"How are we supposed to get down there alive against this many golems?" I asked out loud as the creatures on the ground sluggishly started to get up.
"Let's go up," Mary suggested, looking toward Tress's position. The myriad was surrounded by four golems, while on our side, I could count at least ten nearby, with more and more behind them.
The ones close to Tress had swords in hand and were nearly standing. No boost of speed yet.
We rushed to help her.
Sensing our approach, the monster closest to us turned to attack with a thrust, but Mary shoved it back. It stumbled on its feet against another golem.
That gave Tress enough space to grip the apparently edgeless rock sword and throw the monster down the hole.
The other two were rising, but Mary pushed them again, and they fell to the ground. The bastards were damn heavy, but I managed to grab one while Elk did the same with the other, and we threw them toward the boss down below.
I heard something flying in our direction and barely had time to turn.
A rock hit me right in the midsection. The thing was pointy and dented my Roman chest plate. If I didn’t have it, I’d probably have my heart pierced by now.
"Behind the shield!" I called, catching my breath and moving to the rail behind Mary.
Looking over her shoulder, I saw the golems with staffs preparing magic with one hand and releasing it with the staff.
The rocks would exit the stone wall, fly toward the staff, form pointed lances, and shoot toward us.
Thankfully, Mary’s shield was gigantic and held all the projectiles that hit it, while the others flew way over our heads.
I looked back at the trajectory of one of them and saw it hitting an invisible wall close to where we had entered the dungeon.
The thing dematerialized in an instant, like it had been hit by a heat of a thousand degrees. There was no way out by climbing back to the top without defeating the dungeon.
We kept walking back instinctively, my mind swirling with ideas on how to reach the bottom.
I looked down the spiral and counted three full circles until the boss, and the monsters only occupied one of them.
"Maybe we can jump to the next platform," I offered.
"Too much room for error. I can't let you die," Tress argued, looking down the slope at my side.
"They're coming, lads. We need to decide now," Mary said, looking over her shield as another stone spell flew right above her head.
"Actually, I don't think we have the time," Elk pointed toward the grouped enemies, and I noticed the ones with stone swords rushing too fast in our direction.
I positioned myself behind the shield again and waited. They thrust against it as if it was the only option in their programming.
The golems acted more like zombies in a horror movie than intelligent beings. They kept thrusting their swords, and we kept moving back.
Mary tried to push back, but before she could, another golem would strike.
We were getting dangerously close to the start of the dungeon and the invisible killing wall when we collectively started pushing together with Mary.
It was more effective than we thought, and our coordinated pushes seemed to be enough to drive the monsters away.
I heard them tumbling and looked over the shield.
There were five. All the others stood away as if waiting for us to deal with them before it was their turn.
"When the first strike comes, we'll push with all our strength. When they crash, we'll gain space over them. Mary will keep the shield up, and we'll drop them down," I stated my plan, and no one argued against it.
When the first strike came, we were ready for it.
We pushed against it, and the crash of stone against stone echoed through the crater. I even heard some cracking. We jumped over the fallen enemies, with Mary halting and already receiving spells against her shield.
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The enemies rose, but we were faster. In the span of a minute, the five golems had been dealt with.
"I hope they fall over the boss's head," I muttered, looking over the shield once more.
Another flying rock aimed at our heads shot toward the invisible wall, but instead of walking back, we moved forward. At least now we had one way to deal with them properly—unless they decided to attack us with more than five.
Even so, it would be difficult to surround us. If we hugged the wall, either Tress or I could cover the other side with our strength or even use our blades to drive the creatures down the precipice.
This time, though, they didn't move toward us. They stayed clustered together, dozens and dozens of golems halted along the spiral.
The mages threw rocks at us while the others seemed to be waiting for orders from an unknown entity.
"Forward," I said, watching their behavior.
As soon as we took five steps toward them, five of the creatures moved ahead. These had spears in their hands. The range of their weapons and the possibility that they’d strike over the shield made me shiver. However, as they moved forward, I noticed something else.
At the edge of the line of monsters, one of them took a step back.
As soon as their leg crossed the halfway point of the circle, it disintegrated, just like the rocks that flew over our heads.
An idea flashed in my mind.
"I have a plan, but you'll have to trust me," I told them, and instantly, their three pairs of eyes locked onto mine.
"It'll be something crazy like running on water, am I right?" Mary asked.
"It'll get you killed so we can reach the bottom?" Tress asked.
"I'm not that altruistic, Tress. Besides, you don’t need to start acting different just because we’re bonded. Please, don’t make this weird," I pleaded as I heard the rocky steps of the spearmen moving toward us. "And you, Elk? Nothing to say?"
"I have no plan, so I'll follow yours," he stated plainly, no fear in his voice.
"When I command, we'll run as fast as we can and drive them back." I put as much confidence in my voice as possible, but it wasn't enough to stop Mary from gasping.
"I said I need you to trust me. I'll take care of the flank; you, Elk, and Tress will handle the push. All right?"
She grimaced as if wanting to protest, but the monsters were close, and she had no better idea.
"I don’t want to die stupidly, Zach," she gritted her teeth, preparing for the hard task. She turned forward. "When you say it."
I looked over the shield again. The mages were forming their spells, and the spearmen were halfway toward us. Soon, they’d use their speed boost—I was sure of it.
As soon as I saw the one in front plant the balls of its feet on the ground, I knew it was time.
"Run!" I commanded, and in the next second, we were crashing against rocky spears. They fell to the ground like the swordsmen from before.
Elk looked at them as we jumped over the fallen enemies, as if asking whether we should throw them into the precipice.
"Keep running!" I bellowed, and they followed.
Magic crashed against the shield, along with swords and more spears. They pushed against us, and their strength was, of course, greater than ours, but we held our ground. On the left, the golems that got past the shield were quickly kicked off the ledge by me.
I had to suppress the urge to scream, "This is Sparta!" a few times.
As I kicked one of the golems, a magic stone hit me right in the shoulder.
It was enough to send me rolling to the ground—thankfully, toward the wall and not the other direction.
It hurt like hell, but lying there, I saw our plan working.
Mary, Tress, and Elk struggled to keep their position, but as the golems in front pushed forward, the ones in the back stepped back to gain more space to fight.
Those ones were being obliterated.
With each second, we gained another foot of distance, and the creatures literally lost their feet, legs, and bodies—without a single scream of pain.
I got up just in time to defend Tress from a hurled spear, striking it with my dagger and sending it flying past the side of her head.
"We're close! Keep going!" I shouted, the pain in my shoulder lessening with each strike the golems delivered to Mary’s shield.
"We... don’t... feel... close!" Mary managed to say, her voice raspy and labored.
"Look back, and you'll see," I told her as I kicked another monster.
The four spear golems from before were several feet away. We had already run through half of the full circle of creatures.
"Push!" Mary screamed, and we pushed like football tacklers training against the heaviest blocking sleds. She might not have understood exactly how it was working, but she definitely felt it.
Between defending their flanks, I helped push, seeing the ultimate prize drawing closer.
"Push!" Elk cried.
"Push!" Tress echoed, and the adrenaline made us work three times harder.
The monsters struck, but we'd become a force of nature, one whose only interest was moving forward as fast as possible.
I didn’t see the moment we finally did it—I only realized it when we crashed against the ground, Mary's shield bracing us, with no more enemies in front. My fear of being ripped apart by the invisible wall had no time to manifest.
We were through it.
I looked back, still on the ground. A few golems remained, standing still, watching us for a couple of seconds.
Then, they sluggishly walked toward the stone walls and melted into them, becoming one with the crater once again.
"We did it," Mary panted as I helped her up, and she helped the others.
Looking back and ahead, it became clear we'd just gone through one-third of the dungeon, with the other third of the spiral still waiting for us.
The rest of the path was made of black rock. No monsters were in sight, so I took a step forward.
Before I could even process it, I was already falling.
See you guys on Monday! Have a nice weekend.
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