Two soldiers in battle mage uniform rushed the archway. A magical sphere surrounded them, bright orange. Before the two searing bubbles, the mutants recoiled, jerked out of the way, tripped in the ranks of their comrades.

Magma Shield. Nice. Too bad Enoch wasn’t a mage. No regrets. He had tried that class more time that he could remember. Overall overrated. Magic had its drawback, especially as a solo player.

Shouting at the top of their lungs, the battle mages made it to the archway, one on each side. Their hands moved to the eldritch forms of their incantations. They touched the stone. It cracked with a terrify sound. The shockwave rattled Enoch’s bones, disabled Choo for half a second.

Cracks grew as twin fractal stars. They spread in sudden breaks. Stayed still for an instant, then cracked again. Then the roof came down.

Cut off from their lines, the remaining mutants fell quickly. In the midst of it all, Choo adopted a funny tactic. He stomped with one side of his Totem Golem, then rotated in mid air to stomp with his other side. He carried on, one anthropomorphic head to the other, bottom up, bottom down, and vice versa again. The totem’s carved head made a recognizable face from both sides. Only the expression changed, angry on one side, pissed on the other. Smacking mutants all the while humming a jolly tune.

Thankful for the family friendly engine, Enoch watched the red and brown blotches of pixels slide down from his armor, hands and weapons. They pooled at his feet in a trippy puddle, then faded away.

A few mercy killings and on to looting. The last two days had been terrible for his items.

These mutants. Terrible crafters. Terrible loot. They hadn’t even pillaged good on the way here.

Enoch found seven bottles still sealed. Decent chance some would be magical potions. Ten purses, full of Silver Coins laced with Gold ones. He kept two, gave the rest to the caravan.

No good weapons. Oversized. Uncared for. The armors a patchwork of trash, overbuilt or simply built stupid. He found one chest piece of a kind made of sharp teeth. Their tips facing inward. The former owner’s AI was into some strange things.

Enoch found some jewels and trinkets. Threw most of it on the shared pile. He kept a silver chain made of interlinked cubes and a delicate bracelet with a lightning pattern.

Enoch stayed behind when the villagers left. He put loot in his overturned animated shield, dumped the rest in a makeshift sled fused together by Choo. Had to admit it, the little core pulled his weight.

Enoch took one last look at the pile of fallen rocks and went down the ramp, chasing the caravan. He would catch it in minutes. The cave-in might hold the mutant for a one hour of two if they were lucky.

Choo buzzed around his head. Said, “How do you like the sled?”

“It’s great, thank you.”

“I used two spears, a club and a cloak.”

“Yeah, I saw you make it. Good job.”

“I knew how long it should be, considering your height.”

“And that’s why it’s a charm to pull it.”

The purple ball zipped under the sled, circled it a couple of time, came back and said, “It’s holding great.”

This time Enoch stayed silent.

Choo continued, “and did you see how I smashed the monsters with my Totem Golem.”

Enoch stayed silent again. The core didn’t.