Chapter 70: Garrick, the Rotting Phalanx

Ding!

[You have killed "The Weeping Specters of the Ash (Level 88, Boss)"]

[Experience Multiplier: 35X Applied. 5,100,000 EXP gained.]

[Congratulations, you have leveled up to Level 68!]

[Congratulations, you have leveled up to Level 69!]

Ding!

[Talent Devourer: Residual Talent Energy Detected: "Ethereal Intangibility" (Fragments Available: 10)]

[Talent Devourer: Residual Talent Energy Detected: "Soul Rend" (Fragments Available: 8)]

Leon stood amidst the settling, charred dust of the specters, his breathing steady despite the intense mental strain of resisting the psychic assault. He swiped his hand through the air, reading the glowing blue text that hovered in the dim, swirling purple light of the Gravesite Plain.

"Two new fragment sets," Leon said aloud, his voice calm, evaluating the options. "Auris, maintain a perimeter watch. I need to process this."

The Glacial Sovereign let out a low, rumbling growl of acknowledgment through their soul-bond. The massive dragon shifted his weight, his cyan eyes scanning the thick, low-hanging mist that clung to the obsidian headstones.

Leon analyzed the interface. Ethereal Intangibility was a flawless defensive mechanic, but it fundamentally contradicted his combat style. He relied on the physical kinetic force of Grave-Crusher, the blocking power of Obsidian Carapace, and the solid, devastating weight of the Blade of the Dragon God. Becoming intangible would prevent him from dealing physical damage during the phase.

"System, store the fragments for both talents in the inventory," Leon commanded. "Physical immunity is a potent card, but it severely restricts offensive capability for a Vanguard build. I will hold onto them until I find a suitable fusion path that doesn’t compromise my physical hit-box."

The glowing fragments dissolved into swirling motes of light and vanished into his spatial storage.

Before Leon could even shift his stance to prepare for the next encounter, the ground immediately began to shake violently.

This wasn’t a localized tremor like Morven’s awakening. The entire Gravesite Plain was convulsing. The jagged cracks in the gray dirt that Leon had created in the previous fight violently widened.

Hundreds of massive obsidian headstones—monuments that had stood for millennia—sank abruptly into the earth, swallowed by the shifting soil. A deafening, metallic grinding noise echoed from the depths, followed by the clattering of thousands of bones shifting at once.

A massive, unified entity rose to take the place of the sunken graves.

It was a nightmare of necromancy. A towering, forty-foot-tall monstrosity composed entirely of fused skeletal soldiers. Thousands of individual skulls formed its massive, block-like torso. Its arms were not singular limbs, but massive, interwoven walls of rusted iron shields, overlapping ribcages, and shattered femur bones locked together in perfect, terrifying symmetry. It did not stand like a beast; it stood perfectly square, an immovable fortress of the dead.

[Boss Encounter 3: Garrick, the Rotting Phalanx (Level 90)]

[Innate Talent: Legion’s Bulwark, Indestructible Core]

"A phalanx," Leon noted, his tone completely serious.

His SSS-Rank Origin Eyes flared with brilliant golden light, piercing through the dense void mist to analyze the forty-foot monstrosity. The visual feedback he received made him immediately tighten his grip on his Mythic greatsword.

"This is not a single entity," Leon spoke over the telepathic link to Auris, keeping his verbal silence to mask his position. "Look at the mana signature, Auris. It’s dispersed across thousands of individual skulls. There is no central nervous system. There is no single heart to pierce. Traditional single-target execution wouldn’t work here. If I cut off an arm, it’s just going to rebuild it with the bones of the fallen."

Auris snorted, a plume of freezing vapor escaping his jaws. They move as one. A hive of bone.

"Exactly. It has no central weak point," Leon analyzed, his tactical mind processing the Legion’s Bulwark talent. "The damage is likely distributed evenly across the entire structure. If I hit the front line, the kinetic force will be absorbed and spread out through the thousands of skeletons behind it. It is a war of attrition. They want to exhaust us."

Garrick didn’t attack with a weapon. It didn’t need one.

The entity emitted a sound that was not a roar, but the synchronized, booming war-cry of ten thousand long-dead soldiers. The entire forty-foot mass of bone and iron shields threw itself forward. It didn’t shamble; it executed a flawless, devastating, full-body charge. The thousands of skeletal legs moving in perfect unison created a localized earthquake, meant to trample Leon and Auris into the dirt and grind their bones into the gravesite plain.

The sheer mass of the Level 90 Boss moving at that speed was an unstoppable, catastrophic force.

"We cannot dodge this," Leon calculated instantly. "The area of effect is too wide, and Auris’s wingspan makes him a massive target in this narrow plain. If we try to take to the air, the wind pressure alone from that charge will ground us."

Leon stepped directly in front of his bonded dragon, planting his boots firmly into the shifting gray dirt.

"Aegis of the Void!" Leon shouted, swiping his left hand violently through the air to tear open space.

The Diamond-Rank absolute defense shield materialized in front of them, a pitch-black rift in reality that eagerly awaited the kinetic impact.

The Rotting Phalanx slammed into the rift with the force of a falling meteor.

The collision was deafening. The Aegis groaned under the apocalyptic pressure. Normally, the Diamond-Rank skill silently absorbed kinetic energy, but the sheer, overwhelming mass of thousands of fused, Level 90 skeletons charging as one pushed the skill to its absolute limit. Leon felt a massive drain on his mana pool as he was forced to actively channel energy to keep the rift open.

The Aegis violently absorbed the kinetic energy, redirecting the millions of pounds of force into the shadow plane. The rusted iron shields screeching against the spatial tear created a shower of sparks that illuminated the dark plain. The void-shield spider-webbed with glowing white cracks, struggling to contain the sustained, grinding pressure of the Phalanx’s charge.

"You bring an entire army to fight one man and his dragon," Leon yelled over the grinding metal, acknowledging the sheer tactical efficiency of the boss. "I respect the commitment to absolute victory. But raw mass isn’t enough to break a Vanguard’s line!"

The Aegis held just long enough to completely halt the massive charge, bringing the forty-foot monstrosity to a grinding, shuddering stop. The momentum was broken.

Leon dropped the cracked shield, his left arm aching from the magical feedback.

"Auris, shatter the front line!" Leon commanded. "Break their formation!"