Ultimate Level 1

Chapter 212: Fighting Won't Get You Out

“Rooted!”

Max was glad Tanila’s root had worked this time. The earth elementals were a massive pain in groups of four, even though they weren’t fast.

The constant barrage of tremor attacks and their thick bodies made the process of killing them no fun.

He had acquired seven points of strength and constitution, but after that, no more came. This gave him a base of one hundred and eighty for both stats, helping to give a small jumping point to where the max stats of these things were.

“I got it!” Fowl shouted as the second golem came up, both of them bashing against the dwarf’s shield.

Using his speed, Max danced around the third one, his new weapon creating massive cracks every time the hammer side of it hit. Once a large enough seam was created, he dashed forward after dodging the strike, plunged the massive spiked tip into the crack, and drove forward, breaking the leg in half, watching as the twelve-foot monster fell to the ground.

Batrire’s heals kept Fowl topped off, requiring much less effort after her new pants and staff gave her the bonuses she desperately needed.

“It’s free!” Batrire shouted as Max felt the golem Tanila had rooted moving again.

The fact that they were fighting in an underground cavern of some sort really made life painful. Even though they could navigate through the tunnels, being in the darkened area made Max wonder why so many appeared in a row.

Focusing his mind on the target coming toward the group. Max went to work disabling the golem so he could help Fowl with the other two.

“These things are a great experience but have horrible drops,” Fowl muttered, chipping at the broken crystal in the defeated elemental’s cracked chest. “The worst part is Cordellia is basically twiddling her thumbs.”

“Hey!” their ranger cried out. “Leave me alone! I’m enjoying pretending to be Batrire!”

Max just nodded, staring at the winding cavern. A few torches lined the walls in their direction, yet once again, they were descending into the depths of a tower floor.

“What’s on your mind?”

Max shrugged, smiling at Tanila, who he had sensed coming up behind him.

“All this underground stuff and dark side really is getting to me. Does it feel like the tower is pointing us in a certain direction?”

Sighing, Tanila’s head moved up and down as she looked out over the dark expanse they couldn’t see. Even with the rings, it was only about fifty yards before the darkness was impossible to pierce, and the torches stood out enough only to show they still had miles to go.

“These are simple earth golems. It makes me wonder why, but they aren’t horrible; they are just a pain to deal with. Other than a wall to block their advance or roots when they actually work, I’m about as useful at the moment as our archer.”

“That’s not true. You managed to knock one off the ledge a few fights back. I’m pretty certain that counts as a kill.”

She groaned and punched his arm playfully.

“You’re nervous, aren’t you?”

He nodded but gave her a smile.

“Everett sharing what happened to that group kind of bothered me… one hit… all it takes is one bad hit. You almost died from that minotaur, and the ice spell was able to get three of you at once.”

“But it didn’t, and don’t give me grief about luck or anything else.”

Fowl coughed as he moved up next to the two of them.

“You two about done bitching and moaning? I’d like to finish this floor sometime before I get gray hair in my beard.”

Max nodded and tapped the butt of his weapon against the rock ledge they were descending upon.

“Let’s get to it then.”

Twelve hours later, they found themselves at the base of the cavern they had been descending into. A stone bowl sat upon a massive rock in the middle of a fifty-yard circle.

Runes were inscribed into the stone floor, and if it wasn’t for the rings everyone was wearing, seeing would have been hard but not impossible. Sixteen torches were standing and lit, surrounding the circle of runes, while a single torch sat by the bowl.

“What the hell are we supposed to do here?” Fowl ask.

Tanila was walking with Batrire, and they were inspecting the runes, trying to decipher and understand what was said.

Max and Cordellia were moving around the outer edge of the circle where torches stood every ten yards or so, a rune at each point where the torches were.

As the four of them moved around the area, Fowl was up near the torch and bowl inspecting that area.

“Hey! Look at this!” Fowl shouted, getting everyone to turn and see that the torch next to the rock wasn’t part of the ground like the ones outside the circle. “There’s liquid in the bowl!”

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For whatever reason, Fowl tipped the torch to the bowl, and the liquid inside leaped out, extinguishing the flame.

“FOWL!” Tanila shouted and Max knew something had gone wrong when not only did his sonar pick up the rumbling of the ground, but he felt magical energy moving through the runes.

Each torch tipped over, the fire landing on the line of runes near it and ignited.

Suddenly, sixteen runic lines of fire raced toward the area where Fowl was standing, still in shock at the extinguished torch in his hand.

“RUN!” Max shouted as he drew his weapon, sensing the movement from under the ground.

Everyone raced toward the edge of the circle, Cordellia being the first to arrive when she smacked face-first into an invisible barrier. The collision knocked her backward and onto her butt.

“Fowl, I’m going to kill you!” Batrire shouted as she and Tanila smacked into the same barrier that had stopped Cordellia.

Nothing showed up in Max’s sonar range regarding a barrier, which meant whatever it was was something magical.

“We can’t get out!” Tanila yelled as she and Batrire tried to make their way toward Cordellia.

The rock with the bowl on top of it began to rise from the ground, dragging parts of the rock floor with it as the runes of fire outlined the body of the golem.

Red and orange, glowing runes seemed to wrap themselves around the beast that came alive, not one mishapen like the other golems with their round bodies and oversized arms and legs. The one standing before them began to chip and break, forming a sixteen-foot-tall golem that looked like a person wearing plate armor and holding a massive stone sword.

It stood there, upright, both hands clasped on the pommel of the stone sword that ran to the ground. A few final fire runes raced up the blade. When the last rune that had been circling it was gone, the golem's eyes glowed red, and it began to move.

The six-foot-long sword lifted upward as it grasped it in both hands.

“Seth! What do we do?” Tanila asked as he felt her and the others bunching up, unable to get past the barrier holding them in.

Fowl had tossed down the extinguished torch and was swinging his mace at the golem, no noticeable damage being done at all when it connected against the stone leg.

Charging the golem before it could launch an attack, Max swung his weapon. The hammer side of the polearm hit with all the force he could muster, and it bounced off with no damage appearing.

[ Rampage ]

[ Power Strike ]

[ Magical Strike ]

Max’s next attack connected so fast that all three attacks were over in the blink of an eye.

He was grimacing, having witnessed that not a single one even chipped the golem at all.

Its sword came at him, swinging with a speed that was much faster than the other golems attacks, shifting its stance as it moved.

Holding his weapon up to parry, Max found himself flying through the air, slamming into the invisible barrier with his back.

[ Regeneration ]

Coughing up a little blood, Max blinked his eyes after falling about ten feet to the ground.

It just knocked me twenty-five yards and didn’t take a single bit of damage!

It’s a puzzle. Find the key!

Shaking his head, Max heard the voice and knew it had to be right. That attack would have taken down most people or monsters, yet the golem was unharmed.

“There’s a puzzle! We need to figure out what it is!”

Max scanned the floor and saw that there was only one rune on the rock floor where he was standing, right near the base of the barrier. Behind him was the torch that had tipped over, pointing away from the golem.

“Is there a rune near you?! I think it’s a clue!”

Max’s brain was running full tilt as he slogged through the pain of his chest bones reconnected, and blood stopped coming from his mouth.

Running in the opposite direction of the other three, he saw where each of the fallen torches lay, a rune was carved in the ground.

“There is one at each torch!” Tanila shouted. “What do we do?”

Channeling fire at the rune, Max sent a bolt quickly, but nothing happened when it connected.

“Is there an order? I can tell each rune is different!”

Moving closer to the back of the golem that was sending attack after attack at Fowl, Max cast Fire Nova and watched as the flames spread out, hoping one of the runes would ignite.

None of the ones he watched were on fire, but when he turned to see how Tanila was doing, Max noticed that the torch Fowl had discarded was now lit.

“That’s the key!” Tanila yelled.

Racing toward the discarded torch, flickering on the ground, Max dove to the side when his sonar informed him of an incoming sword strike.

His shield appeared, and even with a slight deflection, the force sent him flying a few yards.

Pain in his shield arm let him know it was most likely fractured.

Holding a hand out, Max focused his wind magic and sent a gust of air, blasting the torch away from where the golem was and closer to Tanila and the others.

As the torch moved, the golem followed, its sword coming into contact again with Fowl, who grunted from the pain of each strike.

“This one’s first!” Cordellia shouted as she pointed to a rune near her. “It went out first!”

Trying to remember the order in which that had all happened, Max didn’t like the choices he had.

“Spread out!” he yelled as he stood up, his arm finally fixed and no longer hurting.

“Do we touch it to the rune?!”

“I guess!” Tanila shouted as she held up her hand like he had. “You ready?”

Nodding, Max prepared to see what Tanila was about to do.

Her gust of air was much better focused, and the torch raced toward him, coming to rest only a few yards away. As it tumbled along the ground, the golem followed, its weapon never stopping the barrage of attacks at Fowl when he was close.

Right before the golem got to him, Max sent a gust of air out, sending the torch almost to Cordellia, who ran a few yards and grabbed it. Racing toward the rune she had been at, she held it to the floor, and the torch behind her suddenly stood up, igniting itself.

A groan came from the golem as it moved toward the elf.

“Throw it away!”

She tossed it before the golem got to her, and as it flew through the air, the stone guardian turned, playing the most dangerous game of keep-away Max had ever known.

Batrire snagged it from where it landed, touching the rune she was standing near. The one by Cordellia went out, the torch on the other side falling down.

Letting out a shriek, their healer tossed the torch toward the center and scattered as the golem got within four yards of her.

“It’s a puzzle! One wrong move, and it starts all over!” Tanila yelled. “Now what?”

“Keep the torch in the middle! Let’s try to find out what one comes next! Fowl are you ok?”

The only sound the dwarf made was a grunt as the guardian of the torch stood a few feet from the flaming stick on the ground.

Cursing, Max ran around the room, wishing he could help Fowl but knowing there wasn’t anything he could do right now but try to solve this puzzle.

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