One thing Adam resented about the System was the absence of levels and the inability to check anything on the System display without touching it. Otherwise, he'd be seeing some indication of power above the head of the Gobzkin Prince that read: [Lvl.??? Gobzkin Prince (Angry AF)].
But that wouldn't have been a proper indication either. Still, snapping the Golem in half with a thundering weapon throw attack action was telling enough that Adam's current situation wasn't looking pretty.
Options were limited, but the gears in Adam's mind began grinding at maximum efficiency, and the world around him came to a halt as he weighed his options.
Second-story floor, broken building, Gobzkin Prince 360 feet north, Gobzkin Gigant 120 feet east, and still mid-action, no clear indication of Lord Kaimu's status, and the Alfari spear warriors were over 720 feet west.
He needed a plan, but with time running out, he had to act with what little stamina remained after the bitter fight with the Gigant, while ensuring he wasn't caught by the Gobzkin Prince.
Mission Difficulty: Very Hard!
Turn-based mode: Activated!
First round! Roll initiative!
Adam moved first; luck was on his side, as he overrode his survival instincts and jumped off the second floor to street level. He had already manipulated the earth beneath into the form of a slide, expending all his actions at once.
The Gobzkin Prince's turn came. With explosive movement focused entirely on the dash action, he made a long jump from the roof to street level, crossing 120 feet in a flash, one-third of the distance between Adam and the Prince. The Gobzkin Gigant also turned around, but unlike the Gobzkin Prince, it was slower, crossing only 80 feet with its dash action.
Second round!
The turn returned to Adam once again. He was now on the ground, but unlike the Gobzkin monsters he was facing, his leg speed was pathetic, and he would be caught by the third turn if he ran. So he resolved to use his basic action, bonus action, and movement action for the only ability that could save him at the time: Earthbending.
With a strong stomp, Adam charged the ground beneath with his mental energy, letting it rebound after bonding with the earth, yet without moving chaotically, maintaining the utmost control to keep the earth's shape.
With that, a block of earth popped up sideways with explosive speed beneath his feet and grew into a uniform shape, launching Adam almost 100 feet west. Using what was left of his action for this round, he landed on softened earth, rolling to mitigate the impact of the launch.
The Gobzkin Prince saw his prey run and disliked the sight, pushing himself further in a relentless chase. Though his speed couldn't be amplified beyond 120 feet per turn, he intentionally exploded his power, covering an extra 60 feet with a powerful acrobatic maneuver. The Gobzkin Gigant had no such option, so it still ran the 80 feet, pursuing Adam.
Third round!
Adam could still do the same move that launched him 100 feet, but seeing how fast the Gobzkin Prince had become, it became clear to him that he would still be caught. But, out of options, he had to endure the same pain and launch himself again, falling painfully this time. Like the last turn, the Gobzkin Prince crossed more ground than normal, now arriving within 30 feet of Adam. By the next turn, he would most certainly catch him.
The Gobzkin Gigant was still eating the dust of the two speedsters, but it would become a menace the moment it reached them, especially as the defenders had started to give chase to the Gobzkin horde on the western side of the battle.
Fourth round!
No matter what Adam did this round, it would all be for naught, and the Gobzkin Prince would still reach him. In this case, offense would be the best defense, but only if the offense proved effective against the Gobzkin Prince.
Adam decided to go for it and readied himself for an attack, but he noticed that another initiative roll was made before his.
A new figure dropped from the Serai above and entered the confrontation with higher initiative and descended beside him, wearing loose clothes and an iconic Justiciar coat, one he had used for the past few days.
The Alfari scout, Samara.
"Ii zeza pute, zuto!" (I shall not fall to your trap again, fiend)
With a strong, resentful sentence that had more "Z"s than the entire English vocabulary, Samara looked at Adam and made a motion that bent the Earth around them, sending a powerful tremor towards the Gobzkin Prince.
Adam sensed the vibration that traveled through the earth beneath him. Seeing that Samara was also a user of the Bending Rune, and how she sent him a tremor of her technique as well, he understood immediately that she wanted him to imitate her, and so he sent his will through the earth in the opposite direction from hers.
The earth around the Gobzkin Prince immediately repelled him with a violent shock, and the joint attack of the two benders pushed him back almost 70 feet from where he stood.
The Gobzkin Prince gritted his ugly fangs in anger and knew it would be tiresome to catch Adam and Samara, since benders possessed a very annoying ability to shift the locations of anything that touched the ground.
He grabbed rubble from the side of the road and, with his full strength, he launched it at the two of them, but it seemed Samara still had a little action she hadn't used, and she immediately raised two sharp, inclined walls pointing towards the Gobzkin Prince, which shrugged off anything he threw.
In the coming round, Samara launched one of the walls straight at the Prince, who evaded it with minimal movement, but Adam used the other wall to attack from the side, forcing the Gobzkin Prince to duck.
Right then and there, Lord Kaimu appeared like a white flash and went for the Prince's neck with his blade, but the latter was nimble enough to escape and back away.
"Zuto bazi! Cevo!" (Cursed Fiend, Fight!)
With what seemed like an insult, Lord Kaimu roared at the Gobzkin Prince, who had just backed away and joined up with the Gobzkin Gigant, which carried him over its shoulder, the same way Adam stood on his Golem.
Now, with a Gigant by his side, this could be an equalizer, but Adam had no more stamina for a prolonged turn-based fight, and Samara seemed to be at 10% HP. A cunning idea popped into his head, and he immediately bent the earth around him, forming a shape on the ground, but he didn't use it for attack.
The moment the Gobzkin Gigant saw something growing from the ground that looked like the rough-shaped face of the Earth Golem, it stumbled back a step, hesitant to meet the giant that had humiliated it once again.
But Adam didn't stop there; he repeated the action, making two golem faces appear and causing the Gigant to freak out.
"Once a pussy, always a pussy!"
Adam didn't stop bullying the poor Gigant until it turned tail and started running, no longer wishing to face so many Golems.
In the end, the Gigant ran, and the Prince on its shoulder was glaring daggers at Adam, Kaimu, and Samara; watching its army of five hundred being reduced to half its size and running from a force that didn't even amount to one-tenth of its numbers.
That day was a historical day: the first day a Human force, with the help of the Alfari, managed to stop and repel an organized monster army, a scene among the many bloody stories of war that ravaged Brighthaven.
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The end wasn't even beautiful; there was no celebration, no smiling, no sense of victory.
After surviving horror, one does nothing but weep as one scrambles to gather what is left of oneself, hoping what happened brings some semblance of sanity.
Yet, at the end of the day, one realizes that after all this fighting and surviving, some wounds would never heal, no matter what one does, and forever they would stay open on one's soul, a reminder of the terrible consequences one must face.
Adam, Megan, Kave, and Elena.
Each of them coped somehow with this sadness, each in their own way.
Elena organized her soldiers and the defenders of the factory shelter, and gave everyone a task—rapid, momentous, and stern. All defenses needed to be established once again; all weaknesses had to be purged. With duty, conviction, and strong will, even the robotic Alfari warriors sat tired on their shields, watching her in awe as she put the whole force into a new order in mere minutes.
On the other hand, Kave was in his own rage mode, chasing the remaining monsters along with a group of survivors, hacking and slashing, shouting his nonsensical Japanese as he waved the blade Lord Kaimu had given him, and covered himself in the green ichor of the Gobzkin.
Then there was Megan, who stood with a somber face, looking out for her friends, helping the injured, and assisting Candice walk as she had lost an arm in the final fight.
But the most tragic was Adam, whose orders had snuffed a hundred souls in seconds. He stood facing the dead where the wooden platform had been, and in front of him was a new Golem that he had built.
This Golem had a large, hollow torso and long, nimble arms ending with intricate hands. As it moved, the Golem would arrive before a human corpse, pick it up along with its parts, wrap them in earth, and place them in its hollow interior.
For every corpse, the Golem did that, and Adam silently watched.
Watching him was Lord Kaimu, who was equally silent, yet surrounded by his servants and some of his guards.
He was baffled by those people, by how weak they were, yet how fierce they fought.
"They are perfect in every way," Lord Kaimu blurted out in Alfari. "Dangerous too; maybe too dangerous."
"Shall we take action, sir?" the most senior of his guards asked from beside him. "They are scattered. The Hundred can descend upon them in an instant and…"
"No!" Lord Kaimu turned, anger flashing in his eyes, before forcing himself to calm down. "They are precious. Much can be learned from them. Their ways are ruthless, and they will play a greater role in the service of the Elden Tree and in the great plan for Yggdrasil."
The house guard bowed his head, watching his Lord's ambitions lie bare just as much as his fascination with the denizens of this world.
Under their watchful eyes, they watched as one of them approached Adam, taking careful steps and lowering her head in respect.
"Benefactor!"
Envoy Kahori joined Adam, yet he didn't turn to her, his eyes still watching the bodies that were piling inside his golem.
"For rescuing my sister…," she spoke, barely audible.
"It's okay," he said, not concerned about the situation anymore.
"By Elden Laws, I will be forbidden from making deals with Benefactor Clay ever again." She spoke, displaying great regret, "The Lords wouldn't want an Envoy to be subject to favor, and a Life Debt is the greatest favor of all."
"It's okay," Adam repeated his words, still not bothering to turn.
"I will find a way to repay you one day, Benefactor," she said, bowed once, and walked back.
Adam still watched his Golem, eyes blank and motionless, before opening his mouth once again, a fair half minute after Kahori walked away, voice flat and barely holding back his emotions from leaking out:
"It's… okay!"
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