Mad Brewer is actually her title? I thought it was a derogatory term to refer to her. It sounded extremely cool to be called Mad Brewer. Cool...could I still say that as a thirty-two-year-old man? What term was the younger generation using nowadays?

"Identify yourself!" demanded our leader.

"What do test subjects care for my name?" Bawu calmly replied. "As I, myself, care not for the names of my test subjects." She gestured to the canisters in the cavern. "If they have any...which they probably don't. Only when my experiment is successful does a test subject get a name, like my dear Ladambor."

The Carrion Golem grumbled as Bawu mentioned its name.

"You speak nonsense!" said our leader. "Experiments? Test subjects?"

"Exactly. Four new ones for me," Bawu said, clapping her bony hands. Her skin was the ashy white of coal that had completely burnt out, the same as her sister's. But unlike Healer Gula, Bawu's tusks were intact.

She also didn't wear elaborate attire like Gula's knotted ropes, ornaments, and strings of beads, settling for a robe dirtied by dust and dried patches from different liquids.

"Four?" I said. "One, two, three—Wait a minute, that includes me."

"What do you mean?" asked the guard behind me, pointing his spear at Bawu. "What do you intend to do?"

"She plans to turn us into like those guys," I pointed at one of the green vats containing a Borple.

"That's madness!"

"Right? I'm too awesome to be experimented on."

"Madness? Indeed!" Bawu cackled like a villain—to be fair, she was an actual villain. As she laughed, the Carrion Golem hidden in the shadows bellowed.

"We are not your playthings, vile witch!" roared our leader guard.

"Witch?" said Bawu, placing her hand on her chest in exaggerated shock. Then she smiled. "I've been called worse."

"Surrender yourself, witch. And we will bring you to the chief to be judged for your crimes."

"Show myself to that dying pile of ash? I think not," she retorted. "I don’t want the chief or anyone else to know about me." Inside her robe, she pulled out a sizeable circular flask filled with swirling blue liquid. The growls of the Carrion Golem became louder.

“What is that?”

"She plans to kill us."

I snorted. "Dying is not a big problem for me though, more of an inconvenience."

"Prepare for battle!" All the guards stood in front of me in a wedge formation. Their spears pointed in front, and they started casting buffs. "Youngling, stay safely behind us!"

What should I do here? My plan was to try aiding both sides and reap the benefits, but that was no longer feasible. A fight was about to start. Only one side was going to win, and it might be best that I chose a side before there was a winner. The guards or Bawu?

Bawu lightly juggled the blue flask as she stepped away from the front of the Carrion Golem. "Fetch me some new bodies, my precious Ladambor."

"GROOWAAGH!" The Carrion Golem finally revealed itself as it ambled out of its tunnel. It had a crooked primate face with a single horn on its forehead. Fangs of varying sizes jutted out of its mouth that frothed with anger.

It was twice the height of the lead guard and its shoulders wider than the three guards combined. With terrifying speed, it moved to the middle of the cavern in a gorilla-like fashion; there were mini-quakes as its knuckles hit the ground. Raising their spears coated with golden light, the guards illuminated the body of our enemy.

It was a frankenstied giant—yeah, yeah, he's the doctor—made from parts of different monsters.

"What monstrosity is this?" exclaimed a guard.

"It's an abomination that must be put out of its misery!" added another.

The arms of the [Lvl 46 Carrion Golem: Ladambor] were taken from Nixigaunts, those frost troll-looking beasts wandering the other side of the cliff wall bordering Kurghal Village. Its upper limbs were attached to a bloated torso of something reptilian, the long white hair of the arms abruptly changing to the scales covering the boulder shoulders and chest. Its squat legs ended with webbed feet that probably belonged to an aquatic monster.

"Sacred bonking," I said with a whistle of amazement. "It's obvious which one is the winning side now."

"Talking about my Ladambor in that manner..." Bawu examined us from a safe distance. "Can't you tell you've hurt his feelings?"

Even though she had a higher level than all of us in this cavern, including the Carrion Golem, it didn't mean that she was stronger. She was visibly ancient as hell; it wasn't as if the level of older Mardukryons decreased when they became weaker because of age. It seemed our only enemy was her humongous pet.

"GHRAAGHR!" The Carrion Golem beat its scale-covered chest with its barrel-sized fists. Then it showed another surprise. Giant claws, probably from a crustacean monster, extended forward. They were attached to an extra pair of arms growing out of its back.

"See? He doesn't like it at all," said Bawu, pacing near the other exits out of this cavern.

"Attack!" our leader commanded. They used long-ranged spells to hit Ladambor while maintaining their formation.

The Carrion Golem got back down on its knuckles and clumsily shuffled towards us while its claws snapped in the air. Its health started to decrease, but it slowly went down like the grains of sand in an hourglass—a huge hourglass. If it were a tiny hourglass, like a minute-timer, the sands would descend quite fast.

"It's coming!"

"Hold! Hold! Don't leave the barrier!"

I cast [Withering Brand] on the incoming hulk, reducing its movement speed as well as Attack and Magic Power. Its lumbering gait suddenly slowing down was amusing. Then I placed [Gnawing Rot] before the guards. The Carrion Golem stepped on it and began attacking.

If I had to bet, I'd place all my Artas on the Carrion Golem. But despite that, I joined the guards in fighting because I did like the underdog challenge.

Bawu was ready to escape if ever we managed to defeat her pet. I could find her later and still present Healer Gula’s letter. If she’d still be angry about me helping kill the Carrion Golem, I’d show her my Ancestral Flame Arts—that should make her change her mind.

Who knew what rewards awaited me if we did manage to bring down the Carrion Golem? I just hoped this wasn't a scripted encounter I was meant to lose, like getting obliterated by the Buvalu, the level seventy-four Mirdabon, because I had to be saved by Sharulrath for story purposes.

Ladambor flung its right arm at the guards, intending to sweep them away. Its hand smashed against the blue dome. The barrier held firm. Certainly, my [Withering Brand] significantly contributed to—the sound of breaking glass echoed as the Carrion attacked the blue dome with its claws, shattering it. Well…I’d like to think that without my debuff, the barrier wouldn’t have lasted one hit.

The guards thrust their spears upwards, aiming at the ugly head of Ladambor while trying to evade or block its fists and claws. Their melee attacks were higher compared to their ranged. [Gnawing Rot] was also starting to work its magic, shredding the defenses of this massive beast.

I flung stones at it, but it wasn’t much help. I bet this was easier if I had a DPS character. Can we win this?

"Take this, you foul beast!" said a guard.

"Keep up your attacks!"

"The ancestors are with us!"

I had a smile on my face. These NPCs were blurting out generic phrases like we were in a game. And we're in a game. What should real battle cries be?

A single hit from the Carrion Golem could take away a large chunk of the health of a guard. And it had four limbs to attack, plus it also occasionally bent down to bite them.

Should I heal these guys? I didn’t want to reveal my Ancestral Flame Arts just yet. I doubted if my [Healing Touch] would make that big of a difference anyway. I breathed a sigh of relief as the guards started drinking health potions. They were barely surviving so far.

However, they couldn't sustain this for long. That was becoming more obvious as the seconds of the fight ticked. The guards' potions couldn't wholly heal them back to full health. With each hit, the Carrion Golem was essentially whittling them down. A string of consecutive hits landing on the same guard could kill him. It was up to me, Herald Stone, to save them from inevitable defeat!

I ran to the left side of the Carrion Golem. Seeing my movements, the guards shouted at me to return to the safe spot behind them. I ignored their calls. It wouldn't be safe if they died, wouldn't it?

I placed a Totem behind our enemy, hoping it would work the same way as against the Living Statue.

It didn't. Without even a glance over its shoulder, one of the claws of the Carrion Golem snipped at my goblin statue, immediately deleting it in one hit. Unfazed by the result, I placed another Totem. The same thing happened. This was one of the weaknesses of my Totem Juggling—bosses that could attack in all directions. It was the same as the final form of Zoar Elab, the Living Statue.

But I continued placing Totems even as they were cut down.

I wasn't doing it in the hopes that something different would happen and eventually work. For it was already working! I was keeping the Carrion Golem's claws entertained with my Totems. Effectively, I was reducing the Carrion Golem's attack by something percent—whatever was the damage of these claws in proportion to its entire DPS—by redirecting it to fodder summons.

That wasn't all. Those were two fewer limbs attacking my best bros, the village guards, allowing them to block and evade attacks that would've connected if I wasn't keeping the claws off their backs.

Off their front? I was keeping the claws from the back of the Carrion Golem off the front of—anyway! The point was that even though I couldn't hold it, I nonetheless drastically reduced its damage.

The village guards held firm and made headway in killing the Carrion Golem. Slow and steady. We could win this if nothing else happened.

And, of course, something else did happen.

"You are an interesting one," Bawu said. She was looking at me while continuing to toss and catch the blue flask with one hand. "A youngling with bravery, tenacity, and initiative."

"Nice to get some appreciation around here," I said. "Friend or foe, everyone knows of the greatness of Herald Stone."

"Good work, youngling!" called our party leader.

"A belated compliment, but still welcome." I pointed at Bawu. "But hers sounded better."

Mad Brewer Bawu tutted as she approached the ongoing battle. "It seems my dear Ladambor is struggling with such a simple task." Then she threw the blue flask at Ladambor.

It broke upon hitting the Carrion Golem's back. The liquid inside the flask evaporated upon contact with the air, covering the Carrion Golem with a blue cloud. The village guards disengaged, retreating from the possibly dangerous gas.

Ladambor didn't chase them. Instead, it pounded its chest as it inhaled the gas. It roared and then breathed again. All of the blue smoke went up its flaring nostrils.

I looked at Bawu. She was laughing. I turned back to Ladambor. Its eyes and horn were glowing electric blue as its muscles became bigger. Worse, its health bar was creeping back up. Bawu was buffing and healing her pet!

With a roar, the Carrion Golem shot bolts of lightning from its horn.

"Watch out!"

"Everyone spread out, do not get hit!" The guards scattered.

"Okay, this is getting harder," I said. That's what she said. And it seemed that it was about to get even more challenging for Bawu wasn't done.

She held a couple more flasks, one in each hand. "Youngling! I'll give you the honor of testing these for me!" she yelled as she threw the flasks in my direction.

"No, thank you!" I ran away. The two flasks hit the ground and spilled their contents. An explosion followed. "What in the blazing hell is this?" I cried out as I barely escaped its AoE. "Two bosses in one battle?"