Rooted in place - unmoving, the Old golem stared at the man. Frozen with fear, the man stared back.

The other half of the hospital rested awkwardly in the distance, a block away at most.

After a long moment and some sort of internal calculation, the man scurried away, pumping his arms wildly till he reached where the rest of the group had hidden. The stone monster did not make any motion to follow.

“What should we do,” he asked Doctor White. Despite not running any significant distance, the man panted for breath between every word.

The doctor thought for a moment, his eyebrows scrunching up. Clearly, situations like this weren't covered in his medical training. "We should…"

Doctor White stopped mid-sentence, too shocked to continue as Phil tentatively stepped out from behind the corner. He waved at the golem, swinging his arm in a wide arc. It did not move. "See. It's as dumb as a brick. What are we running for? Let's just kill it," he said as he turned to face the group.

“Are you insane?” someone from within the group yelled. A murmur of agreement ran through the crowd.

"Get back here before that thing wakes up. You could get someone hurt," Doctor White urged. A conflicted expression was painted across his brows, though for what reason Clover was unsure.

Phil held himself with an unnatural stillness, and for a moment, it looked like he would comply, but at the last moment, something stopped him. He shook his head with a laugh. "Life is a game now, right. I bet if we hit that glowing crystal real hard, that big guy will crumble," Phil said.

“There’s no point in risking it. We can just go around,” the doctor said.

Clover's head bobbed back and forth like he was watching a tennis match. Moments like these were utterly foreign to him. The tension, the disagreement - it all felt surreal.

A brown-haired woman, a newer addition to the group, chimed in, "Ya, have you seen the thing? It's huge. There's no way we could…"

"Impossible or not, I'm tired of watching from the sidelines." He fished a gun out from his waistband. He slowly stepped forward, then whispered something only he could hear. He took aim. "Games are meant to be played, right? That's the only way you can win." Phil punctuated the end of his statement by pulling the trigger.

Clover’s mouth hung upon in shock - had he lost his mind. What the hell did he think shooting a rock was going to do?

Predictably, the golem didn't take any amount of noteworthy damage from the stray bullet, but that didn't discourage Phil. A thick silence washed over the group as Phil recklessly sprinted toward the monster to get a clearer shot, matching the speed of an Olympic athlete yet moving with none of the grace.

With a speed that betrayed its large size, the golem rumbled into motion, somehow deftly ripping a brick pillar from the front facade of a shoe store despite having no fingers. Clover gulped. In a hulking motion that made its crystal core flash, it threw the pillar at the group.

Shocked, Clover watched as the chunk of rock sailed through the air, turning end over end like a frisbee. How had everything fallen apart so quickly?

Something had gone over his head - beyond his notice. Especially in moments like these, Clover wished life was more like television. Then everything would make sense. He'd be shown some convenient flashback from Phil's dramatic backstory, or there'd be some secondary character to explain things. At least then, he wouldn't be so damn confused. But real life was messy. He couldn't put his finger on why people did the things they did. If there was even a deeper reason at all.

From the outside, it just all seemed so stupid.

The pillar loudly crashed to the ground behind him in a violent spray of rubble and dust that exploded outward with the force of what might as well have been a bomb behind it. Clover ducked his face behind his arms. Small bits of stone, no larger than pebbles, stung at his arms. His health bar flashed in the upper left-hand corner of his vision as it dipped.

Screams echoed as the group - more of a crowd at this point descended into chaos, stumbling about like headless chickens. Clover didn't pay them much attention as he spotted a fallen figure to his left.

Ron hadn’t been as lucky as he had. He groaned in pain as he cradled his stomach. A sharp chunk of stone stuck out of it.

Breathing heavily, near hyperventilating, Clover wheeled over to help. “Holy shit. Are you alright?” Clover hoped he was.

Ron didn't respond. His eyes held the texture of glass, and then, after a moment's hesitation, he placed a hand on the chunk of stone. "Fuck," Ron shrieked as he pulled it out of his stomach.

A second brick pillar impacted the ground in a violent spray of stone similar to the first. Luckily, Clover was out of the impact range. Thick clouds of dust began to spread through the air, limiting visibility. Clover suspected they were of magical origin. However, there was no way to know for sure.

Motivated by his desire to not get hit in the head with a flying brick, Clover decided a tactical retreat was in order, urgently.

“Come on. Get up. We have to get out of here,” Clover said in a panic as he held out his hand.

Ron grasped his hand and hauled himself to his feet. "I'm fine. I'm fine. I'm fine," Ron muttered as Clover desperately tried to orient himself to the best escape route.

"Clover! This way," Rodger shouted at him while waving his arms, catching him off guard. He hadn't thought Rodger would be the type of person who would slow down to help him. Not taking the opportunity for granted, Clover wheeled toward him, halfway dragging Ron along.

Behind Rodger, the dust shifted, and out of it, a smaller and thankfully lower Level golem made of brick arose.

“Watch out!” Clover screamed. “Behind you.”

Rodger snapped his head to the side, turning just in time to see as the golem raised its fist. He dove to the side, narrowly avoiding being crushed as the golem smashed its arm against the ground like a hammer.

Around him, pandemonium raged as more golems emerged from the dust. There was nowhere left to run.

Grimly determined, Clover raised his arm. If he wanted to live - to escape, he would have to fight his way out.

The golem followed after Rodger with a series of crushing blows, not giving him a chance to get to his feet.

Clover flinched as he heard a scream of pain and the distinct sound of bone snapping in the distance.

He shook his head; if he didn't want Rodger to meet a similar fate, he needed to act quickly.

Aided by his earlier practice, Clover focused his intent in a moment of absolute concentration. Mana gathered in his palm, and after a brief delay, Clover launched it toward the monster. However, when the lopsided bolt of mana impacted the small golem, it did not deal any real damage. Instead, at the point of impact, it flattened, splashing off the monster like water.

Congratulations! Unstable Mana Bolt has reached Lvl 7. +1 Skill Points.

Clover cursed, his heart dropping. Now wasn’t the time for [Unstable Mana Bolt] to start acting up.

Ron patted his stomach, his face twisting in confusion. After a moment, He shrugged his shoulders and straightened his suit collar. Charging forward with a yell, Ron struck the golem in the back with a piece of metal, knocking off a chunk of brick.

If you come across this story on Amazon, it's taken without permission from the author. Report it.

The golem ignored Rodger and slowly turned to face Ron. He stared back, his shoulders heaving and blood staining his clothes. Ron evaded a series of golem attacks using his superior speed and footwork. If even a single one landed, Clover doubted he would survive.

Rodger scrambled to his feet and retrieved a shovel that someone had dropped in the chaos. The bearded woodsman struck it in the back while the rock monster was distracted, lumbering after Ron.

Confused, the golem turned its attention to Rodger and once more chased after him.

Clover quickly followed up with another [Unstable Mana Bolt]. This time, it landed squarely, producing a prominent spider web crack in the golem's chest. Fortunately, through whatever process the hunk of moving stone had been animated, it had lost a considerable amount of durability.

The golem shifted its gaze and began to pursue Clover.

Without any overt communication, the three settled on a dangerous yet effective strategy that exploited the golem’s tendency to mindlessly chase after the one who had most recently struck it.

Taking turns, they would bolt back and forth, stinging at the monster like flies, striking at its back only to retreat out of range when the lumbering clump of animated brick turned to smash them. Each movement the monster made opened it up to new angles of attack, which the trio exploited ruthlessly.

Clover used [Unstable Mana Bolt] on cooldown, steadily increasing its Level. Each use made it more powerful, cutting through the air faster and hitting with more force. And with each use, the spell's crystalline structure slowly shifted, shaking off layers of dust and disuse grain by grain as it gradually expanded in size and complexity.

Even though he was still blindly grasping at straws - acting mostly by guesswork and instinct, he felt he was approaching a breakthrough.

Congratulations! Unstable Mana Bolt has reached Lvl 8. +1 Skill Points.

Congratulations! Unstable Mana Bolt has reached Lvl 9. +1 Skill Points.

Unable to take any more abuse, the golem collapsed, reverting to an inanimate stack of bricks and rubble.

Congratulations! You have significantly contributed to the defeat of a Lesser Brick Golem - Lvl 3. +150 Exp.

“Are you alright?” Clover asked for a second time.

Ron sat on the ground, and a sheen of sweat covered him as he breathed heavily. "I'm fine. It's worse than it looks; it didn't cut very deep. I think HP acts like a shield, not an actual representation of your physical health," he said between deep breaths for air. He readjusted his glasses. "Sorry, I'm not making sense. Putting all my points in Agility sounded like a good idea, but I underestimated how tiring actually moving that fast is."

“We need to move,” Rodger said. He had searched the remains of the golem and came up empty-handed. Now that they had dealt with the monster, they had a clear shot to an alleyway that would lead them away from here.

Clover glanced back down the street. The thick clouds of dust that obscured the road had begun to fade, allowing him to see how the rest of the group was fairing. Clover almost wished that they hadn’t.

The first thing he saw made him sick to his stomach. Lifeless, a diminutive brown-haired man laid out on the street in a puddle of blood. Clover tried, but he couldn't look away.

Ron tapped him on the shoulder as he walked toward the action, away from the alley.

“Wait, what are you doing?”

“I can help,” he said simply. Screams and crashes echoed from within the fading cloud of dust. If he squinted his eyes, he could see a woman desperately crawling away from a golem.

Without waiting for a response, Ron charged forward, plunging himself back into danger.

Clover tapped his fingers against his wheelchair.

“Damn it!”

Perhaps he was caught up in the momentum of it all, or maybe something deeper and internal had pushed him over the edge; he wasn't sure. There wasn't any time to reflect. Clover wheeled after Ron, feeling like the world's most terrified action hero.

Another brick pillar soared through the air and crashed down to Clover's right. The pillar did not explode. Instead, it violently rattled within a light cloud of dust, brick hazily shifting in place as if it were a Rubik's cube. A moment later, a new golem arose, half the size of the original.

Clover frowned. He had lost count of how many of the stone monsters there were at this point, and he didn't bother to stop and count. More would continue to come as long as the Old Golem lived.

He could solve that problem.

Against the better judgment of his thundering heart, Clover skirted around the edges of the fighting, navigating his way closer to the Old Golem. While en route, he fired off an [Unstable Mana Bolt] at the golem's glowing core, but the attack dissipated into sparkling motes of blue mana before it landed.

He was too far away. He needed to get closer - [Unstable Mana Bolt] had a limited range of about fifty feet.

Once he got within range, he took aim and fired off another unstable bolt of mana.

It smashed into the golem’s earthen torso with a dull thud. The monster barely noticed the impact.

He had missed. No, that wasn't entirely true. It wasn't just a matter of aim. The golem's core was tucked between animated boulders and rocks in such a way that a straight shot from this angle would never hit it. The bolt of mana would have to curve at the end of its flight to have any hope of landing right. But that was asking the impossible. The Skill went in a straight line - that's what it had always done. That's what its description said.

He knew all that; he had seen it for himself, yet something in his gut told him it was possible.

Clover delved into his soul space, focusing on the magical structure within it - [Unstable Mana Bolt], with such intensity that it teetered on the edge of activation. Why did it only travel in a straight line? Was that its limit?

He didn’t think so.

It was magic. It was ridiculous to think it couldn’t do more.

He pressed against it with a singular desire. To his surprise, it responded. Slowly at first, within his soul, [Unstable Mana Bolt] vibrated, its structure shifting minutely. However, as he continued his efforts, it felt like he had slammed into a brick wall that blocked his further efforts.

But that did not stop him. Spurred on by half-forgotten memories and instinct, he strained with all his might, attempting to force the Skill to change. A buzz surrounded him - a ringing in his ears. Something clicked into place, and within his soul space, [Unstable Mana Bolt] jolted as patterns of energy he struggled to perceive shifted beneath its crystalline exterior.

Panting hard from the effort, for a moment, he saw double. Swirls of sky-blue mana gathered in his hand, forming a smooth ball. The bolt of mana launched forward.

As usual, it flew in a straight line. However, at the end of its path, it arced gently upward - shifting its trajectory by a few degrees - just enough to curve into the monster's core.

Congratulations! Unstable Mana Bolt has reached Lvl 10. +1 Skill Points.

Congratulations! Unstable Mana Bolt has reached Lvl 11. +1 Skill Points.

Congratulations! Unstable Mana Bolt has reached Lvl 12. +1 Skill Points.

The core cracked, and the Old Golem jerked around robotically while the stones making up its torso and arms vibrated uncontrollably, threatening to fall.

However, it never did.

After a tense moment, the monster recovered and faced Clover with its eyeless gaze. The golem slowly stumbled toward Clover with none of its previous dexterity. Its larger crushing limbs cleared a path as it traveled, ignoring all those who struck at it. It wanted to even the score with Clover.

Clover had a vested interest in the score not being evened, so even though he felt drained of energy, he raised his hand again and prepared to fire off another curving bolt of mana. If he could do it once, he could do it twice. Another direct hit was all he needed to bring down the Old Golem.

But, the System did not respond to his calls; the Skill was still on cooldown - the structure was still shifting back to its usual configuration.

Clover watched on in horror as the golem neared. All he could do was hope [Unstable Mana Bolt] came off cooldown in time. There was no way he could outrun it with its massive earthshaking strides.

To his left, a semi-truck screamed down the road. The driver harshly laid on its horn, prompting the other members of the group to dive out of the way. Not understanding modern technology, the Old Golem was caught entirely by surprise as the vehicle crashed into it with such force that it knocked its legs clean off. Entangled, the two skidded to a stop, rock and steel warring against each other.

The magic that had animated the golem faltered. It did not get up.

Steam wafted from the vehicle's crumbled front, and the window's glass had been shattered. Seb kicked open the door and stumbled out of the vehicle.

Congratulations! You have significantly contributed to the defeat of an Old Golem - Lvl 6. +250 Exp. For slaying a monster of a higher tier, you have been awarded an Aspect: Durability (Minor)

Class: [Blank] has reached Lvl 3. +5 Stat Points.

Clover watched with narrowed eyes as the Lesser Golems collapsed, almost unbelieving that the fight had ended in the way it had. But after staring at the rubble-like remains of the monsters for a solid thirty seconds and not catching even a hint of movement, he was forced to accept that the battle really was over.

He wiped his nose, cleaning away a stream of partially dried blood that had run down it. In the end, things had come down to the wire. He had almost died. No, he shook his head. He wouldn't have. [Unstable Mana Bolt] would have come off cooldown in time.

Clover pushed the concern into a small box in the back of his mind that held all his other fears and doubts. It was best to ignore them.

He wheeled toward the fallen stone corpse of the Old Golem, but before he reached it, he stumbled upon Doctor White kneeling over a dead body.