“Not the time for a vision.” Jesse said clumsily rolling to the side as the wraith passed through the spot where he was moments ago. Tormund blasted electricity at it and it backed away from him, flying high into the air and circling the group. With the screech of metal on metal the golem moved forward toward Jesse, raising its arm high in the air. Aegis scrambled away, barking at the construct.
“The energy source powering the construct has spiked.” Golem reported. “It is much more powerful than any of the essence I have previously scanned.”
“That’s great.” Jesse said, running to the side as the arm smashed where he was standing a second prior. The stone shattered beneath the blow and the golem slowly turned to face him again.
“So how do we kill it?” Jesse yelled.
“I’ll give it a good shock.” Tormund suggested, lightning beginning to form in his right hand, his left holding the club. It then faded and Tormund grunted. “Come on, not now.” He said, shaking his hand. He tried again to no effect but only sparks formed. The wraith dove and passed through Tormund, who went rigid and collapsed.
Aegis ran at the construct and bit at its leg to no effect, as it was made of metal. It didn’t react to her presence and focused on the rigid Tormund, slowly moving to crush him with its massive arm. Jesse had to act. He began running forward but the wraith flew in from the side and passed through him. “Tormund!” He screamed as his vision flashed brightly. Again he felt freezing cold in an instant. His heart thundered and he felt nauseous. Tormund was done for.
“No.” Golem said mentally. Jesse’s vision suddenly cleared. He hadn’t been pulled into a scene of the past. He remained very much in the present.
Jesse heard the wraith scream a high pitched inhuman noise to his side but he started running for the colossal construct again. He approached it from behind, raising his spear and stabbing it into a crack between two plates of metal covers on its leg. With the screech of metal chewing on metal that hurt Jesse’s ears, the construct came to a halt. Its leg had jammed on the spear. It turned toward Jesse, rotating its entire torso rather than moving its legs, far faster than he expected. It swung its arm low. Jesse barely had time to get his shield up before the limb reached him.
The next thing Jesse knew he was on the floor 10 feet away from where he had been. His ears were ringing from the deafening impact of the arm meeting his shield. His arm was on fire with pain. He looked down and to his horror the shield had collapsed inward, crushing around his arm which was locked in place by the makeshift straps of the shield. It was a bloody mess. “Oh god.” He said, feeling a chill run through his body. He felt light headed. “Oh no, that’s bad.” He stammered.
“Focus on the fight Jesse.” Golem provided mentally. “Your arm can be saved. You just need to absorb essence.”
Jesse struggled to shake off the feeling. Luckily the pain from his arm hadn’t registered yet. He then noticed that the construct had removed the spear from its leg and began walking once more.
Tormund had snapped out of his vision and ran for Jesse, as did Aegis. The construct raised its arm, it continuing to catch on some misaligned internal mechanism. The palm of its hand began to glow. “Oh shit!” Jesse yelled. “Watch out!”
Still on the ground Jesse didn’t have a way to quickly dodge, not with his ruined arm holding him back. He raised the battered shield once more as a beam of energy came crashing into it. There was no physical force behind it, but it was HOT. Jesse didn’t feel his arm luckily but he watched as the skin, and in some places exposed muscle and bone, that touched the metal of the shield began to sizzle and burn. He screamed as the heat began touching where his nerves hadn’t been damaged. The side of his face, his shoulder, and his leg that were positioned near and behind the shield began to burn, not from contact but from the sheer amount of heat coming off it. Jesse’s HUD flickered as the heat began interfering with Golems AI module. In a moment the beam stopped.
Jesse looked at his burnt and mangled arm trapped inside the melted and dented hunk of metal that used to be a shield. “Well that’s not good.” He mumbled to himself, completely numb inside and out. The worst of it was his hand and lower arm, which frankly wasn’t recognizable as a human appendage. The AI module was blackened but not dented in its place just below his elbow. The skin around the module was melted to it however.
Jesse stood there staring at his arm in a daze.
“Jesse. You need to snap out of it.” Golem said in his mind. Tormund tried shaking him but he just stared at his ruined appendage. Aegis whined nearby before jumping toward the construct and attempting to attack again. Tormund yelled something at Jesse but his ears were ringing and it didn’t register. His vision was growing dark, closing in on the sides.
“Initiating neurological shock.” Golem said.
A pulse of electricity shot through his entire body all at once. It had the intended effect though. He jumped in surprise and his vision cleared. “Golem what was that?” He said aloud, finally seeing what was happening around him, feeling alert.
“I used my interface with your nervous system to initiate a rapid shock. It appears to have worked.” Golem said back.
In front of Jesse, Tormund fought with the construct. He shot electricity at it to no effect and then dodged out of the way of an arm. Aegis bit at its feet, doing basically nothing and continuing to be ignored. Likely the thing registered that she wasn’t a threat to it. The wraith circled above, waiting to strike it seemed. The construct was moving much faster now. The joints must have been locked up from the years spent idle, causing it to initially move more slowly.
Jesse took all of this in before running across the room to get his spear. He still couldn’t feel his left arm.
“Golem, is the AI module still fully intact on my arm?” He asked.
“Yes, it’s constructed of a highly durable material. It will fail far after your arm has. Of course if your arm gets completely severed then that would cause a catastrophic failure.”
“Great.” He said, feeling nausea creeping in again.
He picked up his spear and turned back to the construct. He saw Tormund attempt to smash his club into the construct to little effect. It swung at him and grazed his face with the tips of its fingers, leaving a deep cut there. Blood began streaming down it. Something needed to change, and fast. They weren’t winning this fight otherwise.
Jesse ran up behind the construct and leapt. His spear slammed into the back of the machine in the center of the largest dent, shifting its balance and making it stumble. The panel he had struck dented inward further. The metal tip of Jesse’s spear flattened and fell off, not holding up to the rigors of the battle they found themselves in. Jesse fell to the ground, holding the rebar haft of his weapon. The tip was still sharp, though not nearly as sharp as the metal sheet spear tip had been. It would have to do.
Jesse dodged, barely, out of the way of another strike and fled behind some nearby rubble. A moment later Tormund and Aegis joined him. Another beam of heat following seconds behind his friend. It struck the rubble and blessedly had no impact on the trio.
“What are we going to do?” Tormund asked. “We can’t beat this thing. Look at us!” He said, voice raising in panic. Nearby the wraith swooped down towards them but aborted its strike when it saw the electricity crackle in Tormund’s hand.
“I don’t know.” Jesse said, feeling extremely tired. He expected he was in shock from the damage he had suffered. He slumped down slightly.
“You need to be able to access the internals of the construct.” Golem provided aloud. “At that point you may be able to damage the crystal that powers it.”
“Good plan. How do we do that?” Tormund said.
“I damaged the back of the construct. It seems weak there from the rubble that fell on it.” Jesse offered. “A few more good hits might expose the innards there. Get a crystal from my bag over there and throw it at it just before I reach it to attack.” Jesse said.
Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.
“Okay, fine let’s get this done.” Tormund said, voice uncertain.
Tormund ran for the bag as Aegis and Jesse ran to charge the construct. It turned its attention to face Jesse, the only one that had managed to damage it thus far. Jesse circled just out of its reach with Aegis at his side. Once Jesse got it facing away from Tormund he readied himself.
A loud blast rang through the cavern and the construct stumbled forward.
Come on, fall over you bastard. Jesse thought to himself, watching. Finally the constructs leg caught slightly in its attempts to recover and it went tumbling to the floor with a deafening crash.
Jesse circled the construct and jumped up on its back, slipping when he attempted to use his left hand to grab hold only to find it was missing still. Again he struck the giant metal construct in the same spot on its back and again he was deflected. He repeated this several times.
The construct shifted under Jesse and he jumped off, being cautious to whatever it would try next. The construct simply stood however, because of course it had a way to do so built in. A construct that fell over and became useless would not be well designed.
“One more strike like that last one will breach the armor.” Golem announced.
The construct focused on Jesse now. Tormund attempted to strike the same place on its back but the club lacked the pointed tip Jesse had been driving into the machine, and ultimately failed to penetrate. It continued to ignore Tormund however, perhaps realizing Jesse was the only one that had damaged it and dreaming all others unimportant.
“Tormund! Take it!” Jesse yelled and tossed over his spear. Tormund tossed the club back to Jesse, who barely caught it. His skin burned and he felt like he was going to pass out again. The pain was becoming unbearable, the adrenaline not enough to overcome it. His breaths came ragged and heavy.
The construct again approached him and he continued backing away. He moved through an archway and the construct was careful to avoid damaging it. Interesting. He managed to distract it long enough for Tormund to jump up and slam a two handed stab into the spot Jesse had been hitting. Tormund fell to the ground. Without the spear. It had lodged firmly into a small crack in the back of the construct.
Jesse cheered. “Alright now we need to widen it!” He yelled to Tormund, who now fled the construct, whose focus was now solely on him. It seemed it targeted whoever it believed was the largest threat.
“Generate some lightning and grab on to the rebar!” Jesse suggested. “I’ll get its attention again!”
Jesse ran behind the construct and swung at its legs. The blow rang up his arm and through his shoulders. The pain radiating his entire body brought him to his knees, tears welling in his eyes. The constructs attention was on him though. He couldn’t move, pain wrapped his body. It raised its arm, but paused as Tormund jumped onto the iron bar protruding from its back. Jesse heard the crackle of electricity. The construct… didn’t react? It didn’t care. It was distracted though so Jesse pulled himself together and crawled away from it as fast as he could. He pulled himself behind an archway.
A moment later he was once again joined by Tormund and Aegis.
“It didn’t work.” Jesse said, dejected. “I don’t… I don’t think I can last much longer.” He added, panting. His vision was darkening slightly.
“I did manage to widen that crack though.” Tormund offered looking at Jesse with concern.
“But if you can’t damage it with your spells there is no way we are surviving this. We can’t beat it to pieces. Hitting it wrong makes me wish I was dead, with the pain from my arm. I don’t think it’ll give us the chance to target whatever crystal is powering it.” Jesse panted.
“What do we do then?” Tormund asked. A blast of heat flew by them but was careful to not hit the archway.
“Connect me to it.” Golem’s voice rang through Jesse’s mind. Almost commanding.
“What? You can’t be serious” Jesse replied out loud.
“I’m always serious Jesse.” Golem said. “This has a high likelihood of overloading my core and possibly irreparably damaging my circuits. The likelihood of self destruction is high but I estimate your ability to defeat this combatant is 5% and falling rapidly, where this plan has a 52% chance of successfully disabling the construct with only a 20% chance of destruction of my AI matrix. The chance of neurological damage to yourself is also about 20%.”
I can’t lose you Golem. You are the only reason we have made it this far. What if you die? We will be stuck in here with no hope of operating those gates. Jesse asked.
“I can’t die. I was never alive. I am an artificial intelligence. You are capable without me.” Golem responded neutrally.
You know you are growing. I think growth is one of the meanings of life when you get down to it. By that metric you are alive. Jesse countered.
“Well then some things are worth dying for.” Golem shot back. “If we don’t do this then you will die. If you die, I will be destroyed. You will be unable to assist Rebecca. I observe no alternative.”
“Well you’re persuasive.” Jesse said, sighing. “Alright let’s try it. Okay Tormund. I’m going to connect Golem to that thing.”
“That sounds a wee bit insane to me but I also don’t want to die here so I’ll give it a go. What do you need me to do?” Tormund said.
“Distract it. I need to climb up to the spot and touch the wire to any of the connected components in it.” Jesse said.
“Okay let’s do it.” Tormund said.
“Aegis, stay. I don’t want you to get hurt.” He told his beloved dog.
Tormund rushed out first, blowing fire into the constructs face. It followed him, swinging wildly. Jesse followed up and lept onto its back, he grabbed hold of the spear and used it to leverage himself higher on the constructs back. A few moments of scrambling and he was able to get his leg over the rebar. The lack of use of his left arm made the process extremely difficult.
Once positioned to where he could use his right arm to access the AI module in his left.. He connected the wire he had readied to his arm. The construct shifted as it swung for Tormund and managed to knock him down. This caused Jesse to desperately try to hang on, difficult considering his circumstances.
“Here we go.” Jesse said, touching an exposed wire inside of the construct to Golem’s wire.
Pain seared through Jesse’s nerves. It felt like his entire body was burning, his nervous system only reading pain. A prompt appeared in his vision.
“System memory usage exceeded.”
His HUD turned off. He screamed in agony as all his muscles clenched at the same time. This did have the added effect of keeping him secure on the back of the construct. After a few moments of the agony, Jesse was able to mentally ask Golem what was happening. No response. The construct had gone completely still, frozen with its arm positioned over Tormund to finish him off. The arcanescent backed away slowly.
In an instant the pain stopped. His awareness began to expand. It expanded beyond what he could see. Suddenly Jesse could sense everything around him. He wasn’t seeing exactly, it was more than that. It was a 360 degree view of the energies and materials and noises of the world all flooding into his brain at once. It was overwhelming. He sensed the bright energy of Tormund and the lesser energy of Aegis. A bright only energy form floated above them all. He could see how the archways were connected by wires to the pedestals. He could make out the finest details of what appeared to be intricate circuitry that ran the archways.
He moved and instead of his limb moving, the constructs arm moved. He stood it up straight. What was happening? He stepped backward, except with the constructs legs.
“AI core failure imminent. Circuits overheating. Neurological damage likely. Recommend action: disconnect.” Golems voice rang through his mind.
“Shit okay.” Jesse said. Somehow with some focus he was able to disconnect using his real body. Unfortunately this caused his body to go limp and he fell to the ground. And so did the construct. Face first, straight into the ground with a deafening crash and sparks flying everywhere.
Jesse shut his eyes. “Golem? Are you okay?” No answer. No he thought with a spike of alarm.
“Jesse!” Tormund yelled, running over. Aegis barked and run up as well.
Jesse lay there for a long moment, staring at the ceiling. He felt ice cold. He was so tired. So very tired. “I think I’m going into shock.” He whispered numbly.
“What? What’s that mean?” Tormund asked him.
Jesse’s vision was closing in on him, his mind and thoughts muddy. A huge stream of red mist rose from the constructs form. Was that odd? Jesse couldn’t think straight. It streamed into Jesse.
With a jolt, he felt alive again. He was suddenly wide awake. His burnt flesh became healthy again, though scarred. Wait. He could scar still? Does that mean damage could be permanent?
With a sinking feeling Jesse looked at his lower arm, where his hand used to be. Where his hand was no longer located. A smooth stump ended just below the AI module on his forearm. The shield had popped off with the healing effect, somehow being pushed away from his body in its rapid healing efforts.
“Wha… what? Why?” Jesse started mumbling, staring at the stump.
Tormund sighed. “Essence isn’t infallible. It can’t heal everything. It’s a common misconception. You can’t regrow limbs. It doesn’t fix death either. If a wound is bad enough you will scar. First and foremost it will stabilize you but it doesn’t work miracles…” Tormund paused. “Well aside from healing grievous wounds and making you healthier. I’m sorry Jesse. I should have warned you. I didn’t think this… well I didn’t think either of us would get that hurt.”
Jesse just stared at what used to be his hand in utter disbelief.
“Golem. Please be okay. Please talk to me.” He said. No reply came. Tears welled in his eyes and Aegis rubbed against him. The tears streamed down his face. “Golem please.” He whispered. He was met only by silence. For the first time in many years, only one mind occupied Jesse’s body.
