Curiosity killed the Cat [Mushtoad's Adventures]

If a Myconid was capable of showing a smile the stalk on Mushthin's body would be giving away their enraged joy in finding out that being small could mean they would be harder to hit if they moved fast enough, so if they were able to pick up their pace just a bit they would probably be able to tire them out just a bit. So with their target facing them, Thin would turn towards the beastman that was engaged with Mushtoad and take off at full speed to try and lure them towards the other two. With Toad's Beastman not facing them, and currently being engaged with Toad, would provide Thin the chance to help them out at the same time. As the Myconid made their way to the Beast, she would weave between their legs while grabbing two handfuls of fur, and with an all mighty pull and using their momentum would try and pull on the leg that was facing their ally in an attempt to throw them off balance as much as possible.

Toad on the otherhand watching what Mushthin was doing would take this opportunity to try and get some distance from the beastman who had made another connection with the pickaxe, to say that Toad was in pain right now was an understatement and needed to heal up just a bit. However, just draining the ground wasn't enough to heal his wounds fast enough, and as he ran looked around the area for something to help speed up the process, and that's when he saw it. The lifeless body of MushBuff laying motionless on the ground, would he dare to try draining nutrients from his fallen compatriot in order to heal himself? No that was something he wasn't sure he could handle right now, but he still couldn't help but run towards the body anyways. So instead of draining their body, he would turn around and place up both hands, focus his mana into his hands and try to fire off as many mana balls at the beastman as possible.

Autumn was a little sad when their pointy stick wasn't doing much damage on the neck of the creature, and would instead withdraw the stick with one hand and make a stab at the creatures lower region, hopeful to limit their chances of getting up before release more spore in order to communicate. "Tell them to stop hurting my friends and we won't make you stop moving"

Mushthin would manage to lead the Beastman towards Mushtoad and his fellow Beastman however when she tried to drag the legs of the other Beastman she wouldn't even manage to budge him causing the Beastman to pick her up and fling her with Mushthin landing on the ground some distance away and sustaining bruises from the drop on her surface. As for Mushtoad he would use that distraction to get away towards Mushbuff's corpse unfortunately his rapid fire mana balls would all miss as it was clear that he had not fired them this way before and he would run out of MP causing his body to be exhausted. Meanwhile Mushautumn would stab the Beastwoman in her knee causing her to cry out and drop further on the ground. As the spores drifted towards her the other beastman would cry out in dismay and resolved themselves to having to kill her too now that this Myconid had clearly betwitched her. This resolve would only solidify when she started trying to get them to surrender this was why one had to exterminate monster on site, especially vile ones like Myconids. Seeing that her pleas weren't getting through the Beastwoman would turn to Mushautumn and would start to cry begging for her life as she knew that they wouldn't listen to her.

Meanwhile Elfkid would stand their awkwardly at the whole situation before turning and seeing Mushtoad and Mushthin were dangerously close to dying causing him to cry out in alarm before focusing his mana and using it to heal them as best as he could. Sure enough the exertion would cause him to run out of mana but at least now both of them were a little healthier though he prioritized Mushtoad since he looked the most hurt.

Spoiler:

To say that Mushtoad was upset about missing his target was an understatement, the young Myconid was kicking himself repeated in his mind for not taking the time to aim his shots properly instead of wasting his mana...... And that's when it hit the mushroom, he had run out of MP and his body was now starting to pay the price for it, so he would stumble backwards over Mushbuff's body so he was flat on his back. His mind would start sluggishly racking the limited wealth of knowledge within his fungal brain, sure he could feel his body being healed slowly from some other unknown force, but at the moment he couldn't think of any other way of helping out the others. If only he didn't give those locust mandibles away back at the patch, he would have been able to at least try and help out in hand to hand combat. "Fertilizer, what am I supposed to do now?" He would say under his..... SPores? before looking at the deceased Myconid body before him. He wasn't actually going to consider draining his fallen ally? Wait a minute, Mushbuff wasn't an ally to him, he was a tool. A tool meant for their survival, so he would go up onto his knees before placing his hands on the dead mushrooms body before begining to drain Mushbuff's body of it's nutrients, maybe he would get something more. However, he wasn't just going to sit there cannibalizing another Myconid sitting down, no he was going to keep an eye on the events unfolding, observing the beastmen in hopes he could try and find some sort of weakness.

Mushthin would groan on the ground after being tossed around like some compost, taking a couple seconds to catch her breath and draining the ground below for some nutrients to heal up a bit. It seemed like her plan wasn't working at the moment, but it had proved that the first part of her plan was a success in that she was fast enough to outrun one of the beastmen. She would after a quicker "Breather"  they would stand up and start waving their arms around to try and keep the attention, that was until the audible cries for mercy became apparent to nearly everyone. That's when their eyes shifted towards Mushtoad and witnessed what he was doing to poor Mushbuff's body. This turned the anger metre up in the young Myconids mind, all their rage and Mana was burning through their body at the moment they saw this and would shift their gaze back to the beastman that had thrown them aside. They would move their tiny legs as fast as they could, propelling them faster and faster towards their target before leaping into the air and trying to land a punch on the most injured of the two Beastmen.

Mushautumn would breathe a sigh of relief for a split second as their words reached the ears of the beastwoman as they gripped the pointy stick with both hands once more. "If they don't stop attacking my friends. I.... I swear i'll poke your eyes out" Autumn spoke to the Beastwoman as they jabbed the tip right up to their neck to maintain the threat. Elfkid on the otherhand would notice Mushthin now taking the offensive on the beastmen and would try to employ the same healing technique on the smaller of the myconids to try and prevent yet another mushroom salad from being made. "Even if you have to stop them yourself"

Mushtoad would drain the corpse of Mushbuff and would feel his exhaustion fade but he was still just as injured as before albeit feeling stated as if he had a pretty good meal. The taste was interesting as it was like mushrooms a little rubbery but in the good way and almost addicting in a sense that he felt if he kept leveling it he would find it harder and harder to resist eating more of his same species. As for Mushthin she would find that her trying to harness her magic would bolster her strength and that would cause her flying punch to actually deal more damage, however other that knocking the beastkin back it wouldn't kill him and she would be pierced with it's pickaxe causing her to choke out a final cry of rage before expiring just like her friend.

However it seemed that the Mana Balls that Mushtoad thought had been missing had actually been on target though his own blood loss had made him slightly delirious thus causing him to not realize this. Due to this realization and Mushthin's last attack one of the two Beastman, the one that Mushtoad had been fighting would collapse to the ground dead with blood pooling from his back where the Ambient Mana: Balls had collided. As for mushautumn and elfkid the latter would find that his mana was completely depleted causing him to become exhausted while the former would see the beastwoman point to her legs indicating she couldn't move from where she was so how would she help them fight in the first place. Still she would point at the last Beastman indicating they should all concentrate on that one, but she would hand over her pickaxe to Mushautumn as it was obviously better than the pointy stick he was using at the moment.

Spoiler:

Feeling revitalized, and oddly satisfied from consuming his ally, Toad would groan from the pain he was feeling from the fight at the moment. His delirium must have been really messing with him because it almost looked like his other new ally was lying dead on the ground, which was absolutely silly, right? Right? For a split second, he almost didn't see MushThin as a fallen comrade, but more like a freshly prepared meal, that's not at all disturbing. After mentally slapping himself in the face to get that imagery out of his head, he would notice the now dead body of the beastman on the ground next to Mushthin. Good, at least her final attack was the one to kill the beast, though he did find it odd that it died after it had killed her. Perhaps it was a delayed impact, he'd have to try and figure out what she did later. The Myconid would stand up, watching as the Elf had seemed to be rather exhausted as well, and Mushautumn had dealt with the Beastwoman, ensuring she couldn't escape. This meant that there was just the one Beastman left, who at the moment looks pretty much untouched, something they would have to remedy.

Mushautumn would glance at the pickaxe laying on the ground before quickly picking it up, then looking back at the Beastwoman. "Stay!" She would say in a stern voice before making way towards the final beastman, to which Elfkid would begin their advance on the final enemy, Scythe in hand. With the pointy stick in one hand and the pickaxe in the other, Mushautumn would throw the stick towards the now advancing Mushtoad. Toad would pick up the stick and would move around so the three would now be surrounding the Beastman. "Now!" Mushtoad would shout in spore as he would run, stick in hand towards the enemy, taking aim and thrusting as hard as he could into its torso. Mushautumn hearing Toad's signal would run towards the Beast at the same time, Pickaxe at the ready, and would swing down hard on its foot to keep it stuck in that spot. And Finally, after seeing Mushautumn start running, would follow suit, swinging his scythe at the beast's Head/neck area.

The Beastman would take the attack from the stick in exchange for trying to launch an attack which would finish off Mushtoad however Mushautumn's intervention with the pickaxe would cause him to yell out in pain as his foot was impaled to the ground and he would instead aim a strike downward at Mushautumn which would sink into his mushroom cap but before he could do anything else Elfkid would defend his friend with a slice to the Beastman's neck which would cause blood to spurt outward causing the Beastman to choke. Mushautumn would remove the pickaxe from the Beastman's foot before swinging it upward into his groin and Elfkid would deliver the final strike by gracefully spinning and delivering a final slash to the back of the beastman's head. Just like that it was over, they had won though the casualties were quite severe they had managed to gain much from the confrontation.

Spoiler:

Mushtoad would drop to his knees when he saw the group had taken finally slew the beastman before them, his body was screaming in agony from all the damage and mental trauma he had experienced this day. Mushautumn having been dealt their first amount of damage in the day would begin sobbing next to the corpse of their fallen Ally of Mushthin, why did they have to die like that? Why couldn't they just listen to Toad when he said to stay back, perhaps they would have found other things besides death and sorrow. Elfkid not really feeling the emotional impact of the lost lives would then clean the blade of his scythe before collecting all the equipment they had obtained from this encounter, stripping the two corpses of their clothes and pickaxes. This was going to be a hassle to take everything back, for now, however there was a more pressing issue at the moment. He would scoop up the two injured Myconids and bring them over to the injured beast woman, and would tear up one of the shirts to make pseudo bandages for the three. With the two Myconids patched up for now, he would leave them be as he started on the Beastwoman. "Why did you attack them? They are a peaceful race who just wanted to make new friends with you three" He would say as he wrapped a torn cloth around her wounds.

Meanwhile Mushautumn was clutching onto Mushtoad sobbing over the loss of their friends, to which Mushtoad would just pat them on their bandaged cap trying to console them while keeping his eyes on the Beastwoman, hoping she wasn't going to attack them. "Autumn, can you teach me that Sporelingo thing you just learned? I want to try talking to the big hairy one. And do you still have those mandibles I gave you yesterday?"

"I left them at home, I'll teach you sporelingo on the way back." Mushautumn said, before moving to pick up the Beastman's corpse while Elfkid was initially going to make bandages out of the shirts but realized that would be a waste of clothes and instead would go over to the rags that Mushthin and Mushbuff had been wearing and making the bandages out of them. [color=yellow]"We thought you were going to attack us, we've heard of the monsters within the Great Forest, Myconid are notorious for capturing things and using us as breeders for their spores."]/color] Slothtres said with a frown clearly regretting her actions as she had ended up captured in the long run anyways and now her legs were ruined. "I won't resist anymore just please don't hurt me anymore" she said pleading with Elfkid as she knew that he had an in with these Myconid and didn't seem like he was coerced into following them. He would motion for her to hold the other Beastman corpse, before picking her up so that she could lean against them as they made their way back home. Mushautumn would look towards Mushtoad before jerking his head to continue onward as all he had to carry was Mushthin's corpse.

(Exit)

Spoiler:

Mushtoad would be snapped back into focus from Mushautumn's gesture towards him to hurry up, so he would limp towards the fallen corpse of Mushthin. For the briefest of moments, he once again didn't see her as a fallen ally, but some nice juicy food ready to devour, however, he would shake that image out of his cap and would pick the body up. This was something he would have to keep quiet about for the time being, with today's events he would have to expand his skills a bit more before he tries a more extended adventure. Before leaving though he would have to remember this area, these creatures looked to be trying to dig something out of the ground. After that he would head back to the party, keeping his eyes on the Beastwoman.

[Exit]

Mushtoad would leave the patch with Mushpea and Mushrio, all done up in their gear and tools in hand. "Alright, we are going to head Northwest, back to where I was the other day. The beastmen were looking for something there, so we are going to find it" Mushtoad would say to his followers as he would begin walking in the north west direction.

As they continued to walk they would stumble upon not one but two Red Deer grazing along the path that they were trying to get to. Mushtoad remembered that if they just continued this way about thirty more minutes they'd arrive at the rocky hill area that the Beastmen were trying to mine at. Still with these two obstacles in their way it seemed that they would have to deal with them first, and the Red Deer would look up from where they were grazing before seeing three walking meals. To herbivores like them, eating myconid was like a rare delicacy and the two of them would straighten up before focusing on the trio, their small horns glinting in the sunlight.

Mushtoad would pull out his two mandibles and motion for the others to stand behind him. "We aren't that far away, but these things want to eat us" He would say to his to companions as they would pull out their pickaxes, ready to follow Mushtoad into battle. Mushtoad would focus his Mana to cloak his body, and would then start to run at the closest Red Deer. "Rio, provide covering fire with your mana balls" Mushrio would nod and put his pickaxe away, and would begin to shoot a mana ball at the second Red deer while Toad and Pea would make an attempt to surround the other one. Pea would swing towards the leg of the closest deer when they got close, While toad would make attempts to slice at the Deer's underbelly with both his mandibles.

Mushtoad would run forward while trying to cycle mana to cloak his body unfortunately the magic he tried to use would fizzle out before he could really get it going. It was unfortunate but he would have to practice it more in battle, fortunately his failure was compensated by a ball of mana colliding with the lead Red Deer causing it to stumble a bit before shaking it's head to refocus as such an attack had caught it off guard. While it was doing that the other Red Deer would bound forward to attack clashing with Mushpea's pickaxe with it's horn to parry it and then trying it's best to dodge out of the way of Mushtoad's attacks with it's impressive dexterity. It would manage to avoid the second strike albeit dodging the first one completely if it hadn't parried it figured it could of dodged all the attacks. Still it had gauged the threat and while that was going on the other Red Deer would tackle Mushtoad knocking him off his feet and it would continue forward trying to keep the Myconid on it's horns as it looked for a tree to ram him into.

Spoiler:

Mushrio would just continue firing another Ball of Mana towards the Red deer as it tried to impale Mushtoad against a tree. Mushtoad however would cycle his poisons through the spores in his cap and would let loose a poof of poison berry Poison into the face of the Red deer, At the same time he would swipe both mandibles at the eyes of the creature. Mushpea would chase down the Red Deer that got past them and would again make attempts at stabbing it in the legs.

mushtoad would successfully cut the eyes of the red deer, yet the red deer would retaliate by using its antler to throw mushtoad into the ground it would follow up with a loud call to its pack which ended with the other two taking their fights a but more serious, once their realized myconiods were a delicacy due to the fight some of them had in them. the red deer chose a wrong time to motivate its piers as it would receive a face full of a ball of mana and a taste full of the poison berry. mushpea would do an excellent job of chasing down the other red deer however after stabbing it in its foot, mushpea would find out that its attack only further frustrated the deer and would cause it to kick em in the face before sending it to mushtoad with its kick.

Spoiler:

Mushpea would let out a bit of a scream when they were struck in the face, sending them flying towards Mushtoad's body. Who was also facing a tricky situation at the moment, picking his companion up onto their feet with him the two would take their weapons in hand and charge at the Red Deer who had just been struck by the Mana Ball. Mushtoad would go along the left side of the deer, driving it's mandibles into the flesh of the creature and running along as fast as he could in an attempt to tear as much of the flesh open as possible. Mushpea would instead move to drive the pickaxe into the Deers skull as hard as they could. MushRio however would take aim at one of the other Red Deer and fire off another Mana Ball at them

The red deers were still breathing and were used to taking a beating but these myconiods weren't all that foolish, due to being unable to see the deer would relay more on his hearing and since they weren't that steality he could still hear them. mushtoad would be successful in cutting him in slashing its flesh but it was to the depths to cause him to bleed out, however mushpea was in more of a surprise as it was able to pierce the skull of the deer it would beep enough to get him stuck. however the deer would steer the myconid in front of the ball of mana which had been coming at him from the same spot before he was blind. The other deer wasn't exactly that of a coward however it was being treated as if it wasn't their, the other deer would charge mushrio who'd been giving cover fire for the longest.

Spoiler:

Mushtoad would groan as he wasn't able to rip the deer open with its mandibles, and would then decide to try another tactic. So he would rip the mandibles from the side of the creature and climb up onto the back of it while letting loose his Sporelingo spores onto the injured deer. With this, he wouldn't be able to understand the deer, but perhaps the deer would be able to understand him. "Tell them to leave or we'll kill and eat all of you" He would say holding out a hand and firing a mana ball at the deer charging at Mushrio as he drove the other mandible into the side of the deer's neck. Mushpea would let out a scream as Mushrio's mana ball collided with their back, but wouldn't let the pain stop them from their attack. So they would plant their feet onto the ground and with both hands would try and yank the Deer's head down towards the ground as hard as they could. Meanwhile, Mushrio would see the other Deer charging at him and would fire off a Mana ball at its head before grabbing its pickaxe and preparing to swing at its head when it got close enough.

surprisingly mushtoad was quite nifty with the way he moved despite being able to climb the red deer, he wouldn't be able to keep his balance long enough to stop him from falling off thus would cause the communication between him and the deer to be cut short. the deer would listen as he fell to the ground, however he would wait to kick his foot out to potentially kick him in the face... the right time to kick his front hove out never came, but the feeling of a mandible scraping against his neck to stop the myconiod from falling would come as a surprise to him before he let out a cry. his partner would change its course as it planned to flee as the myconid were obvious doing something right if they were finally able to through his bosses defenses, hearing that his partner was running away he would do the same however his legs would buckle under the weight of damage that he had already been dealt it was obviously now or never... and never, didn't ever stop repeating in the thoughts of the red deer.

Spoiler:

Mushtoad would hold onto the blade stuck in the Deer's neck as he fell off and would notice how the beast was starting to buckle under everything that had happened to it and would grin as he was able to gain some footing. Once the beast was on the ground, Toad would place both hands on the hilt of the mandible and push it deeper into the Deer's neck as hard as he could. Meanwhile, Mushpea would struggle for a moment to get the pickaxe out of the skull of the creature, but once out she would bring it down on the same part yet again. Mushrio noticing the other Deer fleeing would come out of their hiding spot and move towards their allies and the severely wounded creature and would bring up his hand, firing one final Mana ball into the head of the creature. "Much better than last time if you ask me" Mushtoad would say with a bit of a laugh.

Despite the fight being longer than the red deer expected his body was beginning to give out, it would try to raise itself from the ground but its body would continue to lay there. The deer's end wouldn't be to a sword or a rabbits horn, but to a damn mana ball that it didn't have enough strength to move its body out of the way to dodge. Mushrio would stare into the eyes of the deer as the color in its eyes faded away to the light of it pupil, it was obvious the beast was dead however it wasn't a pushover something that all the myconids should take into consideration in the future. mushrio would hear mushtoad's joke and give a slight lifeless laugh before mushpea would come and give a harsh strong sigh "boss I can't take anymore of a beating today." the word came out of mushpea's mouth faintly and wouldn't plan to put its life in danger for mushtoad unless he was able to get that tone in his voice that leaders had.

Spoiler:

Mushtoad would sigh as he pulled the Mandible from the neck of the Red Deer, it was a good fight with no casualties, so he was happy about that. "Two days ago, Autumn, Thin, Buff, and the elf came out here with me to go on an extended adventure, but came back after a few hours because we ran into three beastmen. Mushbuff had decided to run off from the rest of us in order to try and make friends with them." Mushtoad would say as he pulled out his final portion of the beastman meat, and would absorb it into his skin. "We were victorious in our fight, but lost both Buff and Thin in the process. That is what happens when we mush don't stick together." After absorbing the nutrients in the meat he would stand up and grab hold of the Red Deer. "We are not that far from our destination, We are going there to find what the beastmen were looking for. You can leave if you want, and put us all at risk. Or, you can help me drag this thing to where we are going, and we can survive"

[Ate Beastman Meat, give +2 to skill roll chance, going for Command]

With mushtoad giving his marvelous speech, mushpea thought long and hard about the myconids that will never be able to feel full; yet he’d complained about a bit of pain. Mushpea was a bit disappointed in himself, he held his head down and picked up the red deer’s body “I’m sorry, boss I shouldn’t have complained lead the way!” mushpea said in a disappointed tone as he decided to carry the body of the red deer by himself as punishment.

Spoiler:

Mushtoad would let out a sigh as Mushpea had gone quiet during his little speech, he didn't want them to feel upset, but just wanted them to know the risks of going out by themselves without a plan in the forest. So as soon as Pea had decided to try and carry the deer by themself, he would motion for Rio to follow them, and grab onto the deer corpse. "You missed the whole part of doing this together, little one" He would say as both he and Rio would help carry the body to their destination.
[Walking back to the ore deposit that was discovered a couple of days ago]

When they returned to the clearing that they had lost their comrades in they would see that the rocky area was still mined up, it seemed that no one had stolen what was here, although none of them possessed observe they would easily be able to differentiate the shiny rocks from the non-shiny ones. But either way they would find six ore in total all of them being a decent haul but it seemed that this location was still able to be harvested from. Perhaps it would yield different things than the Myconid Patch, but who knew definitely not any Myconid's who had no idea how to truly mine.

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