Trial 6: A Bridge To Sell

The path down into the valley was steep, but otherwise uneventful. Which was to be expected, as John hadn’t seen anything when he swept the area with his goggles on. No odd hotspots of mana, no obvious traps or monsters waiting in ambush were to be seen, leaving them with an apparently clear path.

‘Not that I expect that to be the case for long,’ John thought to himself as their path began to level out. The sound of the waterfall drowned out anything else and John cast his gaze around for any sign of danger.

“Tok,” Rowan spoke up as they progressed down the overgrown trail, “you know anything more about this temple? Like, what was it for?”

“Well,” the dwarf began, swatting the leaves of a fern out of his path, “the temple was occupied by monks devoted to one of our ancestors’ eight gods. In this case it would have been Gep’kes Ani, the Tender of fields, Grower of plants and Exemplar of Renewal.”

“Eight gods, hmm,” Senka remarked. “I take it that’s why the temple has eight sides.”

“Yep.” Tok nodded. “Our ancestors followed eight gods, each an example of how we were supposed to live. So even a temple dedicated to just one of them would show reverence to the other seven.”

“So I’m guessing that Gep’kes Ani was a healer deity of some kind,” John said. “You did say the tale of Brave Gef was about a plague.”

“Healer’s a bit of a stretch,” Tok answered. “She oversaw the restoration of all things, which did include getting better after being sick, I guess. But here it was more her focus on growing things. Rare plants to be used in medicine. There was another god that healing fits better, but Nel’fet Mea was more about striving towards a goal against stagnation.”

Tok shook his head. “Wish I could go into more detail, but our old religion isn’t really talked about much. A lot of it’s been forgotten.”

A heavy silence fell upon them and they walked for some time with only the natural sounds of the jungle and their footfalls to break the quiet. Then Tok let out a mirthless laugh.

“Never really answered your question, did I, Rowan?” the dwarf remarked. “The point of the temple here was to cultivate a number of useful plants. Normally, the monks would ship out a crop with one of their own, but in Gef’s story, the situation couldn’t wait for them to do the usual thing.”

“So we’ve got a temple devoted to growing plants and prepping them for use,” John said. “That doesn’t give us a lot of clues to work with.”

“Sorry,” Tok apologized.

“Not your fault,” John quickly assured him. “Just means we’ll need to be sharp to figure out this last hurdle.”

“Right,” Rowan agreed. “But first we need to get there. And from what you reported, those bridges weren’t in the best condition.”

“Yeah, they looked a little worse for wear,” John said. “We may have a parkour section ahead of us.”

“Joy,” Rowan deadpanned. “Jumping around in armor over a lake just sounds like a good time.”

“We’ll be sure to catch you if you fall in.” Senka smiled at the knight.

Rowan’s cheeks flushed. “I’d prefer to not fall in at all. Even if the lake is calmer than the river, I’d rather not complete this in soggy armor.”

“Don’t think there’s anyone who’d want that.” John chuckled, the image of a wet Rowan having to doff her armor crossing into his mind, the clothes she wore under her armor clinging tightly to her curves, casting a shadow of doubt over his words only he and Senka were aware of.

‘I wouldn’t mind that happening either,’ the spirit coyly remarked, a glint in her eyes the only outward sign of her lewd thoughts.

“Hopefully, the first one won’t be too ruined to use safely,” John quickly steered the topic back into PG territory.

“And if it is, we can go a bit further to the next one,” Tok said. “You did see one behind the temple, right?”

John nodded. “Yeah. Couldn’t see all of it, so no way to know if it’s even intact though. Skipping the first might be a gamble. And we can’t get to the ones on the far side for obvious reasons. So we might be **** to choose between risking a crossing or gambling that the far bridge is in a better condition.”

“Very rock and a hard place,” Senka noted. “Wasting time isn’t exactly something we can do. I’d rather not be here as the day ends.”

“I don’t think any of us want to drag it out,” Tok said before knocking the butt of his ax on the ground. “So let’s get moving! The sooner we get to the bridge, the sooner we can make our next move.”

With nods of agreement, the party picked up their pace, aided by the path growing more flat. More concerning was that the rough path was beginning to look more traveled. The underbrush had been pruned back and the dirt looked far more packed down by repeated travel. John wasn’t sure if it meant someone was regularly walking this path or if it was a design choice to make things easier for the lead up to the final level.

He got his answer when they reached the first bridge across the lake. Said bridge was still an impressive sight, even in its disrepair. Made of stone with great pillars reaching down into the water as its supports, it stretched from the bank to the island the temple stood on with only a few spots where some of it had fallen into the water below, leaving it mostly intact, even if it was covered in moss and vines.

Sadly, the good news ended there. Standing near the opposite end, right before the arch that framed the entrance of the temple island, was an armored humanoid figure of carved stone holding a vicious looking spear. It was about three meters tall and completely devoid of any sign of weathering or encroaching plant growth.

Temple Guardian
Lv. 25 (Boss) Golem
An animated warrior of stone set to guard the Karsahcan temple of Gep’kes Ani. It stands resolute and alone at the sole safe passage to the temple island, ready to strike down any who would intrude upon its masters’ holy ground.

“Okay, so good news, it looks like that’s the only enemy on the island,” John said. “Bad news, it sounds like this is the only ‘safe’ way across.”

“So we either try our luck facing him or hope the bridge we couldn’t see is somehow passable,” Rowan muttered.

“How accurate is that thing?” Tok asked, gesturing to the guardian’s Observe display.

“Never had it outright lie to me,” John answered. “So I’m going to take it as a confirmation that, one, there is only that guy between us and the temple and, two, the other ways aren’t safe for us to travel.”

“Not safe, but not necessarily impassable," Rowan chimed in. “If we did not have access to your ability, or one comparable to it, what would we do when coming to this scene? Would we press forward into the fight or try for one of the other bridges, without certainty of their viability?”

“How much longer do you think it’d take us to reach the far side bridge?” Tok asked. “Like you said earlier, dragging things out till night is a bad idea. If the other bridge is too dangerous to cross, if it even can be, then we’ll have wasted the time going there, then having to come back here.”

“And there’s no guarantee that the guardian won’t track us over there,” John added. “Yeah, Observe says it stands at the sole safe passage, but that could just be because that’s what it’s doing now. It doesn’t say it only guards this one path.”

“We could gauge how it works before making a decision,” Senka said. “Send Candle in, see how it reacts to her.”

John glanced over at the stone figure. It wouldn’t hurt to test how it reacted to a breach of its territory. If it did only concern itself with guarding this bridge, and ceased movement once any trespassers retreated, then maybe they could try to go around it. Taking the stealth option meant saving mana and avoiding possible injury afterall.

After getting Tok and Rowan’s approval for the scouting mission, John, Senka and Candle crept closer. Once they were close enough to not risk Candle’s range being an issue, John sent her forward. As the fox spirit raced down the stone bridge, the guardian came to life. Candle had only made it about a third of the way across when it began to march to meet her, its spear lowered so it could effectively thrust.

It moved with surprising speed given the material it was made of, and through Candle’s eyes, John could see it wasn’t solely made of stone, as metal joints glinted in the afternoon light. And those joints were allowing it to close the distance far faster than John would have liked.

But Candle was quicker. The fox spirit easily darted under the downward thrust of the spear, passing under the golem and spinning around to face its back. John expected it to turn so it could continue attacking, but his gut sank as, instead, the guardian kept marching forward, its steps growing faster and faster as it neared them.

“Shit,” John cursed as he quickly sent Tok and Rowan a message that things weren’t going well. He was sure they were watching, but he wanted to make sure they knew it was time to fight.

Senka was quick on the draw, Snaring Shadows shooting up from the ground to arrest the golem’s movements. To their shock, as the dark magic tendrils began to wrap around its body, the stone flashed with heat, the air around it shimmering. The surge pushed back Senka’s attack, withering them like vines in a drought.

“That’s not good,” Senka said as she switched tactics, firing a Black Thorn. The heat bloomed again, distorting the spike of darkness, but not completely overwhelming the attack. The strike hit, chipping the stone before withering away.

“We may need to change our strategy,” John said as he and Senka pulled back.

“Not sure if getting close would be better,” Senka shot back.

“Not sure if we have the choice,” Tok bellowed as he dashed onto the scene, ax raised high as he rushed into close quarters combat. His sudden charge was met by a raised arm from the golem, its thick left forearm serving as a shield as it blocked the dwarf’s attack.

Steel met stone with a reverberating clang and a wave of heat. Tok grinned. “Doesn’t look like that trick’s good against someone not throwing out a spell.”

Almost as if to make Tok pay for his words, the golem pivoted towards him, spear trained for his chest. The vicious thrust was accompanied by its defending arm snapping back, forcing Tok’s ax away, leaving him fully open to the strike.

The spear struck his leather armor and a spark of crimson light flashed at the point of contact. Whatever extra defense Tok’s armor had prevented the spear from reaching through it and digging into his flesh.

“Guess you’re not so good with enchantments either,” Tok remarked as he grabbed the still extended spear with his free hand. “Now let’s see how you deal with a hold!”

“Let’s not draw things out with unneeded theatrics,” Rowan said as she jumped into the fray. With Tok holding the golem in place, she was able to get into a good flanking position. With a mana enhanced swing, she brought her blade against the back of the guardian.

The blow didn’t cause it to budge, but a number of stone shards were proof of the power of Rowan’s strike. The guardian wrenched its right arm back, letting go of its spear to drive an elbow into Rowan’s armored chest. She let out a pained breath as the strike drove her back, a few more shards of stone being pulled free as her blade came free, revealing a small fissure.

“Tok, keep it disarmed!” John shouted as he rushed in. Tok caught on to John’s idea and wrenched the spear out of his armor and threw it away from them. With the dwarf’s ax still embedded in the golem’s left arm. It couldn’t recover the weapon or move in time to prevent John from getting in between the two locked-in combatants, crouched low.

John surged upwards with a great thrust of his sword, catching the golem in the chin. A rain of stone shards fell upon John’s helmeted head and he drew his blade back to attack again.

Senka’s sudden and unworded panic, followed by Tok’s shout of “Look out!” was all the warning John got as the golem brought one of its legs up in a kick, sweeping John’s out from under him.

-15HP

John hit the ground, and as he scrambled to regain his footing before a second attack could come, the guardian overcame Tok’s strength and wrenched its left arm free from his hold, tearing the dwarf’s ax from his grip. The golem moved to punch Tok before he could regain his balance.

Dark vines shot out of the ground to prevent that; Senka’s Snaring Shadows finding purchase for a moment before the guardian’s anti-magical heat began to burn them away.

“Not this time,” John snarled as he hit the golem with a Hex. The magic weakening spell wasn’t negated by the golem’s defenses, causing a number of theories as to why that was to begin to swirl through John’s mind. But those played second fiddle to a single idea: beat the golem into dust.

Senka’s vines wrapped around with impunity, holding the guardian in place, allowing John and Tok to recover from its attacks. Rowan had already regained her bearing and was not keen on passing up the opportunity Senka was giving them.

With a shout of defiance, the knight thrust her blade into the wound she had inflicted earlier. The internal stone was just as durable as the outer layer, but even it had its limits. Rowan’s first blow had left it with cracks and the tip of her sword was more than enough to push the stone to the breaking point.

A resounding crack filled the air as the bronze colored sword sank deep into the back of the guardian. With a quick bit of approximation, John figured it was about half way through, and seemed to be causing issues for the golem’s functions. What little movement it could do while Senka kept it bound up became jerky and John had to wonder if Rowan had hit its core or something like it.

Not that he was going to just let it slowly die of its current injuries. Feet firmly under him, John reeled back and put his all into a swing to the guardian’s head. The greatsword, much like the roots of the trees it was grown from, tore through the stone, shattering just about half of the golem’s head.

John pulled back for a second attack in time with Rowan wrenching her own blade free. As she did, something cracked from within the golem, the snap followed by a surge of heat like some great thing exhaling.

200 EXP Gained

The guardian crumbled into dust unceremoniously, Tok’s ax falling onto the ground with a dull thud.

“Well, that was a bit anticlimactic,” Tok grumbled as he picked up his weapon.

“I think me being able to shut down its anti-magic threw things too out of whack,” John said. “Being a team of four probably didn’t help the balance either.”

“I wouldn’t say it was an easy fight,” Rowan remarked, rolling her shoulders. “It did get a few good hits on us. If we weren’t poised to ambush it, things could have gone far worse.”

John nodded. “Yeah. If we were on the bridge, we probably couldn’t have flanked it. Not without it just bulldozing us first.”

“I guess,” Tok sighed. “Just wish I could have done a bit more there, you know.”

“You did stop it from moving for a good while,” John pointed out.

“I don’t think we could have scored those hits if it could fight us freely.” Rowan nodded in agreement. “It was surprisingly fast for something that large and made of stone.”

“Magic, am I right?” John chuckled. “We should be in the clear though. That guy was labeled the boss and Observe said it stood alone, so all we need to do is find that puzzle and solve it.”

“Great,” Tok grumbled under his breath. John felt for the dwarf. This was supposed to be his day to show his mettle and it was clear Tok didn’t feel like he was living up to his expectations. And now they were at the end. No more chances to fight.

‘Maybe I should have given them a bit more on just what I could do,’ John thought as they began to cross the bridge, guilt beginning to eat at him. ‘They could have retooled the balance to better prepare for my bullshit.’

Glancing at the glum dwarf, John just hoped everyone watching saw just how much effort Tok was putting in and that it was enough for them.

Thanks again for reading this little story. If you liked the chapter, please hit that thumbs up, and if you want to support my writing, check out my Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/ScrapCrow. Get access to my chapters before they’re published here and join my private Discord.