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Bk 2 Ch. 37
🕑 Added 2024-08-13 02:52:35 +0000 UTC37.
“Everyone ready?” Santi asked as they clustered around the entrance to the rift. His personal team were close to him with Rayleigh and her B team of Acolyte fighters ready to hold the entrance of the rift in case Santi and his team failed.
Santi kept an eye on Cam, who looked like he hadn’t slept in a week. Bianca was close to his side and had a furrow in her forehead that could be mistaken for a canyon. Chad was off to the side, his bow held loosely in his hand. Daniel and Hana were both posted right next to the rift and seemed eager to leap into the rift. Tank looked relaxed and ready while Chloe was bouncing on her toes, ready to be off and fighting.
It wasn’t an ideal set up, or even good. His primary frontliner looked ready to keel over and his other looked like she was ready to start a fight at the drop of a hat. His distance fighter had a poor weapon and the most reliable person was his medic. Neither of his scouts could pump out the damage that most scouts or rogues could. Santi would have to carry most of the fight while relying on his friends to just not die.
“Let’s get this done,” Cam said, his voice flat and emotionless. The rest of the team just nodded along and Santi had to keep himself from sighing. He waved a hand at his scouts and the duo leapt through the rift without a word. The rest of them waited until Hana poked her head back in and announced that the way was clear.
Santi was the first through the rift, not trusting his frontliners to have a clear head. The wave of heat washed over him and tried to steal his breath as he looked about. The same menacing foundry loomed in front of him, but the gates leading into were wide open. Broken machinery lay tossed about, the remnants of dozens of junk golems.
It looked like someone had a bit of a temper tantrum when their mate had been killed. The thin layer of Initiate level warriors were gone and left the entrance to their lair wide open for his strike team. Santi felt a bit apprehensive about it, when something looked too easy it likely was. That was why he had scouts though. The others followed right behind him and there was a round of cursing as they faced the heat of the foundry.
“Wait for Daniel to report back,” Santi ordered as the team formed up. Cam and Chloe in the front with Bianca right behind them. Santi and Tank were in the middle while Chad watched the rear with an arrow already strung. Hana had already disappeared in a mirage, headed after her partner.
They spread out a bit, keeping their backs to the rift exit, and waited. The heat was uncomfortable to the extreme, but Santi used [Air Current] to give himself a slight breeze. The others got to marinate in their own sweat while they waited for Daniel to come back.
It took only a few minutes for Daniel to come jogging out of the place, his cloak of shadows useless out in the open and without cover. Sweat plastered his face in a shining sheen that made Santi pleased. It was always nice to see the normally unflappable man look uncomfortable.
“They’ve destroyed damn near everything in there. It’s a mess. All that’s left is four golems, the big ones, and the five cyclops,” Daniel reported.
“Nine all together. We’re going to have to lure them out somehow. Thin them down.” If what Daniel had reported originally was true then the four golems on the inside were going to be tough matchups. He had better fighters now than the last time, but he couldn’t risk a full out brawl with them.
“Go to Hana and get ready to grab that dwarf and run. We’re going to go to the front door and poke our nose in their business. When they react, that’s your chance. Grab him and throw him out of the rift to the others and then get your asses back here and help us. Target the cyclops, slow them down, lure them away, I don’t care. We focus the golems and get them put the fuck down, alright.”
He got a chorus of affirmatives and nods of agreement. Daniel jogged back the open gates and vanished from sight again. Santi gave them a slow ten count and then nodded at Cam to start moving forward. Their loose formation held relatively well as they crossed the distance to get in front of the broken gates and they stepped into the building's slightly cooler embrace. Getting out of the brutal heat was a welcome relief, but the sights pulled him up short.
The foundry had been in poor shape when they had come in originally. Now it was completely destroyed. The rage of an Acolyte, or a group of them, monsters were apparent. The heavy machinery had been broken and thrown around like toys in a child's tantrum. Mountains of steel rose, jagged and sharp, from the center of the building where the cyclops were nesting.
The four remaining golems were as Daniel had described. Smooth polished red-bronze metal that gleamed in an unearthly way even in the dim light of the warehouse. The five cyclops were in various states of exhaustion or sleep, laying sprawled across the floor.
“Y’all ready?” Santi whispered. He got terse nods.
“HEY, YOU FAT, SMELLY, ONE-EYED, FREAKS!” [Air Current] made a tunnel to project his voice across the distance. Heads perked up as his words reached them, clumsy hands reached out to grab heavy clubs and the four golems whirred to life.
As they moved, Santi caught a glimpse of the dwarf they held in captivity. If anything this one looked worse than Grimvr had. He was sitting in the middle of the cluster of cyclops, far away from the metal that was his to command.
The golems led the way, their strides smooth and powerful without the awful grinding and crunching that the other Acolyte monsters had made. These projected a sense of skilled workmanship and lethal grace. Santi was very happy that they hadn’t come out of the rift the last time.
“Back, back, back!!!” Santi barked as the team started to retreat back into the sunlight. With the foundry being ruined, there was no cover for them to take to help whittle the numbers. It was going to have to become a running fight rather than holding a chokepoint after killing a few.
“Running fight, never stop moving. Chad, make sure nothing flanks us!”
“Got it,” the bowman said as he drew back his arrow and fired with casual ease. The golden arrow arced across and slammed into the lead golem’s chest. Santi bit back a curse as he watched it drill a small hole in its chest and nothing else happened. There was no stutter in its smooth gait, no gaping hole. It just tanked the blow and kept running towards them.
“Don’t trade blows with the golems,” Santi said. He desperately used [Identify] on them.
Mana Purified Golem lvl. 33
“They’re way higher level. Just keep fighting and backing up. Don’t try to face them head on,” Santi kept backing up as the golems followed. Even with their smoother stride they were slightly slower than his group.
[Gust] reinforced by [Air Manipulation] created gale like winds that grabbed at the back two golems and slowed them down to a standstill. They were forced to duck down and use all four hands to dig into the earth to prevent themselves from sliding back. The front leaders kept their charge without fear even as Chad continued to put hole after hole in the lead golem.
Cam caused a shield to appear in front of the second golem and it slowed down for a second to break the energy shield, but the gap between it and the leader lengthened. They were not all spaced out at decent enough increments that Santi was willing to engage.
He cut both spells free and focused on the leading golem that was already showing signs that Chad’s barrage had been effective. Eight fist sized holes were dug through its body and one of its lower arms was limp and dragging in the dirt as it got closer.
Cam stepped forward and met it, his energy shield overlaying his real shield. The golem lifted its upper arms and swung down. Cam moved so the blows were deflected rather than trying to stop them head on. Even then, the golden overlay shattered like glass the sound of crunching metal was loud. Bianca went right by him and slashed at an arm, digging her weapon along an upper arm and cutting halfway through it before jumping back.
Chloe’s axe bit into its working lower arm where it connected to its body and the golems momentum stopped. An arrow went flying by, targeting the second fast approaching golem. Santi turned his morph blade into a lance and punched through the golem’s arrow riddled chest. Spikes emerged from the morph weapon and he could feel it growl happily as it began to rip something from the golem.
Santi pulled the spiked lance free, hauling the machines internals out with it. The golem wasn’t dead, but it teetered on its leg as the other three hammered it into the ground in a blur of blows until the kill notification dinged.
Santi looked up and wanted to groan. Only three more of the heavy golems and then the cyclops.
