Chapter 39

[Rocky]

As another of his brothers were snuffed out, their core shattered beyond repair, Rocky found that something had changed.

He'd spent months, silently waiting beside the tree. It had grown stronger, nestled in the Holy Ground, and no longer did it fear the sun. With armies of Golem scattered around it and beneath it, no longer did it fear monsters or men either.

In essence, Rocky found himself protecting it from nothing.

And Rocky had struggled with this.

He was certain: No enemy could ever hope to make it close. All that was left for him to do was watch and listen from the sidelines, while shamefully reaping the rewards of every victory in the distance. As Golem fought battle after battle, crushing monsters and Constructs, and hunting down any who would dare to bring ruin to the Creator's domain.

In this, Rocky's power had grown, by no action of his own.

And finally, he realized something.

It came as a sudden epiphany. It dawned on Rocky, much as the sun rose every morning, or set every night. The thought settled on his mind, as he came to the conclusion that he had been wrong.

Standing where he was, did not follow the purpose he had been given.

He was supposed to be protecting.

The Creator, in their infinite wisdom, had told him this. When he was first brought into existence, with barely a thought beyond the commands he'd been issued, his purpose had been delivered.

Protect.

Defend.

Standing in safety... that was not doing either of these things.

How could he protect anything, or anyone, if the battle was far away?

Rocky couldn't.

So, logically, he had to move to where he could.

How foolish he had been.

Of course.

His legs compressed. Carefully constructed fibers of stone-strand retracted, built along hardened joints of empowered magics. His core assessed and reassessed the calculations that would be required, allowing mana to flow along the conduits within his limbs.

And then he jumped.

Rocky had always wondered at the design of his body.

The Creator had chosen it, so Rocky had known it had to be correct. Yet, when he was young and slow, it had felt strange. Too difficult to move properly, too unsually shaped to balance exactly as his core wished.

Yet, the Creator had put so much effort into forming him into this particular shape.

Now, Rocky understood why.

Motion.

With great mass, motion could be built upon. Momentum could be gained, and with every new rank, the potential grew. His core had ranked countless times, and with these advancements, Rocky found that his body was finally showing true genius. Whatever creature he was modeled upon, had been perfect for what was needed.

Only one jump, and Rocky had built tremendous speed. By the second jump, this was pushed even further, and with a third: the ground seemed to be rushing past too quickly to properly scan.

Jump.

Soar.

Land.

He barely needed to touch the ground, instead using his massive weight and momentum to kick off and launch into the air, until he moved at speeds that he'd once believed impossible. The world was but a blur, and already, he was arriving at his destination: The road that had been distant before, was now rapidly coming into view.

Battle approached.

His core began to press itself, expending mana as it rapidly processed the necessary information. One of the many new abilities he'd gained by no effort of his own: Rocky felt his perception of time begin to slow, as he seemed to float there, on the apex of his final leap.

[Enhanced Processing] hummed to life, and Rocky looked beneath him as the scene of battle raged on.

It was a terrible one.

Monsters.

Destruction.

As had been noted by many returning Golems, another intrusion had occured on the surface as the Depths had split open to spew its violent denizens. Out of the soil, monsters fought to reach the open air, and the ground seemed to be sinking. Shifting and draining, as if the soil were being swallowed up, the depression that was forming was reaching deeper and deeper. From it came hundreds of creatures. Monsters that had taken the opportunity and broken free of the Dungeon.

[Enhanced Processing] began to fade, and the perception of time began to increase.

His core relayed necessary information, based on what it perceived as the best course of action.

Rocky began to fall.

He angled slightly, noting the air currents that went howling around him as his speed began to accelerate and the ground came closer.

Yet, he was still too slow. Even with all of his haste, he flinched as another of his brothers crumbled.

His core responded to that, as Rocky reached deep, and felt a rush of power.

As a Golem, there were only so many abilities he could use and they were limited in many ways. Often enough, Rocky did not truly know them until he needed them, but with this one, he felt a deep understanding as his body glowed.

[Heavy Impact]

The knowledge seized him, and his weight doubled.

Then doubled it again- and then, one further time.

His speed continued to accelerate at the same pace, but whatever wind resistance hoped to slow him was no match, and the momentum he had gained was a force to be reckoned with.

He struck like a meteor.

The ground shattered.

The crater of his impact was mitigated only by the now-vaporized gore of whatever unlucky monster had happened to overlap with the landing coordinates.

One down.

His core began the kill count, as Rocky rose from his landing crouch.

It was time to do what the Creator had brought him into this world to do.

Once again he scanned the area, confirming the needed information. Trends and assumptions on the battle were feeding in quickly, and he knew to begin with searching for priorities.

There were many, the scene was chaos.

Of local forces, only seven Golem remained even remotely functional. That was out of the ten that had been within the immediate distance of the ambush on the human caravan. While these had moved quickly to respond to the attack, their reinforcements were still far off, and they had been terribly outnumbered. Most attacks along the highway were barely a fraction of this size, and they had been ill-equiped to deal with so many enemies at once.

Rocky reached out to them, and their cores all pinged out in recognition of his landing, sharing quick broadcasts of information for his own core to digest.

While the Golem had been fighting well, the injuries they had recieved were terrible. Rocky knew that unless the battle was ended shortly, and their torsos could be returned to the Creator for maintenance, there would be little hope for them.

Rocky provided instruction.

The surviving Golem gave their confirmation, and assured him that they remained at various levels of effectiveness. They relayed additional information, gathered during combat.

He considered what was provided. His predictions shifted as another earthquake rumbled.

The situation was not good.

Based on the strength and numbers of the enemy, the chances were now quite good that defeat was inevitable. There would be many more Golem who fell during this fight, and without changes to the current battlefield, all remaining Golem currently present would be incapacitated.

This was troublesome.

The Creator had worked hard to give them bodies and purpose. It was not wise to waste these things on defeat.

The problem though, as Rocky saw it, had to do with the humans.

Hoo-mans.

Hue-Mens.

Those oddly fleshy things that the creator seemed to take pity on, with their fragile little bodies, and their habit of making odd noises using flapping flesh and air, instead of just speaking with mana-crystal cores.

These things, the humans, were being broken left and right.

In fact, if the rough estimate was even partly accurate, the casualties were tremendous. Rapidly approaching triple digits.

Rocky knew that was bad.

In fact, that was what the Creator had deemed a "Worst Case Scenario."

Some were putting up a good fight, using metal weapons or casting spells. Most were simply running away as best they could, until the monsters that were hunting them, caught up. They were dying very quickly, and doing so in very large numbers.

This was an extremely dangerous.

Rocky felt a sense of pride that he'd properly recognized his duty to respond to this event.

All the Golem had begun to share information, as the rank-ups began to increase. The ability came naturally and together their recognition of local trends and dangers was mapped in excessive detail. These collections, in combination with the Creator's strict orders, provided a bleak outlook on the war they fought.

Rarely, did the Creator explain reasons for his commands, but it was known to Rocky and all his fellow Golem, that the Creator was wise. So, they had searched for a reason, and to their horror: they had found one.

It was for this very scenario.

This was why Rocky's brethren had been instructed to search for enemies along the roads. All due to a subtle but terrible problem. One that would have remained invisible if not for the shared data between countless Golem cores had been provided, based on hundreds of combat engagements with enemies all across the surrounding area.

When humans were killed by monsters, the monsters grew stronger.

For individual kills, this was hardly a problem. In fact, it was barely noticable considering the average strength of a monster Golems were likely to run into. Yet for larger numbers... in those scenarios, it was clear that the humans needed to be kept alive, at all costs. Once the Golem had realized how important this work was, they had taken very proactive approaches in protecting the human roads. Preventing monsters from killing humans was of the utmost priority.

But this was far outside of expectations.

It was too much.

Rocky realized that he had once again dipped into [Enhanced Processing] for an instant. Dozens of potential starting points being fed into his core, distilled to singular options as time began to return to its normal pace.

His core was still trying to pin down the exact range of danger, but Rocky knew that whatever it settled on, the threat level was quite high. Keeping any of these monsters from getting too powerful, was of high importance. Yet, as those monsters continued to kill, they would continue to get stronger, which was a very difficult thing to predict and keep track of.

All around him, the humans were screaming.

They had packed themselves so dense, it barely took any effort at all for the monsters to kill large numbers of them. Instead of choosing to travel in smaller numbers, the humans had been bundled up into a perfectly ambushable clump.

And this was making it rather difficult to know what he should focus on first.

His core was tallying how many were killed and associating the numbers to specific targets. He knew his fellow Golem were likely doing the same, but the numbers were still excessively difficult to predict and every wasted second made things worse.

There were priority enemies. At least twenty monsters had seen increases in ability since Rocky first arrived, and all of them had been identifed so he could recognize them when he saw them. Yet, there were likely more he'd yet to detect.

After another second of debate, Rocky decided that he didn't care about the priority enemies. In a battle like this, it wasn't his enemies that were an immediate cause of concern: it was what they were after, and letting them get stronger than they already were was out of the question.

Rocky moved.

Leaping into the air, he landed in front of a wagon still occupied by humans. His core pinged happily, as his weight was more than enough to crush the lower-threat monster into the dirt.

That made two, which was an excellent start. Another rank increase was predicted soon, and every slain monster helped push that along.

Scanning out, Rocky stared down at the humans as his core swept through the important details. There were several smaller humans he'd missed previously, defended by slightly larger humans.

They all had such odd, fleshy, faces.

The smaller ones pointed. The larger ones shouted.

Whatever words they said, his core translated loosely, but mostly summarized their statements seemed to indicate fear.

None of them attacked him, though.

In fact, one of them bowed.

They were of little threat, he decided. He'd chosen a good starting point, considering how many of them were present. This would be a prime target for the monsters.

Rocky turned back to the battle, scanning along.

The battle was currently not winnable. In just the past few seconds, far too many Golem had fallen. As of the current moment, Rocky knew left only four besides himself, and another ten that were still on-route to the location, but would not arrive quickly enough to make a significant difference. Though, in formation, they might be able to make a reasonable dent...

That was not important, though.

Defeat may be inevitable, but he had come here because he thought it was the right thing to do.

No one else had told him what to think.

He had done it, all on his own.

That had significance.

And Rocky knew it, just like he knew it was very strange.

In fact, Rocky's core also found that very strange. It seemed to confirm what Rocky suspected: that Golem weren't really supposed to do things like this. That was to say, they were not supposed to make decisions all on their own.

Was this how the Creator lived?

Deciding things without orders, all of the time?

It sounded like a lot of work.

Rocky lifted his club, then he brought it down and flattened another monster that was trying to sneak up in his blind spot, clearly not understanding that Rocky no longer had blind spots.

Three monsters down.

Rocky pondered this.

Making his own choices...

What a strange thing it was... This was exactly the kind of thing Gorf would excel at.

He raised his club again while reaching back with his free hand to drag free the stone shield from his back. Effortlessly, Rocky fit the round piece and handle against his arm.

Now was the time for battle.

The other monsters had noticed him. Many of them were still fighting his few remaining brothers, or were engaging the larger groups of humans, but there were still many nearby that were not occupied by distractions. And now, almost all of those were cautiously manuvering their approach, trying to work out how best to attack.

Most too smart to consider just charging in. Instead, Rocky observed that many seemed to try and circle. They all had experience in battles, it seemed. None of them seemed new to conflict.

Clever behavior, he could acknowledge, but it was still flawed.

Rocky was not living.

His face was mostly for show, as was the rest of his body posture and visual signals one might interpret from it.

Rocky had no blind spots.

His core detected everything.

And his ranges of both vision and motion were not nearly as limited as something alive.

His club flew from his hand, launched by a single swing that released it to the air. Then, not waiting for the weapon to hit its target, Rocky compressed his legs, and leapt high to the air.

By design, his body was built for singular, heavy, impacts.

Rocky saw no reason to stop abusing this fact until his enemies found a way to counter it.

When he had first been created, it could barely do the smallest fraction of this, but now it was telling him all sorts of useful things. Scanning the area, his core had calculated the best possible outcomes for starting moves in this next engagement.

His club made contact.

A creature below, burst. Then, a creature behind it, burst as well, and then yet another screamed as it fell, with a stone club buried in its chest.

Six down, now.

Many of the monsters were now distracted. Some drew their attention towards the weapon, others scattered, concerned that they had missed something dangerous and seeking towards safer conditions.

That was within predictions.

Rocky's stone legs positioned in a crouch as he brought his shield down for the landing.

[Heavy Impact] glowed throughout his body, and once again an explosion of force ripped through him.

He crashed down into their midst, and seven more monsters died, pushing the total to thirteen.

Two more survived, and retaliated: Rocky let them come in close, before locking their bodies against his own in a massive hug.

Then, he compressed.

The two survivors let out final, horrified, screams, before he dropped their corpses to the sand.

Fifteen down.

Ah... Such a terrible attack.

Rocky had learned this Core-unregonized skill from Gorf. He was forever grateful for the genius that brought it into being. The brilliant mind that found creative solutions, when lacking other options.

As more monsters attacked, Rocky resorted to other, similar, tactics. Using abilities came with costs he could not maintain, but he was large and could deliver powerful attacks even without them. As a result, though: his speed suffered. He could punch, but not quickly. He could crush, but only if the opponent was foolish enough to overextend. Still, by predicting attacks, his hands could lock in his opponents, and with overwhelming strength, he could finish them quickly.

So, Rocky did battle. With brutal and calculated motions, he brought the carnage to an end.

Twenty-seven kills.

It wasn't every day a Golem could claim to have killed that many monsters. Rocky felt pride as one of the surviging Golem ping him their approval. They now had a slightly greater than zero percent chance of victory.

He had been out of combat for so long, Rocky realized that his core might have slightly underestimated his combat potential during its earlier calculations.

Still, the fight wasn't over yet. In Rocky's immediate vicinity, there was one monster left, and it was one that made him pause.

Unlike the rest, this one was tricky.

During the previous bout of combat, this particular creature had actually gotten a few hits in, and still managed to escape. His core had confirmed it was far outside the predictions, noting several deep gouges that had been dug into Rocky's shield.

Fast, with powerful attacks, and the ability to dodge.

Dangerous.

The Creator's ability had gifted his body with many things his core did not completely understand. Many enemies had been defeated, and his core felt that was a promising start, but already it was was running through new options of combat and ruling out far more than normal. The risks it was now suggesting, seemed quite high, and many of the tactics remaining were completely untested.

Rocky considered this, as the surviving monster lunged towards him, and opened its mouth.

[Enhanced Processing] kicked in, just in time.

His core sent out a warning of panic, as his shield came up.

Bright blue fire erupted, and Rocky was forced to deflect.

Fire!

The warnings increased, blaring almost like sirens within Rocky's internal systems.

The flames weren't strong enough to harm him, but this was far beyond expectations.

Rocky stepped forward, mapped understanding of the current battlefield allowing him to continue without needing to bring his shield down to see. Effortlessly, he retrieved his club, continuing on with calculated steps.

It had stamina. Scanning ahead, he could see the monster backpedaling a slow retreat, while keeping the fire steady.

Rocky opted for a blind strike, in an attempt to take the monster by surprise. Heaving behind a swing, he threw himself forward. Pulling on his shield behind him, he risked taking the fire directly on his body armor instead, but gained an extra step forward as the weight of the shield assisted him.

The creature, much to Rocky's surprise, reacted perfectly.

As he attempted to catch it off guard with a forward swing, it rapidly scrambled backwards. As it did, the fire magic cut off, and its tail smashed into his chest plate, leaving another deep groove.

The exchange wasn't good.

More importantly, though, the monster had realized that Rocky didn't need to be looking at it, in order to see it. And then, it had found a way to hit him, in return.

His core reassessed the creature, yet again.

Intelligence.

Magic and intelligence... Magic-using monsters, were not at all common, and most monsters would never have made the mental connections needed to avoid his attack.

This was extremely abnormal.

Scanning with his core, he realized the threat it presented was being increased yet again. His core had initially considered it of low threat potential, but now he could see that the additional information was not in his favor.

Without assistance, this would be a very difficult fight.

Large, scaled, four legs and one long tail that was lined with sharp spikes. It was a sleek and quick creature, that seemed to possess both rudimentary Fire Magic and great speed.

It had also outsmarted him.

His core pinged more warnings.

As Rocky had been defending, the monster had found a way to kill several humans by breathing fire in a wide-arc. Rocky had blocked well, but the flames had been intentionally swept around, reaching past his defenses. Several of the larger human defenders guarding the wagons had fallen to these.

This had been calculated ahead of their direct confrontation.

This creature was very smart.

That was not good.

Rocky compressed his legs, this time launching directly forward for a plowing tackle.

This would be a risk, but his core still felt conditions were favorable. Perhaps, he could simply overpower it before it could-

No.

Rocky realized his error immediately. The creature, again, reacted quickly- much quicker than it had been able to, just a few seconds earlier. Claws digging into the soil, it managed to gain enough traction to dodge, twisting for cover. Rocky smashed a ruined wagon to pieces, in an attempt to smash it. Instead, his shoulder caught a different sort of flesh. That of a green-furred bear.

The monster had blocked him with the body of a fallen comrade, while dodging the worst of the impact.

It was too fast. Even with his momentum continued, not slowing in the collision, Rocky found that he was unable to catch up.

Sent rolling backwards, the creature quickly found purchase with its clawed feet, and continued retreating as more of its fellows appeared. Monsters just now crawling up out of the depression beside the road.

As it fled, heading towards a larger gathering of humans, Rocky saw it let out another wide blast of flames, sweeping a huge area.

People screamed, as the flames caught them.

That was not good.

In the dry climate, with large amounts of fire-prone material present, the situation was growing more and more dangerous. The monster had adapted to its new strength, and was going all out using this to its advantage. Every kill was allowing it to gain further momentum.

Rocky attempted to pursue, but found himself blocked. Monsters were now swarming him, forcing attacks from his club and shield to push them back, all while there were more bursts of fire ripping through the wagons. As those flames rose up, more and more humans died.

Even as his core counted dozens more killed monsters, the true threat level was rising.

Rising quickly.

Desperate, Rocky reached deep into his core and performed one more jump. With all his power, he soared up into the air.

He would only have once more chance to stop this, before it was too late.

The fire-breathing monster was rapidly approaching a cluster of humans near the front of the caravan. His core counted over thirty at a rough estimation. Defended as they were, a huge bout of fire would sweep through their numbers quickly. If that monster managed to kill all of them, Rocky knew that alone, he would have no hope of stopping it.

Reaching back, he used his club as a counter balance, as he flipped his shield in his hand to catch it on the rim. Then, [Heavy Impact] stacking on his body, he swung the shield down: down with all the force and rotation he could muster.

The round shield spun through the air, cutting through with a humming whistle as it seeked towards its target.

And all Rocky could do, was watch.

Watch, and wait.

Perhaps, the creature knew.

Though it didn't turn towards the certainty of approaching death, it stopped to draw in a deep breath of air, before spewing out a huge explosion of fire. Deep and blue, the heat ripped through the wagons, torching all who sheltered within them to ashes and dust. It spread far and wide, screams cutting off in barely an instant, as lives were snuffed out.

Then, Rocky's shield hit it, just so.

Smashing the beast, throwing it like a ragdoll out into the depressed soil beside the road in which it had emerged. There it rolled until it finally lay still, bleeding in the sand.

Rocky landed not far from it, core all but exhausted.

They had both gambled. Rocky, on a desperate strike, and the monster on much the same.

Had that been enough?

His core scanned the creature.

He had used all of his ability in this fight. His reserves would replenish, but further fighting would be difficult. Anything beyond normal attacks would be impossible, and there were still many other monsters left to deal with.

The creature stirred, unsteady as it tried to rise back to its feet.

It was still alive.

The earthquake began again, as Rocky readied his club. Unshielded as he was, he would need to rely on his remaining body armor and bulk to endure the coming strikes.

The monster had killed at least forty people by Rocky's count, and that was a conservative estimation. With the fires still spreading among the wagons, there was a good chance it was well past sixty or seventy human kills. Still, he'd injured it greatly. There was a chance this could be settled.

Strong as it was, it was hardly in its best condition.

Not risking any further time, Rocky lunged forward, club aimed for the beast's head.

It blocked.

The tail that has been wickedly quick before, was all but impossible to follow now. With barely a flick, it parried. His club was thrown off course and delivered a crushing strike to the sand instead. Then, his arm took a blow.

Without the shield in place to block, Rocky felt his stone armor crumble. The guarding plate on his forearm was utterly shattered. Another hit like that, and his arm might actually come off.

Still, it was too late to second guess anything.

Stepping forward, Rocky ducked under another swing, no longer trying to predict the exact angle, and taking a best guess based on the monster's body position. As the tail came back around, he managed to deliver a solid kick that the creature took in stride as it found footing.

Raising his weapon up, the club was forced to take a hit aimed for Rocky's head, then another that sent him digging his feet into the soil for purchase. The weapon began to crumble as the blows began to fall into a more regular pattern: one that was too quick for Rocky to properly deal with.

He couldn't disengage.

It was too strong.

Already, the effects of the human lives were showing.

Taking another gamble, he angled his blocking club as it finally broke, and with his arm free to swing a hard punch, he tried to crush the beast's skull. The weapon in his hand broke in two, utterly smashed, as he barely managed to use what remained to counter the tail as it swung for another attack. Yet, the punch connected. Rocky's core prompted him to sacrifice his weapon entirely, diving into a heavy roll, as a billow of blue flame burst out of the creature's toothy maw. The fiery response to a solid hit.

The heat was far too much, but Rocky managed to hit it once more, blasting the flame aside as all four of its clawed limbs caught him, and rolled back to throw him into the dirt.

Rolling with the throw, Rocky managed to gain distance as another bout of flame held him at bay.

His core updated the chances of victory, concluding that they were even lower than they had been before. His only chance had been to get in close, and crush it. Now, he was uncertain how he could possibly manage that without serious injury.

As the flames ceased, the creature stared at him.

Their next clash would be the last, and it was clear to Rocky that the beast recognized it. Live or die, it would come down to the next few seconds.

Then, the creature ceased to exist.

All at once, Rocky was thrown backwards by an eruption of soil.

The fire-using monster had been swallowed up as the earth shook, and the ground opened. Rocky landed hard, remaining pieces of his club lost to the sands as he rolled out from the impact, and back onto his feet once more.

His core found the details.

The monster he had hunted, was mush. Some of its body was pulped and hanging over the sand, while the other parts were hidden entirely from view by thick white teeth, blood red scales, and one giant looming eye.

An eye that was larger than Rocky. Larger than a dozen Rockys.

It looked down upon him with arrogance.

Then, it roared.