Supreme Magus

Chapter 4332: Greatest Gift (Part 2)

Every time that Firefang struck the colossal construct, it carved deep gouges in the Soldier Golem’s shell and left behind tier five spells that exploded violently enough to make it falter.

On the rare occasions the colossal Golem struck the Hekate, Raging Severance covered its limbs with ice and cut the affected areas off from the flow of world energy.

”Iratho Ghet Rekhat!” Lith conjured the tier three Cinder Spell, Fire Stab, to pierce through the Golems and have it detonate at the core of their battle formation.

While Zero Magic froze mana and world energy into place, Cinder Magic transmitted the kinetic energy it carried upon its victims. A single step turned into a giant leap, and a shift in the center of gravity resulted in a ruinous fall, toppling the Golems like domino tiles.

The physical damage Fire Stab dealt was barely noticeable, but the countless openings it created in what was supposed to be a clockwork army were devastating.

’Let me guess. I’m going to be the target of the next elemental sealing array.’ Lith thought. ”Jerak Sath Skanash!”

He aimed the tier two Zero Spell, Chilling Bite, not at an Array Golem, but at the cordon of world energy that connected them. Freezing a single Golem would have been a waste of mana since there were plenty of spares circling the battlefield.

Hitting the mystical connection that the Array Golems used to weave their magical formations and coordinate their movements, instead, froze the world energy it carried and all the constructs connected through it.

The paralysis caused by Chilling Bite wouldn’t last more than a few seconds, but it was far longer than what Quylla needed. She cast the tier five Spirit Spell, Mana Storm, to generate a hail of emerald bullets that shattered the frozen constructs and shot the Scouts out of the sky.

’This should scramble the Golems’ information network for a while. Until new scouts arrive or the damaged ones get fixed, the Array Golems won’t be able to pick a target. Elemental magic is a go again!’ She said via the mind link.

Quylla kept herself out of the melee and supported the others from a distance, knowing that with her little body she would have been a hindrance.

’That’s the first good news since we’ve gotten here!’ Solus unleashed six elemental pillars from the Balor Eyes of her Sage Staff as she cut through the enemy lines.

Solus alternated between short bursts of Origin Flames that blinded the Golems’ mystical senses and conjuring hard-light constructs shaped like giant spinning nails.

The Golems felt no pain, so they didn’t notice when Solus’ conjured nails pinned their legs to the ground. Moreover, the burst Origin Flames brought the Golems to a halt until their mystical senses spotted Solus again, and the chase resumed.

The Golems moved as one, tripping on their comrades nailed to the floor and falling down with a comical synchronicity due to their identical reaction protocols.

While the Golems sifted through their pseudo cores for a suitable countermeasure, Solus turned into a whirlwind of hammers and limbs that crushed the Soldier Golems into pieces before the Shields could repel her and the Fixers could save them.

She had just moved on to her fifth mark when the sound of an avalanche accompanied the collapse of the colossal Golem.

’Be careful, I didn’t defeat it.’ Tista warned her companions. ’Each construct retains its own core unit, so destroying them in a single blow is impossible. They must have realized they couldn’t beat me and have switched tactics!’

’They realized nothing, Tista.’ Menadion said as she dodged the tons-heavy raindrops. ’They are mindless Golems. This is just the next step of their programming. We need to do something about it, or this will never end.’

The Agni and the Skoll had taken down dozens of Golems each, and so had Lith. Yet breaking down a construct and destroying it for good were two completely different matters.

The Shield Golems always blocked the finishing blows and prioritized the rescue of a collapsed unit, giving the Maintenance and Fixer Golems the time to intervene. Most of the fallen Scouts had already taken the air again, and new ones had replaced those Quylla had destroyed.

’The arrays that seal the space, poison my tower side, and hinder our mystical senses also keep track of the position of the Golems at all times.’ Solus’ eyes turned watery from the headache of using the Eyes of Menadion, even after filtering out everything but the magical formations.

’Something hidden somewhere in the fortress acts as a central control unit and uses the arrays to direct the battle and send reinforcements and support wherever we are starting to make some actual damage.

’Unless we find and destroy it, we will never win.’

’Let’s see if I can do something about it, then.’ Lith replied. ”Jerak Skan Ghirash!”

He shaped the tier three Zero Spell, Arctic Despair, in a circular dome that quickly expanded until it encompassed the widest area that Lith could cover. He needed sheer focus and a bit of cheating not to hurt his friends.

He coated himself in the scattered Cinder Element and had Arctic Despair target the Armory’s arrays. The Zero Element had to wade through the layers upon layers of mystical runes that filled the air, losing strength as it moved forward.

To stay on the safe side, Lith ordered his friends to shrink their size and stuck to the nearest Golem, using them as shields from the blast. Arctic Despair merely brushed against the constructs, but it was more than enough to cover them in a thick layer of hoarfrost.

’Now!’ Upon Lith’s signal, everyone unleashed their most destructive elemental spell upwards.

The seven tier five spells reached the ceiling of the Armory, releasing their full power across the frozen portion of the arrays, but too far from Lith’s group to reach them. The magical formations congealed by Zero cushioned the blasts and fell to the ground in a rain of sparkles.

”World energy taste normal now!” The Sage Staff said.

’It worked!’ Solus turned the Fusion Reactor off for a few seconds to confirm the Staff’s words. ’I can absorb the world energy again.’

’Even better, the Golems have lost any semblance of coordination.’ Quylla exploited the confusion to wrap her Adamant chains, Bloodbind, around the constructs. ’Hit them as hard and as fast as you can!’

Orion’s masterpiece transmitted her spells as if Quylla was touching her target, allowing her to employ Forgemastering spells to locate and destroy the Golems’ pseudo cores.

Lith, Tista, and Solus had just started swinging their weapons and mowing down the directionless constructs when the Upyrs came out running from the corridor leading to the underground vault.

The Storm Griffon had fought beak and talon to escape the death trap, and didn’t miss the golden opportunity that had just appeared in front of him. Life Vision showed Jorl that the area before him was clear of the arrays, and he made a beeline for it.

”There will be time to fight among us later, Verhen.” The Upyrs broke through by force as Lith’s friends regrouped, not to be caught in a pincer attack. ”First, we need to get rid of our common enemy. Everything else can wait.”