Chapter 5: Battle of the Forest Temple
The Dryad paced the entrance to the ruin, its body was charred, but it clung to life, waiting for its prey to emerge, as they most certainly would have to. The flames that had engulfed it had died out, but were nothing short of crippling to the beast. It grew more curious with sounds of thudding within the ruins, drawing closer and closer to the small entrance. It moved to lie close to the ground, trying to see into the barely man sized hole. It drew closer and closer, almost able to see within.
Crack! With a thunderous roar, a bolt of blue and yellow lighting shot from the hole, piercing through the eye of the monster, and blasting through the other side of the Dryad’s head. It thudded to the ground, as Balthazar stepped out of the ruins, cautiously looking for signs of the other monsters. His fingers still sparkled with electricity from the spell, though with a quick shake of his hand, the sparks faded. More thudding, as Miles scrambled out behind him, trying to get out of the way as Faust burst through the rocks still lining the ruin entrance. The golem seemed to hum with satisfaction at stepping outside. As it stood up straight, no longer hunched over as within the old lab, it towered over the pair of magicians, at nearly nine feet tall, not quite the size of the Dryads, but no less imposing.
“Went straight for the head, huh?” Miles peeked over at the body nervously, eyeing the still smoldering wound.
“Not taking any chances. I’m just glad that thing got curious.” Balthazar kept the sword at the ready, just in case the thing wasn’t dead yet. From the corner of his eye, he could have sworn he saw some of the vines twitch a little. He moved to enchant the blade and finish it, but there was no need, Faust immediately placed its heavy foot over the monster’s head and stomped down, leaving a splattering of green slime. Balthazar and Miles stood in a stunned silence for a moment. “Good work, Faust. But where could they be?”
The golem hummed in a tone that almost seemed to be pride. It removed its foot, and stood sentry as Balthazar tried finding his bearings, using the scorch marks to figure out where they had come from, and try and guess where they had been going. The Golem pointed towards what appeared to be another, much larger structure in a clearing. Again, it hummed, insistently.
“No point not checking it out. Miles, keep an eye up top, just in case they try ambushing us from above again.” Balthazar moved towards the location Faust had pointed out, moving as quietly as they could with a golem moving through the brush with them. As they got closer, it became clearer why Faust had pointed this location out. “I think this place is some sort of temple.” Coming closer revealed more white stone beneath dirt and moss, though, not in the same type of construction as the lab. As Balthazar came to the foot of the structure, it became clear that this was older still than the lab. Markings even he couldn’t decipher littered the stone that he found visible. It was similar to old Mage’s script, but distinct all the same, none of Linian, Arcadian, or Arcanan runes lining up. One symbol seemed to recur more than any other, Balthazar reached out to touch it, stopping on hearing the Faust hum, to alert him and bring him back to reality.
It hummed quietly, pointing to one of the Dryad’s climbing near the top of the temple, a red flower in its head like the one they had just slain. Balthazar and Miles clung to the side of the temple, hoping they wouldn’t be seen. They stayed perfectly still, watching as Faust hid itself in the form of a pile of rocks. They heard more thudding as the Dryad moved away, towards an entrance at another side of the temple. Balthazar crept around the wall of the structure, trying to get a feel for the scale of the temple. It was impressive in its height, nearly forty feet in height, and imposingly wide to match. One of the walls had a hole eroded through by traffic and time, roots spreading in and out. Observing the rounded shape of the building and roof, Balthazar found it oddly similar to an observatory, though surely, no observatory would have so much dedicated rune work. The pair of mages crept up to the opening in the wall, Faust slowly following, waiting for orders. Miles quietly reached into his bag, and pulled out a small mirror, passing it to Balthazar, who had a similar idea.
Balthazar held out the mirror, using it to safely survey corners he couldn’t see without peeking out. Three Dryads, two with red flowers on their head, and a third, much larger one with a blue flower on its head. They stood around a pile of bodies in soft, dark soil, where the ceiling had been broken to allow light through. The bodies were long since dead, though thankfully, the others didn’t make it up, instead being filled by deer,a decomposing bear, and long other miscellaneous bones. Balthazar kept moving the mirror around, trying to see where Alice and the others were, finding them bound by detached vines in a different cluster. Still conscious, he could see them trying to break free, but they were given little in the way of movement. Balthazar passed back the mirror. “Any clue what’s going on?”
“I think they’re using those bodies as fertilizer, to eat, since they don’t have mouths, but this seems excessive. Unless… They’re budding, if they’re going to have young to feed, that would be enough.”
Balthazar grimaced. “I’m not letting my friends get fed to them, either way. But there’s not a good way of trying to rescue them. I didn’t see any other entrances, and if we try to draw them out here, we’ll be without help from the others.” Balthazar turned to Faust, a bit nervous, not sure how well the golem would fare against the Dryads that were still in peak condition. He didn’t like the idea of sending Faust on what could possibly be a suicide mission, golem or not. “I’m going to need your help, Faust. Miles, you and I are going to rescue the others. Faust, I need you to distract the Dryads for a little bit, and we’ll be there as soon as possible to help finish them off.” Faust hummed in acknowledgement, and started looping around the temple.
“Balthazar, why not just make a run for it? It could probably hold them off long enough for us to escape. We can afford to sacrifice it.”
“I don’t do sacrifices, Miles, what he’s doing is risky enough.”
“It is not a pet, Balthazar, and it’s not a person. Can you make the tough call, or can’t you use it like a tool?”
“No, Miles, just like I wouldn’t sacrifice you either if he wasn’t here. That sacrifice couldn’t guarantee our escape in the long run. Besides, you throw things away, and they lose value to you. The last thing I’m throwing away is another life, even if it takes a form like that. Or like you.”
Miles was quiet at first, but nodded. “Alright, I just hope it didn’t decide to wander off.” The two waited, getting ready to make a run for the others. Miles’ shaking with fear was all too obvious to Balthazar. He placed a hand on Miles’ shoulder to ground him, reminding him he was there with him.
Balthazar leaned over to peer into the temple, seeing the Dryads start performing some odd ritual, in which they laid down their vines as roots, descending closer to the ground, and placed their heads together, their flowers blossoming wider. They made an odd droning noise, but as soon as it started, the wall behind them burst open, a stony fist punching through. Faust grabbed the nearest Dryad by the neck with its stony fingers, and violently yanked it through the hole the golem had made, in the process making a hole larger still. The other two turned to face the golem, who beat down on the Dryad it had taken with its heavy stone fists, each impact ringing out with the cracking of wood. Balthazar sprinted across the temple, Miles shortly behind him, coming to a near sliding stop as he reached Alice and the others.
Alice looked at Balthazar with surprise and relief. “Balthazar?!”
“Hold still for a second!” Balthazar carefully guided Locke’s sword to cut the vines so she could free herself, immediately turning to Locke and Atma to do the same. She sprung to her feet, trying to help where she could.
“What is that thing?!” Atma’s voice was filled with a mixture of shock, horror and excitement, seeing Faust fight with the Dryads.
“That’s Faust. He’s with us, but we have to hurry, I don’t know how long he’ll last!” Balthazar made mode cuts along the vines binding Prince Atma and Locke, though they were more easily able to break free. They scrambled to leave any of their things that weren’t weapons and equipment, Balthazar moved to pass Locke his sword back. “Kept it safe, but the sheath wasn’t so lucky.”
“Just glad you’re safe, forget the sword. Hold onto it for now, I think you’ll need it more.” Locke drew his broadsword from its sheath, just as Atma readied his spear. “I’ll follow your lead on this one, Balthazar.”
Atma nodded in agreement. “You seem to be the one with the plan.”
Balthazar would have felt choked up in any other circumstance, but in that moment, confidence wasn’t an issue, his mind felt clear. “We move together. Locke, Atma, you focus on keeping them occupied, Miles and I will worry about taking them down, Alice, you keep everyone on their feet, support as needed.”
“Right!”
“Understood!”
A heavy impact sounded out as Faust hit the ground, the blue-flowered Dryad wailing on the golem with its heavy wooden fists, while one of the reds struggled back to its feet, heavily beaten, parts of its limbs nearly splattered, and its head partly caved in. The third had its chest checked open, slime oozing from the opening, as it helped to attack the downed Faust.
“Move!” Balthazar rushed towards the monsters, their backs perfectly exposed. Mindful not to bring the temple down on top of them, he went to ignite a fireball in his hand, rather than to set off a larger explosion on their location. The flame grew larger and larger, until it was larger than his head, when he hurled it into the back of the neck of the blue Dryad. Like its brother before, it flailed in agony as the flames exploded onto its body, burning away at its vulnerable neck. It hit the ground and rolled about away from the others, as if to try extinguishing itself.
Faust saw the opening, and slugged the more heavily beaten Dryad, green covering its fist. The third grabbed the golem’s extended arm, and placing its foot on Faust’s chest, slammed the golem back into the ground, and pulled the arm free, with a great cracking noise, and heavy thud as the arm hit the ground. With surprising agility for the bulk of his armor, Atma sprung forward ahead of the group, and leapt into the air, spear in hand, launching, and driving his spear into the Dryad’s back. It bucked around, trying to throw him off, only being free of him as it tried ramming itself into a nearby pillar to crush him. Atma pulled his spear form the monster, and leapt back off, as Miles clapped his hands together, sending a spike of earth towards the beast, erupting from the ground. It attempted to block with its arms, only barely succeeding, the tip of the spike slightly piercing its chest, widening the hole left by Faust.
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The weaker Dryad turned to face them, too slow in doing so, as Balthazar pitched another ball of flame, once again throwing it off balance, as he closed the distance, Locke and Alice in tow. “Let’s tear him apart! Locke, go for the legs!”
Wordlessly, Locke moved in, ducking under a swing by the creature, and with a single clean swing of his blade, severed the knee, still made of vines. He was quick to fall back, anticipating Balthazar and Alice’s follow up. “Finish it!”
“Ignite!” A burst of red flame lit up the Dryad, a smaller, more controlled explosion. As the flames raged, Balthazar made a gripping motion with his hand, the flames compressing, growing more intense as they shackled the monster to the ground, the smell of burning intensifying.
With a swipe of Alice’s hand through the air, Balthazar’s flames intensified, her wind magic kicking up a cyclone on top of the Dryad. Rather than suffocate the flame, the magics intertwined the flaming cyclone burning so hot as to leave black scorch marks on the stone itself, the Dryad being turned almost entirely to ashes. “That’s one!”
“Focus on the other red one!” Balthazar moved to help Miles and Atma. When it tried throwing a punch or kick, Atma would intercept with his shield, trying to bash the blow to the side, rather than take it head on. As Balthazar ran side by side with Locke, he snapped his fingers, a red blade igniting along Locke’s broadsword, and expanding its length and width. “Try that on for size!”
Locke readjusted his grip for a two handed swing, the dryad turning to face him too late. Balthazar focused his magic more intensely on the blade, enhancing it further, the extension of the blade cleaving through even the stony earth cleanly to leave a blistering slash up the Dryad’s leg, up to its chest, the soft aloe within popping with the pure heat of the blade, and the hard woody exterior blackened and red. A glowing red crack in it steamed with the aloe interior of the Dryad, as it stumbled back.
Before it could regain its footing, Atma followed up, throwing his spear into the gaping hole worn into the monster by the battle, burying it so deeply that the tip nearly peeked out of the other end.
Miles raised his hand into the air, lining up his fingers with the spear in the Dryad’s chest, and with a swift downward swipe, a bolt of lightning came crashing down, finding the spear as a lightning rod. The monsters jolted around as its body course with pure electricity, before finally coming to a stop, its body steaming and oozing more aloe. “Only one left! We’ve got this!”
“Don’t drop your guard,” Atma reminded him, a resolute calm in his voice, he had his shield up, not wanting to drop his guard and break for his spear, still lodged in the Dryad. “This last one seems different, a leader maybe?”
The Blue Dryad worked itself back to its feet, parts of it very much charred black by Balthazar’s magic, but extinguished from its panicked rolling. It eyed the Dark Mage with what could be described as no less than pure hatred. It got to its knees, and raised its hands, the hands bursting back into vines, which it drove into the earth. Faust, back on its feet, charged the Dryad, ready to swing at it with its remaining arm, but was bound all too quickly by the creature returning its legs to vines, constricting the golem’s joints, and squeezing harder and harder, the sound of stone chipping and cracking.
Balthazar moved to burn away at the vines holding the golem, as he did so, he heard stone burst apart behind him, turning to see the vines that made up the Dryad’s arms appear behind him, sprouting thorns, and lunging at him with intent to run him through. He gritted his teeth in anticipation, knowing he wouldn’t be fast enough to stop all of them. Atma rushed to try and guard, putting his shield up, most of the vines impacting with his shield, but a stray vine slashing his side, another whipping the sword from Balthazar’s hand. The sheer force put into the attack saw him rammed into Balthazar, and the two sprawled onto the ground, groaning in pain from the hit.
As the vines rose to strike again, a frigid gust blew over them, freezing them in place into thick casings of ice. Alice closed the distance to Balthazar and Atma, confident her ice magic would hold off an assault on that front at least. “Locke, Miles, keep me covered while I heal them!”
Locke nodded, grimacing as the fire enchantment wore off of his broadsword with Balthaar’s broken focus on the spell. He moved for the fallen arming sword at Balthazar’s side, dropping his shield. Dual wielding wasn’t his forte, as he twirled the second blade in his off hand, but his shield wasn’t going to be as effective against an onslaught of vines, and he was strong enough that he wouldn’t be weighed down by using both blades. He slashed and parried as more burst from the ground. He wasn’t sure how long he would last, as it felt like they just kept coming, no matter how many he cut down. “Miles!” His gaze drifted briefly to the other Dark Mage.
Miles shuddered, and he bobbed and weaved out of the way of vines, freezing as he realized he was surrounded, panic filling his eyes. “I-I don’t want to die, please-”
“Hit the ground!” Balthazar groaned and coughed as he started getting back to his feet, aiming with his off hand, while Alice tended to his still numb right hand. Miles still shuddered, as the vines coiled back to strike. “Now!” Balthazar couldn’t tell if he had heard him, or if the fear had made him drop, but Miles hit the ground as crescent blades of wind soared over him, severing more of the vines.
Atma stumbled back to his feet, Locke giving him a hand up. “That feels a bit better. Thank you, both of you.”
“Thanks later, fight now,” Alice answered.
“Sir, take this.” Locke passed Atma his arming sword, as he severed another attack from the Dryad. The prince took a quick feel for the blade, and took a defensive stance to help Locke defend, shield in his right hand, blade in his left.
“Ready again!”
As Balthazar tried reassessing the situation, he looked in horror as the Dryad raised Faust into the air, with an incredible strength to its vines. “Scatter!” He grabbed Alice and dove, as the golem hit the ground and rolled where they had been moments prior, kicking up dirt and dust.
Faust hummed weakly, the lights of its eyes flickering.
“Faust!” Balthazar called out, but he had little time to react, as the Dryad stomped up to him and Alice, as they lay on the ground, its damaged vines returning to the form of a fist, ready to crush them. Faust reached out, catching the blow, only to receive another to its head. Nearly rolling again, the golem catching itself, holding itself up off the ground as it took blow after blow, hovering over Balthazar and Alice to shield them from the relentless attacks. A chunk of his head was missing from the heavy blow it had taken, one of its eyes cracked, and no longer glowing. Faust seemed to nearly buckle under each blow, but it held in defense of the two mages, humming resolutely. Balthazar was horrified, seeing the golem take such a beating. He rolled out from under the golem’s guard, and blasted the Dryad in the head with a bolt of lightning from his fingertips, though this Dryad was most certainly made of more durable material, the bolt striking, and leaving a small hole, but not a decisive deathblow.
Once more the Dryad turned its focus to Balthazar, ready to strike, when Atma leapt to its back, driving his blade in deep where on a human, the spine would be, where the ribcage ended. The prince pivoted on its back, dodging its swings as it tried crushing him. As it swung around, he mustered up his strength, twisting and turning the blade into the beast’s wooden skin, creating an opening to its soft insides, leaping off as it turned its back to Balthazar and Alice, taking the blade with him.
Alice waited for her opening as the monster tried bucking him off, tracing her finger in the air, a crystalline shard of ice forming and hovering where her finger had been. She saw the opening the prince had left, not very big, but big enough for her to make the shot. With a throwing motion, the shard followed a path guided by her arm, piercing into the softer flesh of the Dryad, which rumbled loudly in pain. “Die already!” She held her hand out, as if holding the crystal of ice, and made a crushing motion. From the shard in the body of the Dryad, large crystals of ice burst out, piercing through other parts of the monster’s body, to which it toppled over, its life hanging on by a thread, ice spreading across its body.
In a last ditch effort, the monster’s limbs burst into vines once more, lashing out randomly, violently. In a flash, Alice conjured a barrier of light holding off the endless barrage. With a heavy stomping of getting back to his feet, Faust stood, unafraid of the danger, charging the monster, and grappling with it with its one arm, holding it in place as the monster struggled. Faust hummed insistently, it wouldn’t be able to hold the dying monster for long.
“Finish it!” Balthazar reached out his hands, Locke and Atma’s blades igniting once more with intense flame. The two moved swiftly, as the golem struggled to keep its hold, Atma moving from the right, Locke the left. Atma leapt into the air again, and drove his blade into the Dryad’s eye, while Locke ran it through where its heart would be. They backed off, leaving the blades in, as Balthazar clapped his hands together, the flames enchanting the blades burning with an unmatched intensity, the body popping, and erupting in flames so intense, they started to turn blue. Balthazar cried out, matching the intensity of his fires until the creature stopped moving. The flames cut out, as Balthazar snapped his fingers, the Dark Mage panting in exhaustion, as they watched the Dryad crumble into pieces of blacked charcoal and ashes. The blades clattered to the ground, unharmed by the blaze they had served as a catalyst to.
Locke coughed, wafting away the smoke from the bodies. “We did it… we actually did it.” He collapsed to the ground, the intensity of the fight wearing on him.
“I always said you’d be a great knight,” Alice reassured him. “Thanks for keeping us safe, Locke. I owe you my life.”
Atma retrieved his spear, looking to the group with pride. “I can’t say I was expecting any of this, but I can’t thank you all enough. This wouldn’t be possible without everyone here.”
Weakly, Miles stood in the background, a trembling guilt covering his face. “I failed back there. Horribly.”
“You were afraid,” Atma corrected, “And there’s no shame in that. I was too. We all were. Stand tall, you live to see tomorrow, something you more than earned.” He patted Miles on the shoulder reassuringly. “Afraid or not, you still came to our rescue. Thank you.”
“Balthazar?” Alice walked up to Balthazar, who trudged over to Faust, who sat in the ashes of the Dryad, the light of his eye and core weak. “Is he?”
“The damage is terrible, I don’t know how he’s still going,” he mumbled. “Faust, I’m sorry, I never meant for you to get hurt so badly. I went on saying I didn’t want to make any sacrifices, but-”
Faust hummed softly, and weakly, but gently extended his hand, as if to pat Balthazar’s head. Balthazar was unflinching, surprised by the gentleness of the giant’s touch. The golem looked around at the others, before returning its gaze to Balthazar, and humming again, with a tone of happiness. It tapped at its core, to its name.
“Thank you, Faust, for everything.”
Faust hummed one last time, not a sad hum, but one that vaguely sounded like a goodbye. The golem slumped over, the light fading from his eye, and the core turning dark. There was silence from everyone, out of respect for Faust’s sacrifice. Balthazar tried not to get choked up, as he looked to the lifeless husk before him. He reached out, touching the Golem’s core, to which its finger still pointed. Alice reached out to console him, finding instead a fire in Balthazar’s eyes.
“You’ve got an idea, don’t you?”
Balthazar was silent for a moment, as he fiddled with the core. “I don’t know if it’s possible.” He grunted trying to tug at the core. “I don’t know if I’ll ever have the skill. If he’ll even be the same golem. But someday, I’ll fix him!” He felt around Faust’s core, finding some sort of release, worn away by time. Pressing it, the cylindrical core slid out of Faust’s chest. “I don’t know when that day will be, but if I’m going to fix him, I’ll need his core.The body is excess. This?” He held out the cylinder, a wide and tall mechanism of clockwork gears, tubes, and wires. “This is Faust. I don’t know what made him tick, why he was the way he was, but I won’t go without at least trying to save him like he did us.”
“You’ve found your answer for what you want to do?”
“For now, yes. I want to see more of the world, find more pieces of the past like Faust, and find a way to fix him. There’s a lot I want to do, but for now, he’s given me my next step forward.” He turned back to Faust. “Thank you.”