They consulted the map often and thought they must be getting close. Chuck couldn’t see anything different, the endless trees looked the same to him. There were apparently landmarks of jutting stone in places and certain huge ancient trees that were still present. He didn’t know how the hunters were able to find them however. Maybe it was some kind of beast kin special sense of direction. They had so many bug materials at this point that wooden sleds had to be made out of branches and pulled behind them. If they did find anything, he wasn’t sure how they would haul it back but maybe just information about it would be valuable.
Soon they stumbled across the first ruins. They were moss covered and half buried so Chuck would have probably missed it himself, but the beast kin instantly noticed. It was just some stone blocks after they scraped off the moss but it meant they were in the right place. Spreading out, they searched the surrounding area and the number of ruins started increasing in a particular direction. Traveling in that direction, they came upon a surprisingly intact structure. It was a circular building with columns spaced evenly around it and a domed roof. There was no moss or vines on it and the stone was still bright white as if something was maintaining it. There were other structures nearby but they had all collapsed and the forest was growing through them. Then he noticed magic symbols faintly glowing on one of the stone walls behind the columns and more on some of the columns.
“Tess, I think these magic symbols are keeping it clean and intact. Can you make a copy of them?” Chuck asked, pointing to the magic symbols and digging around in his bag for some parchment. “Sure, leave it to me.” She replied happily, getting to work. There were open doorways spaced around the structure as well so he peered inside. The building was about the size of his house in Axtol but there was no second floor, the ceiling was just tall. It was gloomy inside but he thought he could make out a hole in the floor in the middle of the room. He jerked back in fright when he caught glimpses of large insects spaced around the interior. When they didn’t attack, he slowly peeked in again. Torj looked in as well, wondering what had spooked him.
He brought out his flashlight and illuminated the imposing statues or at least that is what they appeared to be. They were intricately carved and very life like. There was a variety but all looked to be deadly predators, from spiders to scythe claws, and even a centipede. The statues were set in a circle around the middle of the room, facing the entrances. They gave Chuck a bad feeling, like they could attack at any moment. Chuck and Torj backed out and the others took turns looking inside. “Why would someone make so many terrifying looking statues?” Maz asked. “It looks like they are guarding that hole.” Kyt mused.
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”Could they be golems?” Chuck asked, scratching his chin. “Golems you say. I think I’ve heard of them but have never seen one.” Torj replied. “If we want to investigate the hole, I think the safest thing is to destroy the statues from the doorways.” Chuck said. If they were golems it was possible they could activate once attacked but it was worth a shot. Plus most of the golems were too large to fit through the doors so they should be relatively safe. No one had any objections so Chuck decided to use his new gun on them. It should have no problem destroying the statues.
While practicing with the gun the previous week, Chuck had learned that if he pushed a certain button it changed the mode of fire from a single shot to a continuous beam that could slice through targets as he held down the trigger. His first target was the large tarantula statue of course. Chuck wouldn’t let a statue as abhorrent as that exist on his watch. He aimed at its head and held down the trigger as he moved the beam, splitting it in two pieces that crumbled to the floor.
Chuck watched carefully and the statues on either side of the tarantula started to move. He quickly changed targets and split the next one into rubble but at that point all the other statues were on the move as well. He pivoted and split a third and then stepped back outside as the other statues came at him. Everyone else was safely away from the building, waiting on the outcome. A smaller spider golem crawled out one of the doors and was quickly dispatched by his beam. The only other one able to fit through the doors was the centipede. The others fired arrows at it but they just bounced off.
He could see that regular hunters or anyone that wasn’t a powerful mage would have trouble fighting the golems. He aimed carefully and cut the centipede in two but the front half continued advancing. Torj and Kyt fended it off with their swords while the others stayed back. He fired again and missed. Swearing, he fired again and managed to take its head off which caused it to crumble. It was then just a matter of finishing off the scythe claw golem from a doorway which was fairly simple. With that done, they could finally see what they were protecting. Chuck just hoped it was worth it.