We all make our way towards the dome-shaped dungeon, following Trista. She brings everyone to the other side of the dungeon, all the way to a circular hole leading inside. Through the entrance I see a room lit by glowing orbs, which float freely through the air. Illuminated by the lights are human sized statues made up of gears, chains, pistons, you name it. Some of them have metal plates covering parts of their bodies, but the majority of them have their inner workings completely exposed.

'Steampunk robots?'

Trista points at the robots, "For any of you who do not know already, those are metal golems. What you should worry about most when fighting them is their core. Their cores are located somewhere in their bodies, usually in their chests, and must be destroyed in order to defeat them. Should the core remain whole, the golem will reform itself around it, no matter how damaged it is. Their cores are metallic spheres, about this big." she points at her fist.

Suddenly, I feel something poke my head. I turn around to see Mama gazing at me.

"What is a sphere?" she whispers.

I find myself whispering back, even though nobody else can hear me, "Oh, a sphere is like... it's like that," I point at the giant dome, "except it goes allll the way around."

She thinks for a second, and then nods her head in understanding, "Thank you."

After a few seconds, Trista continues, "So is everybody ready? Does anybody need to rest?"

Nobody says anything, though a couple people do release disdainful snorts.

Trista smiles, "Good."

She then pulls a sword out of her sleeve, which starts glowing green, and walks confidently towards the entrance to the dungeon. Her brother releases an 'ah' as he, too, pulls a sword out of his sleeve, and proceeds to follow close behind her. The creepy couple is next to follow, and soon, everybody but Mama and I are heading towards the entrance.

Mama puts me on the ground and whispers to me, "I will not participate in the battle, as to hide my strength. Please be careful Lyna."

"Of course! Hehe, I can't wait. I haven't had a good fight in forever!"

Mama shakes her head, "It is that attitude that worries me. Just, look out for traps, yes?"

"Yes Mama."

"And do not get injured, this is not a situation where you can use tonic safely."

I nod my head rapidly, "Yes Mama."

"And be wary of the cultivators, in case they-"

"Yeees Mama!"

Mama smiles and shakes her head, "Alright, you may go."

I turn around and prepare to rush in and join the fight, but before I can even step inside the dungeon, the last golem falls under Trista's blade.

"What's the use of a magical beast if it doesn't even fight? Looks like when they say holy foxes are 'gentle', they really just mean that they're cowards!" tight-fit clothes lady mocks from inside the dungeon.

Nobody else says anything, but I do see a few disapproving gazes directed at us. Trista, on the other hand, has an apologetic look on her face.

'Coward she says, hah! I'll never run from a fight! I mean, unless things get too dangerous. I'll run away if that happens...'

Laughing to myself, I walk confidently towards the dungeon, but before I can even get in, tight-fit clothes lady starts talking again.

"I say since the fox didn't help with this room, we let it clear the next room alone."

'Does she have something against me or something? Ehh, no matter.'

Before anyone can say anything more, I quickly make my way to the second room, which is still full of metal golems. As soon as I enter the room, all of the golems spring to life. One golem, located in the middle of the room, is considerably larger than the rest and is wielding a weapon, some sort of polearm. The rest, however, are practically the same as the ones from the first room, though there seem to be comparatively more that are partially covered by metal plating.

I make a beeline for the golem nearest to me and, following a forceful kick of my back legs, headbutt it. The golem has no chance to dodge as its chest is caved in and one of its arms breaks off, flying across the room. After landing, I glance at the motionless golem and confirm that the spherical core was smashed during our collision. No colored fog rises from its body, though, which is a bit disappointing.

The next golem is already running towards me. I run and jump again, but this time I try a jump kick, like those I've seen on TV. And miss completely.

'Whoops, I guess I got a little too excited.'

As soon as I land, three golems start trying to surround me. I wait until they get closer to me and, with speed and precision gained through practicing with Mama Bloodcat, propel myself straight at a golem's chest. Using the first golem as leverage, I kick off towards the second, smashing its head. I once again jump off of the golem, sending myself towards the next. But as I near the third golem, it's able to react in time, ducking and reaching its arm up to grab me. It would be annoying to dodge the move, so I decide to just let it get me. Almost as soon as it grabs my back legs, halting my momentum, I bend down and bash its wrist.

'For being so weak, these guys sure have quick arms.'

It takes little more than a second to pry myself from the golem's grasp, but even as I do, I see the hand start to move. As I look behind me, I see the hand fly back to the golem and quickly reattach itself. I look back at the other two golems, and while the one I kicked in the chest is not moving, the one I kicked in the head is already back up and approaching me again, even though its head is mangled. There are two more golems coming this way as well, along with the golem wielding the polearm.

"Haha! Come get me!"

As a golem approaches me and punches out, I dodge forward and jump, proceeding to kick it in the chest. The kick propels me backwards, away from the group of golems that are approaching me.

I take my time, focusing on one golem at a time, until the only one left is the boss. I somehow expected it to become enraged, but even after destroying the rest of the golems, it's still as calm as it was when I first entered the room.

As it nears me, it lifts its polearm above its head and, with surprising speed, swings it down in a simple arc. But while it IS pretty fast, I'm faster! I dodge to the side with relative ease and wait for its attack to meet the ground, and then jump at its arm, which is now wide open. But before I can make contact, the golem lets go of its weapon and reaches towards me.

'Man, these guys' arms really are quick!'

I flip in midair and kick at the golem's huge palm, but its other hand is already coming at me from behind. With a loud bang I collide headfirst with its other hand, which gives way, but the process is rather taxing on my poor noggin. I land on the ground just in time to see the golem pick its polearm back up with its hands, neither of which look even vaguely damaged.

"Hahaha! This is awesome! I can fight this thing for as long as I want!"

Breaking through mid Qi Manipulation has made me quite a bit stronger. But aside from the obvious power boost, I have significantly more stamina now as well, allowing me to fight longer without getting fatigued! But even though I feel like I could continue fighting for hours if I wanted to, I quickly start getting bored of this fight.

"Too weak!"

As the golem tries to stab me with its polearm, I hop backwards in order to dodge it. It continues stabbing at me as I continue jumping back, until I see an opening and, instead of retreating, I leap forward, avoiding the polearm. It once more drops its weapon and moves to attack me with its hands, but just before making contact with its hand, I solidify my soul at a point just behind me.

It was my intention to kick off of the soul platform with both of my back legs, but I accidently mess up the placement, which results in only one of my legs reaching. It's still enough to alter my trajectory, though, as I just barely scrape past one of its hands. After clearing its defenses, I proceed to headbutt it in the chest.

This golem is much sturdier than the smaller ones, and I feel my neck ache as I collide with it. But it still winds up losing its balance and falling down, making a loud crashing sound as it makes contact with the ground. As I stand on the golem's hulking form, prying open its chest with my paws, I feel thankful that it doesn't have any metal plates protecting it, as they would make this task much more difficult. I quickly discover the core which, even given the golem's larger size, is still the size of a fist.

With a quick movement, I grab the core with my mouth and rip it out, just in time to dodge an incoming attack. I watch as the golem slams its fist into its own body, and then goes completely limp.

I turn my head around and look at the group of people in the other room. Seeing their shocked expressions somehow fills me with a sense of pride. I decide that the only thing that could possibly make me look cooler at this moment is if I crush the core in my mouth while staring arrogantly at them.

'Ouch! Curse these weak teeth!'

I decide that the second coolest thing I could do in this situation is to throw the core over while staring arrogantly at them. And so I throw the core at the stunned onlookers. Feeling smug, I suddenly see movement in the corner of my eye. As I follow the movement, I see the golem's body quickly sliding towards the core. As I try to outrun its body, it occurs to me that you have to destroy their core first in order to kill golems.

Everyone else seems to come to the same realization, as several of them madly rush at the core as well. Mucky, Green Horn, tight-fit clothes lady and I all get there at almost the same time, and with a minimal amount of friendly fire, we successfully destroy the core.

I feel like I heard a few mentions of 'stupid animal', among other variations of the phrase, but decide to ignore them as I innocently sit beside the smiling Mama Bloodcat.