Tom and Mike had reached the last bend in the tunnel before they would be in the tunnel that went to the chamber where the golems were waiting for them. They hadn't yet shown themselves and hoped that the element of surprise would be on their side as they tried to cross the ten-meter-long tunnel. It would only take one bad hit, and they would be doomed, so they needed every edge they could get.

Mike's fingers started going down, counting down silently, when they would rush in. Just as Mike's last finger went down, both of them shot forwards into the tunnel. Mike held the shield up, ready for the rocks that were surely going to rain down on them. Tom was carefully making sure that he was hidden behind Mike's larger frame, holding a rock he had picked up, just waiting for when he could strike back against these golems, which had dwarfed his previous attempts at clearing this mountain.

The moment Mike had sprung out from behind the bend, the golems had noticed them. However, luckily they weren't some machines that had ridiculous reaction speeds and could stand countless hours in a ready position, just waiting for the opportune moment to strike. No, they first had to pick up their ammunition from the ground and only then were they able to punish the fools that were challenging them in their tunnels.

They had made it four meters of the way toward the chamber when the first rocks came flying at them. Mike yelled, "left!" Then sidestepped one of the rocks, and blocked the other with his shield, as Tom followed closely behind. They had discussed this and decided that it would be stupid to hope that Mike could block both attacks at once, so they had decided that Mike would yell what direction he was dodging so Tom could follow behind him.

Mike felt the power behind the attack as a shock wave went through his whole body. He was clad that he had mostly redirected the rock, as he could only dread the hits he would have to block later.

When there were just three meters left between them, and the golems were about to let another salvo loose, Tom threw the rock he was carrying, aiming for the rock that was in the golem's arms.

The rock that the golem threw and Tom's rocks collided. However, the effect was minimal, only slowing it down a bit, as the force behind the throws was on a wholly different level. But it had given them enough time to dodge it, and Mike managed to block the other rock.

They were so close, and before the golems managed to launch another volley, they reached them and attacked.

Mike swang his hammer with one hand, aiming for the golem on the right, while Tom did the same to the one on the left with his hammers. They aimed for their limbs, only trying to lower their fighting capabilities, as they knew they had a very tight schedule to keep.

After ten seconds, one golem was a leg short, and the other was missing its arm. But before they could do any more damage to them, they needed to move, as the other golems guarding the other tunnel entrances had decided that this was a good enough reason to break their given post and rush toward them.

So Tom and Mike knew they were out of time for their initial bout. However, now they needed to decide which tunnel they would take downwards, this was the iffiest part of their plan as if they ran into the big golem straight away, they knew their chance of victory would be at least halved. So they had a 1/4 chance be doomed, nobody liked plans that relied purely on luck for their success, but at least this time the odds were in their favor.

Tom and Mike disengaged from the golems and dodged the six others barreling toward them. They aimed for the tunnel on the other side of the chamber. Because, surely the big golem wouldn't try to get to the place where the alarm was sounded, as fast as possible?

Once they made it to the tunnel, they rushed downwards, thanking the being who had designed this tunnel, as its spiraling form gave them a lot of cover against long-range projectiles. If Tom's original calculations were correct and there were indeed around twenty golems inside the lower chamber, then they would have to defeat around fifteen golems. And as eight golems were in the upper chamber, it would be logical that they would face only two golems in this tunnel. That would give them a perfect chance to cull their numbers.

And this time, the odds were in their favor. However, instead of facing against two golems as they had expected, two golems looked a lot meaner than the ones in the upper chamber, and another one looked the complete opposite like it had just been created.

It was like Tom and Mike had reached a tactical agreement, as Mike immediately charged toward the golems, and Tom stuck tightly behind him. Just as they were about to make the first contact with the golems, Mike drew their attention by swinging his hammer at them while Tom slip off from Mike's trail, darted at the weak-looking golem, and brought his hammers down on it. It was an almost completely different creature, as Tom's attack crushed its rocky shell, and it crumbled to the ground. It looked like it wasn't going to get up any time soon. Then Tom went to help Mike, who was doing his best to dodge the golems' attacks and block those he couldn't.

Each time Mike's shield was hit, he questioned his life choices. He was sure that if his advanced body didn't act in the way that it did, diffusing the impact over a much larger, his arms would already be broken many times over. Even now, he felt how his whole arm hurt, and he had only to block twice so far. The golem's slowness was the only thing keeping him alive. He was sure that if he didn't have to buy time for Tom to finish the weaker golem, he could have gotten by without getting hit, but sadly the Secverse didn't follow his whims.

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Now that both had their own golems to focus on, the fights went much smoother. Mike's arm got some lot needed rest, and he could finally show the golems what it felt like to get bullied, as he punished the golem after each attack it made, striking back at it. But this golem was much more resilient than the ones in the upper chamber, they didn't manage to do any serious damage to them, only made some relatively deep holes in their bodies. Then their time was up, and they started hearing the other golems getting closer and closer from above.

They looked at each other, there was no way for them to break through the wall of stone that blocked their path downward, so their only option was somehow to hold the golems off and hope one of them could break through their own front. They would have liked to push through this tunnel and then select another tunnel, constantly moving and making sure that they would only have to face a couple of golems at a time.

It was time for plan b.

Mike yelled. "Good luck!" As he disengaged from his golem, he started making his way upwards, preparing to buy as much time as he possibly could. Now their only ally in the fight was chaos.

Tom didn't waste any time once Mike left, he focused his mind burning his willpower at an alarming rate. He started noticing some of the golems' flaws, how they slumped their shoulder as they were going to punch, how the punches were extremely telegraphed, and he adapted to all the data his overclocked mind provided him. He jumped in the middle of the golems, and just as they attacked, he dropped down and dived between its legs. Both golems' arms met each other where he had previously been, one of the golems came out on top, as the other arm crumbled to pieces.

Once Tom was behind the other one, he didn't waste time and started hammering at it. These golems were clearly a lot smarter, as the other one didn't try to punch through the golem that was between them, instead, it started circling next to it. Tom matched its rotation and kept hitting at the golem's now stump of an arm the golem had, taking full use of how the other one had softened it for him.

Soon enough, it lost the rest of its arms, and Tom could see how the golem was now truly mad. He started running upwards as he yelled, "dodge!"

The golem followed Tom like an angered bull, only seeing red. The moment Tom could see where Mike was, he was faced with the sight of Mike holding two golems at bay, bashing them with his shield and hammer. Apparently, these were weaker golems as the hit did some real damage to them, but the discouraging fact was that he could also see a lot more golems behind them, pushing them forwards, forcing Mike to back away. However, he made each meter he had to back away cost dearly, the golems could hardly defend themselves, as they were constantly pushed forwards by the other golems, used like human shields.

Tom yelled, "give me the shield!" He had to do something, they couldn't hold this position any longer, so a hail mary was their only option. To Tom's surprise, Mike must have come to the same conclusion, as he threw

it to him, just as he was backing away from the advancing wall of golems, and in return, Tom dropped his other hammer to Mike.

Just as Tom was about to reach the golem wall that was now freely advancing toward him, he altered his course and rushed toward the wall. Once he was close enough to it, he jumped toward it with all the power his advanced body could muster, and to his surprise, it was quite a lot. Then he jumped off the wall, turning his whole body sideways and shooting over the first rank of golems, keeping the shield between him and the golems. At the same time heard a crash from behind himself, but he couldn't concentrate on it, as gravity had taken control of his body, and he was rapidly losing altitude, dropping toward the golems waiting for him. His only sawing graze was that they were packed so tightly that they could hardly lift their arms.

Just as Tom was about to crash to a golem that was about to headbutt him, he brought the shield down on its head, trying to alter his body's position so that he could actually move. He was trying to find a purchase for his legs above the mass of golems. He felt it as his leg found something solid, but immediately it got hit. Tom noticed that even if they couldn't lift their arm, they wouldn't let him go so easily, they were headbutting his legs, but to his relief, they weren't that mobile and did only little to no damage.

Tom managed to get up to a bear walk stance over the golems, his hands pushing down with the shield against the golem's head and his legs scrambling around, trying to get him into a position where he could stand. However, he could feel how the golems that were just moments ago pressed tightly together, thanks to the angered golem that had crashed into them, were now moving forwards, as apparently there was nothing holding them back anymore.

Tom didn't like the idea of falling in between multiple angry golems while all of his limbs were spread out and not usable. Tom pushed with all the strength his arms had, so he could land on his legs, as there now was space between the golems. Now he only needed to somehow survive between multiple golems, but before he could panic, a hammer went through the golem that was just behind his back, and he felt as an arm grasped onto his leather armor and pulled him back.

***

Mike watched as Tom jumped over the golems' frontlines, and the next moment the golem following him crashed into the golems and crushed two of them before falling down itself. Mike could immediately see that Tom's move had worked, but there was no way he was surviving that if he didn't get any help. Mike rushed forward and crushed the confused golems, which were still recovering from the golem-sized missile that had hit them. He saw How Tom was barely balancing over the golems, just trying not to fall between the golems. He doubled his pace and swung the hammer with both of his arms, moving the weakened golems down that had suffered from the crashed shrapnel.

Just as Tom performed his controlled fall, Mike reached him and pulled him back next to the wall of the cave. The golems started closing around them, but he had created enough space for Tom to land safely.

***

Tom had never been happier to see another person. He quickly passed the shield back to Mike, and they immediately started rushing out from the forming encirclement.

They hand crushed at least five golems in their little stunt, and the ruble of their bodies was the only thing creating them enough space to stay alive.

The only golem standing between them and the lower chamber was the golem that had punched the other golem. They attacked it together and rushed past it while it was confusing. They had finally escaped the encirclement, and they had managed to do some true damage to them.

Once they were behind it, they continued all the way down to the lower chamber. They continued running towards the tunnel next to this one. To their relief, once they were halfway up it, they ran into only one golem. Their teamwork was getting better and better, and they quickly defeated it. Now they finally had some solace, as hopefully there wouldn't be any more golems coming from the upper chamber.

They went downwards to welcome the golems following them, but as there weren't any threats approaching from their backs, they could finally fight together, stopping the golems from outnumbering them. They continued to fight two on two, and it quickly turned into a rock grinder as Tom and Mike could back off while they attacked, but the mass of golems was pushing other golems from behind, making sure that they were constantly on unstable footing.

They continued cutting the golems down for the next ten minutes, and to their relief, the bigger golem didn't show up. However, they had faced a lot more of the super weak golems, but it was all the same to them as they just fell more easily. Once they brought down the final golem, they both slumped down against the wall, exhausted beyond belief. They had done it, and both were still alive.

The only thing they now needed to do was to defeat the big golem, and all this wealth would be theirs.