1.32 How Dare You..

The cycle of charging, reforming, and charging once more wore down even the seemingly inexhaustible hordes of wolves, until only the very largest few sat at the broken gate of the camp. It seemed that the leader had taken to napping while his pack did the work, and many of the strongest pack members had followed suit.

Without fail, those wolves above level ten had thrown themselves, to the last canine, at the party. Until only four remained. Rocky looked again. Huh, until only three remained.

Of those remaining, the leader was prowling towards the much diminished golems, each of which were by now covered in cuts and chips that had worn away at every part of their bodies. Rocky gazed at his cold iron servants, and noted that one now lacked an entire arm, the joint having been knocked loose by the continuous hits by either fang or claw.

It was towards this weak link that the wolf now stalked, keeping to the side of the golem’s torso that no longer bore a limb. “[Stone Manipulation]” Rocky tried to form a new limb from the shoulder. A shoulder, by the way, that the golem was still wiggling as if it had an arm attached to it.

“Hold still!” At that, the golem stood stock still, the earlier automated movement nowhere to be seen as Rocky tried to smooth out and repair the golem’s scarred, pockmarked shell first.

Several of the shallow marks disappeared first, and Rocky continued with every ounce of concentration he could muster, waiting for the rest of the golem to recover.

But nothing happened. The first few repairs, which he had accomplished in the first several seconds, were not followed by a reattached arm, or even the healing on the attached, contiguous body. Instead, he was faced with the confused gaze of his golem as he tried as hard as he could to buff out-

The pack leader took the moment to attack. Maybe he had been stalking forward as soon as Rocky had ordered the golem to freeze, maybe the wolf was just enormously fast. It didn’t matter now though.

Followed by its two remaining packmates, who Rocky noted were the largest ones he had seen so far, the leader jumped atop his frozen golem and proceeded to utterly crush it underfoot. First its left leg, then the other, then its remaining arm. The golem’s head was last to go, yet the torso continued to move, seemingly unperturbed by its loss of life and limb.

“What the actual fuck are your golems made of, Rocky?” Harold muttered, staring as the large golem torso continued to struggle on the ground.

The wolves seemed to be just as unnerved as Harold apparently was, because all three of them immediately began assaulting the lump of iron with every sharp edge at their disposal. With abandon, their blades sank further and further into the iron.

Rocky froze, staring, horrified at the mutilation of such a pristine rock. It filled him with rage. ‘That-that’s mine! No.. don’t hurt him, No NO NO!’ His eyes flared a bright, emerald green, and emotion as he had never felt before coursed through his body. Anger. This was anger.

He watched, as the wolves reached a glowing green core at the center of the golem’s torso, promptly crushing it and ending all resistance from the now corpse.

“KILL THEM.” Rocky bellowed the word out, righteous indignation backing his voice, forcing it to a volume not even he knew was possible. “KILL THEM” Hatred for these beasts forced his hand, and Rocky’s golems broke from their perimeter, barreling towards the wolves with all the speed their stumpy, unrefined legs could muster.

They swatted at the offending wolves, their arms bearing an amount of force that could probably have killed anything else Rocky had come across in the Tutorial. Targeting the leader, as was their previous order, the two swung at the gray pack leader’s head.

Jerking away, the wolf was met with two heavy blows, blunt force trauma applied directly to its left flank. A lesser creature might have died from the blow, or from the red or black liquid that Rocky noticed would flow out of dying creatures. Instead, the wolf shakily got back onto its feet, and joined its two fellows as they assaulted Rocky’s remaining golems.

“Oh like HELL you’re getting away with that!” Rocky turned his attention to see Harold, who had reacted in time to strike a blow straight to the skull of a wolf. The canine had been sent sprawling, the concentrated blunt force catching it while mid leap. “We spent a hell of a long in a tunnel system fighting spiders. You think you can get away with something like that, bucko?”

Harold was addressing the fourth wolf, whom Rocky had lost sight of before, and who was also the recipient of the man’s most recent hammer blow. Harold followed up with a downwards swing at the stunned wolf, catching it once more in the skull. The wolf was smaller, slimmer than its tanky counterparts locked in hand to claw combat with Rocky’s golems. Its fangs and claws elongated, it looked every bit the assassin-hunter variant that could spell their immediate doom.

‘Just like Simo. I have to be more careful around these variants in the future.’ A strike to the direwolf’s skull broke him out of his thoughts. As the hammer arced, Rocky fully expected the strike to be ineffective, or worse, miss entirely.

This time, however, it connected. Better yet, it had likely ruptured something important, because the wolf immediately stopped struggling, going completely limp, save for a slight twitch of its legs. Again and again he swung, until the wolf’s head was an unrecognizable mush. Rocky approved, vengeance for his golems.

Said golems were now locked in a no holds barred fist-claw? fight with the wolves. But unlike the felled golem, his remaining summons were not missing limbs, and were not handicapped by his orders to freeze.

Though the direwolves couldn’t fell his golems at this rate, they in turn seemed untouchable by even the most unexpected attacks from Rocky’s summons. They were simply too fast, too agile to be caught by the relatively slow moving iron constructs.

The packmates darted around, lashing out whenever a back was turned, or an opportunity to strike could be seized.

It was Harold who turned the tide, being simultaneously faster than the golems, and durable enough to withstand punishment from the large canines. His hammer caught the first wolf off guard, stunning it for but a fraction of a second. Long enough for one of Rocky’s golems to follow up and break every bone in its body.

In return, the pack leader leapt on the remaining golem, once again tearing apart its limbs, and forcing the summon back onto the ground.

The process repeated itself, as golems were traded for the pack leader’s remaining subordinates, one for one, until only the leader himself remained, facing down a combined force of Rocky, Harold, and Simo.

“[Break the Line]!” Harold struck first, and with reckless abandon. The blow simply failed to connect, catching only air as the wolf ducked underneath the hammer’s arc, biting back with a blow to his shield.

Simo had climbed to the top of the wall now, and with the same gravity-accelerated blow, sought to end the wolf. The spider’s fangs found fur, then skin, then- nothing. Simo’s fangs were too short, the wolf’s hide too thick. It only took a simple shake of its hide as the evolved Spiderling was sent flying into a nearby wall, right next to the unconscious Amber.

Harold hefted his shield grimly. “Rocky, if this goes badly, you’re going to run away into the forest. Find a place to hide until you can resummon your golems, alright?”

Rocky didn’t know what drove his mental response, but his only inclination was denial. ‘I refuse to leave. I will die on this hill-

[Survival time met, calculating rewards...]

[Congratulations, testing completed, your Town has survived!]

[Please select a name for your Town]

The wolf melted away, what threat it posed leaving with it. Strewn all about were the remains of wolves too weak to survive the same punishment.

Rocky just stared at the notifications, then sank to the ground, looking back at the rubble that had once been his troop of golems. Turning, he gazed upon the unconscious forms of Amber and Simo. All around him lay the ruins of his camp, and reminders of his own weakness.

‘Never Again.’