The gargoyle blurred toward Hazel and Astrid. They hastily jumped to either side, evading the monster as it flew past them. During its flight, several statues were destroyed by the Gargoyle’s wings, shattering them to pieces as the stone remnants fell on the floor.
Hazel gripped her staff and tried to locate the monster. She darted her eyes all over the room, but she couldn’t locate her enemy. The Gargoyle made a lowly growl, alerting the mage of its ominous presence. But she had no idea where it was.
“Behind you, Hazel!” Astrid warned.
She spun around in response and immediately spotted the Gargoyle as he barreled over to Hazel in a flash. There was no time to cast a spell and kill the gargoyle. Not unless she wanted to risk getting tackled by the thing in the process.
In a split moment, Hazel dove to the side, letting the stone monster glide past her like a rocket. It destroyed more stone statues around them as the fragments pelted Hazel while she was on the ground.
Just as she stood up to try and attack the monster while she had the advantage, Astrid was one step ahead. Just as the Gargoyle landed on the ground after obliterating a couple more statues, the dark elf lunged at the creature, latching onto its back. She stayed on by using her daggers and plunged them into its stone body.
The gargoyle roared, shaking around to try and get her off. But she held on tight, not wanting to waste the opportunity. As the monster struggled to get Astrid off, a glowing blue bolt of mana rocketed toward them, colliding into the Gargoyle. The spell tore through a chunk of its side as the stone remnants disbursed into purple particles.
“Tch…!” Hazel clicked her tongue.
She wanted to simply cut it in half with Baneful Sickle, but she was afraid that Astrid would get caught up in the attack. So, she resorted to using Mana Bolt to try and weaken it. Sadly, even with a portion of its side destroyed, the gargoyle showed no signs of letting up.
“W-whoa…!”
The Gargoyle then finally got Astrid off its bad, sending her flying in another direction. Hazel could hear the sound of stone breaking along with a loud thud from the dark elf crashing on the floor.
“Astrid, are you alright…?!” Hazel called out.
“More…or less…” She groaned.
Although Hazel was concerned, her biggest priority was watching the Gargoyle. The moment she took her off the thing, it would use the same technique as before and hide behind the statues. While monitoring the monster, Hazel used the opportunity to appraise it.
Level 13
A type of Stone Golem that was created for the sole purpose of protecting its territory from invaders. Due to the Mana Overload Phenomenon, this protective instinct has been heightened, to where the Gargoyle will attack anyone that steps foot in its domain.
“A golem, huh…”
From what Hazel read about them, Golems were artificially made creatures that followed the command of their creators. In Hazel’s world, Golems were from Jewish Folklore. And it appeared that the Gargoyle was a type of Golem.
This fact honestly surprised Hazel since Gargoyles and Golems were two separate beings. But it appeared that in this dungeon/world, they were the same. It was a baffling fact for Hazel to swallow.
The Gargoyle roared at Hazel and dived down to attack her. She was prepared, though, and conjured a Baneful Sickle, hurling the cursed purple crescent blade at the stone monster. Sadly, it shifted to the side, narrowly dodging the spell, except for its wing that got clipped.
Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.
This didn’t seem to impede the monster in any way as it continued its course toward Hazel. Instead of moving away like before, she quickly cast her Mana Shield, watching the transparent blue dome appear once more.
The Gargoyle’s eyes widened, as if remembering the dome and what happened the last time it was conjured. It stopped mid-flight and changed course, flying away from Hazel and her mana shield.
“Damn…!” Hazel swore, annoyed by the Gargoyle’s instincts.
She didn’t expect it to react like that. Now her plan to take it down when it clashed against her dome like before was ruined. Waiting ten seconds to try again was pointless if it knew her strategy, so it was time for a new plan.
While in the air, several arrows zipped toward the Gargoyle, piercing pieces of its body from its arm, shoulder, and leg. Getting struck out of nowhere, its wings stopped flapping, resulting in it falling to the floor, and crashing into more stone statues.
Stone dust was kicked up in the air, obscuring Hazel’s view of the Gargoyle. Because she couldn’t see anything, she resorted to firing off a couple of Mana Bolts in the monster’s general direction, hoping to hit something.
Her bolts of condensed mana disappeared into the dust before an audible cracking sound from stone breaking. For a moment, Hazel believed that she got it, but she didn’t hear a kill notification of its death. Which meant it was still alive.
As if on cue, the Gargoyle burst through the dust, bolting for Hazel. She gripped her staff, trying to figure out what to do. Then…
“Hazel, duck!”
Hearing Astrid’s voice, Hazel listened to her and crouched down, lying on her stomach in an instant. As she did, several arrows zoomed past her and collided into the Gargoyle, riddling its body with more projectiles in its stone body.
It tried to fly into the air and avoid Astrid, but as it rose a couple of feet, its left wing started to crumble as purple cracks infested the wing. Moments later, it shattered completely, forcing the Gargoyle to descend to the floor.
Hazel smiled, realizing the curse dmg from her Baneful Sickle spell disabled the Gargoyle’s ability to fly. She did make the right call in choosing a curse spell for damage over time. If this was the Flame Spear spell, it likely wouldn’t possess the same effect as Baneful Sickle.
The Gargoyle crashed with a loud thud. Its body lay there for a moment, possibly disoriented from the fall. And that was all Hazel needed.
She pointed her staff at the monster and fired another Baneful Sickle. The purple crescent spell erupted from the staff and rocketed toward the Gargoyle. The stone monster couldn’t react in time as the cursed spell tore through its torso, cutting it in half.
The two halves fell to the floor and then exploded into purple fragments.
[Level 13 Gargoyle has been defeated!]
“Finally!” Hazel shouted, relieved that the fight was over. “I thought that thing would never die!”
“It was mainly annoying because it hid behind the statues to ambush us when we least expected it,” Astrid added. “It was clever, that much was certain.”
“I hate clever monsters. Their even more difficult to kill than strong ones.”
Hazel knew from the start that the Gargoyle was a lot smarter than it led on. Using the statues as cover to maneuver around the area and attack them was very strategic. That and the fact that it was also made of stone only complicated the matter further for Hazel and Astrid since they would have a harder time locating it.
That was why she loathed intelligent monsters that used their brains rather than mindlessly attacking their enemy. The smart monsters were dangerous predators that stalk their prey and wait for the right opportunity to strike. Just like the Gargoyle.
Instead of attacking outright like what a Fractured Warrior would do, it carefully watched Astrid and Hazel as they walked through the gallery of statues. If the pair hadn’t noticed the Gargoyle sooner, then their situation would’ve been very different.
Although becoming a Fractured dumbed certain monsters down, some were able to retain a lot of their intelligence, compared to others. This bothered Hazel a little since that meant she needed to stay on her toes when fighting enemies. And that alone was already troublesome for her.
“We should keep moving,” Astrid said. “The next floor should be the last, I hope.”
“If it’s not, then let’s pray that the opponent we face will at least be a little easier to take down than that damn Gargoyle.”
With their battle finished, the player duo made their way to the next set of stairs ahead of them. All the while, they cautiously watched the remaining statues that survived their fight with the Gargoyle. After nearly getting ambushed by a statue-like monster, they were very wary of the rest.