“Oh. That’s not good,” the Fairy said, her small eyes going wide.

“And yet, you failed to tell me exactly what is not good!” yelled Matthias over another massive roar. He could feel steady, rhythmic vibrations through the ground as he realized something very, very large was coming their way.

The Fairy swallowed, “I think that’s one of the big lizards I saw. The really big lizards. Maybe, uh, maybe they control the smaller ones?” she explained in a near panic. “I don’t know! I’m a scout, not some kind of lizard expert!”

Matthias couldn’t blame her for that frame of mind. She was, after all, a scout. Her job was scouting. She had even told him about the massive lizards that resided in the swampy region. The fact that the smaller, deadly raptors were as smart as they were meant that there was more than likely some kind of hierarchy that was in place. He had just failed to see and account for it.

During the few seconds, he took to think the vibrations of each step had turned into earth-shaking ones. He couldn’t see much over the tall wheat-like grass of the plains. But he figured he should have been able to see something that large coming at them.

Then it was there.

Having appeared, as if by magic, the forty-foot-tall creature was in the clearing and had smashed two of the Golems into gravel with hardly a thought. Matthias stared at the huge beast in awe. Its huge head was filled with sharp teeth the length of a sword. The Enormous front-facing eyes, barrel chest, and thick legs were offset by its two stubby arms on the front of its chest. The talons on its foot were as long as Matthias was tall, probably longer. All in all, it was a terrifying creature that he couldn’t hope to stand against.

“Oh. We’re dead,” he said. Then the creature roared.

From a distance, the roar had seemed deep and intimidating. From up close it was downright debilitating. He covered his ears, wincing as the pain in his chest shot through his body at the insanely loud sound. Alyssa was simply knocked out of the air, falling to the ground unconscious. Matthias grabbed the fairy and held her in one hand.

He looked over at the Masterwork Golem, “Get everyone you can and get back here! Attack that thing and take it down with everything we have!” he ordered.

The Masterwork saluted its creator and, in a surprising move, made a noise not unlike that of a siren. The noise went on for several seconds, not as loud as the creature’s roar, but just as permeating. The huge lizard stared at the Masterwork in confusion before narrowing its eyes and moving toward it. The Golems around it pounded on its thick legs ineffectually with their arms.

Growling at the Masterwork Golem, the titanic lizard roared a challenge. The Masterwork charged its foe, dodging to the side as a huge foot came down to smash the advanced construct. It then wound up and delivered a devastating punch to the leg, caving in what Matthias realized were scales covering the creature's limb. The lizard screeched in pain and indignation at the attack, withdrawing the offending leg. It then swept to the side, bringing its long tail around in an attack that the Masterwork couldn’t dodge.

So it caught it instead.

In a feat that stunned Matthias, the Masterwork Golem caught the tail downwards towards the tip and anchored itself in the ground. It didn’t go unscathed with this tactic, as the tail had caved in a part of the construct’s chest. The two titans began a tug of war to the death, silently straining against one another as the two tugged, pulled, and worked their physical might against one another. Meat and sinew against sculpted stone and magical might.

Matthias actually thought, for a brief moment, that the Masterwork would come out on top. For just a moment he thought that the terrifying construct he had poured his resources, sweat, and blood into would carry the day in victory.

Unfortunately, it didn’t.

With a screeching of metal on stone, the Masterwork’s arm was torn from its socket through sheer force. The power in their competition placing too large of a strain on its body.

Stumbling, the huge lizard didn’t squander its opportunity. It quickly kicked the construct, sending it skidding across the ground and past a pile of loose stone that had been piled by the Golems earlier in the day. The Masterwork came to rest in a pile, missing its arm and being heavily damaged. Matthias could see that it was still operational but was far from combat-capable.

The lizard roared in victory and moved to finish his most advanced Golem. As it neared the construct, Matthias thought fast and remembered when he had created a Golem the first time from scratch. He eyed the pile of stone, guessed that there was about fifteen hundred kilos of stone there, and prepared to do something that would either give them a chance at victory… or get him killed even faster. He spun up {POWER OVERWHELMING} and targeted the stone pile. The moment that the huge lizard stepped on the pile, he activated his ability.

Four times.

The huge scale and leatherbound foot crashed down onto the pile of stone just as it liquified, causing the lizard to falter off-balance. When the stone then heated up into its lava-like liquid equivalent the huge lizard began to wail in pain as its foot began to dissolve in the extreme heat. With little to no foot left the huge creature fell over… right into the middle of the expanding pool of rocky-death heat.

With a wail that pierced his brain, the titanic predator began to thrash around on the ground. Its violent and frantic movements spread the molten rock everywhere and Matthias quickly realized that there was a new problem with his amazing tactic. The molten rock was magically compelled to gather up into new Golems, and because it was being spread around it began to crawl through the dirt and the grass to coalesce again. This had the unintentional effect of lighting everything around it on fire.

And apparently, the savannah was dry.

The grass practically exploded into flame, the fire spreading rapidly as everything golden was consumed in a torrent of raging flame. Matthias’s eyes went wide as the wall of fire came his way. He curled Alyssa against his chest and turned his back to the flames… only to rapidly be dragged away by a Golem. Startled, he looked up as the badly damage construct moved as quickly as it could while towing him towards the entrance of the cave. Matthias wasn’t sure if it was on autopilot, or if the Masterwork had somehow given it orders in that silent method it had. But the result was that he found himself, his fairy scout, and a half dozen surviving Golems through the destroyed defensive structure in front of the tunnel and into the mouth of the tunnel itself. It then unceremoniously dropped him.

This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

Holding his aching side, Matthias looked out behind him and saw hell. Fire consumed the world outside of their small inflammable bastion. He saw the giant cats sprinting out of the plains and into the forest, while the raptors simply caught fire and dashed around before being consumed in the bright red flames.

He was mesmerized by what had happened. While he was alive, he may have caused untold damage to the island he was seeking to claim. If the fire spread beyond the plains it was very possible that what was once a vibrant island full of life would be nothing more than an empty wasteland of ash and bones.

Alyssa stirred in his arms, “Urgh. Boss? What happened?” she asked, slowly opening her eyes before closing them quickly in a deep squint. “Oh man, my head hurts. Who hit me with a boulder?”

“That giant lizard did. Some kind of sonic attack I think, it knocked you right out of the air,” Matthias responded.

“Gotchya. It hurt to open my eyes, but I saw fire. What happened?” the fair asked, grimacing slightly in pain as she tried to recover.

He was silent for a minute. Then he said, “I tried to set off a trap and kill the lizard. We had lost and were going to die. Instead, I think I set the whole damn island on fire.”

“Oh,” was her short reply. “Well… at least we are alive? That’s good right? Besides, a lot of the areas outside this one are super damp and wet. I don’t think a swamp or jungle will burn.”

The Fairy had a good point. Maybe he was overreacting. Regardless, the pair watched the plains burn for another hour before turning around and going into the cavern’s interior. Matthias released Alyssa to go back to her small home and get some rest. Sitting down at his desk, he felt exhausted himself. Between his injuries and the fact that he was still sleeping at a stone desk, he was a bit burnt out.

A scraping sound, not unlike stone on stone, brought his attention back to the entrance of the tunnel in fear. The upper defenses were a mess and there was absolutely nothing preventing raptors from getting into the tunnel and coming down here to murder him.

So he was more than a bit relieved when he saw the two lizard kin dragging what remained of the Masterwork Golem into the cavern. As soon as they got to the flat area in front of the tunnel the pair collapsed onto their rear ends breathing hard. After resting for a moment, the pair saw Matthias sitting as his desk and headed his way.

While the male lizard-kin made an impromptu report with his hands signing various words, a method that Matthias oddly understood, the female lizard-kin examined his injuries in a way only a mother could manage. Between the two of them, he eventually nodded off at his desk.

Matthias’s dreams were dark and empty. He was floating in the void between worlds, surrounded by trillions of faint pricks of light in the distance.

“Oh. Hello there,” a voice quacked.

He turned to see a… duck? Smoking a cigar? Yeah. A cigar-smoking duck floating in the void next to him. He tried to say something, but for some reason his words wouldn’t form. Probably no air in the void.

“Yeah that’s par for the course,” the duck agreed. “Not being telepathic makes it hard to talk here, but I can still read your mind. I am very curious as to how you may have gotten here.”

Matthias thought about falling asleep at his desk, making the thoughts clear that he had been hurt beforehand.

“Ah yes. Hurt in battle. Those kinds of people generally take a dip into this place at least once or twice in their lives. But you seem a tad different than they do,” the fowl said, floating calmly in circles around him. “A tad different indeed.”

He wasn’t sure what the cigar-smoking duck was getting at, and he thought as much. But the thing just silently continued to circle him for what seemed like an eternity. He could feel an odd kind of pressure building up in his skull while he waited. He could tell that it was going to turn into a nasty headache. Before it could get too bad the little pink creature spoke again.

“You have had a rough go. Anyone who deals with Argyle doesn’t usually come out as well as you did. Regardless, I’m interested in you. You could be very amusing to watch. Hmm… oh I have a fun idea!” it said suddenly, shifting the cigar from one side of its mouth to the other. “But you can’t stay here any longer. It’s bad for your mind and soul. Off you go now, I have a feeling we will meet again.”

Matthias woke with a snort.

His head pounded, but he sat up at his desk and blinked the sleep blurriness out of his eyes. Looking around, he saw that Alyssa and the lizard-kin were directing the remaining golems to bring in dozens of bodies. He also saw that what was left of the Masterwork had been brought inside as well. He may have been hallucinating, but he thought he saw a couple dozen slightly smaller lizards running around.

Rubbing his eyes, he looked again. No, his first glance had been accurate. It seemed like he had slept long enough for the eggs from the lizard-kin hatchery to come to maturity. Honestly, that took a lot less time than he was expecting, much like the first set of eggs he created from the Assembler.

Alyssa turned and saw that he was awake. With a zip so fast it left an after-image she appeared in front of him. “Hey Boss! Good to see you are awake! I have the lizard guys bringing in all the bodies and stacking them over there. I figured you could use them for something. I also got the human Golem thing and had it brought down here. I wasn’t sure where you wanted him, so I left him on that spare table next to the Assembler room door.”

“How long was I out?” he asked, still a bit groggy.

Alyssa looked up, counted on her fingers, then said, “Oh about twelve hours or so.”

Matthias sat straight up with a jolt. “I was out for twelve hours?” he asked incredulously. “What about the titan lizard up top? Have the raptors come back? When did the lizard-kin hatch?”

“Woah, easy there Boss-man,” the Fairy said with a snorting laugh, “The big lizard is toast. Literally. That fire char broiled it to the bone. We stacked those over there,” she said, gesturing at a gigantic pile of bones on the far side of the cavern near the tunnel entrance. “I wasn’t sure if you could use those, so I saved them.”

“Oh. Thanks. What about the fire?” he said, focusing on that and dropping his other questions for now.

Alyssa’s grin dropped from her face as she became uncharacteristically serious. “The plains are gone, Boss. A small area to the south is still golden grass, but the rest of it was torched to raw earth. Good news is that it didn’t spread. I thought that forest would go up in flames too, but the fire burned right to the edge and then just stopped.”

“As long as the rest of the island isn’t a wasteland then it worked out ok,” he said in relief.

He stretched his arms and cracked his back before standing. He looked down and realized that his suit was in tatters. He really needed to get some new working clothes. He turned to Alyssa, fully awake, and asked about his other questions.

“No more raptors Boss. I don’t think they are coming back anytime soon. And yeah, all thirty eggs for the little lizard guys hatched. Some of them have some pretty odd abilities too,” she explained.

Matthias rubbed his hands together. That was perfect. His modifications worked at least on some level. Now he just had to rebuild his numbers. With the few remaining Golems and the large quantity he had to replace, along with repairs to the Masterwork he had his work cut out for him.

Nothing a bit of hard work wouldn’t fix.