Chapter 52: Tripped Up

  Alabaster

  Alley finished internally counting to six and broke into a sprint. He had been crouched on the stairs while his friend got the attention of the towering…Bone-Golem? He had never seen or even heard of a golem made of bone before but if he had to imagine one this is what it would look like.

  Before Darius had even moved at all Alley had been unwinding his chain from around his body. If this was going to work he was going to need every inch of the CoreSteel links he could get.

  Out of the corner of his eye Alley could see his friend fighting the monster and he had to stop himself from pausing his run to watch the display. The speed, accuracy, and power of Darius never ceased to impress him. Granted his friend was being pushed back but for a human teen to be even holding his own against the bladed Bone-Golem seemed like insanity.

  ‘Okay step one.’ Alley thought to himself as he skidded to a halt at the closest of the stone columns. Finishing the process of unwinding the chain from around himself, Alley looped it around the faded white stone. The blade of the hook slotted into one of the links acting as a lock on the noose of metal now around the column.

  Step one had been the easy part, step two called for him to sort of whip the chain around the monster at multiple points. In theory that would be a lot easier using the hook end, but Alley didn’t have time to secure the chain in a satisfactory way without it. So chain lasso was just going to have to do.

  Alley had less practice with just the chain without the weight of the hook, so it wasn’t quite the extension of his body he was used to but he was still confident he could use the chain as a lasso of sorts. Looking at the surging monstrosity he didn’t think one loop was going to disable the creature enough.

  ‘Okay, so I can’t let the chain loop more than once per joint.’ If he did the length would reduce too quickly, and the monster wouldn't be sufficiently impeded.

  That meant getting extremely close to the creature, but so be it. The Monster had its bladed hands full with Darius and his transformed spear anyway. Holding the chain in both hands, Alley took off running again. For perhaps the hundredth time he regretted how much he had resented all the running his parents made him do. They had been absolutely right, surviving in the wider world beyond Cursed Isle meant running. Lots and lots of running.

  Accounting for the way he would skid on the wet grass Alley turned his feet and arrested his momentum, at the same time whipping the chain out two-handed so it wrapped around the monster’s neck, doing a full loop once before the dark-haired boy snatched it out of the air.

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  A small snag developed in Alley’s impromptu plan; The monster spun to face him almost immediately. The Bone-Golem’s movements were jerky and mechanical but they weren’t slow. The moment the monster laid its empty eye sockets on the dark-haired boy it launched into a flurry of thrusts with its bladed arms.

  It was just the sort of opening Darius had been waiting for. While Alley hurled himself into a backward dive and then roll, the hunter lunged forward to plant his primitive-looking axe into the golem’s upper back. Naturally, the monster turned and faced the source of this damage, allowing Alley to loop his chain around one of the golem’s knees. Once more it turned after the CoreSteel pulled tight. This monster had a sort of autonomy to it that the zombies were lacking, but it was still seemingly extremely stupid. Allowing itself to be caught between the two of them and reacting to every attack from either, rather than picking a direction and breaking out.

  ‘Almost like a machine.’ Mused Alley as he watched bone chips fly from where his friend slammed the axe into the creature’s back again. Despite the Bone-Golem’s power and durability, the tide was clearly turning in their favor. Before long the monster’s movements had become too impeded by the chain to truly fight back.

  Alley had fully expected to have to run back to the pillar and knot the hookless end of the chain, or failing that he thought he would have to maybe pull the chain in an effort to trip the monster up or slow it down. With the way it had sort of just stood there responding to each attack from the boys in turn, such an effort had been unnecessary. Alley had just kept roping the monster up with a chain that even its prodigious strength had no hope of breaking.

  The timing couldn’t have been better, once the monster was practically immobilized Darius brought his axe down in a massive overhead chop onto the gap where the monster’s nose would be if it was alive. Bone fragments hit the air once more, but in far greater numbers as the bone-golem’s skull exploded from the force of the blow. No more than five seconds later the massive hacking axe reverted back to Darius’ spear, which Alley suspected would have had a far harder time actually hurting the monster.

  Panting the boys shared a wordless fist bump before Alley activated his Dealer. The monster had collapsed lifeless onto the wet grass but already Alley could see the shifting purple of Undeath resonance flowing in those tiny helixes between the shattered remains of the skull.

  ‘Yeah, That is quite enough of that.’

  Pressing his cloak against the corpse Alley let out a little breath he didn’t realize he had begun to hold when the Card creation effect activated.

  “Now.” He said as the pair of boys watched the Resonance orbs fuse into the Card image before the Card itself was created. “ help me get the chain unwrapped from this thing.” Redirecting his gaze down to the chain-wrapped bone monster Darius let out a sigh.

  “Next time can you tangle it up less?”

  “Next time I’ll just let you get carved up.” The boys shared a quick laugh and got to work on the chain after Alley snatched the still warm Card up and drew it into his Dealer’s storage.

  Pretty good value card if I say so myself.