Chapter 68: A stumbling colossus.

Chapter 68: A stumbling colossus.

Before Cerion and I could even come up with some kind of strategy, a giant stone fist came flying down, right at the both of us. We dodged out of the way on time, but only barely, because a split second after I activated aura step and Cerion used his wave movement skill, the fist landed on our previous position, digging into the tiled floor of the complex and causing a small crater to form.

Witnessing its power, I grimaced and evaluated our situation. Dealing with a monster that had more physical strength than myself wasnt anything new, nor was its speed, as far as we had observed. The issue was that much like the last boss, no weak points were visible, apart from the goliaths eyes.

Figuring this was the best opportunity to test its defenses since I hadnt charged up any mana yet, I called out to Cerion.

Im apparating! Distract it!nove(l)bi(n.)com

Ive got you covered! he shouted back.

A moment later, a round, orb-like water vortex appeared from his palm, growing in size as it approached the golem, until it became about a tenth of the stone creatures size, which translated into a diameter of ten meters.

It flew at the golem slowly, who moved to paw it out of the way. I took that chance to phase into a shadow, reappearing in a ghost-like state on the golems nose, which was actually just a stone archway turned upside down as it was assembled into the human-shaped giant. I swung my blade, timing it so that I would rematerialize right before my blade hit the eye that was responsible for the golems raw power and mana. Unfortunately, stone bricks covered it partially right before my blow struck, causing my attack to deal limited damage.

Luckily, limited damage was all I had needed to break a chunk off of the core, creating a crack in the rest of the giant marble. This time, I was smart enough to leave a curse mark, instead of focusing purely on the power of my strike like I had done with the core in the clocktower.

Of course, I had expected the skill core, as I had come to call it, to react to my attack on its brother, the power core. First, it had attempted to defend it, which was only somewhat successful. Now, it would seek to counterattack, I knew.

I whirled my mana into another apparition, drawing mana from my core until it was nearly empty. I was too slow, though, because the stone archway that I had been standing on turned into spikes beneath my feet, piercing through my armor. From all directions, spikes flew at me in retaliation to my attack, some of which hit me before my apparition pulled me away.

As I reappeared on the ground, I clutched my abdomen to stop the blood flow and tore off pieces of my armor that were digging into my flesh because of the punctures. I breathed a sigh of relief as dark form started to do its job, healing my wounds, which luckily werent even close to lethal. It wouldnt take long to heal.

I shouted a warning to Cerion, who was surfing around the buildings and dodging stones that the behemoth had hurled at it before I had left another wound on one of its cores.

Cerion! It still has the ability to freely manipulate its body! Watch out for counterattacks from any angle when you get close!

Got it!

As we spoke, the effect of my attack finally became apparent. Now that the power core had been partially broken as well, something about the boss presence seemed to dim, if only slightly. The more wounded it became, the weaker it would be. Maybe my reckless attack on the skill core before the fight would pay off more than anticipated, I pondered.

It seemed that the creature heard my thoughts, because with its next attack it proved that it still had both skill and power in spades. After clutching at its second broken eye, stones moved to cover both eyes, leaving only small gaps, supposedly to see out of, like a helmet. After renewing its defenses, it lifted both of its hands, which slowly warped to form sharper, more uniform appendages, which looked like blades instead of hands. With a strange roar, it started to move, twirling around like a spinning top. Its movement had been surprisingly quick, but what truly frightened us was what came after.

Out of nowhere, strange gusts of wind started to form, similar to the sword arcs that Cerion and I loved to use, only colorless, as if made out of neutral mana.

The issue at hand, was that it didnt just create one half-moon-shaped wind blade, it created hundreds upon hundreds, forming a massive cyclone that spread outwards.

Unfortunately, the golems intelligence was higher than anticipated, because it decided to turn its head around just in time, forcing the orbs to blow up the back of its stone head, rather than its eyes. The two orbs destabilised and exploded creating a massive shockwave, which threw me back. I had anticipated it, but it still sent me reeling as I lost some control over my movement, causing me to lose a foot to a wind blade, armor sheared off cleanly. This wasnt very surprising, seeing as both the armor and my feet themselves took a beating from my aura step, which relied on small explosions to propel me forward. They were already being destroyed more quickly than they healed, so they werent tough enough to withstand more attacks.

Luckily, the golem had taken some damage as well. The back of its head had become a crater, most of the stone that was previously there having blown off in the blast or reduced to rubble. I even saw the backside of the two cores, though only small cracks were visible from this side, signifying the damage I had done to them was minimal. Perhaps more importantly, the head re-joined the torso, which stopped spinning, the tornado of wind blades slowly petering out as it did so.

As I bounced around with a single foot and a bloody stump in the other foots place, I mocked our opponent, using the fancy lingo Cerion had taught me when we had visited a restaurant a few weeks ago.

That was just the entre, idiot!

The head started to recover, drawing in stone and rubble from the rest of its body to patch holes and cover the eyes again. As it did so, a few stone boulders flew at me, trying to force me to make some distance. With my mana just barely enough to keep me in the air, I went along with the golem's intent and dodged backward. Fortunately for us, its recovery was slow. Too slow, in fact, to prevent Cerions attack.

From the sky, a large waterfall seemed to appear out of nowhere, as if Cerion had carved a hole in the dungeons ceiling and redirected a wide rived into it. This was not the case, however. This powerful phenomenon was the result of Alias and Cerions teamwork. As the waterfall neared the golems head from above, it stopped its downward flow and instead enveloped the aforementioned stone skull. Soon, a giant ball of water covered the behemoths head, as if it was a bubble.

From a distance, I could see Cerion clasp a raised hand, forming a fist with a previously open palm. The bubble became smaller, concentrating around the head, becoming denser and denser, to the point that cracks started to appear on the stone itself.

Now I understood Cerions plan. He intended to use some free form water manipulation to break both eyes with intense water pressure. I was pretty sure he didnt have a system-recognised skill like this, after all.

The giant clawed at the bubble like a drowning man would, to no avail. Just when I though we would win like this, the monster's eyes started to shine brightly.

A moment later, an immense shockwave erupted from them out of nowhere, throwing both Cerion and me to the ground. My friend created water haphazardly as he fell, slowing his fall, but I had a hard time regaining control because of aura steps random nature.

I crashed into the tiled floor, forming a crater as I made impact. As I crawled out of the hole, slowly healing the fractured ribs I had gotten, I stared at the sky, watching the boss change its shape.

The stone body of the golem, that seemed to be made of pieces of random buildings, now started to flow as if it was water. As it had melted the same way iron did when heated.

The two blue eyes slowly separated, both drawing in the liquid stone to themselves, forming new bodies. As the cores separated, I noticed that both were filled with cracks and holes. Clearly, Cerions attack had partially worked.

The power core slowly formed a shield, made out of smooth stone rather than the patchwork job the last golem had looked like. The giant tower shield had a single blue gem in the middle, where the power core rested.

The skill stone took a similar approach, only forming a stone broadsword instead, large enough to be wielded by its previous form, which now no longer existed. On its pommel, the skill stone rested.

The duo of weapons floated in the air, revealing their massive size, each approaching at least 40 meters in height. They stared down at Cerion and me, as well as our summons, ready to finally kill us, it seemed.

With a nervous chuckle, I drew my blade.

Ready for phase two? Cerion asked.

Always. I answered resolutely.