enjoyebooks Book 4: Chapter 10: Hammered
Book 4: Chapter 10: Hammered
Chapter 10
Another shuddering impact reverberated through the ground as the golem brought its hammer down, attempting to smash Alex flat. He dashed away just in time with a quick [Aether Burst] exploding from his feet, rocketing him out of harm's way by a hair’s breadth.
Stone shrapnel still sprayed about from the attack, pinging off of pipes, tools, anvil and more in a cascade of sound.
Dodging the attacks wasn’t too hard for Alex, he didn’t really even need his [Aether Burst] to accelerate his movements, as the golem was too slow to truly hit him. The problem was keeping the thing trained and focused on him, instead of attacking his teammates who were slower, such as Garret, Cole, and Devon.
It required putting himself in dangerous situations to attack the damn thing and keep up pressure.
The other problem was just how damn strong it was. Its durability alone, when not even adding in its self-repairing regenerative effect, was as high as any late-stage Adept-tier beast he’d run across. With the self-healing, it was damn near indestructible, even when Alex tried adding his Demon Asura Style, and his spells to the mix, it just kept tanking the hits.
Devon, Kate and Holly’s attempts were no better, while Cole and Garret weren’t spec’d for pure offensive output.
Leaning into a purely all out offense with [Vita-Surge Cloak] or even {Demon Descending Fist] might have worked. But Alex couldn’t be sure it would put the thing down for good, and trying either would hit him with high backlashes that would make him far less effective, even with his Meridian Imprints.
“Damn it,” He muttered to himself, once more avoiding a haymaker swing of the hammer.
Obby, have you figured anything out yet?
“The crucible and forge set up are strange, and really old. I don’t think they were created by any race you've run into so far.” Obby replied.
I figured that based on the giant steps and huge ass temple opening way back on the surface. How about some useful info?
Obby’s illusion body floated into his field of view. As always it was a barely humanoid-shaped blob with a single large eye and a mouth full of pointed teeth. Its “arms” with long appendages with barely visible stubby fingers that he sometimes stretched out like miniature copies of his arms. “Even if its old, and made with technology you don’t understand, it’s still a forge. So breaking it is the same. Cool it down enough that it can’t keep going, and it’ll snuff out.”
Alex grit his teeth in annoyance.
That’s it? Why didn’t you just say that?
“I figured it was common sense, no? Don’t they teach you thermodynamics back in your flesh-sack world?”
Shut-up.
He swatted the illusionary body out of his face before turning to Cole and Holly. “We have to cool the whole forge down. Both of you, smother it!”
The two of them stopped their futile attempts at fighting the golem and both turned their attention to the large crucible at the center of the room. It was practically red hot at that point, a molten substance simmering inside it and radiating enough heat to give a thousand California beach-girls a crispy tan.
Water poured from Cole’s hands just as Holly whipped up a chilling vortex of wind, both hitting the crucible at the same moment. Holly’s wind pulled at the heat whole Cole’s water did it’s best to swallow it. Each helped the other as well, with Holly’s winds freezing some of Cole’s waters, and any steam created from water boiling over just adding more air gases for Holly to manipulate.
Their actions were noticed by the golem immediately, as it stopped attacking Alex almost mid-swing and turned to both them instead.
Alex’s aura flashed an even deeper red-black as he switched his footing over to bastion-stance in the fighting style instead. At the same time he stepped in front of the golem, between it and his friends, as he shaped his aether into a massive ten-foot-long, and two-foot-wide greatsword in front of him through [Asura’s Armament], the newest addition to his Demon Asura Style.
The golem attempted to push right through him, slamming it’s body into his conjured defense. Yet Alex’s strength stat was nothing to scoff at, and he pushed back against the construct with everything he had.
This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source.
A crack-crack-crack sounded behind him as Devon laid into it with his rifle, pulling the trigger faster and faster. Through the semi-transparent aether of his massive weapon, Alex could see the rounds sparking off every exposed joint of the golem one after another.
A torrent of laser-beam like firebolts were added shortly after as Kate laid down firepower of her own.
The dial-up like cry of the golem returned then as the three of them continued to hammer away in attempt to keep it back.
“Hurry!” Alex screamed through a clenched jaw. He was already seeing cracks form on his [Armament] construct despite his attempt to repair it.
“We’re working on it!” he heard Holly shout back at him.
And they absolutely were.
He could already feel the air at his back starting to dip by a few degrees, cooling his nape. The energy moving through the ground below him, and into the golem, was also moving slower in his [Aether Sight], letting him know that it was definitely working.
Already the golem’s core was beginning to dim.
It didn’t stop putting up a fight, though, as it began swinging its hammer at Alex in massive blows, the impact coming down on him like a mountain. Each time Alex angled his sword to deflect the attacks away, very happy with Sylvaris having taught that lesson to him so very long ago when mastering his [Wave Shield] spell.
Devon, Garret and Kate’s attacks didn’t let up either, each still threw aether rounds, earthen spears, and fire at it without stopping.
“Almost—“ Cole shouted.
The energy feeding into the golem had practically become a trickle at that point, and it could feel it’s life reaching an end point. It raised hammer overhead, both hands on the handle. Suddenly, its core seemed to cycle fast and flooded its internal system with what looked to be the last of its energy.
“Oh shit,” Alex said, already seeing what it was about to do.
It was going to release every last bit of energy it still had into that one attack. A last ditch effort to break through and stop them.
He couldn’t dodge out of the way, he was what stood between it and the backs of both Holly and Cole working to freeze over the forge. But he wouldn’t be able to just deflect the attack away either, not that time.
The weapon came down, and Alex could only act on instinct. He swung his conjured weapon up to meet it, his body suddenly flashing with the white-blue aura of his [Vita-Surge Cloak] to bolster his body. As the two weapons neared each other, he wove his aether into the sword, preparing for just the right moment.
As the two met, Alex forced his aether to collapse at the contact point, using the [Armament]’s energy as added fuel for a massive [Aether Burst].
Light flashed in his vision, blinding him a moment just before the resulting explosive impact rocked him. His feet left the ground instantly as he was sent flying backward, his Demon Asura aura and the [Vita-Surge Cloak] flickering away.
Crash!
The air left his lungs as his was slammed into a thick wall of ice that surrounded the crucible behind him, broken shards of razor sharp frozen water flying in all directions.
When he finally was able to see again, he felt himself being pulled from the ice by a pair of hands and was left standing among the slush staring at Holly. She had a few cuts along his body and arms from the ice shards flying at her, but otherwise looked unharmed.
He looked himself over, finding a lot of bruising, and perhaps a couple cracked ribs, but was in nearly perfect condition all things considered.
Forty feet away stood the golem, but its inner core was now completely dark as it stood inert, the smoldering slag its weapon left in its metallic clutches.
“Damn, that was crazy, what did you do there?” Garret asked.
Alex shook his head and chuckled. “I panicked, and used my Fighting Style’s new skill as energy for my [Aether Burst] spell. I’d never even tried using the energy from the aura of the Demon Asura for spells. I guess it was pretty effective, but explosively so.”
“Well damn, it looked like you blew up when that thing hit, so I guess you got lucky,” Devon added.
“Yeah, I wouldn’t recommend trying it, I feel okay, but I think that could have gone very, very bad. Anyway, what now?”
“Dungeons done, we cleared it,” Cole shot a thumb over his shoulder at the shimmering portal that would lead them to the Dungeon Shop, then back outside.
Alex didn’t remember seeing the completion notification from the System, which would normally tell him it was cleared. Then again, he had been thrown into a four foot thick slab of ice hard enough to have killed any normal human ten times over. He might have missed such a notification, or even blacked out for a moment.
He went back through his screens, looking at what he missed.
[You Have Slain Forge Guardian!
+ 3,250 Exp
+ 2,200 Dungeon Points]
[Dungeon Complete!
Forge Cleared!
+4,000 Experience Points
+3,500 Dungeon Points]
It really was complete then, and he had gotten a nice chunk of extra experience and dungeon points from it all in the end. He wouldn’t look down on that for sure. He still had quite a hoard of experience points that he was to spend after everything that went down with the Primal Chimera Dungeon and killing the Original Queen.
He needed to figure out what he was going to do with all that experience rather soon, including what he was going to work on next regarding enchantments, skills and spell upgrades.
There was just so much to keep him busy when it came to mission and gaining merit, he hadn’t had the chance to sit and figure it out.
Definitely going to need a breather after this one.
“Good, then you can bring your wisdom up and—“
Not now Obby. Come on, it getting sad at this point.
The one eye of illusion-Obby squinted at him angrily then folded in on itself and disappeared.
“Okay let’s get going then, yeah?” Alex started walking toward the exit portal until Kate yelled out to him from further in the back of the room, making him stop.
“Uh guys,” she yelled. “If the dungeon is cleared already, then what the fuck is this?”
Alex looked back to see Kate now standing at the far wall of the room, where a slab of stone had looked to have moved and revealed a new passage that wasn’t there before.
A new passage… in a System-confirmed, complete dungeon...