Chapter 76: [76] Golem Killer
"Jump!" Ark screamed, leaping to the back and distancing himself from the ceiling, just as it crumbled down.
Bang!
Two golems landed right in front of them, their blue eyes gleaming through the dust.
"Thalia, can you use support magic?!"
The girl nodded hesitantly. "A little!"
"Then buff us. Olivia, stay with Thalia and use your lightning magic from where you are. Esau, Sazan!"
The two of them turned to stare at him.
"You are both with me. While Sazan and I charge at them, Esau, you will use your assassin skill to strike at their joints from behind!" Ark hurriedly finished giving out commands.
"Charge at them? Aren’t you a mage—"
Before Sazan could finish, Ark had already dashed forward. Golden sparks appeared on his hand, and then the sound of interlocking chains rang through the cave as his weapon took form.
It was a Kusarigama with a thick, curved jagged blade on one end, and then at the other end of the chain was a spiked ball.
Sazan cursed before running after him with his broad sword.
The golem stared at the approaching players like a swarm of raging flies. It swung its massive arm down, and the impact alone was enough to redecorate the floor.
It was not just its strength that was unreal. Earth golems had an earth affinity, which meant whenever they touched the ground...
The golem’s two fingers held tightly to the floor, and then it swung the entire floor up like a carpet.
...they could manipulate it.
Ark nearly stumbled, but he kept racing across the wavy ground, using Dirt Drifter to keep his balance.
But the golems were not done.
The second golem raised its hand, pointing it right at him. Its fingers vanished, the wrist began to rotate violently, creating whirling sounds—
BOOOM—!
Spinning rounded rocks two times the size of cannonballs blasted out of the hand, rushing right towards Ark.
"Olivia, now!"
Tzzzz!
Yellow lightning raced through the room, flying past Ark’s head, just before colliding with the cannonballs.
Sparks drifted through the air, the remnants of the lightning causing a buzz to fill his bones.
And then Ark felt Thalia’s buff take hold.
His body felt a little faster, his bones a little more solid, and his concentration sharper.
It was not a high-grade buff, but it was something at least!
Ark rushed through the dust, and then he rotated his chain around his body, spinning in the air, just before swinging down with a battle cry.
Clang!
The golem deflected the blade with its free arm, and then its other arm tore through the air like a missile.
Ark tugged on his chain, hooking it on the golem’s neck, then using the leverage, he dodged, the hand whistling past him by a hair’s breadth.
He gritted his teeth as he landed on its shoulder. Then he unhooked the blade and swung.
"Let’s try that again!"
The jagged blade of the Kusarigama cut into the air in a circular arc, before coming back with a whistling sound.
Skkhk!!
The blade dug into the eye of the golem. It cut right through the first protective layer, only to be stopped in the second.
But Ark pulled harder, sparks erupting, just before it punctured it, shattering its eye.
The monster staggered back, slamming into its partner.
Using the momentary distraction, Ark immediately turned around and launched webs at the first golem that he had seen, trying his best to tie it down.
If that golem joined the battle, then he would have to contend with three golems at the same time. It would not be a pretty situation.
BOOOM!
Although now blind, the golem slammed its massive hands into its shoulders. Ark barely escaped.
He jumped away from it, flying through the gap of its fingers.
Then as he was about to fall, he flung his steel webs at the monster, wrapping up its stubborn arms in place, before catapulting himself to its head.
The monster’s limbs groaned as it tried to break free, but before it could even make a proper attempt, Ark pulled out the Kusarigama from its eyes, and drove it in again and again and again.
It stumbled back, only to trip on steel webs Ark had set up, falling down with a bang.
Ark pulled out the weapon, broken rocks accompanying it.
[You have slain a level 10 Rock Golem! +15 exp]
And then a shadow washed over him.
The second golem was attacking.
"Ark, get out of there!" He heard Olivia scream.
But it was too late to dodge.
BANG!!
The golem’s blow did not just split its dead partner in two, it caved the very floor of the cave.
Its glowing eye brightened as it stared at the point of impact, trying to find the mashed-up pile of white bones.
But before it could locate it, something exploded by its side, causing it to rock forward. Esau and Sazan had managed to destroy one of its legs.
It turned its attention to them just for a moment, only for Ark to appear on its shoulder.
"Hello..."
??!
Although there had been no time to dodge, it was just enough time to phase.
"Sorry, this will be over quickly."
Bang!
The golem slammed its hand into its own shoulder, and in the process of trying to squash him, it had taken out its own arm.
Ark, on the other hand, was hanging on the ceiling by his webs.
The golem raised its only good hand towards him, its hand cannon already forming.
At the other side of the room, the last golem was charging right towards them. It had easily torn through the steel webs he had put up and was now steadily approaching.
But before it could get too close for comfort—
"Where do you think you’re going?" Olivia huffed.
Olivia stared at the golem with a fierce expression in her eyes.
The air around her buzzed with electricity, and Thalia quickly gave way as her wings fanned out in front of her.
Her forest green eyes glazed gold. Lightning poured out of her body, circling around her wings.
And then she pointed a single finger forward, the lightning accumulating at that point.
"Lightning stream!"
Normally, lightning was known for its chaotic and erratic nature. An element that was crafted solely for destruction.
But this spell took a new form. The lightning seemed to condense, narrowing down to a thin line reminiscent of a laser...
SWOOOOSH!
It cut right from the other side of the cave, cutting past Ark, and pounding into the approaching golem nearly instantaneously.
It was stopped dead in its tracks.
The lightning burned off its arm as well as nearly half of its entire body, reducing it to cinders and eviscerating part of the wall behind it as well.
But Olivia had not mastered the spell, so her aim was slightly off, meaning the golem was still alive.
"Tch." Olivia hissed, sweat rushing down her face. "I missed..."
As Ark stared at the sheer destruction wrought out by her spell, he could not help but laugh.
"Great job, Olivia!"
It was sad that he would have to steal her kill, but she had helped him immensely!
"I know I’m great. But aren’t you a little too busy to be complementing me?!"
Golem one’s hand cannon was finally ready, but as it aimed it at Ark, he launched himself right at the monster.
Steel webs were sent flying, wrapping themselves around its arms, legs and head, until the monster began looking like a mummy.
Ark launched more webs to the rocks around him, and then he pulled them—
He groaned, feeling as though his bones were about to snap. His breathing became heavy due to habit rather than necessity.
The golem fought back, refusing to be moved. It was far stronger than Ark, and it multiplied his body weight several times over...
But Ark had wrapped it up in a way that it could not use its full strength!
He let out a battle cry as he pulled even harder, spinning the hulking monster around to face the last golem.
"Finally..."
A simple fireball appeared in Ark’s hands, but once he applied spell amplification, it grew wilder, painting the cave in an orange hue.
The steel webs had been wrapped all around the monster’s face so it could no longer see, meaning it did not know where its cannon was now pointing...
Ark laughed darkly. "Together now, shall we?"
Bang!
Vwooosh!
The earth cannon roared, and Ark accompanied it with a bubbling fireball that decimated what was left of the other golem.
[You have slain a level 10 Rock Golem! +15 exp]
Finally, he transformed his Kusarigama into a spear, and then he dug it into the last golem’s eyes, pushing the weapon so deep that it sprang out of the other side of its head.
[You have slain a level 10 Rock Golem! +15 exp]
The golem collapsed like a broken statue, its body bursting into pieces on impact.
Ark let out a breath as he stared at the broken chunks of rocks all around him. The golems were tough, far tougher than the rock bears.
But compared to them, they were much slower. Still, it was a good battle.
"Well... that was fun. Is everyone alright?" He turned around to see his party staring at him with blank looks on their faces.
"...What?"