Chapter 44: Golems

[Warning: This Chapter contains intense graphics, blood, and gore]

The expedition moved through the tunnels together, each one moving in their own party for now. It was not yet time to split up, so they stayed together.

The first monsters showed up, a group of five-foot golems. They were not something serious, and their appearance immediately made the expedition group feel like this was going to be an easy walk in the park for everyone.

"I’ll handle this," Ray declared and stepped forward. After all, he was the only A-ranked there, and everyone else was from B-rank and below. He pulled his sword from his back. A smile formed on his face as he pressed his feet into the ground and exploded outwards with a powerful slash that immediately destroyed all the golems in his path.

He landed and slid a few meters, turned around, and gave everyone a confident smile, the type you have when you have handled a situation.

But before he could take a few steps away from the scattered rocks, they started gathering themselves again very fast and joined together to build a massive ten-foot-tall golem.

"Watch out!" One of the ladies in his party screamed at the top of her lungs. She was too late as the golem swung down with all its might. It slammed into Ray and sent him flying through the air. He hit the wall hard and coughed up blood.

He collapsed to the ground, still disoriented. The golem rushed for him, but his party mates rushed up. One of the ladies with a staff unleashed a barrage of fireballs that slammed into the golem but barely did anything to slow it down.

His party members rushed over to his side to help him get to his feet.

At the same time, many more five-foot-tall golems started rushing out fast. Their numbers rose rapidly.

"We can’t kill them," Leon commented.

"We can’t? Then what are we meant to do?" Roger asked.

"We either hide or run. If we kill them, they turn into the ten-foot monster standing over there," Leon explained.

But this information was not available to everyone there. Some people did not use their brains, and they had already engaged in battles against the golems.

A man with a massive sword leaped into the air.

"If I destroy you fully, then you cannot regenerate!" He roared and slashed down. His sword cleaved through two at the same time and sent a shockwave that sent several flying and smashing against the walls.

"Hahaha, let’s see how you get back from th... Ack! Urgh!"

A sharp rock lance penetrated the chest of the man and came out from the back. His eyes widened. He looked ahead and saw that a second ten-foot golem had formed.

He coughed up massive amounts of blood and staggered backwards. He was about to fall when a small golem rushed at him and tackled him to the ground, pulled out the lance in his chest, and proceeded to stab it right through his face to complete the kill.

Everyone watched as his blood and brain matter poured out and stained the floor.

Leon could already hear Lucia hyperventilating at the sight of this. A human had just died in front of them in such a gruesome way that no human should have to face or see.

"Back up, we have to back up," Leon said. They started backing up, but before they could get far enough, the second golem raised his hand, and it started spinning like a machine gun.

"Everyone get down!" A girl screamed.

"Shadow," Leon called out.

"On it," Shadow screamed from under Leon’s feet and created a dome that covered the entire hallway between them and the golem, managing to protect everyone in the expedition. Massive lances began slamming into the shadow wall, causing it to tremble.

Leon looked over to the others.

"I don’t know how long I can keep this up, so you all better start giving it your all. I have an idea on how to kill the smaller ones and ensure that we don’t create more bigger ones. I can store them inside a subspace of mine when you kill them, and that way, they won’t be able to reconstruct."

He thought of that plan in the spur of the moment as they were now becoming desperate.

Everyone looked at him. They were not sure if the plan would work, but it was not like they had a lot of options to go with now. They were all getting bodied in seconds, so everyone unanimously agreed to it.

"Then what about the big ones?" Someone asked.

Leon took a deep breath. "Those ones are everyone for themselves. Survive on your own."

He did not want to be cruel, but he did not know how he was to start going against a monster that sent an A-ranked flying that easily.

Ray, who had taken some healing now, got on his feet and carried his sword.

"If your subspace can contain the large ones too, then leave them for me and my party. Everyone else, handle the smaller ones," he spoke with confidence, looking right at Leon. The look of someone who was proud was gone, and what remained was someone who was ready to do their job.

Leon nodded and got ready to drop the wall.

"Shadow, what’s the status?"

"They seem to have stopped," Shadow relayed, and immediately, Leon brought it down. It had been a terrible mistake. The smaller ones had been charging up in silence while the big ones attacked, and the moment the shadow wall came down, they all exploded.

Rocks shot out faster than bullets, slamming into the heads of people and shattering their skulls. It was a gruesome scene where bodies were destroyed in seconds and lives were lost.

Shadow managed to react and cover Leon’s party fast, and as the attack ended, Shadow removed the dome. A head rolled to the feet of Leon and stopped there, its eyes wide open in fear.