‘That’s a polite monster.’ Ebony thought when he saw it bow.
The overflowing vitality and wisdom were enough to surprise them but not enough to cause their movements or even mind lag. It was stronger than his by a little bit at best, the prince, princess and Xeng faced way worse on a daily basis, Mark already set his runic circle up and he wasn’t affected by it either. It wasn’t even half as bad as Kong Jing’s aura.
It wasn’t taking the first move after getting into a wide stance with its shield in front and sword poised for a swing.
Mark and Ebony couldn’t pull their gaze away when it glowed brighter. The Cardinal Golem’s veins were not randomly placed across its body. They were runic symbols.
‘Durability and capacity.’ The runes weren’t complicated, although it wasn’t completely like any runic language he learnt, they were simple and even throughout multiple rune languages there are usually a lot of similarities. Hence his ability to learn many runic languages in a short time.
They didn’t have time to ponder as Scarlet already burst into a clash with the Cardinal Golem. She never used lightning magic much but when used in that flash step of hers it was really hard to even catch sight of her if one wasn’t looking really carefully at her.
The Cardinal Golem who was holding the shield in its left shifted its shield slightly to block the thin blade aimed at its face before swiping it away along with bringing its sword arm to clash with the next incoming sword. In that meantime, Scarlet already pulled her first thrust back and carried on with her machine gun-like thrusts. She couldn’t build up the speed and power of her Cascading Laceration with a barrage of Pinpoint Perforation but it was excellent at putting most swordsmen or warriors slower than her into a defensive position and let her Core Skill build up even further.
This was usually the party’s chance to go on the offensive but they took a different approach this time and let Hector go wild from the get-go to weaken the guardian as much as they possibly could as fast as possible since they were all disadvantaged in terms of sustainability compared to a dungeon monster many levels higher than themselves.
Hector already stood at the Cardinal Golem’s side, metres away. Ebony had the luck of watching a tiny black ball form in front of Hector’s chest while Hector's punch seemed to be in slow motion in his eyes. The first punch added water mana in and flattened the black ball without moving it away, the second added another elemental mana while the ball flattened into a disk and then the third, fourth, fifth and sixth did same thing flattening and expanding the disk.
In real time, Hector’s right forearm was just a shadow as he took half a step twisting his hip along with his whole body and it looked like he just threw a single punch to most people.
“MEEGAAA PAAAAANCH!!”
Scarlet flashed steppped away at the very last second so that the Cardinal Golem didn’t have time to dodge or react. Although it would be hard for it to move away as well since it was surrounded by orange spears from the ground, shields and scales of ice fencing it in and invisible barriers in the air to prevent leaping aside.
It already noticed what all of them were doing but didn’t really use any sort of magic the Kobolds have shown the ability to use yet. The Cardinal Golem didn’t even lag in response and twisted itself to let its shield cover itself. Hector’s ‘mega panch’ now had a physical visual effect that was a dark shadow beam passing through, it completely engulfed the guardian’s figure, destroying some of Marks spears and Ebony’s scales. They were aware of where it was going to hit so they didn’t suffer much loss.
Mark who never stopped dishing out runic circles into the air above them launched the massive barrage of fire arrows together with Scarlet who started casting her compressed Sphere of Immolation the moment she disengaged. She was never very focused at slinging spells but it was better than just watching, she still didn’t bet on it since she preferred to conserve her mana for enhancement magic. Mallory was also flinging her sharpened barriers.
They stopped the moment Hector’s shadow disappeared and all of Ebony’s scattered scales and shield slammed inwards, shutting the Cardinal Golem in. Ebony was sure most of the magical barrage hit with his senses and he definitely trapped the Cardinal Golem with all but one of his shields as well.
“Support me Mallory.”
The surface of Ebony’s shields was melting fast due to the accumulation of heat from the two fire mages. Although he couldn’t see well due to the fires and steam he could sense that the Cardinal Golem was fine and dandy with only its shield having deep cracks through them and burn marks throughout its body. He drew as much ice mana from his robe as he could and plastered them onto the cracking orb as the Cardinal Golem wasn’t about to get itself imprisoned so easily.
Another mana wrapped around his and toughened the orb before squeezing in on the breaking ice orb. His ice scales may have melted and cracked but now that the Cardinal Golem was trapped all they are good for is the sheer capacity of ice mana. It was only worrisome if ice is ineffective on the Frost-Topaz Golem.
Surely it wouldn’t heal or help it recover, would it?
Ebony didn’t think so far, trying to stab it with conjured Ice Swords would be pointless with his Intelligence so he did what worked best and combusted every drop of ice mana there was inside.
Hector was busy catching his breath and Scarlet was distracted for some reason. There weren't much the others could do at the moment so they had a tiny leeway. The Cardinal Golem was only a few levels higher than the Chief Kobold and there was no Hog or other monsters backing it up. It may be a guardian or the strongest monster of the dungeon but they already slapped all their hard-hitting skills from the start.
It took a few minutes for his shield to burn out. The Cardinal Golem didn’t struggle against the freezing either. Scarlet warned them about how her swords were affected by the topaz magic and although it was a frost version she had some difficulty removing it by burning. It was dangerous if something Kong Jing made was affected and even hard to melt away with Scarlet’s fire magic. It was lucky Hector didn’t try to punch or touch it, Ebony wasn’t sure what Hector’s gauntlets were made of but there was a high chance it wouldn't be free from the Cardinal Golem’s magic.
Ebony’s flames died down to reveal the unmoving figure in ice, within the invisible barriers. Its glow didn’t even diminish on the contrary, it spread into the ice it was encased in.
6 flaming chains sprouted out around the barrier the Cardinal Golem from the ground, Mark haven’t been standing around.
The greenish-blue light brightened, its frozen figure moved and turned the ice prison to dust. Ebony only felt the encroaching foreign mana but was unable to stop it.
Mallory manipulated her barrier to attack the moment the ice was not in the way but it didn’t even hinder its movements as a single swing of its blade was enough to free itself and cut 3 of the flaming chains that was trying to tie it down.
Ebony already had his enhancement up and running as he did a full powered stab with Treading Stride pushing him, it was way more refined than when he first picked up a sword although it wasn’t anything praiseworthy by a normal Master warrior’s standards he minimised openings as much as he could with Scarlet’s pointers.
Sonic Overlay doesn’t do much even against the level 180 Earthen-topaz Golems and Chaotic Repulsive Membrane is just a film of repulsion that can easily be ‘pierced’ with enough physical force. Ebony had long confirmed that sharp things go through the membrane of repulsion more easily.
There wasn’t any need to cast Frostblaze Cladding when he used Augmentation at high enough of an output, saving him some mana.
His bones and muscles shook hard landing on its damaged shield while it wasn’t even looking at Ebony. It deflected Scarlet’s lunge and sent her smashing into the wall. They didn’t time their attacks but were naturally more accustomed with each other’s fighting style over all their battles and spars but it wasn’t enough to catch the Cardinal Golem off guard.
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It was completely ignoring Mark’s chains wrapping its body. Stomping the ground where a spear would pop up and breaking it off before it fully extends. Mark stopped trying after his third attempt as it clearly saw through the spears and it didn’t even harm the Cardinal Golem’s foot anyway.
❅❅❅
Scarlet had her halo of blood help to reduce the impact but she wasn’t able to shift her body to protect herself well like Ebony taught her since the Golem had hit harder than she could handle. Her shoulder and ribs were hurt but not broken.
Ebony was trying his best to hold the Cardinal Golem by himself for the few seconds she was getting her bearings. She quickly drank the vial of his blood that he gave her. They needed to buy Hector more time to throw that punch of his, the only obvious damage on the Cardinal Golem was the cracked shield.
Both fire and ice magic seemed practically useless as it wasn’t even bothered by all their spells till now. She never used much mana for her lightning magic but it didn’t even pass through the Golem’s sword so she stopped casting Lightning Inoculation.
A few seconds was more than plenty to feel better with her Core Skill helping her heal. The ball of lightning mana in her belly area pulsed and she stole the Cardinal Golem’s attention from Ebony. Rather, she barely made it in time to stop it from chopping his head off. It had shield bashed Ebony into the wall hard enough to crack the room walls that were clearly not normal before she realised.
Scarlet’s head never felt so clear when she used her Core Skill, Ebony’s blood was a strong drug. Hundreds of her strikes landed on its shield while the Cardinal Golem went on the defensive with its sword. Not a single strike of hers went past its defence despite her advantage in speed. She wasn’t even pushing it back by a step as it stood strong but it didn’t get a chance to attack either.
‘...hmm? A weak spot. It blocked again. Another weak spot?’ Scarlet didn’t like fighting anything inorganic or inedible but the Cardinal Golem fought like a warrior and wasn’t much different from fighting one. Technique was its weakness but that wasn’t something a blood rushed headed Scarlet could take advantage of most of the time. It was the only reason why her swordsmanship was countered by Ebony when she used her Core skill. Yet, she was seeing it, seeing more, her mind wasn’t heavily clouded.
She held her Core Skill back as she reached the limit her heart could handle, she needed to leave leeway for the increase from her sword mastery since the Cardinal Golem wasn’t able to break her cascade. Her next stab cut into its shield for the first time. The diagonal slash after her first useful stab melted the defending blade by a tiny bit.
The Cardinal Golem noticed its predicament but didn’t panic, it had instinctive knowledge pumped into itself. It was modelled after this group of people and made to counter them. Its built-in instinctive knowledge was telling it that she would run out of steam soon enough.
The others wouldn’t be able to do much. The barrier and fire spearman were no trouble, they couldn’t put a scratch on it. The fist human had one trick that it survived with its trusty shield. The two sword wielding humans were its base models, It couldn’t possibly have every one of their properties, having observed their spars with monsters that died soon after, it chose to copy the one who could stand up against a stronger opponent. It was a good tactic that worked against all the other parties that invaded its creator, they could never outlast its output. Buckle down, tire them, take them down.
The same would happen to the fiery sword wielding human in front of it. It didn’t have spell-flinging capabilities, having concentrated all its magic on toughening itself up. It was weird its topaz was no longer working on her swords but no matter, the Cardinal Golem thought.
In a short time, it watched as its shield and sword got taken apart and had their volume decrease. Its skin started to melt as well. It wasn’t just the human in front of it, it should have been able to take her fire. Looking towards the fire spearman it dismissed before getting its wrist slit because of its focus on the bigger danger.
❅❅❅
Ebony’s body groaned as he got up as if he didn’t have anything broken inside him, patting himself off.
He was outmatched. Although he only got hit because he was focusing on something else during the fight, it wasn’t an excuse.
Ordina was definitely bullying him. Whatever frost topaz was, it was eating his flames that came into contact with the Cardinal Golem, it even attempted to climb up to his body. Icicle didn’t seem affected so that was a good sign. The bad sign was that his robe had a greenish-blue glow digging into it. It was clear to him they were going where his ice mana was so Ebony quickly expelled them into Layered Ice Carapaces.
They formed and shattered moments after but at least Ebony was able to get rid of the Cardinal Golem’s magic from his robe. He continued dodging, chasing the foreign mana out after some time. He emptied out a large portion of the ice mana inside since he reacted a little late and much of it had been ‘consumed’ by the topaz magic already. He should’ve asked the Topaz Hunter girl, Ally about the properties of Topaz magic. Then again, hers might be different from the Golem’s, they did come here to observe its magic.
Hector was recovering, claiming to be able to pull off another one of those punches with some rest. The circular dent that hasn't disappeared on one side of the walls was proof of his capability to demolish and crush most things in his punch’s path. Even the Cardinal Golem’s body slam and shield bash into Ebony merely left cracks on it that were already repaired.
It was getting really hot in the room due to whatever support Mark was giving Scarlet, Ebony had no choice but to sustain a higher than normal expenditure of mana to keep himself cool.
‘Take away magic and I can’t do anything against it…’ Feeling a little helpless again, Ebony cleared his mind again and watched Scarlet tear the Cardinal Golem apart. He couldn’t step in, he couldn’t keep up with her attack speed. He tried his best to increase gravity only on the Cardinal Golem, slowing it down as much as he could. It was more effective to concentrate on pulling one of its limbs away from its intended direction than to pull its entire body down as it allowed its blocks and parries to miss by a hair.
Mallory had tried to keep its feet grounded and attempted to mess up its footwork, no wonder the Cardinal Golem wasn’t dodging much. It could destroy her barriers but not effortlessly. She made her way beside Ebony in the meantime but Ebony who was fully enhanced didn’t even take a quarter of his health down from that body slam.
It was clear the Cardinal Golem didn’t have very strong offensive capabilities for its level. Although, that was comparative due to Ebony’s extreme toughness from his tier 2 enhancement and Reinforced Mana Chassis. It was true that it sacrificed offensive capabilities, there was little chance Scarlet wasn’t heavily injured or killed if it had normal strength for its level.
Ebony’s experience and battle instincts let him fight against stronger and faster opponents as always. Earlier, the Cardinal Golem took the chance that he was in the midst of his offensive Ceaseless Onslaught and couldn’t dodge to bash into him while his body was turned to the side. He was also so dumb that he didn’t cast another Layered Ice Carapace to shield himself like he usually does, it slipped his mind as many things do from time to time. His footwork, shields and prediction were the only things that protected him from Scarlet’s speedy attacks.
He was unfamiliar with the shield bash tactic the Cardinal Golem was clearly waiting on the defensive for the opportunity to tackle him. Well, he was careless, the same trick wouldn’t work on him again. He just might not have the chance to prove it anymore from the looks of the battle between the Cardinal Golem and Scarlet.
She was definitely expending huge amounts of stamina and mana but she didn’t look like she'd run out any time soon.
The Cardinal Golem didn’t seem to be attempting to break free from its predicament. It calmly used its shrinking shield to defend itself the best it could. Wet cracks were all over its body as it was melting a little.
Scarlet was running out of steam too, the next Pinpoint Perforation that stabbed deep shattered its frozen body and strength left her body.
Ebony wasn’t about to let his guard down anymore, he noticed that the Cardinal Golem’s body only had a layer break off and it took advantage of Scarlet’s sudden stop in attacks to kick out. This time, his shields that were on standby reached in time to block it while he took a step to carry Scarlet out of the way. His shield was sent crashing into the wall since he didn’t have the Intelligence to hold it in place against its kick.
He had regenerated quite a bit of mana with the time that she bought and could cast Augmentation for another period of time. Just having to be careful not to freeze Scarlet who was in his hands was difficult so he had no choice but to quickly put her down after getting her out.
The slightly smaller Cardinal Golem was as good as new, without a scratch on its body. It didn’t charge to attack any of them but ran to its chair instead. Its runic veins were glowing slightly brighter than it was previously. Putting both hands on the armrest, the chair turned into a fresh set of sword and shield.
Maybe because it thought Hector and Scarlet were down for the count, it raised its sword arm up and shifted towards Mark. It must have decided that the other four were no longer a threat to it. Impatience and negligence to observe the other’s condition was its folly.
Another scream of ‘mega panch’ echoed, this time, Hector even managed to anticipate where it was going and he already used his movement skill to get right beside it and hit the Cardinal Golem unguarded by its shield. He aimed for its chest since a golem losing its head may not be fatal, hoping to destroy a larger percentage of its body, he went for the torso.
“Urgh, night.” Hector managed to mumble before losing consciousness. A huge improvement on his part.
Another massive dent in the walls appeared with a human-shaped indent and a guardian embedded.