The first volley came fast.
Too fast.
Boran only saw black lines in the air and raised his shield.
The Skarn’s wings snapped forward, and the metal feathers crossed the nest with a horrible screaming sound. They were not normal feathers. They were knives. Long black knives. Some were thin like sword tips. Some were wide like axe heads. All of them were coming at them.
The first one hit Boran’s Bone Shield.
Clang.
The second hit right after it.
Clang.
The third skipped off the upper edge and spun into the ash.
Then more came.
[Blocked]
[Blocked]
[Blocked]
Boran lowered his shoulder and pushed into the hits. That was all he could do. His arm shook. His boots dug into the ash, but the ground was soft, so every hit still pushed him back a little.
A feather slipped over the shield and cut across his helmet. Another passed under the shield and sliced his thigh. The hidden bones under his clothes took part of it with a dry crack.
[HP: 106/125]
[Bone Exoskeleton III: 66/75]
“Stay behind me!” Boran shouted.
Steel cursed beside him. One feather bounced from Steel’s chest plate, but another punched into his shoulder guard and made him take a step back.
Storm raised both pistols from behind them.
“Double Tap!”
The sound of her pistols cracked through the metal storm. Both bullets hit the Skarn’s open wing.
The bullets sparked.
[Bladewing Skarn HP: 892/900]
Storm lowered her pistols a little.
“Wing plates,” Fire said. “Joints or flesh only.”
Storm nodded once and shifted her aim.
The volley was not only coming straight. Boran noticed it after the first few seconds. Some feathers curved. The Skarn twisted its wings and sent them wide, then the blades bent inward from the side. It was not just throwing attacks randomly. It was looking for gaps.
A feather came around Boran’s left side toward Light.
Boran saw it late.
Light raised her staff, pale light starting around her hands, but the feather was already close.
Boran threw himself sideways and slammed the Bone Shield into the feather’s path.
The blade struck the shield at a bad angle and bit into the rim. The impact spun him half around, but the feather flew down into the ash instead of Light’s neck.
Light froze for one breath.
Then she swallowed. “Thank you.”
“Don’t thank me now.”
The Skarn screamed again.
Its wings were half-empty now, with gaps where the feathers had launched. Boran thought that meant something good.
Then new feathers slid out from under the old plates.
They grew back with a wet metal scrape.
“They regrow.”
“Not instantly,” Shadow said from the left.
Boran glanced that way. Shadow had already moved wide, low in the ash, like a person trying to become a shadow for real.
“But fast enough,” Shadow added.
Boran tightened his grip.
“Then we break the wing before it fills again,” Fire said.
The Skarn stepped down from the trophy shelf.
Its talons sank into the ash. It was taller now that it had fully stood. Too narrow. Too sharp. The wings were too wide, the body too hunched, the head too still. One yellow eye stayed on Boran. The other moved across the party.
Then both eyes burned yellow.
The creature vanished.
Boran saw a blur cross the ash. Steel turned, axe rising, but the Skarn was already past him. A wing snapped out. It did not fire feathers this time. It just cut with the whole wing.
Steel barely got the axe haft up.
The wing hit him and threw him sideways like someone had kicked a door open.
[Steel HP: 71/95]
“Steel!” Light called.
“I can move!” Steel shouted from the ground.
“Then move!” Fire said.
The Skarn landed behind Storm.
Storm was already turning. She was fast. Very fast.
She fired both pistols point-blank.
The Skarn folded one wing in front of its head. The bullets sparked off the metal feathers. Its thin forelimb came up, claws opening toward Storm’s face.
Boran moved.
He was too far.
His legs started before the rest of him understood what he was doing. Ash dragged under his boots. The shield felt heavy. Storm was three meters away. The Skarn was already striking. There was no clean path.
“Smoke!” he shouted.
Storm understood fast. She threw herself backward and fired both pistols into the ground between them. Ash burst upward. The Skarn’s claw cut through the gray cloud instead of her eyes.
Boran used that half-second.
He was late anyway.
He did not run straight at the claws. There was no time. Instead, he went for the wing joint closest to him, the one already opened by bullets and movement.
The Skarn moved before he reached it.
One talon scraped across his chest piece and tore sparks from the leather studs. The hidden bones under his armor cracked from the pressure.
[HP: 106/125]
[Bone Exoskeleton III: 61/75]
Boran still slammed the edge of the Bone Shield into the joint. The bone edge bit into the right place.
The Skarn shrieked and turned.
“Here,” Boran said, already setting his feet.
Its talons came low, carving lines through the ash, wings folded tight. It didn’t run like a normal animal. It cut forward in short bursts. Left, right, straight, then left again.
Boran planted his feet.
“Fortify!”
[Fortify II activated]
[Mana: 33/40]
[Physical Defense increased]
His body became heavier. Stronger. The shield felt like it belonged to his arm more than before.
The Skarn hit.
Its beak stabbed over the top of the shield. Boran raised the shield too high because he thought the beak would come for his face.
The wing came first instead.
It slammed into him from the left before his stance was ready.
Boran blocked most of it, not all of it. The shield caught the main force, but the lower feathers scraped across his ribs and hip. The exoskeleton took the cuts with dry snapping sounds under the leather.
His boots slid.
[HP: 106/125]
[Bone Exoskeleton III: 49/75]
Then the beak came down.
He barely turned his head. The beak scraped over the helmet and snapped shut close enough that the sound made his teeth hurt. The impact still rang through his skull and shoulders. The hidden bones around his neck and upper back cracked under the hit.
[HP: 106/125]
[Bone Exoskeleton III: 47/75]
Boran stumbled one step back. His shoulder felt like someone had hit it with a hammer.
Steel came back with a roar and planted his front foot.
“Cleave!”
His axe came around in a heavy arc and hit the Skarn’s rear leg at the talon joint.
[Bladewing Skarn HP: 870/900]
The Skarn’s head whipped toward Steel.
Boran shoved forward with the Bone Shield, forcing the skull on the shield’s face into the creature’s chest.
[Shield Slam activated]
[Mana: 31/40]
The Bone Shield flashed red-white. The hit drove into the Skarn’s narrow body and made it stagger back half a step.
[Bladewing Skarn HP: 821/900]
Skarn’s eyes changed.
Yellow flickered into blue.
Boran noticed because the whole creature changed with it.
The wild speed stopped. Its feet settled. The wings lowered slightly. It looked calmer.
Storm shifted both pistols and breathed out once.
“Quick Draw.”
She fired three times.
The Skarn moved almost lazily. One bullet missed. One scraped a shoulder plate. One hit the wing joint, but the wing folded at the exact moment of impact and turned the bullet away.
[Bladewing Skarn HP: 813/900]
Shadow disappeared into the ash for half a breath.
“Veil Step.”
He appeared behind the Skarn and drove both daggers toward the back of its knee. The Skarn did not look back. Its tail snapped sideways.
Boran had barely noticed the tail before.
That was his mistake.
Shadow twisted away, but the tail still cut across his chest.
[Shadow HP: 43/60]
Light lifted her staff.
“Light Mend.”
Pale gold flowed from her hand and reached Shadow before he hit the ground.
[Shadow HP: 55/60]
The Skarn’s blue eyes moved to Light.
It raised one wing.
“Down!”
Boran moved again.
This time he saw the feathers before they launched. That did not mean he was fast enough.
He shoved himself between the Skarn and Light with the shield high, but his left foot sank into soft ash at the wrong moment. His knee dipped.
The six feathers fired.
[HP: 106/125]
[Bone Exoskeleton III: 42/75]
Boran dropped the shield lower, too late to block perfectly, just in time to catch the sixth feather on the outer rib edge. It spun away and buried itself in the ash near Light’s boot.
Boran breathed hard inside his helmet.
Fire lifted her staff. “Steel, left leg. Storm, eyes if you get a line. Shadow, don’t force the back. Tank, hold it there for six seconds.”
Boran nodded.
The Skarn stepped toward him with blue eyes.
Boran lifted the shield and walked into it.
The Skarn jabbed with its beak.
Boran angled the shield and let it slide, but it was not clean. The beak scraped down the bone face and hit his collar hard enough to make his vision flash white for half a second.
The hidden bones under his collar and shoulder took the impact with a sharp crack.
[HP: 106/125]
[Bone Exoskeleton III: 39/75]
The left wing cut low.
He tried to step over it.
Too slow.
The edge clipped his shin and tore through the side of his leather leg guard. The exoskeleton cracked under it too.
[HP: 106/125]
[Bone Exoskeleton III: 34/75]
Boran almost went down.
He slammed the shield into the ash and used it like a crutch.
A talon came for his knee.
He brought the shield down and caught the leg before the claw could hook him.
“Now!”
Steel used the moment.
“Breaker Chop!”
His axe came around from the left and chopped into the same leg joint.
[Bladewing Skarn HP: 766/900]
The Skarn shifted its weight to the other leg almost perfectly.
“Again!” Boran shouted.
Steel swung again, but the Skarn’s wing snapped out and forced him back.
That opened its right side.
Shadow was there.
“Back Cut.”
He came out of the ash like he had been waiting inside it. One dagger was reversed in his hand. He did not attack the armor. He cut the underside of the folded wing, where the metal feathers grew into softer gray flesh.
The Skarn screamed.
[Bladewing Skarn HP: 719/900]
Fire’s spell finished.
“Ember Lance.”
A thin spear of red-orange fire formed above her staff and shot forward. It passed just over Boran’s shoulder, close enough that he felt heat on his ear, and struck the wound Shadow had opened.
The fire did not explode.
It went in.
The Skarn’s whole right wing flared red from inside.
[Bladewing Skarn HP: 636/900]
“Good hit!” Steel shouted.
Fire was already watching the wound. “Again!”
The Skarn staggered, but it did not look close to dying.
[Armor Layer cracked]
[Bladewing Skarn damage intake increased]
Storm stared at it. “Armor layer?”
“Keep the pressure,” Fire said.
Her eyes moved over the wing, the cracked plates, the way the Skarn kept shifting weight away from the burned side.
“Tank,” she said.
“Yes.”
“It protects the body with wing angles. If you force the head left, I can hit the open ribs. If you can,” Fire said.
“I can try.”
Boran stepped forward.
The Skarn’s eyes turned red.
The creature folded both wings inward and lowered its head. Its body became still. The red light in its eyes deepened.
Yellow was fast.
Blue was balance.
Red was...
“Move!” Fire shouted.
Boran did not move.
The injured wing spread with a sound like tearing metal.
It swept forward.
Boran could have tried to jump away. Maybe he would even survive. But Fire was behind him. Light was behind her. Storm was still on the left, reloading. If Boran moved, the wing would go through them.
He lowered his center.
“Brace!”
[Brace activated]
[Mana: 29/40]
The wing hit the Bone Shield.
For one second, Boran felt nothing but force.
Then pain arrived.
His boots ripped two trenches through the ash. His arms folded inward. The shield slammed into his chest and knocked the air out of him. Something in his shoulder popped.
[HP: 106/125]
[Bone Exoskeleton III: 28/75]
[Bone Shield Form III Durability: 35/45]
But the wing stopped.
It did not reach Fire.
Fire’s eyes were wide behind him.
Boran’s arms shook.
“I can hold it,” he said.
He was not completely sure that was true.
The Skarn pressed harder.
Red eyes burned over the shield edge. Its beak opened, and hot ash-smelling breath washed over him.
Steel hit it from the side.
“Guard Break!”
The axe bit into the injured wing joint.
The Skarn screamed and pulled back. Boran almost fell forward when the pressure disappeared.
Light’s spell touched his back.
“Light Mend.”
Warmth spread into his shoulder. Closing the deeper bruising and the old cuts.
[HP: 121/125]
[Bone Exoskeleton III: 28/75]
“Don’t spend too much on me,” Boran said.
“If you fall, we lose the line,” Light answered.
The Skarn shook itself. The burned part under its wing dripped dark fluid onto the ash. Its metal feathers rattled. New ones were growing slower now on that side.
Fire noticed too.
“Right wing is weak,” she said. “We break that, it loses volleys.”
It launched with its whole body.
Boran stepped into the path.
This time the Skarn expected him.
Its left wing feinted high. Boran raised the shield. The beak came low instead, stabbing for his side under the shield edge.
Boran twisted.
The beak still caught him.
The point slammed under the shield rim and drove straight into the hidden bones wrapped around his ribs. Pain tore across his ribs even though the beak had not gone deep.
[HP: 121/125]
[Bone Exoskeleton III: broken]
“Shield Slam!”
[Shield Slam activated]
[Mana: 27/40]
The shield hit the Skarn’s face.
[Bladewing Skarn HP: 613/900]
The creature’s head snapped sideways.
“Left!” Boran shouted.
He shoved again, not with a skill this time. Just shoulder, shield, legs, and a bad idea. The Skarn tried to pull back, but Boran hooked the lower rim of the Bone Shield under its beak and dragged its head a little farther.
His boots slid. His knees shook.
Fire used the space.
“Cinder Chain.”
A red line snapped from her staff and wrapped around the Skarn’s exposed ribs. It did not hold the boss. But it burned bright and pulled for one second.
Storm took the opening.
Both pistols fired.
One bullet hit the left eye. The other hit the bony edge under the crown.
The eye burst into sparks and black fluid.
[Critical Hit]
[Bladewing Skarn HP: 529/900]
The Skarn screamed.
Fire put her hand on Boran’s shoulder.
“What do you need?” Boran asked.
“I need its eye on you.”
“Here!”
The Skarn’s remaining eye found him.
It lunged.
He angled the shield a heartbeat late. The beak scraped along the bone face, then slammed into his side.
[HP: 101/125]
Boran gagged and stayed on his feet because falling would be worse.
Fire’s second spell came over his shoulder.
“Ember Lance.”
This one was smaller than before, but cleaner. It struck the burned ribs where the Cinder Chain had marked them.
[Bladewing Skarn HP: 467/900]
Fire’s face was pale from mana use, but her eyes stayed sharp.
“Gotcha!” she said.
Boran coughed and kept the shield up.
The Skarn screamed.
Its remaining eye flashed yellow.
It burst into speed again, lunging straight for Steel. Steel tried to throw himself aside, but he was not quite fast enough—so he met the charge head-on and took the hit across his armored forearm. The blade-tail sheared through a plate and sank into flesh.
[Steel HP: 49/95]
Light started toward Steel.
The Skarn turned before she reached him.
Its remaining yellow eye snapped back to Boran.
Boran saw it too late.
The Skarn crossed the ash and hit him before he could set his shield.
A full body hit.
The beak slammed into the Bone Shield, the wing hooked behind his leg, and the talons drove him down into the ash.
Boran hit the ground on his back.
Air left him.
The shield was still on his arm, but the Skarn was on top of it now, pinning it across his chest. Its weight crushed down. Its beak stabbed again and again toward his helmet.
Boran pushed with both arms.
It did not move.
[HP: 74/125]
“Get it off him!” Fire shouted.
Steel came in first.
“Cleave!”
His axe hit the Skarn’s shoulder joint and bit deep.
[Bladewing Skarn HP: 421/900]
The Skarn screamed, but it did not get off.
Storm fired.
Bullets cracked into the exposed ribs, the torn wing joint, the side of the skull.
[Bladewing Skarn HP: 361/900]
Shadow appeared at its neck.
“Back Cut.”
Both daggers went in under the crown feathers. The Skarn thrashed hard and threw him away before he could finish the cut.
[Bladewing Skarn HP: 316/900]
“Boran!” Fire shouted. “Light, go get him!”
Light tried to run in.
The Skarn’s wing lashed out blindly. Metal feathers scraped the ground in front of her and forced her back.
“I can’t reach him!” Light shouted.
Boran heard her like she was underwater.
The Skarn pressed harder.
Its beak punched past the shield edge and struck his chest.
[HP: 42/125]
Boran’s hands slipped on the shield.
The Skarn’s claws dug into the ash beside his head.
Its neck was above him.
[Bladewing Skarn HP: 272/900]
Storm fired again.
[Bladewing Skarn HP: 229/900]
Fire lifted her staff with both hands.
“Ember Lance!”
The spell punched into the burned ribs.
[Bladewing Skarn HP: 168/900]
The Skarn still did not move.
It lowered its beak one more time.
Boran saw the point coming toward his throat.
Something hot rose in him.
Anger.
The kind that made his hands stop shaking.
The kind that made the pain become smaller than the thought in his head.
The beak came down.
Boran let the shield drop sideways.
Then he grabbed the Skarn’s neck with both arms.
The sharp feathers along its throat cut through his sleeves immediately.
They sliced into his forearms.
Blood ran down to his elbows.
[HP: 19/125]
The Skarn jerked back.
Boran went with it.
He wrapped one arm under the beak and the other over the back of its neck, locking his hands together with everything he had left.
The creature tried to pull away.
Boran held.
The Skarn beat its damaged wings against the ash. Metal feathers flew loose around them. One cut across Boran’s shoulder. Another scraped his helmet. Its talons kicked at the ground, trying to push backward, but Boran dragged his knees under him and leaned his whole weight into the lock.
“Stay,” Boran growled.
The Skarn screamed in his arms.
Boran squeezed harder.
[HP: 10/125]
“Boran, let go!” Light shouted.
He did not.
Light tried to step in again, both hands glowing, but the Skarn thrashed too hard. A wing swept across the ash between them and forced her back.
“I can’t heal him like this!” she shouted.
“Just kill it!” Boran shouted.
Fire’s eyes changed.
“Everything!” she shouted.
Steel roared and brought the axe down into the Skarn’s leg.
“Breaker Chop!”
[Bladewing Skarn HP: 122/900]
Storm stepped closer than she should have and fired into the open side of its head.
“Double Tap!”
[Bladewing Skarn HP: 83/900]
Shadow slid under the thrashing wing and stabbed upward into the throat Boran was holding still.
“Back Cut!”
[Bladewing Skarn HP: 41/900]
The Skarn convulsed.
Its neck feathers cut deeper.
His fingers almost came apart.
Boran pulled the neck closer until the monster’s beak scraped against his helmet.
Fire’s spell finished.
“Solar Ember.”
The white-gold line went through the Skarn’s broken eye and out the burned ribs.
Storm fired at the same time.
Steel’s axe hit the leg again.
Shadow twisted both daggers.
Boran squeezed until something in the Skarn’s neck gave way under his arms.
[Bladewing Skarn HP: 0/900]
[BLADEWING SKARN DEFEATED]
The Skarn went limp.
The creature’s weight sagged against him. The sharp feathers were still buried against his arms. Blood dripped from his sleeves into the ash.
“Boran,” Fire said.
Only then did his hands loosen.
The Skarn slid out of his arms and collapsed beside him.
Boran fell backward into the ash.
His health blinked in the corner of his vision.
[HP: 10/125]
Light reached him the moment the wings stopped moving. She dropped beside him so hard her knees hit the ash.
“Don’t move.”
“I am not moving.”
Her hands shook over his chest.
“Light Mend.”
Warmth entered him.
[HP: 25/125]
Light’s hands stayed there for another second, even after the glow faded.
“You are bleeding everywhere,” she said.
Boran looked at his arms.
The sleeves were cut open. Blood ran from both forearms where the Skarn’s neck feathers had sawed into him.
“Yeah,” he said.
Light stared at him like she wanted to say different things and none of them were safe to say in front of everyone.
Fire stood nearby with her staff lowered. She was quiet too. Her eyes were on Boran’s arms, then on the dead Skarn’s neck, then back on Boran.
Storm walked over first, because Storm apparently could not stay quiet for more than ten seconds.
She looked at the dead boss, then at Boran’s bleeding arms.
“So that was the plan?” she asked. “Grab the boss and hope it dies first?”
Boran blinked.
“It was on me,” Boran said. “I grabbed what I could.”
“That is the worst answer.”
Steel was limping, one arm hanging lower than the other, but he still looked huge when he stopped beside Boran.
“Get up,” Steel said, holding out a hand.
Boran stared at it for half a second, then took it.
Steel pulled him up carefully. Even so, Boran hissed through his teeth when his feet got under him.
Light reached for him at once, but Steel had already steadied him with one hand on his back.
Then Steel tapped Boran’s shoulder.
“Grabbing the creature by the neck?” Steel said. “You could have left the cool stuff to me.”
“Still. Good move.” Shadow said.
“Next time,” Steel said, “tell me before you do something that stupid.”
[MISSION COMPLETE: ASHEN HOLLOW — BOSS HUNT]
[Objective complete: Kill the Bladewing Skarn]
[Reward pending: Return to Mission Board]
The loot window opened for the party.
[Bladewing Core Fragment obtained]
[Skarn Metal Feather Bundle obtained]
[Ashen Hide Strips obtained]
[Boss Trophy: Bladewing Crown Feather obtained]
[Gold reward pending]
Boran saw one line and focused despite the pain.
[Skarn Metal Feather Bundle]
Type: Shield Material
Adaptive Shield compatibility detected.
“Oh,” he whispered.
Fire looked back. “What?”
Boran lowered his hand.
“My shield can use those.”
Storm looked at the dead boss, then at Boran’s shield. “Your shield can use boss feathers?”
“Yes,” Boran said.
Steel let out a tired breath. “Then we should discuss it properly.”
Fire looked at the feather bundle, then at Boran’s shield.
“No need,” she said.
Steel turned his head. “Fire?”
“He can take it,” Fire said.
Boran did not know what to say to that.
So he just nodded.
“Thank you.”
Fire turned away first. “Thank me by staying alive until we get back.”