“I think we found a friend.” Lucian readied himself for whatever was to come next as the far wall began to shift. Annabelle pointed her flashlight at the wall as Lucian directed her with his sword.

  A collection of shards of stone, rocks, and pebbles tore itself free from the wall. The stones floated through the air weightlessly for a brief moment, before they snapped together like magnets, clicking into place in the form of a large arm like structure - a large rock made up a forearm piece and several sharp fragments of rocks connected to form a clawed hand.

  “Ah. A friend indeed…” Annabelle grimaced, “I don’t think poison will work very well on rocks, Lucian.”

  More rocks tore themselves free, forming a second arm. More detached and formed a torso - Lucian caught a glimpse of something blue and reflective amongst the rocks that composed its main body before they fully connected and concealed it, whatever it was, from his view. The arms snapped into place where its shoulders would be, connected by upper arms composed of many floating rocks that didn’t quite touch one another. A pair of legs formed below it. Each piece of the golem formed faster than the last as its construction accelerated. The golem’s head formed last as Lucian began to approach it, cracking his neck.

  As soon as the construct formed completely, a strange pressure filled the room and the previously lightless eye sockets that had formed in its head ignited with a blue light. The golem took a step forward and then it charged, its steps shook the ground beneath it as it rushed at Lucian.

  Lucian grinned like a madman and bolted forward to meet it. It was heavy, of course it was - it was made of rock. Lucian didn’t have the same issue, plus with his high Agility he was easily faster than the golem. He changed directions as he reached it, veering sideways as it brought one fist down, cratering the rocky floor where it impacted with a loud crash.

  “[Witch’s Hex]!” Annabelle gestured at the golem from her position at the other side of the room, briefly enveloping it in an eerie glow as her spell took hold.

  Lucian pivoted, using the momentum of his movement and spin to swing his sword against the golem’s leg. The edge of his blade collided with the stone and bounced back, leaving a shallow divot, “It’s body must be reinforced magically. I feel like it would have gone at least a little deeper into normal rock…” He frowned to himself, recalling his blade digging into the asphalt beneath the giant bird he killed by the hospital - but rock was stronger than asphalt, after all. He pulled back, avoiding the second fist as it slammed into the ground where he had been, cracking the stone beneath it. “Not like I really expected much from that, without [Penetrating Strike].”

  “[Poison Bolt]!” Annabelle fired off a spell, the green light impacting the golem’s chest as Lucian backstepped.

  The golem briefly reacted to it before refocusing on Lucian. Annabelle had been right about her poison not being particularly effective against it, or at least the golem didn’t seem to care much if it was. It raised a fist, a sheen of blue momentarily surrounding it as it punched down at Lucian again. He leapt back to avoid the blow, then the ground beneath the fist shook. The initial damage from the blow suddenly intensified, the ground cratering itself in a wider area as if struck by a second unseen blow with much more force than the first. Lucian frowned - he was pretty sure [Spirit Barrier] wouldn’t stop whatever skill that was from turning him into a fine mist, “Sadly, you’re slow as… Well…” He smirked, “A pile of rocks, perhaps.” He flicked his sword towards the golem, “[Cleaving Wind].” The air rushed back around him as he fired off a condensed blade of air. It slammed against the golem and left a cut. He didn’t expect it to be extremely effective, but wanted to try anyway - though perhaps his experimentation was a bit too expensive at a time like this, [Cleaving Wind] wasn’t a cheap skill.

  Annabelle launched two more [Poison Bolt]s, encanting twice as she fired them off. The bolts of green light sailed past Lucian and impacted the golem, one against its chest and the other against its arm - again it reacted to them but only briefly.

  “It might not be fully immune to your magic!” Lucian called to Annabelle as he danced around to the side of the golem, noting the brief distractions the bolts caused as he avoided another pair of strikes. He briefly considered switching out his sword for a war hammer but quickly decided against it. Wielding a long handled weapon with one hand wasn’t the best idea, and [Slash] wouldn’t work with crushing attacks, “Crushing it with blunt force might work better since it's made of rocks, but a sword is more effective in my hands than a hammer.” Lucian glanced up at the golem’s chest and sidestepped another strike before launching himself upwards at an angle, driving his sword forward towards its chest and activating [Penetrating Strike]. His sword flashed with a white glow as it sank into the stone a little under halfway before stopping. He wrenched it free and leapt backwards as it tried to swat him away, “That shiny thing in its chest might be a core of some sort. If I can get to it, I might be able to end it instantly.” Lucian felt the skill level up as he pulled back.

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  Annabelle called back to him, “I’ll keep distracting it! [Tanglethorns]!” She flicked her hand up and vines erupted from the ground around it, tangling around one of its arms. Lucian took the initiative and leapt at its arm. The upper arm looked significantly less sturdy than the forearm or chest, as it was composed of many smaller floating stones rather than larger pieces that were physically connected. He activated [Slash] and brought his sword down through the golem’s upper arm. His blade knocked several of the floating stones out of place, cleaving several in half as it moved. The golem’s arm went limp and fell to the floor beneath it, the floating stones that remained scattered onto the ground. Lucian flipped behind it as it tried to strike him again, noting that as he landed and backed away that the fallen arm was slowly inching toward the golem’s main body, “Guess it won’t stay detached for long.”

  Lucian leapt towards its back as it turned to try and strike him again, its fist glowing again as it prepared to use a skill. It wasn’t fast enough.

  He leapt through the air and struck against its back vertically, activating both [Slash] and [Penetrating Strike] and cleaving a gash down where its spine would be if it had one. He kicked off of its back and moved away from it again.

  “[Tanglethorns]!” Annabelle used her binding spell again as the golem struck the ground and cratered it, binding its fist in place and giving Lucian another shot. He repeated the process, sidestepping to get behind it and launching forward again, using the same combination of skills to deliver a second slash across its back. This time, his blade ran deeper, utilizing the depth of the previous gash to cut further into the golem than before.

  He smirked as he readied himself to deliver what he assumed would be the final blow. The last slash had revealed what he was looking for, the edge of a reflective gemstone embedded within its upper torso. If he had another hand, he would have clung to its back and delivered the finishing blow immediately, but he didn’t, necessitating him backing away before launching himself forward again. He thrust his blade forward with a final [Penetrating Strike], just for good measure. The tip of his sword struck the core and embedded itself within it, pushing deeper as the gemstone cracked.

  The golem’s body shuddered and the blue glow in its eyes faded as it began to fall forward. It crashed into the ground, kicking up dust. Lucian knelt atop its back and pulled his sword from it before taking a deep breath.

  Lucian dismissed his sword to allow himself to regenerate Spirit faster, [Spirit Recovery] also kicking into full gear as the fight ended. He could have kept the sword out since as long as he wasn’t fighting [Spirit Recovery] made it a net positive, but he wanted to top up as soon as possible.

  He had also leveled up from killing it, which he took a second to acknowledge.

  “That was something.” Annabelle walked over and looked down at the remains of the golem which began to crumble into dust as Lucian stepped off of it. “Thankfully you’re just too fast.” She smirked.

  “Thankfully indeed. I feel like if I had let it, it could have crushed me like a bug.” Lucian glanced back at the crumbling remains, “Level up?”

  Annabelle nodded, “Twice! I’m at 25 now! Gotta pick a new skill.”

  Lucian nodded, “Twice as well. Let's hope you get something good!” He walked back over to her, “Wanna take a little break while you look at your options and I assign my free points?”

  “Sounds like a plan.” She agreed, and the two of them made their way to a wall, sitting down against it.