“Get back!”

Ethan stood at the front of his group, Greybane resting against his green shoulder, its blade gleaming faintly with an ominous red hue. He scanned the area, his gaze sweeping across the darkened trees, their gnarled branches curling like skeletal fingers.

But the real danger came from below.

Something's coming, Sys stuttered.

Where the stitched-together claw of the unnamed beast had emerged before, now came an entire armada of desiccated limbs bringing mounds of dead flesh with them.

The first one emerged from the earth in a shower of dirt and debris—a grotesque monstrosity of mismatched flesh, its body stitched together like a grotesque patchwork quilt. A human torso sat atop monstrous legs, and one of its arms was replaced with a jagged sword, fused grotesquely into its shoulder. Its head was a pale, eyeless lump, and it let out a guttural roar as it charged at them.

Sys? Ethan asked as the creature surged towards them. What…are we looking at?

Enemy Identified: Flesh Golem

LVL: ???

HP: ???

That inspires literally no confidence at all. Are you seriously telling us you don’t know what the hell these things are?

These are not natural creatures, Ethan.

I have never seen their like in Argwyll.

Lamphrey hissed, her voice laced with unease. "These are…abominations. Creatures of dark magic. They are meant for nothing more than destruction"

"Yeah, I think we figured that out," Tara snapped, already flipping backward as the first Golem swung its sword-arm where she had stood moments before.

Ethan moved without hesitation, dashing forward with Greybane blazing in a wide arc. The blade connected with the Golem's torso, cleaving through the amalgamated flesh like butter. The creature staggered but didn't fall; its torso writhed, its severed flesh knitting itself back together.

"These things regenerate?!" Fauna cried, launching a bolt of fiery energy from her staff. It struck the Golem square in the chest, burning away chunks of flesh, but the Golem kept coming, its inhuman strength undeterred.

"We’ve dealt with worse. They can’t get back up if we break them all the way down," Ethan growled, spinning Greybane again and driving it deep into the creature's core. The blade's [Fade Slice] property activated, bypassing the regenerative barrier and severing the magical energy that bound it. The Golem collapsed into a heap of lifeless limbs.

"One down," Klax said grimly. "But there are more."

The ground erupted around them. More Golems emerged—ten, twenty, then more, clawing their way to the surface. Each one was a nightmare of mismatched limbs and twisted anatomy. Some were humanoid, others monstrous, with wings, claws, and even tails stitched crudely onto their forms. Their grotesque nature was matched only by the raw, primal rage they exuded as they charged the hybrids.

"Don't let them surround us!" Ethan shouted, his voice cutting through the chaos.

Klax lunged into the fray, his claws glowing with fiery energy as he tore into a Golem’s midsection, ripping it apart with brutal efficiency. Tara darted between their ranks, slicing at their exposed tendons and weak points with her daggers, her speed and agility unmatched.

Fauna held her ground, summoning a barrier to protect herself while she rained down destructive magic. Her firebolts exploded against the Golems, tearing through their patchwork bodies, but even her strongest spells struggled to keep them down.

Lamphrey muttered a low chant, her snake-like eyes glowing as she summoned spectral chains from the ground to ensnare one of the Golems. The creature thrashed against its bonds, but her magic held firm, allowing Ethan to step in and deliver a decisive blow with Greybane.

"Keep moving!" Ethan shouted as another wave of Golems surged toward them. "Don't let them overwhelm us!"

The hybrids fought with precision and teamwork, but the Flesh Golems proved to be a relentless foe. Every time one fell, two more seemed to take its place, their grotesque forms adapting and evolving with each wave. Some sprouted additional limbs mid-battle, while others began to mimic the abilities of the hybrids they faced.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

A Golem with a jagged maw lunged at Fauna, its monstrous teeth snapping inches from her face. She screamed and blasted it with a point-blank fireball, sending it reeling, but the attack left her vulnerable. Ethan darted in, Greybane flashing as he cleaved the creature in half, shielding Fauna with his own body.

"You okay?" he asked.

"Y-yeah," she stammered, her hands shaking. "Thanks."

"Don’t thank me yet," he muttered, his gaze fixed on the battlefield.

The tide began to shift as a new figure emerged from the chaos—a toweringGolem twice the size of the others. Its body was a nightmarish amalgamation of limbs and torsos, with six tentacled arms writhing like serpents and a massive, unblinking eye embedded in its chest. The eye glowed with an eerie red light, radiating malice and power.

Spectator

LVL: ???

"I don’t like the look of that thing," Tara muttered, backing away.

"Neither do I," Klax growled, his claws flexing.

The massive Golem let out an ear-piercing screech, and the air around it shimmered with heat. A moment later, a wave of searing fire erupted from its body, sweeping through the forest.

"Take cover!" Ethan shouted, diving behind a fallen tree as the inferno roared past.

The flames consumed everything in their path, reducing trees to smoldering husks and scorching the earth. The hybrids scrambled to avoid the blaze, but the heat was overwhelming.

"We can't keep this up!" Fauna cried, her barrier flickering under the strain.

Ethan gritted his teeth, his mind racing. The Golems were relentless, their tactics evolving with each passing moment. But he couldn’t let them win.

"Sys, give me some good news," he muttered.

In Sys’s reply, Ethan could sense some small degree of pride. Looks like his System was pissed that it had met something it couldn’t identify out here, and it’d been working like hell to correct that.

I’ve analyzed their structure. The leader’s core is exposed. Destroy it, and the rest should fall.

"Got it," Ethan said, his resolve hardening.

He turned to his companions, his voice firm. "Keep them off me. I’m taking down the big one."

Without waiting for a response, he charged toward the massive Golem, Greybane blazing in his hands. The creature’s tentacles lashed out at him, but he dodged and weaved, using [Skitter] to boost his speed and agility.

Klax and Tara flanked the smaller Golems, cutting them down with brutal efficiency while Fauna and Lamphrey focused their magic on keeping the leader distracted.

Ethan closed the distance, his heart pounding as he faced the towering monstrosity. Its glowing eye locked onto him, and another wave of fire erupted from its body. He raised Greybane, the blade absorbing the flames with its enchanted properties, and pressed forward.

"Come on, you ugly bastard," he growled, his voice filled with determination.

He leaped onto the Golem’s torso, driving Greybane into its flesh. The blade sank deep, and the creature let out a deafening roar, its tentacles thrashing wildly.

"Hold still!" Ethan shouted, twisting the blade as he climbed higher.

The Golem’s eye glowed brighter, and Ethan felt a surge of energy radiating from it. He gritted his teeth and channeled all his strength into a single, decisive strike, driving the blade into the creature’s rotten flesh.

The core shattered with a blinding flash of light, and the Golem let out one final, ear-splitting scream before collapsing. The smaller Golems faltered, their movements growing sluggish before they, too, crumbled into lifeless heaps.

Ethan stood atop the pile of corpses, his chest heaving as he looked out over the battlefield. His companions gathered around him, battered but alive.

"We did it," Klax said, his voice filled with exhaustion and relief.

"Yeah," Ethan replied, his gaze fixed on the horizon.

A slow, mocking clap broke the silence. Ethan turned to see the massive Golem leader, still partially intact, its tentacles slapping together in a grotesque imitation of applause.

As the forest burned around them, splintering apart against the unnatural flames of the corpse-army’s spells, one fold of fat opened beneath the creature’s unblinking eyeball.

And it began to speak.

“Exemplary, Archon Hat!” it slurred, steaming bile frothing from its fleshy ‘lips’. “A most exemplary display!”

Beside him, Ethan felt his companions shudder – but no one more than Lamphrey.

“That voice,” she hissed, “belongs to one who’s mind is warped beyond reason.”

It sounded more like a cackling child than a madman.

“The slow clap, ‘good job’ thing, really?” he said. “Tell me you’re a bad guy without telling me you’re a bad guy.”

The Spectator lifted its tentacles in a bizarre, grotesque gesture of apology.

“I must admit, I do enjoy a good bit of theatre,” it slurred. “Men like us must indulge in what pleasures we can, right?”

Without warning, the creature then inclined its bulbous body and bowed low.

“Doctor Haylock,” it gargled. “Warden of the Griffon and S-Ranked Blood Magus. Enchante.”

Pure, unbridled glee dripped from the creature’s every word. Against the burning forest and yellowed clouds above, the sound was a testament to insanity.

But more pressing was the content of the creature’s dark speech.

Blood Magus…

Yep, Sys whispered. As you probably already guessed, that’s nothing good.

“I have very much wished to look upon you with my own eyes since I heard of your re-awakening,” the Golem continued. “Apologies for greeting you in this form. Especially since you have brought such fine little creatures back into the light of Kaedmon’s world.”

The pupil of the beast dilated as its eye swept over the hybrid party, lingering on Tara.

She hissed. “This is getting weird,” she said. “I’m shutting this fucker up.”

Before Ethan could hold her back the Minxit was sprinting towards the unblinking fiend with gusto, blades flaring, ready to be plunged into its eyeball.

“Yes,” the creature spewed. “Such fine, feisty little things…”

Tara came within three inches of the beast before her arm went limp, dagger twisting in her grip. She shook, her tail going straight as a brush, and a sickening sound of snapping came from her arm.

Fauna gasped in horror.

“Tara?”

Tara turned to her friends, her eyes alight with fear and desperation – eyes that said she was trying to fight back against whatever invisible force held her.

“I do so love it when they fight back,” the ‘Doctor’ gargled. “Don’t you?”

Then she came charging right at them.