Knowing what to expect, they entered the tunnel which predictably sealed behind them and trapped them inside with whatever fresh hell awaited them.
“I swear, if it’s a room full of spiders again, I quit. I’m done with bugs.” Marshall said. Amy winced beside him and silently wondered if he’d just set them on a crash course with a room full of spiders.
To their relief, it was not a room full of spiders. It was probably something much worse. Peering into the room, the damp, mossy caverns were replaced by a nearly perfectly cubical space approximately one football field from edge to edge. The floor of the space was etched in a grid-like pattern with each square just large enough for a single person.
The most interesting component of this room was the large humanoid statue positioned at the other end of it. It resembled a massive stone paladin roughly 20 feet tall and carried a large heater shield in one hand, emblazoned with a golden rune, and an enormous stone sword in the other hand. The paladin wore a large stone helmet, however, where they would expect to see a face, they instead saw… wouldn’t you know it, a large, glowing, citrine crystal.
“Alrighty Marshall, hop on up there and grab that thing so we can jet.” Calvin teased.
“Sure!” Marshall agreed. “Maybe I can bandage it to death.”
Nothing seemed particularly dangerous just yet, no glowing spiders were dangling from the roof, which was a small weight off of their shoulders. Instead, six large discs were hovering near the top of the room, slowly rotating in an orbital pattern. Along the walls, some panels stood out from the rest by the nature of being illuminated. It was a clue if they’d ever seen one. Calvin desperately wished they’d come in with an instruction manual, thinking back to the map they’d seen displayed originally. He didn’t recall any particularly useful details from that map, however.
The nervous energy was rising as each of them wracked their brains searching for any dangers ahead of them. With great trepidation and care they slowly made their way into the room.
BOOM!
Behind them, a heavy stone panel slammed down, blocking their retreat back into the tunnel. Clanking and the sound of large metal gears grinding away cut through the silence that previously enveloped the room.
A great grinding sound pierced through the cacophony of noises as the statue at the far end of the room began to lumber forward, toward them.
“Isn’t this just great?” Marshall complained. “Did anyone remember to pack the dynamite?”
It was clearly Marshall’s attempt to mask his fear with humor, however, he did have a point. All that great gear they’d looted and none of it seemed particularly well suited to fighting a large stone behemoth. Their thoughts of being overpowered and waltzing through the rest of the dungeon without a care, dashed in an instant.
Ian fired off a quick experimental Enkindle. As expected, basically nothing happened. The flames licked the surface of the lumbering golem and barely charred the surface, seemingly causing no damage whatsoever. A quick Rock Shot had essentially the same effect.
The group began to take up an arcing defensive position, Calvin and Freya at the center with Seth, Ian, and Marshall pulling up the flanks. Amy moved around the edge of the room under the cover of her Static Cloak. Her role was to set up an ambush when the opportunity presented itself.
The construct didn’t move very fast. In fact, in the minute or so they’d been trying to figure this room out, it had only crossed less than 10 grid squares on the floor.
“Ok, it doesn’t look like we have the firepower to hurt this thing, and the system knows what we’ve got. There’s something we’re missing.” Calvin pointed out. He also motioned for Amy to hold her position while they discussed. “As of right now, that statue is slow as hell, so we can easily stay out of its attack range if the sword is all it has. Let’s make our way toward Amy and talk out a solution. Keep your eyes on that thing and shout if it does anything funky.”
The clanking and grinding continued to intensify as they moved across the room. Just as they’d arrived at Amy’s position and began to formulate a strategy, the clanking ended in a resounding groan followed an instant later by a splash.
The corner grid squares in the floor simply dropped away and splashed into a liquid below.
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The clanking resumed.
Calvin sprinted over to the nearest missing floor section and peered into the hole.
Of fucking course! he shouted in his mind, getting a worried response back from Freya through their link.
The hole had a depth of maybe 15 feet, terminating on the surface of what Calvin could only assume was an acid lake, based on the fact that the stone floor section sizzled and dissolved away at a rapid pace as it sank into the depths. He decided he didn't want to be there if another floor section gave out, and scrambled away from the opening.
He arrived quickly back at the group panting as he spoke his next words. “Our timetable has seriously stepped up. If we don’t figure this out fast, we’re about to become ceviche.” he quickly explained the situation.
Marshall turned towards the giant stone asshole before them and drew his pistol, firing off three quick rounds. The statue lifted its shield, the golden rune shining with a powerful luminous aura and intercepted all three rounds. Continuing its slow death march toward them.
“Well, I’m out of ideas.” Marshall said.
The clanking reached a crescendo again, and again it ended with another, much louder groan. This time, every section directly adjacent to an open hole dropped into the acid below. This bullshit was accelerating.
Calvin raced for a solution, his eyes scanning every available surface of the chamber they were in. The stone paladin was closing the gap quicker than they’d like.
Is it moving faster? Calvin thought in a panic.
Alright, they had floating discs, illuminated wall panels, a seemingly invincible statue, and stone floor tiles dropping into an acid lake. As his eyes darted around, they settled on the illuminated wall panel closest to him. In desperation, he slammed his hand onto it. One of the rotating discs abruptly paused its rotation, aimed at the statue, and fired an intense energy beam into it. The paladin brought its shield up to intercept the blow, negating the damage entirely but causing it to stumble backward a few steps. The wall panel was now dim but slowly beginning to illuminate again. Calvin slammed his down on the panel again with no response.
Grrrrrrkkkkk
More floor sections dropped into the acid below. The arena was shrinking at a rapid pace and they were quickly running out of space. They would soon find themselves in close quarters with the silent colossus.
“Guys, spread out! Get your asses to one of these wall panels. Slam it as soon as you get there.” Calvin ordered and the group set about their business.
Amy was the first to arrive at hers. She slammed the panel and again, a beam of high-intensity energy erupted from an orbiting disc and slammed into the titan. This beam arrived from behind the statue and it was not able to block it. Small pieces of stone crumbled off of the monolithic statue as it yet again stumbled several steps forward, however the damage appeared to be superficial. Judging by the recharge time of the panels, it didn’t seem likely they would be able to damage it enough before the floor gave out.
Marshall slammed his panel next, repeating roughly the same sequence of events. The beam chipped a few pieces and the paladin stumbled sideways.
Grrrrrrrkkkkkk!
Trouble was closing in on the group at a rapid pace. Many of the illuminated wall panels were now separated from the group by gaping holes in the floor and their freedom of movement to avoid the titan in front of them was severely diminishing. The paladin swung its sword in a mighty arc at Calvin, who was now within engagement range. In a desperate roll, he dove out of the way as the sword carved a huge furrow into the stone floor.
The panel Ian was moving towards was now inaccessible. He rounded up a Rock Shot and sent it smashing into the panel. Another beam erupted and smashed into the behemoth.
On this shot, Seth noticed a pattern. Each time they activated a panel, the disc closest to the panel was the one to fire.
He shouted to the group. “Everyone! Group up in that corner over there!” he pointed towards a section of the room that had 6 panels still illuminated, "Calvin, do what you gotta do to get that thing closer to the edge!"
Calvin immediately realized Seth's plan.
As the group made their frantic charge on Seth's orders, Calvin took the opportunity to do some risky bullshit.
Sprinting towards the massive statue, he slammed his spear into its leg. As expected, it had absolutely zero effect. Well, that’s not entirely true. It had two effects. The first being that the vibration of the strike resonated along his weapon and sent painful shock waves into his hands. The second… this seemed to piss the statue off.
That second point was exactly what Calvin was aiming for. The creature took another lumbering swing at him and again he dodged frantically, narrowly avoiding a rapid unscheduled disassembly of his head. Calvin began a slow, butt-clenching retreat towards the edge of the arena. He was quickly running out of runway, and they were running out of time. He needed to get this right.
He dodged another powerful swing sending him right to the edge of the floor. The grinding sounds in the air were getting louder and reaching the crescendo.
“Now!” Seth screamed.
Calvin's foot slipped off the edge and he tumbled forward to stop himself from falling into the acid abyss.
The stone golem had its sword positioned high above, readying an overhead swing that would surely pummel Calvin into a Calvin-shaped smear on the stone.
At that moment, five energy beams slammed into the colossus’ back all at once, sending it tumbling forward with powerful force, right over the edge and into the lake below.
Immediately the grinding and clanking stopped, the only sound that remained was the sizzling form of the stone statue as it dissolved away into the acid below.
The dissolved floor sections began to regenerate and rise out from the acid lake, carrying with them the head of the statue and the crystal it contained within.
“Whoooo!” Marshall shouted, accompanied by an exuberant fist pump into the air.