Eldren quickly formed a plan. He had to get the Eyepiece of the Strategist if he wanted any shot at defeating the chess golem. If he could see its movements ahead of time then he could anticipate projectiles and launch counterattacks when the king piece in the monster’s torso was exposed. He chugged another blue potion and tossed the empty glass vial on the floor. His mana tracker ticked back to “10” in the crystal ball hovering over his shoulder.

The golem prepared to launch another giant ivory pawn at him. As it reared back its arms, Eldren sprinted forward. He needed to be within fifty feet of the chest. He hoped it wasn’t glued to the ground with some kind of immovable magic.

Thoughtlift! As he envisioned it in his head, the chest flew from the dais under his telekinetic command and clattered onto the floor on the far side, away from the construct. He silently hoped he hadn’t spent too much mana. The crystal ball ticked down to “5”. The silver chest had been heavy but not heavy enough to deplete his mana.

As the chess monster flung the pawn, Eldren cast double jump and instantly pivoted to spring horizontally, crouching and then pushing off the ground with both feet. He shot forward and initiated the second jump, this time magically pushing off against the air itself. He fell to the ground a few feet from the now toppled chest.

He sprang up, snatched the magical glasses from the chest, and jammed them onto his face. At first, nothing looked different. Then, as he watched the golem slowly turn toward him once again, he saw fine green lines, like fishing wire. They connected the golem to the ground and as it moved its arms, they radiated out from the chess piece appendages like the curved lines of a magnetic field diagram.

He watched some of the lines thicken and grow brighter as the golem picked up yet another piece. The lines in the direction of its movement seemed to grow the thickest the most quickly.

Now.

He sprinted forward as the golem hurled the piece toward the spot Eldren had already abandoned; the few seconds of anticipation had given him more than enough of a head start. He jumped up onto the dais and slid under the golem’s rook-piece legs, popping back up to sprint to the far wall behind the golem. He chugged his last mana potion. He’d probably have two chances at most to get this right.

He watched the green movement lines closely, trying to determine which ones were thickening. The golem lumbered and turned around to locate Eldren and he moved with it in rhythm, not letting it catch up to face him. As he circled the outer wall of the room, the construct continued to turn, searching for him but never fully squaring up. It wasn’t much practice but even experimenting a bit with his ability to correctly read the movement field lines gave him more confidence for what he was about to try.

He stopped and allowed the golem to center in on him. Eldren glanced over and saw the spare black knight piece that he wanted lying on the floor. As the golem bent to pick up another pawn, Eldren cast his spell.

Thoughtlift. His mana ticked down to 6.

The golem raised the pawn over its shoulder again to launch it. But this time, as it did, the knight on the floor flew upwards and shot toward the newly exposed king piece that comprised the monster’s head. To its credit, the golem adjusted, dropping the pawn to shatter on the ground and turning its body slightly to protect itself. Eldren watched the green movement lines grow thicker but it wasn’t moving quite fast enough. His knight piece slammed into the top of the queen piece in the midsection of the goliath’s torso, just beneath the king.

Damn. So close.

The golem stumbled backward and showed some signs that the impact had staggered it, at least slightly. Eldren didn’t want to rush his final opportunity and waited to see what it would do; the creature was a construct and, although it was made of chess pieces, he had gambled everything on it not being very bright. Another calculated risk that paid off.

The creature bent to pick up another projectile, mindlessly stuck in the same pattern of attack. Eldren focused on a spare rook this time. It was his last chance. He focused in on the green lines around one of the white bishops that made up the golem’s biceps. Just as the movement lines started to thicken, he timed his spell.

Thoughtlift! His mana ticked down to 2.

The rook shot through the air and crashed into the head of the king piece.

Checkmate.

It was a direct hit. Both the king and rook instantly shattered into thousands of tiny shards and a shock wave of magical energy and ivory dust burst outward from the golem. It caught Eldren by surprise and flung him onto his back hard. His health ticked down to 9 as he coughed and sat up. The chess pieces that had comprised the golem’s body had all cracked or shattered and dropped lifelessly to the floor. He waited a moment, watching the green lines around them carefully. None thickened and nothing moved.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

He rose and dusted himself off.

I — I did it.

He beamed and then let a laugh escape. He had done it. Eldren Pendergast had bested a giant chess monster, in real life. He walked over and kicked one of the broken pieces, still smiling, and retrieved the Staff of the Novice from where he had dropped it after his initial attempt to attack the construct’s knee. Then, he gathered up his spell book and backpack.

The crystal ball chimed. It had faithfully zipped around him throughout the fight and was still hovering in the air next to him.

Exit Combat Mode?

“Yes,” Eldren said. The ball grew cloudy, glowing for a moment then dulling, and fell out of the air, clanking onto the ground.

Grab it first next time, he told himself. Dumb mistake after you just did something so cool.

The ball vibrated on the floor and white text began to appear in the glass.

Quest Complete:

- Defeat the chess golem and complete the spell shrine (1/1)

-XP gained: 10

- Total XP: 20

LEVEL UP TO LEVEL 3

The text faded and his updated stats replaced the quest notification.

Eldren Pendergast. Experience: 20 Level: 3

Spells known: 2

Spell types: 2

HP: 14/14

Mana pool: 15 MP

He knew two spells. The ball did not count his witch-kind spell against his capacity — that was good to know. He bent to pick up the ball from the ground from the ground. As he did, it began to glow and pulse with a dull orange light he hadn’t seen it emit before. New golden text appeared inside.

Exit the Shrine?

Ah. So that was how it worked? He got to teleport outside once he completed the challenge. He pushed aside the thought that this new information meant that the spell shrines were going to be an all-or-nothing prospect — complete the challenge or die. He would have plenty of time to worry about that later; they still had to get one of the aetherfind devices Ardos mentioned before they could even search for another shrine.

He could not wait to tell Ink, Ardos, and Baltran about this.

“Yes,” he said, nodding to the crystal ball even though he knew it couldn’t see him. The more he talked to it the less weird it seemed—maybe.

The ball chimed again and a rather unpleasant and cold sensation cascaded over him, like having a bucket of ice water dumped over his head. The room began to fade from view and his vision went black. He quickly snatched the Eyepiece of the Strategist from his face and tucked them safely into his sweatshirt pocket.

As quickly as the room had gone black, light began to creep back into his vision like the first rays of sun over the horizon. Sound washed over him. Loud, chaotic sounds.

He heard the explosion of Baltran’s revolver and feral growls. As his vision fully returned, he saw that he was standing on the steps up to the marble well in the middle of the graveyard. His heart raced.

It had become a battlefield.

Under a nearby tree, Ink and Baltran stood back to back, fending off horrific and gruesome gray and green rotting corpses that trailed ooze and blood as they stumbled. Animated undead zombies wearing rags of their old burial dresses and robes surrounded his friends. Eldren registered the ground across the graveyard, now pockmarked with hundreds of brown holes in the earth near each tombstone. The undead horde must have been a defense to prevent apprentice mages from having additional help with the shrine.

Baltran was alternating shooting back zombies from the horde, blasting off arms and legs with one revolver while skillfully reloading the other with one hand. He could see Ardos’ head sticking out of Ink’s satchel, which Baltran had slung over his shoulder. Ink had abandoned her crossbow on the ground and was slashing out with two wickedly hooked long knives. They were both covered in cuts and dirty, sweaty, and exhausted. How much time had passed while he was in the shrine?

Ink slashed the arm off one of the corpses that lunged in for her and deftly spun around, thrusting her other knife backward and spearing a different corpse through the stomach. Still, the horde pressed in. As she twirled back, she caught sight of Eldren.

“Oye! Thanks for showing up!” she called. “Hope you learned something useful down there!” She pivoted and slashed upward, ripping entrails from yet another zombie as Baltran shot and kicked aside an undead that had gone for his legs.

Eldren didn’t have time to respond as a dozen of the undead from the back of the crowd encircling his friends turned and began to advance on him.

“Combat mode,” he said, hoping the crystal ball would get the idea. It did, zipping back up into the air and showcasing his new health and mana— 14 and 15.

He waded into the fight with the Staff of the Novice. He flung the staff out and caught one of the corpses in the stomach, knocking it to the ground. He worked as quickly as he could for someone who did not actually how to proficiently fight with a quarterstaff. He treated it more like a baseball bat, swinging wildly and clearing a path toward his friends.

“I’m coming!” he called as he entered the crowd, now surrounded by zombies. A little too surrounded.

“Double jump!”

He pushed off and shot up into the air. He angled himself and flailed a leg, pushing himself with the second jump toward Ink and Baltran. This time, he fell feet first and rolled. He wouldn’t win any style points but it was enough to regain his feet quickly in the little pocket that Ink and Baltran were keeping clear of undead. He fell in with them, cracking the staff into a zombie skull. His mana counter ticked down to 10.

“That was yer plan?” Baltran asked, firing another shot. His leather bandoleer was down to just a handful of spherical lead bullets. “I thought you were gonna do something.”

“I did,” Eldren grunted, waving the staff and sweeping another growling corpse away.

“I meant something better,” Baltran said.

Eldren smacked another zombie with the staff and pivoted. There were too many undead coming too quickly. They were going to get overrun.

Suddenly, he had an idea.