“How’d things go for you IRL?” Savantha asked Pear as he appeared in front of her on the Earth floor of the Dungeon.

“They went pretty good,” Pear told her as he readjusted to being nearly totally blind. “Got to have lunch with my friends and then I spent some time with my parents. Things go good for you?”

“Yeah,” she said, her voice sounding strained before it returned to normal. “Called my parents, did my physical therapy, got some food, the usual stuff. Ready to tackle this Floor?”

“I guess you’re pretty happy with this Floor’s quest?” Pear asked as he listened to her stand up and he recalled the Quest’s information.

Clear the Earth-petrified Oak Forest of Golems: A group of Golems has naturally formed within this floor and they are in the process of destroying the Earth Elementals and the Earth-petrified Oak Forest they call home. Destroy the Golems, avoid the angry Elementals, and save the Forest.

Rewards: Passage to the next Floor. Earth Perk. Earth-petrified Oak wood. Item Upgrade Token (Monk). Key of Earth.

“Yeah I’m happy with it!” Savantha said excitedly. “I can finally do something other than stand there and watch you do everything! Don’t get me wrong, I don’t mind that, but when all that’s happening is that I’m watching trees fall, it gets a little boring. I even got a skill that lets me predict the direction a tree falls, and if that doesn’t tell you how boring it’s been, then nothing will.”

“Sorry that you were stuck with nothing to do the last few floors,” Pear said. “Maybe the next few will be more like this one?”

“I hope so,” she agreed. “Now, let’s go smash some Golems!”

As she spoke, Savantha moved through the circle of trees that acted as a place for them to gather their thoughts, and entered the rest of the Floor. Immediately after stepping through the trees, a sound that reminded Pear of rocks grinding together began to be heard as a large amount of the brown Earth mana began to move aggressively towards them.

“Looks like an Elemental,” Savantha said as she took a defensive stance and faced the creature coming toward them. “Why don’t you try to restrict it while I keep it busy.”

“Okay, be careful,” Pear said as he raised his wand and began manipulating Water mana to form the spell Water Bind.

While he did that, Savantha moved to block the Elemental from coming closer to him while shouting a wordless battlecry. Seeing her as the bigger threat, the Elemental focused on her and formed its own Earth Bind spell faster than Pear could react. As chains of stone burst from the ground and shot toward her, aggressive as lunging snakes, Savantha nimbly dodged through them and struck out with her fist on the Elemental’s solid, yet formless body.

Just after his Party member struck, Pear finished with his binding spell and watched as a writhing mass of blue Water mana burst from the spell form to shoot forward to wrap the dense brown form of the Elemental within the large tentacle of water that had appeared.

“You got it,” Savantha said, raining more blows on the Elemental’s body. “Try to see what spells will work here.”

“That’s what I’m doing,” Pear told her as he manipulated bright, golden Light mana into a Light Missile. Seeing the golden lasers flash forward almost too fast for him to follow, Pear was forced to rely on his partner for answers.

“Did that do anything?” he asked.

“Nope,” Savantha’s succinct answer came immediately. “Better hurry up, I think it’s getting bigger!”

“Dammit,” Pear cursed under his breath before manipulating the smoky, gray Death mana into a Missile spell. “Watch out for this one! I don’t think it’ll do anything but it doesn’t hurt to try!”

“If it won’t do anything then why are you using it?” Savantha demanded as the Elemental freed an arm and swiped it at her.

“Because I’ve been wrong about this stuff before,” Pear muttered as he watched the gray missile impact the Elemental and do nothing. “Next one, Fire.”

With a flick of his wand, Pear sent angry, red Fire mana flying across the distance and watched as it washed over the Elemental uselessly. Soon following it was a transparent, green missile of Air.

“That’s all the not-solid ones except Dark and Arcane,” Pear muttered to himself as he swirled the dense, black Dark mana together and watched the missile do nothing to the Elemental as Savantha called to him.

“It’s not held down very well anymore!” she yelled. “Bind it again?”

Without answering her, Pear pulled his staff forward and manipulated the fluid blue of Water mana into another Bind spell that gripped the Elemental tightly once again. As he finished forming the Water Bind Spell, Pear took his wand and created a Water missile and watched it splash over the Elemental.

“That one got me!” Savantha called unhappily as the cold water splashed over her. “Has anything worked for you yet?”

“Yes,” Pear told her seriously. “I can restrict its movements.”

“Not what I meant!” she yelled as the Elemental finally gave up on freeing itself from the Water Bind and began focusing on casting more spells.

“Shit!” Savantha cursed as the first Earth Missile formed and flew by her, missing thanks to a lucky sidestep just as it was cast. “It’s casting!”

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“I can see that,” Pear said, trying to stay calm as he formed his own Earth Missile and fired it at the Elemental. “That didn’t make it stronger, did it?”

“No but it did absolutely nothing to it,” Savantha said as more Earth Missiles flew toward her from the Elemental. “What have you not tried yet?”

“Life, which will heal it,” Pear told her as he recalled the disastrous effects of the only time he’d hit something with a Life Missile and nearly gotten both of them killed. “And Arcane.”

“Don’t hit with Life!” Savantha ordered.

“I’m not that stupid,” Pear muttered unhappily as he manipulated purple Arcane mana to form a Force Missile that impacted the Elemental heavily.

“That one actually managed to knock a chunk of it off,” Savantha said excitedly. “Try one of your blades!”

“It’s called Force Slash,” Pear said quietly to himself as he shaped the spell-form and watched the translucent, purple crescent fly forward and bury itself in the Elemental’s side as it let out a pained scream of rock crashing together.

“More of that,” Savantha said as she dashed closer to the Elemental. “It’s got a bunch of loose dirt under that stone shell it made when it saw us!”

“More Force Slashes coming up,” Pear said as he drew the spell-form with his staff and sent a larger, more menacing blade flying toward the Elemental.

With an audible snick, the blade sliced through the Elemental’s body, nearly splitting its upper torso into two pieces as it screamed once again and dirt fell from its body.

“Time to end this!” Savantha yelled excitedly as she charged forward and spun into a heavy kick that cracked the Elemental’s shell. Before the creature could recover, she had set her footing and was raining blows upon the cracked area with her fists, staggering the Elemental as Pear formed another Force Slash that finished cutting the Elemental into two pieces that fell heavily to the ground before crumbling away as his Water Bind faded.

“Good job,” Savantha said grudgingly as Pear approached her where she stood over the Elemental’s remains. “Next time should be easier.”

“Assuming the next one is an Elemental again,” Pear told her. “It could be a Golem.”

“What’s the difference?” she asked. “It’s all going to be big and sturdy, right?”

“I don’t know,” Pear said. “Maybe the Golems have a stronger core, or they can’t use magic. All the Elementals we’ve seen can use magic to cast spells, Golems may not be able to do that. Plus, they might be solid rock instead of loose soil that can be formed into rock.”

“Yeah, when that Elemental went solid, I was worried that we wouldn’t be able to get through it,” Savantha said, nodding her head. “If the Golems are like that, how are we going to kill them?”

“Back up,” Pear said. “You watched the Elemental form its armor?”

“Yeah,” she nodded. “Didn’t you see anything?”

“No,” he told her. “I didn’t. No spell-form, no motions, nothing.”

“Maybe it wasn’t a spell then,” she shrugged. “And if it was, you’ll figure it out later.”

“Your faith is noted,” Pear sighed. “Let’s go see if we can finish this Floor.”

“Is that a Golem?” Savantha asked as they watched the large creature smash one of the few standing trees to the ground before using its heavy feet to crush it into the packed earth and break it into smaller pieces.

“Yes it is,” Pear told her as he watched the strange creature that would have been mistaken for a giant Elemental except for the thick limbs of Earth mana that flowed through it, intersecting at a dense ball of bright, brown that was the core. “It’s got a core in the middle of it. Think you can distract it while I use a Bind on it. After that we’ll focus on it like we did the Elemental earlier.”

“Sounds good to me,” Savantha said. “Just tell me when.”

With a nod, Pear pointed his staff toward the Golem that was so focused on crushing the remainder of the tree into nothing but sawdust and he began to manipulate the clear blue Water mana into the spell-form of the Water Bind spell. Just before completion, the Golem snapped its head toward them, as though sensing something wrong.

“Shit,” Savantha breathed out. “I think it can see us.”

“That doesn’t help it,” Pear said as he completed the spell and they watched as the stronger Water Bind sent three tentacles of Water mana shooting toward the Golem faster than it could react. As the Water Bind settled itself around the Golem’s legs and arms, Savantha shot forward and circled around the Golem to snap a kick into its knee, forcing it to the ground despite the Water Bind that gripped it.

“Watch out for this,” Pear told her as formed a Force Slash and watched the purple crescent slice through the air and then into the Golem.

Silently, the Golem struggled against the bindings that held it fast as Savantha used her body to strike it repeatedly and Pear formed more and more spells that he shot toward it. After several minutes of fruitless attacks, Savantha finally let out a frustrated scream.

“Dammit all to Hell!” she screamed. “Nothing’s even doing anything to it!”

“It keeps healing before my spells can pile enough damage onto it,” Pear told her. “Any ideas?”

“You said that it had a bunch of mana in it?” Savantha asked as she finally pulled her weapon from its place on her back. “Where does it all come together?”

“The center,” Pear told her, as he pushed more Arcane mana into a Force Missile he was forming with his staff. “Where the heart would be.”

“That’s good enough for me,” Savantha said, raising her weapon.

Before she could strike the Golem with her staff, it suddenly flexed its arms with violent jerks that snapped through the Water Bind that had held it the entire time. Before either of them could react, it spun around and sent a heavy punch toward Savantha, forcing her to dive away from it as Pear finally sent his empowered Force Missile toward it.

As the large, purple shard of magic crashed into it, the Golem staggered forward slightly before turning away from Savantha and beginning to approach Pear.

“Shit,” Savantha said as she watched the Golem step slowly toward her Party member. “We’re not done dancing, you screwed up mannequin!”

Ignoring her, the Golem continued toward Pear as he drew another Water Bind spell and released it to shoot toward the Golem. Without blocking or dodging the spell, the Golem continued to walk forward as the spell crashed into it and once again wrapped around its legs and arms.

With barely a stutter of its stride, the Golem snapped through the tentacles that tried to slow it. As it continued to approach him, Pear began to retreat from the Golem. Seeing its prey try to escape, the Golem sped up to the point that it was running, quickly overtaking Pear and striking out with its fist toward the caster.

Before the Golem’s fist could hit him, Savantha managed to step in front of him, her weapon raised high as the Golem destroyed the shield her clothes had managed to make, flinging its fist backward and staggering it as she struck with her weapon.

“Expand,” she commanded sternly as the weapon struck the Golem.

Before Pear could ask who she was talking to, the Golem was pushed back and knocked to the ground nearly twenty feet away from them.

“Come on,” Savantha said. “It’s going to get back up soon and I don’t want to be here when it does.”

Grabbing Pear’s hand, she pulled him after her as they ran from the Golem and searched for somewhere to hide.