anna!”
The witch turned around upon hearing his call out, catching a glimpse of the red-head assassin storming her on the ground. Ms.Epple sent out a fury of thorn projectiles and ensnaring roots to put her down, all while Ron prepared to execute a plan he had in mind.
Anna performed acrobatic movements to avoid getting struck by the onslaught, however, she would still suffer some damage herself and it would eventually pile up to the point where the unimaginable occurred. “Haha, yes! I’ve finally got you, you damn weasel!” Ms.Epple cheered out loud, Ron’s expression turned to one of terror.
Despite her efforts, Anna had been impaled by an eruption of thorns through her stomach. She grasped the thorns as she tried to move off them. “All those fancy tricks and you still meet a fatal end.” The wicked hag ridiculed before turning to Ron who appeared quiet and gloomy. “Aww, don’t be so glum. You and her should have expected this outcome.”
Ron’s eyes glanced at Anna’s punctured body for a moment, his eyes slowly drifting away to someplace elsewhere…like he was seeing something else. He then started mumbling something under his breath that made Ms.Epple lean in. “What was that deary? Care to speak up?”
What he said next would initiate what he had planned in store to eliminate the hideous woman in front of him. “Perception is reality.”
The roots that binded Ron were chilled and covered with ice from the effect of Ron’s rune-gloves, and with a bit of struggle, the roots shattered, freeing him. Ms.Epple was utterly surprised by this, believing he only knew how to use illusions and made an attempt to restrain him again but was shocked once again by another event. Anna’s tomahawk came flying by, slashing at her hands that gripped her staff, interrupting her next spell cast.
“Wha- What!? But-” Ms.Epple turned to look at Anna’s lifeless corpse that had been struck a lethal blow, only to be surprised once more. Anna’s body simply vanished into magical essence, the truth dawning on Ms.Epple that it was all a trick.
She then tried to teleport away to escape the situation, but Ron wasn’t going to let that happen. He realized that she had to be grounded every time in order to abuse her teleportation abilities and knew what to do about it. “Fly high, ugly!” He shouted, as he triggered a wind glyph he created underneath the hag.
Ms.Epple flew high in the sky past the trees, Ron made sure to give the hag as much air time as possible for her executor to finish them off. The hag’s eyes darted around, feeling helpless now that she was off the ground, that was when she felt fear for the first time since encountering Barry once she saw a familiar red-head approaching her. “No! No! I yield! I-!”
“YOUR FINISH!” Anna cried out with hatred, making a beeline towards Ms.Epple armed with both weapons in hand. She began performing a multitude of hacks and slashes, landing on top of them, carving the hag’s body with each strike. Anna was not holding back, making sure that the wrinkly old woman's last few moments were a living hell till she finally aimed for their head.
With her tomahawk now empowered after landing consecutive hits, Anna teleported higher above, winding up her finishing move. She twirled downwards, carrying momentum and hacking clean through Ms.Epple’s neck upon unleashing the weapon’s devastating power-up.
She landed back on ground, her legs aching but bearable, the hag’s lifeless corpse would crash down seconds after. “Screw that bitch, finally got her to shut up.” Anna said, sighing in relief now that the fight was over. She then looked over at Ron who was taking a breather as well after nearly being choked. “Nice deception, thanks. You doing okay?”
Ron laid down on the ground, catching his breath. He was also a bit shaken up by his close encounter with Ms.Epple. “Yeah, yeah, I’m just…trying not to think about what might have happened had we not killed her. I can’t believe she really wanted to enslave me. Ugh…”
This made Anna laugh a bit, before teasing him. “Hey now, she was clearly infatuated with you. I think Sherry might have been jealous had you been snatched away.”
The thought of that happening made Ron feel disgusted and embarrassed, mainly finding it unbelievable that Sherry would think of him anything more than a friend. “S-Stop joking around! I would never want to be enslaved by that hag and there’s no way Sherry would ever be jealous. We’re just friends!”
Anna rolled her eyes and smirked, thinking otherwise. “Alright, alright…” She then wondered how the others were doing. “We should regroup. I also heard the hag mention something about Barry, though, I’m sure he’s fine. Let’s hurry.”
The two gathered their bearings and hurried back to the others after defeating the wretched swamp hag. The vile torturer's head had rolled a bit away from her detached body, the life from her eyes fading away as it stared up into the sky….all while a red-tooth from her row of teeth began to sink into her gums…a strange phenomenon occurring…
