“I’m full,” Pellen announced a little while later.
Cass’s Focus has recovered too, but her Health was a long way off.
Stamina: 129/129
Focus: 441/441
Health: 41/114
“Let’s get moving then,” Alyx said. To Salos, she added, “Lead the way.”
He nodded and hopped down from Cass’s shoulder. “This way.”
They followed him through the dark corridors of the Storehouse. Another couple of hallways and they found themselves in front of the stairs leading down again.
“After you,” Salos said to Alyx. “The way down, as promised.”
Alyx snorted. “Don’t pretend that this side jaunt was about the shortcut.”
“But it was a shortcut.”
Alyx glared at him, but let him have the last word.
They traveled down another floor, arriving in a wide room with a cavernous ceiling. It was easily the biggest room she’d seen down here, at least as big as the arena field in the coliseum above.
Several pillars stood throughout the room. Each was wider than Cass was tall and made from glistening black stone. Runes ran up and down their length, glowing visually in greens and purples and blazing the same to Cass’s Mana Sense.
“Stop!” Marco barked, grabbing Pellen’s collar and pulling her back while the rest of the group froze.
Lightning arched off the pillar, filling the room with the smell of burnt ozone. It settled back into quiet as if nothing had happened.
“What was that?” Pellen squeaked.
“Pillar o’ Lightning,” Marco said. “There are a couple on this floor. They go off if you get too close to ‘em.”
They were still standing five or six yards away from it, barely inside the room. This was too close?
“How do we get through?” Cass asked. She could probably get through on her own with Wind Step, Dodge, and Elemental Manipulation, but she didn’t think she could keep that much lightning off a group this large for as long as it would take to cross the room.
“I was hoping Fioreya would have taken them out already. I didn’t expect to beat her down here,” Alyx admitted. “But I think I can destroy the pillar from here.”
She drew her sword, the amber glow of her aura coating the blade. She held it, letting the light surge around her. When it had grown too bright to look at, she swung, throwing the blade across the room. The amber crescent arched through the air, striking the center of the pillar with a crash of light and sound.
The stone cracked and the pillar crumbled. The lights glowing along its length dimmed as it fell.
“Easy,” Alyx said, striding forward.
“Your wanton destruction is as impressive as ever,” Salos said, stalking forward behind her.
But something was off. It itched at the back of Cass’s mind. The hairs stood on end along her neck.
“Did you have a better idea?” Alyx asked him.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.
Salos bristled. “If not for your highly conspicuous presence, I would have slipped across without so much as setting off their sensors.
Trap Detection whispered something was coming.
What was it? What was coming?
Nothing was moving.
There were no new mana sources.
The air was still.
But something was coming.
“A shame we had to destroy it,” Pellen said, looking longingly at the rubble in the center of the room.
Cass’s eyes widened as she saw it. “Pellen get back!”
Trap Detection has increased to level 3.
Cass Sprinted forward. Pellen’s head tilted as she turned toward Cass, confusion dominate in her eyes.
The rubble shook. It rose.
Cass threw herself forward, throwing all her Strength into her leg muscles. She threw Pellen down as the rubble exploded over them.
Pellen screamed.
Alyx and Marco’s alarm joined the air.
“Cass, get out of there!” Salos shouted.
Above her towered an enormous golem, lightning arching off its body in every direction.
Obsidian Golem
[The Averenis family was once famous for their autonomous constructs. The Obsidian Golems were once their signature guardian, powerful enough to stop Ascending warriors in their tracks and able to reconstruct themselves from even the smallest shards. Though the years and successive reconstruction have significantly degraded these capabilities, they remain steadfast guardians of their master’s most valuable treasures.]
It lifted a foot over them, wider across than Cass was tall. It was all she could see.
Hell.
She rolled, dragging Pellen with her. Pellen’s scream had transitioned into a frantic chant.
The foot came down.
Marco rushed the golem, his shield striking its stationary leg with a crashing impact. The golem shook, off balance.
Cass took the chance and swung her staff.
She instinctively grabbed at Wind Blade, only to remember the skill was gone. It was like walking down a flight of stairs she’d traveled a hundred times, certain she knew the number of steps, only to find one more than she thought at the bottom.
Her heart skipped a beat as her metaphorical foot expected to find solid ground, only to find empty air.
The golem’s foot fell.
Cass scrambled. The metaphorical foot landed. She found Tempest Blade.
A gale roared to life along her staff, the blade forming from twisting wind all slicing at the surrounding air, begging to be released on a foe. Cass threw it with all her Will.
It and the golem collided. The golem staggered back.
Alyx leapt, her sword striking it across the chest.
The foot came down, delayed only a handful of seconds, but delayed enough to land on Pellen’s summoned shield. The shield glowed red immediately, no match for the golem’s immense weight and power.
Cass pulled them out of the way just as the shield failed. It crashed down behind them as they scurried out of the way. Cass gave the little mage a push, sending her running before turning her attention to the golem.
It was a towering creature, standing at half the height of the original pillar, humanoid in form, with clubs for arms and pillars of broken stone for legs. It was a construct of glossy black stone and wreathed in electricity. Its head was a ball of writhing lightning.
Mana Sense said that the head was the core.
She activated Tempest Blade again, drawing the surrounding air into a vibrating blade. Wind Blade had been content to sit on her staff indefinitely, but Tempest Blade had no such patience. It wanted to fly, to expand, to cut.
That was fine. She wanted the same.
She threw the gathered blade of wind at the golem’s head. Then another. And another at its chest. Tempest Blade wanted to keep going. For the winds to keep flying.
Yet, they passed harmlessly through the golem’s lightning-ball head and buffeted off its chest, leaving only the thinnest spiderweb cracks in the obsidian.
Meanwhile, it swung at Alyx, one of its clubs for arms crashing into the stone floor as she dodged out of the way. Her sword returned the attack, biting into the golem’s arm, a large flake of black stone breaking away with her sword.
The golem didn’t notice, sweeping its arm over the ground at Alyx.
Marco stepped between them. His shield flared with red light as the club hit it, but the golem stopped in place.
Alyx darted around him, leaping onto the golem’s arm and running up its length. She swung down on the ball of lightning, her sword wrapped in her amber aura.
The lightning exploded as the sword pierced the ball, filling the room with lightning. Cass grabbed the lightning near her with Elemental Manipulation before it could strike her, sending it back at the golem. Marco blocked with his shield. Pellen was standing far enough back.
Alyx took it at point blank, her body going limp. She dropped from its shoulder.
Hell.