The Golem was standing tall once again, seemingly un-phased by the attack Leo had just inflicted as it walked forward, and yet the damage was clear. Its face plate—or whatever held its head together—was indented with the shape of Leo’s fist, a few shards of metal bent out of shape.

Not feeling pain made sense, as it was a golem—a creation with a directive instead of a soul. But to not show signs of damage in its movements was a bit rough.

Leo didn’t waste time thinking for too long and ran towards his enemy. His resonance was ticking down quickly so he wanted to get a good use out of the skill before it ran out. So far, the golem had shown it was highly reactive, quick, but had its openings.

Lightning continued to course through his veins, boosting his speed and reflexes while delivering strikes that would hopefully cause some kind of stiffness or at least stagger its movements. He’d already burned through a chunk of his stamina with the last attack, so now he would try and land some efficient hits.

A giant sword swung down, its edge whistling as it tore through the air. It was a pretty straightforward attack but it didn’t need to be tricky. The speed of it eclipsed any attack he’d had to dodge so far.

Leo quickly spun to the side, letting the blade pass right by him and struck out at the golem’s wrist with a lightning fast jab, the first of many.

A flurry of strikes followed as he got in close to its torso, each hit stacking up his Iron Repetition, increasing the subsequent damage of each hit.

The sound of the gauntlets striking the metal armour of the golem was like someone rapidly hammering steel. The golem took all the hits, but did not sit idle. As soon as the fourth blow was struck, its shield came across its torso, aiming to blow Leo backwards.

Leo decided to test the durability of these draconic gauntlets. He could feel Ellie’s excitement as he used them. Her will, her essence, her emotions. All of it was getting channeled through him with each strike. A half-uppercut flew towards the incoming shield, Leo’s full strength behind it as steam rose from his body.

As if a massive gong was struck, the shield was knocked upwards, the entirety of the golem’s arm going with it. If a golem’s eyes could go wide, Leo imagined they would have at this moment as even he was not expecting the sheer power from the skill.

“Hah!” A wide toothy smile appeared on his face as he saw the result of his power—their power.

Not one to miss an opening, Leo used his boots’ dash ability to get up to its face again. A flash of red ignited his left gauntlet, as Scarlet Impact was aimed at its broken face. His improved ability to move through the air thanks to Tailwind was really showing in these attacks that had him airborne.

For a second time, his might crashed into the head of the War-golem, causing fire to ignite down its head for a brief moment as the explosion rang out. Once again it was sent reeling backwards.

Suddenly Leo’s Reflex sparked with massive incoming danger, and before he could dodge, his leg was grasped by a giant hand. It had dropped its sword in a gamble to grab him and it had paid off.

Leo’s eyes widened as he felt the giant squeeze tight, pulling him with it as it was knocked backwards.

It used the force that was sending it back to throw Leo with all its might, like a baseball pitcher sending its strongest fastball, only instead of at a catcher's mitt, it was a nearby pillar. The speed of the attack was too much for Leo to Spark Dash out of, and he impacted the pillar with a resonating crash as the stone crumbled.

Broken bones were the least of his worries as he lay on the ground, breathing was laborious, moving was not happening.

Holy fuck that hurt.

Checking his HP, he was definitely glad for his bonuses, even if it didn’t really reflect how he felt.

HP: 432/1050

Over half of his health in one hit and all it did was throw him.

That meant taking one of those sword strikes would result in instant death, guaranteed.

Getting to his feet, he expected to see the golem standing above him but instead it looked to be…

“Oh, fuck!”

Those were all the words he could muster before a glowing laser beam surged towards him.

With no time to dodge, Leo’s survival instincts kicked in big time, forcing as much mana to circulate through his body as he possibly could.

Both of his hands slammed into the ground in front of him trying to summon a barrier of earth.

The skill responded with gusto as it used the mana to conjure not just one wall but three, each layered in front of another.

Earth Wall (common)
Upgraded to:
Layered Bastion (Uncommon)

The beam tore through the arena like an arc of sunlight, crashing directly into the hurried bastion Leo had created.

The sound of laser carving through rock filled his ears as he braced behind the stone. He didn’t dare dodge out, as in his current state it would probably carve him in half.

All he could do was hope.

He could feel it as the beam tore through. One wall, two. When it got to the third, Leo could only brace and hope it didn’t have enough strength to pierce.

As if it had never been, the sound stopped, and pressure along with it. Just as it did, the wall in front of him collapsed. It had fulfilled its purpose, and it had done so spectacularly.

Thank you, wall. A still dazed Leo nodded his head in thanks to the wall he had created.

His daze didn’t last for long as his eyes locked upon the apparent laser wielding War-golem.

It looked… tired?

The glow in its—now gravely deformed—eye socket was flickering. The golden veins that covered its incredibly tough body no longer shone with the luster or marvel they once did.

A period of weakness after a big move was just what he needed, as soon as he could get his legs to work properly that is.

His Draconic Equip had ended at some point during the defense. Ellie chose this moment to pop out and charge at the seemingly defensive golem. Her form darted with fairly impressive speed across the sand.

Leo tried to follow, hand grasping the dirt, as he was worried about her going alone but the bones in his hips hadn’t recovered enough yet. He could feel that they were trying to, but it was slow going.

~

Ellie dashed towards the stinky big metal guy ready to give it a good chomping.

She had felt the hit Leo had taken and was ready to give it all she had. Chomping was one of her favourite things that she had discovered in this world so far. She’d chomped Leo, chomped on some tasty things Leo had called skewers, and her favourite time was when she chomped the big bug.

Ellie could feel the worry in the bond from Leo. He was always worrying.

Emotions were a new thing, as were all the things in Ellie’s life. She’d felt so many new things since being born. But there was one thing he didn’t realise wasn’t unfamiliar to Ellie…

Fighting.

As soon as Ellie hatched—after a long time in the dark—she knew. She knew how to fight. How to kill. It was instinctual.

Leo didn’t know how good Ellie was at fighting yet, but he’d find out. She had watched all of his fights and knew he was the strongest she’d ever seen, so this Golem thing was no match for both of them if she helped!

Ellie pulled on the connection between them, she could feel the power coming from Leo’s Essences and her access to the strength within them, but it wasn’t enough, she needed more.

Dragon Breath (Uncommon)

Upgraded to:

Elemental Breath (Rare)

Lightning surged up through her body and into her mouth as it coalesced. The air began to crackle, small blue sparks dancing across her scales.

A moment later, a beam of blue light arcing with lightning shot out from her mouth towards the staggered golem, wild and unruly.

Ellie’s breath hit the construct in the chest and continued upwards as the beam seared a line into the golem’s armour.

Ellie’s beam is way better!

~

Leo looked on in shocked surprise as he watched his little baby companion fire a laser beam from her mouth into the Golem. She clearly had seen the beam from the golem and gotten pissed.

In fact, he could feel the frustration from her through their bond and how much she wanted to kill the thing in front of her.

“She’s a little murder machine,” Leo whispered in awe, totally loving it.

A moment later, Ellie’s mouth clamped around the leg of the golem and she kept on biting. More like chomping actually. For some reason that word felt correct and Leo didn’t know why.

The chomping continued while Leo recuperated. It wasn’t clear how long the idle time of the golem would last, but so far it had been around thirty seconds that felt like minutes.

The bones in his pelvis clicked into place as they finally set. He winced—not a nice feeling. Not realising he was doing it, Leo had been unconsciously directing his vital energy to focus on getting him walking again.

The Golem’s eye slit lit up again and Leo could see it was starting to move once more. Like an engine heating up.

“Ellie! Let go! It’s awake again!” he called.

Thankfully she listened as a brief moment later its fist crashed into the ground where she once was.

That would have obliterated her…

Anger started to form in his core, lip curling into a snarl. Getting thrown into a pillar across a room he could accept, that was his mistake. Trying to kill his precious companion?

Unforgivable.

Leo’s aura surged out, the sheer presence of it rippling the sand between himself and the War-golem. It had the intended effect. Its focus was instantly locked back onto Leo, giving Ellie the much needed time to get clear.

It walked towards its sword as it stared down Leo. At the same time, a semi-translucent Cloak of Wind manifested around his body, helping him stand with greater ease.

“Focus on using your breath attacks Ells,” Leo said calmly. “I’ll hold aggro.”

The golem picked up its sword and held a combat stance, awaiting Leo’s charge.

It was clear that the damage it had been inflicted with was there to stay, no sign of any kind of regeneration. If it had been able to do that, then this fight would have been ridiculous.

Mana and stamina were looking okay considering the assault he’d given.

He’d seen its attacks—felt them too—and was now ready to unleash hell upon it.

Walking slowly at first to test his legs, he soon broke out into a full sprint, closing the distance with incredible speed as if gliding across the ground. The Cloak of Wind was flowing out behind him, and combined with his Tailwind that was always active, it really helped him cut through the wind resistance.

A small torrent of fire coated the back of the golem, yet it did not look away from the enemy in front of it. Whatever it had felt from Leo’s aura told it that if it did not take this challenger seriously then it would perish.

Less than five seconds later, Leo was swinging his fist towards the Golem, coated in the blue lightning of Volt Crash once again.

In response, the golem’s shield was raised up to block, having seen this attack before. But just as it was about to connect, Leo dashed backwards, completely changing his direction and cancelling his attack.

The lightning in his hand morphed to frost as a metre long lance was suddenly fired towards its head. Leo didn’t wait for it to hit and used the dash from his boots to dash through the air towards the side of the golem past its shield.

The cloak made him feel like he could walk on air as his descent was slowed. The wind around him helped lift him up as Tailwind instinctually followed his wishes to float.

Leo’s kick smashed into the side of the golem with all the force he could muster, then another two as he spun in the air.

Each kick landed with more force than the last, Echoing Talon getting its full effect. Through this entire exchange Leo had been burning stamina, the steam evident as it poured off his body and was wisped around with the winds.

The golem did not take the hits idly and tried to move its shield to smash into him. Or so he thought. The golem tossed its shield directly towards the nearby Leo. Voltaic Reflex warned him with enough time to use another charge of his Spark Dash.

Leo’s feet hit the floor as the massive, round shield barrelled over his head.

A bit too close on that one. His current room for error was tiny.

The golem turned towards him and started swinging its sword with desperate fervor. It had apparently disregarded all of its defense in exchange for a wild assault.

Each blade strike was barely dodged as Leo waited for his opening. Throughout the countless swings, Leo didn’t notice the little dragon jumping onto the back of the attacking golem until he heard a metal crunching noise.

Not one damn was given by the Golem.

All that mattered to it was taking out the enemy in front of it. Ellie’s chomps on its shoulder were causing its swings to slow, her teeth somehow making it through the metal-like substance.

This was the opening he needed.

One swing went wide enough for him to get some distance. During this time he had not been merely dodging, when the first sound of metal being crunched rang out, Leo activated his Call of the Storm.

“Jump back Ells!” Leo commanded as he also dashed backwards.

Instantly, she listened, opening up her small wings and flapping once to go backwards.

Leo held his hands out in front of him as he felt the mana and power from the skill flow through his body. Lightning crawled across his skin in thin, white veins, meeting the rippling Cloak of Wind at his shoulders. The breeze became a pull, then a rush, then a roaring spiral that dragged sand and loose stone into orbit.

The first pulse hit like a bell struck from the inside. Wind compressed, then detonated outward in a tight ring that slammed into the Golem. Cracks spidered through its already damaged body. The second pulse rode the first, a wedge of sound and air that shoved the giant back, boots gouging the sand.

Lightning followed the path the wind carved. Forks snapped from Leo’s forearms and ribs, arcing across the arena into the joints at the shoulder and hip. Gold light flared inside the golem’s seams, stuttering like a heartbeat out of rhythm.

The giant tried to set its feet in the shredding maelstrom of devastating power and found no purchase, each attempt to brace met by another unseen shove. When the final surge peaked, the air around the Golem exploded out, a clean white blast that lifted the golem a half step and dumped it on one knee.

Silence rushed back in, the deafening noise suddenly cut off. Ozone stung his lungs. The storm he had caused thinned around him like breath leaving in winter.

Leo looked upon the downed, fracturing enemy. Met its gaze.

A moment later the light in its eyeslit went out. The golem collapsing. For good.

You have slain: War-Golem - Level 37
Experience increased for defeating a higher-level enemy
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