Dust to Dust: Man 08

Cold Snap

Pile was covered in the shambles of broken smelter golems, a makeshift oven that melted the silica in his sand skin into molten glass. His subsystems were all protected enough to not take critical damage from the intense heat, however some of his reinforced plastic pipes began to warp.

Completely pinned. Shit. This molten glass though... it moves like mud. Hotter areas move more fluidly, but it has the consistency of mud. It's been ages since I've controlled such a base substance, but-

Strands of heat extended from Pile's core, reaching through the silver wire spread throughout his body in a bastardization of the human nervous system. At every connection point on his outer layers, the silver wire outputted the core energy directly into the molten glass.

And the glass, flowing and dripping down the cracks of the twisted mangle of steel, stopped in place. It slowly began to retract, once more covering Pile as his skin. Churning liquid glass clad his metal sub-armor and skeleton, allowing a glimpse into the inner workings of the imprisoned golem. Streaks of cherry red ran through the semi transparent layer, betraying its horrendous heat. And at Pile's command, it probed outwards, testing its power by thrusting towards a nearby smelter golem's forearm-

Definitely not mud.

-penetrating a full half inch into the steel plate. The hole it left glowed orange at its edges, fueling Pile's inventive plots.

Yes, heat. Heat is the trick. As hot and as fast as possible. The knowledge of the blue box spoke of this. Concentrate the heat into the smallest area possible, and THRUST.

As Pile focused on his weapon, it began to rise out of the molten glass covering his back. Needle-thin, supported by a tide of core energy and heat transferred from the surrounding fire and glass. The light of the smelter fires played across its surface, throwing stunning glares around the inside of the oven. The spear was THRUST-

Straight through the layers of golems encasing him. But a small hole was only a small hole, it didn't free him. It just proved the concept a success.

Ah, it didn't fall to pieces. Mud would always break apart when it was that thin, something to study in the future. What I require now is a blade. No, many blades. Heat I have in spades, it is no problem keeping the glass liquid.

Glass blades mere inches long extruded from Pile's liquid coating; smaller blades at joints limbs and larger blades concentrated on his back and shoulders. Each was paper-thin, impossible to sustain without the mystic rules that governed this world. In the center of the oven of twisted steel and furnaces, Pile began his counterattack.

On the roof of the Steamer Hog, Travis had run into a few problems. Most pressing was the lack of intact, unburnt roof to stand on. His severelack of arrows was also bothering him, although he didn't regret turning Grance into a living pincushion. Grance was always an asshole to the ranger. Next on his list was the utter failure that his new golem compatriot had turned out to be. Asshat ran directly into the enemy formation and was immediately taken down. Now I have to let my girl grab his sled, which means we'll be that much slower. I guess it'll be worth getting to sell all of that oil. The ranger stared down the street, where a vulpine shadow flickered from hiding place to hiding place, making its way to the blacksmith's tent. By the time she gets a hold of that sled I'll need to be there with her to make the final escape. Travis took one last look at the heap of scrap that contained Pile. Shame, I hadn't met someone like him be-wait. Is that... it that mound of metal shrinking?!

Sure enough, the group of disassembled smelter golems were slowly sinking down, revealing a nighmare. Whirling blades of molten glass revolved at high speeds around Pile, parting steel plates like knives through butter. As the smelter golems were reduced to shreds, Pile was fully released from his hellish prison.

Every human that witnessed Pile's emergence was shellshocked.

Now he's done something I've never seen. Guess we're even, Travis smirked internally.

Situation is out of control, Grance assessed. Looks like typical typical bind and burn tactics won't work. Shit, that's most of our combat potential in these corrupted ent-filled woods. Need to get this monster out of here before he levels half the damn camp.

The injured hero reached down to his belt and picked out a round crystal ball. After closing his eyes and concentrating, he spoke into it. “Local units, this is Grance. Currently engaged with enemy golem. Most likely not controlled by a human, it's showing signs of matter manipulation. Accomplices are Travis the ranger and his wolf, currently not in our sights. I need a spatial unit to get here and begin a long range gate incantation, the sooner the better. I need the nearest frost mage to get here and cool this golem off, slow it down before the transfer is ready. Do not scare the golem off. We have one chance at this.”

A voice distorted by static responded, “Sir, there's only one frost mage in the area, and it's her.”

Travis saw Grance speaking into a communicator, but couldn't hear him over the roaring fire raging in the bar below him. Shit, no arrows to interrupt him. At least Pile is making a hell of a ruckus, time for me to get the hell out of there unnoticed. The ranger dashed down to the street below, barely avoiding a fire archer fleeing from the aberration currently dicing the remaining pieces of smelter golems to a fine powder. Pile noticed Travis, and began to follow him.

Good, Travis is okay. Looks like we're headed towards the blacksmith's place, I'll grab my sled. Fuck the armor, no time to- shit. Fucking wolf.

Looking like the bird that caught the canary, the she-wolf was proudly prancing in place in front of Rounic's tent; a simple harness was looped over her shoulder and attached to the sled. The escapees were now fully prepared and assembled. All three of them looked over their shoulders at the receding figures of Grance and his troops as they ran down the now-deserted street, reveling in their adrenaline rush. Travis even had the nerve to give the hero an extremely rude gesture. Pile noted that there might have been some bad blood between them. The three then turned their heads back to the front-

Simultaneously noticing the blue robed figure standing directly in their path.

It was too late to stop, so the group tried to run past. In their hearts, however, they all felt a sense of dread. They had all spent ample time in combat situations, and this reeked of an ambush. As the blue robed figure spread his arms and the temperature instantly dropped to below freezing, dread took hold of their hearts. Water burst from underground and wrapped around their ankles, instantly becoming solid as it was exposed to the subzero temperatures caused by the frost mage's power. Travis and his wolf began to struggle against the ice covering their feet and lower legs, cracking the thin coverings in a matter of mere seconds. Pile didn't struggle against the ice that wrapped around his ankles.

Pile shattered.

The molten glass writhing around Pile's body immediately froze into solid glass on contact with the cold, and shattered due to the instant drop in temperature. Suddenly the high-functioning golem had glass shards in its joints, its pipes, and even some embedded in its plating. Pile fell and didn't get up.

The frost mage seemed to notice the downed threat and began to reach for a communicator, but the wolf had already broken out of her constraints. The blue robed figure was slammed to the ground, a snarling canine maw hovering over the azure hood making the situation clear. The escapees had a hostage.

Not that it mattered.

Concentric purple rings began to materialize above the group and descend around them, containing them in a shimmering violet field. Grance limped towards them from down the street, barely moving due to the numerous arrows embedded in each of his joints. The hero straightened his body in tortured movements, raising his hand to his forehead in a solemn salute. The blue robed figure on the ground returned the salute even as soft sobs could be heard from underneath the azure hood.

The purple rings blazed, and the group inside of them disappeared in a brilliant violet flash.

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DAMN HUMANS AND THEIR HABIT OF LEAPING TO CONCLUSIONS!

Went a bit over my usual words average, 1.5k instead of 1k, but I was in the groove.

Felt like I overused some words this chapter. Need to work on that in future fights.

Have a fun post coming up soon. It's not story, just my delighted ramblings on some fun things I've run across while writing this.

An Unlimited Blade Works reference was tempting. It fit the situation pretty damn well.

This chapter was the first time that my world provided its own answers when I asked "What exactly should happen this fight?"

Hopefully you've noticed that I try to stay away from typical mainstays of modern fics. Random powerups, super luck, etc.

When I sat down and thought to myself "How exactly should this fight happen?" The answers were already there. This army camp's main enemy is the Darkness and anything it possesses. Namely, organic material. Both the Darkness and organic life forms (humans, trees, etc) are extremely weak to fire, so the army camp's main troops would be specialized in fire. Shock troops need to be expendable in order to hold back the tide of possessed creatures so the fire archers can finish them off.

When Grance realizes that Pile has only gotten stronger by all the heat being dumped on him, he has to call for a frost mage. But frost mages in this camp are -rare-. They're not needed much here.

When I was writing yesterday's chapter, I had one hell of an "ah ha!" moment. Pile is being baked, his skin is sand, therefore... Glass! And empowered glass could probably great at cutting, soooo *makes fruit ninja noises.*

It may seem silly for me to be so excited about this, but I just think it's so cool that I didn't make up this fight. I provided a situation to my world, then worked it out to its logical conclusion. Well, as logical as I can get while still getting all four people out of the camp. (Yes, all four. Please welcome the new addition to the group, BLUE ROBE. Don't worry, Blue Robe actually has a name.)