The golem continued sparking as Cass ran toward it and Alyx. She redirected arch after arch of lightning to the side. Where the lightning struck stone, monsters rose from the ground or emerged from the walls. They were gaunt creatures, their form hazy and indistinctly humanoid, ghostly and glowing electric blue.

Living Lightning

Lvl 15

[A piece of living storm, given body on a physical plane. Trapped in a lightning trap, they have been forced to guard this pathway until their spark expires.]

One got in front of Cass. She swung her staff through it. She didn’t have time to fight it.

Alyx was falling.

Her staff passed through it with barely any resistance.

It lunged for her.

Cass dodged around, its electric body buzzing over her skin.

Another materialized before her.

She summoned a Tempest Blade. Maybe like the living shadows of the Deep, only mana attacks could harm them and, like Mana Blade before it, Tempest Blade was imbued with her mana.

She sliced through the living lightning. Its form flickered in the gust. Enough for her to barrel through the thing.

Cass was almost there. Alyx was so close to the ground. Could she throw up a gust to slow her fall? There wasn’t time to second guess herself. She pulled up a gust with her staff and Elemental Manipulation, duplicating the trick she’d used to stop her fall earlier.

Alyx alighted softly on the ground a moment later. A gentle landing, but she wasn’t moving.

They were between the golem and the living lightning.

Focus: 325/441

Pellen shouted something arcane and the golem froze mid-swing on Marco. The guardsman switched from a guard to a wild series of sword strikes on the nearby lightning monsters. His sword shone red just before it struck the things.

They exploded as his sword sunk into them, spraying sparks of electricity over everything around them. Most hit his shield. He grit his teeth through the rest.

Cass was similarly surrounded. Behind her, the golem and Alyx, ahead, countless living lightning.

One of the living lightning charged. It moved. One moment, a yard in front of her. The next, it materialized in front of her in a spray of sparks and light.

Its hand raked through her. It burned where lightning claws touched slyphid flesh. Her muscles seized, but it wasn’t enough to paralyze her in place.

She swung her staff, the Tempest Blade at the end ripping through it. It sputtered out of existence, clearing the way for the next spirit. Cass swung again and again, cutting them down one after another.

Or maybe not?

They reappeared at the back of the crowd. Was it the same ones simply teleporting themselves to safety or were there simply an endless number of monsters?

One snuck around her, angling for Alyx, still prone behind her.

Salos appeared from nowhere, shadows clinging to his body. He swiped through the lightning, his claws glistening in the dark. The living lightning exploded in sparks.

Another appeared beside Marco.

This wasn’t working. Whether it was the same ones teleporting or an endless number, they wouldn’t last like this. They would be overwhelmed eventually. It was just a matter of time.

But what could they do about it? Pellen was preoccupied with holding the golem in place. She and Marco were just treading water. Alyx had gone for the core and had been incapacitated for the attempt. Cass had thrown Tempest Blade at it and it hadn’t done a thing.

Another Lightning spirit dissolved before Cass’s blade. Another.

How did one destroy a giant rock monster?

Did they need to destroy it?

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The thought hit her like lightning. She froze, the swing of her glaive catching in midair.

They actively didn’t want to destroy it. Every monster they left alive was an obstacle for Fioreya and Kohen.

They just needed to get across the room to the doors without the living lightning catching them or the golem crushing them. If Pellen could keep up what she was doing, that just left the lightning. The endless lightning.

Go tell Pellen to move toward the far door, Cass ordered Salos.

There are more pillars between us and it, you know, he warned.

Cass cursed under her breath. She had forgotten, too focused on the immediate problem. Best case, it was just another lightning trap. Worst case, they were more golems.

Either way, Pellen was not making it through on her own.

How is Alyx? Cass asked.

Breathing, Salos answered.

I can tell that much, Cass shot back as she cut down another pair of living lightning. How soon until she can move?

I think she is conscious if that’s what you’re asking. No idea how long the paralysis effect will last, though.

Cass grimaced. How did they get out of this one?

Retreat the way they’d come and regroup? And then what? That put them no closer to killing or sneaking past these things.

Could you get Pellen across the second pillar? Cass asked. Maybe if you took the cowl and had her wear it?

She could feel him thinking it over as he slashed through another spirit.

Not without a distraction, he said, which would also set off the pillar, so it would not help.

What about the golem? Could you hide her from it?

It does not seem particularly perceptive. Probably.

The ghost of a plan was coming together.

Step one: make everything a lot worse.

“Protect Alyx,” Cass said aloud and burst away before Salos could argue.

What do you mean, ‘Protect Alyx’? Don’t just run off! I know you can hear me.

Cass sliced through another wave of spirits, their bodies dissolving into sparks before her as she ran toward the next pillar, the gust of Stormstride Sprint announcing her presence.

There was not one but two pillars between them and the exit, to her dismay. But it would be fine.

She leapt into the range of the pillar, sharpening the Tempest Blade along her staff into a spear, narrow and piercing. Tempest Blade resisted the shape. A storm was sweeping. A storm was all-encompassing. Precision was not the business of storms.

Cass forced its shape anyway, her Will compressing it as she desired.

The pillar sparked, glowing with energy and gathering lightning from the air.

She stabbed at the monolith. It bit into the pillar’s face. A crack ran across it and the glassy surface shattered.

Chunks of obsidian fell around her, but she didn’t have time to wait to see if they formed another golem. She Stormed on to the next one, the next Tempest Blade already howling on her staff.

Cass! Salos hissed after her. There are too many for me to handle alone! What are you doing?

Another minute, Cass said.

The next pillar was already building lightning around it. Cass could feel it in the air. Like it knew what was coming and was preparing ahead of time. Or perhaps it had grabbed onto the energy the previous pillar had built but hadn’t gotten to use.

All Cass knew was there were seconds left before it went off. Could she break it before it did?

Maybe.

Her staff buzzed, the Tempest Blade vibrating as she ran.

Lightning sparked around her.

She would not make it. She needed to protect herself with Elemental Manipulation and grab the lightning. Could she do that and hold Tempest Blade as unruly as it was?

There wasn’t a choice. She pulled the lightning along her staff, pulled it away from her skin, corralled it along her blade.

It strained. The wind wanted to fly away. The mana wanted to spill out. The lightning wanted to explode in every direction. Her Will burned with the effort. Her Focus strained.

Focus: 276/441

But she held it.

And she slammed all of it into the pillar.

It exploded into a sea of shards. Lightning burst out uncontrollably from her blade and coursed down the pillar.

Cass! Salos shouted. He was overrun. There were too many spirits crowding around him and Alyx.

She needed to get back immediately. Already, the second pillar’s rubble was rumbling as a second golem woke.

She threw another Tempest Blade and stepped onto it, racing across the room back to Salos. Rather than step off immediately as she approached, she rode it, slicing through the gathering crowd. Tempest Blade laughed manically as the spirits dissolved into sparks before her.

“I’m back,” she said as she rematerialized and let the tempest die.

“Where did you go? Why did you go wake up more golems?” Salos asked. “We are struggling with the one!”

“I have a plan,” Cass said.

He groaned.

Cass pulled off her hood and held it out to Salos. “Go to Pellen, get her to the far doors, and tell Marco to get over here.”

“Fine, fine, fine,” Salos said, snatching the cowl from her hands in his mouth. But you better not die.

“Of course,” Cass said as he disappeared. Now she just needed to wait for Marco. And hope he got here before the two new golems.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Salos reappear on Marco’s shoulder before disappearing again with Pellen.