The second the Thornknight Bramble locked its eyes; those twitching pollen antennae on the sponge spore in my hand, something changed.
Its flower pulsed red-hot. Its vines stilled.
And then it growled.
The growl wasn't sound, it was pressure. It rattled my bones, blasted heat into my brain, and forced me to drop everything, hands flying to my ears.
Including the spore.
"No!"
Too late.
The sponge pod hit the scorched floor with a soft plop. Right between me and the world's most pissed-off floral furnace.
I barely processed that before Burn screamed:
"INCOMING!"
There was no time to think. Only time to move.
Adrenaline slammed into me like a bucket of ice water. I lunged, scooping up Barry in one hand and yanking Burn with the other just as the Bramble's twin vines flared like flamethrowers.
A column of fire sliced through the air where we'd just been standing.
The heat slapped the sweat right off my skin. My legs kicked into overdrive. We dove behind a chunk of cooled lava, and the whole world went white-orange with the blast's aftermath.
I coughed, lungs full of molten air, and peeked out.
The sponge pod was still intact, thank the system gods and was lying on the ground maybe ten feet from the Bramble but way too close to its vines. The Bramble's antennae twitched again, tracking it.
It knew. It knew that thing could hurt it.
"Blaze!" I hissed, chest heaving. "We need to get that spore!"
My chaos plant-cat was already circling wide, razor tail twitching like it wanted blood. But even Blaze couldn't take that thing head-on—not without backup.
Burn coughed beside me. "We can't let it damage the spore. If it tears it, we'll be toast!"
"Of course we would!" I hissed.
So not only was I dehydrated, heat-stroked, and one singed eyebrow away from collapsing, I was in a boss fight where my water bottle was the actual win condition, and the boss wanted to destroy it.
Fantastic.
I tapped Barry's glow-sack. "Bright flash, buddy. Distract it. On my signal."
Barry bobbed, brightening like a lantern at a rave.
I looked at Burn. "Ready to run distraction?"
"No," he said bluntly. "But I'll do it anyway."
Good enough.
And a plan came into my mind.
It was simple. The plan was simple.
Barry blinds it. Burn draws fire. I grab the spore. Blaze makes it bleed.
If I time it right, I could toss the sponge spore straight into the monster's root-leaves. Water meets core. Boss staggers. We hit hard.
But that's if Idon't get flambéed first.
I was about to launch the signal, Barry glowing like a disco ball at my side, when something unexpected happened.
The Bramble twitched. Its massive, scale-lined body hunched low as one of its thick fire-vines reached out. Not toward us but toward the sponge spore.
"No… no, don't you dare-!" I whispered.
The vine crept like a flaming serpent, its tip sparking and pulsing with heat as it neared the spore. I held my breath, every muscle locked.
It touched it.
Steam exploded. It's like putting a water in an over hot frying pan
The Bramble jerked back, hissing like an angry cat as its fire sputtered out. Its glowing tip sizzled, extinguished like a wet matchstick.
The giant reared its head-flower back and let out a low, guttural snarl, not just in pain but in fear.
It backed away from the spore.
I blinked. Then I grinned, slow and wide.
"You're afraid of it," I muttered.
Barry pulsed softly beside me, confused.
"That sponge isn't just water, it's your death!" I murmured.
And that changed everything.
It wasn't just the key to surviving this thing. It was a weapon. That spore didn't need throwing, it needed to be jammed straight into the monster's core and squeezed until it drowned in hydration.
And also the Bramble changed its tactics. It guarded the spore. Damn. But I know now.
"Okay, change of plan," I said, grinning like a man who had no business grinning in front of a lava beast.
I looked at Blaze.
"Claws out. And fire to burn him."
"He's immune to fire! I can't help you!" Burn had warned, backing off toward the cave wall, his red petals drooping with guilt. "But distract him, that's your chance."
I couldn't breathe. Not from the heat, though it was hotter than hell's armpit in here but from the sheer pressure. The Thornknight Bramble was a living inferno, its massive flower head twisting in fury as Blaze danced around it, claws gleaming, tails slashing like whips of vengeance.
Now Blaze was a blur of fury, a streak of green and silver tearing across the battlefield, darting through lashes of flaming vines, slashing the Bramble's thick hide and hissing at each near miss. His claws couldn't do real damage, not to that monster's lava-hardened scales but that wasn't the point.
It was a distraction.
It was enough.
I dashed forward, my boots crunching ash, sweat pouring off me in rivers. The sponge spore, our last shot lay there like a gift from the gods. All I had to do was grab it.
Almost there.
Almost…
The Bramble noticed me.
Its head snapped toward me, its pollen-antennae writhing in rage. I saw its two vine-arms twitch, then lurch, glowing from root to tip as fire surged inside them.
"Incoming!" Burn shrieked.
I barely had time to move.
But Blaze didn't hesitate.
He sprang straight into the air, all four vine-legs flexed, and slammed one of his razor-edged tails into the Bramble's vines mid-charge.
There was a loud explosion.
The fire missed me by inches, shooting skyward, crashing into the cave ceiling in a rain of molten sparks.
I hit the ground hard, rolled once, and snatched the sponge spore like it was my last breath.
My heart pounded. My hands trembled.
And the Bramble screamed, a guttural, shaking sound that made my chest vibrate. It knew.
It knew what I had.
I stood up slowly, the steaming sponge in my grip, still warm but intact.
"Alright, you overgrown bouquet," I said through gritted teeth.
"You scared of a little sponge?"
"Blaze!" I shouted.
Blaze nodded and started to attack again.
His claws slash, tails whipping, zigzagging like a green lightning bolt. The Thornknight Bramble roared again, louder, angrier. The whole cave trembled. Lava cracks in the wall pulsed brighter, and still Blaze danced.
But I could see it now, he was slowing down.
His leafy feet, once a vibrant forest green, were turning charcoal-black at the edges. Burn saw it too and let out a sharp gasp.
"He can't keep that up!" I barked. "Where's the core?!"
"I—I told you! I've never seen it!" Burn stammered, shifting from foot to foot. "No one ever survived long enough!"
Damn it.
I scanned the Bramble again, trying to make sense of its vine-covered monstrosity. Massive head like a hibiscus from hell, roots like traps, thorny limbs spitting fire and then I saw it.
A cluster of red leaves, different from the others. Not glowing like fire. Not dried out either. They were lush, like velvet, trembling ever so slightly at the base of the monster.
It wasn't a random patch of foliage. It was covering something.
Something the Bramble didn't want anyone to see.
My heart kicked into overdrive.
"That's it…" I whispered. "That's gotta be it."
I glanced at Burn. "Cover me. Do something. I don't care, just make it look like I'm not moving."
Burn blinked, startled. "W-what?"
"Burn, flare your petals, shine like a firework, just do something!"
Burn puffed out his cheeks and leapt forward, petals flashing like warning lights. He ran in circles while letting out this shrill screech, like a dying kettle being stepped on by a goat. Not pretty.
But effective.
The Bramble flinched, eyes twitching toward the glowing idiot plant spinning near its front vines.
That was all I needed.
I bolted.
Straight for the red leaves. Heat baked my skin. My knees wobbled. My lungs burned. The sponge spore in my hand sloshed with warm hydration but it wasn't for me.
I hit the leaf pile and dove down, shoving my hands under the red cover.
They weren't just leaves, they were thick like carpet, clinging to the soil beneath. I gritted my teeth and ripped them aside, flinging them behind me.
And there it was.
A glowing sac, orange-pink, about the size of a watermelon. Pulsing. Beating like a heart.
The core.
It was exposed.
Now I just had to figure out how to get the sponge spore inside it before Thornknight Bramble noticed what I'd done.
I froze. It noticed.
Everything else vanished,the heat, the spore in my hand, even the pounding in my chest because the Bramble started to shake. Trembling in a way no plant should, like a volcano disguised in vines. And it wasn't even looking at Blaze or Burn anymore.
It was looking at me.
Its massive hibiscus head glowed from the center, veins pulsing bright orange. Like magma crawling through its petals.
"Oh no..." I whispered.
"LOOK OUT!" Burn screamed from across the cavern. "He's not focusing on us anymore! JOHN—HE'S CHARGING HIS WEAPON!"
I looked up, and what I saw nearly made me puke.
The Bramble's flower face opened slightly, not like a flower blooming, but like a horrible mouth splitting open. Deep inside, bubbling red light surged upward, like it was swallowing lava just to puke it out.
"OMG! Run!" Burn shrieked, his voice cracking into panic. "He's gonna unleash the Lava Flood! GET AWAY FROM THERE!"
"Lava…what!?"
"LAVA FLOOD!" Burn cried. "IT BURNS EVERYTHING! IT MELTS STONE! HE USES IT TO RESET HIS TERRITORY!"
My legs locked. My breath choked in my throat. Every instinct in my body screamed RUN, but I stared at the glowing core below me and the sponge spore still in my hand.
I couldn't run.
If I ran now, we'd never get another shot.
The Bramble's whole body lifted slightly, roots digging in like it was bracing itself. The ground rumbled.
Time slowed.
"Sorry, Blaze..." I muttered. And look at the spore sponge. "Buddy, I leave everything to you," I said and the sponge blub like it understood me.
Then I slammed the sponge spore straight into the glowing core.
It hissed, loud. Steam erupted like a geyser. The Bramble screeched, a raw, unnatural sound that tore through the mountain like a shockwave.
The glow inside its mouth flickered.
And for a moment, I hoped.
Then the heat surged again.
And I knew but the spore wrapped itself like it swallow the core whole.
And everything went to silent.
The Bramble hissed one last time and the it collapsed making a loud thud..