The golem sails through the space that I occupied not a moment earlier, and with a thunderous BOOM, it crashes into the floor in a dusty explosion as Screech parts from my shoulder, fluttering up and away, following my instruction as she creates a platform of stone from the wall with her magic.

Bringing my staff to full bare, I begin the motions of a spinning flourish to bring as much force as I can to the table against my attacker, but out of the corner of my eye I spot the other two golems rapidly shambling towards me at half of my turn.

They’re all rather short things, barely coming out to two feet tall by my guesstimations, and vaguely humanoid at that, a crude imitation of a primate with two red, faintly glowing eyes marked shoddily around their heads. Yet despite their… flawed craftsmanship, each of them unmistakably possess power ill-befitting of their forms if the first of the trio is anything to go by.

The force that the thing slammed into the ground with would’ve easily been enough to crush my cranium if it’d hit me dead on, and it wasn’t coming at me slowly either. To the less skilled man, they may have been caught completely off guard by the initial attack, having their brain matter mashed to a pulp.

Though, while they may have burst power, it seems that their base speed isn’t all that impressive. So…

Turning my back to the other two, I complete my rotation and bring my staff down on the first of the golems, striking towards it with as much force and momentum as I can muster in the moment.

As I thought, even though it seems to show some level of intellect, leaning back as if to avoid the strike, it lacks the… well, the agility to avoid something coming at it this quickly. So, landing a clean blow directly into the top of its skull, I deal!!! 24! Damage.

Welp, they’re level fifteen for a reason I suppose.

On top of that, despite just having its face bashed in with the equivalent force of a metal pipe falling from the Empire State Building, it doesn’t hesitate for even a moment, and lurches forward to grab my staff, gripping the end of it tightly with its misshapen hand.

…Huh. I’m not even gonna bother giving it a tug, it’s already obvious this thing will match me and more in strength, right? So instead…

I toss a sideways glance towards the other two golems as I feel Wailing Hunt get ripped out from my hands, but I don’t even bother trying to hold onto it, allowing it to slip away without throwing off my balance.

Noting that I still have a second or two before the other two reach me, I reach for the handle of Phantomcleave contained within Wailing Hunt and yank it out, grasping it with both hands as I step towards the encroaching duo. Oh, also, in addition…

I [Summon] Jasper right behind Golem numero uno.

I don’t even need to give her any instructions, she already knows what to do after all. Go, my [Hunter’s Mark]!

45!

Pardon?

Fourty. Five? From Hunter’s mark? The skill which I don’t think I’ve ever seen hit for less than a hundred damage? Well, damn. I’m already outta damn breath man I can’t have this fight last two ETERNITIES, PLEASE!

“!”

Twould seem Jasper feels much the same, and accompanying her shock at the lack of damage, I hear her let out an ear-piercing hiss. Actually, that one might just be from hitting literal rocks with her bare paws.

“Don’t let up, if it has a chance to regroup with its friends then this fight could get annoying.”

“Mm.”

I probably don’t even need to tell her that, but better safe than sorry. Now… I’d best do my part, even if it feels like my lungs are already about ready to shrivel up into a raisin.

…In all seriousness, this fight needs to end, like… right now. I probably should’ve taken it a bit slower to recover stamina, but the whole experience of this dungeon insofar has left me a bit agitated, I must not be in my right mind. But, that’s alright. As long as I can deal with these… it’ll be fine.

Steeling my resolve on the basis of that belief, I take another step forward and adjust my grip, two handing Phantomcleave, being the long ahh near greatsword it is.

Having crossed the distance that their brethren had a moment earlier, the other two golems crouch down for a moment just out of range of the cutting edge of my blade, before leaping up and into the air perfectly in sync with one another, cracking the ground beneath their feet with the force of the movement.

In the split second in which they do so, I swing Phantomcleave in a horizontal arc, aiming to slice through the both of them in one fell swoop. Parallel to me, Jasper strikes out with her other paw, aiming to bash her respective golem whilst it’s still off balance from her first hit.

Now, unfortunately, surprise surprise, Phantomcleave does not, in fact, rip both of the golems in two in a single hit. In fact, it barely deals a measly 25! Damage, making a horrendous CLANG as it makes contact with one of the golems flying towards me. Although alas, I utterly fail to dislodge it from its flight path, instead only managing to gently nudge it in the moment.

Fortunately, this is very much what I expected to happen given the priorly displayed resilience of the other one, and I have a plan! Pushing myself with the force generated from the collision, I slide to the right on the surprisingly smooth stone floor and out of the way of the two golems hurtling towards me at ludicrous speeds. I even manage to knock the one that I hit into the other, and they go-not-quite sliding across the floor that they smashed to bits via landing on it!

Simultaneously, Jasper lands yet another [Hunter’s Mark] on the first of the golems for another 52! damage, and she even manages to knock it airborne!

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While she’s popping off and landing a combo, I step back and take a moment to reposition, performing a standard flourish to put some normalcy into this fight. My lack of stamina is really stressing me out to be honest? That and we’re definitely on a time limit with Screech’s fire. If this fire lasts… more than a few minutes, we’re pretty much doomed?

[Hunter’s Mark] activates again as Jasper slams the golem back into the floor with an overhead strike, sending it hurtling back into the ground with a more meaty 62! damage. Why is her damage steadily rising…? Tut tut tut… oh, right, right, [Echoes Of The Wild Hunt]! The better version of [Aftercut] that Jasper had. I never really get to see it activate cause usually everything just dies after a single [Hunter’s Mark]...

That could actually be really helpful for dealing with these things, if we can just focus one down at a time…

Oop, that’s a bad situation right there. [Recall] her real quick!

Jasper pops out of existence as one of the other golems comes crashing down on where she was a moment earlier. Even after being sent for a tumble they recovered pretty much immediately, they’re hardy little things, I’ll give them that, even if they’re not exactly a sight for sore eyes.

“Jasper, I’ll keep it simple. This fight is on a time limit, if we don’t finish this in…” I give my and Screech’s stamina a quick peek, and…!

45/120

49/140

“...Give or take two minutes tops, we’re dead. We need to focus one down at a time and wipe it out, your skills will be essential for that, as usual.”

“Mhm.”

“All we need to do is activate Echoing Pursuit, and after we build up its stacks to the maximum, hit whichever golem has it with one or two good hits.”

All three golems finally regroup with each other despite my initial plans. I didn’t expect a slow heavy hitter, no matter how tanky, to survive a one on one encounter with Jasper, but well, here these golems are breaking past my expectations. How inspiring.

“Mhm.”

“Jerry, if I [Summon] you, just hit whatever’s in front of you. Capiche? And Screech, just keep that light on. If it goes out, I’m getting murderized.”

“...Okay,” they both speak in unison, though one’s clearly more enthusiastic about the situation.

Instead of breaking for me immediately, the three golems instead take a slower approach, stomping towards me with great force. No, that’s not a joke, they’re literally crushing the floor beneath their feet.

One of them is severely battered and bruised, or in this case, cracked and flaking. One has a little dent in its side, and the last is untouched… Wait, did Phantomcleave really only cut that deep?

I take a quick glance at my sword and OH MY GOODNESS! The blade is nearly broken! There’s literally a massive chipped out dent in its side! Wasn’t this thing supposed to be unbreakable? Or, no… something about it being possible to reshape it?

Rapidly scrolling through my menu as the three stooges approach at a snail's pace, I re-equip Wailing Hunt and shortly after, plunge Phantomcleave back inside of it, sheathing the blade with a snap.

Don’t be broken, don’t be broken, don't be broken, thank you please!

And I pull the sword out!

You know I was totally about to make a joke about that doing absolutely jack shit, but the sword is actually fixed! Holy moly! Phantomcleave is pristine! Or well, as pristine as a traditional longsword can really be. It looks like a new sword that’s seen a bit of use, you know?

Well, anyways, with that settled, I sheathe it immediately. Not having the sword be broken is cool and all, but I kind of think blunt force trauma is going to work better against rocks than a sword that can’t cut through them. Y’know? Even if Phantomcleave does, by technicality, have a higher damage boost than Wailing Hunt, I can’t have the entire thing breaking in two or three hits and leaving me in a bind. Better to just leave it for a fallback option, like if one of the goobers try to grab my staff again.

Now… speaking of those goobers, it’s about time they bring it on… Realistically speaking, my best option is going to be to target the most damaged one first for obvious reasons. First, I’ll [Fable Bearer] Jasper as much MP as I reasonably can, so… eesh, transfer her 20 MP at a 2:1 ratio, given it takes 1 MP for every 2 transferred. And she’s back to nearly full.

“Just hit whatever I summon you in front of, I’ll bring you out when we have the opportunity to whale on one of them, got it?”

“Mm.”

“Jerry, you’re included in that, the more hits the better.”

“...Okay.”

Settling my full attention back on the three golems, I scan them over for damage…

Erm, what the hell? The golem at the front, being the one that I slashed, no longer has a slash mark at all, the stone seemingly having mended itself. And as for the one that Jasper gave a bashing… it’s… nearly fully recovered…?

…Surely that’s just visual, right?