Chapter 29: Bear Boss

  The trees broke apart into a wide and unnatural clearing, the kind Alex had come to recognize as far too convenient. Areas like this, especially in dungeons, were too open, too staged. A battlefield set by dungeon fuckery and not at all natural.

  Sure enough, at the center of the clearing stood an altar. A stone dais of sorta, its structure crude but domineering, stacked high with bones of varying origin; Animal, humanoid... other. Each of the bones were picked clean of any flesh. Paper talisman-slips hung from sun-bleached ribcages, arms, skulls and more, all dangling and swaying as if in a ghostly wind. The faint glow of their inscriptions cast the whole structure in a sickly, pale light, creating a grotesque mockery of a Christmas tree. And ringed around it were the raid party’s gifts; chimera guardians.

  Dozens of bear-chimeras stood waiting with tusks jutting from mouths like scythes, vines thrashed lazily at their sides and backs as though anticipating blood. They didn’t charge or attack the raid party, at least not yet. Their glowing eyes were affixed on the would-be intruders, simply waiting.

  But Alex’s gaze focused onto one of them.

  It towered over the rest, massive even by chimera standards. It stood twelve feet at the shoulder, its fur darker than the forest shadows around it. The vines at its back were thicker, thorned like dagger blades, and twitched as if they hungry to strike. Most unsettling were its eyes which glowed a roiling purple, and bled smoke that curled up into the air. The aura radiating from it was unmistakable, even before his [Aether Sight] confirmed it.

  Boss monster for sure. Adept tier, early stage…but pushing higher, very close to middle stage.

  Eric took command quickly. “Formations! Tanks on front, casters spread wide! Don’t clump!” Lightning already crackled in quick sparks back and forth across his shoulders as he spoke.

  Kate’s crisp tone followed him. “Stay loose on your feet, pay attention! Prioritize survival and keep eyes on each other, and control the flanks!”

  At their commands, the clearing shifted into motion. Shields came up, bows nocked, and spells primed. Alex felt his feet moving without thought, Holly moved in a silver streak on his left, Ghrukk loomed like a green tinted wall on his right. The three of them advanced together, all with their sights set on the monstrosity at the center.

  The air held still for a bare moment. The lesser chimeras waited, muscles twitching and tusks gnashing. Then the boss opened its maw and roared. The sound shook the clearing, a wave of violent aether radiating outward, bending branches and rattling the hanging bones on the altar. Its vines shot skyward, and as one, the pack surged forward.

  Alex braced, every nerve burning with the anticipation of violence, his body screaming to move faster, to hit harder. The approach of the boss’s shadow swallowed him whole, and for the first time in the dungeon, he felt like they were standing on the edge of true danger, with death sneaking into the peripheral of his vision.

  The Boss’ roar hadn’t even faded when the first wave of vines lashed toward them; Thick, heavily thorned, and surprisingly fast.

  He ducked left as one tore through the space his head had just been, a piercing shriek slice through the air like the toy whistle of a middle school gym coach wearing far too short of shorts.

  Ghrukk planted his halberd in the dirt as he cleaved two of the vines out of the air, with the impact noticeably rattling up his arms. Holly slipped past them both like a streak, jian blade flashing with her [Wind Edge] as she slashed one clean in half. The vine writhed on the ground like a severed serpent, spewing purple blood.

  The beast just huffed and still came at them.

  It was large and ugly from afar, but up close, it was worse, the ground trembling under each huge footfall. Alex darted right with his [Aether Sight] blazing, and watched the flow of its energy. Thick aether pulsed from its core to the vines in a powerful rhythm, each whip-like movement perfectly timed to disrupt their attacks and positions. Watching it carefully, he was able to determine that it wasn’t just some dumb beast. No, it knew how to fight, or at the very least knew how to fight them.

  “Keep pressure!” He shouted, more to himself than the others, and launched in.

  His fist crashed into its foreleg, [Burning Strike] flared to life in attempt to inject its corruptive energy. Aether rippled through fur and flesh, leaving a seared streak… but not nearly deep enough. The beast's hide was thicker than iron, tougher even than the bark-armor of the smaller ones.

  It retaliated instantly. The thing's vines shot low, trying to sweep his legs out from under him. He jumped, twisting midair as another thorned apendage speared toward his ribs. He barely caught it on his forearm, his skin tearing even as he redirected the strike aside. Alex felt a sting of poison through the wound, quickly burning at his flesh, but his own wyrm-enhanced blood fought back, overpowering the toxin with its own aggression. What little residue was left of the poison, was eaten by his [Aether Attuned Body] and the caustic energy of the [Demon Asura Style].

  He mentally focused on his martial skills and [Wrath Siphon] activated, marking the boss as his main enemy. His next strike against its right shoulder, pulled aether straight from the beast on contact, filling him with a nibble of vitality. He watched and felt this happen with a smile, as he wasn't entirely sure the skill would work. Knowing some of his skills still functioned against its thickened hide, he pressed harder. Blow after blow, he pressed the monster, his fists blazing. The bear-thing reeled, but it wasn’t backing down.

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  Beside him, Ghrukk bellowed as he slammed his halberd into the chimera’s front paw. The impact shook the ground and forced the beast back half a step. Holly darted under its now open guard, stabbing her blade into the gaps in its thick bark-like hide armor. The blade bit shallow, but blood still hissed where it struck.

  The boss responded in kind.

  The next sweep of its vines wove together into a thick braided whip, snapping down at Holly with bone-crushing force. She barely rolled aside, the ground exploding with dirt and stone chunks right where she had been. Ghrukk took another vine whip his halberd crossing to block, but the force flung him three feet back, his boots digging furrows in the dirt.

  Then its tusks came for Alex.

  He dodged one swipe of its head, then the other, but the third caught him flatfooted after a roll, [Wave Shield] shattering under the thick boney protrusions and grazing his ribs. Pain exploded across his chest from that first contact, the world blurring for half a heartbeat. Only, the pain kept him upright, the agony grounding him after hours of practice with the [Demon Asura]. His martial style was happy to accept pain, and his wounds ended up feeding him strength instead of weakness thanks to his Tier II [Asura’s Bloodwrath] passive. He could feel his muscles and tissues swelling with aether, wounds and injuries earning him an adrenaline shot of strength that coursed through his veins.

  He staggered a step before standing fully upright, and he felt blood rising hot in his throat. “Is that all you’ve got freakshow? You can’t beat us like that!” He taunted the beast.

  The chimera’s purple eyes flashed, and the vines all around them stiffened like spears before shooting forward. Alex barely dashed away in time, his chest and arms pelted with the broken shards of rock that were the ground he stood a second before.

  The beast roared again, and the many smaller chimera responded in kind, all them surging with heightened rage, their own vines suddenly attacking faster as if the boss had activated some sort of rage skill in them. Screams and spells broke out across the clearing from the swelling chimera offense. Lightning, fire, arrows, and steel all met the tide. The raid party held against the onslaught—barely—but the pressure had doubled.

  The boss lunged again, refusing to give them any time to think or rest.

  Holly shouted out to Alex in a panic and Ghrukk’s halberd spun, intercepting tusks that would’ve gutted Alex in half during his moment of distraction. He ducked under the clash, pouring every ounce of energy from one of the aethergems in his bracer into a single [Flare] enhanced punch, with [Burning Strike] erupting brightly in concert. His fist connected with the beast’s jaw, aether and force ripped through its hard skin and tore at muscle and veins.

  For the first time, the beast howled in pain instead of anger. But that only meant the fight was really beginning.

  The crack of a bone echoed out from Alex’s punch, but it wasn’t the boss’s bone, instead Alex felt a few bones in his hand give way from the strain of his punch as he ducked backward. His knuckles burned, his skin split and bled freely from the force of punching through the stone-hard hide. The bear staggered, its purple ichor spitting from its maw, but those glowing eyes only blazed hotter.

  Then, of course, it changed.

  The vines that had acted like whips now flattened, fanning out wide like a shield wall and wove together into a crude barrier. Alex clicked his tongue in irritation at seeing the chimera's evolution and adaptation in action again. The aura from his martial style poked and prodded at the makeshift wall, the Demon Asura's caustic aether burning at the outer layer, but the beast was already pulling back the damaged vines the aura had started eating away at and replaced them with fresh ones. It was basically regenerating its vine shield.

  He darted left, trying to angle around its new defenses. The vines followed with him, snapping at his legs before he could close the distance completely.

  “Shit.”

  A shadow streaked past him, and he knew it was Holly without having to look. She slid under the defensive vines in burst of wind, her jian plunging deep into the meat of its hind leg. The chimera reacted by kicking back with full force. Its foot caught her high on the torso and Holly went flying, tumbling across the dirt before rolling back to her feet, blade still in hand, but her shoulder sagged on her left side.

  Alex lunged into the gap she’d opened for them, his fists blazing. He pummeled the wound she had made on its leg, each strike siphoning aether, stealing away the beast’s strength. Its leg buckled under the onslaught. For a moment, Alex thought they had it. Then the beast’s hide tightened and thickened even further beneath his blows, the wound closing up with bark-like growths, its bark pulled its flesh back together like crude battlefield stitching, and sealing itself from further strikes. His next punch landed with a hollow thunk, his aether was smothered, and his [Wrath-siphon] slowed considerably.

  It had learned to counter him. Again.

  Ghrukk barreled in then, his halberd glowing with blood-red aether, and hacked at the opposite leg. The blow carved deeply, spraying purple ichor, but the boss twisted its whole body in response, using its sheer bulk to ram into the ork and throw Ghrukk off balance. The ork hit the dirt with a loud curse.

  Alex backed off a step as vines battered at him, his muscles screaming with pain and power both. The [Demon Asura Style] had his veins feeling as if they were on fire, every nerve ending sizzling like he’d been running for hours. But the pain kept his mind focused on the fight, and the steady boost of [Asura’s Bloodwrath] kept climbing with each vine-wound he sustained. He clenched his fists tighter, forcing himself to ignore the itching agony under his skin.

  The boss snarled, then snapped its head toward the raid line where the others fought the smaller chimeras.

  Alex followed its gaze just in time to see three chimera bears smash into Garret and Doran, their tusks hooked the men's shields and tossed them about like toys. Kate’s [Firebolt] exploded across the pack, buying the tanks a breath to recover, but the vines were already moving to snuff out the flames.

  “Fucking focus, dammit,” Alex chastised himself, forcing his attention back to the hulking monster in front of him.

  The chimera came in with its tusks swaying. Alex went low, sliding beneath the beast’s guard, and drove his fist straight into its exposed jaw. The hit rattled him all the way through to his teeth, siphon flared as it drew on the beast's vitality, only to be met with sudden bolstered resistance. The flow of stolen aether was being choked off, blocked.

  Alex’s eyes widened. “You’ve got to be kidding me—”

  Through his [Aether Sight] Alex was able to figure out the problem. The boss had formed a layer of hardened marrow-like growth around its aether core, choking out his siphon skill before it could take hold and steal away its energy. It had adapted in the middle of the fight and learned that, too.

  The vines slammed down at him, forcing Alex to roll away. He came up to his knees with blood dripping down his left thigh where one thorn had grazed him deeply. His lungs burned, his vision swimming as the new dose of poison was fought off by his body. It wasn't immediate, but he grinned anyway, spitting blood into the dirt.

  “You really are a pain in the ass.”

  The beast growled in response, its vines writhing at its back. Alex pushed to his feet even as every nerve in his leg screamed. He didn't care, he ready to meet it again.