"It's as if the stone itself came alive!"
That was what he thought to himself before glancing at where the beam of light came from.
'Oh…'
Because the cliff side, literally, came alive. Well, not the actual cliff side. Rather, it was a creature that could practically blend in with stone.
A towering golem, a little over double Quies' height, stood a fair distance away from him. Its blazing white, circular eyes betrayed a silent force of life beneath its solid construct of a body. Cracks crawled across its pristine rock surface, as if many fragmented pieces had come together to form one cohesive form. Despite that, it stayed intact.
It was of a humanoid shape, more or less. Of course, considering the name golem, it was rather… unique in its structure, per se. It had stubby limbs, four of them: two legs and two arms. Its legs were like solid stone pillars. Articulated at the circular-shaped knee and abdomen, round and cylindrical masses of pure burning stone made the very ground it stood on tremble with every step.
Its arms were no different. Two stone gauntlets extended from its haughty shoulders, frozen and sculpted to hold their exact form for decades—solid structures of crushing death.
Its torso and head were of one solid structure. It had no mouth, nor any other facial features other than its blazing white eyes. Its core—at the center of its torso—also glowed the same permeating color.
Quies held his gaze there—at the core.
Soon enough, it began to grow brighter. Its light illuminated the greenery and stone around it as if it were another sun.
He closed his eyes and breathed…
…and listened.
Zhsooom!
He effortlessly dodged the second beam. Wind glided over his aching wounds as he dashed closer to the stone golem.
'flow-'
He slid his thumb in his mouth and bit open the closed wound, wincing slightly.
'I need to figure out how to do that better… ouch.'
That was a problem for another day, though.
'Encountering something was definitely expected—I shouldn't have let my guard down. But this golem… it's gonna be a bit tricky.'
As the blood poured out from the small wound in his finger, Quies closed the distance between him and the golem. Not too close, though. He didn't want to be in the striking range of those arms…
He needed to get a closer look at the golem.
This fight would be different. Much more different.
Grabbing the edge of a raised root, he hoisted himself up with considerable effort. At this level, he was almost eye level with the golem—maybe shoulder-height. He could also study its form better from above—even if it was for just a moment.
'By the looks of it, the golem seems to already be fragmented into several pieces—only being held together by… nothing? How is it alive, then? Is there some magical force… oh, probably.'
The blood from his thumb wound trickled down his trembling palms, forming into a long crimson blade poised behind him. Midway through its formation, though, it stopped.
'This isn't going to work… would it?'
With his focus wavering, cursed crimson blood began to drip off of the end of the hesitant blade onto the jutting root. At that moment, he saw the chest of the golem begin to glow bright once more.
'Shit, shit- will a sword even work against that thing? Will-'
His thoughts paused as he gathered his focus to dodge the concentrated beam.
Zhsooom!
But this time, he was a moment too slow…
Half of his crimson blade—trailing behind him as he moved to dodge—was completely incinerated by the beam of destruction. Fragments of the tree's roots splintered and broke off, being scorched in the annihilating heat of the concentrated energy. Upon impact, the beam exploded into a blast of heat and pressure—sending a shockwave which threw Quies off-balance.
Quies hit the ground. He hit the ground hard. At this point, his crimson blade had completely lost its form, loosening into a puddle of cursed liquid that clung to the eternal emerald grass.
'Gah! Damn it!'
Despite that, he didn't waste a single second and rushed to regain his posture. Grabbing his left shoulder—the one that partly bore the impact of the fall from the root—he gritted his teeth and stood.
Blood continued to trickle into the puddle that was once a sword. Quies wasn't planning on molding it to hold that shape again, though.
He left it there for later.
He had to move closer. The closer he was, the harder it would be for that heavy mound of stone to aim its laser properly. Not to mention, if Quies got close enough, it would risk hurting itself with its own beam.
Of course, that came with the repercussions of dealing with the actual body of the golem, but it was better than a split second reaction that relied on a sense he barely learned a few days ago.
Pouring his ether and focus into his feet, he used the combined enhancement of his attunement and the natural properties of the song's potent energy to propel him forward. With each step, he felt a surge of power moved through his body, top to bottom, and into the ground beneath.
The golem, seeing Quies approaching, decided to do the same.
Boom!
Each step it took with its great pillar-like legs felt like it could split the earth beneath Quies. Safe to say, its steadfast march definitely beat Quies' gallant sprint.
Eventually, Quies was only a dozen or two strides away from the golem itself. Its core, bright as it was, stood dormant. It seemed like it knew that using its beam wasn't going to be very effective, nor would it be as easy as it was earlier given the range.
Quies outstretched his right, dominant hand up and above him. It was as if he was carrying an invisible javelin—piercing the thin mountain air with its imaginary might.
One step.
Two step.
Three.
Four-
"Hyah!"
His right arm flew forward like a wound spring. His upper arm followed, and then his torso. Like a chain reaction, energy flowed from his legs, to his core, to his torso, to his upper arm, to his forearm, to his hand, to his fingers—even to his very fingertips—and forward into the imaginary javelin. Invisible and conceptual, yet an effective method of strengthening and reinforcing one's technique.
Then, as if connected with a string of will, the pool of cursed blood left behind him flew forward. From it, crimson javelins split into half a dozen, heading straight towards where the golem was.
Quies body flew forward as he stumbled methodically, having put all of his effort into slinging the imaginary javelin as far forward as possible. He slowed his steps and caught himself from falling before glancing up.
The javelins flew through the air at an astonishing speed—fast enough to make even their user surprised. Quies looked in awe as they closed the distance between where the pool formerly was and the golem's physical body.
Zsip!
Not even a second after they left the ground-
Crash!
The six javelins impacted the golem in almost the same area—near its right eye. Of course, Quies wasn't a master javelin thrower, so some of them missed. Nevertheless the ones that hit…
Crumble.
Numerous cracks spread throughout the right side of the golem's face and torso—fragmenting it into many smaller pieces. The javelins loosened into splatters of blood and seeped within the newly formed fissures.
But, still, it held its form.
Despite the seemingly devastating impact of Quies' crimson javelins and their visual aftermath, the golem more or less held its shape—just with a few more cracks and fragments.
It was as if the stone body of the golem sustained the impact of the javelins, cracking to absorb the force. The invisible force holding the rocks together seemed to take into account the broken fragments, too.
In short, despite Quies' gusto with his attack, it didn't really do much.
'Crap.'
Yet, the golem's right eye seemed to glow ever so slightly dimmer… but maybe that was just a side effect of losing blood.
But that wasn't what worried him the most.
Quies listened in closer to the 'living' being. At least, he thought it was living before he was close enough to be able to listen to its beating drums of life.
'It… isn't.'
He heard nothing.