“Someone has entered my home,” Floris sighed, the petals of his bulb folding backwards as his vines disconnected from the cave walls, allowing him to drop down to his feet. He began walking through the matrix of tunnels to find the intruder.

Floris entered the entrance chamber to the cavern, standing atop the highest point in the room. He watched the man step through the chamber slowly. “He’s cautious, that’s good, he’ll need that to survive my cavern,” Floris uttered slowly.

The man wore heavy armor, and seemed to carry a large staff on his back, at least that’s what Floris could tell from his perch. He decided he’d stay out of the path of the adventurer, and see the man’s reaction to the moss golem before confronting him. He wanted to take this methodically, and didn’t want to act without knowing the intention of the man. He wouldn’t want to kill an innocent man.

The man entered the next chamber of the cavern within a few minutes, after surveying the previous room a bit. He could just barely make out the man talking to himself as he entered the Guardian Chamber, the chamber of the Moss Golem.

“Come on, where is he? I know he’s here somewhere,” the man stated as he clanked into the room, awakening the moss golem.

The moss golem uncurled from its resting position, towering high over the man, easily twice the man’s height.

“Dammit…Floris, you sly bastard. I thought you had killed this thing, though you only beat it into submission,” The man sighed, looking around the room. “If you’re there Floris, please, I want you to call this thing off. I only want to talk, please.”

“Golem, stand down,” Floris said calmly, detecting sincerity in the man’s tone. He would never truly trust anyone again after what had happened to him, but he would give the man some trust, there was no need for senseless violence. The golem’s eyes dimmed and its body fell limp as it fell back into slumber.
“Come to the next chamber if you wish to talk to me,” Floris said as he swung one of his vines around a root hanging from the ceiling. He lifted his legs and allowed himself to swing across the gap between him and the ledge on the opposite end of the room.

The man followed Floris, who passed through the gateway above and then jumped from the ledge to the floor below, and stood at the center of the room. The man stepped forward into the room. Floris could see now that the man was not a man at all. It was a machine of sorts, with a brass-colored outer shell, and gears spinning all over his body.

“Who are you and why did you invade my home?” Floris asked, the suspicion in his voice more than evident.

“I’m a fighter in a sort of competition, where some of the best fighters around gather to compete with one another. This competition is known as the Rock Hard Gladiator, or RHG competition. I am known as the Steam Punk Powerhouse, Roshinok Versailles. Unfortunately, I am retiring soon and need to locate a suitable fighter to take my place,” The man explained, taking a fighting stance in front of Floris, “I wish for you to take my place, but only if you can stand up to me in combat.”

“I do not wish to fight you, but I can tell your resolve is unchangeable,” Floris sighed, sliding his foot backwards. His vines began coiling around his arms, and the petals of the bio-flower locked around his chest before hardening tight around his torso. “If you wish to fight, I will accept your challenge,” Floris shook his head as the maw of the flytrap enclosed around his head. The pathways to the other rooms suddenly slammed shut, blocked by a number of quick-growing vines, trapping the man in his chamber. If Floris was going to fight, he was going to go all out.

“Let’s begin, shall we?”

“Yes, let’s,” Floris smiled slightly, knowing that he would survive this fight, as Roshinok was an ally to him. Roshinok would not kill him if the fight came down that far, but unfortunately for Floris, aside from that minor detail, he did not know much about Roshinok. ‘My spores don’t work on machines, so I can’t go for a quick win here, looks like we’re doing this the old-fashioned way.’ He sighed, thinking to himself as he waited for Roshinok to make the first move.

Unlike Floris, Roshinok knew quite a bit about his opponent, having studied all available info on the Bio-Flower before having entered the cavern. He knew he was vulnerable to most of Floris’ attacks, but hoped that Floris wouldn’t be aware of that fact. Roshinok drew his staff, and directed the tip towards his opponents, giving it a quick jolt of lighting. The lightning arced out of the staff towards Floris, who barely managed to get out of the way before Roshinok charged a second blast, this time of purple lightning, which was pure electrical energy. He was hoping to paralyze Floris, and knew the shock would make contact; Floris was in mid-air and couldn’t do anything to avoid it. The blast sent Floris backwards a few feet, but much to Roshinok’s dismay, Floris stood right back up. “My paralyzing attacks didn’t seem to have any effect on you, mind if I ask why that is?”

“My stun spores have given me the opportunity to get used to and develop immunity to some forms of paralysis,” Floris explained, rushing Roshinok. His footwork was quick and well-defined, but at the same time it was hard for Roshinok to predict where his next footfall would be, and made it impossible for him to line up a shot with his staff. Roshinok had to be careful, he couldn’t afford to waste energy here. He needed to keep enough to remain functioning, meaning eventually this battle would probably eventually come down to hand to hand if he couldn’t find a power source he could use to recharge.

Floris got up to Roshinok with ease due to Roshinok’s cautious approach to this battle. Floris ducked around the side of Roshinok to avoid a swing of Roshinok’s staff, noticing a small opening on the underside of Roshinok’s arm, through which a series of miniature cogs and gears could be seen. Floris swung his wrist around, aiming his seed pod into the hole and firing a root-growing seed, but Roshinok had been able to predict that move, and knew to be cautious of Floris’ seeds. Roshinok flung his arm up and with the other hand holding the staff, got the point of the staff right into Floris’ face, firing a blast of standard lightning at point-blank range, but Floris was a step ahead as well, and had positioned a yellow lotus flower in front of the head of the staff. The lightning properties of the yellow lotus allowed the flower to absorb the energy from Roshinok’s blast.

“You’re resourceful, that’s good,” Roshinok chuckled slightly as the smoke cleared from the small explosion.

“I’m not done just yet Ro,” Floris grunted, swinging his leg around, his leg covered in blue lotus flowers growing on his vine armor. He managed to smash his leg right into the gears on the back of Roshinok’s legs, the lotus flowers shattering and causing water to wash over all of the gears in Roshinok’s knees and lower legs. The water washed the gears clean of all lubricant that had previously kept the gears turning smoothly, and Roshinok’s gears began to lock up in his legs, causing him to fall to his knees, unable to stand.

Floris didn’t stop there, he could see that Roshinok couldn’t use his magick without his staff, so he brought his leg around again. Roshinok analyzed possible outcomes and ducked his body down to avoid the kick, but Floris was ready, and had multiple seeds ready, aimed for each of the joints in Roshinok’s arms. With Roshinok down and unable to see Floris to anticipate and avoid, Floris fired root-growing seeds into each of Roshinok’s shoulders, elbows, and wrists, each shot executed with sniper-like precision. The roots began to grow and wrap around the gears in Roshinok’s arms, disabling those as well. Floris was then free to simply snatch the staff away from him, looking quite pleased with himself as he laughed a bit.

“Looks like I win, old friend,” Floris smiled slightly.

“Yes, it would seem you have Floris,” Roshinok said, hanging his head in defeat. “You’ll do well in the RHG. Now how do I get out of this?”