Chapter 72: Lesser Earth Golem

Peace charged.

Why in the world, out of all of them, had Peace been ordered to ’kill it’?

What had Peace shown Ralph that made him believe Peace could kill it?

Sure, he had ’evolved’ and grown a bit stronger, but Ralph didn’t know that. Hell, even if Ralph knew, Peace was still undoubtedly the weakest of them. Not only that, but the hulking bastard was made of stone. Stone that Peace had little chance of even chipping with his sword. His claws, even if they could puncture it, would never be able to do meaningful damage.

Not to mention he didn’t even know how to invoke that feral state...

It was something he’d done by instinct.

So, what was it?

’Litheness...’

Peace might not have possessed supreme strength, but he had demonstrated speed and agility, from their fights with Gustos to scaling the tree to reach the archer.

But that wasn’t the sole reason.

More importantly, there was Peace’s ferocity and boldness.

The will to put his body in harm’s way to kill his target.

A quality one couldn’t simply learn or force.

Both axe wielders struck at the same time, their blades biting deep into the golem’s blocky stone calves. Not deep enough to keep it down, however.

The golem planted its hands against the ground and began pushing itself upright.

As he passed Ralph, Peace’s eyes locked on the golem’s ruby-red eyes.

’Nothing is for show.’

Ralph cheered as he watched Peace crouch, then leap toward the rising head of the Lesser Earth Golem.

"Get its ass!"

’Save it!’

The golem swung an arm at the approaching elf, its massive fist sweeping inward to crush him against its chest.

Twisting his torso midair, Peace extended a leg and planted his foot against the golem’s chest. He kicked off, propelling himself upward, just over the incoming arm, and across its shoulder.

The golem’s fist slammed into its own chest, jolting its upper body backward.

Seizing the opening, Peace hooked an arm around its neck as he passed over its shoulder. His momentum carried him around behind its head, where he braced his legs against its upper back.

Without wasting a moment, Peace reached around its head and pressed his fingertips against the edge of one of the ruby crystals.

The golem rocked from the blow it had dealt itself, its damaged legs struggling to keep it upright. Meanwhile, Peace dug his fingers beneath the crystal’s edges and pulled.

’This thing’s really in there!’

It was like he was trying to pull that one magnet off the fridge that always got stuck.

He strained harder, digging his fingers deeper beneath its edges until, finally, the crystal popped free.

’One!’

The golem had barely regained its footing when it raised an arm over its shoulder, its massive fingers reaching back to seize Peace.

Before it could close its grip, Volkar’s axe struck the reaching forearm, knocking the grasping hand wide.

The golem’s arm recoiled, leaving its head exposed for another precious second.

Peace let the first crystal fall, then immediately reached for the remaining one. He dug his fingers beneath its edges and tore it free.

’Two!’

Having already overstayed his welcome on the shoulders of the ’sack of stones’, Peace kicked against its back, launching himself away from its grasping arms.

He struck the ground beside Maura, tucked into a roll, and came back up with a ruby crystal still clenched in his hand. The other lay somewhere on the ground by the golem’s feet.

Ralph broke into a belly laugh as the monster swayed blindly, tilting its head as if that would somehow restore its sight.

"Ha! Let’s bring ’er down!"

Peace settled back into a crouch, rubbing his aching back.

Ralph had told him to kill it. He’d blinded it, sure, but the thing was still very much alive. Meaning...

’Job’s not finished.’

Ralph was still counting on him to finish it.

Maura, Ralph, and Volkar converged on the golem. Their weapons struck its legs and torso, each blow sending it staggering in another direction. Peace almost felt sorry for how helpless it looked.

Well, it wasn’t entirely helpless...

Its bulky arms swept wildly left and right, forcing the three to duck and retreat between strikes. One lucky blow could still kill any of them. If anything, blinding it had made its attacks even harder to predict.

’But, what does he want me to do?’

Taking a few more seconds to catch his breath, Peace studied the stone monster, searching through the scraps of game lore he remembered. Most of it came from Serene joyously explaining every little thing.

’Monsters like the Skeleton Warriors are also golems. Kept moving and alive by the Spirit Stone inside them.’

No matter how much damage it took, a Skeleton Warrior didn’t die until its head—the part containing the stone—was separated from its body.

’I don’t think we can simply do that with you...’

There was one other thing to note.

Like the Blood Warden, which was also a golem, this thing was far too large for any Tier 9 Spirit Stone to power on its own. Meaning, its core had to act as a conduit, drawing in and storing ambient ’spirit force’ from the air.

’Not that I know what that is...’

That additional spirit didn’t make the golem stronger. It simply allowed something so large to maintain its normal strength and mobility.

’But for that core to absorb ambient spirit force, it has to be somewhat exposed... Either periodically or all the time.’

Unless it could steal that spirit from another source, as the Blood Warden did through its thralls.

From what Peace could tell, this thing didn’t function like the Blood Warden. It showed no sign of drawing power from others, and he hadn’t seen any part of its body open to expose the core.

Which meant its core had to be exposed somewhere already...

’...?’

In the game, the way to take down these things was simply to pummel them with blunt weapons until their cores were exposed, then destroy them.

’But, considering it’s a golem, there should be another way...’

The Lesser Earth Golem continued to flail, one of its massive fists sweeping toward Volkar’s face. He ducked, the stone knuckles passing just shy of his jaw.

’He’s surprisingly quiet when he fights.’

Ralph stepped forward, also cutting at its ankles.

"Take this, cindershit!"

’And he’s surprisingly loud.’

Or maybe it wasn’t so surprising.

Either way...

’Oh...’

Ralph’s blow sent the golem stumbling sideways, turning its back toward Peace.

And for an instant, something mirror-like glinted beneath its moss-covered torso.

Something Peace would never have spotted if he hadn’t been crouching so low.

’You’ve got to be shitting me.’

At the base of its torso, almost on the underside of it, ran a narrow crack hidden beneath the overgrowth.

Peace focused on the spot where an ass would be if the thing had one. As the golem staggered, its lower torso shifted, and something flashed within the crack again.

A little clearer this time.

’Yet another reason... he asked me to kill it.’

An axe was too thick to get in there. His sword, however, was another matter.

And Ralph had the highest Threat Level. The golem kept turning toward him, only switching targets when someone else got too close.

Which meant that, so long as Ralph held its attention, Peace had a way to reach that opening.

’Why didn’t Alex teach me this?!’

Well, expecting her to teach him how to fight every single monster in just thirty hours would have been absurd. She’d only given him advice for some of the more challenging beasts.

But for large golems, like the Lesser Earth Golem, her only advice had been to run. He simply wasn’t equipped to deal with them.

Which wasn’t too tall an ask. They were slow, after all, and gave up easily.

***

But they hadn’t started this fight to run away...

’Alright, then...’

Peace tossed the ruby crystal aside and drew his sword.

The golem was still occupied with Ralph, its massive arms hammering down where it thought the shield-bearing man stood.

’Just need to get close...’

Peace charged once again.

Volkar struck the golem’s knee, forcing it to buckle. The monster staggered forward, its arms swinging out to regain balance.

Peace slipped behind it.

’There!’

He dropped into a crouch, ducking beneath a sweeping arm, and closed the remaining distance.

From here, the crack was plainly visible.

’What a ridiculous weakness!’

Unfortunately, the golem chose that moment to step backward.

’Shit!’

Peace threw himself sideways, narrowly avoiding a stone heel that would have flattened his skull.

As its foot struck the ground, Peace lunged forward again.

This time, he thrust his sword upward, driving the blade straight into the narrow crack, then rammed it deeper.

The blade met resistance.

’Come on!’

He pushed harder, driving the sword upward again and again with everything he had.

Then...

He heard something crack.

Its entire body went rigid.

For one glorious second, Peace thought he’d done it.

Then the hulking bastard began tipping backward.

’Oh, fuck me!’

Peace abandoned his sword and scrambled away.

Behind him, the golem crashed to the ground, shaking the earth.

[You have slain Tier 9 B-Class, Lesser Earth Golem]

[+3 EXP]

Ralph’s face twisted slightly.

"The fuck did you do?"