Jay closed his eyes and breathed in the cold air.
His hands dropped to the side and the living vines began creeping up his arms, pulling him deeper.
His energy dropped to zero and his whole body felt heavy, as if he was in thick chains; relaxing now was too tempting to resist, if even for a moment.
Yet as he sat there, without backup or help, his thoughts drifted to the darker places.
"There is no one to help me. No one who understands me."
"I'm so tired… Who would know if I disappear, who would care?" Jay asked himself, but he already knew the answer.
"Dad left; I raised myself. Everyone else had a head start, but they still turned and pushed me down as if I was one of them. The guild used me. Anya escaped Losla without me. They left me to die in the wilderness or by the hands of the mage hunters."
"… now the only ones looking for me are my enemies. Fools."
After a moment, his breathing slowed down; his sweat felt cold.
"They think I'm here to be used and discarded? Did they think I would allow it?" Anger, disdain, and bitter disgust showed on Jay's face.
Yet he was not angry with anyone, but with himself.
"Pathetic." Jay talked to himself. "You said you were more than this, or was that just a lie? Where is your drive? Where is your ambition? Did you do this all for others in the first place? - And if they only care when you're soaring high among the clouds, they truly don't care at all." Jay spat.
"No. I don't move for others, I move for myself. I care for myself because no one else does." He thought, feeling his strength return.
"Others will tear me down as soon as I raise my head, but I don't become stronger for them…" he nodded, "I act because of who I am, and it's better having no one around me; there is no one to question my will or my motives. I don't have an annoying person second guessing everything I do. No one to disdain my weakness; no one to shame my strength. While I am ensnared in these vines, I am truly free."
*Cling~*
A noise found its way to Jay's ears. The sounds of a slashing sword and bones.
Blue was still fighting somewhere behind.
"I guess not everyone has given up on me." Jay opened his eyes, and in them was a fierce determination.
It covered his arms up to the elbow with the living roots as they pulled him into them, but he didn't panic. Instead, a sly smile appeared on his face.
"I guess the gentle approach was all it took."
He felt his hands free from vines on the other side, and in both of them an unstable tooth spell appeared; both of them were already humming, about to explode from all the mana he was pushing into them.
Jay felt Blue draw closer. It wasn't slashing the giant's hand, but was forging a path towards its master.
The vines made it to Jay's neck, threatening to strangle him. But it was too late.
*BA-BOOM!~*
At point-blank range, both of the spells exploded into its right eye.
The giant shuddered, its head reeled back in staggering pain.
The vines held firmly Jay in place, entangled in them. Yet Jay wasn't done.
*BOOM!~*
Another explosion caused the giant to shudder with pain.
Its large hand appeared, bashing against Jay's back.
In a painful panic, the giant smashed its hand into its own head, right onto Jay's back.
"Grah! ~" Jay's face smashed into the vines, breaking his jaw and nose.
Blood and teeth fell from his mouth; it broke his spine too. He couldn't move.
[91 damage]
For now, all he could do was endure the pain. Thankfully, he invested a lot of points into his vitality stat, so his body healed quickly as his health points drained.
He tried to brace for another blow from the hand, but thankfully, there was none.
In a few moments, his body healed and the giant hand had moved back to clasping the root, trying to stop the black fluid.
After regaining his senses, he tried another tactic.
"The giant can probably heal quickly, too." He thought, imagining the destruction he caused in its eye socket. "I suppose I'll just have to block its healing."
Suddenly, a green glow of necrotic mana came from gaps in the vines below him.
The vines entangling Jay suddenly bulged.
He was releasing a mountain-size pile of bones right into the giant's eye socket.
In seconds, its head began reeling back and shaking from the pain again, while the pressure of the bones crushed Jay's unarmored hand on the other side of the vines.
Yet he didn't care. It was a price he will gladly pay.
"Grraaah. More! More!!" Jay grit his teeth and smiled like a maniac as blood flowed from his mouth, knowing that the pain he was feeling was nothing compared to what the giant was going through.
The head began to spasm backwards and forwards. The whole dungeon trembled from its shuddering body.
Its hand released the root around its neck, but it was in so much pain that it couldn't even bring it to smash against Jay again.
It trembled more, convulsing violently.
It caught Jay in its vines, and he and couldn't escape. The powerful shudders were almost making him pass out.
[Cytokine Stabilization - Activated]
Suddenly, his head felt lighter and he no longer felt the changes in gravity pushing his head from side to side. His brain felt relaxed.
"So that's what it does? Good." He thought, no longer feeling like his brain was turning to mush.
However, it only applied to his head; he felt like his shoulders were about to be dislocated.
Even the vines holding him were having a hard time keeping him trapped.
Somewhere behind him, Blue held on, though Jay wasn't sure how. He wasn't sure anything could have.
Thankfully, its shaking was slowing down, and suddenly it stopped.
The vines holding Jay suddenly loosened as he felt like his whole body was in free-fall. The entire giant was toppling over.
Everything started to wither and die.
*BOOM!~*
The giant's body hit the ground as it died, sending shock waves throughout the whole dungeon.
[21,900 Exp]
Jay's body hung in the dead vines.
Not wanting to lose any of his bones, he added them bones back to his gauntlet. His other hand healed, no longer crushed by the bones inside the giant's head.
While the exp notification was enormous, he felt like it wasn't enough to make up for what he went through, and he just wanted to leave this place.
"Now… is the dungeon over?" he thought, relaxing in the vines for a moment.
The sounds of knights still sounded in his ears. They still thoughtlessly slashed at the giants corpse.
Suddenly, Blue began cutting away at the vines around its eye, trying to free its master. Jay simply waited, though he was annoyed.
"… Come on. The plant giant is dead. Surely this dungeon is over. Maybe it just needs a second?" Jay wondered, frowning as he heard knights getting closer.
