Chapter 37: Champion Boss Fight

Akuvin’s voice finally arrived, low and grinding, like stone dragging over stone.

"Twelve." He looked over the group arrayed below him, unbothered. "The Tower rarely sends this many to greet me. I suppose that’s a compliment."

He didn’t wait for a response. The spear came down in a single overhead strike aimed at the center of the group, and the ground where it landed simply wasn’t ground anymore.

Impaling Descent!

’Safe Haven!’

```

[ Safe Haven activated ]

-1000 MP

Barrier Durability: 2000

```

The barrier caught the shockwave a half second before it reached them, cracking down its whole length from the force of it but holding just long enough to keep everyone standing.

Logan had chugged one of the potions Marcus’s ring had right before he used this skill. Defense Boost Potion--Increase durability of all defense-type skills by 100% for 10 minutes!

"Test him," Logan called out. "Find out what actually hurts him before we commit to anything big."

Bryowulf loosed three arrows in quick succession, ice trailing behind each one.

Everfrost Arrow!

They caught Akuvin across one forearm, and frost spread out from the impact points before melting away almost as fast as it had formed. Barely a scratch.

Vex went for the shadow at Akuvin’s feet next, Shadowline pulling him in close before the boss even registered the attempt.

Reaper’s Black Flame!

Black fire raked across one massive leg, and this time it actually left a mark, a thin scorched line that didn’t heal over the way the frost had.

Akuvin’s free hand swept down toward Vex before he could retreat, faster than something that size had any right to move. Vex barely got clear, Voidstep pulling him back into shadow a half second before the hand would have flattened him into the hillside.

"Thistle, Tide. Try to root him."

Thistle’s roots erupted from the hillside in a wide ring around Akuvin’s feet.

Overgrowth Snare!

Tide sank into the ground a moment later, adding weight on top of the roots.

Crushing Depths!

For a moment, Akuvin’s steps actually slowed, roots and pressure both dragging at legs that should have shrugged off anything short of a mountain.

Then he slammed the butt of his spear into the ground, and the whole hillside answered.

Bone Orchard!

Bone spikes erupted from the earth in every direction at once, dozens of them, each one long enough to run a person through end to end. They tore up through Thistle’s own roots from underneath, canceling the snare entirely, and kept coming for everyone still standing on that hillside.

Most of the party scattered clear in time. Bryowulf didn’t quite make it.

A spike caught him across the side, punching clean through where a normal creature’s ribs would have been, and he went down hard, ice already spreading across the wound on instinct even as blood welled up dark around it.

’Restore!’

```

[ Restore used on Bryowulf ]

-100 MP

```

The wound closed enough to stop the worst of the bleeding, though Bryowulf hauled himself back onto his feet slower than he should have needed to.

"Juggernaut, hold the front. Give everyone else room to work."

Juggernaut planted himself directly in Akuvin’s path, all four legs braced, Offloading Barrier already flaring to life around him.

The next spear thrust came down, aimed squarely at his chest, and the barrier caught it instead, sparks screaming off the point of contact as the barrier drank the impact and grew stronger for it.

Solveig moved in while Akuvin’s spear was still buried in the barrier, greatsword already swinging.

Dawnbreaker Zenith!

Light tore across Akuvin’s forearm in a clean arc, deep enough this time to actually stagger him.

Akuvin wrenched his spear free of the barrier and swept it sideways in the same motion, catching Solveig across the ribs before he could fully retreat.

The blow sent him skidding back across the hilltop, armor scraping and sparking against stone, and for the first time since Logan had known him, Solveig actually looked winded.

Zephyr and Blitzhawk peeled off into the sky while Akuvin’s attention was still on the ground fight, wind and lightning both gathering at once.

"Since he likes standing still so much," Zephyr called down, "let’s remind him what a real storm feels like."

Skydomain!

The sky above the hilltop bent entirely to her will, and Blitzhawk dove through the middle of it with lightning trailing off both wings.

Thunderking’s Blade!

The strike caught Akuvin across one shoulder, arcing down through bone plating that cracked audibly under the impact.

Nova stood back from the melee entirely, hands raised, drinking in whatever arcane energy leaked off Akuvin’s own attacks with every exchange.

Starfeeder!

The glow behind his ribs climbed steadily brighter with every hit the boss landed on anyone else, banking power he had no intention of giving back slowly.

Maw reached into the Voidmaw for one of the bodies he’d been saving.

Consume!

A Legendary-rank beast’s strength folded into him all at once, jaws stretching wider than they had a second earlier, and he closed the distance to Akuvin’s exposed leg in a single bound. His teeth found purchase where nothing else had managed to properly cut, tearing a real wound into scaled flesh that didn’t close back up the way the earlier frost had.

Stitchgrin unspooled thread from his own body and lashed it around Akuvin’s spear arm before the boss could react, thin strands wrapping tight from wrist to elbow.

Nightmare Threads!

Wherever the thread touched, Akuvin’s own strength seemed to thin out, the next swing of his spear noticeably slower than the one before it.

Billy circled in close and let three blades detach from his own wheel at once, each one taking a different angle around Akuvin’s guard.

Severed Spokes!

The blades bit into three separate points across his chest and legs almost simultaneously, and for the first time in the whole fight, Akuvin actually staggered back a full step.

Logan watched the whole fight settle into a shape he recognized, weakened and staggered and slower than he’d been a minute ago, and felt the opening arrive the same way it always did.

’Now. Everyone, together.’

Nova released everything he’d banked over the whole fight in one direction at once.

Nova Discharge!

The blast tore into Akuvin’s chest, square in the center of the wound Solveig had already opened, and light poured through him like it had finally found a door left open.

Zephyr dropped Skydomain’s weight down on him from directly above at the exact same moment, gravity turning vicious the instant it landed.

Tide’s pressure closed in from below, Crushing Depths finishing what the gravity had started.

And Solveig, healed enough by the pause in the fighting to move at full speed again, drove Starfall Cataclysm straight down through the crack Nova’s blast had already carved open.

Akuvin’s whole frame buckled under all of it at once, bone plating shattering outward in pieces, the cold blue light behind his eyes finally guttering low.

He didn’t fall so much as come apart, the same way the Sundered Warden had, pieces of him crumbling away from a center that had nothing left to hold them together.

```

[ Akuvin the Impaler, Architect of Bone Orchard (Champion-tier) - Field Boss defeated ]

[ Champion-tier Field Boss defeated. +20,000 Tower Points ]

[ You are the first player to defeat a Champion-tier Field Boss. Bonus: +10,000 Tower Points ]

[ Guaranteed Skill Drop: Random Skill Book. ]

```

Logan looked over the twelve of them, worn down but all still standing, and let out a breath he felt like he’d been holding the whole fight.

’We actually did it.’

He looked at his Tower Points, the number climbing well past what he’d started the day with, and allowed himself a real grin for the first time since the fight started.