Chương 23: Chapter 22: The First Regional Boss

The Runebark Behemoth entered the dead forest with enough force to turn the broken stone arch into rubble. Six hooves crushed black roots beneath its weight, and its antlers tore through dead branches without slowing. Green runes burned between the layered bark plates covering its body, though their glow weakened whenever the creature moved farther from the living forest. James raised the Warpstone Warhammer and let Workman's Appraisal spread across the approaching boss.

The difference between Level Eleven and Level Fifteen showed immediately in the density of its armor, the amount of energy stored inside its runes, and the sheer number of connections moving through its body. [Runebark Behemoth — Level 15] [Regional Boss.] [Guardian of the Eastern Seal.] [Possesses overwhelming physical power, nature-aspected magic, and access to the Eastern Living Network.] [Warning: The Eastern Seal allows rapid restoration while sufficient network connections remain.] James dismissed the message while watching the vines around its legs.

"Sufficient connections," he said as Natalie moved beside him and raised her damaged shield.

"That means there's a point where the healing stops working, even if we don't know where that point is yet." Natalie glanced at the enormous creature and then toward the route through the dead forest.

"You plan to figure that out while it's trying to flatten us?" she asked as Caleb and Serena helped Tolan move farther away from the Behemoth's direct path. James adjusted his grip on the hammer and gave her a quick nod.

"Pretty much," James replied as Julie moved to his left and Kevin climbed into the branches overhead.

"We already know the forest is the problem, so our first job is getting that ugly bastard farther away from it." The Behemoth lowered its antlers. Green energy rushed through the branches.

"Move!" James shouted as a wall of wooden spears erupted from the ground. He smashed the nearest projectile aside with the warhammer while Natalie blocked another, and Kevin stretched reinforced silk between two dead trees to catch three more before they reached the survivors. Julie slipped through the attack and reached the boss first. She crossed beneath one sharpened antler, twisted around a rising wall of dead roots, and buried her fangs into the inside of its front leg.

Her venom entered through a narrow gap between bark plates, but green energy immediately flooded toward the wound. The punctures began closing. James saw the connection before Julie withdrew. Thick roots extended behind the Behemoth into the living forest, carrying power across the boundary even though the soil beneath the boss itself was dead.

"It's bringing the fucking network with it," James said as he ran toward the creature. Kevin dropped a silk line across one rear leg, and James drove the hooked side of the warhammer beneath the thickest vine wrapped around the joint.

"Then we make it spend those connections while it chases us." Kevin reinforced the hammer. James pulled. The vine tore away with a wet cracking sound, and green light spilled from the damaged connection before the surrounding bark began knitting itself closed. The few seconds of interruption were enough to make the Behemoth stumble.

"Keep moving!" James shouted as Natalie's group retreated deeper through the black trees. Julie ran beside the boss, striking at vines whenever they became exposed, while Kevin used short lengths of silk to redirect its legs and force small changes in direction.

"We're not killing it here." The Behemoth roared and charged after them. James stayed close enough to remain its most obvious target. One antler swept toward his ribs, and he dropped beneath it before rolling behind a dead tree. The antler hit the trunk. Wood exploded across the forest. James came up running as splinters struck his armor.

"That would've sucked," he said as Kevin sent a warning through their bond. Another hoof came down behind him, missing by less than a foot and breaking the ground where he had been standing. Julie attacked the rear leg. Her Rune-Touched Scales still carried energy from the earlier spear attack, and she released part of it through her bite. Green light detonated inside the vine. The connection twisted around itself and bound two of the Behemoth's hooves together for several seconds.

The boss stumbled hard enough that its shoulder struck a dead tree and snapped the trunk near the base. James reached the tangled leg and tore another vine free with the hammer hook. The wound began recovering almost immediately, but the delay gave Natalie's group enough time to reach the far side of the dead forest. The ground descended ahead. A broad stone basin waited between steep gray walls, completely bare of roots, vines, or other living growth.

Four raised platforms stood around the outer edge, and a thick stone pillar covered in green runes rose from the center. Workman's Appraisal identified it as James crossed the slope. [Eastern Regional Seal] [Protected by the Runebark Behemoth.] James looked across the exposed stone. No living network entered the basin, and Kevin's vibration sense found nothing beneath the surface except solid rock.

"This is where we fight," James said as Natalie and the others spread toward the platforms. Tolan stopped near the upper edge with one of the broken Guardian-core fragments James had cut into wedges.

"Natalie, east platform. Caleb, south. Andrew and Serena take west." Natalie climbed the nearest platform and stared back toward the dead forest.

"And you?" she asked as she looped one of Kevin's prepared cords around a stone anchor. James walked toward the seal with Julie beside him.

"I'm going to piss it off," James replied as he raised the warhammer. Kevin sent a pulse that felt dangerously close to enthusiasm.

"Apparently we've all decided this is a reasonable plan." James struck the Eastern Seal. Green light flashed across every rune in the basin. The Runebark Behemoth stopped at the edge of the dead forest. Its head turned toward the seal. Then it roared.

"Yeah," James said as the boss charged. He backed away from the central pillar while Kevin fired thick cords toward each platform.

"That got its attention." The Behemoth crossed onto the stone and immediately slowed. Green light around its body flickered as the last long-distance connections stretched behind it, and several vines tightened around its legs as if trying to pull the creature back toward the forest. Natalie saw the reaction from her platform.

"It doesn't want to come farther," she called while wrapping Kevin's cord around the anchor. The Behemoth lowered its antlers toward James and began accelerating again.

"Then it should've guarded the seal from somewhere else," James replied as he ran. The first antler passed over his shoulder. James dropped low and rolled between the boss's first and second pairs of legs. Julie attacked the inside of one front knee at the same moment, discharging the remaining energy stored in her scales through the bite. Bark armor burst away from the joint. James came up behind the leg and drove a Guardian-core wedge directly into the exposed connection.

Green energy rushed toward the fragment and scattered through its broken internal lines. The Behemoth's leg buckled.

"Kevin!" James shouted as he moved away from the hoof. Silver Thread wrapped the damaged leg. Kevin connected the cord to Natalie's platform and reinforced the entire line. Stone cracked around the anchor as the Behemoth tried to pull free, but the connection held long enough to keep one front leg extended sideways.

"Second leg!" James shouted as he crossed beneath the creature. He activated Measured Strike. Mana drained steadily from him as pale lines appeared across the opposite knee. James swung into the brightest joining point between two bark plates. The first blow cracked the armor. Julie entered the opening immediately. Her fangs sank into the exposed vine bundle, and James drove another Guardian-core wedge beside her head. Kevin wrapped the second cord around the leg while Caleb pulled from the southern platform.

The Behemoth shifted its weight. James looked up too late. One hoof struck his shoulder. Kevin reinforced the breastplate before impact, but the force still drove James flat against the stone. Pain shot through his ribs and neck while the boss raised the same hoof to finish him. Julie wrapped around the Behemoth's leg. Her body tightened. The hoof moved several inches sideways. James rolled away before it came down again.

"Thanks, Jules," he said as he forced himself upright. Julie released the leg and moved clear while Kevin's concern pressed through the bond.

"I'm still moving. Keep those cords tight." Two legs remained anchored. The Behemoth planted the other four and began dragging itself toward the edge of the basin. Natalie's platform shifted several inches, and cracks spread around Caleb's anchor as Kevin struggled to reinforce both connections. This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.

"If it reaches the forest, we start the whole damn fight over!" James shouted as he ran toward the nearest cord. Natalie leaned backward with both hands around the line, while Caleb and Serena added their weight to the southern anchor.

"Keep its front half pointed toward the middle!" The Behemoth drove its antlers into the stone. Green runes spread outward. They crossed the basin floor like searching roots. Nothing answered. The boss tried again. Its antlers scraped across bare stone while power rushed through the runes. The nearest living tree remained hundreds of feet away, and no network existed beneath the basin to carry the spell. James smiled despite the pain in his shoulder.

"Wrong fucking ground," he said as the Behemoth lifted its head. The boss released all the energy stored inside its antlers. Green light exploded across the basin. James barely had time to raise one arm before the blast hit. Natalie and the others were thrown from their platforms, while Kevin's reinforced cords snapped several anchor stones loose from the structures. Julie crossed in front of James. Rune-Touched Scales flared. Green power entered her body. Pain tore through their bond.

James staggered backward as Julie's red-gold markings became almost white beneath the pressure. She held the energy for less than a second before twisting toward the nearest trapped leg.

"Dump it!" James shouted as she struck. Julie bit directly beside the Guardian-core wedge. The stored energy exploded into the damaged connection. The fragment shattered. Green light surged backward through every vine around the Behemoth's legs, causing the living cords to tighten around one another in a frantic attempt to redirect the overload. James saw the opportunity.

"Kevin, connect everything!" he shouted as the boss thrashed. Kevin spread silk across the glowing vines. One strand became ten. Ten became dozens. Living Reinforcement passed through the entire temporary structure and forced the vines to behave as one connected network. When the Behemoth tried to send healing energy toward the damaged legs, the power rushed through every reinforced connection simultaneously. The broken Guardian-core fragments disrupted the flow. Energy collided inside Kevin's web.

The vines locked. Kevin's exhaustion struck James through their bond almost immediately. The Foundation Weaver held anyway, every blue marking along his body burning as he stabilized something designed to carry vastly more power than his own.

"Hold for a little longer," James said as he activated Workman's Appraisal. His vision filled with the Behemoth's internal structure, and he forced himself to ignore everything except the paths controlling healing.

"I've almost got it." Armor became layers. Muscle became support. Vines became channels. All of them converged beneath the chest. A central structure pulsed there, receiving energy from the legs, antlers, and Eastern Seal. Measured Strike illuminated it. [Runic Heart identified.] James pointed beneath the boss.

"There!" he shouted as he ran toward the Behemoth. Julie followed despite the heat still radiating from her scales.

"Open the chest!" Julie reached the armor first. She released the last of the power stored inside Rune-Touched Scales through a bite directly above the glowing heart. Green energy burst between two thick bark plates, opening a gap through the chest armor. Kevin pulled his reinforced web tighter. The vines could no longer redirect power toward the damaged area. James ran underneath the boss. Its chest hung above him, massive enough to crush him if one trapped leg shifted the wrong way.

The runic heart pulsed inside the opening, surrounded by thick green connections feeding into it from every major part of the creature. James drove the hooked side of the Warpstone Warhammer behind the heart. The joining point resisted. The Behemoth screamed. One trapped leg tore partly free. Natalie grabbed the loose cord before it could slip away, and Caleb reached her a heartbeat later. Both survivors leaned backward, forcing the Behemoth's weight toward the opposite side.

"Pull!" James shouted as he planted one boot against the creature's chest. Kevin reinforced the hammer. Silver Thread wrapped around the hook. More strands crossed James's cracked breastplate and locked the damaged sections together so his armor could survive the strain. Julie wrapped herself around the exposed connection. James pulled. The heart shifted. The Behemoth drove its antlers toward the basin floor in a desperate attempt to reconnect with the seal.

Natalie's group dragged the front cords sideways, pulling its head far enough off line that the antlers scraped across stone.

"Again!" James shouted as his arms shook. Julie tightened. Kevin's reinforcement brightened. James pulled with everything his increased Strength could give him. The joining point tore. The runic heart came free. Every green rune across the Behemoth went dark. The boss collapsed. James threw himself sideways while Julie followed, and the enormous chest crashed onto the stone where both of them had been standing.

Kevin released the failing reinforcement network before the collapsing vines dragged him underneath the creature. For several seconds, nobody moved. Then the Behemoth tried to rise. Its wounded legs trembled. The bark plates across its chest remained broken. Nothing healed. James climbed back to his feet. His shoulder throbbed, his ribs hurt, and both hands were slick with blood from where the hammer shaft had torn his palms.

None of it mattered once he saw the Level Fifteen boss struggling without the network that had made it nearly impossible to kill. He approached its head. Measured Strike activated one final time. A pale line appeared beneath the jaw. James raised the Warpstone Warhammer. The first blow broke bark armor. The second shattered the bone beneath it. The third ended the fight. [Regional Boss defeated.] [Runebark Behemoth — Level 15 slain.] [Primary Contributor: James Roller.] [Supporting Contributors recognized.] [Regional Bosses Remaining: 3/4.] [Central Territory Status: Sealed.] Golden light rose from the Behemoth's corpse and entered the Eastern Seal. The central pillar cracked from top to bottom before collapsing, and a smaller fragment of green stone floated from the wreckage toward James. [Anchor Rune Fragment acquired.] [Anchor Rune] [Fixes compatible materials, structures, or runic effects to a prepared location.] [Effectiveness depends upon accuracy, material compatibility, Intelligence, mana expenditure, and craftsmanship.] James caught the fragment. Green light ran across his hand without burning him. Another series of notifications appeared. [Experience awarded.] [You have leveled up!] [You are now Level 12.] [Rune Carpenter growth applied.] [Strength increased by 2.] [Intelligence increased by 2.] [Endurance increased by 1.] [5 Attribute Points available.] [Julie has leveled up!] [Julie is now Level 12.] [Kevin has leveled up!] [Kevin is now Level 12.] James sat against one of the Behemoth's broken antlers while the new attributes settled through him. His breathing steadied, the weight of the warhammer felt easier to control, and the damaged structures around the basin became clearer beneath his increased Intelligence. The fight had taught him enough about his own limits to make the free-point decision simple. He placed two points into Vitality, then one each into Perception, Agility, and Willpower.

[Vitality increased to 18.] [Perception increased to 18.] [Agility increased to 14.] [Willpower increased to 17.] Julie maintained the growth pattern she had chosen since evolving, prioritizing Intelligence before improving Agility, Willpower, and Perception. Kevin followed a similar approach, pushing Intelligence and Perception hardest while adding enough Vitality to better survive the strain created by Living Reinforcement. Natalie approached with her shield hanging uselessly from one arm.

Blood covered the side of her face, and every member of her group looked exhausted, but all of them were still alive.

"We killed it," she said as she stared at the enormous corpse. The disbelief in her voice made James look toward Julie and Kevin before answering.

"One of four," James replied as he rested the Anchor Rune Fragment against the head of the warhammer. Kevin moved closer to inspect it, and green light traveled through several of his silver threads.

"Three more ugly bastards to go." A trumpet echoed across Tutorial #782-F. [The Eastern Regional Boss has been defeated.] [Primary Contributor: James Roller.] [Regional Bosses Remaining: 3.] [The Eastern Regional Territory is now unsealed.] Three answering cries rose from distant regions. Something roared beneath southern storm clouds. A deeper sound rolled from the western mountains. High above the northern cliffs, thunder answered a massive screech. Natalie looked toward the darkening southern sky.

"I think the others know someone killed one of them," she said as flashes of sickly green light moved inside the distant storm. James lifted the warhammer and tested his aching shoulder.

"Good," James replied as Julie raised her head and Kevin settled onto the reinforced hammerhead.

"Saves us the trouble of introducing ourselves."