Ch 2.23: Golems

Elaina opened her eyes after bracing herself for the stones that were hurtling towards her, still miraculously unharmed, surely thanks to Tira. Elaina looked over to the girl and gasped as she saw her on the ground, shard of crystal sticking out from her. The piece itself seemed to react to her amazement, jumping out of Tira on its own accord and rolling away.

Confusion turned to terror in Elaina’s mind as she watched the little crystal pieces move across the floor, picking up shards of regular stone like a cloth would pick up dust, eventually stopping rolling as the rocks it collected formed into legs and it began walking instead. It’s a second golem.

And a third, and fourth, until finally there were five total golems, the one main one and four smaller ones, each the size of a small person in height and built off the fallen pieces of the first’s arm. The thing had seemed unstoppable until Flora and Tira had started managing to chip away at it, but now that seemed to be making the situation worse if anything. “We need to fall back,” Tira said as she tried to make it to her feet, falling back onto her knees in the process. “No, I can’t move, you three go.”

“No!” It was the only word Elaina could manage to think of, shouted as loud as she could. They weren’t going to do that, no matter what.

Tira herself didn’t respond, simply lying on her back. She would have been a wide open target, but the large golem and smaller golems alike were focused on Flora, the naked girl running circles around their main foe while she planted kicks into the cores of the smaller ones, merely keeping them at bay.

They needed Tira, needed a leader. That was supposed to be Elaina herself, right? But she didn’t know what to do. She’d been in essentially two fights, and she’d spent half that time getting beaten or sliced half to death. This wasn’t something [Fear Response] could deal with for her. She was scared, and the annoying skill was working to some extent, but mental fortitude or not she simply lacked the experience or knowledge needed to lead her team. We need someone else.

“Party, you must focus.” Temmie’s voice was direct, calm. “Carline, ignore Flora’s arms for now. She is strong, and Miss Strask needs you more now. Miss Strask, keep a low profile until you can move again. Flora, continue to draw attention, and focus on the non-crystal portions of the golems. Smaller pieces cannot be reformed by their magic as easily.”

“Right!” Flora turned on her heel, slamming the other foot directly onto of one of the small golems, running through to it’s crystal heart and then pushing herself away. She managed to stay silent, but Elaina could see her wince in pain as her still broken arms dangled through the air.

“Elaina, the large one is too strong right now, but you can restrain the smaller ones.”

“Yeah,” Elaina said, finally feeling some of her faculties return to her. She reached out with her arm, launching the crystal chain she had wrapped around her arm out towards the creatures. It wasn’t terribly long, but it was enough to wrap two of the small golems together, entangling their feet to their arms and stopping them in their tracks as Flora managed to just get away from them.

Everything seemed more manageable in just a matter of moments. They still had their backs up to the wall for sure, but at least they seemed to know what they were doing now. Elaina’s two golems were tied up, and Flora was slowly pounding away at the stones of the other smaller ones while managing to avoid the lumbering giant golem. A little bit of the rocks chipped off did seem to reform each time, but they were still noticeably losing mass. Carline had even managed to sneak away to Tira, able to heal her more efficiently with direct contact.

I need to do more though.

“Temmie, what else can I do?”

“The large one. You will have to be the one to deal with it.”

“What, are you crazy? It’s way too big to hold down!”

“You must be the one to deal with it. Reducing it to its core will do nothing in a cave filled with stone it can re-piece itself together with, and you are the only one that has the power to restrain such a creature.”

Elaina shook her head, more to herself than Temmie. She was strong now, but obviously not that strong. She’d made the strongest material she could to try and hold it back earlier, but it had still snapped it with ease. If her crystal chain were longer she might be able to do something, but as it stood she was helpless. “Temmie, I can’t.”

“But you can, and you must. Trust me; I have faith in you.”

Elaina looked back up at the monstrosity before her. It seemed slow now, but Elaina knew that was only because it took a second to get up to speed. With its attention on Flora and her running circles around the chamber it didn’t have a chance to do that, but Flora’s mana was finite. Elaina didn’t have enough experience with the girl to know how much she’d have left, but it wouldn’t last forever, and Elaina was pretty sure the golem would.

A yelp of terror came from Elaina’s side, and she saw a golem’s handful of stone flying towards Tira and Carline, Tira’s hand barely raising up in time to deflect the projectiles to their sides. “Sorry,” Flora said, winding up and planting a mostly harmless kick into the golem’s back. She was doing her best to keep the things occupied, but even while she had mana it seemed she couldn’t do it perfectly, not fight the smaller ones alone and keep the attention of the larger one simultaneously.

“Okay,” Elaina said, resigning herself to her fate. She had half a mind to call a retreat, to grab Tira and run with the others, but she knew this thing was too dangerous to leave running free, so she’d take care of it or die trying. “Temmie, tell me what to do.”

“You are going to have to get close.”