The steps dragged on for much longer than I expected. As we climbed, the evidence of Hollow corruption lessened. The sound of the fight at the choke point faded. It thinned out and became distant until it was swallowed by our ragged breathing.
I willed the party status bar of the interface to minimize. I couldn’t bear watching Dom and Marcus’s health bars drip as they continued to hold off the endless onslaught.
We finally reached the top landing of the stairs and found ourselves in what looked like another place entirely. The stairs opened into a flat stone area with the open sky above it. I spied the Hollow Heart in the distance. It looked nothing like its namesake. The thing looked more like a tumor than an organ. Pulsing, knotted, thick black tendrils spiraling out and burrowing down into the structure below.
“Trouble,” Frankie said, eyeing the pulsing mass of Hollow Rot that lay between us and the heart. It began trembling violently, and then three shapes burst from it. two humanoid soldiers and something enormous.
Hollow Sentinel — Level 2
The Hollow Heart is always watching. It learned from the many battles below and has created a new breed of soldier. Consider the others as practice.