Chapter 30: Boss Fight, Rewards

"Thistle, Tide. Go."

Thistle didn’t hesitate. Roots erupted from the scorched ground in a wide ring, dozens of them, spearing for every joint in the statue’s massive frame at once.

Overgrowth Snare!

The roots caught, wrapping tight around both legs, one arm, and the base of the sword still buried in stone. For one second, it actually looked like it might be that easy.

Then the statue moved.

Cracks spread wider across its shoulders, gold light flaring brighter, and every root wrapped around its upper body simply turned to ash where it touched.

Half the trap held. Half of it didn’t.

"Tide, now!"

Tide didn’t wait to be told twice. He sank into the scorched ground the way he’d sink into water, and the whole clearing went heavy all at once, pressure building until even Logan felt it pressing against his own chest from thirty meters back.

Crushing Depths!

The statue’s half-freed arm strained against weight that had no business existing on dry land, and for a moment it held still again, caught between roots and pressure both.

It wasn’t caught well enough.

The sword tore free of the stone floor in one motion, and the King swung it in a wide arc meant to clear everything Thistle had planted around it.

Graven Judgment!

The blade came down in a wall of gold light, and Thistle didn’t have time to fully retreat. It caught him across one shoulder, bark and wood splitting under an edge sharpened by something well past ordinary metal. He staggered back, one arm hanging wrong, but the roots he’d already planted kept their grip on the statue’s legs regardless.

"Thistle’s got the anchor. Everyone else, go."

Shard moved first, crossing the distance at a dead run and driving both fists into the statue’s exposed side.

Prism Fist!

Stone cracked wider under the impact, crystal shrapnel from his own knuckles embedding into the wound and staying there. He was already bigger by the time he pulled his hands back.

Maw came in low next, and paused just long enough to reach into the Voidmaw for something he’d been saving.

Consume!

One of the five bodies he’d swallowed on the way here dissolved into him all at once, a Legendary-rank beast’s full strength folding into his own for the next hour.

```

[ Maw has consumed a stored Legendary-rank being. +Legendary stats and skills for 1 hour. ]

```

His jaws stretched wider than they had a second ago, teeth lengthening past anything they’d carried before, and he closed around a chunk of the statue’s forearm hard enough to tear it loose in one bite. Stone and gold light both went down his throat before the King could pull free.

Nova didn’t wait for an opening either. He raised both hands, light gathering thick between them from every scrap of gold spilling out of the statue’s cracks.

Starlight Lance!

A spear of concentrated light drove into the same wound Maw had already opened, punching clean through to the other side.

Zephyr circled high overhead, wind gathering tight around her.

"The sword arm’s the problem," she called down. "I can ground it."

Gravity Snare!

The air around the statue’s raised sword went suddenly, impossibly heavy, and the blade that had been swinging freely a moment ago dropped like it had forgotten how to be light at all.

With its sword arm pinned and half its body already rooted in place, the King did the only thing it had left. Gold light poured out of every crack at once, building toward something that made the ground itself start to hum.

’That’s not good.’

’Safe Haven.’

```

[ Safe Haven activated ]

-1000 MP

Barrier Durability: 2000

```

The barrier snapped up around the whole group a half second before the statue let go of whatever it had been building.

Ancient Wrath!

Light tore outward in every direction at once, and Logan felt the barrier groan under a weight far heavier than anything the Stormlord Frog had ever thrown at them. It held, barely, cracks spreading across the shimmering wall the same way they’d spread across the King’s own stone body.

Thistle didn’t wait for the light to fully clear. His roots dug deeper the moment the King’s attention shifted, dragging both legs down through cracked stone and into the earth beneath it.

Root Network!

’Whatever’s left in that thing, I can feel it now. All of it.’

"It’s spent," Thistle called out, voice strained. "Everyone, now!"

Shard hit first, Shattercrown driving a spike of raw crystal straight into the widest crack across the statue’s chest. Maw followed, jaws closing around what was left of its sword arm and refusing to let go this time. Nova’s second Starlight Lance found the same wound Maw’s teeth had already widened, and Zephyr dropped out of the sky behind all of it, Windrend Dive driving her full weight down through the crown of its head.

The Graven King came apart the way old stone always did in the end, slow and then all at once, gold light spilling out of every crack until there was nothing left inside to hold the shape together.

```

[ Vaelmourn, the Graven King (Commander-tier) - Field Boss defeated ]

[ Commander-tier Field Boss defeated. +10,000 Tower Points ]

[ You are the first player to defeat a Commander-tier Field Boss. Bonus: +5,000 Tower Points ]

```

The wreckage settled into a pile of ordinary broken stone, gold light gone as quickly as it had appeared. Sitting in the middle of it, untouched by any of the rubble around it, was a dagger.

```

[ You have acquired an Event Item. A second dagger matching Zalkur’s Dagger. 2 of 4 collected. ]

```

Logan picked it up and turned it over once, already feeling the same cold radiating up through his fingers as the first.

"And what is this?"

Logan saw a shiny ring drop as well. A silver-gold patterned one!

[Storage Ring — Legendary]

— 50 slots.

’Awesome!’

His Rare-rank ring was full since he raided that player, so he had to let go of some things, keeping only high-ranking stuff.

But not anymore!

’Two down. Two more, and then whatever’s waiting shows up.’

He looked over the six of them, Thistle favoring one shoulder, the rest scattered across the clearing catching their breath.

"Let’s rest a bit, and then we look for the third dagger."