Might as Well

These golems were not like the ones Sam had already met. For one, these were at least twice the size, walking on legs the size and girth of young redwood trees. While their skin was made of rock and quite craggy, they also had some interesting and rather threatening additions to their bodies.

Pauldrons formed of granite-like rock, dotted with arm-sized and sharp-looking spikes.

Speaking of spikes. They had them on their backs, knees, elbows, and even on the top of their heads. However, the spikes on the heads were swept a little backward as if the spikes were the golem’s hair.

On their chest was another granite-like layer, forming in the rudimentary shape of a breastplate. Naturally, it had several spikes on it, though they were smaller than the others. But it provided a way to make sure that getting closer to the golems would not be a bloodless affair.

Their hands were enlarged somewhat, the fingers distinct and thick, ready to grab anyone. Most of the golems that fell in front of the group were empty-handed, but several of them were holding giant clubs made from the dark material their proto-armor was made of. The biggest, meanest looking one, right at the forefront, was holding an actual morning star with deadly-looking spikes on the ball at the end of the rod made of rock.

Sam looked over at their growling enemies as they gathered themselves and began slowly but surely to advance on his team.

“Well, that looks rather spikey…” he spoke up softly as he began to get ready. “Dan, fire won’t work well. Keep to ice. Start with the ground.”

“Sure, boss!” replied Dan in affirmative and Sam could instantly feel the temperature of the air decrease around them as the muscled mage began gathering mana.

“Lucky,” he called out his familiar next. “Remember the last time? Do the same, but be careful with the spikes!”

“WUFF!” came the excited sound from his shadow and he felt it lighten as Lucky began heading for their targets.

“Isabella, you’re on deflection duty. Make sure nothing reaches us.”

“Sure thing, boss man!” came from the cheerful young woman as she unsheathed her swords, her eyes already on the menacing golems.

“Clarissa, you do what you do best.”

“Keep Katie alive?”

“Pretty much…”

There was a beat of silence, and then Katie spoke up.

“What do I do?”

Sam just waved his free arm in the general direction of the golems. “You go and kill them. Be careful of the ice!”

“YES!” she shouted joyfully. In an instant she was off, leaving Clarissa, who was shaking her head in exasperation behind, and Sam chuckling to himself.

Instead of wading into the battle, he took a solid stance, grabbed the sword’s handle with both hands, pointed it directly at the mass of golems advancing on them, and began channeling mana into it.

While that was going on, he watched as several of the marginally smaller golems slid on the ice conjured by Dan, while Lucky ran around and tried to trip them into the jagged ice spikes that emerged from the conjured ice after a short chant from the muscled mage. Katie was at the forefront of the incoming golems and already crossing weapons with the lead golem.

The clang that the greatsword and morning star made upon contact echoed through the pass, causing several miniature avalanches along the edges, though thankfully no more golems fell with them.

Another beat and several golems in the back rows hefted solid rocks from the ground before throwing them with roars at the party, causing Isabella to spring forward and cut them to pieces.

Clarissa meanwhile continued to dish out heals whenever somebody was clipped by the shards of rock flying everywhere. Occasionally she had to cast a few shields here and there, mostly on Katie, who wasn’t exactly watching where she was stepping, though Lucky received his fair share as the giant wolf raced between the legs of the golems.

Sam was meanwhile gathering mana around his sword, shaping it, and condensing it. He watched the swirling mana construct with a small smile. If his attack worked, then he would be able to add a rather strong weapon to his arsenal. He would only need to work on making it faster.

Slowly, the mana took the shape of a rotating bullet-shaped mana construct made of condensed wind mana. The mana was so solid that he couldn’t see through it. Around it, rings of wind mana took shape, swirling like buzz saws.

Another second to make sure the construct was holding enough mana, and he raised the sword, aiming at one of the golems that were staying in one place as it tried to stand up after Lucky tripped it. He watched as an ice lance barrage annihilated another golem, courtesy of Dan, and with a huff of exertion – and a prayer on his lips – thrust his sword forward, launching his projectile.

The next few seconds were interesting.

There was a whining sound as the projectile swallowed the distance between him and the golem, and it was only thanks to his excellent control over mana and senses that Sam felt when the wind bullet impacted the golem, allowing him to weaken the shell holding the condensed mana. Then…

BOOOM

“FUCK!”

“What the hell, dude?”

Ignoring the curses, he sent a small gust to remove the cloud of dust formed around his target and looked on as the mangled corpse of the golem was revealed. Granted, he was not high-leveled enough to turn the monster into dust, but the attack was still strong enough to clearly blow a decent-sized hole into the golem and eliminate the core.

“Well, that worked…” he murmured as several golems turned toward him. Thankfully, the biggest one was still occupied by Katie. However, the giant rocks flying toward him were of slight concern.

He was about to dodge when Isabella flashed by. “Do that again!” As she obliterated the incoming artillery strike.

Sam grinned savagely, raised his sword again, and watched as the wind bullet began to form. After another second of waiting, he was ready to fire.

BOOOM

He grinned as another golem fell, while shards of rock flew everywhere. By the time the projectile left the tip of his sword, another was already forming. He quickly checked his mana and saw that with the current amount and mana regeneration, he could eliminate another half a dozen golems.

His grin widened, and the pass soon echoed with explosions.

It took a rather short time to thin the golem herd with Sam bombarding them, Lucky running around causing chaos, Dan using ice to skewer them and Katie preventing the boss from advancing on them. By the time Sam had to stop, there were only a few shambling golems and the boss remaining.

As he contemplated getting through the giant golem’s armor, another lance of ice went forward, skewered a stumbling golem, and then erupted into spikes of super cold ice that turned the golem into pieces. Taking her cue, Isabella sprang forward and began hacking at another one, while at the same time, Lucky emerged above the last normal golem and crashed down with claws surrounded by vicious shadow energy, practically cutting the golem into two.

Leaving them with the boss.

Upon the death of the last golem minion, courtesy of Isabella, the boss stopped for a fraction of a second, probably taking in the situation, and let out an enormous roar.

RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAWR

Instantly, the slightly falling avalanche of loose stone and rock falling from the edge of the pass intensified, causing rocks, dirt, and dust to practically rain on them.

Instantly, Sam used his remaining mana to create a barrier covering him, Clarissa, Dan, and Isabella, while Katie simply ignored the falling rocks and continued to try to slice the monster into small places.

As the deluge of detritus was impacting his shield, it was soon joined by one cast by Clarissa and Dan, made from ethereal mana and ice respectively, Sam glanced around and watched for a few incredulous seconds as Puffball, the odd eldritch cat was calmly napping on a flat rock that was illuminated by a gentle sunbeam while the falling rocks avoided it.

Shaking his head, he canceled his own shield, knowing that Clarissa’s would hold up, and refocused his attention on the enormous golem.

Looking closer, he saw a few cracks in the dark-colored armor. “Dan,” he called out, pointing at the cracks. “Follow my lead.” The mage nodded and began conjuring ice. “Lucky!” Sam called out to his familiar, who instantly reappeared from who knows where on a bigger rock, surveying the scene with his tail wagging. “Vanish!” The wolf looked a little disappointed but still, followed the command immediately and jumped off the rock gracefully, only to land in a pool of shadow.

As he watched Katie parry a strike from the golem, the giant morning star drove the girl into the ground as she absorbed it with her own greatsword.

Not waiting anymore, both Sam and Dan let loose a barrage of attacks. Dan with ice lances and Sam with slashes of mana. For every wind mana slash, several illusionary ones followed up, creating an enormous barrage of attacks. They didn’t do any damage and probably were useless against a construct, but he still wanted to practice the skill.

All were aimed at the cracks in the armor that no doubt protected the core of the golem monster.

The spells achieved their goal and after a second, the crack widened until it covered the distance between the top and bottom of the armor. Then, as Katie delivered another strike, there was another sound.

CRACK

The crack covered the entire thing, and within a blink of an eye, it crumbled to the ground.

However, before Sam could call out an order to target the core, Katie did a little jump backward, swung her sword also backward, and paused for a moment. Then there was a very slight echo of a meow and suddenly Katie was enveloped by an eye-searing black void that then traveled to her sword, which in turn was swung forward, releasing a crescent-shaped energy that was black and at the same time showed them a galaxy being devoured, then birthed and then transformed into a duck that started to swim in a lake of fire…

Despite his skill level-up notifications being disabled temporarily, one still popped up.

[Perception Filter is now Level 17!]

He forcefully closed his eyes, then opened them after taking a deep breath. Thankfully, by the time he opened them, he could only see Katie standing on the collapsed corpse of the monster, a great rent in the middle of the body with shards of the core sticking out, slowly turning into pitch black dust that dissolved into mist. Meanwhile, Katie was standing there like a conquering queen and making stupid faces at a camera only she could see.

“Hey! Don’t take selfies without us!” yelled Isabella as she ran toward her ‘friend’.

The fight with the golems done, loot collected, mana regenerated, and selfies taken they continued through the pass.

After fighting through the avalanche of golems, it was mostly smaller groups of monsters that lived amongst the rocks littering the pass, or in the numerous caves carved into the walls of the pass. They faced the same annoying goats they met once already, more rock bears that were more rock than bears, the elemental energies abundant in the area practically transforming them into golems, spiders that were quickly eliminated by judicious use of fire, and even more fire, and one very determined scorpion that tried to poison them.

But in the end, they were successful and reached the end of the pass, entering the last leg of the journey.

As they sat on a few smaller rocks in a circle, having a snack and resting, more their minds than their bodies, Clarissa spoke up. Behind her, Sam could see Katie feeding Puffball small pieces of tuna, while Lucky watched the feeding with interest from behind a rock. Thanks to the temporarily peaceful environment, both Dan and Clarissa brought out their pets. Melody was trying to stab a bush and Hawky was simply flying above them, taking a look at the surroundings.

“Where to now?”

Sam took out his map and the directions he had drawn on it after the ritual. After consulting it, he looked up and took in the vista before them. He pointed at a cliff.

“See that cliff there?”

“Yeah?”

“We go around that, then we should be there.”

“Really?”

Instead of answering, he closed his eyes and cast his senses forward. For a while everything was normal, but on the edge of his senses, he could feel the churning dimensional energies. Their chaos prevented him from sensing anything else.

He nodded. “Pretty sure…”

Clarissa also nodded. “How the hell haven't the other guilds tried this yet?” She asked, referring to Sam’s use of runic rituals.

Sam just chuckled. “Well, they would need to have the idea first of all. Then the exact runic and ritual knowledge. Then the access and money to set up the ritual. And mana control on my level.” He explained with a proud grin and a wink. “Not the easiest collection…”

“And how the hell do you know about it?” She asked the logical question.

Sam just shrugged. “During a quest, I got access to a pretty advanced library. Granted on the first tier, but it was enough to give me an idea.”

Clarissa blinked, clearly not expecting a clear answer. “And is it possible for us to also access this library, or was it a one-off?”

Sam cocked his to the side and thought about it. Nowhere was pretty accommodating, so it couldn’t hurt…

“I will ask the next time I’m there. Sounds good?” he replied with a smile.

Clarissa returned the smile. “Perfect!”

“Yeah! Thanks, boss!” came from Dan, who was also listening. “Your notes on mana control are awesome, but maybe something from an actual fire mage would help more…”

Sam nodded in understanding while inwardly grumbling. ‘If it weren’t for that stupid system, I could share with you all the awesome fire mage secrets…’ Fire mages were one of the most common and easiest to get into ‘class’ in Magic Unbound. Thus, there was a ton of information about them on the net.

The rest of the trip through the perilous mountain passage that led them toward the Valley of Distortion was surprisingly uneventful. A few sneaky goats still tried to yell them off the mountain as they surprised the team by jumping down from up high, but the system seemed to be content with allowing them access to the location without any further trouble.

With Lucky skulking in the Shadows, Puffball slinking around rock formations, and Hawky flying high above them, they managed to avoid any of the larger golem groups, only taking out single ones standing in their way.

The sun was leaving its zenith, oddly still casting illumination over them, when they reached the top of the cliff that Sam pointed out and cast their eyes over what lay behind it.

A valley lay before them, once no doubt beautiful but now was hosting only the chaotic swirling energies. To them, it looked like a lot of miniature and blurry storms, surrounding portals glowing with the color of the rainbow. While the portals themselves didn’t really move, they all still got the sense that space was being stretched, compressed, and played with like dough by forces beyond their comprehension.

Sam stood still and placed his hands on his hips, proud. “Well, here we are, guys! A beauty, ain’t it?”

“Ohh…. So pretty! Look at the shapes!” Katie called out, eyes shining as she took in the valley.

The rest weren’t so cheerful.

“What the hell is that?”

“How can I look at the same tree three times from four different directions?”

“My eyes hurt…”

Sam just chuckled and bade them to follow him. “Let’s go, gang. We have some leveling to do…”

They walked after him, some happy, some grumbling. As soon as they stepped through a line, Sam felt his mana senses swamped by the chaotic energy and a screen popped up in front of them.

[Congratulations! You found the Valley of Distortion! You gain +1 LUCK!]

[Tread carefully as space is mostly a suggestion around here. Just be happy that time hasn’t become wibbly-wobbly…]