章 17: Chapter 14
CHAPTER 14: Agitation
Kresha's wide smile grew to reveal her fangs and canines as she snarled at Arkyn. She ducked under his first swing and managed to evade the second by retreating two steps back.
Suddenly the walkways of the Golem Cavern seemed much smaller, as she was already at the edge. Arkyn didn't press on with his advantage considering the fall would have been far too risky to allow from such a height.
Kresha didn't hesitate to swipe back at him though, trying to yank him off the walkway by the hand instead. If the ends of arms weren't hollow to keep himself balanced and the damage to a minimum, then his close calls of falling would have surely been much worse.
It suddenly became a game of fencing across the small bridge above the cavern below. Arkyn's plan was to get her out of the cavern and into a hallway, so that he could initiate step two.
Thankfully Kresha decided to take the chance to bolt and started running down a hallway that led them out of the perilous pit. She was angry and bruised, but no one was gravely injured in the process.
That gave Arkyn his chance, he boosted his lower half with more energy and managed to catch up with her after sprinting a few dozen yards. Once he was close enough, he jumped on her.
Actually, it was more appropriate to say Arkyn encased her.
As soon as he leapt in his metal form, he let the rivers of air magic expand and stretch his form until he was a shiny tarp with four grey eyes. He still weighed the same, so it didn't come as a surprise when Kresha buckled and fell rolling the moment she was ensnared.
The caging step had been a success until Arkyn realised the adverse effects of no longer keeping a huge shape. The sixteen little cores that made up his joints and normal shape were flailing uncontrollably, making it harder to keep his mind and four power sources from getting launched out of his body.
He fought to contain all his components and keep Kresha contained, figuring that he could suffocate her just long enough to knock her out, but the resistance of her pulling the Mimic Steel apart was hard to counter.
Just when he would have a sealed bubble with no air coming through, she would manage to breach the surface and let more air back in. If he tried making the bubble smaller, Kresha could accidentally damage his physical brain when it was too close. If he tried making it too big, she'd have enough room to ram him and puncture the thin barrier too.
The chaotic war of attrition barely lasted two minutes before Arkyn lost track of the structure, and Kresha broke free. His plan failed, wasting a lot of energy, and leaving his stretched out form draped over monster Kresha like a strange cape and cowl.
She kept running full speed, trying to shake off Arkyn, but his large volume and elasticity made it impossible. She kept going while he was incapable of pulling himself back together.
The ride lasted for several minutes, but to Arkyn, it felt like hours of torture. The movement and inability to see in a consistent direction was both disorienting and painful.
He was feeling phantom limb pain for the first time with no body of reference and the sensation of stomach pains for the irregular motion.
Thankfully Kresha turned a corner and ran headfirst into something so hard, she managed to shake Arkyn loose. He fell in something soft and bundled his whole body together into a perfect sphere, hoping the runes that made his body would still be able to reform.
Arkyn slowly reshaped and turned into his human form to try and settle all the pain he had experienced for the first time since becoming a golem.
He discovered several things afterward.
One, he was now naked as the tunic and pants he wore were torn to shreds beside him. The fight resulted in the clothes being ripped until they resembled a rag pile in one of the maintenance rooms.
Two, Kresha had run them straight into the Livestock Cavern and his soft landing was due to all the wet dirt within the cavern.
The third and final discovery was that the sudden stop she made was actually from her head impacting one of the largest bulls among the cattle. Now she was fighting it after her first strike at the bull only pissed it off instead of killing it.
All around him, the animals in their confined spaces were fleeing into the back corners of their fenced regions. They recognized a predator the moment she entered and there was no telling who was next to be attacked.
Meanwhile, Kresha seemed to be enjoying herself, jumping onto the bull's back and trying to dig in as it bucked and roared.
Everytime she was flung off, her claws opened up new wounds before the bull could kick or headbutt. By the time it recovered, she was already back on top of it.
Arkyn wanted to try and jump in and help, but by the time he would've arrived, the bull would be beyond help and there was no new plan to save either one of them.
Kresha managed to slice open a few of the bull's softer sections between the neck and shoulders, causing it to collapse in pain and exhaustion.
She roared victoriously before biting deep into the neck and drinking from the torn arteries.
It was sad to see a familiar bull die, but Arkyn realized he needed to think more cautiously. His last two ideas failed and now he was running low on just about every element in his body.
A cow behind him must've stepped on another, as a half-moo and half-yelp came out behind him.
Kresha stopped chewing for a moment and stared down the herd of animals. Scaring one goat in particular to freeze.
The goat seized with all four legs sticking straight up, playing dead. Pieces of straw still clumped along its teeth.
Seeing that none of the animals were fleeing, Kresha went back to her fresh kill. Leaving Arkyn with one final idea, that he was really hoping wouldn't kill Kresha and himself.
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