"d.a.m.n if I smell delicious." Morok said while wobbling from the electroshock. His many magical protections and uncanny const.i.tution had allowed him to survive the Golem"s sneak attack.
The fact that the powerful tier four spell Hammerfall had been split several times, significantly reducing its prowess, also helped. Lith tried to Blink away, just like his fellow Ranger had done a split second earlier, but earth magic was necessary to use dimensional magic, so his spell failed.
He had Solus"s glove cover his hands as he injected the Skinwalker armor with his mana, boosting its defensive properties. The armor"s energy field was now strong enough to disperse part of the spell while Solus"s stone body blocked the rest.
"That was close. Did it hurt?" Lith thought.
"Just a sting. Don"t worry about me and kick its a.s.s. The other Golems are seconds away from breaking into the barrier." Solus warned him.
Professor Neshal raised her magical staff and the remaining bolts of lightning were drawn to the gemstone on its top, which redirected them against the stone floor, rendering them harmless.
"Why didn"t you use them to attack another Golem?" Yondra asked.
"They all have the same energy signature. One Golem"s spell can"t damage the others, it only strengthens them. I"ve seen it happening before." Neshal explained while channeling more mana into her staff to activate another of its properties.
Neshal"s weapon was nothing compared to General Vorgh"s but it still made Lith and Solus wish they could borrow it for a while. It was made of some kind of wood that had a mana flow similar to Adamant, with several purple mana crystals embedded on its sides.
On its top, there was a diamond-shaped purple mana crystal the size of Lith"s fist, surrounded by smaller crystals of the same shape, giving it the appearance of a crown.
Neshal"s mana was gathered inside the main gemstone after being amplified by the smaller crystals along the way, allowing her to cast spells beyond her actual capabilities.
She was still inside the Golem"s array, so earth magic was sealed to her as well. Neshal used her tier five spell, Crystal Clear, conjuring a frost wave boosted by a raging tornado.
Air magic allowed her to focus the cold with surgical precision and also to strike at the frozen solid enemies with a thunderstorm that would seep into every nook and cranny the ever-expanding ice opened.
The three remaining Golems were suddenly brought to almost -200°C (-328°F). The sand froze and became useless, while the thick ice covering their limbs made every one of their movements terribly slow.
The external thunderstorm messed up with the constructs" spells and to make matters worse, the ice covering the stone allowed Neshal"s lightning bolts to finally reach one of the Golems" compartments where its Alchemical tools were stored.
The moment one of the wands sustained enough damage to break it, the resulting explosion triggered a chain reaction that blew up the Golem"s entire arm, revealing a s.h.i.+ning purple ma.s.s through the now hollow shoulder socket.
"A power core!" Neshal yelled while focusing Crystal Clear on the wounded Golem to prevent it from moving the power core to a different and more protected location. Unfortunately, another array was activated, negating water magic.
Neshal"s spell went haywire and the thunderstorm exploded, sending the Golems cras.h.i.+ng against Kulah"s walls. The group had been saved from harm by the defensive arrays that protected the camp.
"First earth, now water?" Phloria was starting to lose hope. The moment they were about to gain the upper hand, the Golems pulled a new trick out that allowed them to escape from the jaws of defeat.
The fight had broken out for less than a minute and half of their spells had already been sealed, crippling their chances of victory.
"It"s not as bad as it seems." Yondra said. She was aware that to a non-Forgemaster, Golems appeared as an unbeatable foe. "Those kinds of arrays require a lot of mana to affect such a wide area. The longer the Golems use them, the faster they will run out of energy.
"It also limits both ours and their attack options, making them predictable."
In the meantime, Lith was done casting his Array Detection spell.
"I need reliable information to devise a plan with a chance of success. Land Shark"s fizzling already cost me a lot of mana. I can"t afford to waste any more without a good reason." Lith thought.
The spell revealed the presence of several arrays, all stacked one upon the other to make them overlap, but without creating the weak point that Kulah"s gate had.
"d.a.m.n, the Odi sure knew their stuff. The most internal array is the Golem"s AI. I can"t tamper with it without using Invigoration, but I have no desire for a second shock.
"Another one allows the construct to use air magic to shapes.h.i.+ft, then there is the Earth Blocking array. I can work with that." Lith thought.
The Water Blocking array was too far to affect him, just like the Earth Blocking Array didn"t hinder the rest of the Golems. Unfortunately, the rest of the group was caught in the middle.
Lith grinned, using spirit magic to lift the Golem and throw it on the opposite side of the camp. Constructs were capable of fighting in a way similar to Awakened, but they were just things. They had no fusion magic that could stop Lith"s spirit magic.
The Golem"s AI reacted by conjuring an air s.h.i.+eld that was supposed to stop the attack, but spirit magic"s ethereal nature ignored the barrier surrounding the enemy and proceeded to slam it left and right against the ground.
Lith kept the construct far enough that he could easily dodge any lightning the Golem could release with air fusion.
"I don"t know how you do that and honestly I don"t care." Morok said. "Yet by the time you put a dent to it this way we"ll be both dead of old age. Pa.s.s the ball on my mark."
The Ranger whispered a word to his weapons that Lith was able to hear thanks to his enhanced senses.
"Brezza."
The battle hammers turned from silver to yellow, starting to crackle with power.
Lith continued to slam the construct against the ground while preparing his spells. He had no idea what Morok was planning but either he succeeded or failed, Lith could hope to find at least an opening.
After being separated from its group and its lightning bolts reduced to nothing but a light show, the Golem deactivate the Earth Blocking array. The construct needed its best spells to free itself from that invisible cage.
"Mark!" Morok said while spinning on himself and throwing the hammers one at the time.
Lith did as requested and used spirit magic to launch the Golem against the incoming projectiles. The construct tried to use its electromagnetic field to deflect the war hammers, but the enchantment they were imbued with pierced the protection as if it was just a piece of paper.
The first hammer struck with the combined energy of Lith"s and Morok"s toss, giving the impact enough momentum to crack the Golem"s sh.e.l.l, but nothing more. After the collision, the second effect of the hammers was activated.
The first hammer had now a strong positive charge while the second hammer was negatively charged. The resulting effect was to guide the second hammer right onto the first adding the magnetic pull to its momentum.
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