Chapter Two Hundred and Forty Nine – 249The chamber door shut behind him in relative silence, and Felix was faced with a large square area. Approximately two hundred foot square, by his estimation, it seemed designed for larger battles than just squad versus squad. The floor and walls were tiled with whitestoneimported, he surmised though Voracious Eye didn't saywhich was apparently highly resistant to physical and magical damage.
Interesting. Must be expensive, or else they'd make more things out of it.
It was all pretty impressive. Felix suspected that they had been excavated from the rubble as opposed to built from scratch. The sigaldry that he sensed lacing the walls and floors spoke to that as well. Inscriptionists could push out sigiladry fast, but to do something like this while everything else was being done? He found that unlikely.
Felix was considering going back out and asking the attendant about it, when a door opened on the far side of the chamber. The door slid up, revealing an unrelieved darkness, and out stomped six Steel Golems.
Voracious Eye!
Name: Steel Golem
Type: Construct
Level: 55
HP: 6600/6600
SP: 5400/5400
Lore: Golems are constructs built in the image of the mortal Races and designed with complex sigaldry to mimic them further. Most Golems have a measure of autonomy, as dictated by their sigaldry, but are almost always under the ultimate control of a mage.
Strength: They do not feel pain or fear and are highly resilient.
Weakness: Limited cognition.
Felix's Voracious Eye had grown stronger, and his own analytic prowess had advanced in lock step. It had taken him a bit to realize it, but the details of an enemy's Strength or Weaknesses had more to do with his own ability to read a target rather than any magic.
The Golems walked forward, moving far more fluidly than their Wood or Clay counterparts. They looked basically like mannequinsas he'd noticed beforeoval, featureless heads and slender bodies that operated on ball joints. The Steel, however, had some extra heft to their frame in the form of rivets and raised ridges. It gave them the illusion of having armor, in addition to the steel shields and longswords they held in either hand.
Felix quirked an eyebrow. Are they the strongest she has? He doubted it. Guess I'll find out. Let's start slow though. There was a reason he'd left his weapons in his rooms. No Skills. Just stats.
The Golems closed in.
"Look at him, he's frozen with fear," Kylar said with a laugh. "Move it, newbie!"
"Six Steel Golems," Kikri said, her voice a mixture of fear and amusement. "It'll be over before he can move."
Vyne looked at the attendant. She was roughly his age, though Tempering made that hard to tell. Her face was serious, and the sigaldry of the controls glowed beneath her fingers.
Was she trying to kill the guy?
"Oh Night," Davum said with a laugh. "Did anyone tell him the surrender sign?"
Nevia cackled, leaning against her staff. "Absolute nitwit!"
They definitely moved more quickly than the Clay Golems.
Felix ducked beneath one blade and deflected the next with the flat of his hand. The longsword clanged and smashed into the whitestone floor, sending up sparks. Another thrust forward, this time going lower in what Felix recognized as the Second Form of Crane Style.
The Golems know Sword Forms? Felix thought as he twisted around the strike. It wasn't fast enough to hit him, but the surprise of seeing even a basic sword kata meant it had cut the front of his tunic. That's amazing.
Felix kicked backward, putting distance between himself and the Golems. The lithe steel constructs followed on stuttering limbs. They were faster, but their movements weren't anything like a normal human combatant. They came at him fast, but he exploded forward.
The ground shattered behind him.
Pushing his Agility, Felix tore through the intervening space, flexing his Dexterity and Strength as he jumped up and through the wide swing of the lead Golem. Still mid-air, he kicked outward, connecting with its featureless steel head and using it as leverage to spin. Felix's entire body rotated while his arms and legs lashed outward in a storm of strikes. Flesh met metal, again and again, until he slid through the gap he'd made and landed cleanly on his feet.
Behind him, the bodies of five Steel Golems burst apart. They collapsed, no more than silvery scrap.
Hm. I didn't have to push myself at all with them. Felix frowned. He'd have to tell the attendant to give him better constructs.
THWAP!
Felix caught the descending blade in his bare left hand, his fingers tight around it's sharpened edge despite the last remaining Golem's attempts to pull it free.
"You're very loud," Felix said. "Stealth isn't really an option for you."
The Golem suddenly let go of his sword and brought his shield around to bash him, but Felix already moved. He spun, letting his entire Body gather behind a massive backhand. The impact was like thunder, and the Steel Golem flew backward. Right into the reinforced glass, sending cracks spider-webbing across its surface.
"I thought I said 'tough'?" Felix said aloud, looking to the attendant. The woman simply stared at him, as did the guards that had stuck around. The Steel Golem slipped to the ground, it's shield and torso completely sundered. He frowned.
Can she hear me?
"Blind gods..." Nevia hissed. She touched the cracks that had formed on the thick, enchanted glass.
"Did youdid you see what he did?" Vyne asked.
"No, I missed it. I blinked and they were all on the ground!" Davum grunted in surprise. "Was it a Skill?"
"I didn't see any Skills," Kikri said. "That was just him. Blighted Night, how?"
Vyne looked to Kylar, but the man had gone absolutely pale and his fists were wrapped tightly around the handles of his twin swords. "Ky, did you spot it? He had to use a Skill, right?"
Kylar didn't answer, instead he looked over to the attendant and licked his lips. "Whowho is that?"
The mage glanced at their group and Kylar in particular. "Someone I should have listened to," she muttered. She flicked a sigil and Kylar heard a hum of energy. "I am sending the strongest in now, sir."
"Sir? WhoWait, the strongest? Truly?" Kylar stared at the attendant in shock. "HeI don't care who he is, he won't survive!"
"You tell him that," she shot back and activated the array.
"I am sending the strongest in now, sir."
Felix smiled and nodded at the attendant. She'd heard him after all.
The Steel Golems hadn't ever been a real challenge. Though they had known some Sword Forms, the constructs hadn't been fast enough or strong enough to take advantage; Felix had destroyed them before any of their moves could matter. While it felt pretty cool to tear through an enemy, all Felix could think about was the bill he'd owe Cal by the time he was done.
And the attendant said fixing the Steel ones was trickier than Clay. Felix groaned and looked at the gleaming metal parts scattered around him. Maybe I can fix a few? Might give me a chance to see their insides in a more...constructive way.