Stray Soul

Stumbling backwards, I was cornered against the wall the golem made once again.

Reaching above my neck, I felt just a mass of destroyed flesh and bones, and ripped it off and threw it away.

Good thing I had a dozen more eyes scattered all around my body, other wise this situation would be way worse than it already was.

Though not being able to speak would be... annoying, it was also easily fixable as I still had a neck, and my vocal cord felt intact.

Maybe not... but can’t really check if they are working or not right now.

As I have quite a big problem in front of me that is slowly shambling towards me that... I am not sure how to get rid of.

Getting rid of an F rank? Sure. Can do after a bit of work.

But an E rank? That’s... not really plausible for my current strength. Especially when that E rank is a hulking mass of stone and magic that will never tire, or run out of mana.

“Should I just... play dead?” I thought for a moment, thinking perhaps this mass of stone wouldn’t be able to tell a living undead from a dead undead.

But when you took the fact that it was a dungeon boss into the count, the chances of me being successfully able to trick it fell by a lot.

“...Just have to try and weather the storm I guess...” I muttered, and started moving the metal plates on my body to in front of me to absorb at least some damage, and opened my mana counter to look at how much mana I’d lost.

Mana Points: 2.100/2.100

“...At least I am full again, that’s neat.” I muttered, trying to cope with the fact that I had lost 400 mana points in a few seconds, and turned to face the golem which was slowly approaching me.

I was confident that I’d at least be able to escape it, or perhaps even hit it if it couldn’t make the ambient mana denser, but that was a wishful dream... wait, couldn’t I use my mana wings in this situation?

I mean... the mana in the air wasn’t dense enough for me to be able to fly, and whenever the mana wasn’t being actively made denser by the golem, the storm was trying to suck every piece of mana, and incorporate it into itself.

But perhaps in the area where the golem made the ambient mana denser, and stopped it from being pulled into the larger storm, I may be able to make some wings or gills to help me manoeuvre better?

“That’s... as good an idea as any in my situation, but will it really allow me to escape? Probably not. And I am not sure if I’d be able to damage both of its arms enough for it to stop making mana barriers...

“And the fact that I am a big boy isn’t helping much either. When you are going against a weaker opponent size is great, but when you are going against a stronger opponent size is just a liability... have to make a slimmer body when I go back to the surface.

“Perhaps even try to make a humanoid one? But that’s for later...” I thought to myself, but as I was looking towards the golem, something behind it caught my attention.

“...Is that... Xavier?” I thought to myself as a humanoid shape appeared behind the golem, and it... definitely was him.

“...Why is he here? Is he checking if his wife or the other three are here?

“...At least he’ll escape, and I won’t have to worry about saving his skin then...” I thought to myself again, trying to keep the golem’s attention on my self as it’d be quite inconvenient for it to try and kill the people I came down here to save... though Xavier was also... arguably stronger of the both of us, so I’d understand if it decided to go after him.

And after a short while, Xavier’s head disappeared, which was for the better as the golem was already starting to attack me.

And I tried to dodge its attacks but... I am a big boy, remember? The best I could do was to try and block its fists with both my shield made out of metallic plates, and the thingamajig I had made out of combining all the weapons I could.

Not that it worked well though, but instead of pulverising me, the golem was only breaking my bones. Which was... arguably better than getting pulverised.

And I was busying rushing to make a smaller me while my lesser souls blocked the golem’s attacks as best as they could.

I was simply just rearranging some of my remaining bone structure into a smaller shape, while cutting off flesh and dislocating bones to use them in this new body while the rest of my body was getting pounded.

And I continued doing that for a few minutes until my lesser souls caught my attention, and I saw both Elise and Xavier watching from a distance.

Then I moved some of my branches into the shape of a hand, and motioned for them to go away.

I could survive, and I would, but I really didn’t need them to play the hero and try and “save” me.

My smaller body, which I had made to focus on speed first rather than anything else, was nearly completed, and I only needed another minute or two, and an opportunity to get away from the golem boss to be able to escape.

Them trying to play the hero would only force me into re-connecting both the bodies, and using my full power to at least get the attention of the golem so they could escape.

And thankfully, I saw them leaving after a few moments of looking at me, and then I returned back to completing my new body.

And after a minute, everything was done!

My new body looked more like a skinless lion rather than anything else, with only missing a proper skull, and a tail.

For my 4 legs, I was just using my old ones. My hind legs were pretty much fine, so I had just disconnected them from my old body, and grafted them onto this new one.

Though my front legs were a bit worse as I was using my claws to hold my thingamajig weapon, and sometimes help my impromptu shield hold itself together.

Though they were still in good enough shape that, after an opening was created by the golem, I could just tear myself out of my old body and run out!

And as I was more than willing to use a thousand mana or more to simply escape right now, I didn’t believe that the golem could catch me.

After I had left this floor, I was also planning to gain a bit more mass by incorporating my other 7 lesser souls which were holed up in the bodies of gigantic spiders, waiting for me in a stairway that connected the third to the second.

So, everything was going according to the plan... well, there was always the possibility that the golem may actually catch up to me again, but even simply running with this form, without using any mana other than what’s necessary to keep it functional, would allow me to go faster than the golem.

So, as long as the golem doesn’t reveal another power in the shape of being able to control gravity or fly somehow, I should be able to escape pretty easily.

Then, I sat in wait for a few moments, waiting for an opening that’d let me escape, and after a minute I finally saw it and—

*Swoosh~*

*Thwack~*

Suddenly an arrow flew towards the golem, and fell down to the ground as soon as it hit the golem.

Then the golem slowly turned its head towards Elise, and I couldn’t help but try and think what the fuck was her plan here?

But before neither I nor the golem could think about her for too long, she dipped and went deeper into the floor, then the golem’s gaze lingered where she was for a few seconds more, and then it turned towards me, hit me for one last time, and after seeing that I was no longer reacting to its attack, it started shambling towards where Elise had disappeared to.

“...So, playing dead would’ve fucking worked... damn it.” I muttered for a moment, and though what I should do now.

Of course, I was going to go and help Elise in whatever mad plan she was trying to execute, but should I go in my old body, or the new one?

“...No, my old one is pretty destroyed, and cumbersome. Not to mention the fact that it’d take a shit ton of time to reattach my new body to it.”

Then I waited for an opportune moment to burst out of my old body and, after a few seconds dumped a hundred mana into dash and darted onto the golem’s back, with my weapon directed forwards, fully intent on at least damaging it a bit.

But the golem sensed my presence, and tried to block with an arm and by thickening the ambient mana around me but as it was barely a second late to respond to me, my weapon was able to make contact with the arm it used to defend, and I destroyed as much of the inscriptions on its right arm as I could, and avoided the punch from its left arm by using my mana wings which were as effective as I thought they’d be.

I couldn’t fly in mana as dense as this, I needed denser air or better mana control, but I sure could use my mana wings to at least increase my speed.

*Clank*

A moment later I landed on the ground past the golem, my weapon hitting the ground and making a clanking sound from all the individual weapons striking each other.

But I was really pleased with the new design of my body as I had successfully used it to escape the golem’s grasps, and had also disabled its ability to make a second mana wall!

“Now... to make my escape!” I said to myself, and ran towards where Elise had run off to, dragging my weapon behind me as I ran on 3 legs.

I could somewhat stand on 2 legs thanks to the bear spine I was using, but I was kinda used to running and walking with more legs than 2 by now, so I wasn’t going to stand like a little gremlin until it was the time to fight.

And, yes, the golem was once again running after me.

Though it had no hopes of catching me really, so the only thing I had to do was find Elise, and hope she actually had a plan and wasn’t trying to play hero by distracting the monster, and giving me the opportunity to escape.

If I couldn’t find her, I’d just go back to my original plan and run off to another stairway that went up, and go through it.

But after a few seconds of running, I saw her appear in the distance again, and she was aiming her bow towards me and... hopefully actually towards the golem, as intentional betrayal like that wouldn’t go unnoticed by the mana contract, and she’d be basically crippled for the rest of her life.

But before she could even fire her bow, we passed by a corridor and Xavier came out suddenly, and rammed his sword into the golem’s left arm, and as the golem tried to quickly respond by swinging a fist towards him with his right arm, Elsie fired her bow, and her seemingly magical arrow/ arrow with a spell attached to it hit the golems right arm, and deflected for just long enough that Xavier had the time to dislodge his sword, grab his shield, and defend himself.

*BANG*

The golem’s fist hit Xavier’s shield, and made him step back a bit, but not fall down, and he retreated further into the corridor he came from, and Elise fired another arrow to get the golem’s attention while Xavier was seemingly going towards another meeting point, they had decided beforehand.

“...Well, I’ll be dammed. They actually have a half-decent plan to take down the golem.” I thought to myself, before rushing behind Elise, and keeping an eye on the golem.