Dust to Dust: Monster 12

Breath

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The dungeon belonged to the wolf.

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Before any other enemies made themselves known, the golem moved piled large stones at the top of the staircase to block the only entrance. He would be concentrating for quite awhile and wouldn't have time for distractions. The lack of light wouldn't affect him, he didn't use eyes to see anyways.

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His body was slowing down, cracking as it moved back to the slab from the staircase. The heat from the furnace and sword had dried out the mud his flesh was made of, and it was beginning to crack and lose its useful properties. There was a small reservoir of water in the corner of the chamber, but it was too important to waste carelessly. Safe from the outside world for the first time since he was born as a rabbit, the wolf took his time. It was.... heavenly. Relaxing.

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He took a nap.

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Upon waking, he didn't feel like doing much at all. However multiple issues had reared their ugly heads all at once, and any of them could spell the end of the golem. The dryness, the darkness, and the Uprights, to be dealt with in that order. The dryness was simply a problem of finding more water or a substitute material for his body. A better method was necessary to properly combat the darkness if it should ever return. A hot blade worked this time, but the shade barely paid attention to its killer until the moment of its demise, and the blade ate too much energy to rely on repeatedly. The Uprights we dangerous beyond all else, but their intentions were unknown. Avoiding them at all costs would be the best the wolf could do until he learned more about them.

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From his experiments as a rabbit, the golem remembered that solid materials such as hard dirt or rock didn't work as mobile materials. A flexible, mold-able material was needed to replace the mud. Alternatively he could use water, but there wasn't enough in the chamber's reservoir and the dark woods outside was devoid of all standing water. The wolf checked the other containers in the chamber. Most were empty, or full of rotten grains and meats. Nothing usable. Only one held anything different. A metal basin in the far corner of the room was being filled with black liquid by a pipe coming from the wall. The liquid in question was sticky, but fluid. Impossibly fluid. It would slide around on the carved stone floor almost like it had a mind of its own, on a gallant crusade to the lowest spot possible.

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Testing brought negative results. The obsidian liquid wouldn't mix with dirt properly; it would clump around the soft matter in the soil mixture and ruin the needed evenness and flexibility. It was too soon to give up on the black liquid though, so the golem tested out other combinations with various materials found in the cavern. Some were more than acceptable, easily beating out the mud in strength and flexibility. The true winner though was the ground stone. Not only was it easily found and made, making it as easily replaceable as the previously used dirt, but it didn't clump.

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And with that, the golem began the painstaking process of rebuilding his body. Supports were made from stone to keep his skeleton, furnace, and core in place, but everything else was discarded on the floor. Silver hairs coaxed the stone sand to form around the skeleton, mimicking the mud's previous shape. Once done, the supports were dropped and the unstable golem slowly waded into the basin of black liquid. His body absorbed the lubricant like a sponge, and soon a black wolf was once again standing in the room.

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Heavy.

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His new body was heavy, too heavy to perform the quick maneuvers that his simple mud body could accomplish. But speed would not help him against the dark mists he fought earlier. They were unimaginably more agile than him, trying match their speed would be nigh impossible.

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The still-warm sword lying on the slab was proof that the golem had co-opted the concept of the Upright-in-Metal's weapon, however the far more intriguing weapon of the Uprights was the wind manipulation.

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Unsure of how to approach this challenge, the golem thought back to when it was a flesh and blood rabbit. Back then, it had to breathe to live. This exchange of air is the only memory he has of affecting air in any meaningful way.

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So he would copy it. Weaponize it.

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Tar sands reshaped themselves to make a third pocket in the torso of the wolf for the purpose of storing pressurized air. The wolf began to make a passageway from his mouth to the pocket, then thought otherwise. There was no need to waste the space, he had no need to breathe or gather air from is mouth. And so a hole was opened on his back leading to the air sack inside him. After multiple sharp intakes through the hole, it closed solid, leaving a pocket of highly pressurized air inside the golem. He could feel it pushing outwards, so he released it back through the hole, the force of the winds crushing him against the ground.

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Powerful.

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The force it took to keep the air inside wasn't manageable, so the air would only be charged when it was needed. All that remained was a way to weaponize the air, manipulate it in the proper direction. A copper pipe was torn out of the back wall of the chamber, dust falling out of it as the golem turned and inspected it. Deeming it acceptable, he placed it on his back, one end placed where the air hole was, the other aiming right above his head. A few internal modifications later and clay and wood bones were holding the pipe in places, fixed solid on the wolf's back.

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A great volume of air was sucked into the pipe in short, intense bursts. With a tremendous THUMP, the wolf was blown off its feet. But he did not care.

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He was too busy staring at the small crater his weaponized wind had left in the carved stone wall.

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Yo! I honestly didn't intend for him to remain a wolf for so long, but its such an adaptable chassis ._.

It was pretty hard to write this, I kept thinking about tomorrow's special chapter. I'm pretty damn excited.

Would love some constructive reviews! What you like, what you didn't like, etc. I mean I won't hate you if you give me 5s across the board obviously hah, but I'd like to give you the best story I can. Constructive criticism is a part of that.

PS: That one guy that gave me a 0.5 across the board? Suck one. Objectively speaking I didn't deserve that for grammar, since I write proper sentences and spell check. Anything else is opinion, but that is fact. Damn troll got me riled)