What was once Kurt's body lay as ashes on the stone floor. The largest creature, the one that had caught him, loomed over the spot where he'd fallen, molten rock dripping from its fists as it turned toward the rest of the team.
The two other golems flanked the biggest one, molten cracks spidering across their bodies like veins of lava as heat rippled off them in waves that warped the very air. Three monsters against eleven fighters.
"What the fuck was that for?" Emma spat at Rook, eyes narrowing, blade already drawn.
Rook shrugged, a grim smirk on his face. "I want to say it was strategic, but mostly just felt like it." His tone shifted instantly as the creatures moved. "Spread out! Team A, left golem! Team B, right golem! Emma, you're with me. We stall the big one."
"Stall it!" someone yelled urgently. "That thing just killed Kurt!"
"Yeah, and?" The reply wasn't really a question. Then he barked, "Thirty minutes! Keep the big one busy, take down the other two! Move!"
Immediately, the team scattered.
"Thirty minutes," Emma muttered, already moving toward the largest golem. She started the mental timer and drew her blade. "This is gonna be a long, fucking half-hour."
The chamber erupted into chaos.
Team A engaged the left golem. Their weapons barely scratched its surface, yet they managed to keep it occupied. Moving in coordinated strikes of hit and retreat, hit and retreat, chipping away at its joints with each pass.
Team B on the other hand, took on the right one, slower and more methodical. Their leader called out weak points, and they focused their attacks, trying to crack its armor piece by piece.
Emma and Rook faced the largest of the nightmares, Kurt's killer.
They didn't try to kill it. They couldn't. Not without using their real abilities and expending essence, which they were saving for whatever came next. For now, their low grade artifacts would have to suffice.
Emma darted in and out, slashing at its legs to keep it turning, keep it focused on her. Each hit sent sparks flying but barely left a mark.
At the same time, Rook caught its fists mid-swing, boots digging trenches into the stone as he absorbed impacts that would have pulverized anyone else. His gauntlets glowed faintly with stored essence, but he didn't release it. Not yet.
"Twenty-three minutes!" Emma called, rolling under a molten punch.
Suddenly, a scream tore through the chamber. One of Team A went down, molten debris spraying like hellfire, burning an arm useless.
"Lizzie!" Rook roared without taking his eye off his golem.
Lizzie skidded across the floor, hands glowing green. She dropped beside the fallen fighter and slapped her palm to his chest. His eyes fluttered open, and she hauled him up by his good arm.
"Up you go, buttercup!" she chirped as she helped him up. "Try avoiding critical injuries. C-rank healer's got limits, you know?"
She shoved a potion into his hand before darting to the next casualty, her voice carrying that reckless tone. "Come on, don't make me do all the heavy lifting here."
Meanwhile, Team B made progress on their golem. One fighter found a crack in its shoulder joint and drove his weapon deep. Molten blood sprayed across the stone, and the creature staggered.
"Keep on it!" their leader shouted.
They pressed the advantage, striking the same spot repeatedly until the arm hung limp, barely attached. The golem roared and swung its good arm, but it was slower now, off-balance.
"Eighteen minutes!" Emma called out.
The largest golem hadn't slowed at all. If anything, it seemed to burn hotter. Emma's arms ached from constant movement, her tank top was full of burn holes, and sweat poured down her face.
"We're not gonna last," someone gasped.
"Yeah, and?" Rook said again, catching another punch. His boots slid back a foot. "Fight."
Team B drove their golem toward the edge of a lava channel. It stumbled, molten feet slipping on smooth stone.
"Now!" their leader roared.
They hit it together, a coordinated strike to its damaged knee that shattered its joint, and the creature toppled backward, arms flailing as it fell into the lava with a massive splash, thrashed twice, then sank beneath the surface.
"One down!" someone cheered.
"Two to go!" Rook shouted. "Emma, time?"
"Ten minutes!"
But Team A was struggling. Their golem had barely been damaged, and exhaustion was setting in. Another fighter went down, not dead, but out of the fight.
Lizzie pulled them to safety, but her essence reserves were draining fast.
The largest golem seemed tireless. It swung at Emma, and she barely dodged, feeling the heat sear her back as the fist passed overhead.
"This is fucked," she muttered.
"Eight minutes," Rook said.
Emma's blade struck the creature's leg for the hundredth time. Another spark. Another scratch. Nothing that mattered.
Her arms burned. Her lungs burned. Everything burned.
Seven minutes.
Team A was pinned against a wall now, their golem driving them back step by step until they couldn't retreat any further.
Six minutes.
Emma ducked under another swing and came up slashing. Her blade bit into the same spot she'd been hitting, a joint in the creature's arm. This time, she felt it give slightly. Not much. But something.
"Rook! Right arm, same spot I've been hitting!"
Rook gave a short nod, and when the creature swung again, he didn't merely block this time. Instead, he surged forward, seized its wrist in both gauntleted hands, and twisted.
The joint didn't shatter, but it definitely gave. Now the creature's right arm hung noticeably slower, the movement sluggish and reluctant.
"We're getting somewhere," Rook muttered.
"Not enough," Emma snapped without looking at him. "Five minutes. Where the fuck is he?"
Four minutes left.
Somewhere behind them, Team A lost another fighter. Lizzie lunged to cover the gap, but she was already too late; the scream cut off abruptly.
Three minutes.
The largest golem's fist caught the edge of Emma's shoulder as she dodged. She felt something crack, tasted blood. Kept moving.
Two minutes.
Rook's gauntlets were scorched black. Emma's blade was chipped and bent so she sheathed it and pulled out another.
One minute.
"Come on," Emma muttered, eyes flicking to the pile of ash where Kurt had fallen. "Come on, you fucking asshole—"
And then—
Light.
Sparks radiated from nothing, and a body materialized in the ash. Kurt's chest heaved as life shoved itself violently back into his bones, and a glowing screen flickered across his vision.
[RESURRECTION COMPLETE]
Deaths: 3
New Ability Unlocked: [Pyrokinesis – F Rank]
+5 Points Awarded [Uncommon Death]
Available Points: 18
[Reaper Detection: DORMANT (28 days)]
Kurt groaned softly and rolled onto his side. His vision cleared slowly as the chaos around him came into focus. Two golems still rampaged through the chamber. Blood smeared the stone floor. Several bodies lay motionless where they had fallen.
"Why are there still two of these molten freaks?" he muttered while pushing himself up onto one elbow.
"Because you took your sweet fucking time," Emma shot back, refusing to glance away from the enormous golem that loomed directly in front of her.
Kurt reached into the remains of his half-burned pocket and pulled out a crumpled cigarette. He lit it with a quick snap of flame along his fingertips, then took a long drag. "And which one helped me conclude my living?"
"The big one," Rook replied in his usual calm tone.
"Perfect." Kurt summoned his system interface with a thought and immediately allocated five points into Pyrokinesis. The upgrade pushed the skill from F to E rank.
As soon as the change settled, the oppressive heat in the air softened noticeably. It began to feel almost comfortable against his skin.
[Pyrokinesis – Rank E]
Cost to Next Rank (D): 10 Points
Available Points: 13
With the cigarette still hanging from his lips, Kurt started walking straight toward the largest golem.
The creature sensed his approach and turned fully toward him. For one strange moment, its molten eyes flared with something like recognition.
"Remember me?" Kurt asked quietly. "Because I remember you very clearly."
The golem let out a deafening roar and charged forward, the ground shaking beneath its heavy steps.
Kurt stood his ground and simply raised one hand. Then he pulled.
At E-rank, his Pyrokinesis could not extinguish the creature's fire completely. Even so, he felt the heat respond to his will. It bent reluctantly, as though he were slowly turning down a stubborn stove dial.
The golem's glow faded slightly and its movements grew noticeably slower.
"Emma!" Kurt called out sharply. "Its protective heat is gone-ish!"
Emma moved without a second's hesitation. She darted in low from the side and drove her blade straight into the weakened joint that she and Rook had battered earlier.
This time, with the creature's inner fire dulled, the steel sank in deep and molten blood sprayed outward in a violent arc, splattering across the chamber walls.
The massive arm dropped uselessly to the creature's side. At that moment, Kurt called out to Rook, who surged forward immediately.
His gauntlets flared with brilliant blue essence that he had saved until this precise moment, slamming both fists into the golem's chest with tremendous force.
The creature staggered backward, its movements growing sluggish and heavy as Kurt pulled even harder on its fire. Sweat poured down his face from the intense effort, and the creature's glow continued to dim.
Seizing the opening, Emma vaulted onto the golem's back and used the ruined arm as a foothold. Then she raised her blade high overhead.
"Night night, you ugly fuck," she whispered and plunged the weapon down into the base of its skull.
The golem's roar broke off abruptly and twisted into a wet, choking gurgle. Its body convulsed once, then again, before it finally collapsed forward in a heap.
When it struck the ground, the creature shattered completely. Molten fragments scattered everywhere and quickly cooled into dull black glass.
"One left!" Rook called out across the chamber. Meanwhile, Team A remained pinned down, looking utterly exhausted as they struggled to hold the line against the smaller golem.
"On it," Kurt said simply and the three of them moved together in perfect coordination: Kurt continued to suppress the last creature's fire, Emma struck its joints, and Rook hammered its core until the cracks became fractures. The final golem never stood a chance.
Within a minute, the creature shattered, fragments scattering across the chamber, and silence fell over the space, broken only by heavy breathing and the distant roar of lava.
Kurt stared down at the largest pile of cooling shards, the one that had ended his life earlier and tapped ash from his cigarette onto the heap. "Well. That was a lovely chinwag."
"Chinwag?" Emma turned toward him. Her chest still rose and fell rapidly. "You fucking died."
"And then I came back," Kurt replied with a lazy shrug. "Very productive conversation, really."
"Thirty minutes is far too long," Rook said quietly. He was already moving to check on the injured team members. "We cannot afford to wait that long every time."
Kurt shrugged again. "Next time I die, I'll try to schedule it around your convenience."
Just then, Lizzie appeared beside him, sweat-soaked and still riding an adrenaline rush. Or maybe that was just her default state. "Your shirt's toast. Literally."
Without waiting for a response, she grabbed the charred remains and yanked it the rest of the way off. "There. Better." She grinned. "Well, better for me. You're welcome."
Kurt raised an eyebrow but didn't stop her, instead, his gaze shifted back to Emma, who turned away abruptly, signalling the rest of the team. "We're moving out. Right now."
Kurt watched as Rook began issuing orders to the regrouping battered team and flicked his cigarette into the nearest pool of lava, watching it hiss and disappear before falling into step behind the others.
As they pressed deeper into the glowing tunnels, Kurt glanced at his system one final time. Thirteen points remained. Stronger threats waited ahead, and he would need every single point.
And probably a lot more cigarettes.
***
A/N: I hope you're enjoying this so far. Add to Library and send a power stone or two if you're.
And a review or two would mean something to me! Thank you and peace!