The stone golem was pushed back a step and then so, sliding along the hard-packed dirt. Not because of the [Reflect] enchantnt, but because Jas had already been swinging his hamr, and instinctively poured as much mana as he could into the [Heavy Blow] enchantnt once his shield had shattered.
Jas was also sent flying back by the simultaneous blows.
BAM
He crashed into the wall, banging his head inside his helt even as the rush ca upon him. He tried to let go of the handle of his ruined shield, and he couldn't.
His fingers were stuck.
His mind raced. He had to get up, he had to switch shields, he needed to move—
The stone golem had found its balance first, and was swinging another giant stone arm.
Desperate, Jas stored the shield fragnt in his magic bag. A desperate gamble he hadn't known would pay off. Then, he tried to summon his shield into his hand, at the ready…
And that failed.
Jas took the hit on the chest and was slamd into the stone wall, leaving an indent. His armor, heroically, resisted the strike, but not nearly as well as Jas had expected from [Earth Resistance] armor.
Earth magic is a subtle thing. The basic enchantnt [Earth Resistance] provides protection from Earth affinity. It increases resistance to petrification, so poisons and toxins, and so forms of oscillatory magic. But in the sa way that Jas had been relying on the [Heavy Blow] enchantnt—for there's not much that can resist a large physical impact—now Jas found himself on the receiving end.
The stone golem, though powered by Earth magic, was not using magic as part of its attacks.
It was simply hitting really, really hard.
And Jas was wearing simple Iron armor.
Clang!
Jas' armor rang like a bell and dented, putting a heavy pressure on his chest, restricting his breathing.
He felt more than heard the soft cracks of his ribs breaking.
His numb hand finally closed on the handle of his large iron tower shield, the thickest shield he had, and jerked it up over his body pressed into the wall just in ti to block the follow up strike from the golem.
CRASH
The shield dented.
The shield dented.
Jas had never been properly trained as a Smith. He didn't know about tallic alloys. He didn't know about advanced forging techniques like oversmithing, substrate compression, or multitallic layering. And iron, though resistant to cutting, is susceptible to blunt force.
Jas pushed himself out of the wall with the rebound of the strike, and the next strike hit him from the side, pushing him back from the stone golem.
The shield was heavy, and Jas was hurting, and he couldn't breathe, and the golem was coming at him again, faster than he expected.
He jamd the spikes into the ground and t the strike, pushing into it like he had with the tackles of the mole monsters over a year ago.
This worked in the sense that he t the force of the strike without being knocked off balance.
It failed in the sense that sothing in his right arm broke as the shield was slamd into his pauldron, denting it and bruising his shoulder.
But he landed the counter.
[Hamr Strike]
[Heavy Blow]
BAM
The hamr crashed into the stone golem's chest, and chunks of rock fell, revealing a dim brown light glowing in the monster's chest.
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That was all Jas saw before the golem kicked Jas' shield and sent him flying back. He bounced off the wall at an angle, spinning, and lost his grip on the shield which fell away with a thump on the ground.
Jas staggered, dizzy, nauseous, unable to catch his breath. There was a stabbing pain in his chest now, too, to join the stabbing pain in his stomach. His back found the wall, and then he saw the golem coming in fast, striking, aiming for the hamr in his hand.
He couldn't move in ti.
WHAM!
Crunch
The Earth War Hamr fell to the ground, with Jas' left hand still wrapped around the handle.
Ti seed to slow for Jas as he stood there watching his dismbered arm fall to the ground. His eyes flicked to where his arm had been. The stone golem's punch had crushed and severed everything from his mid-upper arm to just below his elbow, leaving him with a stump. The Brown Iron armor had been crushed as well, pinching the wound closed. As he saw it, the pain swept over him, but it paled in comparison to the realization that it was over.
Everything was over.
Jas knew of only two ways to recover from a lost limb: advanced Holy magic spells, and the legendary concoction Elixir.
Both had to be used within hours of the loss of limb before it beca permanent.
He was currently trapped in a Dungeon, in the wilderness sowhere days away from even small villages, deep in the mountains.
And that had been his good hand.
He would never be a Smith, now.
Everything he had ever wanted to be was now impossible.
Despair swept through him in less ti than it takes to blink, and then there was anger. Jas saw red, and his world narrowed to just the stone golem.
He was as good as dead, but he wasn't going out alone.
He'd kill this thing if it was the last thing he did.
Everything hurt, but nothing mattered more than wrapping his numb, slow, stiff fingers as tightly as he could around the handle of his other Earth War Hamr in his magic bag.
The stone golem raised its arms for an overhand blow, aiming for his head. It was standing right in front of him, brown light glimring in its chest.
Jas swung artlessly. He couldn't use any Technique with his right hand. But he poured as much mana as he could into the enchantnt.
[Heavy Blow]
It caught the golem around the hip, and pushed it back, off balance for just a mont.
One mont long enough for the son of two Brawlers to push off the wall and bring his own hamr up for an overhand strike to the monster's chest.
Jas pushed his mana harder than he ever had. There was a crackle from the hamr's head, and it, too, glowed with a brown light.
The Smith and the golem swung at the sa ti.
But the Smith was moving forward, and the golem was standing still, slightly on the backfoot.
Jas' strike landed first.
BOOM!!
Jas slamd his hamr into the brown light in the golem's chest, shattering the Earth Jewel to pieces along with his hamr, which had overloaded its enchantnt and also shattered.
The golem was pushed back, but its arms still struck a glancing blow to Jas' head as it fell, ringing his helt like a bell and concussing him.
They both fell at the sa ti. The golem, now dead, on its back. Jas, on his front.
Enchanter Class has reached level 16.
Smith Class has reached level 16.
The intrusive thoughts went unnoticed as Jas blacked out. For how long, he couldn't say.
When he woke, he was dully surprised. Blood had pooled inside his helt and congealed along the side of his head. Breathing hurt. His arm hurt. He was light headed.
He vomited, which also hurt. Salty-sour bile, blood, and half-digested tentacle flesh pooled in his helt.
He raised his arm but couldn't get a grasp on his helt—
Oh. His arm was missing.
He tried with his other arm, but his fingers were stuck around the handle of his hamr.
[Appraisal: Broken Earth War Hamr, Quality: Very Low, Durability: 0/19, Enchantnt: Heavy Blow (Overloaded)
He could barely see out his helt full of slowly leaking fluids, but only the handle was left. The head had shattered to pieces, now scattered around him.
It hurt. It hurt so much, but he used his stump and his arm and managed to pull his helt off entirely, letting the various fluids splatter down his dented cuirass.
Ti seed to pass in fits and starts from then on. One mont he was trying to get his arm to go into his magic bag, the next he was walking through a cavern with no recollection of how he had gotten there. Now his hand, his numb, ruined, right hand, was wrapped around his original Earth War Hamr.
He poured mana into the enchantnt and swung clumsily at sothing, obliterating it.
He walked down the center of a cavern, ignoring tunnels.
A small room.
Another cavern.
Another small room. He was thirsty, and breathing heavily. New bruises, blood running down his leg. He looked down, wondering where his left arm had gone. tal was pinched shut around the end, and blood had congealed around the edges.
A dark tunnel.
Stairs.
He was sobbing. He was puzzled a mont until he rembered.
He'd never be a Smith.
He'd never escape this Dungeon.
It was never going to end until he was dead.
Climbing the stairs hurt. There was a stabbing pain in his chest with every breath.
His head hurt. Where were his parents? He needed their help. He wanted to apologize, he needed to find them.
He stumbled. It was bright now. Brighter than any floor before, save the… that one. The one with… he couldn't rember. Second brightest, then. He pushed through brush and leaves and branches.
He jerked, nearly losing his balance. Gotta watch out, watch out for the bushes, might be monsters…
A noise. Yelling.
Jas hadn't known his heart could sink any further.
The slavers must have found him.
He swung his hamr, pouring mana into each swing, but they danced around him, yelling. One over-zealous swing combined with the lack of balance from missing an arm took him to the ground, and he lay there a mont, feeling nothing but pain and regret, before he passed out.
And so it was that the Aspirant Knight found the Smith, missing an arm, clad in crude, broken Brown Iron armor, wielding a war hamr with an enchantnt as strong as any he had ever seen, carrying the Legendary Bag of Holding that had been missing for over sixty years, while on a routine patrol deep in the hinterlands of the kingdom of Iberteria, seven years before the Demon Army's Landing.
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