Tom reasoned that his best bet would be fighting while retreating, as the tunnel was narrow enough to stop more than two golems coming at him at once. And if the big one moved, he would only have to face it, as it could barely fit into the tunnel. However, Tom rather not let that big clump of rock get anywhere near him.
While Tom tried to come up with his attack plan, he realized that these were probably one of the worst kinds of opponents for him. Thought enemies that would shrug off all but his most powerful attacks. "I probably should have gone to some other zone..." Tom thought. As he realized that he might be able to do some damage with his hammers, but his best weapons would still be the short swords. With them, he wouldn't have to put all his strength behind each attack and could be must more mobile while attacking. He just couldn't generate enough force with his hits to crush stone if he didn't put everything he had behind each hit.
"So it's going to come down to a battle of attrition..." Tom would die if they landed even one hit, but when he wasn't tired, he was sure he could dodge their attacks for a couple of minutes. They were a lot slower than he was, and the last time he had faced multiple golems at once, he hadn't had an awakened body yet.
Tom knew his best bet would be to hold them off at the entrance of the spiraling tunnel. However, he knew he could not hold that position for long, as the golems could just circumvent him by using the other tunnels and trapping him between them inside the tunnel. Even if he didn't believe that they would be smart enough to perform such maneuvers. But he didn't dare to risk it. The only tool he thought might be useful was the rope. However, where could he use it?
Tom knew he needed to figure something out.
***
After over an hour of planning, figuring out his route, and making sure that the other tunnels did indeed connect to the bottom chamber, which they did. Tom was finally ready to test his luck against the golems.
Tom made his way back down to the lower chamber. He had gone back to his backpack and retrieved his pickaxe. He knew that he would probably lose it, but it had been one of the cheapest weapons he got, and the only one he believed could deliver a devastating first blow.
Once Tom was down in the lower chamber, he didn't stop by the nearest golem. He had decided that if he was going to gamble with his life, he might as well go all in from the start.
He made his way almost halfway through the chamber next to a golem made out of a purplish ore. There were four mounts of different kinds of ores between him and the tunnel he had chosen to use as his escape route.
Tom investigated the ore clump in front of him, trying to find any weak spots that would maximize his damage to the golem. After a while, he just decided to go for it, as he couldn't locate any such spots.
Tom Took a wide stance, lifted the pickaxe above his head, and brought it down with all his might near the edge of the ore chunk.
His aim held true, and he managed to separate a good ten-centimeter-wide piece of the ore. The pickaxe continued forward and crashed to the ground. Tom yanked it free in one movement, threw it at a golem behind the purplish one, and rushed away from the golem. He wasn't a moment too soon. Unlike the golems in the cave, this one didn't take its time getting free from the wall, it was almost instantaneously on its feet, roaring and charging toward Tom.
Tom was sprinting out of the chamber, hitting each golem he passed with his hammers, arousing them, so they got up just in time to block the purplish one's mad rush toward Tom. It was a glorious sight as the purplish golem barrelled toward its brethren, and both came rushing down, forming a pile in between him and the rest of the golems. The golem Tom had thrown his pickaxe at came rushing toward him and crashed into the same pile. However, Tom's time was running out as every other golem was starting to get up.
It was yet to be seen if his initial move did any damage to them, but it did look promising. However, Tom didn't dare to stay and admire his handiwork.
He continued to the tunnel and stepped behind the first bend, making sure that the golems couldn't just run straight at him and crush him to the wall.
Soon enough first golem barrelled into the tunnel and got two hammer strikes to the center of its body. Tom was satisfied as he saw how the hammers had crushed some of the stone in the golem's torso, leaving a noticeable mark on it. He had to immediately backstep as the golem tried to hit him. And in the next moment, it shot forwards like a stone missile, as the golem behind it pushed it. The curvature of the tunnel saved Tom as the golem couldn't fly straight at him, and his previous dodge had given him enough room to work with.
He managed to get a couple more hits before another golem caught up with it, and they started advancing as a united front. Tom didn't dare to approach them anymore to get his hits in, as the tunnel's dimensions worked both ways, he would barely have any space to dodge their attacks.
So he hurried out of the tunnel. And he was truly glad that he had decided to do it, as not long after, golems came rushing out of the other tunnels.
He kept on running to the tunnels that led out of the mountain. He checked behind himself, and sure enough, there were still golems coming after him, not showing any intentions of stopping. Tom also spotted something approaching him at a ridiculous speed. His mind acted faster than his body could even comprehend. It started processing at much faster speeds, and he recognized that it was a basketball-sized boulder flying straight at him. His body barely managed to follow his mind's command to hit the deck before the boulder crashed to the wall couple of meters in front of him, barely missing his head.
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Tom quickly glanced back and noticed that the big golem was taking another boulder out of the wall. He immediately realized where the nearly deadly attack had come from and gave up on his plans of getting a couple of hits in while he was in the upper chamber.
Tom started running for his life. Following his pre-planned route. After a couple of turns, he was starting to feel a bit safer as they gave him shelter from the rock flying toward his head. However, he could still feel and hear as the golems rushed after him, their heavy bodies creating a cacophony of sound, as thousands of kilos of stone rushed toward him, he felt how the whole cave was vibrating with each of their steps.
Instead of heading out by his regular route, he was heading upwards. Now that he was more comfortable, he continuously stopped after bends and delivered devastating blows to the golem that was leading the charge. After a third such attack, he finally managed to carve a deep enough hole into its chest for him to be able to see the core. After the next corner, Tom hit it on both sides of the core, trying his best to hit it loose without damaging it. However, he didn't manage to do it, but the golem went still down and got trampled by its brethren.
This cat-and-mouse game continued for another ten minutes. After each bend, he tried his best to bring another golem down, but he didn't manage it.
He reached his final and arguably best plans staging ground. He could see out from the mountain. However, he wasn't at the ground level. No, he was around ten meters above it. He waited as the golems came rushing toward him. Tom placed his hammers on his belt. While the golems were closing the distance between them, he rolled his arm around the rope.
Then just as the golems were about to hit him, he jumped off the edge. He dropped for a meter before the rope went tight and stopped his downward momentum. He had tied the rope into a hole he had carved into the wall with his pickaxe.
To Tom's delight, the golems were mad enough at him as the two first ones came rushing over the edge and exploding into multiple pieces when they crashed into the ground. Then Tom heard a loud roar and all other noises stopped coming from above, every one of the golems had stopped moving. He could hear how one much heavier set of steps start approaching the end of the cave. Tom had a bad premonition and started quickly climbing down the rope until he reached its end. Oh, how he regretted haggling only for three meters of rope. But at least he had enough foresight to plan his escape point so that he could enter another tunnel that was a couple of meters below his original tunnel.
Just as he was entering the other tunnel, he felt how his rope went limp.
As he fell down, he managed to twist his body so that his upper body landed inside the tunnel, and from there he managed to drag the rest of his body into the mountain. And just in time. He felt it more than saw it, as a rock flew down, liking the mountain's walls on its way down.
Now he had to navigate his way out from the mountain before the golems found him, and that was exactly what he did. Luckily the golems were on an upper level, and there was quite a long way for them to run before they reached him.
He started running again, but before he got that far from the cave opening, he heard a crash, as a ball of gold-colored ore came flying down from above.
"Holy..." Tom was dumbstruck. The big golem was truly so pissed that it had actually thrown one of its brethren after him. He pounced on it immediately, smelling his chance to make some quick money. Just as the golem started drawing in the stone around it, he started pounding on it with his hammers.
He soon realized that this golem and the iron one were in completely different leagues. His hits were barely leaving any marks on the ore protecting the golem. However, it was stopping the stone from forming a body for it.
Tom knew he had a limited amount of time, so he threw the ore ball over the edge, hoping that once he got down, there would be another core waiting for him.
He rushed out of the tunnel taking turns that led him downwards. As he got closer and closer to the point where he would be able to reach the tunnel that led him to the ground level, he could hear how the heavy steps that echoed through the tunnels were also getting closer. So he increased his speed pumping his legs for all that they were worth. And just as he made a sharp right turn toward the correct tunnel, he saw a group of golems exiting a tunnel bit further away. To Tom's relief, he had been faster, and now he only had to do, was not to get hit by the rocks that were flying toward him.
However, as he had no aspirations to damage any of them or lead them to another trap, he managed to lose them quite easily, as he could put everything he had into running without waiting behind corners to get some hits in.
Once he was out, he immediately headed to the spot where the golems had dropped. Because if he didn't wish for all this to become a huge wasted of time, he needed to get the cores before the golems reformed themselves.
Luckily the two who had fallen first were still just debris on the ground, and Tom easily managed to locate their cores thanks to their glow. But He couldn't find the gold-like ore ball anywhere. Just as he was about to give up, he spotted movement behind a rock. He immediately shot towards it, and sure enough, the ore ball was hiding there. It had created tiny legs for itself and was doing its best to get back into the mountain. Tom quickly broke its legs, showing no mercy, and took the ball as a whole with him as he shot toward the valley.
And he was a no moment too soon. Multiple golems exited the mountain and started throwing rocks at him. Tom had to constantly look backward and adjust his trajectory to dodge them, luckily they weren't that accurate throwers.
He was starting to think that he would get away scot-free until he spotted a rock coming toward him at a much faster speed than the others. He noticed it way too late and he had no time at all to dodge. At the last second, he placed the gold-like ore ball between him and the projectile. He felt it as the rock exploded in contact with the ore ball, the shrapnel shredding his flesh. He felt how the projectile's momentum transferred through the ore ball into his arm as it smashed into his chest. He was pretty sure that the impact had broken most of his ribs and his arm. Then the pain hit him. Each step was pure pain, he could barely hold on to the core with his one working arm, but he could not stop now, he was close to freedom.
The rocks kept on coming, but as Tom was already quite far away, he could dodge them much more easily, and most of their throws couldn't reach him anymore.
Tom heaved a sigh of relief as he finally exited the biggest golems range, and the rocks finally stopped flying at him.
He had finally gotten away.
Tom stopped on the other side of the valley, as he didn't wish to push his luck, and finally stopped running. He could feel how his whole body was in excruciating pain. " Was it worth it?" Tom asked himself as he took out the three cores he had traded for with his health, not sure of the answer himself.