Ch 2.21: Engager

“Close in one me.” It was a new experience for Flora, the flower crown atop her head letting her know that her friends were being targeted by something, but regardless she still just knew that that was what’s happening. She didn’t know what they were being targeted by, where the enemies were, or what she needed to do to protect them, but she knew it was happening.

Is this what people with external aspects feel like? She wouldn’t have known, only every being able to affect herself with her aspect, but the feeling was certainly strange, even if it was very welcome.

And then she felt the feeling grow, the specificity of her new sense honing in. Tira, from down below.

Flora wasn’t sure how exactly Tira was being attack from something below her when they were standing on solid ground, but it was definitely happening. She ran over, simultaneously using [Nature] to bolster the strength of her muscles and reinforce her skin. She collided with Tira, the woman shouting in shock as Flora turned and skidded across the ground, arms wrapped around Tira as stone beneath where they were just standing began to erupt from the cavern floor.

Flora wasn’t sure exactly what she expected to be climbing from the rocks under them, but it sure wasn’t more rocks. Despite that, the giant arm that emerged was stone itself, likewise covered in crystal. It wasn’t just the specks of crystal that littered the cavern walls though. As the arm pulled itself out of the earth, it revealed more and more stone body, with larger and larger crystal chunks embedded in it as they got close to the center, finally resulting in a crystal heart that was the largest chunk Flora had ever seen in person, easily twice the size of her own head.

It fully emerged quickly, pulling itself up as the group watched, each of them in shock at what they were seeing. Most surprising to Flora was that the ground it had came from was fully intact, not a single bit of damage. But even that was only slightly more surprising than the size and shape of the creature. It was at least twice Flora’s height, with six total limbs, two arms above and four legs below that were each four times as thick as Flora’s entire body, all converging into a massive headless torso housing that absurd crystal heart that was large and bright enough to illuminate the entire area with blue light.

“A golem,” Carly stammered out as she backed away, eyes filled with terror.

“I thought those were myths!” Flora shouted as she ran towards the creature. She could feel it changing its sights away from her, directing its attention towards the fleeing healer. No you don’t. Flora slid in front of Carly, bracing herself with her arms in a cross. Skin like rough stone, bones equally as hard.

Flora was powerful now, both in general from having the class and from the benefits of [All Natural]. She’d felt unparalleled the moment she first messed with her new mana well a week prior, felt invincible once she’d tested out just how far she could go with her enhanced abilities. Despite that though, as the golem’s fist crashed into her braced arms, she could feel the crack of her bones, her arms giving way to the force of the blow as she was thrown back past Carly and skidded across the cavern floor.

The intense pain only lasted a moment though, and Flora couldn’t help but smirk. Carly’s been practicing too. The creature was winding its other arm back for another blow, but Flora reached out at it with [Show Off] as she climbed to her feet. It was a completely foreign feeling, using her mana to affect something other than herself, but it was still as simple as using [Nature], just a little odd. It wasn’t an instant change, the golem still bearing down on Carly while she was right in front of it, but as its original focus turned and ran backwards, the golem started to move as well, but this time turning towards Flora.

“That’s right big guy,” Flora said as she stumbled backwards, “come fight me.” Her pain was diminished now, and she could feel the fractures repairing as Carly fed [Health] into her, but even reduced pain from recently broken arms was debilitating. She wasn’t in any condition to take another blow like that from the creature yet, but she knew her friends were even less capable of taking such a hit. I’ll just have to deal with it. The golem was barreling towards her, speed increasing at an unnatural rate for how large it was as those four legs skittered across the ground like a crab’s legs. I’m not fast enough.

But she wasn’t alone either. As the monster lifted its arm for another attack a giant shackle appeared around its wrist, connected to the its back foot with an equally large chain. The golem struggled for a moment, pulling itself forward with its attempted attack as a thunderous crack echoed through the cave and flash of crystal light sliced into the creature’s arm.

“Shit, it’s stuck,” Flora heard Tira say, trying to yank her crystal whip out of the creature’s arm. The thing lurched to the side, pulling on both the whip and chain, splitting the chain into two segments and yanking the whip free from Tira’s grasp. “Double shit!”

The creature was still focused on Flora, single-minded in its assault. That’s good at least. What wasn’t good was that her arms were still fucked, hanging limp at her sides. The pain was mostly dulled, but she wasn’t going to be able to block this attack  as well, and even with her new power reinforcing her, she knew a similar blow to her chest would crush her entirely. Guess it’s time for some real fun then.

The attack this time was a swipe, raking across the ground and sending shards of stone into the air as the monster’s arm swung at her. “Perfect!” Flora shouted as she crouched, ignoring the cries from her teammates to watch out. Time they learned I’m not just a pretty body.

All of her power went to muscle reinforcement, pooling every bit of mana she could grab at once directly into her legs as she jumped into the air, flipping forward over the golem’s hand. She spun through the air like a throwing knife, releasing the use of [Nature] she’d used to propel herself completely as she focused on the next step of her plan.

Jumping attacks weren’t exactly the safest tactic in the world, and in most situations Flora wouldn’t leave herself so open even with her ability to bolster her own defenses. But desperate times call for flashy measures, and with her arms useless there weren’t many options available to her. She flew up in an arc, and then trusted her understanding of gravity to take care of the rest as she re-engaged [Nature].

Focus on one thing, my right heel. Don’t worry about skin durability, just the hardness off bone.

Focused in one single point, her ability to change her body’s nature was even stronger. It was only the one spot, but her heel was harder than stone. Nowhere near as hard as crystal of course, but it would be enough.

As she fell onto the slow moving golem’s other wrist, the one Tira had struck, she felt the shock blow through her entire body, but she also felt the crumbling of stone beneath her foot. She kept spinning and hit the ground hard, rolling away with the carried over force of her attack, pain shooting through her still injured arms as she slowed to a stop and jumped up again.

The monster was turning towards her again. It was fast when it built up speed, but not in these early movements. More importantly though, the wrist Flora had crashed into was crumbling, shards of stone falling off as it moved until finally the entire hand dropped from its body, releasing Tira’s weapon with it.

“Alright Iron Hand, I think it’s time for us upperclassmen to show our cute freshman teammates how it’s done.”