I was forced to keep running as the silver golem chased me and regenerated its outer panels within minutes. Faster than my Acid Shot could melt them. I needed a bigger alpha attack. For a stupid silver box on stubby block legs, it was an unstoppable jumping monster of terror.
Well, at least I knew its three main moves. Leaping, panel ejection, and pole ejection. At least there was only one. If there was two or more and they took turns jumping, it would be nightmare to stay ahead. Still, it was leaping where I was, not where I was going to be.
It could be lead, but it couldn’t be tricked or juked. That was another reason it felt like a terminator, just mindless, unrelenting aggression. Well not completely mindless, since it could perform insane movement like backflipping to reorient itself to use a panel to intercept Acid Shot.
The panel ejections were much slower than the pole ejection. But they were still incredibly dangerous. A single hit and I would be feeling it, even half melted with my acid. The ground shook again as the monster landed behind me.
I would wait until I reached camp before acting again. I estimated the distance and time. I would be filled up on energy just as I reached camp, which was my Spirit stat, 200. With Naran’s assistance we could overwhelm the monster.
I kept up my pace. Not my max speed, but enough to stay ahead of the monster chasing me. The biggest issue was that we were camped in the shadowland’s terrain, so it would be quite dark at night. Still, it wasn’t hard to miss a massive silver golem chasing after me. The thing had to be at least one and half times my height with its main body. About the size of a small compact car with four blocky legs.
It felt more like a construct as well, rather than a monster, since there was no bulge of fake muscles, but the precision of a machine. Its legs had no visible joints, but they bent smoothly. The bottom of each leg was just that, the bottom of the leg. There was no foot. Just a block structure the leg ended with.
There was a knee, a place where the legs bent, but no visible joint and no bulge of the silver stuff the monster was made from, like muscles would. Whatever pieces or parts there were just blended together smoothly ignoring the volume they occupied, or compressing in a weird way, out of sight. That was another reason why it reminded me of a terminator.
It felt like forever when I spotted the edge of the zone and the cart in the distance on a hill. As I raced forward, I noted Naran racing in my direction to the edge of the frostlands. He had probably felt the tremors and was on high alert. When the monster hit the ground, it could be felt.
“Level 4 monster! Ejects poles and panels, high speed. Keep your distance!” I shouted out. I repeated that shout twice more and then Naran gave me a thumbs up in the distance, indicating he had heard me.
“Plan alpha!” I shouted out. That basically meant alpha strike right after I did to end the threat. The monster leapt again. I felt the air churn over me and looked up. The monster was heading right for Naran, not me. Why?! He quickly ran out of the way as the silver golem impacted the ground. I kept running forward trying to catch up.
Naran acted, and I didn’t blame him. Four rock lances formed around the monster and impacted from each direction. Acid Shot. I was already moving to the side as a panel shot off to intercept my attack. The monster leapt again, easily breaking free of Naran’s Rock Lances and ripping out of the ground it had been sinking into. I noted the frost on the Rock Lances. It hadn’t even been concerned about the skills and they did minimal damage to it.
He had used Imbue Cold on them and Minor Tremor, but it wasn’t enough. “I am out!” That wasn’t good. Naran didn’t make the monster blink. His skills were too weak for it to really care. The monster was heading for our camp. Why!?
Naran was right behind me as we rushed towards the camp. “Move!” I shouted. “RUN!” Oscar was already moving, running towards us. Aahan looked up at the monster plummeting towards him and spread his arms out to the side. I didn’t look away.
He was instantly crushed into the ground. Blood splattered out from underneath the silver golem. It appeared like an unholy construct, glowing dimly, as the light source began to disappear behind the horizon. Blood dripping off its under carriage. As the monster prepared for another leap, blood and smushed viscera dripped from underneath it. The golem leapt into the air. It was heading for Oscar.
That was when I realized what it was doing. It went after the weakest first. That is why it skipped me and went to Naran. Then Oscar and Aahan were in range. So, it went after Aahan next. Now it was Oscar’s turn. Level 4 monsters, didn’t just target the nearest thing, I hadn’t really considered that since chanced me directly.
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“Oscar keep running towards us, then circle. It lands where you were! Naran stay back and look for an opening. Don’t get close!” I called out. Oscar wasn’t as fast as me. There was a big difference between 500 Body and 100 Body. He wasn’t fast enough to outpace the monster’s prodigious leaps to a safe distance. The golem landed right behind him.
A metal pole shot out from the body of the golem at blinding speed. It slammed into Oscar’s back and he want tumbling along the ground, coming to rest a slight distance in front of me. Blood pouring out his mouth as he let off a half strangled scream and tried to crawl away. The golem quickly retracted the pole and leapt into the air once more. I noted the pole was far longer than the body of the golem indicated it could be.
Oscar was trying to crawl forward, but his back and spine had been shattered from that blow. His legs weren’t moving at all. I wasn’t going to make it in time to pull him out of the danger zone at my current speed as I eyed the ascending golem. Dammit! “Head down!” My hands were already moving. “AIR BURST!” Acid Shot! The golem ejected a panel to intercept my skill as shot at it mid-air. I shot just over the ground, staying as low as I could.
Acid Shot! The monster was already rotating another side panel shot off to intercept my skill. It had quite a bit of angle it could eject a panel from its body. My hand dipped low, and grabbed the back of Oscar’s armor, behind his head. Thankfully he had lowered his head to make this grab possible without stopping. He was mumbling something, but I didn’t pay attention to it. I needed to focus.
My right hand latched onto his armor and I kicked off the ground. I yanked Oscar with me, doing nothing good for his injuries. But there was no time to move him gently or safely. I just had to hope he would survive. The golem landed with a crash right behind me. I kicked off in another direction. Acid Shot x4! A silver pole grazed my side. Oscar went tumbling from my grip and I went sprawling on the ground.
I rolled with the attack and came back up to my feet. The golem was melting since my last round of attacks had landed. But it wasn’t melting quickly enough. It leapt up into the air again. I was too far and didn’t have the energy for another Air Burst. I had used Acid Shot six times for 120 energy and Air Burst for 50 energy, leaving me with 30 energy and change from whatever my Regeneration had given me.
I didn’t look away as the melting silver golem landed on top of Oscar, smushing him into bloody paste on the ground. The golem tried to rise up on its melting legs but stumbled and then completely collapsed on the ground in the blood splatter.
It then turned to dust. Leaving a crystal in the pool of blood and smushed viscera, that used to be Oscar. I was breathing heavily. My side hurt quite a bit, but nothing felt broken and I could breathe fine. Naran walked over to me. “You okay?” My right hand was a bit sore from where I had grabbed Oscar as well, but it was nothing.
“No issues. You?” I asked.
“I am fine. Well, we survived.” What Naran didn’t say, and we were both were thinking, the other two people on our team had been killed. This was the first time I had lost an actual teammate in combat. Targeting the weakest members first, what a stupidly cruel priority targeting.
If I had known that, I wouldn’t have rushed back to camp. I figured the monster would focus on me and Naran could assist. We could easily double team it and it would have been good experience for him. I didn’t think Aahan would commit suicide and Oscar get killed by the monsters final screw you jump. If Aahan had run, then Oscar would have probably lived, since he would have been close to me, and I could have finished the monster off before it killed him.
I didn’t think it would just ignore everything Naran did. I looked back towards the direction of the tower. At least the other 9 silver golems were not jumping towards us right now. Small mercies. A level 4 monster was no joke.
“Well, you want to say a few words?” I asked Naran. It wasn’t like there was any point to burying people, even if there was anything besides paste to bury.
“Not much to say. Aahan was depressed and defeated. He didn’t want to willingly kill himself. A good cart puller, who was worn down,” Naran said. I nodded at that. I looked at the smear that had been Oscar.
“Oscar. A criminal who tried to be productive. Who was productive. He fought until the very end. May he find peace,” I said. We just stood there for over a minute in silence.
What a mess. “What happened?” Naran asked. I explained how I had summoned a level 3 monster, climbed the giant steps to the tower with it, how 10 golems appeared, how one leapt down, killed the summon, and then chased me.
“I didn’t expect it to go after the weakest people first,” I muttered and let out a sigh.
“Yeah. That…well…it is done. Nothing we can do to change things,” Naran said with a similar defeated tone. I began walking back to the cart. We would need to adjust campsites. No way did I want to sleep here.
There was a smell in the air from the smushed bodies. I paused and then turned around and went back to pick up the level 4 crystal. Just like Death it felt nowhere near enough. I could only shake my head trying to imagine touching a Processing Rod to the silver golem as it tried to smash or smush me.
That wasn’t going to happen anytime soon. While I could fight against a level 4 monster, it wasn’t simple or easy. Even if I could aggro one silver block golem at a time, it just wasn’t worthwhile with how much energy I had to spend and the risk I had to take.
Still, the thought of grinding level 4 monsters to speed things up lingered in my head. Next time, I would pay much more attention to their behavior and not just their skills.