In a way, it was an expected outcome. This pce had to have inhabitants that kept it clean. There had to be an owner to such a meticulously built pce. But now, when April was about to face an unknown enemy, she still felt nervous - her heartbeat increasing as a forbidding aura seemed to seep out of the corridor walls.

  Emma also felt it. “... what do you think it is?” She whispered.

  “I don’t know…” April lowered the woman to the ground and held the weapon properly. Her thoughts lingered on the ‘+1 Strength’ her halberd gave her.

  This world was unknown. She already had trouble believing all that she had seen in less than an hour they had spent on it. Magic, terrible beasts, war, and destruction of enemy ships April had never even hoped to touch.

  Honestly, it was hard to adapt to it. Her trigger finger twitched - an instinctive reaction to the movement she thought she had seen in the corner of her eye. But she held no gun. It was a weapon of metal and wood meant to engage the enemy in close quarters.

  And yet, this seemingly simple tool of war and terror gave her an increase in ability. And it counted as an uncommon item at that. What else was out there? What kind of weapons and armour or jewellery, which strengthened their wearers, were out there? How far did such boosts to ability go?

  More importantly yet - what kind of monsters lived down here where light didn’t reach? It wasn’t that far from the exit into the world, but there had been no paths leading from or to this pce. Nothing indicated whatever existed here left these halls.

  She had already seen enormous beasts, wyverns, and giant eagles. What else was there? This unknown made her nervous. Various legends and mythical creatures crossed her mind, conjuring vivid images from a time long gone when she was a child - when her mother had sung her lulbies and told fairytales before sleep.

  Yet, there was nowhere for them to go but forward. While she wouldn’t admit it aloud, she also felt the excitement of facing an unknown opponent with a weapon she had no mastery in a pce she had no idea about.

  Something Emma didn’t share. She was twitchy and unsure where to step. Her hand found April’s back, and her palm pressed against it, using the taller woman as a guiding post in the dark.

  The cool, unsure touch on her skin tingled, somehow making April feel haughty. She puffed her chest, letting the woman rely on her. Her steps remained steady, despite the very distant reverberations that came from the entrance. She knew their pursuers had entered the pce and hoped they would find the darkness just as much of an obstacle as Emma did.

  But for now, she decided to ignore them as an entrance into a rger hall appeared in front of her. There was a dim light too - blue and without flickering, clearly an artificial source of radiance.

  Raising the polearm in front of her, April carefully stepped inside the room, wary of any potential traps, while Emma stayed behind, observing the situation from the corridor.

  The HUD flickered as her artificial eye adjusted to the new levels of illumination. She quickly flicked her eyes, travelling over the room before beginning to comb it more carefully after not seeing the source of the noise.

  Only after a few more nervous breaths did something move. At the farthest part of the room, another doorway was open. A tall, humanoid shadow stepped out of it, dark obsidian shimmering in the light thrown by the blue stone above their head.

  The rge, empty room suddenly felt narrow as the Golem extended its limbs. It held rge scimitars in each of its two arms. They were made of the same material as the Golem’s body - blunt and overly rge; they promised gruesome death to anyone who happened to find themselves in the weapon path.

  And from the lifeless gleam in the Golem’s eyes, April knew she was the primary candidate for a quick demise. The thing raised its weapons higher, beginning to advance towards her in a slow, lumbering way.

  This was… Not the worst opponent she could face, April decided. Her HUD indicated it was not alive - the surface-level scan picked up some energy emanating from it, but it was just enough to fuel the enormous frame.

  She licked her lips, comparing the Golem to the robotic enemies she had faced in the previous world - before she had been torn apart. The spearhead followed the Golem while her integrated computing unit crunched the numbers, trying to pinpoint the thing's core. There had to be one. Something was fuelling it from everything she could read.

  Unfortunately, the Golem didn’t wait for April to finish analysing its composition. It released a low, trembling hum and swung down its left arm at her position with an unexpected speed.

  But for April, it was slow. Too slow. Nothing like the mechanical monsters she was used to. Her body moved on its own while she kept her eyes on the obsidian figure. She skipped to the side, letting the scimitar pass her and…

  She frowned when the expected crash didn’t happen. The Golem had stopped its swing before hitting the floor, showing incredible control over its movements. Its limb twisted, following after her almost immediately.

  It was still slow, but the precise control the Golem had made her wary. She danced around a swing while the thing moved after her. Its hum grew a bit louder, and the other arm began moving as well, forming a whirl as it rotated at its shoulder connection.

  With the increase in speed and the variation in the movements, the Golem began using more energy. April could almost see where the core was. But it became apparent she couldn’t just dodge around. The Golem’s wide reach was slowly cornering her, and she didn’t want to close in on it to dodge around.

  Finally, April decided to strike. With a curt ‘huf,’ she stepped in, thrusting the spear at the Golem's fingers. Her eye drawing a line, predicting where the Golem’s arm would be, she adjusted her aim.

  The strike struck true as she pnted her feet to push more force into her blow. The spearhead cshed against the Golem’s middle finger, and for a moment she feared it would achieve nothing as the opponent didn’t acknowledge the blow. But as her spearhead bounced away from the hard material it had struck, she realised there was a noticeable crack where the finger joint was.

  April pulled back, preparing for another attack, and after another few seconds of avoiding the wild blows, she struck again, aiming at the same finger she had previously. The thrust found its target once more and shattered the finger, blowing it off the construction's palm.

  Once again, there was no reaction. The Golem simply continued to move, heedless of the damage it had just taken. Not that it was significant to its functionality. But it still was another point towards her theory that it was an unfeeling, automated thing without any capability of adapting or learning.

  An incredibly powerful cut headed for April’s head, and she ducked under it, only to realise it was a mistake. She kicked the floor, forcing herself backward, and the attack suddenly changed its direction and sliced downwards.

  After gaining some distance, April stopped skipping over the floor and rooted herself in the spot. She inhaled and then exhaled, her arm shooting forward with the spear aiming at yet another finger. She felt the recoil pass through her weapon into her body, and she staggered backward.

  The halberd's spearhead was now slightly bent and chipped. Her attention flicked to the ‘Equipment’ rows, noting the weapon still hadn’t lost its effect. Even if it was just a single point, it mattered. The Obsidian Golem’s surface was that tough for her to crack.

  And with the test success, the Golem finally lost grip on his mighty scimitar. The full power swing was a mistake on its part, as his weapon was not secured in its arms anymore, breaking out of the Golem’s grasp as it once again tried to suddenly change the strike's direction after the escaping annoyance.

  April was suddenly sprinkled with a shower of small pebbles and dust as the scimitar smmed into the wall, leaving a small crater in it. It stung, overloading her senses for a short while as her integrated system tried to parse through the data. The HUD fshed with red, noting each impacted pce and the negligible damage it had caused.

  “Annoying,” she dismissed the warnings that kept coming. There were bruises, yes. But nothing hindered her movements. She swung vertically, cutting through the dust.

  But the Golem was already looming over her. She had expected there to be a rge hole in its defences now that he cked one of the weapons, but instead, it moved much, much quicker.

  Grabbing the remaining scimitar with both hands, the Golem chopped sideways. Its artificial eyes met hers. She suddenly felt danger and dropped low, letting the chop pass over her head, only to watch the shadow above her head grow rger.

  Not only did the blow quickly change trajectories, coming for her neck again, but the Golem itself was now ramming towards her. His rge frame crashed through the veil of dust, emerging like an impenetrable wall.

  April’s heart stilled, her mind working out all possible ways she could dodge. Her eyes flicked down, and then she moved. Her legs pushed her forward as she twisted to fit between the Golem’s legs. Its rge steps left enough room for her to slip through - but for her alone.

  The polearm cnked on the ground - abandoned in the hurry as she squeezed through the small opening beneath the Golem. Her hands felt so empty now - even the small amount of boon the weapon had given her was noticeable as her movements now had less power behind them.

  Worse yet, the Golem snapped around, dicing in a horizontal movement again, forcing April to retreat again and again. She looked for a way around the opponent but found none.

  Even the HUD fshing with an update didn’t make her feel better. What good was it to know the Golem’s power source was its eyes when she couldn’t reach them?

  No. This situation was a bust. She gnced at the door the Golem had entered from and then at the entrance she had taken. Her mouth open, she prepared to call out for her involuntary companion, only to realise she was not there.

  “Emma!” April’s stomach dropped as she dodged closer to the escape path. “Emma!” She still saw no one. Fear gripped her heart as she imagined the green-eyed girl being carried away by the raiders, or worse - but no. The passage was simply empty.

  “Did you run away?” She muttered, not bming the girl. April had basically kidnapped her. There was no mutual trust between them. She was just a-

  Her eyes widened as she twirled away from the Golem’s shoulder check. The attack had been too sudden. Despite the little variance in the movements, the Golem was cornering her without a weapon she could ward off the menace. She had to make a decision now. To trace the way back and check the other path that had led down or-

  “Emma!?”

  There - at the furthest wall, someone was moving through the dust. Emma was sneaking, crawling her way towards the discarded polearm. The woman gnced her way, clearly angry April had failed to keep her mouth shut.

  Luckily, the Golem didn’t react. She bit down her tongue, observing the other woman find her weapon and lift it with difficulty. She watched Emma struggle to raise it, and the next moment April was floating to the side, her arm extended as her comrade threw the weapon.

  The polearm floated through the air, Emma’s strength insufficient to bring it all the way to her. But it was enough. April hit the ground with her shoulder - pain shooting through her body. She rolled once and twice, then thrice until her fingers bumped against a wooden shaft.

  Grabbing the weapon, April registered the line on her HUD Equipment section fsh, once more granting her the ‘+1 Strength’ and a way to win the fight.

  Enkiari