Eventually pushing against the heavy metal doors, Midas shifted open the entrance—the hefty weight of the door became noticeable under the screeching that sounded from it, scraping against the muddy rock of the floor, barely able to be moved by the youth as he pressed his shoulder against it.
Opening his eyes to what is inside, Midas's eyes widened at the view—his awe quickly joined by Haya as the both of them looked at a broad circular hall that stretched out tall in front of them. Dimly lit by candles that were set up in an eerily perfect circle, giving faint light to old rock seats and elongated tables and bookshelves holding onto rotten books and papers, the middle of the grand room was an open space.
From above hung vines, sluggish growth that also marked the walls of the halls that led them here; in the center, a congestion of dark plant matter and something else that was seemingly built to hang from the ceiling. The floor was covered by the same thin layer of water, making their cautious steps echo through the room as the water softly splashed under their shoes.
"Graf must've lit these candles..."
"I can't see him anywhere, nor do I see anything that might look valuable for him to go here... If he was so intent on getting here, then there surely must be something he was looking for."
Patriq followed as the other two made their way towards the middle, unable to flinch at the sluggish bulb that hung from the roof—Midas stopped while Haya continued to walk forward. Able to spot a door, barely able to be distinguished from the walls of the room, Haya turned to the others. Dimly stressed, Haya turned to the tinier door again, sure Graf was behind it; he pushed against it, eventually opting to slam his hand against the rock it was made out of to knock against it—unable to get any response.
Shortly after his knock, the roof above them began to crack—tiny fractions of rock made the water film splash up, and the growth in the middle seemed to loosen under the movement. Midas stepped back, his eyes set on the conglomeration of vines and rock—only able to watch as it completely loosened from the roof; a damp thud sound came from it as it fell onto the ground.
Making the three of them pause in their movements, a dim shine of light blue blitzed up from the sluggish dark green tone of the growth—slim limbs slowly extended from under the vines, arms and legs made of stone emerged, making the figure stand up in front of them, at least double Midas's size. It was flat-faced, shaped like a disk, its limbs folded apart—showing a swift-looking body as its left arm began to rise upwards.
From its arm, a slim blade emerged—the slim head of the golem turned in Midas's direction; the light blue stone planted in the front of the disk that was built on top of its face shone, reaching out from him between the growth that hung from the flat surface of its head, shielding its eyes as the vines moved with the turn of its neck.
Patriq eventually widened his eyes, the dim light more than enough to muster its prominent joints and slim torso, dashing forward as his stick was instantly met with the force of the metal blade built inside of its arm. Shielding Midas as Patriq dashed forward to exchange blows with the stone creature, the youth woke up from his surprise—activating his stone to expand a brick from the watery floor, barely missing its slim spine that connected its ribcage and hip.
"Haya! Aim for its legs...!"
Making the golem twist its upper body to face Haya, who dashed towards it from behind, it let go of Patriq—its free right hand unable to grasp the body of the incoming youth that charged up its knuckles against its leg. Twisting his neck back at Patriq as he closed his distance to the golem, the rock creature used the expanded blade of his left arm to keep him at a distance—the blow of the blade blocked by his wand, Patriq was flung to the side.
Barely missing the halted fingers of its right hand, Haya landed a blow against the back of its foot—his knuckles pressed tightly against the rock, Haya was able to force the golem on one of its knees. Unable to avoid its left hand, as the torso of the creature spun around in a 180-degree motion, punching the spot in which Haya was able to lurk.
Midas's eyes widened at the motion of the golem, its body able to twist freely as an additional joint in its spine allowed it to turn fully to its backside. Raising its body up, it turned to face Midas again—Haya skipping to his side, his expression somewhat bitter as it looked up at the stone implanted above its closed eyes. The both of them halted their motions, watching as the stone figure stood up on both legs again—Patriq joined them, his face bruised slightly from the impact with the wall.
"Do you have any idea what kind of stone this is...?"
The three of them readied themselves, watching with great caution as the limbs of the golem moved stockily—as if every joint in its body would prepare to jump at them at any given moment.
"It's most likely similar to the sun shard or the blue stone that the young commander wore on him—this shine is quite similar to theirs, yet... its color is almost white. It has to be something different than water that this thing is able to bend."
Midas clenched his teeth; feeling the worrisome glances of Haya lingering on him, he continued to muster the light blue shine of the stone that was implanted in the front side of the disk; the only thing similar to its muted blue color coming up into his mind was the snowy peaks of the distant mountain he saw when he met Avalon the first time, making his eyes widen.
"Could it be... ice...?"
Shortly after mumbling his conclusion, the stone creature moved—dashing right towards the youth. Midas' eyes were met with a bluish-white shining blade, a light escaping the metal in the shapes of symbols and patterns that were engraved onto the massive doors. Pulled away by Patriq, the three of them barely avoided being frozen to the ground upon the blade's impact—a sheet of ice spread out onto the dim film of water that spun the entire room.
"If that thing gets us only once, we're dead for sure!"
Haya shouted through flashing teeth, already preparing for another blow as he focused the rest of his mana into his knuckles—being joined by Patriq as he ran around its other side to flank it. His uniform muddied by the water, Midas prepped himself up onto his feet again—clearly misjudging the swiftness of their enemy.
Having to fight in a space that is covered in water meant that once the ice got to their feet, they would be stuck and easily hit by the golem; with the thin body it had, getting to them in a short amount of time would be easy.
The rock creature faced Haya, turning to him as it made haste to shorten their distance to each other, barely able to keep his speed in which he encircled the enemy—Haya managed to barely duck under one of its blows, its blade stuck for a short moment in the same piece of ice that spread onto the water.
Using the chance Haya had to hit a blow on its unguarded knee joint, he dashed towards the golem, sliding under its extended arm as it tried to pull back from the ice it created. Haya pressed his knuckles deeply onto its knee joint, barely able to make it crack. His offensive is joined quickly by Patriq, his wand aiming to hit its other knee as he looped around to hit it from another angle.
The head quickly turned to the boy with the stick, its stone jaw opening as its closed eyes looked down onto the surprised expression of Patriq—unable to foresee its sudden movement. Midas quickly acted, already having expanded his right arm to bend the surrounding stone as he had no other way of helping with his sickle.
Predicting the rough direction of where Patriq would step, the youth expanded a stone pillar broad enough to elevate Patriq high enough for his feet to not be submerged in the layer of water. Taking the harsh blow of freezing air to his face, Patriq used the chance the elevating rock formation he now found himself standing on provided, using the momentum he gained to leap himself up to the golem, shoving his broom directly into the spot the wind seemed to be originating from.
The pressure that built up under his stick made the golem's lower jaw blow off, making it slightly tremble backwards, while allowing both Haya and Patriq to find a new position. Trying to reuse the mana he spent forming the spire of rock, Midas kept his hand expanded—briefly trying to somehow feel the mana that might remain inside of it, unable to retrieve his spent energy from the ground.
"Its joints are quite sturdy; I barely have any mana left here..."
Tired, Haya exchanged a glance with Midas, eventually holding up both of his hands out into the direction of the golem again—forced to ignore the blood that spilled out from his roughed-up skin. Having no problem with leaping down from the rock formation, Patriq briefly mustered the two of them, pointing his stick at the enemy.
The stocking movements of the golem became slightly more noticeable; his right fingers formed into a fist, and the slabs of stone that shielded its upper legs, shoulders, and torso began to glow similarly to its expanded blade—the intricate patterns that expanded onto its limbs slowly lightened up, the light blue reflected by the water. Seemingly charging up, it raised its arms while pulling its right leg behind—making Midas form an alarmed glance as it readied itself to leap towards them.
In a flash of a moment, Midas was slammed to the side of the room—his body flung to collide with the wall. Haya had no chance of reacting in time to the sudden flick of its arm out at him, forced to block the blow with his hands—he screamed at the painful freeze of the metal blade, his flesh barely missed as the golem tumbled under the fractured knee joint. Unable to run from the ice that quickly spread out from the blade that rammed into the ground right next to him, Patriq's feet were frozen in ice.
Midas's ears rang under the shock of the collision; his dizzy gaze numbingly caught onto the golem as it pulled its blade out from the ground, already raising it again to deliver the next blow. Half of his face submerged in the muddy water, he tried his best to expand his right hand out into the enemy's direction.
His grim glance quickly widened as he saw a familiar pair of light brown leather trousers standing in front of him—moving his head up at the club leader as she turned to him with a focused expression. Behind her, the student wielding the hammer already dashed towards it, joined by the group of sword-wielding members.
"Ivyda..."
"I will tell you a good-to-know fact about these golems, since they were built to not only detect possible threats but also to eradicate them—they will most likely aim for the one with the highest surge of mana currently present. Well, depending on who the closest threat is... that might change."
Turning away from Midas, the blonde girl raised her hands slightly—the water around her rose up to her sides, forming a cocoon of water around her. The round film of water stayed on her as she stepped towards the golem, its head instantly twitching to look back onto the rest of the club members.
Grasping her daggers and unsheathing them, Ivyda joined in the hammer-wielding student, blitzing around the enemy, using her focus to avoid her ally being hit as he made heavy steps towards it. Roughly sticking to its position, its head turned vigorously, swinging its expanded blade out at her, only to be avoided by her swift movements around the chilly metal. Unable to spin back its torso in time, the golem's already damaged knee joint completely fractured at the blow of the massive hammer.
Falling onto one of its legs, the enemy swung out its blade at Ivyda, making her turn back as she swiftly unsheathed her blades again, promptly stopping from running away as the stone of her bracelet began to shine more prominently. Raising her arms out at the direction of the incoming blade, the film of water covering her shot up against its reaching left arm, instantly covering the stone limb with a layer of ice—rendering it useless.
Not stopping from expanding, the ice grew to cover its body completely as it numbly fell onto the ground, losing all stability as its leg completely disconnected from its body. The ice that spread from its blade eventually stopped once it had spread to the golem's head; the more brutal stone was quickly crushed by the hammer, making its stone head shatter for good as the light that covered the blade dimmed down.
Taking a breather, Midas sat on his knees—his tired eyes looking at Haya and Patriq as the staff-wielding boy watched him bite his lips in pain while holding his chilled arms, already able to free himself from the ice. The sight of his pain left a bitter taste; Midas formed a lump in his throat as he saw Ivyda already heading towards him—he once more was unable to prevent the suffering of his allies.