The Glacier Golem's Rampage
Bridget was absolutely no help whatsoever. Scared out of her mind by the sudden crisis, she could only stand behind Haley, trembling violently while the other girl fought the monsters. Raising ice barriers to block their advance and launching attack spells to take them down one by one—it was all Haley’s burden. As a result, instead of finding a path forward they kept retreating step by step. Before long a wall appeared at their backs, cutting off any further retreat.
The one piece of good fortune was that after she dispelled the Light spell, no new monsters were drawn to their position. Haley figured that if she could just eliminate the few remaining creatures visible in her narrow field of view, they could break free of this place and push onward.
That was when it happened.
Thud!Thud!
A deafening rumble shook the ground beneath their feet. Something enormous was approaching, each heavy footfall sending vibrations through the cavern. The darkness made it impossible to see clearly, yet a massive shadow loomed faintly in the distance—the source of those quaking steps. One thing was certain: a gigantic entity was heading straight for them.
“W-what is that…?”
Bridget had apparently seen the same thing. Shaking uncontrollably, she clutched at the hem of Haley’s robe. Even the monsters that had been targeting them hesitated, turning to stare at the enormous shadow that had appeared behind the girls.
Soon the shadow entered their line of sight. It was a house-sized golem formed entirely of frozen rock—one of the powerful monsters she had only ever heard about in stories.
“Hic…!”
The moment Bridget realized what had come for them she began to hiccup in terror. Her luck was utterly rotten. It had started with growing distant from her friends after the first task and failing to secure a proper party. Then she had been reluctantly paired with this strange girl Haley at the last minute, only to plummet into this eerie place after some unknown earthquake struck shortly after the drill began. Being surrounded by grotesque, unfamiliar monsters was bad enough—now she had to face a giant golem on top of it all. There was no such thing as worse fortune.
Even Haley, who had kept a confident expression despite their gradual retreat, swallowed hard. The appearance of a powerful monster like this golem made one thing painfully clear: everything they had experienced since falling here was not part of the professors’ plan but an unforeseen accident.
Her heart raced at this unprecedented situation, but the circumstances were far too dangerous to savor the thrill. She could not guarantee they would escape unharmed.
The golem spotted them and paused, standing motionless for a moment. Then—
Boom!
It smashed its fist down on the white-furred monster standing stupidly in its path. The creature did not even manage a scream before it was crushed. When the golem lifted its fist again, something sticky dripped in thick strands onto the floor. Beneath it lay the monster’s gruesome remains, completely pulverized and fused with the ground.
“Kyaaa!”
Overwhelmed by terror, Bridget let out a scream that sounded like her soul was leaving her body and collapsed in a heap. After its merciless strike the golem began moving again. It trampled and swept aside every monster standing between it and the girls, advancing with heavy, inexorable steps.
Haley hastily raised an ice barrier, but—
Crack!
The wall shattered like paper under the golem’s kick. Her ice barrier had barely delayed the creature by a single step and offered no real resistance. Even though it was hastily formed and not especially sturdy, her signature ice walls were something lesser monsters could never break through—they had always been forced to go around. Seeing them prove completely useless was shocking even to her.
She concluded that fleeing blindly was the only option and glanced behind her. Unfortunately their backs were now against solid stone. To make matters worse, the unconscious Bridget lay slumped in the piled snow.
Despair washed over Haley. Still, she raised her staff, determined to resist in any way she could. That was when—
Flash!
The surroundings suddenly brightened. Lifting her head from where she had ducked against the blinding glare, she saw a brilliant light floating near the cave ceiling.
“Haley!”
Beside the giant golem, far in the distance, stood Kael—the very person she had wanted so desperately to share a party with.
Ophelia’s choice to fire the light upward had been excellent. Thanks to that, the monsters’ aggro swung toward us instead of Haley, who had been backed into a corner.
The biggest problem, however, was the glacier golem. It only glanced once at the sudden light before turning forward again with clear disinterest, still fixated on Haley.
It was strange. Monsters living in an ice-cave dungeon were usually drawn to light. Come to think of it, the fact that a glacier golem—which normally stayed in the inner zones of the third floor—had wandered this far was unusual in itself.
Since it was an emergency, I decided to focus on bringing the golem down without letting anyone get hurt.
It was trying to close in on Haley and the fallen Bridget. I had only heard the name from Ophelia earlier and felt uncertain, but seeing her now I knew exactly who she was. Bridget—the blonde student who had been grouped with Ophelia during the first task.
Whoever she was, I had no desire to watch anyone get trampled by that thing and fused with the floor, so I prepared a Magic Missile at once. I had already drunk a mana potion on the way here, so my reserves were more than sufficient.
Bang!
I scored a direct hit on the back of the golem’s head, but it only turned to look at me once before continuing toward Haley again.
Why does it keep targeting only Haley?
Normally a monster’s aggro would shift to whoever attacked it directly. Haley was raising ice walls to slow its advance but wasn’t actually damaging it. Logically it should have come after me, yet for some reason it remained completely fixated on her.
“This side is cleared.”
In the meantime Blair and Ophelia had finished off the monsters around us. True to their reputation as the ace party of this drill, they had cleaned up the area in moments.
“More are coming.”
Ophelia gave a small nod toward the path we had come from. The light had pulled the monsters in our direction.
“I will handle this side. As for you, Miss…”
Blair raised her sword and assumed a combat stance once more, eyes locked on the golem.
“Yeah. I’m counting on you.”
The moment Ophelia nodded, Blair dashed forward to meet the new wave of monsters.
Ophelia gave me one determined look before nocking an arrow. No words were necessary between us. She drew up blue mana and prepared her specialty—lightning arrow.
Boom!
The impact was on an entirely different scale from my single Magic Missile, slamming into the golem’s back. Lightning spread outward from the point of impact and coiled around its body. Yet the golem did not flinch, just as it hadn’t with my spell.
It seemed to have decided to ignore us completely. Despite the heavy blow it never even glanced back. It simply crushed the ice walls in its path and kept advancing.
Ophelia’s lightning arrow had slowed the golem’s movements somewhat, but that was all. The creature possessed high resistance; even a lightning arrow carrying a paralysis effect had only managed to make it slightly sluggish.
To defeat something like this there was only one real method. But with Haley and Bridget so close to the golem, I could not risk launching stacked missiles in these conditions.
I would have to draw it away somehow, or else—
“Keep up the suppression fire.”
“Kael?”
Leaving those words with Ophelia, I broke into a run toward the golem. It was uncertain, but if the creature was only targeting Haley anyway, the odds of me becoming its direct target even at close range seemed low. And even if I did take a hit, my Indomitable Will skill would let me survive for thirty seconds. That would be more than enough.
The closer I drew, the more the golem’s true scale became apparent. Ophelia’s lightning arrows and Haley’s ice walls had slowed it, yet it continued taking one heavy step after another toward the corner where the two girls waited.
I leaped straight to the golem’s side.
“It’s dangerous!”
Haley’s face went deathly pale as she saw me pass right beside the creature’s leg. But I did not slow down. As expected, the golem paid me no attention whatsoever. I passed safely and reached Haley and Bridget.
“Take Bridget and fall back further.”
I shouted to the stunned Haley, then turned at once to face the golem. If I could not pull it away from them, I would simply fire from an angle where they would not be caught in the blast. Since the creature was not targeting me, all I needed was a little time.
Around the staff I gripped tightly, white spheres began to bloom one after another.