Eternium ~ 39!

“Just wondering, Dale,” Minya started as she looked out at the various paths leading to the center of the room, “but didn't we leave here all torn up last time? Do you have a plan to get past all the creatures in our way? Are we sneaking somehow?”

“No.” Dale hesitated, then shrugged at her. “Look, to be frank… even though I know we might not make it, I know that there is little chance of either of us staying dead if we die in here. Maybe that isn’t the best mentality to have, but I want to start taking serious chances. I think that's the only way for me to actually get stronger. If you want to go back, I understand.”

“No, no.” Minya smiled happily. “I’, just happy to see you start having some faith in Cal! Let’s get to fighting!”

Dale was agitated. Was that what was happening here? He was trusting the dark half of his soul? Maybe that was good, in the grand scheme of things… but he didn't like it. Cal was base greed and hunger. Maybe not hunger in the traditional sense, but he wanted power, knowledge, and new things like the mythological dragons did. In all the old tales, there was never a case of that going well for the people involved. Right now though, the only thing he could do was move forward. Specifically, at that golem that was taunting him.

He opened his assault by throwing a brick at the construct and using his earth shattering technique on it in midair. The brick exploded and sent shrapnel flying at the golem, and Dale was certain he would get a reaction from it. Somehow, the golem dodged even the smallest speck of the stone, and then returned to its original taunting posture. Dale tore through the air as fast as he could move, swiping with his fists to land blows. Each time his fists came close, the golem slipped away. Dale was getting more and more frustrated with each attempt. He had no fear of getting tired out, but he wanted to vent on something abyss take it!

Just as he was about to unleash a torrent of Mana blades at it, the Golem shivered and vanished into motes of light. Dale landed and looked around in confusion. “What?”

Minya got his attention by holding up a small Core. “Looks like this was a rainbow golem. Illusions, no actual substance except the Core and a little armor on it.”

“That’s a thing?” Dale shook his head and glowered at the Core that had been fooling him into attacking the air. “How did you find it?”

“When I saw it dodge a cloud of debris, I figured something was up.” Minya gestured with her hand, and a wave of water swept over the floor. “I did this, and the spot that broke the water turned out to have an illusion Core sitting and patiently waiting.”

“Huh. Smart thinking.” 

“Well, I have all this mental acuity from becoming a Mage, it just felt like such a waste not to use it.” Minya flipped her hair dramatically, and Dale could only laugh at her antics. 

“Fair enough, but let's keep going.” Dale started walking deeper onto the floor. “I really want to hit something.”

“I get that.” Minya commented, checking out Dale’s butt as he walked ahead of her. “What, ah, do you think this next opponent will be?”

“If this is the water and celestial path, that one will likely connect with…” Dale squinted at the shifting curtain of Essence that impaired his view of other platforms and tried to see what kind of golems were on them. “Either fire or wind? Not sure. It shouldn’t matter too much.”

“Let’s do it.” Minya said, eyes locked with Dale.

“Alright, great! Here we go!” Dale charged at the next platform while Minya sighed. Dale decided to go for the blunt attack out of the gates, and filled his body with the ‘spell’ Cal had granted him. He released it on the golem, and smirked as it stumbled. It had tried to jump, making Dale lean toward the idea that this was a wind enhanced version. “Careful, I think I'm keeping on the ground!”

“Got it, Dale!” Minya ran forward with foaming water covering her arms. She swung a fist at the golem and the water extended into a bubbling blade that seemed to vibrate as it tore into the mineral body. The Core exploded as her attack sliced into it, and even Dale was surprised by the brutality that she was able to bring to bear. “Whoo! That was grizzly.”

Dale shook his head as her words unconsciously mimicked his thoughts. He smirked at the joke in his head, and nodded at her. “Nice work! I hope they are all this easy.”

He stepped onto the path for the next area, and as he took a few steps the path below him vanished. He yelled in shock, but thanks to his higher processing speed he was able to catch himself in midair. He was now slowly falling to the open chasm that would drop him off of Mountaindale, but with relief he felt a tendril of water latch onto him and yank him to safety.

“Still haven’t figured out flight?” Minya commented as they looked at the other available paths.

“Not so much.” Dale admitted as she pointed at a series of Runes that had been creating a walkway.

“Look at that!” She traced a few of the Runes and shook her head in wonder. “The path was there, but it was made out of solidified light! After a certain amount of footfalls, this was designed to vanish! If you had sprinted down the path, it would have dropped you right about halfway between the platforms! Brilliant!”

“Also kinda rude.” Dale shook his head, then his eyes went wide as he made a realization. “Sheesh, that is one of the few traps that could have killed me permanently! Drat, Cal! If you had tossed me outside and i died down there, what would you have done?”

No answer came back to him, so Dale was forced to just stand there and steam. Once all the water had boiled off of him from Minya’s rescue, they took a few cautious steps along the next path and attacked the next platform. This time things weren’t as easy. The golem in question seemed to be using some form of oscillating sound waves that created audio and visual hallucinations. Dale got punched in the face three times by Minya, and twice in the head by the Golem before he was able to shift his aura to a thick water that absorbed the sounds enough for him to track them to the source and smash the golem.

As that one fell, Dale dropped to the ground groaning and clutching at his damaged skull. A few minutes of sunlight aura were needed to progress. As he climbed to his feet, he blinked a few times and took a deep breath, “Alright, let’s start taking a look at plans now.  We’re three in, and so we need to fight two more before we reach the boss. I’d like to not get punched in the face anymore as well, if at all possible.”

“So sorry about that, Dale!” Minya weakly grinned.

“Eh.” He let the aura continue to heal him as he thought. “It looks like we’re on a path to the finish that focuses on messing with our minds. I don’t know how much more of that I can take, so I'm planning to go in absolutely ready this time, and I’ll just detonate a sword aura cluster in all directions.”

“Sounds foolish.” Minya shook her head at his expression. “Here, just let me.”

She raced ahead, hitting the platform with a *fwoosh*. Water crested and swept across the platform before wrapping around the golem and starting to squeeze. “Got him! Fifnish this guy off, Dale!”

Dale was across the platform and hitting the stone body in an instant, his hand going through and yanking out the target Core, which he promptly tossed into a bag. “So… what rank are you again?”

“Hee.” Minya giggled and raced to the next platform. “We’re just lucky that this path doesn;t seem to be focused on martial prowess, but I gotta warn you that the boss will be really hard to fight.”

Another quick and easy kill showed Dale that he had been underestimating Minya to a huge degree, especially as the path to the center area was revealed. “So you were really letting me go all out while you were holding back?”

“You needed to hit something.” She shrugged as they looked at the golden Golem boss that was waiting patiently for them while petting a Basher. “But, physical combat is my weakest area. That's why I got so torn up on the last floor, I wasn’t faking weakness to let you feel strong. I’m a tamer, and a researcher. It just so happens that I am better at combat than the mind-oriented golems we were fighting today. I’m going to be nowhere near as effective against her.”

“Her?” Dale looked at the golden Golem and realized that it did have a rather distinctive shape. “Huh. That's a Elf look-alike? I bet they hate that.”

“No idea!” Minya took a step forward and checked the path for traps. “All I know for sure is that she’s strong, fast, and really good in close combat. I’ve died twice here!”

The cheerful way that she offered up that information startled Dale, but he was glad to have the knowledge that resurrection was something Cal could do for other people. “Any weaknesses?”

“Don’t hurt the Basher.” Minya responded cryptically. “Not worth it.”

“Why?” Dale looked at the mutated rabbit. “Does she get stronger?”

“Kinda.” Minya hummed a low growl. “The Basher forces her to fight you with one hand. If you kill it, she either goes all out on you, or curls up and drops through the ground. If she leaves, there’s no keygem for the area and you have to fight through here again.”

“Oh.” dale raised his fists and settled into a combat pose. It was time to start combat in a smart manner. He stepped forward cautiously, but still far faster than a normal human could run. The Golem suddenly launched at him, and Dale coated the exterior of his arms with sword aura to block her overhead strike. His crossed arms managed to turn the blow, but he still grunted as he pushed her back. 

“I’ll join in if I see you in trouble, but this could be a good time to hone your hand to hand combat!”

“What?” This was not something you announced during combat! That was something that needed to be agreed upon! Dale spun and slammed the side of his booted foot into the golem’s shin, sending it skidding without seeming to cause harm. The golem lifted a finger and sprayed a gaseous attack at him that Dale had no chance to block.

“Ugh!” he clenched at his face, his sensitive nose twitching. “Only Cal would give a creature a fart attack!”

The distraction nearly worked on him, and at the last moment he jumped bak and took a blow to the collarbone that was meant for his neck. Dale started moving as fast as his body could handle, the Moon Elf forms blending into each other one after another. The Golem was keeping pace with him, and he realized that she was using a similar style, but this style was more heavily focused on defense and probing attacks meant to keep her in working order while taking down multiple targets.

Dale’s style was meant for single-target assassination. It featured heavy blows and strikes to vital areas while keeping him moving at all times. In fact, it almost seemed like these two styles had been created in conjunction as diametric opposites of each other. If Dale had to guess, he would say that this was a High Elf fighting style, and for it to be so perfectly matched against him meant that it was likely a royal technique. Had there ever been a High Elf royal in here that might have dropped this combat manual?

They traded blows back and forth, but the fatal weakness of the golem was that it was also forced to defend the Basher. Dale made sure to keep away from hitting the rabbit, but he also pretended he was going to so that he could create openings. To conclude the fight, he feigned at the bunny with a glowing palm, then wirled around and slammed a shadow-wrapped foot into the neck of the golem. The motion caused the golem to fall, and Dale dropped on top of it and tore out its Core.

“I did it!” Dale shouted, holding the golden Core in the air like a great prize.

“Nice work, Dale!” Minya was at his side in an instant, handing him a keygem that had formed. “Let me show you the housing available on the next floor. There are beds that are so soft that you think you’re on a cloud!”

“Why would I need a bed? We don’t sleep.” Dale questioned as he was pulled along. Her mischievous smile wasn't helping his concern.