Chapter 174. Ossuary Colossus (1)

Chapter 174: 174. Ossuary Colossus (1)

The last Archer came through and stopped beneath the enormous rib.

Carlos moved the party away from the arrival point before asking anyone to spread out. The gravel crunched under their feet, with small broken bones mixed between the stones. There was no grass anywhere he could see.

The ribs around them belonged to a skeleton lying across the plain. Its spine ran along their left, partly buried beneath the pale ground. Ahead, two fallen ribs had left a wide gap through which the centre of the graveyard was visible.

The giant skull still lay beyond that gap.

Carlos looked down when a small piece of bone rolled against his boot. He picked it up, then looked at the ribs around them again.

"Can we use these for the farm?"

Kaia turned toward the piece in his hand. "Bones, my lord?"

"Yes. Bone meal. I have heard of people using it to grow crops."

He rubbed his thumb over the broken edge. There were pieces like this everywhere, and those were just the small ones. One of the ribs above them could give them more than they could carry if they managed to break it down.

"Do any of you know about it?" he asked, looking at the others.

Nessa shook her head. Kaia had no answer either, and the Bearkin looked at the bones without knowing what he wanted to do with them.

Rowan would have understood the question immediately. Carlos almost wished he had brought him, then looked across the empty ground and was glad the old Farmer was safe at home.

"Would these be the same as ordinary bones?" Kaia asked.

Carlos looked at the piece again. He had no idea what had left it here or how long it had been lying on the ground.

"I don’t know how we will prepare them yet. But yes, they can help. I am sure about that."

He was already thinking of the fields in Ironroot. They had come here for a fight and the rewards, but there was useful material lying under their feet too. He wanted Rowan to see it.

Carlos put the small piece into his inventory. They could take more after the fight. For now, he wanted something to show Rowan when they returned.

Carlos opened the objective again. Defeat the Graveyard Guardian. There was no requirement to gather bones or find something hidden beneath them.

"We move through there," he told Kaia, pointing at the opening. "Keep enough room to turn."

She placed the Bearkin and Troll in front, with Carlos beside her. Nessa and the Archers stayed behind them. Two moved near Carlos’s boots while the tomato basket was put down on level ground for the first look ahead.

A scratching sound came from the spine.

Something pale pulled itself out between two vertebrae. Carlos first thought it was an animal crawling over the remains. Then it raised its head, and he saw straight through the places where its eyes should have been.

--

[Bone Crawler]

[Level: 3]

[Common Grade]

[Undead construct]

--

More came after it. Their bodies were made from narrow bones fitted together like the legs of an insect.

Small hooked jaws opened at their fronts. Carlos counted six before another climbed over the spine behind them.

"They are coming from the left," he said.

Kaia turned the line toward them. The nearest Crawler sprang from the bone onto her shield and clung to its rim. She struck it against the ground, then brought her sword down where its head joined the body.

The pieces scattered beneath her boots.

Brann hit the next one before it landed. His hammer crushed it against the spine with a sound like someone breaking a basket full of sticks.

Carlos caught a third against his shield and shoved it down. Its jaws scraped the lower edge while he drove the spear through the small body. The creature kept moving until he twisted the shaft and tore its middle apart.

"Break the body," he called. "A hole isn’t enough."

The Troll reached across him and caught another Crawler in both hands. It pulled, separating the front from the rear, then threw both pieces away.

Nessa shot one that had climbed higher along the rib. The arrow struck its centre and knocked it off the curved bone. It landed behind the others, where Two’s Water Shot rolled it into the Bearkin’s reach.

Carlos watched the shield-carrying Guardian stamp its body apart. His people were already dealing with the next ones without waiting for him to point at each enemy.

That felt good. There had been a time when one creature getting behind Kaia was enough to make his stomach fall.

The Crawlers kept coming, but the line held. Carlos advanced when Kaia did, keeping his spear low to sweep the thin legs before finishing the bodies on the ground. Brann worked beside the spine, crushing anything that tried to climb over it.

When the last movement stopped, the plain seemed very quiet.

Carlos looked at his people. A few shields were scratched, and the Troll had small marks across one hand that disappeared in real time. Nobody had been pushed out of position.

"Good," he said, looking at Brann. "You wanted fighting. There should be more ahead, Brann."

Brann lifted his hammer from the broken bones. "Better ones."

They picked up the padded tomato basket and moved toward the gap. The next enemies appeared before they reached it.

Three long skulls rose beyond the fallen ribs. Their bodies followed, tall at the shoulders, with thick legs and hooked bone projections along their backs.

Carlos could see the blue light between their joints before Inspect finished.

--

[Ossuary Ravager]

[Level: 4]

[Uncommon Grade]

[Undead construct]

[Bone plating protects the main body]

--

The middle Ravager lowered its head. It charged through the gap and struck the Troll before Carlos could finish warning it.

The Troll planted both feet and caught the skull against its forearms. Gravel slid beneath it as the creature drove forward. The two other Ravagers turned toward opposite sides of the fallen ribs.

"Brann, left!" Kaia called. "Shields with me on the right!"

Carlos went toward the Troll. It was holding the charging creature, but the lower jaw had hooked over its arm. He stabbed at the joint behind that jaw. His spear point scraped across thick bone and slid free.

He swore and stepped farther to the side while the Ravager’s front leg reached past the Troll.

Carlos drove his spear between the smaller bones at its ankle and pushed the shaft sideways. The leg bent, forcing the creature to change where its weight fell.

The Troll used that moment to shove the skull upward. Carlos pulled free and struck the same leg with the iron edge of his shield.

Bone cracked. The Ravager sank on that side, still biting toward the Troll.

On the left, Brann had let the other creature strike the fallen rib rather than meet its charge head-on.

He brought his hammer against its shoulder while it tried to turn. One blow broke the outer plate. The next struck the exposed structure beneath it.

Carlos could hear him enjoying it now.

The third Ravager was trying to reach the Archers around Kaia’s side. A Bearkin caught its head on the heavy shield, but its legs kept pushing, driving him back toward the others.

Kaia looked at the narrow space beside the fallen rib, then at the basket.

"One fruit. Into the gap behind its front leg."

The trained Archer took a tomato and threw from behind the shield line. It struck the gravel beside the Ravager’s foot and burst, scattering pulp and loose fragments beneath its body.

The explosion did not destroy the leg. It disturbed the creature’s footing just as the Bearkin pushed back. Kaia stepped in and cut through the exposed connection above its lower joint.

The Ravager fell sideways. Nessa’s Focused Shot struck through the opening in its broken shoulder, and the blue light within it flickered.

Carlos saw that and looked back at the creature held by the Troll.

"Turn it!"

The Troll dragged its skull across the broken leg. Carlos followed, driving the spear through the gap beneath the shoulder plate. This time he could reach the lit structure inside.

He pushed with both hands and broke it against the opposite bone.

The creature went still, its weight dropping heavily against the Troll. Carlos stepped back as the troop let it fall.

Brann finished his Ravager by crushing the exposed upper spine. Kaia’s side brought theirs down a moment later. The last blue light faded while Nessa was already drawing another arrow.

Carlos raised his hand for the party to stop. They had room to breathe here, and he wanted to use it.

The Troll’s arm was marked where the jaws had held it. Its skin was drawing together around the shallow tears.

Carlos checked that it could move the hand, then looked at the two Bearkin on Kaia’s side. Both were standing properly.

"Food and water," he said. "We aren’t walking into the next one until you all have some of it."

Brann looked ahead instead of reaching for his packed meal. Carlos followed his gaze.

The huge skull had moved.

Its lower edge lifted from the gravel, shedding a stream of dust. Behind it, the enormous spine pulled against the ground. Bones that Carlos had thought were separate remains began sliding toward it.

He closed the food container before handing it out.

One long leg unfolded and then another. The ribs rose around a blue light that was growing brighter beneath the centre of the skeleton.

Its skull turned until the empty sockets faced the gap where they stood.

The System panel opened above Carlos’s hand.

--

[Graveyard Guardian awakened]

[Ossuary Colossus]

[Level: 7]

[Rare Grade]

[Objective: Defeat the Graveyard Guardian]

--

Brann stared up at the creature as the last of its six legs pulled free.

Carlos put the food away and lifted his spear.

"Brann," he said. "With me."