The explosions from before had opened up a bit of room in the narrow gorge. Before it might have been a problem fighting off so many Conductors at once, but since Cypher had been able to alert his party to the danger, the explosions had only increased their chances of survival and given them room to fight properly.
As Alvin and Glenda dashed towards each side of the gorge to engage the Conductors there, Cypher shot forward towards the Golem with a yell. His sword was held out behind him as he ran and his heart began beating twice as fast as normal. This was a dangerous situation, but he had faced down a Rank-two and lived to tell of it, not to mention the few dozen Rank-one horned wolves he had killed on top of that.
He wasn’t overconfident by any means, but this Golem shouldn’t prove to be more than he could handle, it was only a Rank-one after all and it wasn’t much bigger than Alvin, at least in terms of height, although it was rather thick. Each limb was easily the size of Cypher’s entire torso.
The stone monstrosity roared in a deep rumble that sounded of grinding stones, and it raised a heavy arm as Cypher neared it. With a grunt he spun to the left of the creature and drove his sword along its leg, infusing power into his Zight Stanza to increase his strength.
‘KACLANG! SHKRRRRRRT!’
His blade bounced off the leg of the Golem and shook his arm as his feet skidded across the gravel-covered ground. Confused and shaken he found himself stunned for a moment and the Golem swung its arm down towards him.
‘BANG!’
Just before the attack hit, he came back to his senses and dodged to the right, rolling across the ground as he did so, shards of stone and gravel flying into the air around him.
He hadn’t put much energy into the attack, and so he had expected this outcome. Glenda had told him that in order to make efficient use of his Zight when converting it into physical strength he should test his opponent’s defenses beforehand. If one were to use all of their power only to find that the opponent would remain unharmed then the one attacking would find themselves at an immediate disadvantage.
Cypher had heeded her words and was pleased he had done so. Yes, he had expected his attack to fail, but what he didn’t expect was that the Golem would have such a high defense. Obviously, it was made of stone, but that part hadn’t concerned him. Glenda’s flesh was easily much sturdier than simple stone and he had managed to cut it by using almost all of his power. She had also limited herself to the second rank during their fights.
He should have at least damaged the thing a little bit, but not even a scratch could be seen where his sword had made contact, and that is what bothered him. Concerned as he was, he switched to a different tactic. The last attack had only used around 5% of his total reserves and he still had plenty more fight left in him.
“Solo, Verse two, Crackle of Lightning Bolt!” His spell shot out towards the stone construct and crashed against it, a ring of lightning circling it for a moment before the second bolt crashed against its surface. This time an array of thin cracks appeared along its surface and from within them, a faint light began to shine.
‘Good, so at least my magick has an effect on it. I can win this!’ He thought to himself as he dashed around the Golem in quick circles. The beast roared again and tried to smash him with its stone appendages, however, Cypher was too quick for it since he was infusing his leg muscles with converted energy.
He could still launch his spell another twelve times while using this level of speed and if the first attack was any indicator, he wouldn’t even need that many. The golem was strong, bulky, and seemingly immune to his standard attacks, but it was slow and Cypher could use that to his advantage.
He fired off another three rounds of duplicate lightning in the first rank, and the six bolts crashed against the stone body of the Golem in quick succession, sending more cracks spreading out from its chest which only revealed more of the light within.
As he dashed around it, he thought he caught a glimmer of some kind of crystal inside it and figured that it was its power source. Golems weren’t like other Zightbeasts made of flesh and bone, they were inanimate constructs brought to life with magick. They didn’t need food or water, and they couldn’t breed to increase their numbers.
They also didn’t have very much intelligence and so keeping it wildly attacking like this was quite simple for Cypher as he dashed around. However, he soon noticed that the cracks that had spread in web-like patterns across its body were sealing themselves shut.
‘Okay, that might be a bit of a problem,‘ he thought as he skidded to a stop behind his opponent who slowly turned to face him.
Meanwhile, on the cliffsides, Glenda and Alvin were busy fighting with their own opponents. By now, they had both killed three of the hooded Conductors and from what Cypher could see, the dead Conductors had only been at the peak of the second rank. The remaining ones, however, were complete rank-three Conductors who had only recently advanced. They were more powerful and harder to kill than their companions had been.
Before Cypher could put much more thought into their situation, the golem had dashed forward and entered into attacking range of Cypher. ‘Shit!’ He thought as a blow to his gut sent him flying backward into the cliff behind him. He had forgotten the basic rule both Jelroy and Glenda had taught him: Always keep your eyes on your opponent!
The attack had come quickly, but he had still been able to prepare in the instant before the blow landed and had reinforced his abdomen with Zight. Still, one of his ribs had been cracked by that attack. He coughed up a bit of blood and wiped his mouth as the golem charged at him again and with a quick reaction, he jumped up and over it just as it slammed into the wall.
He planted a hand on its head and used that to push himself forward. If he was going to kill this thing, he would have to expose that weak spot, and quickly. He may have had large amounts of Zight, but over half had been expended in that last exchange.
In his haste to defend himself, he had used a bit more power than he had intended and was cursing himself for being so careless. He wouldn’t let that happen again if he could help it. The golem quickly extracted itself from the cliffside, and the rumbling caused one of the hooded Conductors fighting Alvin to lose their balance and crash to the ground.
The man screamed as he fell a hundred feet and landed on his head which, from the sound of it, cracked his skull and broke his neck, killing him instantly. “Thanks, Cypher!” Alvin yelled as he shot four water bullets into the corpse of the slain man just in case, and continued fighting the other two Conductors. Cypher continued to carefully watch the Golem as it charged forward once again.
As the Golem neared him, Cypher prepared himself and crouched low. just as it reached him, he jumped into the air and landed on its shoulders. “Duet, Verse two, Crackle of Lightning Bolt!” His attack shot down into the joints of the Golem’s shoulder and quickly spread throughout its body, which exploded violently sending Cypher flying a few meters.
His attack had been costly, but now the shimmering core of the golem was completely exposed. Cypher didn’t hesitate to use that opening as soon as he rolled to his feet and cast the spell again, draining his last reserves of Zight in the process.
The spell made contact with the crystal core, and with a loud groaning shudder, it exploded in a blindingly bright display of yellow light. The explosion was so powerful that it sent the Golem’s head and chunks of its body crashing into the sides of the gorge, which had been weakened by the earlier explosions cast by the Conductors.
With its stability compromised, the entire gorge began to shudder and cracks began spreading all along the walls around everyone who was still standing.
