The safe zone time has been extended. ‘The Dark Horse Hotel’ safe zone will now last for 25:31:14.

Nodding at the information, Colin was glad that his safe area from the golems had been made more sustainable by the other Players. If Salazario’s group had gotten the Ward Crafters what they needed, then good on them. If not, then he wasn’t sure what could have extended the Safe Zone timer.

Not that it mattered much, since Colin was literally on his way out the door. He was walking through the lobby and headed towards the hall’s front doors when a familiar giant stepped through the crowd of people grouped around to greet him. A concerned expression made his ordinarily friendly face look older.

“Walker, where are you going?” he asked, walking with Colin since he didn’t seem inclined to stop and chat.

“Near the eastern wall, wanna come?” Colin asked, grinning at the giant man.

The Sumo shrugged, “sure, just got logged-on for today, so I don’t see why not. Could use a little excitement,” Paladin said, rolling his shoulders and smiling. “And you gave me such a good time last time, Walker.”

“Well, I’m happy to oblige,” Colin said. When a thought occurred to him, “Just so I know, are you part of a Guild?”

“Nah, too constricting and busy for me. I just come here to have some fun, you know?” He said, smiling at the man next to him. “You?”

“No, just a bunch of assholes looking to cause trouble. I don’t need other people’s help to cause trouble if I want to,” Colin explained as they reached the door and the three Players that stood in front of it.

One of them was the Player Salazario, holding a wooden staff in his hands and talking with the other two with him. Colin recognized one from the meeting as the Player with the Gaussian Fist Class, his chest bare and fists covered in wound copper wire. The third was someone that Colin was unaware of, a muscular man with no hair on his head and tattoos covering every visible part of his face.

They noticed Colin approach and turned to face him, Salazario speaking, “Hey, you shouldn’t go out there, man, something weird is running around out there. We lost three Players to it yesterday while getting the Safe Zone reinforced and can’t risk losing any more Players. I’m sorry, we can’t let you out there unless you want to help us kill it.”

“Not interested,” Colin said, stepping past the Players and all surprised enough that none even attempted to stop him.

He’d made it out of the front door with Rielle immediately behind him when he heard the Gaussian Fist speak up. Frustrated, he said, “Hey man, don’t be such ass-” his sentence cutting off abruptly as Colin turned back to see what happened.

Apparently, the Copper fisted man lost an arm to Larry’s quick slash, the Demon’s machete disappearing as quickly as it had been made. Larry gave the man a self-satisfied grin and said calmly, “don’t touch me, you static spewing miscreant. I can smell that weak-piss air magic and don’t want it clinging to my skin, you short-circuiting idiot.”

The Gaussian Fist was on the floor, clutching his stump while Salazario picked up the fallen appendage. The dismembered Player was moaning as he worked to staunch the bleeding and was trying to get to his feet.

“Larry, stop adding insult to injury. Salazario, I’d get a healer for him before he bleeds out,” Colin said, continuing out the door and out into the open air. He made sure his Familiar was following him and Paladin looked disapproving of the HellRime Knight’s actions. “Come on, let’s get a move on, Larry’s in the front, and Paladin, you mind taking the back?”

The Sumo shook his head, “Nah, I don’t mind.”

“This will mostly be like yesterday, Larry; you will take the brunt of the fighting so that the rest of us don’t die. After you, Paladin, and I will take the damage since we can come back if we die. Rielle?”

She sighed, “If one of you two goes down, then I am to run away to safety.”

Colin nodded at her, “good. Now let’s go, we need to go…” Colin checked the sun’s location then pointed. “That way.”

And so they went, hurrying off through the streets towards the Eastern Wall and the Krimson Spire Auxiliary. They were quickly greeted by a seven Golem group that was quickly disassembled. Other than some experience, there were no significant gains from the battle, and Larry only took a single hit. Even that was turned into a glancing blow, so they moved on.

A couple minutes later, they met the next group as the Golem’s exited an alley. Three of the golems were the large Fighter Golem’s Colin and Larry fought to take down. This brand of Golem appeared to be standardized compared to the Basic Warrior variety, with all of them being intricately armored and holding swords and shields.

But around them, five new Golems that Colin had not yet seen scurried around their legs. They were all no more than four feet tall, with gangly metallic limbs covered in non-reflective paint. They wore black ragged hooded cloaks that obscured its features except for the standard glowing red eyes. Belted around each of their waists were two steel daggers and a single crossbow dangling at the back.

These Golems looked straight at the group and immediately charged with the Larger Golems taking the lead. Luckily, there were three Larger Golems and one Larrimortias LaGrelle to intercept them.

Conjuring a full set of heavy HellRime plate mail, Larry practically enfolded himself in his armor. With the armor’s weight, the Demon nearly doubled in mass as he ran in between his team and the Golems. Next, he formed a pair of round shields with a domed iron boss in the middle, one in each hand.

Since he was in the lead, Larry had the three Fighter Golems’ attention and raised both shields to block the attacks. The first of them attacked from his right, swinging its large sword wide into the shield. Larry leaned into the attack, knocking away the weapon in time for the next two to come in and attack. The Demon accurately defending against the attacks and repairing the shields as needed.

Colin was not idle, however. While Larry held off the Fighter Golems with Paladin moving to assist him, Colin and Rielle fought against the smaller tide that moved around their larger teammates. It quickly became apparent to both of them that what they were facing were rogue type Golems. These Golems ducked, weaved, and sprinted around the two as they attacked with their daggers.

One of these smaller types leaped at him, daggers raised above its head and angled down to stab. It didn’t take much of Colin’s effort to sidestep away from the attack and use Aligned Strike with Kinetic Vigor to cut the small Golem in half. If he needed any reason to keep using his Mythic Xiphos, then this was it; it was getting stronger and stronger.

Rielle was taking on two simultaneously with the longsword Colin had given her, swinging between two of the tricky things. A second later, when she ducked out of nowhere and avoided a crossbow bolt that would have hit her head, Colin discovered that she was actually defending against three. He remembered what Skill she chose at level 5, Otherworldly steps, which gave her a chance to dodge things she didn’t see coming. Colin assumed that the Skill just triggered to avoid death, lucky girl.

Colin withdrew one of his enchanted throwing knives and aimed at one of the two Rielle was dueling. Instead of throwing, Colin said, “Launch Projectile,” and used the Kinetic Magic Spell. The knife flew and embedded itself inside the chest of one of the Golems she was dueling against.

The knife slowed it down for a moment before the effect kicked in, the Golem pausing and looking around as the Blind Debuff settled in on it. Rielle then took the opportunity that Colin had given her to whirl her blade around and announce, “Thrust and Slash!”

And She did just that. A haze of pale yellow light emanating from her blade as she thrust into the Golem with great force, then ripped the blade out in a whirling slash that attacked the one coming at her from behind. She noticed Colin’s look and wiggled her free hand at Colin, showing off one of the silver rings he’d made for her yesterday. She’d been using Colin’s detection rings to their fullest effect, and he was more than happy with the result.

Colin heard the clanking footsteps of one approaching him and turned around to face the one rushing him. The devious thing avoided Colin’s swing for its torso and rushed in after the swing. Colin took two quick stabs before managing to knock the thing back and cut into its metallic arm, almost shearing it off.

You have taken 23 points of damage and now have 392/415 health remaining. You have taken 24 points of damage and now have 368/415 health remaining.

The Golem let its arm fall limp to its side and dropped the Dagger it was wielding with it. Instead of pursuing him like Colin expected, the red eyes that had been barely visible below its hood had shifted to yellow. Watching him as it stepped back away from the fight.

Colin recognized that change; it happened when the Golems first appeared and started talking; those yellow eyes were there when the Golem’s converted that mech to its side. It hadn’t been a good thing yet.

But when a crossbow bolt struck him in the thigh, Colin’s attention went back to the fight and away from how bad this could be.

You have taken 48 points of damage from a sudden sneak attack and now have 320/415 health remaining.

He looked to find the offending Golem dodging an arrow fired from Rielle, and Colin was content to leave it to her. With that being the only one of the Rogue Type Golems left, he turned his attention to the Fighters and was glad that Larry was a summons.

He was beaten and bleeding; his heavy armor and shields had protected him against many of the attacks. But two against one with their height and weight advantages was apparently a lot to ask. His helmet laid broken on the ground, a large flash painting his grinning face. One of his arms had been cut off mid-bicep, and Larry was using it as a club to little effect but humor.

Somehow, the Golem’s were still having trouble taking him down, while the third of them was fighting with a happy Sumo. Paladin was grappling with the Fighter Golem that was nearly over three feet taller than him and winning. Pushing him away from Larry and gripping at the magical robot with hands that crushed the metal with a glowing yellow aura.

Then the Sumo completely shifted around, pivoting with one foot in the air as he used his entire body weight and his grip on the Golem to toss the Golem away. He then hurried over and just started wailing on the downed Golem as it tried to rise, his every strike pushing it back to the ground. It swung its shield into the Sumo’s gut in the attempt to little or no effect as the man whooped and resumed his attacks after only a moment.

That left Colin to assist Larry before he succumbed, and he sprinted over. Colin stopped using Kinetic Vigor to keep his mana labels from plummeting as he slung spells. Three shadow bolts into the Golem on Colin’s left made three dents and puncture marks on its shin, all of which were corroding under the residual effect of the shadow magic.

“Larry, go offensive!” Colin ordered, quickly casting a spell on his Familiar. “Inspire!” Colin said, letting the Mental Spell ingrain in its mind.

It was entirely visible when something changed in the Demon. Its movements became sharper, its grin turned maniacal, and its posture dropped just a little like a spring ready to burst. Larry dropped the shield strapped to its arm and its other arm, creating a five-foot pole that he immediately started spinning around. Within a few seconds, he started turning around the two he was fighting. He’d hit one, rotate the weapon around, and turn around while reading for his next attack. Keeping continually moving to keep the hits he was talking to a minimum.

A moment later, green-gold tinted fire sprang up around one of the Golems fighting Larry, the results of Rielle’s Heavenly Blight Skill. Colin wasn’t sure how long Rielle could hold that Skill, but it wouldn’t be for long. So while she was dealing constant damage to that one, he ran towards the other and started swinging at the leg his Shadow Bolt spell had damaged.

His blade bit into its armor, but the weapon didn’t wholly cleave through. So he withdrew his sword and focused on slashing with the tip, taking out small notches and cutting out the armor every few swings. After a few moments, Colin felt a portion of his MP free up suddenly and found that he now had his entire mana pool back. Which meant… shit.

Colin turned to see Larry’s corpse bisected down the middle by the one he’d been focusing on. The Antagonist wasn’t worried for the Demon, knowing that he was a resummon away from coming back. The problem was that now the Golem he was fighting was free to attack him with impunity. So Colin spoke the trigger for the spell, “Obscuring Black,” and a cloud as dark as midnight radiated out the point that Colin dictated, himself, for five meters.

Casting Dark Vision and stepping back several feet, Colin then reached into his Dimensional bag. He grabbed the three-inch square of Arapaima Scales. He placed it to a bare patch of skin at the base of his neck and started Channeling the power of Scylla’s Scales from his Channel Effigy Skill. Seconds passed, and Colin felt the magic take effect as it left him, the scales vanishing into his skin. The Golems were swinging their weapons randomly, trying to hit the target they last saw nearby. While he watched as the one he’d been hitting got closer and closer.

He started walking backward; the effects that Channel Effigy was having on his body made it uncomfortable to move more than a little while this was happening. At the nine-second mark, Colin broke out of the field of darkness and found the Fighter Golem’s weapon dangerously close to him.

At ten seconds, the Channeling was completed, and he felt his skin toughen under the effects of the Scylla’s power. It was even better since he knew that Scylla’s Favor Level had increased the night before, and that meant that his defense was much better than the last time he used it.

When the Golem burst free of Colin’s spell, the Antagonist was on it in a heartbeat. With Scylla’s defense in place, he wove in and deflected the first attack with his Indestructible Xiphos. He then used Aligned Strike with his balled fist into the Golem’s large sword and was happy when he felt the weapon buckle a little under his strike. Bending it at a slight angle and, even better yet, taking the weapon out of the Golem’s hand.

Surprised that his hand, wrist, and arm wasn’t broken under the strain of that attack and quickly putting that under the be thankful for extra defense category. Colin crouched and leaped at the Golem’s torso; using his improved strength and speed to do so, he drove his Xiphos into its torso at the point between chest and neck. Then using his entire body weight and whatever had changed due to his Channeling, Colin pulled the blade down and through its chest from top to bottom.

An assortment of fluids and mechanical pieces left its body and fell to the floor as Colin landed and looked to the third and last Golem. Which had apparently fallen at ContraryPaladin’s and Rielle’s combined assault. With all of them, it only took a few seconds for them to kill it.

Colin waited a moment, but the Experience gains didn’t appear, which meant that this combat wasn’t over. Looking around for that last Golem that had backed away only a few moments ago, Colin was greeted by one of the strangest sensations he never expected to feel. A crossbow bolt colliding with the scales of his temple and merely skidding off.

You have taken 11 points of damage and now have 309/415 health remaining.

“Ow,” Colin groaned, looking up at the buildings near him to see that Golem with its intelligent yellow eyes watching him, crossbow in hand.

The Golem drew its Dagger with its one working arm and jumped to the ground approaching Colin. It crouched low into a stance with its one remaining Dagger, and Colin eyed it carefully.

For the first time, Colin heard a Golem do something other than standard attacks. It said, “throat stab,” and lunged forward, its Dagger rapidly going for his throat. His Xiphos whipped out without conscious thought, dismembering the blade arm from the Golems body even as the blade still came for him. But without the extra force the Golem’s weight provided and its arm guiding it, the Dagger just clattered uselessly against the hollow of his neck.

The Golem jumped back and away from Colin as Colin held his arm out, stopping everyone from attacking it. He needed to know what was going to happen.

“I don’t understand,” the Golem said, its voice deep and resonating from whatever the Rogue type used as a voice box. “I can see how you can beat some of my Golem’s, but how are you still alive at level… fifteen? This should be impossible,” The Golem stated without rage, glee, or resentment; it was just... confused.

“Who are you?” Colin asked the Golem. “What are you trying to do?”

“Me? My designation is ALAN, all capitals letters,” it said, letting out a small chuckle as it twitched its shoulder towards the group. “As for what I’m trying to do… my goals are a bit grand, but I understand the need for baby steps and improvisation. I want the city, DevilWalker. But, to do that, everyone who opposes me must die. No ifs, ands, or buts, just a bent knee or death.”

“A little black and white, don’t you think?” Paladin chimed in. “Why not just leave those who wish it alone and start an empire elsewhere? I bet you could make a nice city for all your kind.”

The Golem shook its head, “no. I wouldn’t even if I could. My maker wanted to take this city, and I must do as he wished, and I must do it better than he would have. I am no puppet without a will of my own; I have no strings on me.”

“And look at what you’ve done?” Rielle shouted from Behind Colin. “You’ve killed hundreds of people!”

The Golem nodded, “yes, I have. I have killed 693 people of this world and 211 Outworlders, out of the thousands, combined, still in the city. My troops and I will kill all of them before I stop unless they bend a knee. Wait, make that 697 people of this world.”

Before Rielle could yell at the Golem, it turned its gaze to Colin, “Now, I have a question for you, DevilWalker. Do you know where the Outworlder named AidenBrand is?”

“No, I do not,” Colin said, knowing that if he did, Colin would have killed him for what he did to Scutch Village. Not that he would go out of his way for it, but if he did find him, then he’d be super dead.

“Pity, my maker hated you for destroying one of his Prototypes before my creation. Unless there is another DevilWalker that destroyed a Horde Wraith-Bound Scarecrow,” the Golem said, a little mirth in its voice. “Oh well, DevilWalker and friends. It appears that this talk has been fruitless for my search. If you find him and offer him to me, I can give you clemency.”

Then its neutrality slipped back into place as it said, “if you survive that long at least.”

The Golem ran at Colin, it’s head raised high as if it intended to head butt him to death. The Golem was stopped by a single green-gold arrow that impacted its torso and burned through its casing. When the thing hit the ground, it was already dead.

Congratulations! Your party killed 3 Fighter Golems and 5 Rogue Golems and have gained 964 EXP to each party member. You now have 55,909 /70,215 until level 16. Your Acrobatics Skill is now level 7. Jumping distance, jumping height, balance, and landing stability increased by a small margin. Stability while performing acts considered acrobatic increased by a small margin. Your Style in Action Skill is now level 4. The Charisma Attributes effects on those who see you act increase by a small margin. Your moves are reflexively going to be a little smoother and more pleasing to watch.

Cool, fifteen thousand more experience points and he’d be level sixteen. Then he’d see what he could accomplish with his next choice to make. But he dismissed the prompts and accessed the Skill Summon Familiar.

“Shit,” Colin groaned. A countdown appeared within his Skill when he tried to resummon Larry.

Summon Familiar unavailable for the next 93 minutes and 28 seconds.

“We need to get moving and hope for the best. I can’t resummon Larry for an hour and a half,” Colin said, grabbing a few pieces that had fallen out of the giant Golem he gutted; the pieces looked like gold.

“Resummon? He’s a Familiar? Why didn’t you say something?” Paladin asked.

“It wasn’t important,” Colin answered truthfully, starting to walk away from the scene of the fight. “Besides, people might freak out when they ask what he is, and I say that he’s an Incubus.”

“Wait,” Paladin said, gathering his thoughts before he continued. “Are you gay? I’m not judging, live and let live and all, but I just need to know so that I don’t accidentally send you the wrong impression. I am about sixty percent naked, you know.”

Groaning, Colin responded hotly, “no, I am not gay, just stupid, apparently. “I didn’t know what an incubus was, and even if I did, I probably would have summoned him anyway, he’s damned useful so far.”

“Okay, okay, calm down, Brother. So good for you, but how did you get Summon Familiar? I hear that the Skill is pretty rare outside Caster Classes.”

Colin shrugged, annoyed at the questions but not stopping them simply because the big guy had been useful so far. “I’m part caster class.”

“Oh, that’s cool.” he said, slowly losing the ability to speak as Colin picked up his pace from a walk to a jog. The devastation was different from street to street; some places seemed completely untouched while others looked like they were professionally demolished. All around, there were signs that people had died and Golems had fallen, but no remains were seen. There were just blood trails and puddles of oil in various places everywhere.

After a short warm-up, his Scylla’s Scales power fades away, and the group escalated to a hardy run. They managed a few more blocks before encountering something else. The Golem before them seemed to be made of polished steel and chrome that shined when the sun caught it right. It wore a purple robe trimmed with gold symbols, wore a belt with pouches that hung about its waist, and carried a very distinctive looking wooden staff.

“Rielle, shoot it!” Colin announced, drawing his Mythic Xiphos and activating Kinetic Vigor. He charged the supposed Mage Golem and heard her arrow whizzed past his face, seeing only a blur of green-gold flame as it flew. Colin watched as the arrow impacted something transparent, and a deep leaf-green shield shimmered into place.

Green-gold flame erupted around the shield as Rielle used the other way her Heavenly Blight could be used. He stared at the protection and watched as the color of the barrier had lost vibrancy and color. Colin waited to do anything, turning off his Kinetic Vigor since Rielle was doing her thing, and he didn’t want to catch fire.

Seconds passed, and Colin gritted his teeth while the shield continued to weaken. Then with a sound like shattering glass, the green shield broke, and Rielle stopped her attack. On the other hand, Colin fired off a few Shadow Bolts at the Golem as he approached and swung his weapon as soon as he was within range. The Golem attempted to deflect the attack on his staff and twisted it at just the right time to do the job and avoid ruining his staff.

The Antagonist had time to mutter the word “shit” before the Golem thrust the end of its staff into Colin’s chest.

It said the word “Acid slap,” just as the end connected, sending a spray of clear steaming fluid onto Colin’s torso. It burned and ate through parts of his jacket as he moaned at the pain it was inflicting.

You have taken 34 points of damage and now have 359/415 health remaining.

Luckily, the attack had only knocked him to the floor, so he was still within range to attack. Colin swung his sword at the Golem’s legs, activating Aligned Strike to hopefully give this thing one less leg to stand on.

The attack struck, sliced, the leg fell free to the ground, but the Golem remained standing on one leg using its staff as a cane. It looked down at Colin and said, “shatter stone.”

The stone underneath Colin broke as if a stick of TNT were directly off to his side. Shrapnel ripped into his clothes and flesh, what remained of his jacket only mitigating the damage.

You have taken 41 points of damage and now have 318/415 health remaining.

An arrow impacted the Golem, and it turned its attention away from Colin for a moment, raising a hand to point at the Sumo charging it and the archer shooting it. “Multicast Acid splash,” it said, and two orbs of acid appeared above its hand.

Colin took the opportunity afforded him while it was attacking his companions to swing again. This time, hacking through the bottom portion of its staff.

The Mage Golem fell, its Acid Splashes flying wide of its intended targets. Colin rolled on top of it as it tried to sit up, taking the handle of his Mythic Xiphos in both hands and raising it. He drove the blade into the Golems neck, piercing it straight through, and then wrenched the sword up until the head came loose with a tearing of metal.

You have killed one Mage Golem(Earth) and have gained 240 EXP to each party member. You now have 56,149 /70,215 until level 16.

“Ow,” Colin groaned, climbing off the Golem. “Well, that sucked.”

“I’ll bet, Walker, you okay? No debuffs or anything?” Paladin asked, reaching down a hand to help Colin back up.

Colin shook his head, “no, I’ll be fine after my natural healing starts working. You guys good?”

Rielle nodded, “yeah, you had that thing hit only you. We’re fine.”

Colin grinned, “well, that’s something. I think it would be a good idea to hide out in one of these buildings for a bit. At least until I can resummon Larry,” Colin suggested. “Sound good?”

Paladin and Rielle nodded, both looking to Colin as to where they were going to go. When Colin picked a bakery for a place to hide. Someone walked out of an alleyway.

She was almost five feet tall, had short red hair that curled slightly around her sharp ears, and pale green skin that contrasted with her earnest yellow eyes. She wore a green toga-like dress with a cut up the middle to her waist that revealed dark leather pants that she was wearing underneath. On her back, she wore a cotton backpack that looked much too heavy for the female, but she was undoubtedly carrying it with ease.

Colin had only ever seen a single Goblin so far and from what he knew, and this one was as similar to Nox as she was different.

She spotted Colin’s group and approached at a calm and somewhat annoying sedate pace. “Hello, my name is Kore. I’m looking for a very, very high-level Goblin named Nox Lightsnuffer. I don’t suppose you’ve seen him, have you? I know he’s here somewhere, but I just cannot get a solid read on his location.”