Chapter 216: Dust and Detonations

The dense cloud of dust and rock splinters began to clear, revealing the entrance to the lower level. Kellar coughed, shaking the greyish dust from his shoulders while keeping his Spiral Rifle raised, its barrel smoking.

Looking up at the framework of the passage newly reinforced by Lennis, Kellar let out a sigh of relief: the thick oak beams and support props had performed their duty. The mountain had quaked to its core, but the tunnel walls held firm, absorbing the shockwave without showing any dangerous cracks.

However, the staggering sight lay inside the cavern.

Where a dense tide of mini lava golems had previously crowded together, only a desolate scene remained. The chain reaction unleashed by the windstone cartridge had acted like a domino effect: the compressed air from the wind magic had shattered the magma cores of the front line, causing the internal pressure of the surrounding golems to collapse one after another.

Dozens of inert basalt fragments and dull stones lay scattered across the floor, stripped of the reddish glow that characterized them. A single shot had swept away over thirty creatures in a fraction of a second, clearing the mine shaft’s entrance.

"It held..." muttered Kellar, inspecting the tunnel ceiling before looking back at the shattered mass. "The defenses withstand the blast, and the wind ammunition is lethal against their cores."

Ignis and Bighorn stared at the detonation crater with wide eyes. The efficiency of the Shaman’s shot far outstripped the physical effort of the bull’s charge or the bear’s strikes.

"Great Shaman, the cave ahead is clear for now, but I can hear more of those things crawling in the deep shadows," warned Bighorn, flicking his ears toward the darkness.

Kellar reloaded his rifle, snapping a new windstone round into the chamber.

"We won’t give them time to regroup. Ignis, Bighorn, lead the way. We are clearing this chamber."

Barely crossing the threshold into the lower chamber, the mass of mini golems began to reorganize. The creatures’ incandescent cores glowed in the gloom as they advanced with heavy steps, attempting to encircle the entrance.

Kellar decided to save his rifle ammunition for critical moments. Extending both hands forward, he began channeling his mana pool, unleashing continuous bursts of [Lightning Spear]. The electric projectiles struck the basalt bodies head-on, clashing against the internal magma and paralyzing the golems with powerful shocks that left them immobilized.

"Now! Destroy them!" ordered Kellar.

Taking advantage of the stunned monsters, Bighorn and Ignis charged forward. The black-and-gold bull rammed with his frame of over four meters in height, pulverizing the creatures’ stone armor with his forehead, while Ignis crushed them with claw strikes without using a flame.

However, Kellar soon noticed something bizarre in the depths of the shaft. The scalding earth vibrated, and from the fissures in the basalt floor, the new golems emerged from the dirt as if they were plants sprouting in a crop field. The creatures were spawning at a steady pace.

Upon witnessing such a sight, Kellar burst into laughter.

"Isn’t this harvesting?" said Kellar with a chuckle, amused by the coincidence of a farmer cultivating his resources.

Turning back toward the tunnel entrance, Kellar shouted into the reinforced passage:

"Lennis! Bring all the soldiers down! Have them take pickaxes and shovels and start harvesting, pulling out every crystal possible! The golems are sprouting from the ground, but we will hold the line. Haul everything you can to the surface!"

Lennis didn’t hesitate. With a gesture, he brought down the crews alongside the soldiers, who picked up pickaxes, shovels, and mining tools. The fighters and workers split up along the exposed mineral veins in the cave walls, digging to extract every available runic crystal.

The clatter of metal against rock and the crunch of crystals being torn away echoed in unison with Kellar’s mana blasts and the beasts’ strikes. As the soldiers harvested the ore, filling the carts and hauling material up to the surface, the trio held their ground firmly against the horde, serving as a wall in the shadows.

Kellar began to feel exhausted. His mana pool was draining at a rate, and fatigue was taking its toll; even Ignis and Bighorn were no longer as fast or violent in their movements. Hours of continuous fighting were wearing them down.

Without stopping his blasts to hold back the creatures, Kellar turned his head and shouted toward the rear:

"How are you doing back there?!"

"Excellent, Shaman!" called Lennis, wiping sweat from his brow with his forearm. "We’ve already extracted several hundred kilos! But the surface veins are depleted, and the ones left are buried deeper."

At that moment, a roar shook the walls of the cavernous chamber, raining dust and stone fragments down upon them. The ground quaked beneath their feet.

Kellar didn’t hesitate and bellowed:

"Evacuate! Everyone get out! Looks like their reinforcements have arrived!"

The soldiers and miners dropped their shovels and pickaxes, bolting toward the reinforced exit tunnel. Ignis stepped to the front, placing himself between the workers and the back of the cavern, baring his claws with a guttural growl as he held the defensive line.

From the darkest depths of the shaft, the earth began to part as if it were water. A giant golem emerged from the ground, its body half-buried as though swimming through solid rock. Though only its upper half from the waist up was exposed, its frame was so immense that the top of its head brushed against the ceiling of the stone chamber.

Taking in the size of the monstrosity before him, Kellar’s eyes widened and he yelled:

"Holy shit...!"

Kellar raised his Spiral Rifle with steady hands, aiming straight for the colossus’s center as he tried to lock onto its weak point. However, before he could pull the trigger, the giant golem opened a mouth cut into the middle of its stone face.

From that incandescent cavity, a cannon of pure lava was unleashed, firing a torrent of liquid rock and fire straight across the cavern toward them.

Seeing the deadly blast rushing toward them, Ignis didn’t hesitate and threw himself in front of Kellar, using his massive body as a shield to cover his master.

Ignis’s body absorbed the attack at first, but the heat surpassed his limits. His fur and runes began to burn, forcing him to let out an agonized roar that echoed through the cavern. In seconds, his body turned black, covered in soot, and Ignis collapsed onto the ground, unconscious.

Upon seeing this, Bighorn did not think twice; he clamped his jaws around the charred neck of the bear and began dragging him toward the cave entrance to get him to safety.

"Well done, Bighorn! Get him out of here!" shouted Kellar, watching his companions retreat.

Kellar wasted no time. With fury in his eyes at the sight of Ignis, he raised the Spiral Rifle and aimed at the center of the colossus’s chest—where the fire binding the stones was brightest.

He pulled the trigger. The windstone round shot forth and struck the critical point. A detonation was unleashed, and the force of the impact shattered the giant golem into a thousand pieces, scattering incandescent rocks across the chamber.

However, victory lasted a second. Unlike the small golems that remained inert upon destruction, the colossus’s boulders began to shift and pull back together, as if responding to a magnet.

Kellar pulled the trigger a second time. The bullet struck the moving mass of stone, causing the colossus to explode once more, its rocks scattering across the cavern.

However, the incandescent fragments barely touched the ground before they began pulling together again. The stones were being drawn back. He fired a third time, triggering another detonation, but the rocks continued to reassemble into an even more menacing form. No matter how many times he fired, the giant golem refused to stay down.

Kellar gritted his teeth, feeling cold sweat run down his back as he lowered his weapon to evaluate the situation.

Shit! thought Kellar with frustration, watching the reddish glow reignite beneath the stone. This thing must have a core or some vital spot hidden elsewhere, and I’m failing to hit it. At this rate, I’ll run out of bullets long before it dies.

Kellar glanced back toward the passage entrance and confirmed that Bighorn had carried Ignis out of the chamber, securing him in the upper tunnel. Seeing the clear exit, Kellar formed a cold smirk and adjusted his grip on the weapon.

"Time to get the hell out of here!" shouted Kellar, turning on his heel to begin his retreat. "When I return, I’ll bring an army armed with these rifles! Let’s see how many times you can regenerate—I don’t think you’re immortal!"

As he turned and fled through the corridor, the giant golem made no effort to pursue him. Had Kellar looked back, he would have seen a revealing detail: the incandescent fire binding the beast’s stones faded from an intense red to a pale yellow, like a flame on the verge of burning out entirely. Even across the rigid contours of its stone face, a grotesque expression of relief seemed to form as it watched the Shaman leave.