Chapter 166

The Lake of Bones, The Pitt - 2:32 PM

I retrieved my Writhing Belt Whip from my inventory and held it opposite of the Smash Stick. The bones were still rattling, sounding like a macabre house of bees, as they worked to form the final form of the Accumulator. Its body was both massive and lithe at the same time, though incomplete.

The boss hadn’t moved while it prepared, doing nothing more than roaring angrily at my challenge, and I was okay with that. The whole point of this fight was to show off for Leonard. He may have accepted the invite, but I knew better than to trust it at face value. I needed to wow him, to make sure he knew exactly what kind of guild he was going to be signing up with.

So I rolled up the Writhing Belt Whip and stuck it in the pocket of my hoodie. It was a great tool that I needed to increase my Willpower a little later, but not one for shock and awe against the undead. As I continued to stare it down, I pulled out a much flashier item, Boss Anthony Franklin’s Golden Bowling Ball. The 30 pound ball felt right in my hand, and I smacked the ground with the Smash Stick in the other.

The huge skull it was now using was a little larger than the jumbotron above my head, and I could feel its gaze boring into me on an almost physical level. Trailing behind it were all the bones that had made up the lake. Not a single one was left, now, not even the ones that I had left broken on the hill.

The end of its tail was separated from its head by only a couple dozen feet, and if it turned its eyes away from me then it would have no trouble completing the circle around the arena. Hundreds, maybe even thousands of legs perched and broke the seats beneath it. As many arms flailed above its spine. Most were small, though there were some larger than me.

I stopped beating the ground with Vermon’s Smash Stick and put my hands on my hips. Now that the boss was fully formed, everything went quiet. The sound of plastic chairs breaking and metal bending could be heard sporadically, but other than that there was no sound. It was unnerving.

Laughing, I jerked my head back in a clearly provocative manner. “Don’t make me-“

“Your bones, too!” the Accumulator roared as its body shifted all at once.

The head lunged while the rest of its body caught up. As big as the creature was, it seemed like a wall was coming straight at me. A more sane person would have run the moment it started moving.

I simply stood there, barely moving.

In front of me, the Accumulator’s open maw hit the ground, shaking the entire arena. Dirt showered me as it collided with the hill I had been killing it from, but I knew any drop in speed was minimal. Two of the three monster trucks parked on that side of the arena were trampled under its many feet, and I made sure to grab three pieces of the debris with Drop before they left my line of sight.

The Accumulator’s mouth was wide, and I could see a shimmer of energy in the air inside. Long ago, I had been cheeky and attempted to destroy it from the inside of its skull where I thought I was safe from its attacks. Unfortunately, the whole area was a dead zone filled with necromantic energy. The longer anything stayed inside of it, the faster their hit points dropped. I wasn’t built for tanking it this run, so I didn’t bother.

Still, I didn’t move as it continued on its way. The targets of my Warmind abilities moved faster than the boss did, and I Dropped them all once they were in place.

Three monster truck tires slammed into the top of the Accumulator’s thick skull. They bounced off, and I sent them to the ground with Orbit so they wouldn’t be directly underneath the boss now that they had done their thing. The force of three different objects with a combined weight of over a ton caused the boss’ head to lower, closing its jaws.

Horns fell to either side of me, gouging the hill I was on but too wide apart to hurt me, and I pulled the hand holding My Golden Bowling Ball back before slamming it forward, aiding my strike with telekinesis on both the ball and my vambrace.

The muscles in my arm screamed as it collided with the Accumulator’s nose, and I tensed my legs as I was pushed backwards, though not nearly as far as it thought I would thanks to one of the bowling ball’s original abilities.

[[Item]]

Boss Anthony Franklin’s Golden Bowling Ball

When used as a shield, this bowling ball allows the bearer to block blows as if their Strength were three times higher than it actually is. (Seven-Tenners Blessing)

With my block Strength artificially enhanced to just over 140 and two sources of Willpower at nearly 100, I was able to stop the Accumulator from pushing me off of the hill. My body was paying for it, but I managed. Unfortunately, I didn’t have the power to push it back, only bring it to a standstill.

I was forced to duck when the boss shifted, nearly striking me with its horn, and it started moving again. Jumping to the side, I rolled off of the hill and onto my feet as thousands of bone legs rampaged beside me. Two of the tires were in my line of sight, and I grabbed them both with Pull. They started moving towards me.

Tossing Vermon’s Smash Stick into my inventory, I retrieved the Writhing Belt Whip from my pocket. The increase to Strength was 3 less, but the fact that it increased my Willpower by 5 meant that it was my main weapon. I looked at it for a moment, thinking that I needed to finally upgrade and get something new that matched my main stat, before I shook the thought from my mind.

Lifting the two tires before they collided with me, they shot past and struck the Accumulator in the spine as it tried to move its body in my direction. They hit like a one-two punch, and the second one broke through. Bones started falling to the ground as the connection to the head was disrupted.

The arena shook again as the boss roared in anger. I turned to see it facing my way again. Even though it had lost half of its body, it still had a very wide turn radius due to its size. Instead of running towards me head first again, it flopped onto the ground and rolled.

A very dangerous row of bones headed straight for me, and I recalled the one monster truck tire on this side of the body. I ducked underneath the massive item, using it as a shield. It was several times my weight and I knew the Accumulator was only going to add to it, so I kept it up with both Lift and my own Strength. I started Pulling other tires towards me from its rampage.

It was immediately pressed down on my body as the boss rolled over me. Legs and arms made of bones caused the tire to pop with a violently loud explosion. Having anticipated this, I had put up Shield. It was destroyed without much of a chance, and sharp limbs tore into my side. Once the Accumulator was done rolling, I stood up to my feet and continued to Pull them towards me, letting them roll to focus on the other.

After the first pass through, five of the six trucks had been destroyed, and I was grabbing as many tires as I could. It didn’t matter to me if they were destroyed or not, they would be potent weapons. One of them was dragging along the axle it had been attached to.

Still in the stands, the Accumulator roared again when it saw me still moving. It lowered its horns and started coming down the side of the arena straight for me. While it only had half of its body still attached, that didn’t make it any less dangerous, and it would grab the bones again when it passed me by. That wouldn’t do.

By the time the horns would have touched the dirt, I was already working. Tire after tire shot forward as I alternated between Pushing and Lifting them. Six in tandem seemed to move as one thanks to my experience controlling them. Anyone paying attention would see that their trajectories started dipping, but any loss in momentum was minute at best.

They struck before the Accumulator could hit full speed, slamming into its skull one by one. The boss slowed down with each heavy strike. I held back nothing as I aimed for the weak point: the hole I had put in it with my very first Dragon’s Breath.

Cracks started forming in its head starting with the third tire, but I knew it wouldn’t be enough. Another volley was sent its way with five more tires and the deflated one I had hid under. The Accumulator shifted and roared, slowing down but unable to do so in time. It managed to hide its weak spot by turning its head, but the new projectiles cracked it on the other side.

“Don’t stop now!” I yelled as I jumped back onto the hill. Three of the tires were still under my control, and I Pulled them back to Orbit me. “Come on, you big boney ass!”

The Accumulator shifted back and forth as it watched me with what could only be described as wariness. It was hesitant to approach me again. Not scared, I’d say, but rightfully worried.

“Hey, Mercury!” I yelled, not taking my eyes off of the boss. “You might not want to be on the jumbotron if you’re up there! About to end this whole thing!”

I received no response, but I wasn’t expecting one. With an almost lazy flick of my wrist, the three tires under my command shot forward. The Accumulator’s head left the ground as it jumped out of the way, but a simple course correction made sure that the projectiles hit. They ricocheted off of its skull, and I continued to move them so that they’d Orbit for another shot.

The Accumulator lowered its head and started charging me again. I took a moment to make sure I was in position, checking the screens above me not just once, but twice. Tires struck bone again, causing the boss to roar again, and I started jumping.

My Heelies of Hermes allowed me to use the skill Air Step, and I bounced back and forth in the air as I started heading straight upwards.

[[Skill]]

Air Step+

Up to five times per shoe, use a feather to jump again in the air. One feather takes 4 minutes per shoe to regenerate, if more than one feather is missing on a shoe, they do not regenerate concurrently.

The boss didn’t take kindly to this, and it lifted its head even as it was getting battered by the same tires. Its attention was fully on me, taking the hits because it knew it would stop as soon as I was dead. I continued to wall jump even as it got feet away from me, and I was soon above it.

Lifting its head to track me, one of the Accumulator’s horns went right up into the empty space between the jumbotron’s screen. The sound of bone on metal screeched through the arena, and I braced myself with Force Field and My Golden Bowling Ball.

I was struck by the rampaging Accumulator’s forehead and pushed back into the air. My Force Field broke, but it had managed to soften the blow enough that my arm only received minor injuries thanks to the bowling ball’s properties.

Tossing the ball into my inventory, I retrieved the Vague Stick while managing to control my trajectory by using Lift on my Whip. My staff warped into the longest, sharpest blade that I could make, and I grit my teeth as I stopped by the steel cables holding the jumbotron up. I could see that the horn had already dislodged a few, but that wasn’t enough.

“Here we go!” I yelled, grinning as I activated Crash Test and my newly returned Shield.

My body was thrust forward through the air at precisely the angle I needed to take in order to avoid running into steel cables. I kept my attention on the Vague Sword, willing it to stay in that sharp form for as long as possible as I flew in a straight line. Cables snapped under its edge. The first one whipped my head, but was thankfully stopped by my Shield.

Three more slashed at me while I was still in the skill, and Shield didn’t last any longer than the second. I gritted in pain while continuing to focus my thoughts on the Vague Sword. Thankfully, the skill was incredibly fast, and I made it out of the steel jungle with only massive injuries. My body started falling to the ground as I Spun myself around.

The Accumulator had started panicking as the weight it was holding up started becoming too much for it. All remaining cables, of which there weren’t many left, strained loudly before the jumbotron collapsed. For as strong as the boss was, it didn’t have the power to hold up over 20 tons of steel and oversized television.

Dust spread out everywhere as the boss was defeated, and I slowed my descent enough to hit the ground comfortably. Not that there was anything comfortable about my situation; if it weren’t for my superhuman Constitution, I definitely would have never survived anything like that.

Taking a breath, I started coughing from the dirt and covered my mouth just as the victory screens hit me.

[[Victory!]]

You have contributed in defeating the dungeon boss [Accumulator of Bones]; +1,700(2,000) points.

[[Second Scenario Quest Complete!]]

The Lake of Bones conquered, the Accumulator of Bones defeated, the PPG Paints Arena will soon be liberated.

Despite overwhelming odds, Sol Ligatus has managed to defeat the final form of the Accumulator of Bones after a hard fought battle. This staple of the Pittsburgh downtown area will be a great place to house those who can not yet afford a guild of their own.

Reward: +8,000 points, +75 Guild Points, the PPG Paints Arena will be liberated.

[[Patron Quest Complete!]]

That was great work, Anthony! If you didn’t have Heavenly Hero, however, I would be worried about all the whipping you had taken from those steel cables.

Your hit points are in dire need of healing, so take it easy, okay? It looks like Leonard, or, Mercury I guess, is heading your way. Just take your time, okay? Take a beat to rest.

Also, I’m sorry that it ended up being less rounds than you thought. I’ll try to take that under consideration the next time you fight a boss like this one. This one was already stretching me thin, though, so let’s call it a win regardless.

Reward: +4,000 points.

Optional Reward: +1,000 points.

“Dude, are you freaking serious?” I heard Mercury say from nearby, though I couldn’t see him. “That was awesome! I mean, it looked really super painful, but, like, damn!”

I opened my mouth to say something, but ended up coughing instead. Pain wracked my body, and I struggled to hold up my hand in a gesture that told him I needed a moment.

“For sure, take your time. Full disclosure, I was thinking about running out on you,” he admitted. “Not cool, I know, but I was pretty sure you were going to die, right? Anyway, I’m definitely a lot more interested in joining Sol whatever now.”

“Sol Ligatus,” I coughed.

“What?”

“We’re called Sol Ligatus,” I corrected before coughing again and giving him a thumbs up. “Glad to have you on board, Mercury.”