Chapter 13

How long had it been? They had lost count of the hours they crawled along, slinking and shirking. From one dark passageway to another, from one inconspicuous spot to another. The goblins had chased after them like they were the antibodies of the mountain, pursuing them in the bowels thereof. It was one desperate battle after the next, immediately followed by a desperate flight. Although, they were all exhausted. They had used up all the allowed access to the map. After a bitter struggle they arrived mostly intact, to the King’s chamber, which contained the secret passage for them to escape. Sean, Osgur, and Lorenn were well versed with the cliché design. They enjoyed the most popular Draegun virtual simulation game The Red Roses. It was a fantasy virtual reality game, much like the simulation they were in now. The almost psychotic conditions were absent of course. From the lowly dwarven pen pusher bureaucrat, with soft wide hands, instead of callouses building works made not with metal and steel, but paper and ink, to the elven insurance salesman, they dreamed of participating in the raids.

As such it wasn’t surprising to Amy that role playing as a raid member was popular. For the throngs of everyday Draegun, being a raid member was like picking stars from the sky. It was a position not unlike celebrities, or sports proffessionals on Earth.

All these thoughts dispersed as the room began to shake. The king’s chamber, the throne. They all expected it to be full of the foul creatures, and a boss. But what was this; it was devoid of all life. What made the group immensely nervous was the piles and piles of goblin remains. It was disturbing. The only thing remaining that resembled life was the eight-meter-tall statue of the dwarven king. From whither the thing that had killed all these creatures came, they did not know.

The party looked at each other silently, wordlessly, then began scouting each and every corner for the hidden exit. Thirty minutes bore no fruit and they returned to in front of the statue. Amy combed through the colossal columns, still trying to find at least a clue. Shatira mumbled something inaudible, causing Amy to look towards her standing in front of the massive golden statue. She began to study its face, which was square and wide with a solemn expression. Its hands were resting on a double-faced axe made not with stone but metal. The face of the statue was looking down. Amy thought, ‘Maybe its gaze marks the exit, but that would be too eas…’.

Amy yelped in surprise, as the facial expression moved from a solemn regality to wrath. A sound that was never experienced by Amy: the sound of stone grinding against stone as the statue began to stir. It gave it a terrifying atmosphere as the sculpture began to shake its limbs as if it was breaking out of its own cast.

“It’s a Golem”, Glyn shouted, “Everyone get back!”.

They retreated as the stone statue advanced forward. A crunching sound came from its feet as it stepped on goblin bones. Swoosh! The party had cleared themselves of the statues reach as its dusty axe swept through the air where they had been. It was a situation far removed from what an average Vietnamese girl would experience in the suburbs of Portland. Amy’s eyes were wide. Oh, how long had she wanted to view such a spectacle outside of her mind’s eye. Unfortunately for her Amy was inside the spectacle, and not observing it. As they retreated the statue didn’t pursue instead it remained at its post as if it was protecting something; having been immersed in fantasy media for so long Amy recognized that particular something.

“Where is the fucking exit!”, Shatira shouted as she was throwing rocks at the statue in frustration.

“What the fuck are you doing?!”, Lorenn exclaimed, “You want it to come over here and say hello”.

Shatira threw down her stone she was about to fling and glared at Lorenn. They were exhausted, fatigue seemed to seep into every nook and cranny of their bodies, even places they did not think would become tired. The exit was so close yet so far away. All of this led to quick tempers, annoyed looks, and short fuses. Osgur and Sean shook their head, Satriana tried to mediate, whilst Amy looked behind the legs of the stone goliath. A stone with no mortar was where the statue had been standing when they first entered the chamber.

“Guys!”, Amy tried to get their attention, “Guys!”.

Both Minerva and Glyn growled in unison, as they each smacked the offending head of the arguing parties, “Shut it!”

“You wanna go Lizzard Girl?”, Shatira provoked Glyn.

Glyn cracked a solid open palm strike skipping off the back of Shatira's head again, “Focus!! Listen, let the girl speak!”.

Lorenn looked at Minerva with hostility in his eyes briefly, then shrugged his shoulders, and scanned Minerva’s body with his eyes, to which Minerva promptly smacked him again. Osgur laughed.

As Shatira and Lorenn were rubbing their hurting head and pride, Amy spoke, “The exit is where the statue was standing before it, you know moved”.

Veve looked down at Amy from the high stature of an elf, and pinched her cheek with a wink and a smile, “Adorable and smart! This one is useful”.

Glyn was rummaging through her pouch on her waste, she pulled out a quill with a gaudy, shining white feather, “Ahh here we go, I can at least write off some of the physical defense”.

Sean briefly looked at Amy before making eye contact with Osgur, who was unusually cool headed for an orc, “Right guys, bring it in. It’s a Golem. Physical attacks of our level with these weapons, is meaningless”, as Osgur uttered these words, everyone dropped their weapons, “Although, elemental magic won’t really damage it”.

Amy looked at Sean with a question mark above her head. She was used to the stereotype of golems being weak to magic.

“Most people are only capable of elemental magic, although its damage is really only physical. Even if its wind, fire, earth, or water, its conjured into a physical form, and that's hardened solid stone, coated with a layer of magic. However, that doesn’t mean it’s useless especially if Glyn uses her relic”, Sean said while contemplating as he stared at Amy, “Satriana, you favor water magic, right?”.

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Satriana looked at Sean pridefully, “Yes!”.

“We need some high-pressure rain to pour on that bastard, I’m sure you know the incantation”, Sean said formulating a plan, “Veve, can you summon vines in this room?”.

Veve smiled as if she had not a care in the world, “It is like breathing”.

“Osgur, Minerva, we need some fire magic, extremely big and extremely hot!”, Sean continued.

Both beat their chests in response, and nodded.

“Fantastic!”, Sean turned to Shatira, “We need all the ice you can conjure. I want that fucker frozen!”.

Finally, Sean turned to Amy after confirming the statue standing glaring at the party with challenging look daring them to try, “Right, you kinda did it before lass, but we need pure magic to blast it apart. ‘Magic Made Manifest’ is not an easy skill to use, few require the perception to use it, but you are the only one that can use it even though you did it instinctually before. This time we need you to use it on command. I know the theory but… anyways. Now close your eyes”.

Amy obediently closed her eyes, as Sean asked, “Can you sense the mana in the room?”, to which Amy nodded, “I want you to imagine a ball of condensed mana, I know you can feel the strands of magic wafting about, so that much shouldn't be difficult”.

Amy held her wand up in her right hand, she started to feel a tingling sensation from her chest travel to her arm. As she kept pouring her focus onto the tip of her wand. The tingling turned into a trickle, into a strong steady stream. Amy could feel the magic energy she was manifesting, and though her eyes were closed she could see the bright light from it as well.

“Very good, when I give the word, I want you to fire it at the Golem!”, Sean said though Amy couldn’t see his expression, she imagined he had a focused expression on his face, “Veve tie it down first with your vines, Satriana punish it with your deadly rain, Shatira freeze it, Osgur Minerva, light the fucker up. Then Amy will blast it to smithereens. Lorenn will use a barrier to shield us from the shrapnel”.

“Everyone got it?”, Osgur asked as he stared at Shatira.

Everyone nodded nervously.

Still Amy kept her eyes closed; she was focusing all her being into the tip of her wand diligently. She was anxious about being ineffective, she knew the party regarded her as a golden goose, she wanted to meet or exceed expectations.

Sean was thinking, he was always thinking, contemplating. He was like an iceberg; the tip that he showed the world, was in fact just a shallow representation of himself. Or at least he endeavored to be so, like Liam his idol. He looked at Amy with a surprised expression, never before had he felt such clear magic, except only with his wing leader Liam, “Right I will draw aggro while we erase this fucker”.

Observing the Golem’s clearly defined parameters, he pushed of with the soles of his feet. It would be much easier to take his true form, and sweep everything away. But he knew Radim wouldn't allow such an easy method.

With his tablet rotating faster around him, Sean called out summoning his magic, “Grease!”.

He jumped and slid on his own grease charm. Sean had an unorthodox style; he was proficient in programming with the Ancient Language. Some would call him untalented in spells, while others hailed him as a genius of charms. He spent his spare time coding thousands of magic apps, each one he designed for a particular circumstance, to be used in a particular way. His grease charm was no ordinary grease charm, via magic coding with the ancient toungue, he could change direction, manage the slip to traction co-efficient to travel very fast in an erratic manner. Unlike Liam who used the system for mere convienences, and used sheer magical prowess for serious matters, Sean liked to push the boundary of what could be classified as an app or charm, as opposed to an actual spell.

Sean slid towards the golem as the golem lifted its axe to its left shoulder, like the last batter getting ready to hit the last pitch on the ninth inning. ‘I hope I can catch the opening game tonight of the American League’, Sean smirked to himself as he neared the strike zone.

“Levitation”, Sean said as he activated another app, he twisted his body in the air looking like a skateboarder performing dazzling moves in a competition, and moved in a different direction.

He was like a curveball, instead of going straight he skirted around the path of the great axe as it flew to intercept him. Whoosh, a chill went up his spine as the axe traveled in front of his nose. It was so close, the light minerally smell of iron entered his nose. He would never admit it, but he did clench a little bit.

As it turned around Veve began chanting, “Do re Tsha Fin!”.

Sean kept his eyes on the feet of the stone giant as he circled around it. With a rumble, vines began pushing the stone tiles aside, and sprang up from nowhere, twisting turning, catching both ankles of the massive statue. The statue swung its shoulders to dislodge itself to no avail, then Satriana rushed in front of Veve, unleashing a barrage of high-pressure rain, or more accurately water bullets, to open up the pores of the stone, allowing moisture to penetrate.

The statue knew it was being attacked from behind but it could not face its attackers. The vines thick enough to be considered branches tightened their grip on the legs of the statue. Sean stayed barely out of reach as the golem flailed at the air trying to dig, its axe into his neck.

Sean felt all the warmth leave his bones as Shatira chanted, “Do Re Cal Tun!”.

Sean’s breathing became an icy mist as the rear of the mighty golem began to freeze, its movements slowed, its surprising fleetness became retarded. Soon only its head was free from ice before it too became frozen.

Having no need to distract anymore Sean remained still as the statue glared at him in frustration as if to kill him with his stare. Sweat began to trickle down his brow, a hot gust of air assaulted him.

“Do Re Ra”, Osgur and Minerva shouted in unison, and the once frozen golem became engulfed in flames. Sean jumped back to avoid the blow that would have split him twain, as the statue regained movement. But it couldn’t feel or notice what was happening to its body. Loud popping and cracking sounds came from the rock the golem was sculpted from as it hardened and then expanded due to the drastic change in temperature. ‘Perfect’, Sean smirked in satisfaction to himself.

Too busy avoiding the statue as it poured out all its will to swat this annoying bug, Sean could not catch a glimpse of Amy, nonetheless he shouted, “AMY!!! NOW!!!”.

The statue turned and Sean rushed to Lorenn who had been standing next to Amy. Sean stumbledas he looked at the massive white ball that passed in front of his face as he recovered, then ran with all his might. Forget about the statue Amy would explode the entire mountain.

Lorenn shouted, “Do Re Ta Bun!”.

A green magic energy enveloped the party.

When Sean shouted, “AMY!! NOW!!!”.

Amy was amazed when she opened her eyes and saw Sean barely avoiding the menacing axe seeking searching to cleave him. She panicked and put even more energy into her wand as she shot her magic ball which had reached the size of a beachball arcing in the torch lit hall. It flew towards the burning inferno that surrounded the statue; and then, boooommmm!!! White light filled her vision.

Amy’s eyes opened and she was back in the classroom. She could hear moans and groans as her compatriots tried to get a grasp of their surroundings. Through her discombobulation she looked at Liam and Radim, who were spewing a hot beverage from their lips in surprise. She looked at her guild mates and saw sheer terror in their eyes.