Minutes pass without stirring on the other side of the door. This alone tells me that there were no Ratmen on the other side of the door. Even if the room was bigger than anticipated, by now they would have been choking and sputtering and trying to escape. Unless that is, there was a room beyond this one. For now, however, the room beyond here must have been safe.

“Oh Undines, you that dwell within the rains and the sea, flow through me.”

As the incantation finishes, a trickle of water flows through the end of my staff and drowns the fire. Even though I was sure it was safe beyond, I went back to where the other bodies were near the room I had locked myself in and picked up the shield that had been thrown at me. The spike was truly embedded into the shield, so much so that it had actually torn the leather strap that held it onto the arm. Even then, however, there would be some merit to holding onto it. Or so I tell myself.

I hurry across the bridge and push through the door with the shield raised in front. Just as I had suspected; no Ratmen came out to meet me. A long hall protruded from the door that I had just entered and ended at a large gate with a black metal ring hanging on its front. Black smoke wafted through it; clinging to the high ceilings. The hall couldn’t be more than a yard across width wise, and about twenty yards length-wise.

A Ratman; who wore a white mask over its shout, had been posted outside of the gate, and, as he saw me, he stuck a small bell that he had been carrying me three times, then dropped it and raised his shield.

“An awl, O’ thou servants of Gob the Highest, to strike my enemies.”

It took a moment for the released mana to reach the foot of the creature, but when it did a large spike shot forth through the ground and pierced him through the chin. After that, I held my staff in front of me. The clamor of an approaching mass lets me know of the approaching force.

“Bombard my enemies, O’ thou servants of Gob, the magnomious.”

The mana seeps from my feet and wraps around a large section of the stone floor. I will it into take a more conical shape, and the mana obeys. A large conical stone separated from the floor.

Spin.

The stone obeys my command, and it spins in place. Black smoke wraps around it as I hold it in place above the ground, and aimed at the gate. Ready for whatever comes. The clamor is close, now, and I ready myself for combat.

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With a heavy groan, the gate buckles and is thrown off its hinges. It skips across the floor like a stone across a placid lake. I let the spinning boulder loose. It howls as it rips through the air, though I was a little too slow. The rim of the gate strikes my solar plexus and throws me rolling head over heels backward.

The whole room shakes, and I look up. Down the hall was a giant, manlike creature made of animated mud. The large stone bullet had torn a chunk out of its body. It stood there, at the end of the hall near the broken gate. The mud that had been blown off of its body squirmed and writhed on the ground like bubbling magma. All at once, they ripped through the air and repaired the damage done by the bullet.

It moved forward like a living wave; crashing through the hall like a current of mud. I spring to my feet and dive toward the door as that wave came rushing toward me. It slammed against the wall near where I had just been. The stone cracks.

“Bombard my enemies, O’ thou servants of Gob, the magnomious.”

I aim the coming stone at the center of the reforming creature. The boulder passes through the mud like...well a stone through a mud puddle. The golem reforms, and slams its large fist toward me. I couldn’t scramble to my feet quickly enough, instead, I roll over and hold up my shield in front of my face. The force of the flowing mud pushes me further into the ground. I push back with my shield, to keep the mud from my mouth and nose. The spike lodged into the shield stabs into my right cheek.

As the force of the golem’s mud continued to push, the spike was pushed further and further into the fatty skin and splits the cartilage like a wedge through a log. I grit my teeth, and the spike stops against them. Still, however, the force presses against my jaw. A pained whimper breaks from my throat, and my eyes burn hot with tears. Hot? What happens with mud when it is heated?

“I implore thee, o’ mighty Djinn.” Each syllable was spoken through my grit teeth. Each syllable tore the flesh more and more. “Thou creatures of flame and wind and beauty. Come to my aid.” My fingers tremble as I grip the staff.

The fire and wind mana join together in a dance all around me. The mud, first, rips away from me, and hardens as the heat of the flames passes through it. The ‘hand,’ of the golem shatters into a thousand pieces like broken terracotta.

The mana flows from my every pore and sustains the small dervish around me. I will it forward, toward the center of the creature. The flames tingle and burn my hair and skin as it passes over me, but I continue the flow of mana. Pain, or death, I have to choose. As the flaming slams into the golem, it splatters into a thousand pieces of hardened clay. A few of these shards lodge into my legs and embed themselves in the rings of my mail, and into the soles of my bare feet as I am laid out on the ground.

Blood flows freely down my face and stains my hoodie as I pull the spiked shield out of my cheek. Intense pain wracks my body, as I lay on the ground, writhing, and clutching my wounded cheek. Sputtering breaths send fresh spurts of blood like frothing foam from a rabid animal out of the hole in my cheek.

The shards of clay, wetted by my blood, begin to wriggle and pull themselves free from my flesh. The fight’s not done. I couldn’t afford to lay there.