Chapter 320: The Contemporary Sorcerer VS. The Ancient Golem
"Steel golem, large construct, immune to bludgeoning and piercing from nonmagical weapons; immune to psychic attacks; immune to blessing, cursing, necromantic and death spells; immune to poison; immune to any spell or effect that would alter its form; Very high level of defence; immune to most elemental spells under the fifth circle; Can be damaged by strong acid; can be slowed down by electric shock or affected by strong magnetic field above the fifth circle. Dutiful, can understand commands; One of the most popular guards among sorcerers."
Lucien quickly retrieved the information in his mind to decide on his fighting plan.
The golem took a step backward and the floor slightly trembled due to its weight. The golem was so heavy that even itself was not able to maintain its balance all the time.
Carina did not waste a second hesitating. She summoned three dark green magic arrows and shot them directly at the golem.
The second circle spell, Acid Arrow!
The arrows did a little damage to the metal body of the golem, but it was nothing to the huge steel monster.
Dragging the heavy hammer, the golem started to run toward them. It was not very fast, but the floor was shaking.
Facing the steel monster, Lucien and the rest of them all felt nervous. The corridor was not very spacious, and the size of the golem made the whole space rather limited, thus they did not have much space to show their advantages as being swift and agile.
Lucien lifted his hand, and there were instantly countless colorful light spots surrounding the head of the golem. A second later, the piece of iron and steel covering the golem’s head became thinner.
Carina was shocked seeing the effect of Lucien’s spell. She could not believe that the power of Lucien’s spell surpassed the golem’s immunity and even dissolved part of the metal.
She had only read about something like this in legendary stories!
Although Elemental Order worked, Lucien knew that this was far from being enough. It seemed that he had to cast the spell for at least ten times in order to do some real damage to the golem.
Also, due to the rather limited space, the options of using other kinds of spells such as Lightning had all become impractical. In Lucien’s mind, taking the golem to an open place should be the best plan for now.
However, this would bring them a problem. A steel golem worked like a robot and it only followed the preset command. Therefore, very possibly, the golem would only patrol a certain area instead of following them to another place. If they could not finish the golem as soon as possible, it was very likely to send the alert message to the witch!
Lucien was in a dilemma right now.
He wished that he had constructed the fourth circle spell, Distorted Magnetic Field, in his soul, as strong magnetic field could interfere with the golem’s inner operation and slow down its movement, which was the most useful spell when a sorcerer faced a steel golem. However, with a missing arm, Lucien could not cast the spell using hand gestures.
At this time, an idea came to his mind. If the golem’s inner operation system could be affected by a strong magnetic field, that spell should also be able to work.
Since electro-magnetic induction was discovered, lots of magnetic field spells had been invented. So, when the sorcerers were building steel golems, most of them chose to add the parts for resisting a strong magnetic field. Although they did not expect the parts to work perfectly, as parts like this contradicted the fundamental mechanism of building a golem, the parts were still relatively useful. At least a level five or even more powerful golem would not be easily defeated by a fourth-circle spell anymore—when electromagnetic spells first came out, many sorcerers’ steel golems were destroyed or damaged by very simple spells. At that time, only those very precious Adamantine Golems or Mythril Golems could have a good chance to survive.
This was the development of the magic, and, obviously, the old witch was an ancient sorcerer!
Adam saw that the golem was coming for them, he forced himself to stand out to confront the monster. The air surrounding Adam had become dark because of his Darkness Blessing.
This was called Dark Assimilation, the top power among all dark Blessings. The power could turn all nearby things into darkness and devour them. However, using it would exhaust the user for at least a few minutes. Adam knew the consequence well, and he wished that Lucien could seize the chance and finish the golem with him as soon as possible.
The steel golem, as well as its heavy hammer, were surrounded by the dark ripples. The darkness was like the stomach of a monster, wriggling.
Lucien lifted his right hand and his lips moved slightly. Slow and invisible waves spread out into the darkness.
As if the darkness was startled, it suddenly retreated. Many parts on the steel golem became sunken, and right now it was sitting on the floor, trying its best to stand up again with the heavy hammer.
Adam was exhausted, and his figure reappeared in the corner. He felt dizzy from the spell cast by Lucien, and it was quite surprising for him since most spells would not be able to do so when he was part of the darkness. However, in Adam’s eyes, the spell seemed to be not that useful, being far below the one Lucien cast before.
Adam knew that Dark Assimilation could absorb many spells, and probably that was the reason why Lucien’s spell did not work very well. He wondered why Lucien did not want to wait until his attack finished, but he believed that the sorcerer had his own reasons.
"It’s your turn now," Adam hurriedly said to Lucien using Secondary Telepathic Bond when the steel golem stood up again. Adam believed that if Lucien could cast the elemental spell for another two or three times, the golem which had been damaged by Dark Assimilation would reach its limit, as long as Carina knew when to use electric spells to slow down the golem.
Facing the powerful golem, there was nothing much that Alva and Bullard could do there.
Carina did not let Adam down. She pointed at the golem with her hand and countless small electric balls instantly smashed into the metal body. The golem thus became a bit slower.
Lucien’s buffering time for another round of casting was over. When the golem stood up again, Lucien raised his right hand again and concentrated the slow and invisible waves, making them move forward.
"You guys step back. Carina, slow the golem further to help Lucien," Adam said to the adventurers, giving commands through their telepathic bonds.
The rest of the team followed Adam’s instruction, however, before Adam finished his words, the body of the golem started to crack fiercely as if inside there was a big hammer thumping around.
The red light in the golem’s eyes flicked. Then its big and heavy body hit the floor hard, making the entire floor shake from it.
"What?"
"What was it?"
"What kind of spell is it?"
Through the bonds, Lucien could hear their exclamations.
It was the fourth-circle spell, Professor’s Infrasound Resonance!
Lucien released a light sigh. When he first created the spell, he had taken record of the inner vibration frequency of some most common creatures and constructs. However, the frequency of the golem was a bit different, and that was why the spell failed the first time.
Fortunately, after some quick modification, the penetrating and powerful infrasonic waves finally led to the resonance of the precise parts inside of the steel golem, and the destructive power was quite considerable.
If the power of casting was enough, Lucien could completely break up this huge piece of steel!
Like when those magnetic field spells were first invented, Lucien’s spell using the power of resonance was destructive to metal constructs, and Professor’s Infrasound Resonance had an even wider application.
"Adam, you take some rest. Alva and Bullard, stay alert." Lucien did not answer their questions but quickly commanded, "Carina, you help me with analyzing the magic circles outside of the energy core."
...
Probably due to the lack of resources, the magic circles outside of the energy core were nothing special, which saved Lucien a lot of time and trouble.
For ancient sorcerers, analyzing the magic circles was not an easy job. However, this was not that challenging for sorcerers from the Congress of Magic, as they had all kinds of materials for references and all they needed to do was to copy the methods available.
The different organizational forms and ways of conveying knowledge formed a huge gap between a contemporary and an ancient sorcerer!
After more than ten minutes, the gate of the energy core silently opened.
Countless colorful light beams from the energy wells and gardens joined together and became an afflux to the energy pool, providing pure energy to the different zones of the magic tower.
After roughly estimating where the core of the magic tower was based on the flowing direction of the energy beams, Lucien said to the adventurers, "I’ll build a magic circle here to restrain the flow of energy. You guys stay here, and when you see the energy pool starts to boil, activate the magic circle instantly. This will give me about ten seconds to control the core, and you guys must leave the energy core room within the ten seconds, or you’d be turned into ashes by the gushing power."
Although Alva and Bullard’s original plan was to run away, after seeing the power of Lucien’s magic and Adam’s Blessing, they started to believe that it was possible to control the magic tower, so they nodded solemnly together.
Carina asked, "But Mr. Lucien, have you got any materials for setting up the magic circle? We don’t have anything with us..."
Lucien smiled and pulled out his broken arm from his girdle, "I’m a level two knight. My blood and flesh can be quite useful materials when building a necromantic magic circle. But as for the core part of the magic circle, we need Mr. Adam’s flesh and blood..."
Adam laughed, "No problem."
As a level five grand knight, as long as he was not going to lose an arm or leg, his blood and flesh that were going to be taken away could easily grow back again.
Seeing that Lucien was talking about how to use his own flesh in such a calm way, Carina saw the ruthless and hardheaded soul under his elegant and polite appearance.