Shroud Arcanum

Chapter 29: Chapter 29 - Titan of Yore(3)

With wide eyes fixed on the impending rain of spikes, Ensign Caelum felt his heart race with panic and dread. Recognizing the imminent threat, he mustered all the force in his lungs and bellowed, "Prepare your shields!" In response, the soldiers' weapons began to transform, glowing brightly before a portion of their blades shifted into a protective Shield.

But the transition wasn't instantaneous. The deadly spikes began their descent, and one unfortunate soldier wasn't fast enough in the chaos. A spike impaled him directly in the head, making it explode like a watermelon. Brain matter and blood exploded everywhere.

The spike hit the shield, and it got deflected, but unfortunately, the trajectory went straight, passing another soldier's chest making a hole out of his body. The soldier fell down as blood dripped from it, and his intestine sprawled all over. The forest quickly turns into horror dyed red with blood and flesh as soldiers scream and fill out the air.

"ARRGGHH!!!"

"Help, Medic! I cannot feel my Leg"

"Man down! Man down!"

"Stay together, form a shield!"

"Protect the wounded!"

Simultaneously, as the deadly rain began its descent, Liam's instincts kicked in. He pivoted and began a frenzied sprint towards Irys. Across the battlefield, Irys, sensing the same urgency, dashed towards Liam.

They met at a central point. Without missing a beat, Irys used her powers, molding the ground beneath them into a multi-layered dome-shaped shield that enveloped them entirely. Recognizing an opportunity to bolster the shield's defenses, Liam infused his flames onto the exterior, making it blaze with a fiery intensity.

The idea was simple - if the spikes struck the fiery barrier, perhaps the heat would melt or weaken them, reducing their impact.

As the spikes collided with the fiery earth shield. Their combined efforts bore fruit. The spikes embedded themselves only halfway into the shield before being halted, their tips sizzling and producing thick plumes of smoke upon contact with the intense flames.

At the same moment, Alric, Zalya, and Liora, now standing side by side on the battered battlefield, gazed up at the descending storm of spikes. Zalya, steeling herself, began to shape Metal into a thin, large overhead shield.

Liora sent out her vines, which began weaving into Zalya's metal structure, providing an additional layer of defense and reinforcing the shield. Alric, meanwhile, formed a swirling vortex of water, which acted like a whirlwind, deflecting some of the spikes.

The spikes rained down with unrelenting fury. Each impact sent reverberations through the shield, producing a mix of clangs and splashes. Alric's swirling vortex worked tirelessly, deflecting a substantial portion of the spikes.

When the bombardment stopped, rather than signaling respite, it became the precursor to a fresh hell. The Titan's horn started to glow, and it began resonating with an eerie hum that vibrated throughout the battlefield.

The once menacing spikes, now littering the ground, started pulsating with a similar glow, the ground beneath trembling with pent-up energy. With a sudden violent jerk, these spikes began reforming, melting, and reshaping into humanoid figures, each fashioned from dense rock and adorned with wickedly sharp blades in place of hands.

Ensign Caelum, his face streaked with sweat and dirt, barely had time to register the transformation before the fully formed golems lunged into action. Though made of solid material, their movements were surprisingly swift and fluid.

Soldiers, recovering from the earlier assault, now found themselves having to fend off these relentless rock warriors. Steel clashed against stone as the battlefield rang with the sounds of a desperate struggle.

Brandishing his glowing weapon, Caelum dove into the fray, his blade meeting the rock-hard exterior of a golem. Sparks flew, but he kept on, using his agility to dance around the lumbering figure, looking for a weak spot.

Meanwhile, Alric, Zalya, and Liora quickly devised a strategy. With a swift gesture, Liora commanded her vines to snake around the legs of the nearest golems, pulling and throwing them to other golems, momentarily stalling their assault.

Zalya, then using her metal abilities, sharpened the tips of Liora's vines, turning them into lethal weapons. Zalya suggested, "Liora, let's use them like a drill."

Liora nodded, then twisted the vines, their sharpened tips now whirring like drill bits. With a final thrust, she launched these spiraled weapons forward. The result was devastating. The spinning vines bore through golems with surprising ease, pinning some to the ground and tearing others apart with their relentless rotation.

Alric drew water from the surrounding atmosphere, with his staff shimmering with moisture. He channeled it towards the ground in front of the advancing golems. Almost instantly, a slick, slippery surface formed.

The golems, unprepared for this sudden change, lost their footing. One by one, they slid, tripped, and collided with each other, creating a chaotic pileup. Not wasting a second, Alric amplified his water. He sent a high-pressure wave, knocking the grounded golems further away, breaking some apart and disorienting others.

At a distance, Liam and Irys were a whirlwind of coordinated destruction. Irys, wielding her Warhammer with deadly precision, swung it in a wide arc, its heavy head colliding with the first golem and sending it hurtling into several others.

She soared into the air with a powerful leap, using her elevation as leverage. As she descended, she brought down her Warhammer with a resounding crash. The impact was cataclysmic; the ground quaked beneath her, sending shockwaves that birthed jagged spikes of earth. These spikes impaled and shattered multiple golems in their vicinity.

Liam, on the other hand, moved with swift agility. Enchanted with his strength augmentation, each swing of his fiery dual swords was a dance of death. His blades, now more akin to burning scythes, sliced through the stone flesh of the golems with ease. A trail of molten rock and ash marked his path with every step he took.

Liam's gaze never wavered from the titan, even as the army of golems tried to obstruct their progress. Every step they took brought them closer to their target, but the titan seemed to recognize their intent. It prepared another devastating assault.

The realization hit Liam hard; they were about to face another storm of projectiles while being swarmed by golems. They had to think fast. Looking to Irys, "Irys, any ideas?"

Irys, while expertly swinging her Warhammer to fend off a particularly aggressive golem, responded without missing a beat, "Strategy? That's Zalya's forte, not mine."

Following her gaze, Liam saw that Zalya's group was closer to the titan. They seemed to be coordinating a plan. But rejoining Zalya's group or even communicating with them would be a monumental challenge with the imminent rain of spikes and the relentless golems. They needed a plan, and they needed it now.