Life at the fortress was decent. For one thing, I had Marco. We had become closer as the days passed. Before I knew it, I would have considered us best friends. My time here was not unlike my time in captivity at the Hillcrest Manor. Although here I was away from family and everyone I had ever known. That can not be an excuse to quit, though. Not now and not ever. Today is a new day, a day to begin discoveries. That’s why I was here to push my abilities to where dying in combat would become difficult. Maybe one day I could even live forever.
First, I wanted to start with 18’s advice about making a golem with enough stopping power to kill someone. A golem strong enough to stand up to attackers like Marco. Something that could withstand even the most potent attacks. Eventually, the day would come when I would have to use my powers in actual combat. If I could not kill someone, then I would be nothing but a wall to smash.
Instead of creating a new golem, I figured it would be more helpful to adjust to the one I had already created. This was directly against the advice given by 18. But I didn’t care. No one understood my abilities more than myself.
Sitting outside in the courtyard with a full view of the blazing sun, I analyzed the golem. It was human-shaped, standing at a well-built 6-foot. However, the large stones gave away that it wasn't human. The stones I had added to increase the size did not join at the joints. Instead, each stone was visible with shards filled into the joints. I had not had enough time to repair the golem. It still was a walking shamble since its last sparring match. Although I had made a few repairs, they were temporary fixes. Fixes that the golem needed to be more vital for. How would I be able to create a creature made of mud and rock, an unstoppable force? The golem could never move at a speed that could be dangerous to a semi-skilled person. This was not to mention a person like 18 who could move in and out of locations faster than my human eyes could track.
As I was thinking about that, I saw a detachment of soldiers walking by the gate to the fort. The soldiers were a mixture of enlisted peasants and a few knights on horseback. The knights wore full plate mail with sturdy-looking spears and metal shields. Their counterparts, the peasants, wore a mixture of rusted chain-mail and thick cloth. Most had nothing more than a sturdy mallet and wooden shield. Following the detachment was an oxen-drawn carriage. The cart had the rest of the detachment.
To my surprise, two people in the carriage wore the same clothing as me, including the chains.
As the carriage came to a stop, the two prisoners began stepping out and moving toward the gate. “Ugh, I hate this part,” called the shorter of the two. “Why do they force us to stay in a place that renders us useless?”
“Next time they send us out, they should atleast have the decency to fight with us,” the taller prisoner remarked.
“Really? Last time you killed three of the knights for suggesting that you should not torture the enemy.” The other laughed at his comrades’ remark. They both drew in one more breath before crossing over the barrier. As they collapsed, the two demonic affinity guards reached for a gurney. They then loaded the shorter one before heading to one of the cell blocks.
After the men collapsed, my gaze went back to the two oxen that were pulling the cart. The oxen were tough-looking creatures. Their thick skin and pointed horns gave them the stuff to back it up. That was when it hit me that oxen may be the inspiration that my golem would need. After all, an ox was both a sturdy creature and a dangerous one. That was especially true if you ended up on the wrong side of its horns. Now it was only a matter of shaping the golem.
I looked over my stockpile of materials. They had diminished slightly from my fight with Marco. But I still had more than enough to work with. What pieces would make a more effective golem? I still had some now-wilted roses. Letting the roses wilt had been an accident on my part. I intended to do a similar process to these as I did to the one prior, but the past was behind us now. Letting the roses die from natural causes might give off more demonic power. I could not be sure either way without trying it out. The other source of affinities was the quartz gemstones. Nature had imbued the quartz gemstones with different affinities through a metamorphic rock cycle. The cycle had created the rocks, whether it had been through the fire, water, air, or the pressures of the earth. All of which imbued natural affinities to the quartz gemstones.
I put the roses in a ritual circle with assorted quartz crystals. Instead of doing the typical circle I had done before. I took the time to draw out the circle in a vague ox shape. I took two of the crystals with a stronger affinity for the earth. Then placed them at the points of the ox’s horns. After, I grabbed four other gemstones with small air and fire affinities. I was putting them at the bottom of the feet of my poor attempt at an ox. Finally, I used my shape ability to turn the others into crystalline quartz dust. I used this dust to sprinkle over the ritual circle.
Grabbing my ritual knife, I pricked my finger and let a few drops over my ritual circle. Then I commanded my golem to stand next to me. I wrote the word ox on the golem’s head for a few seconds. With a few violent contortions, I exerted my affinity to shape the golem into an ox. At first, it seemed like I had once again tried to perform too large of a ritual. The sensation of nausea surfaced as the first sign, so I imagined the ox was more miniature, with the intent of the golem keeping its exact size and composition, being at the forefront of my vision. This change in the ritual helped me calm down, and it was over. In front of me now stood a shoulder-height ox. The ox contained all the features I had intended, with its quartz-laden horns and hooves to accent the creature. The ox looked like a mystical creature from a storybook.
“Hey,” the familiar voice of Marco called out, “Looks like you took 18’s advice. That golem of yours looks like it would be nasty.”
“Want to give it another go in a fight?”
“Haha, I told you before my powers allow me to imprison people in my hellfire. We already know what would happen if I used it on your golem. I would destroy it outright and consume its magic again. Do you really want to go through the process of creating it again?”
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“Fair enough. I would not want you to wreck it. Especially after I put all this effort back into it,” I replied, turning back to the golem where it lay dormant.
“Yeah, both of us will receive our evaluations at the end of the month to see what their next plan for us is. I hope they send me off from here. Unlike you, I don’t get any benefit from being here. At least not enough for me to really feel my powers.”
“What do you mean?” I asked Marco, his demeanor steadying.
Before Marco answered, a tall snake-like man interjected himself. This was the same man I had seen earlier in the day. “So, boy, you want some real danger? I can help you with that. I have a certain passion for killing something. Especially things that have dreams that won’t live long enough to foster into fruition.”
“Stop, don't you see these boys are in the upper 400s. Their lips are still wet with milk,” his shorter partner said. “These boys don’t have a chance against a ranked weapon, let alone two.” At that, the man smiled and pointed at the 96 written on his chest. His friend bore the number 77.
“Neither of us has had an evaluation yet,” Marco retorted with unfounded bravado. “Who is to say that we wouldn’t immediately place among the ranked?”
Before Marco could continue, 77 moved with speed. His long arms reached out to touch Marco. As he impacted Marco's flesh, it began withering away. Entire chunks of Marco were now rotting away from him.
“See, you two children should not have been so brazen,” 77 said. As he spoke, his entire body swayed back and forth as if he was dancing to an unheard melody.
Marco had dropped to his knees in panic. But underneath his distress, I could see that anger was building in him.
Unfortunately for 77, my golem moved to impale him from behind. My adjustments to the golem were effective. As the golem now proved, the blood of the snakish man dropped off of the horns of the golem.
However, the golem had only managed to land a glancing blow off of the man. I positioned myself alongside Marco with the golem between our attackers and us.
I looked around the courtyard, and people seemed to be looking on with curiosity. Others, however, should have looked in our direction more. No one, not even 82, who was prodding at his stomach with that stupid fork, was moving to help us. Thankfully it would remain a three-on-one since 96 had seemed to opt-out of the fight.
The golem had turned to its statue-like state while the fight had paused. But, as soon as 77 launched himself forward at us, the golem came back to life. The golem charged forward at him. As the golem came inches within striking 77, the snake-like man contorted and flung himself out of the way. Knowing this was my only chance, I envisioned a spike protruding out of the ground where 77 had flung himself towards. The spike managed to trip 77 enough that he fell to the ground.
As 77 began to rise back up to his feet my golem was there to intercept him. This time there was no getting out of the way in time. 77 had been too distracted looking toward Marco and me that he hadn’t seen the golem coming back from behind him. The golem managed the run 77 all the way through.
“You brats!” 96 screamed at us. “You will regret this!” Before he could finish, the fire grew around his feet. The fire seemed to surround 96. Before he could protest more, his entire body felt the prison of Marco's ability.
“Those bastards,” Marco coughed out.
“Are you okay?” I asked Marco. As I approached him, I saw that he had a large portion of his flesh revealed. 77 had managed to destroy Marco’s skin with a single touch.
“I should be fine after some medical attention. But, you should absorb the other one,” Marco stated as he gestured to 77’s lifeless body. “People are starting to move towards us. I don’t even want to think of the dangerous assignment they will send us on. Now that we killed our comrades inside the fort.” This side of Marco scared me. The way he didn't seem moved by their deaths in the slightest. I, unlike Marco, was shaking from what we had done to them.
I tried to protest, but I could hear the sounds of the fort coming to life. Most likely, they would throw us back into a locked cell. I pulled out my ritual knife and drew a circle between the now-dead demonic affinity user and my ox golem. I jabbed my finger into the center of the circle on the golem. Then 77’s entire body turned into dust that flowed into the golem centering on the circle. I dropped to the ground, exhausted, as the golem moved on its own. The golem now stood in front of Marco and me, guarding us. Ten of the other demonic affinity users had shown up.
“You two need to go with us and try nothing funny,” the eldest among them stated.
“You know we did nothing wrong,” beamed Marco, “I mean, if you want to fight us to the death, you are more than welcome to try. If 96 wasn’t too busy stammering, he could have killed both of us. Now, though, I stole his powers, and my friend here forced 77’s soul into that golem.”
“Don’t think you will get so lucky with us,” 82, the one in charge of recruits, said. “I am not inclined to punish murders. I have done my fair share of murder since gaining my powers. But you two must go with us since killing a ranked weapon means you two will get your assignment quicker.”
“Whatever you say, boss,” I said, finally getting to my feet, “This time, though, Marco, I, and the golem stay together. It’s only right for me to have a wingman since 77 got one, and now I am his spiritual successor.” I gave Marco a sly grin.
“I am certain that you are the sidekick here,” Marco laughed.
“Lead them to a horse stall if they feel the need to keep each other warm,” 82 scolded.
Even though he had to have the last quick insult to let us have our way, staying together, even if it meant being in a used horse's stall, meant we were safe. Who knows if 77 and 96 had any friends out there that would want to avenge them? I hoped that the predatory actions they displayed had dissuaded any would-be allies.
Mucking out the horse stall took a lot of work. True to his character 82 had the others throw us in the most used stall of the lot. They handed us shovels and hay bale and told us to get at it. It took a while, but with the help of the golem, the horse stall was cleaned out. Marco and I laid out some straw over the dirt and sat down. We had barely said anything to each other since killing those two men. I already knew that Marco didn’t care in the slightest, and I was scared a part of me didn’t either. But, in the same vein, it was not worth discussing it with him. So, I decided to discuss something else on my mind.
“It still stinks in here,” I said.
“It is a horse stall. So, smelling like poop is to be expected,” Marco replied.
“Do you think we will get our belongings before they kick us out? I had a gift in there I would very much like back.”
“We should get most of our stuff back. That would include weapons when we leave here. The others don’t have any use for our personal belongings anyways. Not like we can walk down the road and sell it.”
“True.”
Marco and I continued like that until dark talking back and forth. Getting to know Marco was friendly to me. Since going into this life, I had worried that I would never be able to relate to anyone ever again.