Chapter 518: Breakthrough and Dispersion

Golems are not artificial magical creatures.

They are born from the will of the earth and the power of the elements.

They originate in ancient caves deep underground, naturally coalescing from rock, metal, soil, and spiritual energy.

Some mages believe these primordial golems are a trial of life forms imposed by the world.

Yet the flaw of lacking complete emotions and a soul ensures this creature can never shine as brightly as humans or elves in any era.

At the same time.

The process of a golem awakening its own consciousness is clearly incomplete, as if missing some crucial part.

Some scholars believe this deficiency is related to humans—they might be a link in the chain of human evolution, like a link that failed through trial and error.

Therefore.

Golems are considered 'unfinished humans'.

Precisely because of this, most charm and mental control spells effective against humans work even better on golems.

"Rogev! So this is what you call good whip work! Can you aim properly!"

The halfling Kurt shouted angrily at Rod.

On his bare arm, a bright red whip mark was clearly visible.

It didn't cause much damage, but it still hurt!

Rod scratched his head, putting on an awkward smile.

"Next time for sure."

But even though he said that.

As the battle quickly escalated into a fierce phase, cries of pain rang out one after another.

"Brat! Why did you whip me?! I was even thinking of introducing a girl to you!"

"Rogev!!! I'm standing so far back, how could you hit me?! You didn't do that on purpose, did you?!"

"Ugh!"

"Rod Rogev, did I do something wrong?"

Everyone present.

Without exception, was caught in the crossfire of Rod's long whip.

Although some had bad breath and others glared, he ignored them, casting the buff of 【Painful Lashing】 on each one.

Perhaps because the battle was at its peak.

Except for the archer Aelia and the belatedly aware Cecile, no one else noticed the buffs to their physical state and spiritual mana.

They simply assumed it was a potential explosion born of life and death.

Aelia's reaction was absurdly fast; almost immediately after the whipping, she looked at him with shock.

Rod didn't care.

Anyway, 【Painful Lashing】 was not a classic move of Rod the Ranger.

He simply moved his body, 'moving frantically' on the battlefield, occasionally making 'a mistake' to pull a partner back.

Directly avoiding having their brains smashed by mountain-like fists.

Sigh.

Rod felt helpless.

Having to pretend to be weak while saving people was more tiring than just cutting straight through.

However, despite his safety net and amplification.

As time passed, the adventurers' mistakes kept increasing.

Especially the mage Harrison; the siege forced him to interrupt his casting several times. The backlash of mana casting made his face pale, even damaging his concentration.

A mage who cannot cast on-site and has a weak body is nothing but a burden.

Even though the tiger-woman auntie Kathy and the tiefling Cecile were fierce enough as frontliners.

Facing twenty golems with rock and metal bodies, they could not deal damage as effectively and precisely as spells.

The situation was not optimistic.

At this moment.

【Spider Sense】 was triggered.

Rod's eyes flashed like lightning, instantly locking onto a flash of red light on the archer Aelia's wrist.

Hmm?

"Hah!"

The tiefling girl in front shouted fiercely.

A fire ray burst forth, piercing straight through a golem's chest.

The golem's massive body froze; at the pierced gap, a golem core melted in half was visible.

"Well done! Cecile!"

The tiger-woman auntie Kathy shouted excitedly, launching a fierce tiger pounce to knock away another golem ahead.

This also opened a gap in the encirclement.

"This way! Break out!"

"Coming! Oops! What are you staring at?!"

Kurt fully utilized the halfling's agility, dodging a giant fist from the side while grabbing Rod, and almost simultaneously charged out with the tiger-woman auntie.

"."

I have to say, this guy is quite enthusiastic.

"Sashiel! Give me a hand!"

Harrison cried out miserably.

Because he was a mage, his position was further back, and his pace wasn't fast — he couldn't keep up.

But the archer Aaliyah frowned, her gaze locked tightly on Sashiel, and unexpectedly turned around with her to pull people back.

And because of that momentary delay—

The other golems once again closed in and crashed forward.

Amid the chaos—

On one side: the tigress Casey, the halfling Kurt, and Rod.

On the other side: the tiefling Sashiel, the archer Aaliyah, and the mage Harrison.

The two sides were split apart by the golems' massive bodies.

The tigress Casey panicked.

She hurriedly turned back to try once more to tear open a gap, but this time there were simply too many golems, keeping the two sides cleanly separated.

And Kurt cried out again: "Another wave just came!"

Casey turned her head to look.

In the pitch-black grove, sure enough, several more mounds of earth bulged up, and a fresh wave of golems immediately crawled out from within.

"Dammit! Where the hell did Two-Finger Mountain get so many golems from?!"

Amid the dense tremors and roars—

Casey had no choice but to shout at the top of her lungs:

"Break out of the encirclement on your own! Rendezvous outside the mountain!"

"Got it!" *2

Harrison and Sashiel shouted back through the wall of golems.

Another round of golem charges.

This time it completely scattered the two parties of adventurers apart!

The tigress Casey and the halfling Kurt couldn't be bothered with anything else now.

They just lowered their heads and ran outward.

Whether it was luck or what—

After running for nearly ten minutes among the pitch-black banyan trees of Two-Finger Mountain, they finally heard the heavy, rumbling footsteps growing fainter and fainter.

Not daring to linger, they sprinted another ten minutes.

Only then did they dare stop and catch their breath.

One lay flat on the ground in a spread-eagle shape, the other leaned against a tree, gasping and panting hard.

"Quick-quick... back to Shi Ying Town... report..."

"You-you've got long legs... you go... huff-huff-huff— ugh—bleh!"

Kurt gagged on the acid, nearly throwing up. "We can't make it, Roger. You... you're younger, you hurry back..."

He suddenly froze, lifted his head, and looked around.

"Roger?"

The tigress Casey, hearing the halfling companion's uncertain, alarmed cry, also looked up.

However—

In the moonlight, Two-Finger Mountain was pitch-black; apart from the two of them, there was nothing but endless, clawing, ancient, towering banyan trees.

Where would there be any Roger?

Rod, who had crushed a stealth-ring magic ring—

Was closely tailing the other party of three from behind.

Sashiel, hauling the screaming Harrison by the back of his collar with one hand, sprinted all the way; her body was covered in scrapes and bloodstains.

And the archer Aaliyah followed close behind. The wooden bow in her hand had vanished without a trace; one arm hung limp, unable to move, while the other hand gripped tightly a chipped hunting knife.

As if deliberately herding them—

The golems kept appearing along their downhill escape route, forcing them to veer more and more off course.

In the end, with their stamina nearly spent—

They just barely shook off the golem pursuit and stumbled into a hidden mountain cave to catch their breath.

Then, as luck would have it, hidden within this cave was actually a plant emitting a disorienting miasma.

Before long, all three collapsed unconscious.

(End of chapter)