Eight Era, cycle 1721 – cycle of the squatting dog, season of Unkh, day 230

Race: charcoal warrior

Genus: golemoid

Class: D

Affiliation: n/a

Specialisation: n/a

Harvestable items: gems (rare)

State: n/a

Level: 64

Health unknown, stamina unknown, magicka unknown

Endowments: unknown

Curses: unknown

Bestiary increased

Amaka clutched her stomach; a livid bruise the size of her thigh was forming, and each breath felt like acid poured into her lungs. Amaka turned and spotted a golem bearing down on her. The thing was massive, 7 feet tall, and had a chest size of a child’s paddling pool, and legs and arms the size of tree trunks. She’d taken a few hits in the last few days, and had broken her ribs, arms, legs and – from one particularly unfortunate glancing strike – her collar bone.

Her stamina was dropping quicker than usual due to her stomach injury, though she hadn’t broken a rib this time fortunately; her stamina percentage was in the low 20s, sweat like ice dripped down her face and stung her eyes, and she was still suffering from the aches of the previous days.

Amaka reached a stream and stumbled into it; the water was freezing, and, instinctively, she inhaled sharply from the cold, but it made her stomach explode in pain, and she gasped, started coughing and spat out a glob of blood.

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The water was flowing against her, and the resistance from the water made her stamina drop quicker. She stumbled; her legs were becoming unresponsive, and she’d almost tripped over a random stone, having not picked her feet up properly.

There was a roar behind her, and Amaka turned to see the golem wade into the stream; distracted, Amaka fell face first into the river and inhaled a lungful of water. She rose from the water, spluttering and crawling on all fours. The coughing exacerbated Amaka’s injury, and, suddenly, she was unable to breathe. She coughed and spluttered, all the while crawling away from the golem. Abruptly, she had fears of suffocating – or possibly drowning – as she fought desperately for air whilst keeping her distance from the indomitable golem.

Amaka vomited from fear and pain; her hands scraped over jagged stones, and – from the sudden heat in her palms – Amaka knew she’d cut her hands open. The golem stepped forwards and slammed an arm down, and Amaka rolled and staggered to her feet before diving into the cramped tunnel from which the water was emanating.

The golem reached down and grabbed at Amaka, who grabbed the walls of the tunnel and pulled herself deeper. She was short of breath already, and her body was close to dropping; once her stamina hit 5%, her life started to drop. A golem arm smashed down on the tunnel entrance, the golem started to rip chunks of rocks away and it reached closer to Amaka. She forced her way further into the tunnel, scrambling on her hands and feet, fear crushing her and loosening her bowels. Her life was plummeting at 1% a second; every moment brought her closer to death, unless she could find a place to rest as the unstoppable golem ripped its way towards her.

Amaka’s vision started to fade, her body fought to breathe, her diaphragm jerked spastically, trying to make her cough to force air into her lungs, but the tunnel was partially submerged and she was still under water at that point. A hand as final as death gripped her ankle, ripped Amaka from the tunnel, and threw her through the air; Amaka crunched into the ground, and she screamed in pain.

Now that Amaka was able to breathe once more, her body was racked with uncontrollable coughing as her body automatously pulled in air. The golem charged over; Amaka was on a high bank, and the golem pulled itself up and assailed Amaka, who threw herself off the bank and landed heavily on her feet before sprawling to the floor. She scrambled to her feet, but the world was spinning and the ground shifted under her feet, so she fell. She forced herself to her feet once more, and the ground pulled itself from under her feet.

The light to the side of her was blotted out, and a golem stood beside her. It slammed its arms down, and Amaka rolled to the side, then the golem stepped forwards, and Amaka got to her knees. The golem swung its arm like it was pushing through a crowd, and Amaka was able to get her arm out to block it. The impact from the golem shattered her arm, and Amaka dropped to her knees, unable to feel any more pain.

The golem stepped forwards and brought its arm down in a crushing blow to shatter her skull. The golem’s arm touched Amaka’s head and stopped dead.

‘Three hours; you are getting better,’ Masinga confirmed.

New badge awarded: extreme conditioning 2

To reach this, you have forced your body through intensely rigorous training, and are faster, stronger and fitter because of it: ↑ toughness, ↑ fitness, ↑ recovery, ↑ determination.

Amaka had been training three times a day. On the second day after the first session, Amaka had received a boost to her stamina and health. The hard training, as well as giving her the extreme conditioning badge, was also increasing her stats through hard work. The badges were a cluster of points, whereas spontaneous attribute increases were only ever one stat at a time. It made sense; if using a sword made her skill in swords increase, why wouldn’t exercise increase exercise-related stats? Amaka had never been addicted to exercise, but the rewards of stats increases had become a kind of addiction; she had grown to love seeing that silly little up arrow denoting an increase to her stats. She thrived off it; it was almost all that was keeping her going at that point.