CH8: Boss Encounter

My next encounters were of little note. I picked off three lone zombies and added a helmet, knee plates, and a belt to my gear. All of them were common, but that was ok; more armor was better unless I needed a ton of speed for the boss.

I crossed out of the winding corridors into a wide-open space with a curled altar in the center. A wolfman that wasn't rotting away was stitching body parts into a mass of yellow muscle and green worms. There wasn't any fur left on the monster's frame. It was aware and struggling against its chains. The living wolf man continued muttering to himself while I stuck up behind it.

"Another failure; what did I do wrong?" The wolfman raised a hand. "Lightning," The wolfman yelled, and bolts of bright yellow lighting forked out of the wolfman's clawed fingertips and scattered across the zombie's body. "All my calculations are correct the body parts were the freshest possible." The wolfman strode forward and grabbed the zombie's face. "Say something; you have the tongue of a poet and the brain of a philosopher. I want words, not growls." The wolfman said.

I snuck closer and whispered Burst. The wolfman turned around as I lunged. His mouth opened in time for my spear to slide hope.

CRIT!

With a twist, I freed my spear from the wolfman's head, and it dropped. Then I heard one of the chains pop. A link bounced off my helmet, and an arm the size of a tree trunk gripped the other chain.

"Nope!"

I ran up behind the monster and stabbed it in the back of the head. The damn skull was spongy with rotten muscle, and my spear bounced off the skull. The resulting Burst still did double damage, but the monster I was dealing with had more in common with the Incredible Hulk than the wolfmen undead.

A hard kick shattered the chain at the monster's feet while it struggled to remove the metal binding around its waist. With its arms busy, I moved, jumped on the slab, and stabbed with my spear. The spear found an eye socket, and I stared at the monster's face.

It had three eyes, and its skull had been cobbled together. Three skulls worth of bone extended far beyond what was natural. It had what amounted to three brains stacked atop each other. When I stabbed it through the eye socket, it wasn't a crit. I gave it a tickle.

A backhanded blow from the beast knocked me off the slab, and tumbled. Somehow I didn't stab myself, and my spell was still active. The horrible creaking sound of metal followed as I tried to pick myself up. I heard the monster rip the slab from the floor and toss it across the room. The mass of rock and iron settled in the room's door frame. Escape was no longer an option.

I turned on the boss notification and gave it a look.

Optional Boss

Goliath The Imperfect: A muscle-bound undead with near flawless strength and speed. If it only had a better-wired brain, it would have been exceptionally undead. A shame about its creator Wilhelm but there are always more necromancers.

Value If Subdued: 300

"How do I subdue enemies?" The monster lashed out with chains hitting me in the chest. Air leaves my lungs, and I'm knocked back while my burst spell runs out.