A Monster Life

44 - When Rocks Collide

Vitro rushed to the gate winch, slammed the lock, and the thick iron gate came down with a heavy bang and loud rattle of chains. He leaned back against the winch. 'I doubt this'll really help in any way though.'

Ulric turned to him. 'There's no other way out of this castle?'

Vitro shook his head. 'Not that I know of.'

'Then he knows we're trapped here. He'll probably wait at first, thinking we're panicking.'

'Even if we aren't, how can we fight against those golems?'

Ulric smirked slightly. 'We? You're with us now?'

Vitro opened his mouth and was silent for a moment. He chuckled. 'Yeah, I guess I am. I was never very convinced that this was the best way to protect the country.'

'All right. We'll be counting on your help.' Ulric said and looked at the others. 'We have to somehow evade the golems and capture Malovick to take his rings away.'

Valdys gestured at Vitro's amulet. 'You might want to get rid of that, it's used to drain your mana to power those golems.'

He looked down at it. 'Oh?' He took it off and held it up. 'Shouldn't we remove them from the others as well to prevent the mana drain?'

'That would increase the drain from the other people wearing similar amulets and might become dangerous. These guys are asleep right now, so it won't make a lot of difference to them.'

Elzbieta gestured to the gate with her head. 'How are we going to handle this?'

Ulric looked at Kaui and Conchim. 'I'd like to see if he can defend himself from an attack from the air. Can you make a few light grenades, Kaui? Enough to knock him out without fatally wounding him? And can you drop them on him from a safe distance, Conchim?'

'I can make some, Master.' said Kaui. 'Give me a little time.'

'No problem dropping those.' said Conchim. 'I don't want to get within reach of those things in any case.'

Ulric smiled. 'Good.' he turned to the others. 'Maybe we can do something to slow them down. Vitro, are there long, strong ropes stored here?'

***

Malovick's triumphant mood faded slowly when he realised things were more quiet than he'd expected. His anger rose when he began to suspect the enemy was mocking him in secret. He steered his golem back and forth, stomping behind the first line of his golems. 'Just give yourselves up! You have nowhere to run!' The castle gate rose and he grinned, convinced the intruders walking out subdued with their hands behind their back and a guard behind them, had realised resisting his force was futile. Their sudden bolt towards the golems at the side startled him.

Iphigenia and Elzbieta split up, as did Ulric and Vitro, and each pair stormed towards one golem, holding a rope between them. Before Malovick reacted through the golems, the four had circled the legs of two of them and pulled the coils of rope tight. The golems dropped as they tried to take a step.

'Stomp them!' shouted Malovick. 'Kill them!'

The four retreated at once under cover of an exploding cloud.

Malovick gritted his teeth, watching his golems slashing and stomping uselessly in the cloud, then cried out in shock when an explosion went off above his head.

He looked up at the harpy flying over him and two of his golem's hands covering him with smoke drifting from the top.

'That thing protected him!' said Conchim as she passed the four overhead. 'I'll try again!'