Chapter 101 100 - Closing The Gate

After defeating all the Ghouls, Milo had used a lot of energy, had he not spent all his free points on his Stamina stat after completing the mission awhile back, he may have been too tired to move. David also thought he may be out for the count, as it was the same attack that took up all his energy when he took his provisional license exam. After he completed the move and landed with a bit of a stumble, Milo felt a large hand clap him on the back.

"Putting on quite the show, aren't ya kid?!" he heard Harvey say.

Milo staggered again from the bear like hand hitting him on the back, and laughed a bit scratching the back of his head, "it was the only thing I could think of," Milo said bashfully.

Cameron then came over and thanked Milo for saving him and told him that he would be receiving his cut of the loot, he was fine giving that much since Milo had saved him from being torn apart by the Ghouls, all he needed was the credits to pay for rent and food anyways.

Milo thanked Cameron for the gesture and said that first they'd have to survive the rest of the gate which got a chuckle from the group. They decided to take an extended break so that Milo could recharge a bit after using such a big attack. The main reason this attack took so much out of Milo was due to how fast he had to form the ice blade, as well as how sharp he made it. If a piece of paper was dropped on the blade he made, it would cut cleanly in half.

After resting the group got back to work and continued on, they no longer ran into any incidents like they had previously, where a Blood Ghoul was leading a group of regular Ghouls, however they did fight a pair of Blood Ghouls, the pair seemed to get into a fight amongst each other during the battle with the raid team, most likely trying to fight over who among the team each Blood Ghoul got to eat. After defeating the two, Milo and his group moved on to what appeared to be the last chamber in the gate.

When entering what could only be the boss's lair, Milo scanned the area. Strewn about the ground of the chamber were bones and mutilated corpses of what Milo could only assume were Ghouls. The group then heard what sounded like flesh being torn from bone. Hearing this noise, they immediately prepared for combat. Milo signaled for the group to wait, and he pressed forward, looking for the source of the horrific sound. After slowly making his way deeper into the room, Milo stepped around a large pile of bones and saw a gruesome scene of the boss eating one of the corpses that could be seen littering the floor.

The boss was strange looking to say the least, it stood on two legs but had no arms and looked like someone had taken a bunch of flesh and just mashed it together without having a specific shape in mind. It had what appeared to be bones covering the outside of the fleshy body, almost like an exoskeleton. Running down its back to the end of its tail were spines that looked to be made of the same bone substance. Lastly Milo looked towards its face. It was horrifying looking, it had a skull like helmet that looked almost reptilian. The locations in the helmet-like skull where its eyes and nose would have normally been located had the fleshy mishmash bulging out.

After taking in the appearance of the monster, Milo activated his inspect skill to find out exactly what the name of the creature they'd be fighting was.

[Heroic Tier Beast]

Species: Bone Homunculus

Status: Undead

Disposition: Aggressive

An undead creature that appears to be a number of different creatures mashed together. They depend on their bone-like armor for defense, as their flesh is easily damaged. By feeding on flesh they can add to their own body to grow larger and stronger. The spines on their tail are very sharp and are its main source of offense.

[clear]

Reading what the creature was called made it even more hideous in Milo's mind. An undead creature that could make itself larger by consuming flesh made Milo shiver, but luckily he'd be able to kill the nightmarish creature here and now.

After scouting the boss out, Milo returned to the group that was waiting near the entrance of the room and informed them of the beast waiting for them. Describing the Bone Homunculus to them, the rest of Milo's team shivered. It sounded like a disgusting sight, and they weren't wrong. Milo went over what he figured would be its weak points, as per the system's description, and the group came up with a plan.

While Milo told the team what the boss looked like, he explained there were many places on the beast's body that were not protected by bone armor. This would be where the dealers would focus their damage. Milo didn't want to hold anything back during this fight and would be using as many ice spears as he could muster without tiring himself out too much.

After their planning, the group entered the chamber where the Bone Homunculus was waiting. It was still feasting on dead Ghouls and had its back to the team. Milo chose to use this opportunity to get off a surprise attack, plunging an ice spear into a chink of the bone plating protecting the creatures body. When it sunk into the beast's flesh, Milo controlled his ability, freezing a bit of the area around where the attack landed.

When the attack connected the Bone Homunculus let out a bone chilling shriek, the attack obviously hurt the beast, and due to it coming out of nowhere, the beast thrashed out smashing the piles of bones near it. After the surrounding area had been cleared of skeletal remains by the beast's thrashing, the monster could finally see the person responsible for its wound.

???????????????? ???????????????????????????? ???????????????????????? ???????????????????? ???????? ????????????????????-????????????.????????????

By this point, Milo had begun to form more ice spears, and held them hovering above his head. Seeing the person with ice swirling about its head, the Bone Homunculus charged towards the group where it was met by Harvey who raised his shield to meet the boss's attack. He smashed the shield into the beast but all it did was prevent it from moving forward, it took no damage from the attack, after Harvey had prevented its advance, the other tanks took their positions, prepared to help Harvey hold the beast back for Milo and the other dealers to inflict some damage.

The twins smacked hands activating their ability and leapt towards the beast, slashing anywhere they saw open flesh, just as Milo had instructed. The beast howled in pain from receiving all the attacks the twins threw at it. In the next moment, a barrage of arrows from Claire's bow and ice spears from Milo pierced the beast in different chinks of armor located around its body.

After throwing the barrage of ice spears, Milo chose to hold off on using his Ice ability unless necessary, as the more spears he threw the more tired he got. Instead after throwing the spears, he rushed in and chose to use his sickle to cause lacerations wherever his Hunter's Eye ability showed a weakness. He skillfully cut different joints and tendons, preventing the creature from being able to freely move.

While continuously hacking and slashing at every opening, the damage dealt was beginning to add up and the beast eventually began to slow down, not being able to keep up with the damage it was receiving. All the while, the tanks continued to hold back the beast's attacks, keeping it safe from breaking through to their backlines, and keeping it from launching counterattacks at their close combat dealers. The beast grew enraged and once again thrashed about swinging its tail in all different directions attempting to push the tanks back but the attacks simply bounced off the massive shields of Harvey and Chuck.

Soon, the beast was on its last legs, and Milo decided that now was the time to end it. He reinforced his legs jumping into the air and once high enough a massive hammer of ice began to form in his hands. He slammed the giant ice mallet downward on the top of the beast's bone covered head. As soon as it made contact, there was a cracking noise and the beast's body gave out slamming into the ground, throwing up a cloud of bone dust and debris.

Once the dust settled, the body of the beast could now be seen smashed into the ground. The bones protecting its body were splintered from the force of the blow, and the fleshy bits now were flattened like a pancake. All that remained was the essence core of the beast as well as another small gem that seemed to originate from inside its body.

Milo then heard a ping. He had leveled up once again after defeating the Bone Homunculus, along with this, he noticed when activating his Plunder skill that there was now a green symbol floating above Seamus, signaling he had completed the copy conditions for his ability.

After seeing the remains of the beast, the team cheered and celebrated at them closing their first gate. Spirits were up following defeating the boss and closing the gate. While the team celebrated, Milo took a seat to catch his breath. He definitely needed an ability to improve his recovery asap, but for now was happy that the team had completed their goal. Eventually the team began to return to the entrance of the gate and once they had exited, all the members gathered at a trailer that had been setup for them to receive treatment in and relax while they waited for their loot to be split up and for their payments to be tabulated.