“I am a hands-on CEO. What you see around you are my two latest endeavors: Independent Ordercraft...” He made spun on his heel and pointed to the false ordercrafters lying dead on the ground. “...And laymen demi-gods.”
He spun to the gurneys and pointed at them with both hands. The men, women, and children strapped to them continued to writhe, sweat, and groan. The ones who didn’t grew steadily colder. If Gunrai noticed any of this, then he didn’t care.
“Ordercrafters who can lie. Anti-Magic that will not corrupt its user’s soul. A contract with a physical businessman instead of an abstract cosmic horror. With these benefits, I will dominate the slave trade. I will drive Latrot out of the business and choke its part of the international economy.”
He stepped forward and extended his hand. Eric stepped back and assumed a fighting stance. It was a combat instinct, but Gunrai didn’t take offense.
“I am a mercenary before I am a Chaosist, so I don’t care either way. Now, are you going to stop me from freeing the salamanders? If you don’t, I might tell you about the Rite of Fire Ascension after I go through it.”
Gunrai laughed. “I like you, Mr. Watley. That mercenary mindset of yours dovetails nicely with my business model. Unfortunately, I brought you here to kill you.”
Eric was already prepared for that. All he did was say, “That explains the lab in the middle of nowhere.”
Gunrai nodded. “Test my ‘false’ ordercraft concealment and continue experimenting while waiting for you to arrive. Then ship everything out.”
“How efficient.”
“Thank you. A profitable business has to minimize expenses and maximize opportunities when they present themselves.”
A tiny Door of Death opened next to Gunrai and a troll’s head emerged from it. A pair of wings growing from the back enabled it to stay aloft. Gruffle’s bloodshot eyes bore into Eric. The grendel laughed.
“You look like a child’s toy!”
“KILL HIM! I’ll give necrocraft to as many people as you want afterwards!”
“I figured you two were working together. How about it? Wanna go a few rounds?”
“Don’t be foolish, boy.” The disdain in Gunrai’s voice was thick. “I am an elf and thousands of years old. The difference in our ability is as great as that between you and a common soldier.”
“What happened to ‘find a need and fill it’?” Eric asked. “That talking head would like nothing more than to see me dead. Admit it; for all your age, your only combat ability is price gouging.”
Gunrai’s eyes narrowed. “A sell sword’s attitude. Personal strength is brutish. I’ve devoted myself to a higher power.”
He snapped his fingers and the teleport arch hummed as it started up. A screen of light formed. Then a stone foot stepped out. It was attached to a rock golem built like an orc. It was taller than three Erics standing on each other’s shoulders and three times bulkier than his grendel form. What truly concerned Eric were the gems in its body and the runes across its form. Those gems could fire spells.
The golem jumped from the teleport arch to the gurneys and its landing shook the ground. It now stood between its master and its prey. Gunrai threw up his arms and declared, “Behold the Omni Golem! Possession of it makes personal power irrelevant! Why grunt and sweat to develop minor skills when one can purchase a greater weapon?”
“You really can’t stand uniqueness, can you?”
Gunrai sent one more cold look in his direction and then walked to the teleporter. Eric fired a mana barrage tainted by chaos as soon as he left the golem’s cover. In response, the golem extended its hand and false ordercraft shielded its master. Each bolt ripped open a hole, but each hole was mended before another bolt could exploit it. Gunrai walked leisurely to the teleport arch, and once he stood between its arms, he spun around and blew a raspberry.
“Mr. Gruffle, you may watch Mr. Watley’s inevitable demise if you wish, but there are other projects that require my attention, and so I shall take my leave.”
He pulled down his eyelid at Eric and then passed through the arch’s light.
The golem lifted one craggy foot and stomped forward. Suddenly, it was jogging. Eric met the monster’s charge in a flying tackle. Boosted by Winged Feet, he sent it crashing onto its back.
Eric himself was wobbly. Catching that thing numbed his chest and the shock ran through his body. Chambering his right hand, he plunged it into the golem’s head, but again, the false ordercraft caught his strike. While he drilled through it with a chaos-tainted mana beam, the golem blasted him in the stomach with enough force to send him flying backwards. He shook it off. The golem was standing up.
Eric kicked it in the stomach, but it didn’t react. It rose to its feet and then kicked him in turn. He stepped to the outside and caught the leg with both arms. Then he rotated his arms. The golem overbalanced and fell over once more.
Again, Eric plunged the Soiléir blade, cutting deep into the golem’s body. Mana stored inside the crystal blade compressed, fired, and then detonated. The point of impact exploded and showered Eric with debris, scoring his metallic body. He chambered for a second blow, but the golem swept his legs and sent him to the ground before the strike could connect.
They returned to their feet at the same time and the golem struck first with a punch. Eric dodged and grabbed the arm. A quick scan with Magic Sight didn’t reveal any vital spots, so he settled for sweeping it and firing another compressed bolt. Then a wind current blasted from its back and stole Eric’s momentum. Using its own, the Omni Golem punched Eric a second time.
Before Eric could counterattack, the golem held one finger aloft and lines of something gathered around it. Eric’s Magic Sight couldn’t tell what it was. His feet slipped and he slid towards the golem. It raised its finger high and Eric levitated.
Magnetism?!
Eric returned to human form and landed on his feet. Fortunately, he didn’t wear any metallic armor. Then the pointer finger of the golem’s other hand fired a stream of flames.
Eric ran away from the Flame Wave, until he noticed something dreadful. The golem was herding him back to the prisoners. Eric conjured a Tidal Torrent and fired at the golem, but its heat evaporated his water. Upping his game, Eric called on the power of Water’s Avatar and doused the golem with divine water. Now dripping wet, its fire was permanently doused. Then mundane water shot towards Eric.
It splashed over his barrier like a tide. It also obscured his vision long enough for the golem to kick through his barrier. Eric grendelized his chest on instinct; if he thought about it, then the golem would have pulverized his fragile human midsection. As it was, he only soared through the air and crashed on his grendelized right side.
“Ow...”
Again, the Omni Golem activated its magnetism to pull Eric back into range and the grendel had to abandon his protective hide once again. Instead, he backpedaled while chanting, “Oh tremendous force, release thy power unto my enemy! May fire and heat consume them utterly! Explosion!”
A red and orange sphere soared toward the golem and exploded against its barrier. The smoke and dust obscured its form, but Eric tracked it with Magic Sight. He followed up his attack with a chaos-tainted mana beam. It drilled through the false ordercraft, into the golem, and then out its back. However, it was just one hole. The Omni Golem walked it off. Eric swore and ran away.
While he ran, he charged a chaos bolt in one hand and another Explosion spell in his crystal. A gem on the golem’s body also charged and a green flash overtook Eric. A sphere of wind lifted him off the ground and created a vacuum. The thinning air didn’t frighten him. He just invoked Eaol’s power to negate the sphere.
Immediately upon landing, he threw the chaos bolt, and the Explosion spell instantly followed. The first disabled the false ordercraft barrier just long enough for the second to reach its target. A crack announced his success; the golem’s right arm broke off at the shoulder. Eric fired a second round to pulverize it so it couldn’t be
reattached.
Whatever harm this caused, it wore off quickly. The golem was using its other one to fire a mana beam. Eric absorbed it with the Spirit Light in his Soiléir and when the Omni Golem was drained of immediate mana, he sent it back at the creature’s head. The golem, in turn, absorbed it with a similar crystal in its forehead. Except this mana was packed with as much chaotic taint as Eric could muster. It mutated the crystal. The golem had to pick it out and crush it to stop the corruption from spreading. As soon as it had done so, its second arm was blown off by another Explosion spell.
It retaliated by stomping the ground and sending shockwaves towards Eric, who easily evaded it by jumping on an Air Disc. The prisoners were not so fortunate. Eric called “sorry” over his shoulder because he couldn’t allow himself to be distracted. Had he taken any other action, he would have been gored by the earth spike that rose at his feet.
He danced about to avoid the golem’s latest barrage while thinking of a way to put it down permanently. After reviewing what he knew about golem construction, design, power sources, and his observations about this one in particular, he decided to shoot it with Explosion spells until it stopped moving. It took a total of five more. The golem was now rubble spread out in a twenty-foot-square area.
Eric leaned forward on his staff, breathing heavily and feeling the mana exhaustion. He was also feeling less spiritually sturdy from using three divine magics, one of them extensively, within thirty minutes. Then the rubble gleamed yellow and a storm clouded formed overhead. It struck one piece and electricity spread to the rest. They pulled together and the golem stood up with joints made of crackling power. No longer an earth golem, it was now an earth and lightning golem.
“Really?”
The dual element golem stepped forward.
Eric sighed and said, “I’m leaving. Find someone else to fight.”
The golem jumped up and stomped the ground with both feet. The resulting impact threw up walls that reached the ceiling. Then spikes jutted out of them and crossed the gap to close the top. Jumping through them would shred a human. Eric whistled.
“You are quite the golem; your creator must be proud.”
The golem shrugged.
“Wait a minute, did you understand that?”
The golem took a breath, and Eric waited for its reply. Then it exhaled a white mist. It quickly filled the area. Rather than take a chance, Eric conjured a Clean Air Wall. He had to rush through the chant because mist was surrounding him. He leveled his mage spear and the chaos blade shined.
“If you can understand me, then you must also understand that you’ve committed a tactical blunder. In this enclosed space, you can only come straight at me. At which point, I will—”
The golem disappeared underground, at which point, Eric stabbed the ground with his chaos blade, sending a disruptive pulse through its body, just like he said he would. Yet the golem still wasn’t dead. It jumped out of the ground with chaos mutation in place of lightning or rock in parts of its body.
“Okay, what’s it going to take to kill you?”
All ten of its stony fingers pointed at him. Gleaming, they fired spells. Eric set his stance, intensified his barrier, and tanked them. They splattered across his barrier and fell like muck or evaporated into the mist. After two dozen shots, the barrage stopped.
“Are you finished?”
The golem’s fingers glowed again, but not with any mana-powered light. This was the same eldritch light as the false ordercrafters. It canceled his Clean Air Wall and allowed the spell toxins in. In his Magic Sight, Eric saw every status ailment known to mages. Then he hit upon an idea that would not only save him but destroy the golem permanently.
The Wind Light in his Soiléir shined and a holy wind gusted forth. It rounded up all the spell toxin, contained it, purified it, and expelled it through the top of the cage. Then Eric wished it towards his implacable foe.
The wind ground down the earth and interfered with the lightning. The golem pounded against its vortex prison, but the divine power of Wiol was too much for it. Soon, it was nothing more than dust, which too was expelled through the top. Finally, Eric transformed and launched himself with the wind. When he reached the top, he covered his head and broke through the barricade. Then he crashed outside.
Now he felt miserable. Both light and heavy at the same time, and exhausted in body, mind, and spirit. Except he wasn’t done yet. There were people still trapped and in pain. With a sigh, Eric performed Arin’s Triangle and recited the Chaotic Prayer for Energy a second time.
“Listen up, everyone. I’m going to get those salamanders out of you. I just need you to hold still and do not be alarmed. This is going to be invasive.”
Renewed, he centered himself so to properly use his Universal Mana Enlightenment skills. Then he reached into the nearest person and felt around for the salamander inside him. When his fingers closed around it, he pulled it out as gently as he could. It bit his fingers. Eric grimaced.
“Hey, Jeff! Do something!”
The familiar of the Fire Sage, who sat out the entire battle because it didn’t like him, talked with the fire spirit chomping on Eric’s fingers. It released them and hovered near the glass case containing the others. Eric untied this person and then moved on to the next. The man was grateful, and he acknowledged it, but he was too focused on his task to do more. He continued in this way until he released every person. However, they still couldn’t leave.
Gunrai’s experiments left them in no shape to travel. One victim had burn scars on every part of her body, her face was flush with fever, and if it weren’t for the brace of her spirit, Eric doubted she would be able to stand. If that weren’t enough, Eric realized that the door was still locked. He himself could step through the wall, but these people were not so enlightened. He found that he didn’t care.
They were strangers and outside of his mission. However, he knew what Annala and Kasile would think of him letting them die. So he roundhouse-kicked the door with his grendel legs until it tore loose from its hinges.
“As the chaotic good book says,” Eric recited, “‘I have opened the door, now you must walk through it.’ Seriously, I might need someone to carry me to Central Hearth.”
As the victims made their way to the door, the teleport arch started up again. Eric recited the Chaotic Prayer for Energy a third time and took up a weary battle stance to meet whatever came out. I hope it’s not another golem...
It wasn’t another golem; it was three more golems. All of them were identical to the one he just barely defeated. Two of them ran past him and stopped at the wall while the third stayed in place. Eric groaned in annoyance, spun his staff, and flashed his chaos blade.
“I don’t care what you’re made of or how many powers you have, nothing can stand against Chaos! Wind! Hear me as I plead; give me the speed I need: Winged Feet!”
Ethereal wings appeared at his soles and he jumped towards the golem in front of him. All three fired spells, but he absorbed them with Universal Mana Enlightenment. He chambered his spear to thrust into the golem’s head when it disappeared. Eric spun about to see it behind him and chambering a fist. Eric pushed off against the air to avoid the punch, but the other one nailed him. He pinwheeled until he was caught by the second golem.
This one squeezed him. Eric shifted to his grendel form to make it harder for the thing to crush him and then refocused. This body is an illusion...It is only mana. Eric slipped out of the second golem’s grasp and sliced through its ankles, one at a time. Then he screamed in agony.
The third golem threw an Instant Taser at him while his back was turned. The first golem floored him with a Wind Hand and the second golem levitated itself over him. Anticipating a body slam, Eric prepared to sink into the ground to avoid it. Instead, the golem shined with the non-light of false ordercraft and projected a tiny domination field.
While it was the same knock-off used by the humans, it was more potent. If the golem was alone, then Eric could ha
ve overcome it, but it wasn’t alone. The other two golems stood at either side of him and projected their own tiny domination fields. The three fields merged into a triangulated force that trapped him where he lay. Then, and only then, did the second golem drop on him.
A cleric’s staff smacked its midsection and sent it flying into a wall. The cleric landed with one foot on either side of Eric and held his staff parallel to the ground. A blast of mana shot from both ends and tunneled through the other two golems. Residual energy webbed through their structure and dismantled their hidden operating runes. All three golems shut down at the same time. Raising his arms and staff up high, he said in a loud and clear voice, “Praise be to Lady Chaos, who alone makes all things possible! Truly this victory belongs only to you!” He stepped to one side of Eric and helped him to his feet. “Chaos be with you, Eric Watley.”
This cleric was an old human man two heads taller than Eric himself. His golden-brown robes signified his allegiance to the Church of Chaos. A rainbow belt wrapped around it at his waist and a charm necklace of all status elements hung from his neck. His white hair was shaved in a tonsure style. In his hand, he held a staff with the Flower of Chaos at one end and the infinity symbol at the other; both were spiked with daggers at their outermost point.
“And also with you, Chaos Priest,” Eric said in reply. “Thanks for the save.”
“You’re welcome, Trickster’s Choice. Allow me to introduce myself. I am Father Omnias Cyfanswm.”
“Omnias!” Eric stepped away and brandished his spear. “Those guys I fought were praying to you like you were a god.”
“Oh yes, the false ordercrafters.” If the spear concerned Omnias, he gave no sign of it. “They were praying to me because I granted them their false ordercraft.”
Transcending Limitations Page 36
