Asheron's Fall: The Power of Ten, Book Six

“Horribly unwelcome news, lass,” the Mick murmured, as he pulled Bunita fully out. “I know ye can help with the Staff an’ Healing an’ Countering, but I really want to know if we can’t count on yer War Magic if needed.”

“I’ll unload on the next golum we see and let you watch,” I promised him.

---

It was a Copper Golum, and died as Quaver, looking like a solid bar of green acid, sloshed up through the middle of its body and cracked it open like an egg, sending the hints of rock streaked with coppery bands clattering to the ground to break apart. Milee Sifted out the pyreal and raw gems from the matrix that held it together there and dropped them on Kris’ Disk, which was trailing after us.

We still weren’t out of the entry shaft, just further down it.

“Nae War nor Critter, aye, lass?” the Mick asked, and I just shook my head as I put my hand on Hundig’s shoulder, where crushed bone and mangled flesh needed to be put back together. Just a glancing blow, but it had sent him flying ten feet back up the long hallway and made him drop his Saber Qamar.

He didn’t complain at all, being the stoic sort… and it was an excuse for me to lay my hands on him, which few of the men ever got tired of. I had the tingliest Healing magic, after all.

“It’s like the smart creatures o’ the world are adaptin’ to the sheer domination o’ War Magic in the past, an’ comin’ up with new ways t’ foil it,” the Mick mumbled, shaking his head once in mock frustration. “Well, just leave it ta the muscle-heads ta get the job done on these things, then!” he grinned gleefully.

“I’ll keep you as safe from spells as I can, and Heal you up in emergencies. Try not to force me to Heal you in a fight, that could get dangerous.”

Everyone nodded, testing out Potions, tapping Wands concealed in chambers in their Weapons. Emergency use only, that’s why I had the Reserve, and I could slowly get mana back and use on Mass Cures to recover Soak for everyone, or to recover a lot for one person, as might be needed.

If the golums were upgrading their War Magic, that might well be needed.

“Shields all, no parrying this time. Hundig, Enhance that Shield,” the Mick ordered, and the tall Gharu’n bowed his head and swiftly sent Artificing Infusions into his Buckler, something he’d not Invested much into as yet.

Cash flow problems and all, of course. Thousands of gold coins for Investing into stuff wasn’t just falling out of the sky.

The Mick’s Buckler had no problems taking the blows from the bludgeoning limbs of the golum, deflecting them into the walls or ceiling, or just plain bouncing them back. But he’d had more to Invest in it, while the Scouts had preferred to spend the money on their Bows.

“As these things get tougher, we’ll be backing off and doing a Disk line with yer Bows,” the Mick stated grimly. “But for now, ye work on yer fightin’ face to face. We should be good for a few more golums, at least…”

------

“There be a LOT more golums in here than me memory serves me,” the Mick muttered, shaking his head as he kicked at the rocky limb of a Rune-carved Granite Golum that had taken far too long to cut down.

“An intelligent Construct making more servants to protect itself and expand its mines and facilities?” I was examining the revised map of the place. The Mick had dredged his out of memory, compared and matched with a dozen others who had gone through the Dungeon in the past… including King Borelean. “I can’t imagine any intelligent being trying to upgrade its security like that, Lord Mick.”

“Aye…” he trailed off, looking into the next room. “That cloud there be no cloud, lass, Highness.”

Some arcane heat exchanger pulling pyromana out of a subdued lava pool in the room seemed to have multiple clouds of steam billowing out around its base, rolling heavy and thick about it.

I turned my head so my Assay could wash over and past them. “Two Plasma Golums, two Vapor Golums. First prefers fire, the second lightning, yes?”

“Aye. Both vulnerable to cold…” The Mick winced as he considered them. “One Vuln or Imperil in the past, then one blow from a Cold Weapon.”

“We’re going to have to kite them,” Kris said coolly. “Ryin, can you limn them?”

“That shouldn’t be an issue.” Motile things made of force-solidified air were not easy to track. A little Faerie Fire over them should take care of that problem. “I doubt they can truly harm either of you two in melee, and your magical defenses should still be beyond them. Anything they land I can Dispel or Heal.

“Go tank them and let the Roaches volley them down. We’ve seen no sign of intelligence among them, nor any commanders giving orders as yet.”

The Mick and Kris looked at one another, shared the same devil-may-care smile, and he Infused Bunita with Coldphasing as the Roaches hurriedly got out their Disks and did the same with their own missile weapons.

“Selena leads the volley. Focus fire down one at a time. They’ll be taller than either of us, so go high while we stay low. All ready?”

I dropped an Arrowflight on everyone. It would double the base damage of their missiles. “Don’t stop when done. I’ll Sift and be on your heels.”

The two melees laughed, and the Archers lifted up behind me as I swept Crown back behind me and tapped each and every Disk of theirs. Arrows and bolts that looked to be made of solid ice leveled on the distant golums, and the two melees charged to the attack.

They were halfway there when the indigo Faerie Fires, colored by the aeromancy involved in the making of the golums, swept over all four of them, clearly outlining the crude multi-part humanoid figures of the Constructs. Two flickered with faint yellow sparks, the other with ethereal scarlet ripples.

More importantly, the Fires swirled around the central chests of the creatures, where that master Rune and its circle of lesser Runework sparked with the deep crimson of empowering pyromancy.

The first golum didn’t get to its feet before they both reached it. The Mick went high in Cuts the Waterfall leaving a great rippling blue-white arc chased by diamonds of Lost Light behind the blade of Bunita, while Princess Kristie came in straight and fast, her feet accelerating her with every step so that it looked like she was being carried along by clouds and flames, Quaver a lance of streaming Lost Light in front of her.

Selena picked the golum next to them as I glided smoothly after them, watching the whole situation, and especially tracking anything that might be coming from adjoining chambers.

The place was full of the rumblings of the earth, bubbling lava, and creaking arcane machinery hissing with energies they shouldn’t be messing with. The simple, primal design of the stuff bespoke intimate familiarity with the energy, but not of how to truly Craft… but the work had been clearly getting better and more refined the further we penetrated into the facility/mines/lab/Dungeon.

Someone had been learning, building on affinity and instinct with experimentation and practice. Unfortunately, it was intrinsically hostile to mortal life, not all that unexpected for something inhabiting a body made out of magma and lava, and we were probably going to have to kill it.

Not unexpected, just regretful.

The missiles cracked to solid halts and hits, slamming to a stop in the mists and spreading snowflakes of icy stillness about themselves, congealing the matter of the golum’s body and sending faint crystalline shimmers along force-bonds of the chosen Vapor Golum’s chest and head.

Shields snapped up for both Kris and the Mick, arcs of transparency limned in phantasmal indigo fires clanging loudly yet hollowly off of them as the pair concentrated on the one wavering in front of them. It currently had a massive rending cut down its entire middle from head to girth, and a solid bar of solid ice impaling that Rune on its chest, which was spitting arcs of lightning and fire in response.

They Wolfpacked as if born to it, spinning around it as the neighboring golums concentrated on them, trying to follow them. The golums were not slow, but they were not agile, whatever solidified the air upon them also making the somewhat stiff and ungraceful of movement. They didn’t have any true joints, however, and so had ranges of motion that no organic being actually did. Crosscutting Coldphased Blades formed a complex icy flower around it, erecting a Blood Rose of icy derivation in scant seconds, which exploded into icy motes and flurries of monstrous crits erupting over the hapless Vapor Golum caught from both sides.

The archers ignored the teamwork of the two and concentrated on their own slamming volleys, their target absolutely ignoring them as it tried in vain to land a decent blow on Kris or Lord Mick, who were exchanging positions in a complex and fluid dance of footwork that had their target spinning like a disoriented dance partner, whose ending was only going to have one conclusion.

About twenty blurring strokes in six seconds later, the lines of ice fully crystallized, leapt along chains of force structures, and shattered them like brittle china. The Vapor Golum crumbled with a somehow heavy roar, and there was an actual rush of superheated air as the heavy atmosphere of its body swept out along the floor in all directions, released from its compressed state, yet somehow not exploding violently… although, I noted with some alarm, that potential was certainly there.

-Be wary of a compressed air bomb when those things fall!- I /told the two of them. -Especially if it ignites!-

The Mick spun off to hew smoothly into the Vapor riddled with arrows, while Kris buried Quaver in a Plasma’s torso, grabbed a swinging arm of solid superheated air, and spun in a full circle, whipping the golum completely around, slamming it into its twin, and plowing them back into the hulking machine they were guarding. Quaver was tugged out smoothly by the braid of her hair wrapped around his hilt and flipped perfectly back into her hand.

Selena smoothly shifted targets for the archers as the golums smashed into the iron wall of the device, making perfect targets, and Coldphased Bane/Constructs punched deep into the first of the Plasmas as the rest of the archers clustered their shots around hers in the center of that glowing Rune structure.

Meanwhile, the two master swordsmen set up their Wolfpack dance around the second Vapor, and rapidly chewed it down.

-Archers, continue shooting at whatever golum we are attacking,- Kris /ordered them coolly. -You are wasting Opportunities.-

I felt their embarrassment as they realized it. Touch of the Wasp, Ranged Flanker, Deadly Sniper, and Break the Shield were all specifically designed for archer/melee teamwork and interaction. Adding ranged Sneak Attack damage, and creating extra opportunities and openings for one another accelerated the attacks coming in with profound teamwork linking together into a greater synergistic whole.

They were supposed to be softening up opponents for the pair or distracting them. They were trying to kill stragglers with focus fire!

The next volley went high, and somehow the pair of melees timed their spinning dance and cuts to give the archers great broadside shots, while icy shots locked up force matrices momentarily and ice clad in Lost Light streaked in to magnify the damage done.

The annoyed Plasmas got themselves sorted out and came pounding back into the fight.

Kris and Lord Mick stopped their spinning dance simultaneously, ki feeling their intentions smoothly, Shields snapping up, and Cleaving attacks began to rip out from both of them at the two new arrivals.