Chapter 22: Chapter 22: Rock Em’ Sock Em’

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Gwen's lightning crackled over her snow-white pelt.

I placed both of my hands together, unsheathing my conjured blade out from my left as I leapt forward to deflect the axe of an equine golem.

The thing was just as fast as the first of its kind had been.

[Accelerate Adrenaline] and [Overclocked] put me just in front of the fastest of the automatons, but not by much.

The monster's battleaxe came down with a fury, but it was nothing I couldn't handle now that I knew the gist of what its wielder could do.

The middle-length of my [Raging Blade] ran along the bronze shaft of the battleaxe, causing the horse-faced golem to lose a bit of its balance against the press of my superior coordination.

Unfortunately, as I met the assault of one of the equines, an avian golem was also slipping into our defensive circle.

"Gwen!" I sent a mental flash of what I was seeing to the panther.

The cat, who had just dodged a strike from the giant mace wielding elephant golem, roared her acknowledgement.

Gwen instantly crashed into a bolt of lightning, aimed straight for the vulture faced and trident wielding golem in question.

The elephant automaton, for its part, started to step forward to do its part to fill the gap Gwen's withdrawal had created.

"Pfft," I remarked, glancing over my shoulder momentarily once Gwen--and thus I, also--had lost sight of the elephant golem.

My eyes flashed and the section of flames dancing along the ground in front of the elephant automaton shot up into a pillar of fire, dosing the creature's face in flame and sending it leaning back in surprise.

My panther companion rematerialized in that moment, her booming lightning forming into a claw mid-air, as she slashed through the thin wrist of the vulture avian I’d warned her of.

"Switch!" I shouted telepathically as I slipped underneath the axe and arms of the horse golem I was engaged with, my hand slapping down onto its forearm with two flashes of red and white, as I broke into a teleport.

Gwen growled in acknowledgment and, as the vulture avian's hand was falling away from the rest of its body and my flame and frost runes were igniting on the horse golem's, the panther dissolved herself into another bolt of lightning.

Gwen and I crossed paths mid-air, her a crack of lightning and me a cloud of jumping mana, as we switched targets.

The panther's natural weapons met the metal of the horse golem's axe-wielding forearm just as my frostfire runes icy cloud was dissipating from it. The metal, superheated by my blue flames and cooled by my white, gave no resistance to her mana and elementally charged claws as they tore through it.

The vulture avian, meanwhile, deprived of its hand and losing grip on its trident because of this, stood no chance at blocking my sword as I materialized and drug said flaring blade across and through its spindly throat.

"Ha!" I said and turned to look at Gwen.

The panther didn't stop once she had removed the golem's forearm from its body. She only reformed once she had landed off to the thing's other side.

With another roar, Gwen shot her lower body into a cloud of lightning aimed in my direction, her teleport traveling up her and not fully overtaking her physical form until her massive claws--their owner now informed of how strong the golem's armor was--had ripped a considerable chunk from the neck of the horse automaton as she passed by it once again.

"Alright then!" I telepathically said with a smile, as Gwen's intentions passed over our subconscious bond, and I once again activated my own teleport.

The cat reappeared where I had been a moment later, grabbing onto the body of the decapitated avian and throwing it with her considerable weight into an incoming chain spear, but not before she herself had dodged off to the side of the whole mess with a mighty leap.

As the harpoon like spear pierced through the bronze, vulture golem with an ugly rending noise, the projectile weapon and its chain was sent veering off course as it was dragged down with the automaton's corpse.

For my part, I, now approximately where Gwen had been, reached my hand out of my teleporting form, planting it right where the panther had opened up the horse golem's armor with her claws.

My eyes met the still off-balance golem's and flashed with a grinning fury.

My spell was then cast, a merciless [Fireball] that roared into ignition upon my palm, spinning in its moment of fiery birth, and seating itself firmly into the dark insides of the golem.

My foot was already shifting to face the elephant golem, which was now pushing its way through the [Wall of Fire] I'd stunned it with.

I jumped forward into another [Mana Flicker], my hand leaving the horse man just as my spell ignited. The elephant’s body was stumbling backwards, its head shooting into the sky as it was smacked with fire, before I'd even made it halfway towards my target.

The elephant golem's body glowed a bright, cherry red as it encroached inward through my defensive ring.

My incorporeal mind reached out through my fast moving state. The blue and red flames of my fiery wall flickered as if dying off and then, with an exhalation of frost into the atmosphere, erupted into a white inferno.

The sound of a ballista resounded.

Now three-quarters to the elephant golem, its body slowing as it was bathed in a blizzard of frigid fire, one of my feet reached out of my cloud of fast-moving mana.

My toes dug into the stone of the bridge as my upper body, particle by shining particle, pulled itself together into a pirouette and sword swipe.

My [Raging Blade] was moments from cutting the incoming ballista bolt in two when a crack of thunder rang out.

Gwen appeared, paws outstretched, as she cut through the bolt mid air.

I lifted my sword out of the cat's direction, a smile appearing on my face, as I redirected my energy towards spinning my body back towards my original target.

No use in wasting perfectly good momentum.

Besides, the half-second of contemplation had given me an idea.

My sword arm snapped forward once I had repositioned myself. [Throw Sword] activated, sending my weapon barreling violently through the elephant golem's frostfire-slowed guard, but not before I'd shot a very deliberate super-charging of mana into it.

My stamina bar depleted to half its size, a weakness I needed to fix, as my glowing weapon lodged itself in the frost-covered and warped belly of the bronze elephant man.

The fluttering of wings caught my attention.

Gwen sent the telepathic image of a hawk avian leveling a spear in my direction.

My eyes flashed. The sound of ignition filled the air as [Raging Sorcery] ignited the blade I'd lodged into the belly of the elephant.

A ballista resounded then, honestly surprising me somewhat, as my attention was shifting.

A mana potion appeared into my hand as I turned to face the hawk golem as it unleashed its bronze spear in my direction.

"Gwen! Swat the bird!" I shouted telepathically

"I've got it!" Gwen roared over our mental link and cracked into a leaping thunderbolt.

I uncorked my potion with my teeth and assessed my situation.

Ballista coming in from one side. Spear from the other. Both were fast approaching, but I was faster.

[Accelerate Adrenaline] surged through my body, just as the two projectiles closed in on me.

The ballista bolt and long, bronze spear connected with a clanging as I dodged out of their way. The former had its wooden shaft snap under the force of the collision, whereas the latter merely spun up into the air in a series of speedy circlings with the red gems all along its shaft grabbing the sunlight.

Easy as could be.

I panted and called forth a stamina potion. I drank the second potion down much as I had the first, without ceremony.

Gwen sent a mental image of her reaching for the hawk avian, but growling in frustration as the automaton suddenly shifted out of her way.

The golem raised its hand in the panther's vision and a red jewel upon the automaton’s palm flashed.

Wait--

My consciousness immediately roared back into my own surroundings as I watched the jewels along the deflected spear begin to shine with a red glow.

The spear suddenly stopped spinning... it leveled itself and then--

The battle-fueled smirk disappeared from my face and my eyes grew wide as the spear, almost too fast for even my eyes to see, barreled past my face in an instant.

[Stoneskin] kicked in by instinct, as the weapon’s tip drew a deep line of crimson down my cheek.

Time slowed, even for me, as my eyes took in the startling speed of the spear.

And then, the moment of stilled time ending abruptly, the weapon was flying past me and rounding telekinetically through the air for another strike.

Shaking myself from my shock, my [Raging Blade] formed in my hand, just as another equine golem charged me from the side.

I was forced to bring my conjured blade up to redirect the axe-strike of the horse man, just as the floating spear soared for my back.

"I can't stop this in time!" I shot the message to Gwen.

Without even a reply or hesitation, the cat shifted into a bolt of lightning, mid air, and raced for the spear.

Unfortunately, she appeared a moment behind it, and it soared past her grasp.

"Goddamnit," I cursed, not at Gwen, but at myself, as I lunged back.

The axe of the equine automaton I struggled with was freed from my blade and, even despite me sending a [Wall of Fire] up to bathe its face in flames the moment I'd stepped back, the golem’s weapon found a strong glancing purchase through the side of my left arm.

A trail of blood danced from my freshly opened wound and into the air as I executed another pirouette.

My sword, its aim aided by Gwen’s sight as she gazed upon the spear she’d failed to stop, clanging out wildly but with the solemn focus that came only when you were a breath away from death, smacked aside the incoming and unmanned spear.

Not even being able to spare the mental focus to call upon my healing magic, I kicked [Accelerate Adrenaline] into overdrive as the floating spear came in at my guard again and again seemingly without tiring.

A stab.

A slash turned into deflection.

I evaded.

A dozen more thrusts from the spear all came in the span of seconds.

My damaged shoulder wailed in pain as I grasped my blade with both my hands, forced to use my entire body, working as one and supercharged with enhancing magic, just to meet the unexpectedly fierce assault of the strange weapon.

Then the spear shifted in its path.

My heart spasmed under the continued strain of my magic. There was a reason I'd been trying to use it only in spurts.

I missed something then, some imperceptible detail in the next of the incoming spear's attacks; I could feel it, but I just couldn't see it.

There was just pain for a moment as my mind lost the next bit of time and tried to register the wound.

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I felt my [Wall of Flame] dissipate behind me as my focus waivered. My long ears sensed the rippling in the air as one of the horse golems moved in.

But I wouldn’t die so easily.

My hands reached out and gripped the spear that embedded itself, even through my enchanted armor, into my side.

The weapon tried to pull away, but I redoubled my efforts and just barely managed to hold it still.

And I was not alone.

A crack of lightning shot behind me. The sound of metal rending filled the air as Gwen met the approach of the horse golem to my rear.

Meanwhile, the flash of rune magic seeped out from beneath my palms against the metal of the spear, the lights creating a corona effect in my spinning vision.

My own magic wouldn’t hurt me.

I wasted no time in igniting the runes. Regular fire exploded over the surface of the thin spear. Then frostfire followed suit and, finally, another blast of red flame erupted.

The metal of the enchanted seeming weapon shifted then, warping against the super heating and cooling.

My hands clenched violently, with magically induced adrenaline, and the weapon snapped.

The red glow along its shaft dissipated as one end of the weapon clattered metallically to the ground. The point and a little of the other side of the shaft, however, remained firmly within my body.

I forced myself to stand. It was hard to calm my breathing, but--

I wasn’t dying. Just got panicked... I think.

I summoned a health potion into my hand and drank it down, just as I ripped the spear from the flesh of my ribcage.

The potion did nothing to stop the initial pain, however.

Deep breaths followed as my health bar mostly refilled.

The clanging of battle resounded and I heard Gwen roar, but it was different this time. The world shakes as her voice does.

I turned my head instinctually, my worry calming my disorientation somewhat, to my partner.

She was surrounded on two sides. The two remaining equine golems, one of them glowing a bright red, had raised their battleaxes above their heads.

They look poised to cleave my friend in half and yet... the air rippled as Gwen activated her [Shunderous Shout] ability and the two monsters were momentarily kept from attacking.

White and blue fire leapt into my hand as I cursed myself for letting the panther get surrounded in the first place.

I snapped my arms forward and, a moment later, a frostfire [Fireball] exploded against the chest of the red-hot golem. The normal ball of blue and red flames, meanwhile, smacked violently and ignited against the face of the other.

With the two enemies frozen by Gwen's [Thunder Shout], I was given a perfect opportunity to teleport into their guards, just as the shout ended.

Moving as fast as I could, with [Mana Flicker], I appeared in front of my panther friend and in between her two attackers.

My hands reformed, outstretched, and my palms fell upon both of the golems at the same time.

I placed a rune upon each of them, before they could regain their senses, and an extra for the one that's only been heated, corresponding to whether they've been cooled or not, and--just as soon as I’d laid them--the runes exploded.

Fire and ice erupted and the golems collapsed not long after.

I got a mental flash of thanks from my panther companion.

"Let's finish this," I say aloud to Gwen, panting as I do.

---

I summoned another mana potion into my hand.

Running dry after this one.

The large, spear-wielding golems began to approach us. Apparently the one that had fired its spear through the vulture golem had since freed its weapon.

Gwen had apparently already finished off the damaged owl golem also; its mangled body, with a twisted neck and broken wing lay unmoving within our perimeter.

The wings of the unarmed hawk golem still fluttered above us, though.

Thankfully, the elephant golems was dead, a large and smoking hole in its torso. I hadn't taken chances with how much magic I'd pumped into my [Raging Blade] before making it self-destruct within the automaton.

Which left us with just one more horse golem to take out, along with the hawk and ranged juggernauts

"How do you want to do this?" I asked Gwen telepathically, as we fell in beside one another, facing opposite directions towards our remaining foes.

The panther purred and sent a mental flash of an idea into my head.

I laughed at what she sent into my mind. "We can try, but if it doesn't work I'm just blowing them up."

"Fair," Gwen growled.

And then we both burst into mana.

The eyes of the spear wielders followed us and they raised their forearms in our directions.

But they wouldn't fire unless--

Both me and Gwen reappeared.

The golems launched their chain spears.

I smiled and jumped.

[Acrobatics] had its benefits. The higher and higher the skill went, the more my lithe body could pull off when it came to moving through physical space.

And [Spelldancer] and [Accelerate Adrenaline] pushed me just over the edge into being able to do some really cool tricks if I timed it right.

Most of the pain was fading from my ribs now. Though they were a little sore as I contorted my body over the incoming projectile, slapping my hand down onto it with a flash of magic as I did so.

Gwen, meanwhile, merely teleported out of the way of her side’s attack.

The two spears soared past one another and then--

They both lodged firmly into the bodies of the golem opposite the other.

"It worked," Gwen purred telepathically, obviously very pleased with herself.

I smiled and my eyes flashed a bright red.

Both golems pulled back in shock, the gears spinning backwards audibly in their forearms to try and retract their weapons from one another.

The spearhead, that I'd placed my magic upon and which was now lodged firmly in the head of the other golem, exploded a moment later.

Much like the horse golem from before, the head of the golem my rune had gone off within flew upwards violently into the air.

And, unfortunately for the opposing golem who was leaning his weight back in an attempt to retract his weapon from the other's body, the now disembodied head weighed a lot less than the entire heft of the other automaton.

"Four for me and one for you, if we're only counting after we got serious," I said telepathically to Gwen; I had technically dealt the finishing blows to all the fully-intact golems, even if it had been a team effort to get me to that point.

Losing its counterbalance, the surviving golem stumbled and tripped over the edge of the bridge.

"Huh," I said, my eyes following the falling golem as it plummeted. "Well, if that one counts then five. Did that really just happen?"

Gwen growled. "Hardly fair."

I sent the telepathic equivalent of a playful shrug. "Let's just kill the last ones and get our loot."

Gwen cracked into a bolt of lightning beside me and prowled past my leg towards the remaining equine golem, which was now running towards us axe-raised.

"It's mine," she said.

"Well fine," I raised an eyebrow and acquiesced.

"Sore loser much..." I whispered under my breath.

---

Gwen removed her claw from the last of the ground-based golems.

The hawk avian, whose weapon we'd destroyed, was long gone however. I could see its wings flapping against the sun as I glanced to the horizon.

"How'd we miss it getting away?" I asked the panther.

"Tunnel vision from the battle," Gwen answered back.

"Yeah..." I admitted aloud, "we should probably work on that."

The tower's unseen ballista had long since stopped firing for some reason, as if it too had given up on winning the battle.

"Hey, Gwen?" I asked, looking around at the many fallen golems.

The panther looked up to me, questionably.

"Have you noticed that there's no loot orbs for these things?" I asked.

Gwen followed my gaze across all the many fallen robot-like creatures. "I hadn't."

"Well, unless they're just really delayed... there aren't any," I said and crossed my arms with annoyance. "And I'm practically out of potions."

And then the System chimed in:

[Converting creatures to loot orbs impeded by unknown elements. Please apply manual assistance.]

"What the..." I mouthed the words. "Well that's new."

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