Ready yourself.

Several of the smaller rocks tumble together, and upon contact, there's a flash of blue light. Each locks into a specific space. Soon, you can see a 3-foot-tall simple creature of stone, like some sort of little faceless golem made entirely of spheres. Then another. You notice a trend as several more of these monsters manifest themselves. Though the worst part of all is that as this is going on, the largest of them are coming together in the center. As you watch it happen, you take a deep breath, knowing pretty well what's forming before you.

It looks much like the others, but this one nearly touches the ceiling. It's a hulking mass of boulders with arms and legs made of the same, and despite it not having a face, you can tell it's staring down at your party.

From what you can tell, each chunk is locked by a seal of magic, as you see a faint blue glow between them. There's another faint shine on the front of each head, perhaps as a sort of optical spell to allow them to sense where things are around them. It reminds you a little of the earth elemental you fought, but this is something different. They don't look like spawns of nature. Unlike Alice, this is more what you'd likely imagine when hearing the word "golem". There's something else though. Something that catches your eye, though nobody else seems to really care about. There's a symbol etched into the largest of the rocks forming the creature's chest. It looks like a robot's face. It's familiar. You think about it for a moment, and it looks just like the logo of the Autobots from Transformers.

Though it doesn't make a noise itself, the sound of rocks twisting and grinding against one another is just as deafening as a roar. Perhaps as a show of intimidation, the largest golem slams both fists down against the tiled floor, splintering the ground and causing Niki to nearly fall over from the shockwave so close to where she stands. She stares up with a furled brow and raises her shield.

"Hey!" screams Niki. "Are you trying to hit me, or what--" Her eyes turn as soon as the miniature creatures begin sprinting towards the rest of the party.

"Get behind me," you command. A golem leaps in Amara's direction, but you raise your sword up and take the full blow to the flat of the blade. Thankfully they aren't as strong as the biggest likely is, but either way, you don't even budge.

You glance to the side to see two more coming after Eva.

However, Niki slams into the side of one with her shield, not only sending it hurling towards the nearby column, but shattering one of its arms and half of its body to crumbling dust. Next, she catches a second strike to block. The sound of rock hitting her magic shield reverberates out, but it has no effect on her at all. She brings her mace around to absolutely explode the golem to bits. There's nothing left.

The worst part is on its way. There are multiple smaller golems left, but the real threat is their leader. It doesn't try to intimidate this time around. Instead, it brings back an arm, and gives a big boulder fist towards Niki. She moves forward, plants her feet firmly against the ground, and openly takes the attack head-on. The sound of impact is incredibly loud. Its fist is bigger than her body. But despite that, she only flinches backwards about a foot or so, and she's otherwise completely fine. She pushes the blow away, and then begins running towards it with an attack of her own.

It's easy to forget just how strong and durable Niki is from her magic markings. They seem to grow alongside her, and as long as someone doesn't know her weak points, she's on track to being the strongest warrior out there. Seeing her able to actually go all out on a regular enemy is kinda nice.

She swings her mace into one of the boulders constructing its leg, knocking a large chunk to the floor, and she continues between its legs in the direction of the exit door.

"It's my turn!" Eva yells from behind you. She's already casting a spell. After moving in front of you, she throws her wand forwards and a crackling burst of electric power collides with the nearest golems, and then it arcs to the ones behind it, travelling all the way to the front torso of the largest in the center. "Chain Lightning!"

A few of them drop straight away. Some of them begin to limp as much of their mass has been destroyed.

One gets through! It slams into the bunny's stomach, causing her to fall back to the ground.

You move in and slash the remains of the singed miniature golem, and flash a glance back to your mage. "Are you okay?"

Amara holds her gently by the head and casts "Minor Heal," before looking to you with a smiling nod. And a subtle shiver.