"Iron golem, large construct. Immune to slashing, piercing, and other physical damage. Immune to any magic affecting the mind, spirit, or soul. Immune to curses, blessings, and instant-death magic. Immune to necromantic magic, poison, and transmutation. Extremely high defensive capability — can effectively resist elemental damage from most first- through fifth-ring spells. Susceptible to corrosion from strong acid, can be slowed by electrical shocks, and can be affected by magnetic fields, though a power of at least the fifth ring is required for a noticeable effect. It obeys commands and executes them faithfully, making it one of a mage's most beloved guardians."
Information about this type of ancient golem from long-standing arcane traditions flickered through Lucian's mind as he quickly assessed their options for combat.
The golem took a single step back, and the floor beneath it trembled faintly, as if struggling to bear its weight. The creature itself swayed unsteadily, seemingly having difficulty maintaining its balance.
Seizing the opportunity, three dark green magical longbows materialized before Karina, firing in rapid succession at the golem's tall, broad body without pause.
Second-ring spell — Acid Arrow!
Tiny traces of corrosion began to appear across the cold, gleaming steel surface, but they were so minuscule relative to the entire body as to be almost insignificant.
The iron golem was unaffected. It charged forward at no sluggish pace, hefting its enormous war hammer, its footsteps causing the ground to shudder.
Facing the ferocious iron golem, Lucian and the others all felt the oppressive force it radiated. It completely blocked off what had not been a narrow corridor, reducing it to something like a winding mountain path, leaving only enough space for the war hammer to swing. Fighting it at range was entirely out of the question.
Lucian raised his hand and pointed. A flurry of tiny silver-white, grey-black, reddish-brown, and pale green motes of light drifted from the golem's head, and the thick metal casing thinned by a noticeable layer.
"What spell is that?" Karina, who had been facing the golem's charge head-on and whose legs were already going soft with fright, stared in shock at the strange transformation. Lucian's spell had actually penetrated the iron golem's magical resistance. And that wasn't even the main point — the real shock was that it had directly decomposed part of the golem's metal head?
A spell like that, it seemed, was something only the legendary masters of the elemental forces could cast!
Yet despite the impressive result produced by Elemental Order, Lucian frowned. The golem's resistance to magic was simply too formidable. To use Elemental Order to decompose the core inside its head, he would need at least a dozen castings, at a minimum.
And within such a "narrow" corridor, with so little distance between them and no room to maneuver, even if he used a Lightning Spell to slow the golem, it would close the gap within seconds. So unless they immediately retreated to the previous level and lured the golem into open ground, there would be no chance of slowly picking it apart.
But retreating brought its own problems. The iron golem operated like a machine, acting according to pre-set rules. Once it received its command, it followed it rigidly. There was a very high probability that it would only attack intruders who entered a certain range and would not give chase at all. Moreover, if it could not eliminate the enemy within a short time, there was a good chance it would send an alert to the Witch!
So, attacking meant being unable to dodge repeatedly within the narrow corridor to buy the dozen-plus openings needed to cast Elemental Order, while retreating risked alerting the Witch.
"If only I had constructed the fourth-ring spell Magnetic Field Distortion," Lucian sighed quietly. A strong magnetic field could interfere with the delicate internal mechanisms of the iron golem while simultaneously slowing its movements — it was the best spell for dealing with most metal-type golems. But Lucian had not yet had the time to inscribe it into his soul. He wanted to cast it with incantations, but with one hand missing, coordinating the necessary hand gestures was impossible, so he simply couldn't use it. "Wait — interfere with delicate internal mechanisms? I could try that spell!"
Since the discovery of electromagnetic induction, magnetic-field-based spells had proliferated. The construction of most metal-type golems had been forced to incorporate measures against strong magnetic fields, though the results were never particularly good, since such countermeasures interfered with other structures. Still, at least there was no longer the risk of a single fourth-ring spell wiping out an entire army of fifth-rank or higher metal golems that had taken enormous effort to build. In the early days of electromagnetic magic, many mages' metal golems had suffered exactly that humiliating and miserable fate — unless they were rare constructs of adamantite, mithril, and the like.
The development of magic could be seen clearly from this, and the old Witch was obviously an ancient mage!
After retreating several steps, Adam saw the iron golem swinging its war hammer as it closed in, and Lucian's spell didn't look like it could finish the job anytime soon. Gritting his teeth, he charged forward again, his body darkening as rippling waves of the same hue began to emanate from the air around him.
Dark Assimilation — the most powerful ability of his dark bloodline. It could convert anything within a certain radius into darkness and devour it, but using it once would leave him exhausted for several minutes. Adam understood the consequences, but he gave it everything he had, hoping that in coordination with Lucian, they could finish off the iron golem quickly.
Amid the rippling waves of black, Adam enveloped the iron goolem along with its war hammer. The darkness twisted and writhed like the stomach of some great beast.
Lucian raised his right hand, his lips parting slightly. An invisible, slow-moving wave spread forward, penetrating into the darkness.
The darkness shuddered violently and recoiled. The iron golem, its entire body pockmarked with dents, slumped to the ground. It was now struggling to rise, war hammer in hand.
Once Dark Assimilation's effect subsided, Adam's body returned to its normal form. Dizzy and disoriented, he looked toward Lucian. What spell had he just used? It had actually managed to slightly affect him while he was using Dark Assimilation — though it didn't seem to have done much to the iron golem. The earlier Elemental Order had been more effective.
But then Adam realized — Dark Assimilation could devour many spells. Since he had been enveloping the golem in darkness at the time, perhaps that was why the golem hadn't suffered much damage. But why hadn't Lucian waited until Adam's attack ended before casting? He didn't seem like the type to take advantage of the situation to strike at a teammate — he wasn't that irrational!
"Your turn!" Adam said urgently through the Lesser Telepathic Link, gasping for breath as he watched the iron golem hauling itself back up. After being battered by Dark Assimilation, the golem probably couldn't withstand more than two or three rounds of Elemental Order — as long as Karina knew to help by using lightning spells to slow it down.
As for facing such a powerful golem, Alva and Brad had absolutely no way to intervene.