Dozens of golems stepped forward. The movement sent a heavy, thrumming vibration through the floor. As one leg lifted, fifty others mirrored it. Thick clouds of dust puffed from their stone joints with every motion, a dry haze rising as the formation split to move toward different targets.

  The moving mass of golems wasn’t grotesque, nor was it particularly loud, but the sheer weight of it was overwhelming. Lucas realized the odds weren't in his favor, and his eyes instinctively darted toward the exit tunnel.

  “Shouldn’t we escape?” he yelled.

  He glanced back. Qalda was already engaged with a golem larger than the rest. Its eyes burned a deep crimson, and its body was composed of a different material entirely - darker, denser, with the polished sheen of obsidian.

  Qalda didn’t respond. Perhaps she didn’t even hear his words over the grinding stone. Instead, the cave answered for her.

  The ground beneath the tunnel entrance shook. A slab of solid stone erupted upward and slammed into the ceiling. The exit was sealed. The only path left was victory.

  Lucas’s mind was still buzzing with a rush of adrenaline when Evelyn called out to him.

  “This spell will take some time. Distract them, Lucas!”

  He spun around, disbelief on his face. Evelyn stood next to Felix, her hands extended forward, fingers cramped unnaturally. Silver runes shimmered on her fingertips as she struggled to shape a silver sphere.

  Only now did Lucas realize that someone else’s life depended on him. And the responsibility sobered him.

  The battlefield was a mess of isolated duels. Qalda was locked in a contest of brute strength with the red-eyed giant. Gio was a blur of motion somewhere on the flank, cutting a path toward the cloaked figure controlling the golems. Roland was pinned down, maintaining a wall of ice to hold back a tide of stone bodies while firing sharp icicles to thin their numbers.

  That left the rear to Lucas.

  Evelyn and Felix stood behind him, defenseless while the spell was being cast. Three golems were already moving toward them.

  “I will attack one, but I can’t stop all three!” Lucas barked.

  He didn’t wait for an acknowledgment. Words were a waste of time. He needed to create distance, to keep the golems away until Evelyn’s spell was done.

  He charged forward, reaching up to his shoulder to grab the bowstring that had been chafing his neck. He jerked the weapon free and dropped it on the ground.

  The arrows would be completely useless against stone golems. His mastery of the bow was low, and the weapon quality was poor; against enemies resistant to piercing damage, it was just dead weight.

  Lucas had no experience wielding a spear, and it showed.

  He ran at the golem on the right and thrust the shaft forward. He put as much force into it as he could, letting the speartip strike with his full weight behind it.

  The edge struck the stone, right where the abdomen would be. The backlash shook Lucas’s entire arm back. The recoil was so strong that his fingers went instantly numb. He came very close to letting go of the spear, but his instincts forced his fingers to hold onto the shaft.

  He retreated, scrambling back. Charging blindly would get him nowhere. He needed time to ease the stinging pain in his hands and figure out how to deal damage to these things.

  “Hey, you bastards! Catch me if you can!” he yelled to taunt them.

  But the stone had neither feelings to hurt nor a sentient mind to annoy. The three golems had already chosen their targets. They didn't even look at him as they marched relentlessly toward Evelyn.

  Realizing they were ignoring him, Lucas charged again. But he needed more power.

  1 AP in Strength, he commanded the system.

  [1 Attribute Point allocated to Strength.]

  His grip on the spear tightened as he felt the sudden surge of raw power. He felt more confident now, even if the change was minimal.

  He quickly formulated a plan. If the stone armor was resistant to piercing damage, he would use blunt force.

  As he closed the distance, he leapt and swung the spear. But this time he reversed his grip to strike with the dull end of the shaft. He aimed for the chest, where the stone armor covered the green crystal inside.

  The recoil came stronger, but this time his grip didn’t loosen.

  The crunch that followed was satisfying. A surge of triumph hit Lucas as he saw a small fracture form on the golem’s chest. But his excitement was cut short.

  The golem had ignored him before because he was a nuisance. Now, he was a threat.

  The massive statue stopped its advance and turned its heavy torso toward Lucas.

  It raised the limb, a massive stump of stone. A shadow loomed over Lucas as the foot descended to crush him.

  Lucas threw himself to the side, rolling across the hard ground with the spear clutched to his chest. The fall was painful; his body bruised, skin scraped, but he didn’t give in to the shock.

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  He scrambled to his feet and ran. Heavy thuds shook the floor behind him. The golem was chasing him now. It stomped the ground with enough force to pulverize bone, trying to squash him like an insect.

  But Lucas was faster. Despite the golem being nearly impervious to damage, it was slow, and its movement pattern was primitive. Lucas could anticipate the attacks, dodging just before the stone smashed down.

  “Evelyn…” he remembered, gasping for breath.

  He glanced to the side. The mage was still casting her spell. Felix had stepped forward, lantern in hand. A blazing wall of fire separated them from the two golems, which were currently stepping directly into the inferno without pausing.

  “The fire won’t work,” Lucas muttered.

  He pivoted, sprinting to align himself with his allies.

  A sharp crackling sound stunned him. His head snapped toward the source.

  Qalda stood in front of the cloaked figure, a red streak of light closing in from the flank. But the figure responded. A blinding green sheen erupted from beneath the cloak, intense and overwhelming.

  The sickly light surged outward in all directions.

  As it reached Lucas, he tasted the rot in his mouth. Then the blast wave slammed into him, lifting him off his feet and hurling him backward.

  He crashed into the stone wall. His entire body spasmed as the air was forced from his lungs. Breathing became impossible, and vision turned red and blurry.

  He came to his senses on the ground, gasping for air.

  The room had changed. The golems were gone, their bodies shattered into piles of rubble scattered across the floor.

  The cavern was bathed in a sickly green emanating from the cloaked figure. But the light wasn’t absolute; a brilliant silver glow fought against it. Giant swirling circles of mana rotated around Roland, who held the same dark-covered grimoire. The man was visibly sweating, his refined white hair and beard messy, a look of sheer disbelief etched onto his face.

  “Lucas!” Qalda’s strained voice reached him.

  She was covering Gio with her own body. Her back was bare, the skin covered in blisters and painted in green. The Sanguine was pinned against the wall, Qalda’s chest pressed tight against him to shield him from the spell.

  “Save Evelyn! Hurry!” Qalda screamed, her glistening eyes fixed desperately on Lucas as he struggled to push himself up.

  Lucas’s mind was still hazy, the world spinning in a nauseating blur of grey and green. He didn’t understand what had happened - one moment he was kiting a golem, the next, a shockwave had thrown him across the cavern. Still, he obeyed.

  He scrambled to his feet, swaying, and scanned the battlefield.

  First, he saw Felix. The healer was unconscious on the ground, curled into a fetal position, encased in a sphere of blazing, scarlet fire.

  Then he saw Evelyn.

  She was just a few steps away, buckled on one knee, bathed in a sickly green light that obscured her form, making it impossible to see if she was even breathing.

  Lucas struggled toward her, his steps uneven. As he neared the boundary where the silver and green lights met, intense pressure crushed down on him, and his skin began to sting as if he was being burned alive. He couldn’t move any further; the magical density was physically impenetrable for someone with his low stats.

  “Cancel your spell or we will all die!” Qalda roared, her glare aimed at Roland.

  “I’m what's keeping us alive!” Roland shouted back. “I can’t stop his spell, but I’m dampening its strength! As long as my mana…”

  “Stop talking, will you?” The cold, high-pitched voice of the cloaked figure cut through the argument. “If I wanted to kill you, you’d all be dead by now.”

  “What do you want?” Roland asked, as though he believed what the man had claimed.

  “From you? Nothing. I was merely fulfilling one of the requirements. You already know that, don’t you? Isn’t that why you came here? You hoped you’d stop me... no. Now that I’ve seen your mana, you wouldn't risk your life for just that. Wait... did you think you could stop me and ascend yourself?”

  The puppeteer chuckled, though the amusement quickly faded from his voice.

  “Old man, what is your requirement? Tell me, and I might let you go.”

  The pressure in the room shifted. The green light dimmed as the puppeteer focused his attention on the High Mage.

  Lucas found his opening.

  He lunged through the weakening barrier and slid across the stone floor to Evelyn. He crouched beside her, reaching out to grab her shoulder, but his hand froze in mid-air.

  He gasped, horror overwhelming him.

  Half of Evelyn’s face was gone. The skin of her left cheek had melted away, revealing the raw muscle and white bone of her jaw, which was already turning black from necrosis.

  “Potion...” Evelyn opened her remaining eye, her voice a wet gurgle. “Green... satchel...”

  The puppeteer ignored them, his focus entirely on the High Mage.

  “So? Make your decision. I am not a patient man.”

  “Why do you need that information?” Roland asked, stalling.

  “Old man, I give you three seconds. Threeee… twoooo… oooonnnneee…”

  “Fine!” Roland yelled.

  The silver rings of Nullcraft surrounding him suddenly dimmed and condensed into tight, spinning halos around his wrists.

  Despite the silver light no longer fighting the green sheen, the oppressive atmosphere didn't expand. The sickly green glow remained in place, hovering like a heavy drape.

  “Speak!” the cloaked figure barked.

  “Now, Unbowed!” Roland screamed.

  The condensed silver rings shot forward from his hands, traversing the distance in a blink. They expanded instantly upon reaching the puppeteer. The silver light exploded inward, instantly suppressing the mana and erasing the sickly green aura completely.

  “Hahahaha!” Roland laughed in triumph as he saw a golden light flash.

  Qalda was already in the air, her fist pulled back, glowing, aimed directly at the puppeteer’s exposed head.

  “How predictable… You are disappointing Roland of Frozfield.”

  The puppeteer shook his head.

  “You may have suppressed my magic, but I’m so much more than that.”

  The cavern shuddered violently as a deafening fracture tore through the stone foundation. The floor split apart as precise, geometric lines formed, resembling runes.

  Blinding green light erupted from the symbols, swirling into a chaotic vortex that swallowed the ground whole.

  Lucas realized he was being dragged down. The stone beneath his boots had lost its solidity. He tried to jump, but he found no footing - only the terrifying sensation of sinking into intangible quicksand.

  He glanced frantically at Evelyn.

  She was sinking beside him. The potion had already begun to work - it was knitting her back together. However, she was still far too weak to help herself.

  He reached out and grabbed her by the wrist, pulling as hard as he could. He pressed her head to his chest, shielding her with his arms as the vortex rose to swallow them.

  “Until our next meeting.”

  The Puppeteer’s low, mocking voice was the last thing he heard before the world dissolved into emerald static.

  Hello everyone!

  I have two pieces of news: The snow came, and now I have a high fever xD I'm sure you can connect the dots...

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