Thud after thud of the golem’s footsteps shuddered up the ruined walls.
As Kyen ran, he reached into his pocket and pulled out the arcstones—only two left. He picked one that shone with a droplet of light like a bead. Up ahead, the sheer cliff of the valley cut off the road: a dead end. Reaching it, he stopped and whirled around.
The golem’s foot slammed into the road, crunching the pavestones. One thunderous step after another, it loomed. Over its shoulder, the fiend caladrius flapped stationary in mid-air. Its faceless nub swiveled from him, to the alley where Adeya turned tail and ran, and back to him. Pulling in its wings, it dive-bombed after Adeya.
Kyen’s jaw clenched as he saw it, but he had no time to react; the golem’s towering body blocked his view. Gripping the arcstone, he slung out his arm as if throwing a javelin. A white shaft exploded into existence beside him and shot like a arrow at the golem’s face. Its fist swung up to block. The ribbon struck the fist, bursting it to shards that reabsorbed into the golem’s chest before they could hit the ground. It lowered its arm, its dark gem grinning down at him. Another footstep shook the ground. The golem rose over him, its stones crushing and grinding ceaselessly.
Kyen looked at the arcstone. The shining bead had shrunk.
Suddenly, a chorus of war cries made him jump and reach for his sword.
Wynne, Oda, Inen, and Gennen vaulted out the ruins from his right. Swords drawn, the trio ran between Kyen and the oncoming golem, and Gennen stopped at his side.
“Save your aura, boy!” he said, hefting his white sword with a grin. “I’ve got a better idea.”
“The fiend caladrius is after Adeya, blademaster,” said Kyen.
Gennen’s grin faltered. “Wynne, Inen, Oda, help the princess!” he snapped. “Leave the golem to Kyen and I.”
“But—”
“Do as I say!”
The golem thudded to a stop, towering over them and raining pebbles.
“Got it!” Oda bolted away, calling over his shoulder. “Leaving you the easy one!”
With a growl, Wynne chased after him, and Inen jogged on her tail.
The golem lifted an arm of boulders over their heads.
“Think you can climb it?” Gennen grinned without taking his eyes off it.
“With or without being crushed?” asked Kyen.
“Heh! You scared, boy?”
The golem’s fist hurtled down.
They darted sideways.
The fist smashed into the ground behind them with a spray of rocks and dust.
Gennen dashed around the golem’s heels with Kyen trailing behind, both covering their heads against the raining stones. The golem’s torso shifted to follow them.
“It’s after me, Gennen,” said Kyen. “All the fiends are!”
“Exactly, boy!” cried the blademaster. “Get it close to that tower!” He pointed down the road—to a tower with its ruined top exposed to the sky. He put on an extra burst of speed, running ahead, his voice carrying behind, “Tell your arcangel to slow it down when it gets near!”
“What? Ah!” Kyen ducked sideways as the golem’s fist sailed down. He hit the ground at a roll, came up at a crouch, but not far enough. The boulder-fist smashed down on him. A flash of light cracked out to meet it, splitting a fissure up its center. The fist hit the ground in pieces, leaving Kyen unharmed in the middle.
He leapt up and scrambled through the rubble.
The golem pulled its arm back up, and all around Kyen the rocks and rubble began moving. He slipped and stumbled, clawing his way over them. The rising boulders caught him as they rejoined the golem’s body. They began to squeeze together around him, but he shimmied himself free moments before they crushed tight. He leapt for the ground, landed hard on all fours, and shoved himself up to a run.
Behind, the golem’s body shifted within itself, absorbing the broken shards of its old fist and bringing out from its chest a new fist—one twice as large as the first. Another footfall shook the street as the golem pursued him.
Sprinting hard, Kyen glanced back.
The golem swung at him.
He ran harder.
Its fist whooshed past his heels, smashed into the ground, and plowed across the street, ripping free dirt and cobblestones. The end of its swing crashed into a stand of broken pillars, toppling them all.
“Kyen!” Gennen waved his arm from the roof of the tower.
Gritting his teeth, he pushed himself faster.
The golem’s footsteps thudded behind. One giant foot slammed down in front of him a little off to the side. Its next leg, grinding and groaning, rose right over his head. He veered sideways towards the tower.
The golem’s leg smashed down in his wake like an avalanche of rocks from the sky.
Kyen tripped from the shock wave of its impact, but, catching himself on his hands, he push himself faster.
He slammed into the wall of the tower and turned, pressing himself flat against it as the golem neared. He panted hard for breath and swallowed.
“Closer!” Gennen yelled from above.
The golem loomed over Kyen as it stopped in front of the tower. It began raising its fist.
“Not close enough! I can’t jump that far!” came Gennen’s shout from above.
Kyen closed his eyes for a moment. When he opened them again, they blazed a brilliant gold. He looked up towards the golem.
The ground underneath its feet burst into vegetation. Massive vines as thick as trees sprayed paving stones as they shot upwards. They weaved and entwined up the golem’s legs, wrapped around its torso, and seized up its arm aloft in the air. The golem groaned to a halt, its joints jammed up with the leafy verdure. The vines spouted off tendrils and reached out to entwine the tower.
Kyen’s gray eyes returned with a blink. He bolted, throwing away the spent arcstone in a shower of glass.
The vines enswathing the tower and golem alike suddenly constricted.
The golem slammed up against it. Its head bashed into the wall below the roof.
Yelling a war cry, Gennen took a running head start and leapt onto the golem’s shoulders. It writhed when he landed, but he clung to the vines still curling over its body. He clambered across them until he reached the stone with the black gem. The teeth gritted and gnashed. Lifting his white blade high, Gennen stabbed down with both hands and a yell.
The blade glanced off the gem. A crack split the surface. The gem disintegrated into white sparks.
The moving and grinding of the golem’s body slowed to a halt.
Kyen, backing away, craned his neck to look up as the golem stilled.
Golem and tower alike, lashed together, sagged against one another. Boulders began to fall as their forms started to collapse.
“Gennen!” Kyen yelled.
The blademaster turned back towards the tower but the shoulders of the golem dropped out from under him. The lip of the roof soared upwards out of reach. Stones dropped and crashed, and the tower teetered, tipping over the sinking golem. They began to fall apart from the ground up, showering the street with rubble as they disintegrated. Gennen, half-clambering shifting stone, half-climbing through the verdure, made a grab for a vine and hung on. The golem’s body lost all shape as its boulders toppled to the ground in a gnarly mass. The leaning tower crumpled as the boulders pulverized its base. In the landslide, Gennen’s vine snapped. His white head disappeared into the rubble of the tower falling over the golem’s remains. It hit the ground with a thud that blasted dust up and down the street. Every nearby ruin trembled.
“Gennen!” Kyen dashed into the cloud. The last boulder rolled to a standstill as he reached the pile. Mounting it, he frantically began ripping, dragging, and pulling rubble away.
Gennen’s hand, still clutching his white sword, appeared underneath.
Kyen wrenched away a vine, then throwing his weight against a huge rock, shoved it aside. It toppled from the mound.
Underneath, Gennen coughed. He lay half-buried, with blood streaming from a knock on his forehead and from his nose.
“Blademaster!” Kyen knelt beside him.
Gennen, wincing at him through one eye, shoved him away.
“Leave off, boy! Go get the others to safety.”
Kyen backed away. He frowned down on Gennen as the old swordsman struggled to pull himself free.
“I’m not some frail old grandpa!” He snapped. “Now go!”
Turning, Kyen ran. He headed for the alleyway where Adeya had disappeared. He paused at the entrance to glance back.
Gennen, dragging his leg loose, stumbled out of the pile. He glared at Kyen from across the street.
“GO!” he yelled. “You’re wasting time!”
Kyen sped away down the alley.