38. The Huskbound

On their second night at their newest Waystation, Serac and Zacko were back in familiar territory—that of waiting for the big bad Aberrant to show up at their door. Tonight, they did so just outside [the Huskbound Sanctuary] and from the safety and comfort of Ash the Resummoned Fortress, all while the storm of bone dust picked up in intensity just outside the castle walls.

"Don't you think it's all a little too convenient?" Zacko grumbled while leaning his head against 'Zacko's Corner'. He kept his eyes shut and his voice at a low murmur, but Serac knew it to be just an act. The man was too amped up to have any hope of falling asleep. "I mean for you, specifically. Every step of your journey, you seem to have had no shortage of locals giving you clear goals and a chunky source of Karma to aim at."

"Do you count yourself as one of those locals?" Serac teased from her 'driver's seat', which was a little alcove that housed the ornamental steering wheel. All things considered, she found herself in a fairly upbeat mood, not least because she had a clear goal and a chunky source of Karma to aim at. "If I remember correctly, you were the first soul to point me toward a big bad Aberrant that needed smiting."

"Yes, and if I remember correctly, I wasn't entirely forthright with my reasons for needing your help in the first place. How do we know this Dashi isn't hiding something about… this whole situation with the kids and the walls and whatnot?"

"What's there to hide?" Serac frowned. "The walls are here to protect the children from the Bone Blight. There's a bad thing that wants to break those walls, and now we've been tasked to thwart the bad thing's wall-breaking efforts. Seems pretty straightforward to me."

"Hm, yes, protection. Hell of a place to lock up a bunch of children and throw away the keys, don't you think? But I guess it's all above board if it's for the children's protection."

"Well, I mean, we are in hell. Not gonna get away from that anytime soon. Besides, when has trusting the locals led us astray so far? I thought after our experience at Last-Sorrow-First-Hope, you would've cooled it with your whole lone wolf act."

Zacko fell silent for a moment. His sleepy expression didn't change, but Serac knew this silence to mean the two of them had reached an impasse in their argument. And sure enough:

"What does Trippy think about this?" Zacko invoked the almighty third opinion.

"I believe you are both entitled to your beliefs on the matter, but if I may, I could point out a different angle for you to consider."

"Point away, Trippy. That's what you're here for."

"I've been thinking about this Bone Lord that Dashi has referred to several times. This is in the context of the existence of a relatively novel status effect called [Ossify], as well as the fact that the highest point of Naraka in the current Kalpa has been dubbed the Bonespires by the local populace."

"You think this has something to do with our ascension, don't you?"

"Precisely. You see, Pathsight-sanctioned ascension from one Realm to the next is achieved by obtaining a Mandate from the reigning Realm Immortal. This is traditionally done by one of two methods: 1) through mutual agreement, usually by performing a special favor or by passing a test of skill, or 2) the far more direct but also likely the more difficult option, which is to smite the Immortal."

"Right. And you think this 'Bone Lord' guy could be the reigning Realm Immortal of Naraka?"

At this, Zacko snapped his eyes open and straightened in his corner, not fooling anyone with his too-cool-for-school act.

"That is something we shall have to see for ourselves. Normally, the identity of a Realm Immortal is common knowledge among Wayfarers within the same Realm. But alas, Naraka being Naraka, we have precious few sources of 'common knowledge' to draw from. But if my hunch is correct, I believe doing this favor for a group of children supposedly 'under the Bone Lord's protection' is a step in the right direction."

"Welp, I'm sold. Guess we're doing some favors for the locals again, Zacko my boy."

"What? What did Trippy say, exactly? Who—"

Brraaahhhhmmmmm…!!

There it was again. Timely and loud, if a little suppressed by distance. An ill-intentioned being was hammering on the walls of [the Sanctuary]. Same time as yesterday—almost like clockwork.

"It's go time, Ash! Follow that noise!"

Serac 'drove' home the point by gripping the steering wheel. In truth, the gesture was all but meaningless. The Steed's motorized teeth churned on their own, driven by its master's command rather than any sort of mechanical input. The little castle that could now circled [the Sanctuary]'s perimeter, roaring ever closer to the source of the commotion.

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Brraaahhhhmmmmm…

Getting closer. As Ash moved the Wayfarers toward their target, Serac tried to assess the situation through her eyeslit. No dice. The night was too dark and the dust-storm much too thick for any reliable visuals.

"Okay," Serac said, more for her own benefit than Zacko's, "I guess we'll just have to trust that Ash knows where it's—"

Badoom!!!

Along with that resounding, almost cartoonish impact, the castle shook violently. Even as she accidentally bit her tongue, Serac checked Pathsight for information where her physical senses failed her.

Ash had taken a hit, chunky enough to rip away a quarter of its Health bar. And still, the pale-gray haze beyond the eyeslit revealed no sign of the assailant. Whatever this big bad Aberrant was, it could hit from distance—and pretty hard at that.

The living castle shook off the initial hit and rumbled back into motion, braving the storm and the unseen enemy both. But it didn't take long for the second attack to land and rock the whole cabin, all while reducing Ash's HP down to its last half.

"It's no good!" Serac exclaimed, this time needing Zacko to get on the same page. "We better ditch Ash for now, unless we wanna lose it until our next reconstitution!"

The Wayfarers managed to jump out of the cabin, just in time to avoid the effects of a third artillery attack. This time, Serac was close enough to the action to see it for what it was. A large, bone-colored boulder had hurtled through the night air at speed before exploding into powder upon contact with the castle wall.

The Rakshasa quickly shrank Ash into its portable form, banishing the castle to the safety of her belt. She then pulled up a scarf (a gift from the children) to cover her mouth and nose, before unholstering REVOLVER and marching into the dust-storm.

[Wayfarer Status Effect: OSSIFY]

[TRIBULATION active (x2): current buff at 10%]

Such was the storm's density and intensity that [Ossify]'s build-up gauge appeared within seconds of the Wayfarers being exposed to the elements. Now, they were in a race against time—on top of having to contend with a boulder-flinging ill-intentioned being.

Brraaahhhhmmmmm!!!

The sound was very close now, as if the Wayfarers were standing right next to the point of contact. Once more, Pathsight was first to provide the pertinent information, long before Serac could make sense of what her naked eyes perceived.

[Designation: HANUMAN—the Huskbound Sentinel]

[Aberrant Race: Bone Husk]

[Aberrant Class: Field Boss]

Huskbound? Sentinel?? Even as Serac tried to make sense of a highly unusual epithet, the Aberrant in question revealed itself, first by swinging a massive fist through clouds of bone dust and onto the Wayfarers' location.

"Whoa!"

Serac just about managed to sidestep the fist, which by itself was bigger than her whole torso. At first glance, the thing had a stony, rough-hewn appearance, like some kind of animate rock formation. But then the fist disappeared back into the storm, only for a foot to take its place.

The stomp shook both the air and the ground with far greater force than the earlier punch. For a moment, the dust clouds were whipped apart by the ensuing shifts in air currents, thereby exposing the Aberrant's whole frame to the wide eyes of a Rakshasa who barely reached the height of its shin.

And Serac finally saw the undeniable truth of 'Huskbound' in Hanuman's epithet… as well as the rationale behind 'Sentinel'.

Hanuman was a giant Rakshasa statue, with every inch of its enormous frame filled in by compacted Bone Husks. Where [the Sanctuary] was a domed structure that shielded innocent souls from the ravages of the Bone Blight, [the Sentinel] was its corollary, both in name and form—a Huskbound colossus to stand guard over a safe haven for Rakshasa children.

So then… why was it that [the Sentinel] was trying to break down [the Sanctuary]?

Serac had no time to puzzle out the riddle. For Hanuman now swung down again with a boulder-sized fist, clearly aimed to crush a Rakshasa-sized Rakshasa into Souldust. The motion was frighteningly fast for something so large. Serac barely backstepped out of the way, feeling the air shift just beyond the tip of her nose.

Badoom!

With another resounding crash, the fist disintegrated into bone dust before Serac's eyes. She blinked and searched frantically for the second party involved. Then, as the dust cleared, she saw.

Zacko the NINEFOLD master stood on one leg, with the other pointed straight into the air. He'd parried the giant's punch with [The Seventh Dao—Staff], and now stared up at his opponent with his usual irreverent smile.

Serac saw this and smirked to herself. She knew full well the reason for the Manusya's sudden and dramatic shift in attitude. For now that Zacko had confirmed the absence of ghosts, he was eager for a chance to redeem himself.

Well, destroying one of the boss's hands was as good a start as any—if only said hand stayed destroyed. For even as Serac's eyes widened anew in astonishment, and even as Zacko's smile curled into a sneer of excitement, the Huskbound Sentinel rebuilt itself. The individual Husks that made up its rough-hewn body broke apart and rapidly formed into a new shape. The entity became a giant that was slightly less giant than before, but with two intact fists ready to throw more hefty punches.

So… this boss has got hands and can regrow new ones if it loses them. But Hanuman's reconstructive ability wasn't the only wrinkle that set it apart from the previous bosses. For try as she might, Serac couldn't find its Health bar.

"Zacko?" she yelled across the dust-storm. "You seeing this?"

"Yup," he yelled back, sounding far happier than he had any right to, "or not seeing, in this case. But… even without a Health bar, I think we do have a ready-made visual marker for how much damage we're doing to this thing."

Serac nodded, readily interpreting Zacko's roundabout speech. This fight was to be a race, alright. A race to see which happened first: A) the Wayfarers' [Ossify] gauges to fill up, or B) the Huskbound Sentinel to lose all of its component Husks.

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