The Lone Wanderer

The sickening sound of their skull cracking never came. Gabe thought it might have already happened – too fast for them to register – but Percy had experienced enough deaths to be confident this wasn’t it.

Still, they held their breath, remaining motionless under the surface of the dark swamp, unsure whether the challenge had stopped in time, or whether the golem had simply lost track of them. It was most likely the former, but neither of the two was feeling brave enough to check.

Sure enough, the liquid’s level dropped soon, draining into the floor, exposing their body once more. Only then did they reluctantly open their eyes, before bursting into laboured breaths a moment later, their chest heaving up and down.

‘Well… That sure sucked…’ Gabe said.

‘Next time we fail – and there will definitely be a next time – PLEASE say the words faster.’ Percy berated him.

Gabe didn’t respond, focusing on refilling his cores for a while. Only after they’d fully recovered did he speak again.

‘How are we going to get through this?’

Sadly, Percy had no good answer for his host, feeling just as lost. Of course, they’d encountered many difficulties during the previous waves too, but they’d had plenty of options at the time. They’d adjusted their tactics, honed their cooperation and magic, or grown more used to their opponents’ moves.

This time, things weren’t as simple. They had no idea how to improve enough in the next couple of days, plus the golem’s response had been too fast to read. They’d basically attacked it blindly, at a speed they could hardly even grasp, yet that hadn’t been enough. It had parried their offense rather easily. Despite going all out, they’d barely broken through its defences, and even then, it had deflected the trajectory of their slashes enough that they’d no longer posed a threat to its integrity.