Emily peeked around the corner to look out over the room before her.

  As best she could tell, it was a blockade to prevent anyone from going any deeper into the structure. A set of large gates sat at the end of a T-junction, which split off in either direction.

  From here Emily could see the two ‘guards’ standing on either end of the doors. Their ever-vigilant gazes turned toward either end of the vanishing hallway. It was the only reason they hadn’t spotted Emily from here.

  Ashe poked Emily in the back making her turn back to the woman.

  “Those are Mage Constructions. I’ve seen them in action. We should find another way around,” she whispered, her gaze never moving from the mtal titans.

  Emily shook her head.

  “I call them golems but either way I’ve dealt with them before, they’re manageable if you know what you’re looking for.”

  Ashe snorted.

  “And you do? Wait, when did you have time?”

  Emily snorted and looked back along the corridor they had come from. It had taken them over an hour of travel to get to this point, dodging quite a few guards as they went.

  “You keep watch. I learned how to deal with these guys, but I’m going to need to give them my full attention.”

  Ashe nodded as she bit her lip and readied herself.

  Emily smiled at her tense form.

  In all likelihood, Emily could get quite a lot out of this. The last time she had done this she had been going in blind and the golem was focused on her, but currently the things stood like silent sentinels, ready and waiting for Emily to mess with.

  “You got this,” she said to Ashe as she grinned and pressed her hand to the wall, releasing her blood.

  A delicate vein of red trailed down to the ground and into the seams of the metal, making use of them to hide her approach.

  The last time she had tried this the blood had been pushed out, and it was only when the order to ‘halt’ was given, that Emily was able to take advantage of the opening.

  The difference this time was that she knew this would happen. If she could anticipate it, she could counter it. She just needed to beat the golem's reaction times. If she couldn’t it would get dangerous for both of them.

  When her blood reached the distant hallway she had to concentrate to manipulate it finely from this distance. Luckily she’d had plenty of practice over the years.

  The two golems didn’t seem to notice the creeping veins of blood slinking ever closer. When she was directly below them Emliy built up some reserves so that she could go to work immediately.

  All the while Emily remained motionless her hand pressed against the wall as she prepared to strike.

  Only when her breathing was steady did Emily pull a large amount of life force from her chest and issue the command.

  Blood whipped up from beneath both golems and plunged into the gaps near their metal boots. Emily wastes no time matching her blood to the hollow creature's wards. She did this for both entities and was making good progress when Emily heard an alarmed shout coming from behind them.

  Glancing back, she spotted two more human guards coming their way. They were also in the same fully clothed get-up, complete with batons.

  Ashe cursed and pulled in the surrounding metal, turning them into whips which she then electrified with the gauntlets they had stolen from the other guard.

  The crack of a steal cable, charged with arcing lighting was distinct and caused both men to come to a stop. They glanced at one another and then charged straight forward.

  Emily could only watch Ashe move to block them, as she had he own battles to fight.

  Already the golems were issuing a tenuous humming noise as they identified the invasion of liquid.

  Emily was not sure what part of the ward dealt with water expulsion so she had to take it all over. She was already halfway but a gentle tug of war was already beginning.

  The sharp crack of Ashe’s whip behind Emily cut through the air, followed by a groan of pain. Then a commanding voice rang out: “Construction! Order, to me!”

  Instantly, both golems jerked to attention and pivoted toward Ashe’s battle, their heavy footsteps echoing ominously in the corridor.

  This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author's work.

  Emily ground her teeth and redoubled her efforts. A glance over her shoulder saw one guard on the ground but Ashe was currently fighting the other at close range, and she was losing.

  Emily’s blood ran along the inside of the construct and was up to its shoulders but the force trying to push her out was only growing. Emily hadn’t lost control yet because she was fighting the process tooth and nail, but she needed to act.

  Remaining connected to her blood Emily stepped away from the wall and out into the middle of the hallway to block the golem's advance.

  Emily ignored the metallic clang behind her, focusing instead on channeling more life force into the golems. Through her connection, she forced them to slow their advance, though they did not stop entirely.

  The glow of blue coming from inside the metal monstrosities was rapidly turning to red but then Emily heard Ashe's yelp of pain.

  Out of the corner of her eye, Emily could just make out Ashe shaking from electrocution. The man on the ground had gotten up and managed to surprise her while she was occupied with fighting the other.

  Emily’s nostrils flared and she flicked her wrist backward, sending a sharp crescent of blood at the man's skull. She couldn’t see if it hit, but Ashe's screams were cut short and that was all the attention she could afford right now.

  That lapse in concentration had created an instability in her control, and the golems took advantage of it. The protections on their bodies attempted to push Emily out completely, and it was made harder still by the fact that there were two of them.

  Realizing she was about to lose them, she created two spears of blood and shot them toward the golem’s face plates. Forcing it to seep in through the gaps she coated the inside of both constructs with crimson and pushed her life force into them.

  By now the golems had arrived and one was reaching down toward her, its hand larger than Emily’s chest.

  Emily groaned and pulled backward, the cords stretching up from her arms as her blood was stretched to its limit. Her clawed hands bunched as she slowed their advance, the strands twanging like taunt marionette strings.

  Emily's back was turned to Ashe's fight; she clearly heard the scuffle of approaching feet but couldn’t afford to glance back.

  “Emily, look out!” Ashe’s voice shrieked.

  But Emily couldn’t she braced herself.

  There was an agonizing moment of silence and then an ear-splitting tearing of metal; the expected impact from behind never came and Emily was able to fill all the runes inside the creature with her blood.

  The resistance faded and the golem’s blue light was subsumed as Emily took control. Panting, Emily spoke.

  “Order, stand down.”

  The two golems rightened themselves and awaited orders allowing Emily to turn back to see the scene.

  Surprisingly the guard was closer than Emily had expected, their hand extended out toward Emily’s back only a couple of centimeters away. But they would never have been able to advance any further as a thick spike of steel had pulled itself up from the floor and went straight through their sternum.

  Ashe’s hand was still extended from weaving the spell, a look of horror in her eyes. Emily saw the man she had attacked lying on the ground with a heavy wound in his neck and she felt the moment that both of them died and their life force came rushing into her.

  Emily grimaced when she saw the hollow look on Ashe's face as her eyes remained transfixed on the slumped figure.

  “Ashe, look at me.”

  Ashe’s eyes flickered over to Emily but then back to the fresh corpse.

  “He was going to hurt you, I didn’t mean to-”

  “Ashe, it's okay. You did fine. You saved me, but we need to keep moving. I know this is hard but we’ll talk when we get home.”

  Emily was aware of how callous it sounded, but it was for her own good. From Ashe’s expression, this was her first time killing another human. It was very different from killing a monster and she needed time to process it, but if Ashe broke down here then they were both in danger so Emily had to be short with the woman.

  Ashe didn’t respond right away but Emily took her by the shoulders and marched them towards the doors. The golems followed at their side and when Emily could find no way to open them safely she looked at Ashe.

  “Can you make us a path?” she asked quietly.

  Ashe blinked rapidly and seemed to see the door in front of him for the first time. She placed her hand against them and after a second shook her head.

  “It's warded to prevent tampering...”

  Emily clicked her tongue she hadn’t expected it to be that easy, but she’d hoped it might.

  Glancing at the two metal giants beside her a smile appeared on her face.

  “Open it,” she said as she pointed to the large set of steel gates.

  The golems stepped towards the door and raised their fists. Slamming down on the steel, causing it to buckle and bend with each hit. They then grabbed the irregular sides and bent the corners of the doorway open for Emily to step through.

  “Well, there goes our element of surprise,” she said as she took in the next chamber. Surprisingly, they emerged into a tall rectangular room with a ceiling that disappeared into the shadows above. The far wall curved outward, giving the impression of standing just outside a massive cylinder. Several walkways crisscrossed the upper levels, and a bare staircase spiraled into the darkness. As Emily glanced around, she could sense Alex nearby—above them, to be exact.

  Emily’s excitement was only trumped by her desire to get in and out of there as quickly as possible.

  So leading everyone towards the staircase they began to ascend. Luckily the stairs seemed to accommodate the golems.

  When they got to the top Emily could directly feel the pull coming from what looked like a room right across the walkway. It was attached to the cylinder chamber, held there by wires and support columns making it look like a barebones military installation. But that didn’t stop Emily from approaching it and flinging the simple wooden door off its hinges.

  The space revealed itself as a storage room, its walls lined with mundane items neatly organized into cubicles. At the far end of the room stood an unusual door, starkly different from the rest. Circular and crafted from dull black metal, it seemed out of place—more suited to a submarine, with its large, rounded handle.

  Emily furrowed her brow when she located the blood she’d been following. There were only four guards in this room at the current moment and all of them were surprised when Emily appeared in the doorway.

  Without giving them time to react, Emily moved a heavy cord of blood into the room and pinned all four of them to the walls of the chamber. Her anger bubbled to the surface as she took in the otherwise empty room.

  “Alright, this is getting tiring. Where is he?!” she growled as her eyes fell on one of the small cubicles in the corner of the room. Alex’s boots lay there, sitting neatly amongst his other personal effects with the number eight-eight-seven carved into the top.

  Blood points: 335