John immediately summoned and let loose a volley of Arcane Bolts at the creature of mud and earth. As they ripped through the air, he retreated. It was heading towards him far quicker than he thought possible for such a sluggish creature. The bolts hit the monster with a thunk a second later, bouncing off its rough skin before breaking and disappearing on the ground. 

’Shit,’ was John’s only thought before turning to run the other way. If he had no way of damaging the golem, there was no point in fighting it. He needed to save the black haired man, but it would be better to distract it for that. Luckily enough, he was right in believing that the monster would chase him, as it kept up its insane pace in pursuit. There was a problem with that, however, as it was somehow faster than he was. Rapidly the gap between the two closed as John headed back into the cover of the trees. He was throwing barriers and bolts into the path of the creature in hope of slowing it down, but nothing he tried seemed to work. Despite that, he had one last trick up his sleeve before the gap closed entirely. He dove behind a tree at the edge of the ruins, hoping to hide there to throw the golem off his tail.

He stood there, silently. All he could do was hope that the golem was dumb enough to continue on its path, but that was an unlikely wager. Breathing in and out to try to relax, he heard the sound of trees falling from around him. It was getting closer, John knew that, and decided to start sneaking away from his tree. Slow step after step he headed back to the ruins, hoping to reach the ice mage the golem left there. More trees continued falling behind him. He breathed heavily, tension filling his body. For the first time, he had no way to defend himself again. Not long passed before he reached the ruins, but an entire patch of trees had already been destroyed, and John was far too scared to look back to see the golem.

’That thing must be part of the test. I can’t think of any other explanation. No way they’d leave us with a monster in here, right?’ his doubt creeped in, and as he was distracted, he didn’t notice that no more trees had been falling for a few seconds now. Accidentally, he placed his foot on the wrong spot, and a small branch broke from the force of his weight. Breaking the silence that had once again engulfed the area, it rang out and called attention to his location. Earth hit earth as the golem charged back towards the ruins with unnatural speed. The young man, in response, broke out into a sprint. Hoping to help the black haired mage and get out of there as soon as possible.

He crossed the ruins in seconds, the various ruined structures were left behind him one by one. The golem getting closer ever steadily. Eventually, he saw a glimpse of the ice mage again and ran towards it. Once he got closer he noticed several open wounds on his hands and legs and far more bruises. Pausing for only a second he crouched down and picked up the black haired mage’s body. It was quite heavy. Much heavier than the body of Ember John had carried some days ago. John could barely carry him, but he had to. With the man’s body weighing on both his shoulders, he finally looked back to see how close the golem was and saw it about 20 meters away.

”Run…” John heard a whisper from on his shoulders. He swiftly listened. The weight on his back slowed him down, but this was a life or death situation. No amount of screaming and burning muscles would stop him from moving. Green blurred past him from every direction as he sprinted, his only interest escaping the golem. Still, it was almost right behind them, now in sight despite the dense foliage.

Then, it turned its head towards something further into the forest. A loud howl of some sort came from the west, and the creature switched targets, weaving back into the trees and disappearing in that direction. John was utterly shocked by the creature’s sudden departure taking some time to calm himself down and assess his situation. As he got his bearings, he noticed a dot approaching him on his minimap. His shapeshifting ally must have distracted the earthen monstrosity, he figured, and that belief was confirmed a moment later when she landed near him. Before she could morph back to her human form, he noticed where her beak should be was instead a wolf’s snout.

“Sorry it took me this long to get here. I was too sure there was nothing in those ruins-” Yan said, her expression and tone solemn, before being cut off by John.

“Thanks, but that’s less important right now. How long do you think that’s going to distract it?” John knew they had absolutely no time to waste..

“A few minutes probably-” she started, but was cut off once again.

“Can you carry him back to Charlotte? You would be faster through the air.”

“No…” She shook her head. “But I can lead you there, it’s not far.”

“Let’s go then,” they headed off quickly. Yan transformed to her snowy owl form once again and flew close to the ground to show John the way. Despite her help he was now moving at a slower pace, the weight on his shoulders now getting to him. 

Only a few minutes later they heard the golem again. It seemed they had not lost him after all. John started running, increasing his pace in hopes of losing it again. As they neared the clearing, it was obvious that wasn’t going to happen. The creature was still behind them, and the mass of noise it caused was approaching rapidly. Stopping in place, the Gamer decided to take a desperate measure and shouted out to Yan.

“Take him the rest of the way! I’ll see if I can slow the golem down while you get him patched up. After that, let’s hope we can handle it together,” landing in a second, Yan transformed back into her human form, but she was clearly unsure. When she saw the golem in her field of view, however, she relented. She took the cryomancer off John’s shoulders with great effort and headed towards the center of the clearing. Charlotte was standing there, petrified. 

Knowing he needed to get the golem off his allies’ trail, John headed into the woods again. Breaking every branch he saw and launching Arcane Bolts to ruffle the trees around him. That’s when it hit him, he had an ace up his sleeve that he hadn’t used yet. John waited for the monster, and eventually it appeared behind a row of trees. Once in visual range he used the only one of his abilities that could help him.

‘If there’s some weakness to this thing, Observe will tell me,’ a popup appeared a moment later.

There were a few too many things of interest in that sheet, but there was no time to examine them all. What there was time to note, however, was the Golem’s weakness. Its joints were apparently made of soft mud, and if the rock making up the bulk of it withstood the bolts, maybe that wouldn’t.

John stood his ground, hoping that if he got close enough to it he might be able to see the joints. The golem continued rapidly stomping toward him. One meter after the other was consumed by the creature, and it reached the Gamer all too soon. Standing above him like a titan preparing to crush an ant. In fact, that was exactly what it was doing, as once in range it began lifting its forward leg in some sort of stomping motion. As it did so, John could see the mud that made up the knee. His reflexes kicking in, he summoned and fired a round of Arcane Bolts with the Mana he had recharged. Four of them hit the rock around the joint, while the rest hit the exposed area. Despite John’s hopes, they didn’t penetrate further than the screen, getting stuck in the mud and disintegrating in seconds. Now the only chance he had was to run once more, but before he could he felt his body fly through the air, and hit one of the nearby trees. 

Damage taken: 15 HP lost

His breath was taken away in a single instant, and he barely got up. But the pain was worse than his injuries, so he kept running, having no other options. Dodging and weaving through the forest, he tried to lose the golem but to no avail. It felt like hours had passed when John once again stopped. The various bruises and cuts he had suffered from the golem’s hit were closing, only to open up again when he taxed his body. Despite the pain that caused, taxing his body was all he could do to barely keep the creature away. Eventually, it got too much and he could no longer do it. So he stood there, waiting for rescue, or his end. John wasn’t quite sure which he wanted. In his haze, he didn’t even look at his minimap. Only seconds later it stood above him once more, just as titanic as before. 

'Maybe it'll leave them alone once it has me,' he gave up, spouting excuses in his mind. For some reason, he had no more energy to fight any longer. John’s mind was blank. With none of his usual plans. A sense of utter defeat had overtaken him. Time passed as he retreated into his head, where he felt nothing. Every part of his body burned, and he felt the arm of the golem wrap around him and throw him once again. Up was down and down was up for a moment, and then he felt himself hit the ground once more. 

Damage taken: 15 HP lost

At the same time he was laying there on the forest’s floor, his broken staff half a dozen meters away from him, he was saved. The golem slowly crumbled. First it was just a small spot in the center, but soon it spread. Its body turned black as ash as it disappeared into the wind. Behind it stood the only ally he didn't expect to see. One goth looking girl with small horns, Charlotte. When his breath returned, he went to ask, but she preceded him.

"Don't talk, that probably did some serious damage to your internal organs," she said, approaching him. Charlotte no longer looked scared. When she saw the questioning look on John's face she began again, "Matthew's ok. You're in bigger trouble,” she put her hands to his wounds, and weirdly, she didn't have the gloves on anymore. John felt her hands, which were soft and unnaturally cold. As she focused, his wounds closed up and his health ticked up faster than before. His mind was still in a haze, and he blacked out before she spoke another word. 

“He’s waking up!”

The world slowly began to form into coherent shapes around John’s eyes, and he saw the entirety of his class standing around him. He was laying on some sort of soft material which had been placed on the ground. Above him stood Charlotte, Yan, Bass and the ice mage he now knew was named Matthew. Still in a daze, he sat up, looking around to remember where he was. Forest surrounded him, though in the distance he could see that the walls of earth had been taken down. When he looked to the others he noticed they were all alright. Charlotte was once again as reserved as before. Yan was chuckling under her breath. Bass had a smile across her face, and Matthew stood there sullen but in a less arrogant way than before.

“Good to see you’re back among the living, John,” the sound mage stated cheerfully, and less mockingly than before.

“I see you guys managed without me,” he said, happy to see their success. 

“Yeah, they took the walls down as soon as we got it done. Just in time too, it was almost sundown,” Yan confirmed to John.

“I have to thank you. Regardless of my opinion of your abilities, you did save my life today,” Matthew said, and as soon as he was finished, walked off. Bass, on the other hand, burst into laughter.

“Never seen him thank anyone before. Guess you really left an impression on him,” she explained..

“Looks that way,” John paused for a moment, “you guys head back, I’m fine and I should probably thank Charlotte,” Yan hesitated for a moment, but was dragged off by Bass.

“See you both later!” she shouted as they both walked away. 

Once they had left, John noticed Charlotte was fidgeting even more, so he hurried to speak, “first of all, I want to thank you. You saved my life back there and probably all of ours. But I have to ask, what was that power? And why did you seem like an entirely different person?” John asked her, trying to keep his tone soft.

“My business is my own, and my secrets are just the same,” she calmed down for a moment, “I think you won’t doubt me next time when I tell you I can handle myself,” her tone was harsh, and her nervousness was entirely gone.

“I won’t, but if we’re going to be a team, there are some things you will have to tell me eventually,” even with her change in attitude, John kept calm.

“In due time, maybe. Perhaps then you’ll tell me why you froze up back there as well,” that left John dazzled. Clearly there was far more to her than it looked like on the surface. It might just all be a mask, or this was some instinctual response to pressure, but she was obviously not someone to trifle with. Almost ignoring him as he spent time in thought, she walked away. John’s mind drifted further and further from her as she left.