An exercise in futility

John immediately summoned and let loose a volley of Arcane Bolts at the creature of mud and earth. As they ripped through the air, he retreated. It was heading towards him far quicker than he thought possible for such a sluggish creature. The bolts hit the monster with a thunk. When John looked to find wounds, he saw none, the only thing he saw were the bolts breaking one after the other on its skin and disappearing.

’Shit.’ Was John’s only thought before turning to run the other way. If he had no way of damaging the golem, there was no point in fighting it. He needed to save the black haired man, but that was better served by distracting it. Luckily enough, he was right in believing that the monster would chase him, as it continued doing just that. There was only one problem with that. It was somehow faster than he was. The gap between them closed rapidly as John headed into the cover of the trees. He was throwing barriers and bolts into the path of the creature in hope it would slow it down the whole time, but nothing he tried seemed to work. Before the gap closed entirely, however, he managed to hide behind one of the trees at the edge of the ruins.

He stood there, silently. All he could do was hope that the golem was dumb enough to continue on its path, but that seemed an unlikely wager. Of course, that was a bet he lost. The sound of trees falling could be heard from around him. Before it got close enough to pose a threat, John began sneaking away from the tree. Hoping that it would be distracted long enough for him to get back to the ice mage he had left in the ruins. He began at a slower pace, trying to make as little noise as possible. More trees continued falling behind him. He breathed heavily, tension filling his body. For the first time, he had no way to defend himself. Slowly he reached the ruins, but even there he was not safe.

’That thing must be part of the test. There’s no other explanation. They wouldn’t leave us out here with a monster, would they?’ His doubt began creeping in, and as he was distracted, he did not notice that no more trees had been falling. Accidentally, he placed his foot on the wrong spot, and a small branch broke from the **** of his weight. The sound rang out through the entire area, as silence had engulfed it. Behind John the golem could be heard moving back towards the ruins. The young man, in response, broke out into a sprint. Hoping to help the black haired mage and get out of there as soon as possible.

He crossed the ruins quickly. The various ruined structures were left behind him one by one. The sound getting closer ever steadily. Eventually, he saw a glimpse of the black hair again and ran towards it. He noticed a few open wounds on his hands and legs and quite a few more bruises. He crouched down and picked up the mage’s limp body. It was quite heavy. Much heavier than the body of Ember John had carried some days ago. John could barely carry him, but he had to. With the man’s body weighing on both his shoulders, he looked back to see how close the golem was and saw it about 20 meters away.

”Run…” John heard a whisper from on his shoulders. He swiftly listened. The weight on his back slowed him down, but this was once again a life or **** situation. Trees blurred past him as he ran in a random direction, his only interest escaping the golem. Nonetheless, it closed the distance between them.

Suddenly, a new noise appeared. Some sort of howl came from far to the west, and the creature seemed to switch targets as it weaved in that direction and disappeared into the trees. Shocked, he stopped to assess what was happening and began to breathe easy when the golem did not return for some time. He noticed a dot approaching him on his minimap. That’s when it hit him, his shapeshifting ally must have distracted the earthen monstrosity. His belief was confirmed a moment later as she landed near him, morphing back to her human form. He noticed her beak instead looked like a wolf’s snout.

“Sorry it took me this long to get here. I was so sure there was nothing in those ruins-” Yan said, her expression and tone solemn, before being cut off by John.

“Thanks, but that’s not important right now. How long do you think that’s going to distract it?” There was absolutely no time to waste.

“A few minutes probably-” she started, but was cut off once again.

“Can you carry him back to Charlotte? You would be faster through the air.”

“No…” She shook her head. “But I can lead you there, it’s not too far.”

“Let’s go then.” They headed off quickly. Yan transforming to her snowy owl once again and flying close to ground level to show John the way. His shoulders hurt like hell, so he was **** to go at a slower pace.

They walked for a few minutes before they heard the golem again. It seemed they had not lost him after all. That was their cue to run, and so they did, increasing their pace to hopefully lose him for now. As they neared the clearing, it was obvious that was not going to be the case.The creature was still behind them, and it was quickly approaching. John stopped.

“Take him the rest of the way, I’ll see if I can slow him down while you get him patched up. After that, we’ll see if we might be able to handle him together.” Yan transformed back into her human form, but seemed unsure. When she saw the golem getting ever closer she relented, however. She took the cryomancer off John’s shoulders with great effort and began heading towards the center of the clearing, where Charlotte was standing, petrified. Quickly, John headed into the woods again, making as much noise as he possibly could to get the creature’s attention. That’s when it hit him. He had an ace up his pocket he hadn’t used yet. The Gamer waited for the monster, and eventually it did appear behind a row of trees. Once in visual range he used the only one of his abilities that still had any use.

‘If there’s some weakness to this thing, Observe will tell me.’ A popup appeared a moment later.

There were a few too many things to note in that sheet, but there was no time. John did, however, find the Golem’s weakness. Its joints were apparently made of soft mud. If the rock making up the bulk of it withstood the bolts, maybe that wouldn’t.

John stood his ground, hoping that if he got close enough to it he might be able to see the joints. The golem continued rapidly stomping toward him. One meter after the other was consumed by the creature. It reached the Gamer all too soon, and stood above him like a titan preparing to stomp on an ant. In fact, that seemed to be exactly what it was doing, as once in range it began lifting its forward leg in some sort of stomping motion. As it did so, John could see the mud that made up the knee. Immediately, he summoned and fired a round of Arcane Bolts with the mana he had recharged. Four of them hit the rock around the joint, while the rest hit the exposed area. However, they seemed to have gotten stuck in it, and disintegrated moments later. That was John’s cue to run once again, and so he did. This time, it did not come without a cost. As he began running his entire body was thrown against one of the trees.

Damage taken: 15 HP lost

His breath was taken away in a single moment, and he barely got up. But the pain was worse than his injuries, so he kept running. He had no other options.

He continued dodging and weaving through the forest in an attempt to lose the golem to no avail. It seemed like hours had passed when John once again stopped, but he didn't know how much time had actually gone by. The various bruises and cuts he had suffered from being thrown onto the tree continued closing by the power of his regeneration, only to open up again due to the stress he put on his entire body. That was all he could do to barely keep the creature away. Eventually, however, he could no longer do so, and so he stood there. Waiting for rescue, or his end, he wasn’t quite sure. In his haze, he didn’t even look at his minimap. It soon approached, just as Titanic as before.

'Maybe it'll leave them alone once it has me.' He gave up. His excuse was just that. For some reason, he had no more energy to fight any longer. His mind was blank. None of his usual plans. A sense of utter defeat had overtaken him. He could feel nothing, then the golem's arm, then everything hitting the ground suddenly.

Damage taken: 15 HP lost

In that moment, as his body was once again thrown across the forest's surface, he was saved. The golem slowly crumbled. First just a small spot on the center, then soon it spread. It's body turned black as ash as it disappeared into the wind. Behind it stood the only ally he didn't expect to see. A goth looking girl with small horns, Charlotte.

When his breath returned, he went to ask.

"Don't talk, that probably did some serious damage to your internal organs," she said, approaching him. Charlotte no longer looked scared. When she saw the questioning look on John's face she began again. "Matthew's ok. You're in bigger trouble." She put her hands to his wounds. Strangely, she didn't have the gloves on anymore. Her hands were soft and unnaturally cold. As she seemed to focus, his wounds closed up even quicker than before, and his health ticked up slowly, though also faster than before. His mind was still in a haze, and a moment later he blacked out.

“He’s waking up!”

As the world slowly began to form into coherent shapes around John’s eyes, he saw the entirety of his class standing around him. He seemed to be laying on some sort of soft material which was placed on the ground, while above him stood Charlotte, Yan, Bass and the ice mage he now knew was named Matthew. Still in a daze, he sat up, looking around to remember where he was. The clearing surrounded him, though in the distance he could see that the walls of earth had been taken down. Charlotte seemed once again as reserved as before. Yan was chuckling under her breath. Bass had a smile across her face, and Matthew stood there sullen but in a less arrogant way than before.

“Good to see you’re back among the living, boss,” the sound mage stated cheerfully, less mockingly than before.

“I see you guys managed without me.”

“Yeah, they took the walls down as soon as we got it done. Just in time too, it was almost sundown,” Yan confirmed John’s belief.

“I have to thank you. Regardless of my opinion of your abilities, you did save my life today.” As soon as he was finished, the ice mage walked off. Bass, on the other hand, burst into laughter.

“Never seen him thank anyone before. Guess you really left an impression on him,” she continued.

“Seems so.” John paused for a moment. “You guys head back, I’m fine and I should probably thank Charlotte.”

Yan hesitated for a moment, before being dragged off by Bass.

“See you both later!” she shouted while doing so.

Charlotte seemed to fidget even more now that they had left.

“First of all, I want to thank you. You saved my life back there and probably all of ours. But I have to ask, what was that power? And why did you seem like an entirely different person?” John asked her, his tone soft.

“My business is my own, and my secrets are just the same.” She seemed to calm down for a moment. “I think you won’t doubt me next time when I tell you I can handle myself.” Her tone was harsh, and her nervousness seemed entirely gone.

“I won’t, but if we’re going to be a team, there are some things you will have to tell me eventually.” Even with her change in attitude, John kept calm.

“In due time, perhaps we’ll see. Maybe you’ll tell me why you froze up back then as well.” That left John dazzled. There was far more to her than it looked like on the surface. Perhaps it was all just a mask, or this was some instinctual response to pressure, but she was obviously not someone to trifle with. As he thought on that, she walked away.