After defeating the golems and taking a short break, the party returned to the sealed door they’d encountered earlier. The return trip was quiet but tense, the lack of encounters serving to ratchet up everyone’s anxiety rather than alleviate it. Distant sounds could be heard from sections they hadn’t explored, but there was no use worrying about that- clearing them out would take far too long and there was just as much chance of being ambushed from behind while doing so as there would be if they simply went ahead. Dungeon monsters weren’t restricted to one spot and by the time they were working on the last wing of this floor the first would likely be filling back up with monsters anyway.
Tiriana and Rinnie took the lead as usual, but most of the physical traps had been dealt with or marked already so the work was mostly just Tiriana blocking the magical traps from activating. They made good time as a result, and soon they were approaching the vault-like door that had stopped their progress before. It wasn’t even in view yet before the smell of blood started to thicken. With all the dead monsters littering the halls, the dungeon had stunk of blood to begin with and Sera’s nose had long grown numb to it, but now the stench grew so strong that it had asserted itself once more.
When the door was finally in sight Sera saw that it was already open. The lights on the other side were out, casting the room beyond in blackness that seemingly began right at the door- until Sera realized the periphery was moving. It wasn’t that the floor was hidden in shadow; it was simply carpeted so thickly with fresh blood that it appeared black. Only the slow advance of that vital liquid into the antechamber betrayed its presence.
“…anyone else have a sudden desire to come back later?” Rinnie asked, stopping in her tracks. “Or never.”
“If we can’t handle whatever’s back there with this team I doubt we can handle it at all. Layla is hands down the best warrior available and as far as I’m aware I’m the strongest mage,” Cadenza replied, one hand raised as if preparing to draw her swords.
“Having two of the strongest people around is nice and all, but what about synergy?” Rinnie countered with exasperation, waving between herself and Layla.
“At least she’s self-aware,” Sera muttered. “She has a point, though. Wouldn’t a team that’s more used to working together be better if whatever is in there is dangerous? And I know I’m a liability here.”
“A party doesn’t need to like each other to work together well, and from what I’ve seen, this group does,” Cadenza asserted. “Besides, we’ve yet to even confirm what’s in there. We’d all feel like idiots if we retreated now and it turned out to be a bunch of monsters that ripped each other apart.”
“Well, I can’t think of any way we can check without letting it know we’re here. Not with the lights out,” Tiriana said with a shrug.
“Oh, uh, I can help with that!” Vivi declared, perking up. “I can bless one person with dark vision.”
“In that case…go ahead and use it on Rinnie, her eyesight is probably the best,” Cadenza instructed. Vivi nodded rapidly and began to pray.
“Even I can’t see anything from this far away,” Rinnie admitted, squinting down the hall at the darkened doorway ahead.
“I can do something about that,” Tiriana volunteered as she began to put together a spell. Even from her own position Sera could see a spot in front of Rinnie begin to warp, though it was just a blur for her. “Just look through that spot there, it’ll work like a telescope.”
“Perfect. As soon as I can…ah, there we go,” Rinnie said, Vivi’s blessing activating midsentence. Rinnie peered through the disc of bent light into the darkness. “Looks like…yikes, that’s a lot of bodies. Okay, the only thing still standing is some kind of knight. It’s armored up but it looks a lot closer to Layla than a nachzehrer. It’s got a kite shield and a sword- I’d call it a greatsword, but it looks more like a longsword next to that thing.”
“Just the one? Nothing else?” Cadenza asked, seeking clarification.
“I can’t see the whole room from here, but I’ve never seen a vault with only one guard. Gotta be some more of those crystals at the very least,” Rinnie replied.
“…and how many vaults have you seen?” Sera asked dryly.
“Plenty! For reasons that are entirely legal. Promise,” Rinnie answered with a grin. Cadenza ignored the byplay and mulled the information over.
“One guard implies that whomever placed it there expected it to suffice on its own- that, or anything else they threw in would only get in its way. It must be a masterpiece. There’s little point in delaying, though- the only way to learn of its capabilities is to engage it. Any objections?” she said, looking to the others for confirmation. Truthfully, Sera would have prepared to leave this to someone more experienced, but that was essentially what she’d be doing either way. She and Vivi weren’t really the ones being asked, here.
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
“I’m for it, but let’s get the first hit in,” Tiriana replied.
“Let us dispense with the talking and fight,” Layla answered next.
“May as well. It’s a risk, but someone has to fight it eventually,” Rinnie shrugged. “It’s directly ahead. Just shoot straight down the middle.”
“Then let’s get started. Tiriana, pick a spell and fire on my command,” Cadenza ordered, drawing a sword from her sheath at the same time. Miraculously none were damaged against the previous crop of golems- they had surely been designed for such abuse. Tiriana began to cast while Cadenza prepared her railgun spell. “Ready…fire.”
There was a flash of light and a crack of thunder as Cadenza released her spell, propelling the sword in front of her down the hall faster than the eyes could track. A fraction of a second later the sword was followed by a bolt of lightning, artificially darkened by a secondary spell. Layla immediately stepped out in front of the spellcasters once they’d finished.
“Tch. It deflected the sword with its shield- and it used its own sword as a lightning rod. That’s insane- how fast can that thing move?” Rinnie reported an instant later. “It’s coming!”
“We assumed it couldn’t see us, but it must have been able to the entire time. It’s the only possible explanation- it must have started moving before we fired,” Cadenza analyzed as she drew her other swords. The golem knight burst from the darkness, leaving bloody footprints in its wake as it charged down the hall. Rinnie launched an arrow towards its knee, but it hardly penetrated before stopping. The golem ignored the superficial damage and continued on, but Layla was ready to meet it.
Like the nachzehrer, the golem was a giant, clearly modeled after the people that built it. Even Layla was dwarfed by its stature, but she met its charge fearlessly, thrusting her poleaxe out before her to meet its shield bash. Her weapon’s shaft met the kite shield and held, but Layla was forced backwards by the impact. She had braced well, though, and soon the golem knight’s momentum was exhausted.
The instant it stopped moving, Tiriana cast a spell to coat the ground beneath its feet with ice. In response, the golem raised one foot, revealing the spiked soles of its boots, and stomped down on the ice, securing its footing. Without missing a beat the construct swung its sword down at Layla, who easily deflected it to the side. Layla began to transition into an attack before the golem forced her to block its follow-up swing, having recovered its balance faster than a mortal could have hoped to.
Using its shield as much to attack as to defend, the golem knight advanced, forcing Layla onto the defensive. Tiriana attempted to aid the party vanguard by freezing the golem’s limbs, but like the first nachzehrer they’d fought, it was too strong to be restrained that easily. As the warrior was forced back so too was the rest of the party, backpedaling as a group down the hall. It was difficult to focus while on the move, but Sera began weaving illusions to give Layla a reprieve, forming a squad of mirror images around her.
Unfortunately, the golem knight wasn’t fooled. It was too quick, more than anything- able to react and strike before Layla was able to fade into the background. With a click of her tongue, Sera dropped the ineffective illusion and wracked her brain for a new tactic. She needed some way of distracting the golem- something it wouldn’t have a choice but to react to.
Cadenza stepped in to harass the golem with slashes at its joints, but its body was at least as tough as her weapons and it began to ignore her attempts after the first few strikes failed to do any damage. For her part, Rinnie fired arrows every time the golem struck at Layla, catching its joints in the moments when it was mid-movement and couldn’t react. Her mana-charged projectiles did minimal damage against its incredibly tough armor, but that wasn’t to say they did nothing at all. Each arrow penetrated just deeply enough for the arrowheads to stick fast even when the shafts were broken off by the golem’s movements, impeding its movements slightly.
Still, that wasn’t enough to completely even the odds. Between Rinnie and Tiriana the golem knight lost only the tiniest, barely perceptible fraction of a second with each attack, too little for Layla to capitalize on. After many exchanges the golem managed to hook Layla’s poleaxe on the bottom of its kite shield and pulled her towards it, right into a downward swing from its sword. Layla caught her balance by planting one foot forward, but she had only enough time to raise her weapon and brace herself before the blow hit home.
An instant later the golem knight’s sword completed its arc- having cleaved straight through Layla’s weapon right in the middle of the shaft. Layla hopped backwards, adjusting both halves of her weapon and assuming a dual-wielding stance, using the upper half as an axe and the bottom half as a short spear. Her reach was badly reduced, however, and without the ability to put all her strength into each block, she quickly began to struggle just to take the giant construct’s blows.
Ever the consummate warrior, Layla adapted quickly, avoiding the shield bashes entirely and crossing the halves of her weapon to counter the golem’s sword. Her defense was far from perfect now, though, and hits began to slip through, ringing against her armor and driving grunts from her lips. In response, Cadenza split her swords between her hands and crossed the blades, slipping them into position around the golem’s forearms to restrain it. While Layla recovered her stance, the golem spun and threw a kick at the mage behind it, striking a glancing blow against her shoulder that produced a sickening snap and sent her spinning.
Sera watched with alarm as Vivi darted towards their leader, skirting around the spot where Layla was still trading blows against the golem knight. Fortunately it must have judged her to be a non-threat, as it ignored her on her way past, and soon she was crouching behind the gray-skinned mage and praying. Not sure what else to do, Sera followed the cleric, which at least put her outside the golem’s line of sight.
“Shit, that thing is strong. We need a change of strategy,” Cadenza stated as Vivi got to work on her shoulder. If she was bothered by the pain of her shattered shoulder it didn’t show.
That’s when it hit Sera. She knew what to do with her illusions.
“I have an idea.”