Chapter 277: A Project Complete (2/2)
It was a good attempt, but not enough. I let myself sink into the ground, no longer supporting my weight with gravity wells. His strike zipped over my head, sparks flying where his forearm made contact with my helmet's top. I grounded myself with gravitational anchors before whipping out a quick strike forward, palming the golem's stomach. The force came from below, jetting the golem back into the air as a cataclysmic boom echoed off the impact.
The wind off the strike ripped branches off trees nearby and peeled grass from dirt—a crater formed under me as the shattered earth was sent flying by the blow's shockwave. From the brown plume of dust, the golem launched up and over the trees. It flipped itself around, the dent in its stomach regenerating quickly.
Its runes shined as it launched spears of ice where I struck it. I clapped my hands together, a wave of sound shattering the icicles into tiny shards. They bounced off my skin as I bounded towards the golem, gravity propelling me. It used its own gravity wells for the first time, pulling itself away from me. I shot passed it while the golem sunk towards the ground. From above, I anchored myself in place. Reaching out a hand, I liquified dirt and stone, turning its landing spot into a pit of magma. The golem lowered its hands, cooling energy hardening some of the lava into a landing pad of stone.
Supporting itself on the dark island, it lifted both arms one at a time, bending the magma towards me with waves of gravitation. I leaped from my gravitational anchor while maintaining it. This let me swivel myself around the unseen point of attraction. I orbited the unseen mass, and his magma waves went over then under my head.
Falling towards him, I generated steel spikes in the magma beneath the golem. I lifted my arms, and the spikes jutted out of the boiling lava surrounding the golem. The entity deflected several of the iron spikes before several spines landed between the entity's joints. Its joints struggled against the iron spikes as they pried the golem apart. Stuck in place, I shot myself towards it like a cannonball. Before I landed against the beast, it melted the metal spikes, covering itself in a molten shell of metal.
I crashed into the glowing bubble, landing against the now hardened magma. The golem wasn't here. It smothered me with the melted iron and solidified it, eliminating my sense of hearing, sight, and smell. At that moment, it dual-layered its attack with a generic mental assault.
By now, I was used to dealing with Torix's attempts at cracking my mind. It left me able to defend from the mental bombardment before I shattered the metal shell lying over me. The fractured metal lobbed out like shrapnel, stabbing through trees and tearing rocks apart. From above, the golem crashed down, having flown up and lobbed itself down at me.
I leaned back, the heel of its foot scraping the front of my helm. The impact of its crash sent me flying a few feet, another crater forming under the behemoth. It gave me yet another charge, this time, compressed air left in front of its fists.
I grinned at the creature while I tilted my head. Its fist scraped the side of my helmet before I smashed my own hand into its neck. Its body went forward while ragdolling beyond its face. All the momentum ended where I drove my palm into its neck. I lifted it up before slamming it into the ground.
Held in position, I lifted my other hand. It came down like a hammer, but I stopped the punch just shy of its face. As I released it, I also reached out a hand. The nameless entity grabbed my wrist and pulled itself up, I gave it a pat on the shoulder,
”Damn, you fight well.”
The golem shook its head, ”Yet there is still much I must learn, creator.”
I spread out my hands at our team looking at us in the distance,
”Guys, I'd call that a success.”
Ophelia gawked at us, the spoiled royal rendered speechless after seeing this thing in action. Diesel gave her a knowing smirk, the engineer more than satisfied with his creation. He elbowed her,
”Heh, pretty good for backwater savages, right?”
Torix peered at the golem, taking notes in its status. Of the three, he was the only one with a critical eye. The lich pointed at the golem, ”Why did you surrender?”
It responded, ”I stood no chance, and I wished to avoid losing my eyes.”
”Remember that no eldritch will give you that chance, understood?”
”Yes, master.”
Torix perked up at being referred to as master, the lich easy to read,
”Hm, as long as you understand, then it's fine.”
I stepped towards the group, waving the golem towards us, ”Come on, let's go.”
It followed, and once we reached the group, I tapped my chin with a closed fist, ”Hm, the golem needs a name.”
Torix raised a finger, ”What about one. It is the first golem we've crafted as a team.”
I shook my head, ”That's, I don't know, too sterile. What about Alpha? It's the first letter of the Greek alphabet. It seems fitting.”
The golem spoke up, ”I enjoy that title.”
Diesel shook his hands, ”Alright, you're our first successful super golem, Alpha.” Diesel turned to the engineers watching behind him, ”Guys, we did it.”
A roar of celebration echoed through the crowd as the engineers cheered at the results of our efforts. I raised my hands, grinning despite myself,
”Hey now, let's not get too excited. We need to talk with the dungeon clearing corps to make sure these golems handle what they need. Once we've got their okay, we'll give this thing a field test to make sure they handle what's required.”
Diesel smiled, ”Of course, of course. We'll get that squared away, but for now, let's take the rest of the day off. This has been a mad dash the entire time, and we just crossed the finish line.”
He pointed at Mt. Verner, ”Let's go get something to eat.”
We paced over towards one of the few nightly serving establishments, a military-style cafeteria but with a better food selection than most. Once everyone settled down onto a table, drinks were served along with a variety of dishes I ordered for everybody. I paid the bill, letting everyone just focus on having a good time. After a few hours of talking and having a good time, morning arrived along with a wave of exhaustion.
The spur of achievement could only fuel celebration for so long, so they each stumbled back to the residential districts, finding soft beds waiting for them. I took Diesel to Melissa, and she thanked me for getting him home safe.
After finishing the feast, I met up with the dungeon clearing corps. Lester, Isa, and Bryan met up with me once again in a meeting room, Torix joining us for his input. The lich and I sat across from the three dungeon clearing specialists, and I started the conversation by turning a hand to them,
”We finished our first super golem this morning. We need your inputs on what works, what doesn't, and any iterative improvements they need. Criticism is welcome, but make the complaints meaningful. These changes aren't easy to make.”
The three dungeoneers sweated in front of us. Torix and I made for an intimidating duo, and the lich's fire eyes honed in on them like daggers. Torix crossed his fingers in front of them, his gaze low. He kept a close inspection of them, eyeing them for mistakes. It might have had a little to do with sending Alexander off with them, but I doubt the lich would ever admit it.
From that pool of crushing pressure, Lester was the first to respond, and he coughed into a hand first,
”Ahem, so super golems, huh? Are they even stronger than the other ones?”
Torix noted, ”Very.”
”It, uh, sounds like they'll work well. I'll be honest, I don't think they need any testing. They'll crush just about any eldritch they come across. The other golems kind of did that already.”
I nodded, ”It's been a while since I've actually tried clearing dungeons. I've been so busy with other stuff that it's kind of taken a backseat. What kind of performance did the other golems have?”
Isa looked up, searching for the right words,
”Hmm, how to say this...they were brutal, I suppose? The golems are terrible at a rescue, scouting, or any kind of informational gathering. What they do well is simple: smash. When they do, they leave very little behind. It's, uh, kind of difficult just to figure out what they've killed honestly.”
She shrugged, ”So yeah, they're thorough. I don't know what the super golems would be like, but your previous golems did a great job of handling the obvious issues of eldritch being alive.”
I smiled, pleased they exceeded my expectations,
”Awesome. I didn't expect that.”
”Yeah, they're relentless to a scary degree even. Some of our scouts have come back with reports of the golems being covered in eldritch blood when they saw them. It makes for a terrifying scene, and the eldritch learn to fear them for it. They even gave us reports of eldritch becoming subservient to the golems in vain attempts at survival.”
Torix's eyes flared, ”The eldritch surrendered? I find that hard to believe. Most of them are mindless, and the few that aren't are only obsessed with hunger. I see no reason they wouldn't show the same attitude towards these machinations.”
Bryan spoke up, ”I thought the same until I did some observational research on one of the stronger golems. I found out that the eldritch, even the ones who can eat black iron, can't eat these golems. It's just as our guildleader predicted. That wildly shifted their behaviors towards them. Instead of being tempted by hunger, they were terrified of being eaten themselves.”
The wily mage leaned forward, his runes precision having improved recently, ”They know they can't win nor beat these things we're putting in their dungeons, so they lose their will to fight. I actually think the eldritch are more logical than we first imagined. I think they're just trying to survive, but in the only way they know how.”
Torix tilted his head, ”An interesting hypothesis. Does this concept apply even to more primal eldritch?”
”I think it does. They seem to feel fear for those walking titans, and it goes deep.”
Torix turned to me, ”It would seem you're more an object of fear than we first envisioned. This bodes well for our plans on Blegara.”
I leaned back while crossing my arms, ”That is strange. I didn't expect them to actually fear just the regular old golems. I mean, I could see why these super golems command that kind of respect, but man, my first models? Maybe the eldritch aren't as scrappy as I first thought.”
Isa scoffed, ”Tell our scouts that. Those hiding eldritch still tried to get a piece of them when they first arrived until the resident golem intervened. That's why it was covered in blood when they arrived for inspection.”
Lester leaned forward, ”The point is, your previous golems are more than enough for what we need. Asking us if your super golems will do the job is almost...insulting, I'd say.”
Lester raised his palms to his defense, ”Not that we took offense or that you meant it that way. It's just how it could come across.”
I nodded, ”Understood. I can mass-produce those golems while some of the people here focus more on super golems for other purposes. They might let us make camps in different places and keep them more secure as well.”
Isa coughed into her hand, ”So...How many golems do you plan to make? one hundred...maybe two hundred?”
I scoffed, ”I intend on making one for every dungeon. It'll give people time to develop themselves without needing to fight for their lives every day.”
Isa blinked, ”So ugh, what are we going to do then?”
I turned to Torix before grinning. I leaned towards them,
”Actually, I have just the job for you three.”