Chapter 41
A red-haired guy standing at the top of the watchtower was approached by his partner dressed in plate armor.
"Mr. Don, how was the communication session," he asked with some kind of wild grin on his face.
- I told about everything that happened in Hordnock, - the man still in the helmet spoke, - at the same time enlightening them about the strength of the golem army that was driven to the border, these unknown. This of course caused a little commotion among the elite, and at first we were ordered to enter into negotiations, but the king had his say and everything changed. We are ordered to check what their army is really worth, of course, all this will be done unofficially, in case of our failure, the kingdom does not know us, we will simply be mercenaries from the outside, having nothing to do with the dark people.
In the eyes of the guy standing with him, a spark of passion of a hunter flashed:
So we can have fun with them?
— Yes.
- Great, great! Dhahaha.
So, here's our plan. The army of golems they brought along is certainly strong, and in a direct confrontation will cause great damage to any army, but, in itself, this army is just a pile of stones. We need to figure out those who control it and kill these puppeteers, if the golems are controlled by an artifact, then capture it. After we kill all the living in their army, we need to report this to the kingdom, they will send us a team of alchemist engineers who will try to reconfigure the golems so that they serve us.
- But how do we figure out who controls them.
Taking out a faceted blue crystal framed in white gold in the form of a fancy setting from his pocket, Don monotonously said:
- This artifact is able to find the source of power that controls this or that object, with the help of it we can easily figure out the owners of these stone freaks.
"And we'll kill you, haha."
Crazy, Don thought to himself, but he's a strong nut who's good for the kingdom.
* * *
"Haha, so that stone overgrowth over there, on the back line, that is surrounded by two hundred golems and is the owner of this entire army?" the guy asked his armored companion.
"It may seem unbelievable, but the pendant showed that this creature controls everyone alone. I don't know how it's possible, but I'll have to believe it. Well, Vern, you attack first as planned.
- Yes sir.
* * *
In the middle of the night desert, a few kilometers from the main army, surrounded by two rows of golems placed in a circle, a stone monster, Monzhin, sat on the ground.
All his eyes were closed on numerous faces, and no, he did not sleep, like many monsters in the empire, he did not need to rest at all, so this position was not associated with sleep at all, but with a method of increased concentration, for which it was necessary distract from external stimuli.
Suddenly, something lit up the sky as if it were daylight, and one of Monzhin's faces opened its eyes to see what was happening. To his surprise, the cause of this light was a huge fireball, which, approaching him at an insane speed, left behind a long trail of ash and flame.
[Stone style. Cubic fortress.] - the only thing that the monster managed to utter.
A powerful explosion shook the space, illuminating the night with a storm of escaping fire.
Several hundred golems, also hit, literally crumbled into dust, mixing with their molten, to a liquid-like state, armor. Clouds of smoke and ash covered the nearby expanses, making the already dark night impenetrable.
When the ashes had settled, and the wind had dispelled the smoke, the following picture appeared before the eyes of the two perpetrators of this event.
In a small crater, at the very epicenter of the explosion, as if untouched by it, stood a huge twelve-meter cube made of an unknown stone. The sand below him, turned to glass by the unbearable heat, was the only witness to the infernal flames raging here only a few minutes ago.
- Ho, ho, did you manage to hide? I thought I'd end him with one blow.
"Let's get him out of there," Don said to the laughing Vern.
- I'm listening.
With a force pushing off the ground, and levitating a good hundred meters, the red-haired guy landed on the cube, and clapping his hands, put them to him.
[Destroy to ashes.] - he said.
An eerie grinding sound pierced his ears. The cube heating up from the inside, covered with something resembling erosion, began to crack.
"Go away," Don said in a rough voice, clasping the hilt of the sword with his palm.
At the same moment, the red-haired guy jumped to the ground, rolling to the side.
[Flicker. Flash Light. Multiple hit].
Flickering like lightning at a speed exceeding the speed of sound, the man in armor struck a hundred blows on a huge cubic stone. And that one, divided into many pieces, collapsed under its own weight.
"It looks like that's all," the guy turned to Don, who was still standing in a fighting stance.
But he, only silently watched the pile of stones in which their enemy was supposed to be buried.
"Back," he suddenly shouted, jumping back.
And at the same moment, like an explosion, a huge monster in one fell swoop scattered a hundred multi-ton stones, under which it had been buried just now.
[A forest of thorns.] The stone giant shouted as he slammed his fist on the ground.
And, like waves diverging after a stone was thrown, huge spikes, diverging from the epicenter of the impact, began to cover the spaces adjacent to the monster, piercing everything in their path.
[Flicker] - The strongest swing of the sword literally outlined a small cliff around the knight, thereby interrupting the technique in this segment of the glassy desert.
[Eastley] - Vern said, and all the spikes within a dozen meters from him literally melted.
"Weak, monster, you won't get through us like that," he laughed.
- Be careful, don't relax.
- Yes, I know, I know.
"Damn, those thorns are like an impenetrable forest. They are not so much designed to kill us, but to reduce our mobility. And that psycho Vern doesn't understand the seriousness of our situation at all."
At this time, the writing on Monzhin's body glowed and the hundreds of stones that he had just scattered began to crumble, and then reassembled, compressing into spherical shapes.
Concentrating these levitating balls near them, the faces located on the giant's body smiled.
"Attack him Vern, he's going to hit us," Don shouted, realizing the situation.
"Easy," the boy shouted.
[Dungeon of fire, the heat of the flame.]
Monzhin, concentrating stone blocks near him, was enveloped in fire in the form of a six-sided prison, the walls of which consisted of scarlet flame.
But this spectacle did not last long, hundreds of spherical stones, which surpassed steel in their strength, literally tore apart the fiery cage, rushing towards the enemy.
[Flicker. Multiple blows.] - standing up in a fighting stance, the man in armor said, the swing of the sword of which was cut into pieces, flying stones.
[Incinerate. Smoldering barrier.] Vern activated his most powerful defensive technique. And many walls of flame, rising to the sky, could hardly stop that part of the stones that flew in his direction.
Both men were breathing deeply, and their opponent, smiling with numerous faces, looked at them with mockery.