Chapter 67: Boss

  The beast’s footfalls shook the bones and dirt beneath Alex’s boots.

  “It’s a Grave-Tyrant. Think of Frankenstein’s monster, but with bones instead of fleshy bits. And it’s not weak to pitchforks.”

  “Gotcha.”

  Each step from the Grave-Tyrant cracked the skeletal remains littering the battlefield, footfalls ground skulls into powder and split discarded femurs like dry twigs. It moved with an unsettling combination of undead-bulk and speed. It moved more agile than anything that size should be. It’s charge was impossibly silent until the thing roared again. The sound grated Alex, a shriek of metal and madness that vibrated in his ribs.

  He skidded to a stop halfway up the bone-mound, he crouched low, eyes locked on the dungeon boss’s movements. His heart pounded in his chest like it was trying to fly away and escape. The Grave-Tyrant didn’t slow its charge.

  Alex threw himself sideways just as one of its tusks slammed into the spot he’d been standing. The following impact shattered the ground in a small crater, Alex barely managed to get his footing before its tail—spiked and whip-like—lashed out and clipped his left shoulder. Agony tore through him as the blow tossed him back, rolling downhill, blood spraying in a red arc across the bones.

  “FUCK—!”

  “Left scapula fractured, ” Obby said helpfully. “Your arm is still intact, but I recommend not getting hit again. ”

  Alex spat dust and blood, wiping his face on a trembling sleeve. “Noted.”

  With his ulna already previously on the mend, even without Obby’s warning Alex knew his left arm was pretty much useless at this point. He scooped up the kobold dagger from the ground with his right hand and tucked it into his belt. He’d just have to make do.

  The beast roared and charged again.

  This time, Alex didn’t dodge away. He waited for the last possible second, until he could see the warped runes inside the creature’s hollow eye sockets, and then he leapt. He stepped on the edge of one tusk as it went by and used his momentum to propel himself up at its head, and his back impacted the thing’s damn eye-socket like he had jumped at a brick wall. Cracks radiated from the impact and Alex rolled out over its face. He quickly grabbed the flat side of one of the jutting blades on its blackened jaw for balance. The beast reared, bucked, and twisted in attempt to throw Alex off. He held, knuckles white, screaming through gritted teeth.

  Aether surged to his hand as he focused on his timing. He waited for the moment the boss landed on all fours and then he swung himself up, letting go of the jaw. He slammed his palm down into the creature’s skull right over a deep rune cluster below its eye socket and cast his [Flare] .

  The explosion of force ripped apart bone and runes in a sharp-edged spray of white splinters and rust-red metal across the huge hill.

  The Grave-Tyrant howled, Alex flew backward. His chest was peppered with tiny shrapnel that stuck into his armor, a couple pieces piercing his skin, but just barely. He hit the ground hard, the air tore from his lungs. His ribs screamed as they re-broke once more. He couldn’t feel his right ankle. Probably sprained, or, maybe also broken.

  The creature staggered. Its left eye was dark now, sparks trailing from the cracked runes in its skull. Blood, not its own, leaked from the wound, as if underneath the bone the creature’s insides had been cobbled together from fleshy bodies and fresher corpses. The portal behind it flickered ominously.

  Alex pushed himself upright, hands trembling.

  “Three ribs broke, left arm unmovable, right ankle sprained. Internal bruising in 11% of torso.” Obby listed off his injuries like he was reading a coroner’s report.

  “I’m not done,” he growled. “You think I came this far just to die now?”

  Despite its new injury, the Grave-Tyrant was looping back around for another charge. Yet that wasn’t the only enemy Alex had to deal with. A skeletal knight lunged at him from the right side. He dodged back, striking at it’s shield with a rising knee.

  The blow sent the knight’s shield wide, leaving an opening. He had no weapon, nor the reach to take advantage though, until a dread ranger sent an arrow screaming his way. A [Shield] spell came to life, deflecting the arrow off course from Alex and directly into the face of the knight instead.

  It’s helmet was sent flying down the hill.

  He stepped forward and crushed the thing’s now exposed skull with an uppercut. He brushed off its kill notification with the same hand. The Grave-Tyrant finished turning around on the hill by this time and lowered its head to charge again.

  Alex dove between its legs to avoid the blow, rolling across the dirt and feeling a few bones poke at the leather of his armor. None made it through the protection that time.

  As he came to his feet, he was already forming a new [Shield] to block the tail that came rushing at him. He forced away enough of it’s momentum to have the tail slam into the ground next to his feet instead. The resulting impact crater still sent him cartwheeling, end over end, down the hill. But it was better than a direct hit.

  He landed more or less on his feet among a squad of skeletal warriors. Another [Flare] spell took care of the lot of them, as well as yet another incoming arrow from the dread ranger.

  “Aether at 34%,” Obby’s voice was still clipped and stressed. “That dread ranger will keep causing issues, so take care of it.”

  This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

  With a silent nod, he dashed at the ranger. The Grave-Tyrant still had to turn around once more, giving Alex a bit of time. He closed on the skeleton before it could ready another arrow. Dagger pulled from his belt, he feinted a low strike and the skeleton moved to block with it’s bow. Then he stabbed high, jamming the dagger through the thing’s eye-socket. The dagger smashed through its skull in one blow. He swiped away the kill notification.

  Two more skeletal knights rushed in on him. Alex flew through martial stances, slower now that he only had use of one arm. But elbow strikes and knees could smash bones just as easily as his fist, and he held nothing back.

  “Its coming again, topple the damned thing. ”

  Alex looked up to find the Grave-Tyrant once more in mid-charge. He knew Obby was right, he needed to get the thing to the ground. He had a wild idea. But he had to have his timing be perfect for such an idea to work. If not, well Alex would be a human pancake for sure.

  The Grave-Tyrant bore down on him.

  This time, he didn’t run. He reached deep, past the pain, down into the raw core of himself and pulled. His Aether twisted and flowed into a spell pattern then held, Alex quickly ducked and sidestepped away from the tusk-swipe. Its brick-tower-thick feet then came next, and he didn’t roll between them. He used what he learned from Sylvaris to harness every bit of intent he could muster. Alex twisted the spell’s formula as he cast. He couldn’t do much, but every part of his intent went into the power of the shockwave shaped in front of him. He didn’t need a wide or large-distance blast. He needed a focused one.

  Light bloomed under his skin, condensed, sharpened into a searing wave of raw aether.

  He waited until the its legs were inches from him to unleash the condensed aether energy.

  The effect was instantaneous.

  The Grave-Tyrant’s momentum carried it forward into the blast. Its shriek was deafening as it legs shattered and exploded from Alex’s spell. Bone flew outward when the shock-wave moved from Alex in cascading arcs of azure energy. Thank to its inertia, the Grave-Tyrant was forced ass over tea-kettle in miraculous fashion.

  It crashed down halfway up the hill, skidding through mud, bone, and blood, head and tusks first. Everything was noise, chaos and distant grumbling thunder. Then… silence. He coughed and waited but nothing moved.

  “Go! Kill it!” Obby chimed. That’s when he realized, he hadn’t gotten a system notification.

  “Oh fuck,” he rushed forward, drawing his dagger once more. The Grave-Tyrant still hadn’t stirred when he leapt on its head. Its remaining good eye socket seemed to stare at him as he looked down at the ivory beast. Blood leaked everywhere, making his footing slippery. He didn’t care about that though, he drove the dagger down into its forehead.

  The bone cracked, the blade sinking into the skull halfway to the hilt. Alex looked at it for a second, then stomped down on the pommel of the weapon with his boot, forcing it all the way into the bony sheath. Cracks widened and spread over the entire surface of it’s skull from the impact. Alex twisted as he pulled the dagger back out, finishing the job.

  He rolled onto his back, panting. His shoulder and ribs still throbbed. But it was the pains in his right hand that hurt more than anything else. The dagger in his grip pulsed, dark energy wriggled off the thing in tendrils which lashed at Alex’s arm.

  With clenched teeth, he pushed back against the energy infecting his arm. His aether surged inside his muscles and tissues, fighting the dagger’s influence and beating it back inch by inch. After a minute of strenuous effort he managed to force the aether out of his arm and back into the dagger, locking it away once more.

  “Holy fuck, what was that?”

  “Mr. Hyde, I warned you already. That dagger… its not gonna let itself be used without a price.” Obby said.

  “Well damn, that was faster than I thought it would be.” He tucked the dagger back on his belt. It may be acting up, but he might need it later.

  He looked up at the portal spinning at the top of the hill above him. The Grave-Tyrant’s body still slumped over to his left, legs blown a part, skill in pieces. He started laughing. He couldn’t stop himself once he started. Blood trickled from his nose, his vision swam.

  “Still alive,” he whispered. “Still... fucking alive.”

  Obby buzzed, almost affectionately. “For now.” Around him, skeletal knights and warriors began to be highlighted in his vision.

  “Fuuuuck,” he stumbled forward a few steps towards the portal before something else caught his eye. A strong aura radiated from the Grave-Tyrant’s skull in his aether vision. He leaned over a large open fracture in its skull to plunge his arm inside. It took only a second for his fingers to wrap around a hard object which he pulled out and tucked away into his bracelet quickly.

  “Psuedo-core again? ” Obby seemed excited about the prospect of new loot.

  “We can figure it out later,” Alex stumbled towards the portal once more. The skeletal warriors and knights were already closing in quickly. He dropped an aether crystal behind him, one of the few he still had. He managed to get a dozen more feet up the hill when the skeletons crossed over the crystal he dropped. A split second later, it exploded.

  Alex’s timing was barely off, but it was close enough. The crystal tore through the warriors and knights, what it didn’t kill was left immobilized from broken limbs. Alex himself caught the edge of the blast and was sent sliding on his face through the dirt. He climbed back to his feet, blearily scanning around himself. He somehow managed to land a few feet from the portal. He smiled, teeth full of blood and his arm twisted at his side. He looked more demon than human, but he was alive.

  Alex stumbled through the glowing rift in front of him.