Dust to Dust: Monster 13

Siege

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The golem admired his handiwork in the cracked stone wall. Air had done that. The golem's views on the world were shifting, evolving. If air, such a passing and immaterial force, could influence rock to this degree, what else was possible. What could water do when properly harnessed? Could air be used in more ways than this? Innumerable questions began to assault the golem's simple mind, so many that he had to shut out most of them. When it came down to it, he settled on modifying the air system further and taking it from there.

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Acquiring more copper pipes from the walls, the golem began arranging them on his torso. These pipes were smaller than the cannon that jutted out from his back. Pipes were led from his air pocket to all directions except the front and his back. The cannon could take care of that.

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A few preliminary tests later and the pressure system was fully operational. The golem flexes his pneumatic storage, inhaling a massive amount of air through the guidance nozzles. After repeating this multiple times, the cannon fired once more. However this time a minimal amount of air was released out of the other nozzles in order to stabilize the concussive blast, keeping the wolf stable.

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And that wasn't the only purpose of the auxiliary nozzles. They could also be used for propulsion. A gust of wind here, a blast there, and the wolf's movements were sharper than before. It almost made up for his increase in weight due to his new tar sand composition. While not as important as the addition of the firepower, his speed had saved him too many times to count. An increase in his mobility, no matter how small, was always met with relief.

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The trinket that the shadows had been so keen on reaching glinted on the ground, catching his eye. It seemed different from everything else in the room, like it was somehow more present than everything else. A flat silver container was hung on the chain; it rang hollow when the curious wolf tapped it with a claw. He tried to worm a claw into the crack that rang around the outer edge of the locket, but met with no success. He snarled and grasped it in his jaws, ready to break it down into scrap. It would help him, one way or another. As he began to ready his furnace to process the non-compliant jewelry-

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Ssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss

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A sibilant hissing was heard from the top of the staircase. Momentarily forgetting his grudge with the locket, the golem read the situation. More specters were worming their ways through the cracks in the rock blockade he had build to cover the entryway. They weren't fast, but they were approaching nonetheless.

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The golem scampered to his heavy armor, then wondered if he actually needed it. He hadn't seen any shadows inflict damage yet, and hadn't considered their danger until now. They were hard to touch since they moved like the mist, so why were they a threat? Did they have a way of affecting the physical world like the golem had a way of affecting them?

Worrying. Not enough information.

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With no information to go off of, the golem decided to play things safe and wear his armor for now. He hadn't used the pile of scrap metal on the tablet to modify himself yet, so the old stone set would have to do. As he readied his rock garb, he began to fill his pneumatic system. Once armored and full of pressurized air, the wolf set his stance and-

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WHUMP

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Fired the first shot at the specters almost done wiggling their way out of the blockage. They were sent flying back into the fragments of stone, and the wind pushed them and their comrades out of sight of the wolf. A temporary solution yet invaluable.

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Realizing that he had nothing to do except wait for the shadows to invade again, the wolf rethought his satisfaction at blowing them away. Just pushing them back would change nothing. He had to eradicate them entirely or be stuck here for the foreseeable future. Since his fuel supply was starting to run low, staying here for a prolonged period of time was an impossibility. Pragmatism was a virtue that the golem all but worshiped. He would deal with them now. Once he reached the top of the staircase and began to consider how to move the blockade-

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The wall of stone was blown back at him, knocking him down the stairs. His armor cracked and shattered and a number of copper pipes bent as he was smashed between the floor and rock-slide.

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Unsteady, the wolf rose up to face his foe. A tree of the dark woods with bark far darker than usual was leaning through the gap, forcing the hole to widen with its incredible strength. Specters were leaking into and out of it, corrupting it with their very prescence. Branches swung through the air violently; the quiet swooshes of leafless limbs providing an odd contrast to the danger of the deadly weight behind them. It's trunk twisted and tore open, a crack of splintered wood forming an insulting representation of a mouth. Roots twisted and curled at its base, grasping at air, waiting to claw anything into the waiting maw. But this perversion of nature was nothing compared to what lay behind it.

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Behind the tree in the dark woods, hell had come to earth. The forest was alive, the trees were chaos incarnate as they tore at the sky in mindless fury. The darkness flowed like water through the area, sending out small streams of shadow to corrupt trees as it passed. This darkness wasn't a simple foe like the ones eradicated in the dungeon, this one was a solid wave of malevolent eradication incarnate.

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The possessed tree finally pushed its way indoors, blocking off the golem's sight of outdoors.

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"MINE," the abomination screeched in a raspy voice. It's twisting mass of wood and shadow thundered down the stairs towards the prone wolf, reaching towards the locket that had been knocked into the bottom of the stone slab.

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As massive and terrifying as the creature was, the golem wasn't worried in the least. Wood could be burned and shadows could be scorched.

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Lunging to pick up his sword, the wolf fueled his furnace in anticipation for the bonfire that would follow.

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Yeesh, two 1k+ chapters today was rough. I'll probably keep that to weekends from now on. Ah well, what's a bit of lost sleep when I have people that like my story.

On that note- last chapter marked 10,000 views! That's huge! In less than 10 days since Dust to Dust's release, it got 10,000 views!

I wanted to do some sort of special event for landmark view counts, but this was just too fast! Let me know if you have any ideas :D