Chapter 45: The core

The explosion had easily taken out a good number of the hunters that were here. Leon stared at the bodies on the floor, and even his breathing started quickening.

’Was this a wrong idea? Should I not have come here?’ His mind raced, his eyes darted around.

"This... this is too much," Sophia managed to speak. She, like everyone else, was in a stunned state.

Lucia could not hold it anymore, and she hurled up her entire stomach.

While everyone was in a state of shock, the rocks that had exploded started combining into large ten-foot golems, making two more to stand with the already existing two.

"If I allow them to keep forming, there is no way we can stop them." Leon came to a conclusion as he muttered to himself. He gripped his katana, flicked it a bit, and shifted into a stance. Before anyone in the group could say or do anything, Leon launched forward, moving faster than any human should be able to.

The first golem locked onto Leon. It swung down with one hand.

"Shadow."

"On it."

Shadow wrapped around the arm and stopped it, allowing Leon to slide under. Leon stretched out his sword, and Shadow covered it with his shadow, transforming the blade into a long shadow sword.

In the time Leon did not fight, he spent his time in his mind formulating ways with Shadow to make their partnership work even better.

He slashed down with the sword and all his might. The blade slashed through the arm of this golem cleanly.

The second golem sighted the trouble and moved to attack, swinging a punch at Leon, who was engaged.

"Stay away from him!" Sophia yelled and thrust her hands forward. A massive stream of ice shot out and slammed into the fist, freezing it right there.

"Stay away from my brother." Lilly dashed from behind Sophia. She leaped into the air, her body crackling with lightning, her teeth clenched right as her fist came down right into the arm that had been frozen, shattering it to bits. She turned around and looked at Leon. "We will handle this one as much as we can."

"Be careful," Leon said. She nodded before bolting forward.

Sophia moved behind her. The golem tried to attack with its other hand, and she attacked with a stream of ice that froze that hand. But before Lilly could attack it this time, the golem shattered the ice and grabbed Lilly in the air.

"Shit," Lilly cursed. She struggled to get free, but the golem was not letting go. It pulled back and hurled her through the air.

Roger saw Lilly fly through the air.

"Riker," he called out before running and leaping into the air. Riker stretched out her staff, and platforms made of light immediately formed. He leaped from one to the other and then leaped into the air, grabbing Lilly. He slammed into the ground hard but shielded her from getting hurt.

Riker looked away from Roger and Lilly and looked at Sophia, who was now facing the golem herself. The golem reformed its hand by pulling the rocks around it. Then it raised both hands and swung down to attack her.

"Watch out!" Riker yelled. She unleashed a barrage of light attacks. They slammed into the golem, each one causing an explosion. It did not do much to harm it, but it was enough to slow it down.

Sophia took the opportunity. She placed her hands on the ground, and the ice spread out. It rushed up and started freezing the legs of the golem, rushing up its body as well.

"I am not allowing you to get away this time," Sophia declared as she froze it.

[....]

The golem facing Leon swung its free hand at him in an attempt to take him out, but Shadow covered him with a wall. The fist slammed into it and was forced to a stop, allowing a clear sight for Leon to attack.

"Shadow," Leon called out, and from beneath him, a spear shot out of the ground. Leon caught it.

This was a special spear that Leon purchased for himself when he had been out with Riker and Roger. He had seen the details of it and very quickly purchased it. Even Riker and Roger did not know that he had.

It was called Thunderbird Rage, and it cost him over fifty thousand credits. With a slick silver body with blue lightning patterns on it, the blade at the tip was almost a foot long and was covered in lightning patterns.

"I need some of your strength, Shadow," Leon said as a shadow wrapped around his arm.

Leon pulled his hand back, and the spear began to crackle with lightning.

"Have some of this!" he yelled and hurled the spear. It spun through the air, covered in lightning. It stabbed right into the head of the golem and blasted it into bits.

"Open the shadow below it," Leon said, and immediately, a wide shadow opened. The massive golem fell into it and vanished from sight.

"It worked," Leon said in excitement, but that did not last long. The absence of that golem caused the ground to shake like the gate had realized that something was missing. The ground suddenly shattered, and a massive tendril made of light shot out, coming right for Leon.

"What the hell is that?" he asked. He dodged it as it came, rolled, and then rushed towards the crack. There, he saw it underground, a massive glowing core. There were other tendrils, and it was connected to all the other golems.

"That’s the core! That’s the core!" he yelled so that everyone could hear. Seeing that the core was found meant that they could destroy it and stop this entirely, but the core seemed to have noticed that plan.

Immediately, several more small golems formed and started charging up for an explosion.

"We have to stop them before they fully charge up," Leon said.