Chapter 371: The Floor is Lava
Since the suspicious boulder was placed alone on a hill it imdiately garnered the attention of the others as well, and many exchanged glances in confusion.
Did they just found a rock they really liked? Joanna muttered, seeming a bit discombobulated from the unexpected scenery around them.
But Zac didnt agree as he trusted his instinct on this matter.
Its dangerous, Zac succinctly said shot out five fractal blades in rapid succession.
His hunch proved spot on because the large boulder suddenly burst into flas as it transford into an enormous amalgamation of fire and rock. The stone split into around twenty pieces that made up its body and limbs. The golem reached over five ters in the air, and the air for tens of ters around it shuddered from the heat and power it radiated.
Lava seeped out between the cracks in the stone, and it slowly dripped on the ground. Mysterious fractals also appeared on the stones and the inscriptions shone with a red glimr that contained obvious power.
This is what the golems look like? Emily muttered in disbelief from behind. I dont want to fight those things. I'll get torched before even getting close."
No! Murk shouted with fear. This one is way bigger than the ones weve encountered, and the normal ones arent covered in fractals.
Its a common cultivation thod for golems, Verana said. They inscribe their bodies with Cosmic Pathways to allow energy to flow more naturally. This one is one of the generals, or more likely the leader itself.
Ill test it out, Zac muttered as he glared at the enemy from the distance. "Give
a power boost."
Emily nodded and she threw a burning axe into his back. Zac felt like lava coursed through his veins before the effect stabilized. He chose the axe that gave Strength and Dexterity since he wanted to finish that thing as quickly as possible. Between his own prowess and Emilys boost he didnt fear the golem even if it radiated a greater pressure than even the Demon Lord did.
He disappeared in an instant, and a row of cracks in the ground was the only clue of his path as he rushed forward with the help of his movent skill. He was right in front of the golem in less than a second, and he felt a scorching heat from the Golem's Dao Field. He felt his skin smarting after just a second, but he breathed out in relief as he guessed that the golem didn't seem to possess a fragnt.
The effect of the Dao field was only slightly stronger than his own Peak fields, where the extra boost ca from the golem being in E-Grade. He imdiately released a Dao Field containing heaviness, which hopefully would restrain his enemy a bit.
The golem was expecting Zac's arrival, and its huge fist looked like a small sun as it soared toward him. Zac imdiately summoned a fractal edge and imbued it with Heaviness, opting to clash with the enemy head-on. The clash caused a storm of fire to explode far into the sky, but Zac imbued his body with the Seed of Trees to recover from the small burns.
Cracks appeared in the ground as the Golem stumbled a few steps backward from the initial clash, and Zac imdiately knew that the golem had around 700 Strength at best. It would be an insurmountable power for most people, but Zac's effective strength was over a thousand between his high-grade titles and Emily's boost.
The edge from [Chop] detached itself from [Verun's Bite] and Zac controlled his blade to harass the golem from behind, as he mounted another assault from the front. The golem lit up in a blaze of flas in response, and the fractals on its chest started to emit an even stronger red light than before.
The already huge creature suddenly grew to twice its size, and Zac sensed real danger from it. He managed to cut off a large chunk of rock from its leg with a few furious swings as it transford, but it wasn't enough to interrupt the transformation. The intensity of flas around it had increased by at least a tier, and Zac was forced to dismiss his independent fractal edge.
The blazing heat from the Golem King's body caused constant strain on the blade, and Zac was forced to infuse it with a huge amount of Cosmic Energy if he wanted to keep it going. It was more economical to use [Chop] to create disposable blades that only lasted one swing. Zac realized that the transformation had caused the golem's flas to increase in intensity, but Zac was still overpowering it in raw strength.
Chunks of rock kept falling as Zac systematically dismantled it, stoically enduring the accumulating burns on his body. The Golem King furiously tried all kinds of attacks to take Zac out, but it wasn't strong enough to crush him and the Seed of Trees kept restoring Zac's burns. It released a deep bellow and slamd both its huge fists downward. Zac didn't want to block such a swing without reason, so he quickly jumped up to avoid the strike, aiming a strike at its head.
The two fists cause a massive earthquake in the area, but Zac managed to cut off a decent chunk of one of its shoulders. But a sense of worry crept into Zac's heart as the rumblings didn't abate, but only got worse. Zac finally realized what was going on, and he turned to the people who were keeping a defensive periter in the distance.
"RUN!"
Pandemonium arrived a second later, as an endless amount of lava spewed up from the ground, creating a tidal wave that crashed in the direction of Port Atwood's Forces. It pushed forward with shocking speed, rapidly closing in on the fleeing warriors. Was the Golem trying to retaliate by killing his people?
Zac grit his teeth in fury as he jumped at the golem to launch another mighty swing, but the creature countered with another punch with its barn door-sized fist. Gravel rained down along the slope from a huge jagged wound that ran all the way along the Golems arm, but Zac was in turn launched away like a rocket from the eruption of fire the fist released.
A plu of smoke made a streak through the air as Zac was thrown back almost a hundred ters, but he landed on his feet without an issue. He made no attempts to run back up the hill, and instead opted to run back toward his fleeing army. Getting thrown back was just Zac borrowing the golem's montum, as the huge thing wouldn't be able to push him if he didn't allow it.
He used [Loamwalker] to the limit to get back in ti, but the distance between his forces and the huge wave of lava kept shrinking. He knew that if that wave hit there would be serious casualties, as far from all of them were equipped to resist an attack of that magnitude.
But he was one with the earth as his steps took him closer and closer to the wave, and he finally caught up. The wave was simply massive by this point, and it shone with an almost blinding light. But Zac didn't hesitate as he started running on top of the malleable magma, ignoring the pain of his bare soles.
Smoke sizzled from his feet causing his eyes to tear up from the pain, but Zac only kept running. Unfortunately bad turned to worse when he realized he was starting to sink, even with his trendous speed. In just two seconds he was already to his knees, and he started to sink faster and faster. The lava felt like quicksand, and the pain was quickly becoming unbearable.
The fractals on his robe lit up with a beautiful glimr, but Zac had no ti to admire the defensive charge his gear contained as he hurriedly pushed through the lava. Even with the protection of his top-quality gear he was still subject to trendous heat, and he felt like a lobster getting boiled alive.
His legs strained as he waded through the viscous magma until he finally broke out on the other side, and his eyes were t with the scene of a few Valkyries desperately erecting defensive shields with the help of their War Array. Zac shook his head as he imdiately realized such a wall would not hold against what he just forced his way through, and he took out an item from his Cosmos Sack with a sigh.
A refreshing scent spread across the area as Zac spread out across the area as he had activated his Dao Field for the Dao of Trees, and the next mont a miraculous sight took place. An impossibly dense jumble of thorned brambles spread out for over two hundred ters in an instant, and they grew to twice the height of the sea of lava.
It was [Bramble Wall], the second ace in his repertoire that he found during the hunt. He had already used his [Void Ball] against the Cyborg, but he had kept this item all this ti since it was an item of protection rather than destruction.
This was the choice he made. He could have likely destroyed the Golem King if he was given another minute, but that would have cost the lives of a large group of his own people. He had already cut off a third of its volu, and he couldn't imagine that didn't count as a grievous wound. But Zac had forcibly resisted the whispers of malice in his mind and literally ran through fire to protect his people.
Unfortunately it was all too obvious that a wall of brambles wasnt the optimal defense against lava, and Zac could see how the vegetation was slowly getting decimated even though the brambles rapidly regrew with shocking ferocity. Zac scrambled for ideas and quickly tried to infuse the roots with the Dao of Trees.
It gave no response, even though the two concepts should have matched. He could only try the Seed of Sanctuary as well since he was out of options. This ti it actually worked, and the roots lit up with a slightly golden hue, making them slightly fire-resistant. The spread and effect of his Dao Seed were far greater than he expected, and an idea ford in his mind that he quickly confird.
Sanctuary (Peak): Endurance
50, Intelligence
20, Wisdom
50.
It was another mid-fight breakthrough. The past weeks had made him better realize the duty of a leader, and his decision to give up his own goal for the safety of his people inadvertently helped him push through the final step. He was already close to evolving the seed due to the two iterations of Dao Visions, but this fight gave him the final push.
The bramble wall was still getting scorched by the sea of lava, but the roots managed to last far longer with the help of the Dao of Sanctuary. It even slowly gained thickness due to the regrowth. Zac breathed out in relief, knowing that his army was safe for now.
"How can we help?" Joanna asked from behind.
"I think the Golem King used a skill that was massively empowered by the environnt. We'll just wait it out. Have people move back just in case," Zac said before he jumped up on the wall of brambles to see what was going on.
The Golem lord still stood in the distance, and it looked like it was infusing power into the ground, making it spew out more and more magma like a real volcano. Zac frowned at the scene, knowing that their ti was limited. The bramble would only keep regenerating new roots for twenty or thirty more seconds, while the Golem King seed to just be getting started.
Throw your [Extinguishing Arrays] over the wall! Buy
a couple of seconds! Zac shouted as energy started to surge in his forearm.
The huge fractal hand erged and shot toward the golem with blinding speed. The creature imdiately noticed the new threat, and a large fractal appeared in the air behind it. Out of the fractal a white-hot fla erged, and it actually appeared to be alive as it took a slightly humanoid shape, forming a head and two fanged arms.
An elental! Verana shouted with so surprise. Is that thing a Summoner?
Zac frowned as he looked at the inscribed hand who was suddenly beset by a barrage of fla attacks of the elental. His own hand started to blister and crack from the transmitted heat, but he grit his teeth as he flooded [Natures Punishnt] with the Seed of Trees, allowing it to continuously regenerate its burnt parts.
It finally managed to arrive above the elental and Golem who still kept infusing the ground with energy. The large fractal beneath the hand appeared next, just like it did during the battle against the undead. But no mountain erged from the fractal, but sothing else entirely.
It was instead an endless torrent of water that spewed out of the fractal, making it look like the other end of the array was at the bottom of an ocean.
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