Chapter 18

An explosion of rocks, chips flying forward like shrapnel.

The luminary husk jerked its round head in the direction of Caleb as he burst through the thin wall he’d created, its cerulean blue lines shifting to blood red. But Caleb didn’t give it any time to react beyond playing chameleon. His fist cracked into the side of its surprisingly sturdy frame, sending it sliding and skidding across the ice before lunging after it.

He tried to overwhelm it by releasing his Presence, but it didn’t appear to have much of an effect. The luminary husk staggered to its feet like a newborn foal, spiral eyes staring lifelessly at Caleb as his fist descended toward it once more.

A wall of translucent electric blue energy rose in front of the creature and Caleb’s fist slammed into it with a hollow thud. Some sort of forcefield.

This thing had Skills, did it? No matter. Caleb did, too.

He grinned, Aether churning within his arm like a roiling storm, muscles coiling like pistons as Bonebreaker charged and subsequently released. The shield shattered like glass, a veritable explosion of power erupting from his punch and echoing in the chamber.

The luminary husk was thrown back into the wall, hitting the stone hard enough to crack it. It tried to get back up, but the wall grew around it, bands of rock wrapping around its legs and neck, holding it tightly in place.

It struggled, jerking around wildly for a couple seconds before growing still and returning to its unsettlingly smooth motion, realizing the effort was futile. It stared Caleb down with its eerie spiral eyes. He held its gaze.

Bonebreaker still took a solid amount of energy to use, but it was becoming easier and easier to cast each time. It was a far cry from the first time he’d used it and nearly shattered his own fist.

“You’re not the boss, are you?” he asked, not expecting a response as he stalked forward.

The spirals started to glow red.

“Well, that can’t be–”

Beams of raw energy shot from them, racing toward Caleb. He yelped and dove to the side, creating a wall of stone between him and the laser-eyed monster as he landed roughly on the ground. Another beam seared into his wall of stone, but the defense held strong.

Caleb looked toward the opposite wall of the cave, where the first beam had struck. The stone was blackened and smoking.

“You done?” he yelled, not looking over his wall of rock. No point in risking taking a laser to the chin.

Caleb summoned his spirit self, its translucent arms overlapping his own just as they had before. The skill had been able to take blows from Fenryr when he’d been smashed down into the rock, hopefully that meant it could shield him from this thing as well. The luminary husk didn’t have an Aether Level, but he could tell that it wasn’t in the same league as the wolf boss.

To test his theory, he extended a hand around the edge of the barricade. Almost instantly, a beam of red energy slammed into his palm. The impact jerked his arm backward, but he didn’t feel any pain – just the jolt of force and flash of heat.

Now, if only I could extend my spirit self to cover my entire body like a suit of armor. He tried visualizing it, willing the spectral form to stretch around him, but it resisted each of his attempts. Whether the limitation lay within himself or the skill, he couldn’t tell. Either way, it was beyond him for now.

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He just had to get close, then he could finish the creature. It would’ve been nice to try and get some information from it about what it was doing and where the final Hand was, but he had a sneaking suspicion the thing wasn’t that intelligent. Like it was some golem.

“Alright.” He took a deep breath and started to count himself down. “Three. Two. One. Go!”

Caleb leapt over the barricade, already anticipating the streak of red light that was shooting toward his chest. He batted it aside with a gauntleted hand, spinning with the force and landing in a dead sprint toward the husk.