CHAPTER 40: THE BOSS MOSTER

"It’s still not dead yet? How many times is this thing going to evolve?" Jason spat, blood on his cheek.

"Well, it’s a boss monster for sure," Ray answered, jaw tight. "Treat it like one."

The obsidian-bodied golem flickered—runes on its limbs pulsing in a ripple—and reappeared in front of Daniel. Its fist came down like a piledriver.

Daniel braced. "[Titan Guard!]"

Steel screamed. His sword met the blow, boots carving through grit until he slammed into a pillar and coughed red.

"Leader!" Amy started forward.

"Stay back!" Daniel barked, shoving off the pillar. "Hit the core when it opens!"

The golem rotated, runes along its spine flaring. "Move—blink incoming!" Lisa warned.

It vanished. Reappeared at Sophie’s flank.

CRUNCH!

Sophie’s bow snapped as she somersaulted away, but the swipe clipped her calf. She hit the ground with a cry.

"[Mend Pulse!]" Amy thrust a hand out; pale light zipped to Sophie and knit the torn muscle.

Magma-lined runes across the golem’s chest flexed—its core iris opening a slit of angry light. Jason dove in with a cross slash. "[Gale Rend!]"

His wind-coated blades carved an X over the slit. The golem’s chest snapped shut; the blow skittered sparks.

"Too shallow!" Jason hissed—and froze as a rune on the golem’s elbow lit.

"Counter!" Ray shouted.

The backfist caught Jason square in the ribs. He flew, bounced, and didn’t get up.

"Cover!" Brandon charged with a roar. "[Quake Hammer!]"

His maul slammed the golem’s knee. Stone screamed. The joint dipped—then the runes there flashed and absorbed the shock. A pulse blasted Brandon away like a kicked barrel. He tumbled, breathless.

"It’s venting forces through the runes," Alice said, knuckles white around her focus. "We need to freeze the channels. Now!"

"Do it," Daniel said. He sprinted, feinted left, then right. "[Herculean Strength!]" His blade dug along the old diagonal scar, widening it by a hand’s breadth.

The golem shrieked, runes strobing. It slammed both palms to the floor.

BOOOOM!

A heat-wave shock ring raced out. Lisa thrust her staff down. "[Aegis Veil!]"

A thin, hexagonal dome snapped into place. The ring hit; the barrier spiderwebbed. Lisa dropped to one knee, teeth grit. "Can’t hold—!"

A tower shield slid in front of her. "I’ve got it!" bellowed Hargan, the lead mercenary. "[Bulwark Stand!]"

He braced. The shockwave split around him, sparing Lisa the worst.

"Focus fire!" Samuel called, still at the rear, cutting down a lesser construct that had reassembled from debris. "Core only!"

Alice inhaled, frost frosting her lips. "[Permafrost Lattice!]"

Rings of ice sigils snapped over the golem’s arms and knees, seeding the glowing channels with rime. Steam hissed. The runes dimmed there—movement slowed.

"Ray!" Alice snapped.

Already moving. "[Arc Conductor!]" A whip of lightning slapped across the chilled runes, flooding them. The golem convulsed as the lightning jumped into its core casing.

"Now!" Daniel dove for the chest. Sophie, grimacing, swapped to a shortblade and flung three rune-tipped knives. "[Pierce Mark!] [Pierce Mark!] [Pierce Mark!]"

Each dagger struck around the diagonal scar and buried, glowing faintly.

Brandon barreled in for a finishing smash. "[Sunder Drop!]"

He leapt, hammer over his head—

The chest runes flared crimson. The core iris opened, and a concentrated beam knifed out.

Brandon could not get clear.

"Down!" Mira—the spearwoman merc—kicked off the wall, bracing her spear. "[Pinning Thrust!]"

She rammed the spear into the golem’s ankle seam, forcing its stance wide. The beam lanced past Brandon’s shoulder instead of through his chest, scorching armor and flesh. He roared, half in pain, half in fury, and brought the hammer down anyway.

CRACK!

The diagonal scar caved a finger deeper. The golem recoiled with a metallic snarl and teleported again—behind Amy.

"Amy!" Lisa spun. "[Ward Step!]"

A prism of force blinked Amy two strides back just as an obsidian hand scythed through where she’d been. The palm grazed Lisa instead; she slammed into stone, head ringing.

"Stay on your feet!" Samuel snapped.

"Working on it," Lisa groaned, pushing upright.

The golem’s chest plates folded open again—wider this time, like gills. The core brightened toward white. Tiny vents popped along its ribs.

"Scatter!" Ray yelled. "Vent burst!"

A fusillade of superheated darts peppered the arena. Kade, the mercenary rogue, rolled through, knives flickering as he batted aside darts that would’ve taken Sophie in the throat. "Eyes up, kid."

"Th—thanks!" Sophie rasped.

Jason dragged himself upright, clutching his ribs. "We need to stop that blink rune. Every time we line up, it jumps."

Vell, the merc mage, snapped a grimoire shut. "I can dampen its casting window for three seconds. That’s all." He slapped a parchment to the floor. "[Sealbreak Glyph!]"

A net of dull-gold script spread, creeping toward the golem’s feet. The monster’s runes faltered—blink rune sputtering.

"Three... two... one—NOW!"

"Go!" Daniel surged forward. "Form up!"

Jason cut the flank. "[Tempest Step!]" Wind under his feet, he flashed past the golem’s guard and raked another cross over the chest plates.

Alice layered cold. "[Glacier Bind!]" Thick frost plates locked over the opened gills, choking the vents.

Ray overcharged, veins standing out. "[Thunder Lance—Overdrive!]" He hurled a spear of lightning straight into the diagonal wound.

The core flared like a wounded eye.

"Brandon!" Daniel shouted.

"On it!" Brandon roared and swung up from below. "[Faultbreaker!]"

BOOOOOM!

The hammer blow cracked the diagonal wound from shoulder to hip. Obsidian shards flew. The core, exposed for an instant, pulsed.

Sophie loosed her last arrow—drawn from Amy’s satchel and hastily etched with a simple explosive rune. "[Shatterglow!]"

The arrow slammed into the core and detonated. The golem staggered, chest plates grinding to close again—and seized halfway, frost and lightning wrecking their movement.

"Finish!" Daniel’s voice cut through everything. His sword blazed with pale radiance. "[Lionheart Drive!]" He drove the blade directly into the smoking wound, both hands on the hilt, pushing through heat and pressure.

The golem grabbed him. Fingers like vices crushed around Daniel’s torso. Bones creaked.

"Leader!" Amy’s voice broke. She thrust both hands out. "[Sanctified Valor!]" A wash of golden light surged into Daniel, bolstering muscle and will. His legs steadied. He screamed and shoved deeper.

The golem hauled back a fist to pulp his head.

"Over my dead body." Hargan stepped in, shield first, and took the punch point-blank. "[Shield Rebuke!]" The impact rang the chamber. Hargan dropped to one knee, spitting blood, but the fist didn’t reach Daniel.

Lisa staggered back to her feet, hair matted with dust and sweat. She lifted her staff with both hands. "[Prismatic Lattice!]"

Bands of hard light snaked around the golem’s wrist and elbow, locking its arm mid-swing.

"Ray!" Daniel grunted through clenched teeth.

"Dry," Ray panted, empty palms shaking. "I’m—"

"Take mine," Amy said, grabbing his wrist. "[Channeling Grace!]"

Mana rushed. Ray’s eyes snapped back into focus. He thrust both hands forward. "[Storm Cage!]"

Lightning bars boxed the golem’s torso, caging the core in crackling arcs. The core flickered, dimming.

"Jason!" Daniel roared.

Jason bared his teeth, sprinted, and leapt. "[Sky Splitter!]"

His twin blades came down together on Daniel’s hilt, adding weight and edge.

SKRAAAANG!

Steel sank another handspan. The core’s outer shell spiderwebbed.

The golem bellowed—in rage, in fear, it didn’t matter. It tried to blink. Vell slammed his palm to the ground, voice hoarse. "[Glyph—Anchor!]" The blink fizzled; the monster stayed rooted.

"Brandon—last hit!" Daniel shouted.

Brandon planted, drew in breath like a bellows, and roared. "[Earthshatter Crescendo!]" He swung from the hip, every ounce of his mass and mana focused into the hammerhead.

The blow landed with a sick, perfect sound.

KRUNCH—CRACK—WHUMP!

The core imploded. Light burst out of its seams, then died. The runes along the golem’s body went dark one by one, like a city blacking out. The giant swayed, took a single backward step, and collapsed in a ruin of stone and slag.

Silence pressed in. Only panting, the hiss of cooling rock, and Amy’s ragged sob-laugh as she crashed to her knees.

Hargan dropped his shield and sat hard, shaking out a numb arm. "That," he said, "was not in the contract."

Mira propped her spear and grinned despite the blood at her temple. "Pay bonus," she told Samuel.

Samuel snorted, but there was the ghost of approval in his eyes. "You lived. That’s your bonus." He looked over the kids—bruised, burned, bleeding, but standing. "Good work."

Amy crawled to Jason, pressed a hand to his ribs. "[Restoration Weave.]" He winced, then breathed easier. Lisa leaned against a broken pillar, closing her eyes just long enough to catch a few steady breaths. Sophie flexed her mended leg and tested her new shortbow—one of the mercs tossed her a spare without a word.

Daniel yanked his sword free of the dead core with a wet, grinding sound. He stood there a second, chest heaving, knuckles white on the grip. Then he looked up at the others.

"We’re not running anymore," he said, voice raw but steady. "Clear the rest. Then we search for any sign of Oliver."

No one argued. They tightened straps, rewrapped grips, downed potions. The floor boss lay in pieces at their feet, and the path ahead—finally—looked like something they could walk without flinching.