The giant raised the root higher, making the black fluid slow down.
(Target the hand at the wrist) Jay commanded.
Blue and Red hacked away with their swords, but smaller growths sprung out of the giant's hand; smaller snake-like vines.
They had no poison, but tried to grasp and entangle the swords along with the skeletons, protecting the hand.
The skeletons had to slash them away and sever them before they could weaken the hand any further.
Jay ran, crawled and climbed along the root as it changed positions and twisted in the giant's grip. The closer the black liquid came, the more it moved.
Piercing his gauntlets' claws into the root, he had a moment to think as he waited for it to settle.
"It's panicking… I think? Didn't it expect this, though? Didn't it think someone would come to end the experiment someday?" he wondered, thinking it should face its death with fury rather than fear.
"Perhaps fear is all it knows."
Jay glanced at the army of knights below.
A thought passed through Jay's mind.
"It's scared. Do the innocent fear death? But who is innocent?… Who could be innocent here?"
Finally, it stopped shaking for a moment and Jay ran along the root, finally making it to the hand.
He slashed away some of the writhing vines; he wanted to test it. Pulling out the red needle, he plunged it into the giant's hand.
A light of hope raised in Jay's heart as he pricked it, but it was quickly extinguished.
The needle turned red again. Tainted.
"Ah, fuck this. What's the damn point?" Jay thoughtlessly tossed it away, and it disappeared into the floor fissures below.
"Everything's tainted. Why give me a damn magic needle when the result is always the same?"
Frustrated, Jay started hacking away at the hand, and together with Blue, they weakened it.
It still squeezed the root, but it did not cut the flow off. If anything, its grip loosened slightly.
More of the giant plant's body left the earth, though it couldn't raise its other hand as it was being harassed by an army of knights. Alone, they would have been nothing more than ants, but together, their damage added up and it couldn't ignore it.
Finally, the black fluid made it to them, passing underneath and through the giant's grip.
Suddenly, the giant moved its hand back, closer to its neck. As soon as he saw its hand opening, Jay dug his gauntlet claws into the root and barely held on.
Blue stumbled forwards and was about to slip off.
Jay reached out to grab it, his fingers only touching the bottom of its foot, but wasn't close enough.
Blue tumbled off the root, falling out of sight. As for Red, it disappeared too.
"Dammit." Jay frowned.
The root settled down again as the giant tightened its grip further up, squeezing and twisting again.
Jay moved up the root as quickly as he could, sprinting uphill at some points, and barely holding on at others.
More of the giant's plant-flesh body left the earth as it pulled more of itself out, and Jay wondered how big it was before it consumed most of the dungeon's resources.
"Hmm, but I guess it doesn't matter now." he thought, finally getting close to the giant's hand again.
Jay pulled his sword down, carving into its fingers. Thankfully, they were not as thick as the tentacles, as most of the roots from the four tentacles went to forming its arm instead.
Below him, the roots covering the floor moved, pulling up towards the giant like a carpet. Along with it went the Ova, entangled knights and dead suits of armor.
However, this doesn't deter the knights in the slightest. With the floor clear of roots, they could rush into death even faster.
Meanwhile, the black fluid moved closer to the giant's throat. It seemed to struggle against this unwanted implant, trying to rip it out of its own throat.
The root seemed to pump itself, and Jay guessed that either the giant didn't control it, or someone put it there.
Meanwhile, Jay was in a precarious situation.
Top stop himself from falling, he had dug his gauntlet deeply into the root while continuing to slash at the giant's hand, doing as much damage as safely as he could - so not a lot. And without Blue to help, the hand was getting stronger.
At this moment, Jay was glad he didn't get the skeletons to cut all the way through the black-liquid carrying root. In fact, he regretted it as he guessed that this carnivorous giant would be dead by now, as much of the pressure pushing the black fluid was being lost because of the hole they made.
Being closer to the body, Jay thought he could even hear its heartbeat, though the head was no longer pumping its forehead. Somewhere inside its body, its heart had started - or whatever this thing had for a heart.
While the giant's hand was gradually gaining strength again, the black fluid moved right under Jay once more. It wasn't yet strong enough.
Finally, it dropped the root again and moved its hand closer to its neck, which is where the root entered its body.
"Almost dead," Jay thought.
Yet as he watched the black liquid under him and saw how quickly it was slowing down, he realized he had to do more damage. Each time the giant moved out of the ground, it got higher, which made it harder for the root to pump.
Jay stored his sword into his inventory and sprinted along the root, occasionally letting himself fall forward, to grasp at the root, and to find whatever grip or balance he could.
Yet, while advancing, he was calculating. The giant was rising; the hand got stronger, and the black fluid was slowing down.
"It's not enough… I need to try something else." Jay thought.
Looking ahead, he saw the giant's eyes. They were staring, locked onto the black liquid coming up to it. Perhaps it was the only thing it feared.
Jay climbed upwards as fast as he could, coming close enough to launch an unstable tooth at its eyes.
"Hmm, the weak spot of nearly every creature… If I land this, it'll probably burst its eye open and hopefully loosen its grip, sealing its own fate."
Jay quickly charged a tooth until it hovered and hummed with energy.
*BOOM!~*
He cast it towards one of its eyes.
It was accurate, but it didn't reach its target.
A slender vine from its hand suddenly lashed out and intercepted the spell.
The spell tore the vine to pieces, and it dropped away, but the eyes were fine.
Jay grit his teeth, knowing what he had to do.
He quickly climbed upwards, getting back to the giant hand holding to root. It covered itself in smaller vines, all trying to stop him from getting a decent sword strike in. It was probably what it was doing with the knights below, too.
Jay, being more agile than the knights, easily cut them away with his sword and climbed on to the hand itself. The hand was no longer his target; it was merely a barrier.
"Just a little closer." he grit his teeth, moving his hands and legs as fast as they would move; he needed to climb past before more of the vines sprung up and trapped him.
As he tried to climb onto the chin of the giant, it finally noticed him.
Many smaller vines appeared from the hand and tried to ensnare him.
His sword made quick work of them, but one of them made it, wrapping around his leg and pulling him back.
The helminth launched a necrotic bolt, perhaps testing the enemy, though it had no effect. Jay held on with his gauntlet, but he couldn't reach the vine around his ankle with his sword.
"Fuck, just a little more!" he glanced at the giant's eyes. More of the slender vines had sprung up to protect them.
Behind Jay, more vines coiled around the one pulling on Jay's leg, reinforcing it. As it got stronger, he couldn't resist it.
It pulled him back, even with his gauntlet's claws dug into the giant's neck. Deep gashes formed.
He curled his body and slashed his sword again, landing on the vines, but it wasn't enough.
More vines came to grasp him and crawled up, tightening around his leg. The plant was going to strangle him.
*BOOM! ~* An unstable tooth found its way into the swarm of vines and exploded, sending them all into writhing pieces.
He damaged the vine around his leg, but it still weakly clung to him.
*Shring~*
He weakened it enough to cut through cleanly.
Jay immediately stored his sword and climbed as quickly as he could.
The giant couldn't stop him. If it removed its hand from the root, the black liquid would enter its throat.
As for its other hand, it was in the tentacle form, trying to hold off the army of knights below.
Yet its second hand would not do much; it was in tatters and weakened. Each time it slammed its tentacles into the ground, it took handfuls of knights with it, but as it lay on the ground after its attacks, it was vulnerable and the knights gave it no mercy.
As Jay climbed, some smaller vines found their way through cracks in the giant's head, but he easily cut them down.
Jay made it to the chin. He was about to charge an unstable tooth spell, but more of the slender vines had appeared, making it impossible for the spell to reach the eye.
"Fuck. I need to get closer."
Each time a vine appeared, he planted his gauntlet into the head's flesh, and with his free hand, cut it down.
Sweat covered his face, and his fingers burned with pain. After fighting the knights for what felt like hours, and then clawing his way up the giant shaking root, he felt like he had nothing left to give.
Yet he moved every limb with focus and sheer will; while painful, he was making progress towards its eyes.
Glancing back, he saw the giant's hand gathering more strength, squeezing and twisting harder.
"Good thing I got off when I did," Jay thought; doubting he could climb it.
The black fluid slowed to a crawling pace.
The cut that the skeletons made looked like it was tearing wider as more of the black liquid pooled on the chamber floor. It almost made him want to give into the exhaustion.
"Come on…" he told himself. "I've come too far to give in now. I have more strength than this."
He climbed further, finding whatever strength he could.
His hands felt like they would tear apart, and as sweat ran into his eyes, Jay wanted to give up.
However, he soon heard something behind him.
The sounds of roots being hacked away.
Glancing down, he saw one of his skeletons.
"Blue?" Jay whispered in disbelief.
Seeing an ally amid battle could raise any heart. Especially one of his loyal minions.
Blue had not fallen off of the giant swinging root, but had clung on underneath.
All this time, it had been pushing its bones to the brink of snapping, fighting off vines while hanging upside down.
Against all odds, it made its way back to help its master. Unrelenting and unforgiving.
It had not given up; Blue did everything in its power, using all the strength it could find in its ancient bones to get back and fight.
Jay grit his teeth, finding anger and strength.
"I'm its master; I should set the example… what am I doing? There is no giving up. I still have muscles to move; they aren't torn apart. My bones aren't broken and my blood still boils. Even the giant fights on despite being so broken. Where is my excuse to quit?" he spat.
Jay ignored the pain and climbed faster, ripping into the giant's plant-flesh with his fingers, pulling chunks out in a resolute rage. He even ripped vines to pieces with his gauntlet instead of slicing them apart.
Getting to the eye, he finally pulled his sword.
Vines came from around it like eyelashes and covered it in a tangled web.
A few swings and multiple vines were severed, but regenerated quickly.
It wasn't enough.
Jay stabbed his sword down, and the vines barely held it.
"More… More!" he yelled.
He stamped his boots on the vines covering the eye, letting them grab his feet.
The foolish things didn't realize they were helping to anchor him in place. Jay no longer needed to hold on with one hand.
With both hands, he gripped his sword and thrust; again and again.
In a blind, exhausted rage, he stabbed it mercilessly as if he hated it. He was like a maniac trying to kill a corpse that kept coming back, giving it everything he had.
Its green blood covered his face.
Yet the vines gave no ground to the sword, and they swallowed Jay up to his knees.
His whole body flexed with one final push. He sunk all his weight into the sword.
"Just fucking die!" Jay yelled through a clenched jaw, spit forced out and flying through his teeth.
The sword pierced deeper than it ever had. The whole blade turned green with blood.
Jay had given this last thrust everything.
It was the last of his energy.
He made a narrow hole in the vines, a skinny shaft with his sword, but the eye was still unharmed, unblemished and uncut.
It wasn't enough.
Jay huffed from exhaustion. Holding onto his sword with both hands, he rested his head against the pommel.
Sweat mixed with blood and dripped onto the vines.
He panted with his mouth open, dripping saliva from his lips.
He glanced down, lazily keeping his eyelids half open.
"Your sword is being swallowed up… there is no one to help you…" he whispered to himself.
His eyes became watery.
"This… I guess this is all I have…"
