Chapter 213: Spark and Fragmentation

Grok stepped forward, watching the slow march of the small stone beings.

"They seem to ignore us... If they’re not dangerous, could we get closer, Great Shaman?" asked Grok.

"I don’t know, they look strong," said Kellar, frowning as he evaluated the creatures’ composition. "If they are made of lava and stone, we won’t be able to kill them with common weapons. Besides, fighting them in hand-to-hand combat would be suicide; they outnumber us and their defense will cause heavy damage."

"What do we do, Great Shaman?" asked Grok, keeping his guard up.

"Let’s try to get some rocks," ordered Kellar. "If we can mine enough crystals, it won’t be too late to come back for more later. If they are not hostile, we can ignore them."

"Understood, Shaman," said Grok, turning to the troops. "Bring the pickaxes!"

The miners and soldiers advanced toward the exposed veins. At first, the lava golems continued their wandering march without paying them any mind; however, the moment the first iron pickaxe struck the surface of the magma crystals, the creatures’ glowing eyes flared with rage. They spun on their heels and charged at the group.

"Take what you can and run!" ordered Kellar.

The men grabbed the loose fragments and fled down the tunnel at speed. Kellar, who was also preparing to fall back, noticed that one of the golems was gaining ground and was about to catch up to a lagging soldier.

"[Lightning Spear]!" proclaimed Kellar, extending his hand.

A beam of electricity struck the creature in the chest. The golem ground to a halt, frozen solid amid crackling blue sparks.

"They’re like the metallic centipedes; they are weak to lightning, which is great news," muttered Kellar to himself.

However, after four seconds, the electric glow faded and the golem resumed its movement, locking its gaze onto the Shaman.

"It seems I can only stun them, but my lightning doesn’t deal much damage to them..." said Kellar, gritting his teeth.

While the soldiers fled toward the tunnel exit, Kellar turned around and faced the advancing horde.

"I hope this can pierce through... If it works, we have a chance," whispered Kellar.

He raised the Spiral Rifle, set the stock firmly against his shoulder, and aimed at the creature pursuing him. The moment the firing pin struck the primer and the windstone bullet touched the basaltic carapace, the impact did not merely penetrate the surface—it triggered a detonation.

The golem exploded into thousands of pieces, blasting shards of incandescent rock in all directions and causing the entire cave to shake.

"Good heavens! What was that, Shaman?!" shouted Grok, stopping in the distance with wide eyes.

"I have no idea what happened..." said Kellar, as astonished as his commander.

Without wasting a second, Kellar worked the rifle’s lever, ejected the casing, pulled another bullet from Lennis’s crates, and reloaded the chamber. Realizing that the Shaman was the primary threat, the remaining golems changed course and began surging toward him as a unit.

Kellar aimed at the center of a cluster of three golems marching close together and fired a second time. The bullet impaled the middle golem, and the windstone’s shockwave triggered a chain reaction with the magma energy of the adjacent cores; all three golems exploded in a flash of rock and fire.

Kellar lowered his rifle, watching the residual smoke drift from the barrel and the shards of basalt scattered across the stone floor.

"I don’t know why, but it seems windstone bullets can eliminate them with efficiency," said Kellar, astonished by the outcome.

"What do we do, Great Shaman? Should we fight?" asked Grok, stepping forward as his grip tightened on his axe handle.

Kellar raised his gaze and froze. Deep within the cavern, emanating from the massive rock formation surrounding the main vein, thousands of incandescent fissures began to fracture open. The creatures showed no sign of stopping; thousands of small lava golems were sprouting from the ground as though the mountain itself were spawning them.

"No, we cannot face this many," declared Kellar, turning around without hesitation. "Besides, we risk getting buried alive if we shake this cave any further with these explosions. Let’s get out of here! Hopefully they won’t ascend to the surface."

"Retreat! Move out!" bellowed Grok to the men.

The group sprinted up the ascending tunnel at full speed, feeling the heat pressing against their backs. They scrambled up the steep gallery until reaching the upper exit. Upon reaching the elevated passage, they halted exhausted and turned to peer back down into the gloom of the shaft.

The golems surged forward like a glowing tide, but upon reaching the threshold of the lower tunnel, the swarm came to a halt, wandering back and forth without crossing the boundary.

"It seems they cannot climb up, Shaman," said Grok, catching his breath as he watched the beasts’ behavior.

Kellar stood staring at the glowing mass quietly roaring from the shadows of the lower level.

"What on earth is happening?" muttered Kellar.

With a mental gesture, he opened the floating interface and re-examined the detailed log from the previous notification:

[Entity Detected: Mini Lava Golem (Elemental Vein Summon)]

Characteristics: High-density basalt stone body infused with thermal energy.

Unique Property: Absolute Immunity to Conventional Physical Attacks and Low-Caliber Projectiles.

Kellar stared at the words floating in his field of vision.

"Elemental vein summons...", pondered Kellar in a low voice, feeling a chill run down his spine. "So they aren’t living beings; they are summons. Is the vein alive? Or is there something else down below?... Damn it, so many questions and so little information."

Seeing him mumbling to himself while staring into thin air—as he often did when receiving guidance from the Bear God—Grok took a step toward him.

"Great Shaman... what do we do?" asked Grok in a concerned tone.

Kellar closed the panel with a blink and turned toward his commanders with resolve.

"Prepare the men to expand the tunnels," ordered Kellar. "When Lennis and the reinforcements arrive, we will attempt to push a bit deeper. We need to reinforce this entire tunnel with oak beams and metal supports so it can withstand the shockwaves from the gunfire. We don’t have many windstone bullets, but I hope it will be enough to go down there and investigate what lies at the bottom."