The depths of the Fractured Caverns beckoned, a yawning abyss of darkness which Finn and Nyx traversed.

The path sloped downward at a steadily increasing grade, the damp stone walls pressing ever closer on either side.

Clusters of luminous crystals cast a sickly light, more hindrance than help as it threw twisting shadows across the uneven ground.

Finn gripped his shortsword tighter, ignoring the burning of his overworked muscles.

’Bearer, your wounds,’ Nyx’s crimson eyes glinted in the faint light as she glanced back at him.

Finn shook his head. ’I’ll be alright. The bleeding’s already slowing.’

’At least bind them. We’ve no idea what toxins those foul things carried.’

She had a point. With a sigh, Finn shrugged off his pack and fished out a roll of gauze lifted from the Tesco run. He wound it hastily around the worst of the gashes, teeth gritted against the sting.

When he finished, his arms looked more mummified than bandaged, but it would serve.

’How are you holding up?’ he asked as he shouldered his pack once more.

’Well enough to continue. This is the most stimulation I’ve had in ages.’

Finn huffed a laugh. Trust Nyx to find joy in this nightmare.

They carried on, descending ever deeper. The air grew colder, damper, worming its way under clothes and skin alike.

Time lost meaning in the deeps. It could have been minutes or hours before the narrow passageway opened abruptly into a vast cavern. Finn pulled up short, breath catching in his throat.

The space was enormous.

Towering stalagmites thrust up from the uneven floor like the fingers of a monstrous hand.

High above, glittering stalactites dripped groundwater into murky pools. But it was what lay at the cavern’s heart that drew their attention and chilled their blood.

A pulsing mass of scales and glistening tissue sprawled across the center of the cavern, its bulk heaving with each shuddering breath.

Thick tendrils, each as wide as a man’s torso, sprouted from its shapeless form and burrowed into the stone, anchoring it in place.

Where its head should have been, a gaping maw yawned, ringed with jagged mandibles that twitched and clacked.

[Broodmother - Floor 1 Boss lvl 15]

’This boss... I’ve seen screenshots of it in the forums but this...’

He’d known the Broodmother would be large. He hadn’t understood what that meant. The thing was a small mountain of innards,

Nyx made a quiet sound, half intrigue, half disgust. ’Quite the welcoming host. I don’t suppose your past research uncovered any weaknesses?’

Finn swallowed hard. ’There’s a simple way to kill it. Most groups engaged it at range, targeted the limbs first to limit mobility. But we don’t have that option.’

’Then we get creative.’ Nyx rolled her shoulders, rebar gripped tight. ’I’ll take charge, keep its attention. You watch for openings, strike when it’s distracted.’

’Nyx, wait-’

But she was already moving, a pale blur streaking across the cavern floor. The Broodmother shifted, ponderous bulk orienting on the incoming threat. A limb lashed out, punching through stone where Nyx had been a heartbeat before.

She reappeared behind it in a swirl of shadow, rebar raised high. The metal came down in a vicious arc, biting deep into pallid flesh. Ichor sprayed, hissing where it struck stone.

The Broodmother shrieked, the sound reverberating through the cavern. More limbs uncoiled from its mass, stabbing at the darting figure of Nyx.

Finn cursed. He couldn’t match Nyx’s speed, but he could make himself a target. Bellowing a challenge, he charged forward, angling for the seeping wound Nyx had opened.

The Broodmother rounded on him, a dozen eyes the size of dinner plates swivelling to fix him with a glare.

’O-Over here, you giant shit stain!’ Finn roared, fear and anger coiling into something reckless behind his ribs. ’C-Come and get me!’

The Broodmother obliged.

A barbed limb thicker than Finn’s body whipped towards him, the air shrieking in its wake. He hurled himself aside, feeling the wind of its passage.

The limb pulverized the stone where he’d stood, sending shards of razor-edged shrapnel flying.

Finn rolled to his feet, pivoting to keep the thrashing bulk of the Broodmother in view. His heart hammered against his ribs, every instinct screaming to flee.

He quashed them ruthlessly. Fleeing was no longer an option, he had to keep going.

[Shadow Step]

Nyx materialized at the Broodmother’s flank, rebar a dark blur as she rained blows against its flesh.

The creature writhed, trying to focus on both threats at once. Limbs lashed and stabbed, but Nyx was always a flicker ahead, taunting it with her evasive manoeuvres.

In that moment of distraction, Finn seized his chance. He sprinted forward, ducking and weaving through the forest of writhing limbs.

The stench of the thing washed over him, decay and something he couldn’t quite put into words.

’Closer. I need to be closer.’

Ten paces. Five.

The Broodmother’s maw yawned before him, a black abyss ringed with twitching mandibles.

Strings of green drool webbed the jagged protrusions, and the reek of centuries-old carrion gusted from the depths of its gullet.

’Almost there,’ Finn growled, more to himself than the monster. ’Just a little more!’ 𝙛𝒓𝒆𝙚𝒘𝒆𝓫𝙣𝓸𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝒄𝒐𝓶

At the last instant, he gathered his legs beneath him and leapt, a wordless yell tearing from his throat.

For a single, crystallized moment, he huhng suspended before that nightmarish visage, staring into a dozen unblinking eyes that held only madness and hunger.

Then his shortsword punched into the soft, pulsing mass above the Broodmother’s maw, sinking to the hilt in shuddering flesh.

[CRITICAL HIT!]

The Broodmother screamed, the sound so vast and layered that it transcended mere noise and became a physical force, battering at Finn’s mind and body alike.

Hot ichor sprayed, drenching him in thick ropes of steaming vitae. The monster thrashed, trying to dislodge him, but he clung grimly on, wrenching his blade free only to ram it home once more.

Again. And again. And again.

Time lost all meaning. The world narrowed to the burning of Finn’s muscles, the bite of shattered scales slicing his skin, the acrid stench of the Broodmother’s blood.

Distantly, he was aware of Nyx, a darting shadow striking again and again at the creature’s bulk. Of the cavern shuddering around them, the deafening shriek of the Broodmother.

But it was all secondary, washed out and muted beneath the tide of desperate, furious bloodlust rising in his chest.

This abomination had to die. It had to. There was no other option, no other outcome where he survived. He would end it now, or it would be his end.

[CRITICAL HIT!]

[CRITICAL HIT!]

[CRITICAL HIT!]

With a last, titanic effort, Finn ripped his blade free and rammed it point-first into the cluster of eyes boring into his own. They burst like ripe fruit, vitreous jelly sluicing down the ruined face in a tide.

The Broodmother convulsed, a full-body shudder that nearly threw Finn clear. Its limbs went rigid, then slack, crashing to the cavern floor in a tangle.

A long, rattling sigh gusted from the ruined maw, then, at last, the Broodmother went still.

Finn clung to his embedded sword, the adrenaline from the fight still flowing through his veins.

Slowly, incredulously, he raised his head.

Nyx stood before the fallen behemoth, rebar dangling at her side. Her crimson eyes were wide, face slack with something like awe.

As Finn met her gaze, a fierce, exultant grin split her face.

They had won.

[FLOOR 1 BOSS DEFEATED: Broodmother lvl 15]

[FLOOR 1 CLEARED]

[Bonus Objective: Defeat World Boss without the death of any allies - COMPLETE]

[LEVEL UP x 2!]

[Finn Morrow - Level 9]

[Nyx Sanguina - Level 9]

[Loot Acquired: Broodmother scale x 4, Brood dagger x1]