“I was hoping you’d ask.” Avraniel stood beside Gerald and blew apart the next wave of incoming boulders with an ease that, quite frankly, terrified him. All she had to do was point a finger, and a sizzling bolt of raw heat would obliterate a boulder. “How much do you know about golems, Gerald?”
He knew a lot about golems. Like most bureaucrats attached to the Council, he made it his business to keep up to date with anything the Council deemed important, and golems had come up several times over the years. “Golems are magical constructs, typically made out of metal or stone. They generally possess a rudimentary level of intelligence and can carry out basic instructions. Golems are usually powered by special magical crystals, which can store magic, absorb it from the surrounding environment, or draw upon some central power source. Although golems do have a mechanical component, most cannot operate without magic.”
“That’s the boring stuff.” Avraniel smiled evilly and annihilated another boulder. “What do you know about fighting golems?”
Gerald shuddered. “I’ve never fought one before. Have you? Is it… is it hard?”
Avraniel gave him a thoroughly psychotic smile. “Golems are merciless, relentless, and absolutely without pity, fear, or hesitation. A golem will kill you without a second thought, so you’d better either stay away from them or stay close to one of us, idiot. Otherwise, you’ll end up dead, and that will definitely make it harder for me to get my pardon.”
“Right.” Gerald took a deep breath. He had to keep calm. Oh, he should have asked more of the rats to come. They could handle a few golems. “I’ll try to remember that.”
Timmy didn’t bother to negotiate with the golems. They made their position very clear when they fired a ballista at him, which he blocked with a hastily constructed wall of rock. However, the continuing barrage of projectiles did prompt the necromancer to head back to one of their wagons to get a different shovel.
“Ah, this is just the thing.” Timmy grinned. “Zombies aren’t very good at scaling walls. Most of the time, you just send them in until there are enough of them to sort of spill over the top. It’s surprisingly funny to watch.” He patted his new shovel fondly. “I hardly ever get a chance to use this one. It’s for long-range, large-scale work.” He lifted the shovel and plunged it into the ground. “Watch this.”
What happened next was, to put it mildly, extremely impressive. Timmy’s magic flared, and the ground beneath them trembled. Power rushed toward the wall of the town, which came apart in an explosion of grey stone. Chunks of it flew every which way, and dust billowed outward in all directions.
Timmy wiped some sweat off his brow and leaned on his shovel as he admired his handiwork. “It took me a while to come up with this shovel. It’s no good for close-range fighting, but that’s why I’ve got my other shovel.” He switched back to his previous shovel and slipped the other one into a holster on his back. His magic flared again. “It’s time to let the zombies do their thing.”
The first wave of zombies lumbered toward the town, a grim tide of rotting flesh that picked up speed as they broke into a ragged run and waved their weapons in the air. The golems that emerged from the ruins of the wall immediately began to form a defensive line amidst the rubble. They were magnificent to look at. Gerald was not a gifted artist, but he hoped Katie would agree to paint the scene for him later. The golems were wrought of a bronze-like material that gleamed in the sun. Each of them was roughly seven feet tall, and their box-like limbs and bodies caught the light. Their heads were cubes with two square crystals for eyes and a rectangular hole for a mouth. They looked, he thought, a lot like something a child might have come up with. But that impression vanished as some of the golems retracted their fists into their arms and replaced them with blades or crossbows. Others picked up chunks of stone and prepared to throw them.
The zombies and golems met with the thunderous roar of flesh on metal – and the first row of zombies promptly dissolved in a hail of gore, pierced by the golems’ crossbow bolts, sliced by their blades, or simply crushed by rocks and metal fists. Whatever the golems were made out of, it was a lot tougher than bronze. As the front lines of zombies collapsed, the golems stomped forward and crushed the mangled zombies underfoot to engage those behind. Timmy frowned and urged more zombies into the fray. The golems had the edge in quality, that much was clear, but Timmy had a lot of zombies.
And now that Timmy had seen what the golems could do, his zombies weren’t just charging in anymore. Instead the necromancer changed tactics. The zombies attacked in coordinated packs, swarming individual golems and jamming their weapons into their joints and eyes. One zombie couldn’t tear off a golem’s head or rip open its chest – but four or five could. Even in death, the zombies proved useful as they continued to cling on, slowing the golems down. Not even crushing the zombies helped. The gore from the mangled bodies simply clogged the golems’ joints.
“Don’t look so worried,” Timmy said to Gerald. “This is normal. It’s why I always make sure to bring more zombies than I think I need.”
Gerald gulped and nodded. The carnage unfolding in front of him was going to give him nightmares for weeks. He saw one golem go down under a pile of zombies, hacking and slashing with its blade, only to have its arms choppd off by half a dozen zombies armed with swords.
But more golems were joining the battle – and not just from the town. The ground beneath them gave an ominous rumble and then burst open. Gerald gave a most unmanly shriek and grabbed hold of Timmy. The necromancer pried him off as golems poured out of holes in the ground.
“Is this part of the plan?” Gerald cried. These golems were far too close for his liking. Sure, Timmy had kept some zombies around, but there were a lot of golems, and they looked very, very mad. “Timmy?”
“Not exactly.” Timmy swung his shovel and cleaved the legs off one golem before he brought his shovel around again and speared it through the chest. The golem thrashed for a moment and then lay still. More golems tried to come after them, but Timmy’s zombies met them head on. “They’re not supposed to be intelligent. If they’ve got the brains to dig tunnels to set up an ambush, well, it’s no wonder one of them managed to give the Council a slip.” He tossed Gerald a confident smile. “Relax, it’s all under control. There’s not that many coming out of the ground. I’ve already got one of my zombie hydras headed this way to melt them all…” He trailed off as more holes in the ground burst open, unleashing even more golems. “Okay… we might have a problem.”
Avraniel cracked her knuckled and waved at the rats she’d brought. They cheered and brandished their explosives. “A problem? Are you kidding? This is exactly what I’ve been waiting for. Come on, boys! It’s time to kick golem ass.”
For a moment – just a moment – Gerald almost felt sorry for the golems. Then one of them tried to shoot him with a crossbow. Luckily, he managed to duck in time and Timmy’s zombie hydra arrived, spewing acid and crushing golems underfoot. Oh, never mind. The golems deserved everything they got.
* * *
Avraniel could understand the allure of an army of zombies. Having an army to follow her every command seemed like a lot of fun. Hell, it was one of the few things she’d missed when she’d been burning and looting her way through the forest. Burning and looting was fun – but it wasn’t as fun as it could be when she had to do it alone. But zombies were too obedient for her taste. There was no fun in bossing them around, and they couldn’t appreciate a good fire or explosion.
The rats she’d brought were a different story. She still wasn’t fond of the rest of them, especially Rembrandt – that one-eyed bastard – but these guys were okay. They liked fire, explosions, and chaos. They weren’t averse to a bit of theft, and they didn’t mind following her orders since she was better at making fires, explosions, and chaos than they were. Yes, the rats were shaping up to be perfect minions. Now, if only she could convince more of them to join her. She could have her own private rodent army. She bit back a chuckle. Inv
isible ninja rats with explosives – that was exactly what she’d been looking for all these years.
Rather than waste any time, Avraniel simply charged toward the nearest clump of golems. She threw fire at the closest one. The blast knocked the golem back, but it found its feet again. Her eyes narrowed. That blast should have been hot enough to melt it – wait. Timmy had mentioned something about these stupid things being made out of something that had some resistance to magic. If that was true, she might have to put a little bit more effort into killing them. Her lips curled. She didn’t mind. The harder these things were to kill, the more she could knock them around before they died.
As the golem lumbered back toward her, her inhumanly keen eyesight picked up traces of magic along with the remnants of a forging technique that she only vaguely recognised. Assuming that this golem was patterned after the original, then the dwarf bastard the Council had hired was good, very good. She hadn’t seen craftsmanship like this since she’d raided one of the elves’ most prestigious vaults and made off with a handful of priceless weapons from a bygone age. The golem finally closed the gap between them. One of its fists retracted and was replaced by a long blade. She laughed, long and loud.
“You’re going to try to kill me with that? Please. Find something better, you metal son of a bitch.”
The golem lunged forward, and she ducked under its blade. With a grin on her face, she sheathed her hand in flame and drove it into the golem’s chest. Sparks flew, and her opponent gave a high-pitched, keening wail as she wrenched the crystal that powered it out of its chest and tossed it aside. The golem dropped to its knees, and she pulled its arm off at the elbow. She took a moment to savour the golem’s pathetic attempts to stand before she caved its head in with its own arm.
“That was fun.” She smirked. “Who else wants to die?”
Behind her, Gerald started screaming and mumbling a prayer to several gods that she didn’t care for while he waved a frying pan around. Why had that idiot summoned a frying pan? That wasn’t going to do anything. She sighed. She should probably go help him before he got himself killed especially since Timmy was busy riding around on top of his zombie hydra while it spewed acid death at everything.
She put herself between Gerald and the large group of golems stomping toward him. At least she wasn’t going to run out of things to kill. The golems charged together. She ducked under one large fist and rammed a flame-wreathed dagger up into her opponent’s chin. The golem thrashed, and she drove her other dagger into its chest. She reached out for the gemstone that powered it and shoved her magic into it before kicking it away. If that thing worked like she thought it did…
Boom.
Her magic overloaded the crystal inside the golem, and it exploded in a brilliant cloud of raw heat and magical energy. The blast carved out a large crater, and she made a mental note to save a few of those crystals for the rats. Knowing them, they’d find a few ways to make an even bigger explosion.
Hand-to-hand fighting had always thrilled her. Sure, it was fun setting things on fire and making them explode. But there was something viscerally satisfying about crushing something with her own hands and watching it burn while she held it. More golems pressed forward, and she threw her head back and laughed. This was the most fun she’d had in weeks. A wave of searing flame drove them back, and she hurled herself into the fray. She crushed the chest of one of them with a booted foot before tearing the head off another and melting it into molten slag. She didn’t know if golems could feel fear, but they could tell she was dangerous. Some of them even began to retreat, but she had no intention of letting them go. She leapt onto one of the fleeing machines and drove a dagger into its back. Her magic flooded into its crystal, and she tossed it into the others just in time to watch the whole lot of them vanish in another burst of heat and magic. Ah, this was the life. A flick of her wrist called the fire to her, and she used it to slice several other golems in half. One of them tried to crawl away, but she stomped on its head. The golems that were still on their feet wanted nothing to do with her now. Instead, they fled in the opposite direction, letting loose a bizarre series of chirps and squawks from their mouths.
“Come back, you bastards!” Avraniel hurled fire at them. “I’m not done killing all of you yet!” But the golems continued to run, even as she blew some of them apart with her magic. She made a disgusted sound. “Damn cowards.” She turned back to Gerald and sighed. The idiot was standing out there in the open, just waiting to get killed. A few enterprising golems took aim with their crossbows and fired. She blasted the projectiles before they could hit the bureaucrat.
“Gerald, you idiot!” she bellowed. “Stop standing there. Either hide or kill something!”
Gerald eyed the golem closest to him before summoning what appeared to be a metal walking stick. He swung it with all his might and hit his opponent right in the head. The machine gave an awkward squawk, and he continued to bash it over the head until it finally lay still. He was panting by then, and there was a manic look in his eyes.
“Not bad, idiot.” Avraniel chuckled, batting aside a hail of crossbow bolts with blazing ribbons of fire and force. She blew one golem apart and melted another group where they stood. Their armour might have some resistance to magic, but they’d need a lot more than some magical resistance to withstand her power. “You’re finally starting to get it. It’s either kill or be killed out here. Me, I prefer to be doing the killing.”
Yet despite all the golems she killed, more kept appearing. It didn’t help that she and Gerald were stuck on open ground. Timmy had fallen back to a nearby hill atop his zombie hydra, which was beginning to resemble a giant hedgehog from all the crossbow bolts it had taken. As the massive zombie finally reached its limit, Timmy hopped off its back and waded into the zombies with his shovel, hacking and slashing until he got enough room to use his earth magic to send a wave of rock and stone shooting outward. As the golems struggled to regroup around him, another wave of his zombies arrived to relieve the pressure.
From what Avraniel could see, the battle near the town had turned into a complete debacle. The regular zombies were going down in droves as the golems improved their tactics, fighting back to back and in formation. But at the same time, the sheer number of zombies continued to take a toll. For every one that fell, there seemed to be a dozen more to take its place.
And that wasn’t even counting the more exotic zombies that Timmy had brought. They were the ones doing the real damage. One of his more bizarre zombies – a zombie hydra-salamander-bear – was busy melting things and vomiting acid on them as it used its bulk to smash a path through the golems. Katie was on top of it, her shadows making short work of the golems that tried to bring the great zombie down as well as any that managed to jump onto the creature’s back. Elsewhere, a zombie chimera-griffin-squid was diving into the fray, snatching up golems with its tentacles before hurling them at their comrades. A salvo of crossbow bolts earned the golems a blast of fire that sent them reeling back. Avraniel rubbed her chin thoughtfully. She’d have to borrow that zombie later. Riding one of those would be much more fun than riding a horse.
Still, she had to do something about the golems coming out of the ground. It was getting ridiculous. They were like rats and not the awesome rats that liked explosives. No, these bastards were more like Rembrandt and his little cronies. Yes, it wouldn’t surprise her one bit if the golems wanted to steal her sandwiches too. It was a good thing she knew exactly how to deal with them.
She pointed one of her daggers at Gerald. “Hey, idiot, grab the rats and cover me.”
Gerald yelped as a golem nearly cut off his head before being felled by a well-placed grenade from one of her rats. The other rodents quickly fell into position, lobbing explosives to keep the automatons occupied. In the meantime, Avraniel gathered her power. This was going to be good. The ground in front of her surged upward, torn apart as a towering whirlwind of flames rose up toward the clouds. She cackled. There was nothing in the
world as fun as this. She stoked the flames, built them higher and higher, as the burning tornado devoured golems and zombies alike, scouring entire swathes of the battlefield clear and leaving melted earth and smoke in its wake. Dimly, she was aware of Timmy cursing and shaking his fist at her, but she didn’t care. They needed to get rid of the golems, and she was getting rid of them. Besides, she had full control over the whirlwind. Sure, it had come a little close to him, but it was heading away from him now, and he was only a tiny bit singed.
Finally, she let the tornado recede and summoned more fire. A pack of golems closed in on her, and she took them apart with her bare hands. She was already strong enough to break them, but her magic added heat and power to her blows. Whatever she hit shattered and melted, and she tossed aside their ruined husks with a contemptuous laugh. Did they really think swarming her would work? As the ranks of golems continued to thin out, her rats split their time between throwing explosives, protecting Gerald, and making a beeline back to their supply wagons to pick up more explosives. Just then, one of the nearby hills split open to reveal the largest tunnel yet. Avraniel made a disgusted sound. This was getting out of hand.
One of her rats waved at her, and she turned. Excellent. They were running toward her with one of their newly completed devices. It was roughly the size of a large dog, and she knew exactly where to put it.
“Time to close up those tunnels.”
Avraniel stomped one foot and conjured a wall of fire that flattened the golems defending the entrance of the tunnel. Then she took the rats’ device and hurled it in, shoving as much of her magic into it as she could. Then she ran. A few seconds later, a huge explosion vaporised the hill. But it wasn’t done yet. She could feel it spreading underground, jets of fire spewing out of the other tunnels and holes as entire sections of the area around them began to cave in. She vaulted up onto a stable patch of ground and summoned fiery whips. A few golems tried to escape the collapse going on around them, and she knocked them back into the morass of tumbling rock and earth. Not far away, Gerald and the rats had found their own sanctuary amidst the chaos. The bureaucrat had gone back to praying for divine assistance as the rats switched to their melee weapons.
Unconventional Heroes 2 - Two Necromancers, an Army of Golems, and a Demon Lord Page 9