“Burn that thing with fire! It is twice as large as I’ve read about. Cut it up, burn it. We can’t let it get to the gate. It will already hit the front line and eat the bodies,” said Ethan hastily.
“l recognize the threat. Give me a moment,” said the General. He returned the communication this time to everyone. “Fire mages are needed ASAP to destroy the flesh golem including those currently resting. Other mages move in to restrain it. We need to stop it from growing. All other soldiers hold in place and push back the other undead. Begin retreat on my command. Eli work on reinforcing the walls and defenses. Arron take over spirit duty fully for now. We can’t let them continue to run around burning things.”
“Understood,” said a flurry of voices over their communicators. Everyone began taking up their altered positions and adjusting tactics to deal with the oncoming foe.
The undead continued to rush out from around the flesh golem. The flesh golem slowed its approach so that it could continue to gorge itself on its fallen friends. It dipped its hands and scooped everything up including rocks, dirt, and moving undead. Archers pelted it with arrows that didn’t seem to affect it. There were no clear weak points such as the eyes or neck.
Ethan began restoring his mana before returning to the front lines. When he got to the front he reactivated his [Deathly Ghost Hands]. They were mana intensive but worth it as they sliced through enemies quickly relieving some of the pressure. Behind Ethan Rich and his team followed him intending to do some of the cutting up of the flesh golem. As Ethan cleared the path he launched himself into the air and swiped out at the golem. The cuts broke the flesh golem’s skin and tore into it for a moment. As the corrosive effects started to die down the flesh golem began to recover and repair itself. The attacks did less damage than expected. The golem then responded by swatting at Ethan sending him crashing down.
While the golem was distracted Rich and the others got into position and began stepping around the flesh golem and cutting into it. Rich had two members of his group keep the other undead away while they worked. Soon Lewis and some other fire mages began joining in. Seeing that regular arrows didn’t work they switched to flaming arrows. They burned its body making it slower to recover.
Carter and Walker led their mage groups forward as well. Each of them worked on one side of the body of the golem trying to restrain its arms. They also used Rich’s tactic of splitting the teams into two. One focused on the regular undead and the other on the flesh golem. Walker sent vines wrapping up its leg and then attached to the flesh golem’s arm. The golem pulled at her vines, and she expended more mana to tighten her grip. The flesh golem let out an inhuman roar that shook the ground.
When Ethan landed on the ground he quickly put a [Mana Shield] around his body to protect from the undead but he still felt the impact. His head swam as ghouls jumped on top of his shield trying to break it. It was more effective than he would have liked as his concentration waned and his shield flickered. Once the ghouls were on top of him a wight joined in as well. They attacked his shield with their magic and claws as well. Its darkness magic was less effective against his shield, but the barrier visibly shook and rippled. Ethan took a deep breath and refocused his mind and power.
Ethan simultaneously dropped his shield as it started to shatter before casting [Cloud of Daggers] at the same time. The undead around him was thrown back. The magic daggers sunk into their targets tearing them up. Ethan staggered back up and cast [Dispel Undead] on their bodies. The still writhing pieces of undead stilled and disintegrated around him. Ethan focused his will on the cloud and sent it forward and up towards the flesh golem’s body above where the others were fighting to prevent them from getting hurt in the attack.
Rich spun around the flesh golem light on his feet as he avoided stray wight attacks and the golem’s feet that had now started to stomp in an attempt to crush them. It swung its foot back and forth occasionally sending undead away and on two occasions his teammates as well. He heard the crunch as one of the people near him had their chest plate dented in and thrown back. Their yell mixed in with the noise of everything else until it stopped. Rich reinvigorated his enhancements spells and doubled his efforts as he hacked off pieces of the flesh golem. Gales of wind flowed around him infusing his sword with their power. It wasn’t very structurally sound when hit with a sword as the hardest parts were usually from bone and wight armor it had swallowed. No, the hardest part for Rich was how massive the thing was. Every time he got a significant part off the golem it adjusted its shape and rebuilt.
The general called for the soldiers to retreat, and they fell back to new defenses built by Eli the human mage trapper. He focused on creating more walls around the broken gateway and reinforcing them. Most of the undead followed the pathways he set up allowing the soldiers to better engage the undead and avoid some of the swarming tactics the zombies were especially known for.
Despite the efforts of Carter and Walker, the flesh golem continued to march onward. The pair of mages were able to stop the golem from eating more to grow. Whenever it tried to lean down and pick stuff up Carter adjusted the ground to make it unstable and if it did raise food to its mouth Lewis often burned the flesh until it was unusable.
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It was one of the times that the golem tried to pick up food that the last of Ethan’s [Cloud of Daggers] hit it. The blades cut across its arm and up to its head causing large gashes to form.
“Hit it in the upper arm,” yelled Walker.
Along the upper arm of the flesh, golem was a collective section of gashes that went deep into the things arm. Lewis understood and aimed carefully overcharging the spell as he did so while the flesh golem tried to heal. The fireball now bright orange with hints of blue slammed into the arm as the daggers faded away. The smell of burning flesh wafted as it blacked and fell off. The gash had expanded, and the golem started roaring more and increased the fury of its attacks. It no longer was interested in eating and used its full body to throw its fit. Rich and what was left of his team were forced to back away because of the uncertainty and danger.
“Take it down now. It is unsteady,” said Lewis.
It was now Walker and Carter’s turn to finish after Lewis dealt the damage. Carter brought a stone wall up and so did one of the other earth mages. The flesh golem tried to stomp down and find its footing but stumbled as the ground below it was raised. At the same time, Walker led her [Vine Trap] with others to grab at the golem’s fingers. They pulled at the golem’s arm causing the wound to tear further. The flesh golem tried to pull back, but it had no footing and a broken arm. This caused the golem to stumble forward crushing people and undead until it fell on its chest
The soldiers were in silence when they heard the thud and dust was kicked up. Walker fell back exhausted and burned out after straining herself. Others helped bring her back to safety. Rich followed them back securing their exit. The flesh golem roared and slowly got to its feet. It had returned to eating and used its fallen position to eat the nearby fleshy things now situated by its face.
Ethan brought shields around himself as he rushed to the flesh golem. He avoided most undead only killing those in front of him and some wights around him. The communication crystal on him crackled as the general gave more orders to those near the flesh golem.
“Finish off removing its arm. Everyone else keep it down and secure it. Eli move up to support them. Everyone else continue at your positions. Let’s finish this,” said the general.
Eli the earth mage rushed out from the barricades near the outpost and prepared his spell. [Earthen Hands] rose from the ground mimicking Ethan’s spell and grabbed hold of the flesh golem. One rose next to its chest and gripped the body tightly while the other went for its arm. The second earth hand rose up around the injured arm of the golem and wrapped around it before squeezing. The rock shattered everything in its path until the arm was removed. Eli finished the spell once the arm was picked up and thrown at the undead. A variety of undead was hit by it and tossed around. The rocky hand collapsed soon after.
Ethan jumped onto the back of the flesh golem once he got to it. He saw the things arm break off and be thrown. The soldiers around the outpost were tired but reinvigorated by the sight. Ethan activated [Mage Sight] as he wobbled on the flesh golem’s back. He was forced to create [Mana Dagger]s to hold on as it shifted. His vision scanned the golem looking for its core. Much like Arthur, this golem required a core to function because it would drain too much mana from its creator otherwise. After some more searching, he found the cores just below its neck. The flesh golem looked to have multiple mana beast cores strapped together in order to function at such a large scale. As the golem shifted it was now getting up with the help of its only hand. Ethan was forced to repeatedly cast [Mana Dagger]s to stay on. Each time he stabbed in the golem naturally started to force the blade out of its body.
The surrounding mages had taken steps back and had fallen back to Eli’s defenses for the most part now that their mana was drained. Even Rich was only halfheartedly fighting the flesh golem and was now focused more on the other undead. Occasionally another skeletal knight would storm forward causing many of the soldiers to change focus and some to die.
Behind the walls, the mages inside focused on the spirits because they had started to flood in. A few fires burned inside the outpost as the spirits were killed off. Khan ran around the outpost taking out the spirits that came near the injured person's tents. The other light mages split into two groups taking care of both the injured and the spirits.
Arron led most of the efforts within the outpost. He used his water magic to stop the fires from spreading and direct the mages within to attack the most problematic spirits. The spirits phased through the walls and other objects after breaking through the barrier causing trouble catching the spirits. While they didn’t have too much damage potential their ability to harass, and torment was unrivaled within the ranks of the undead.
Ethan swung back and forth as he held onto the now forty-foot golem. The flesh golem had shrunk slightly from the loss of mass. It had not bothered to try and regrow its arm and instead let it hang limp. Ethan prepared his spell in his mind as quickly as he could while finding a good spot to cast the spell. He occasionally had to restart and bring back focus when an attack rocked the flesh golem back. The golem was moving closer to the walls. It had decided to avoid the broken gate and punch the walls instead. The flesh golem was fully intent on ramming the walls without consequence. It barely cared about the people attacking below it let alone the other undead it pushed around to reach its goal.
The golem was about thirty feet from the wall when Ethan was ready. He released his [Mana Dagger]s and pushed off the golem before firing. The [Death Bolt] he conjured looked like a spear point. It cut through the flesh golem in less than a second and then Ethan heard it. The beast mana cores exploded in a flash of light blinding Ethan. He heard the explosion next before he blew out his ears. He flew through the air before hitting the ground and falling into darkness.