Chapter 13

Too bad for the goblins the golem didn't know pain and despite being hit by their weapons, it still reached out with its hands and rushed the nearest goblin, grabbing its neck with one hand and punching its head with the other. It took only 2 punches for the goblin's head to cave in unnaturally. At this point the golem had also taken significant damage all over its body but it continued to soldier on. The other golem came in and used two hands to slam down on a goblin from behind, instantly breaking its bones and the goblin fell on the floor where it was mercilessly step on by the golem, crushing even more bones and squishing its internal organs, causing blood to spray out from its mouth in a bloody fountain. The sudden gruesome death of their team mate gave the last 2 goblins a fright and they backed away fearfully. John was worried of goblin reinforcements and urged his golems to quickly finish them off.

A short while later, his golems emerged from the shop, their bodies stained red with blood. In their hands were the small goblin weapons and slung over their shoulders were the dead goblins. They moved faster then their peers and soon joined up with the 10 golems sent to reinforce them. John got his golems to bring the sleeping snake to the middle section of the 6th floor and got the 2 new smart golems to join his crystal room.

The smart golems left the goblin corpses near the snake, the goblin souls were already at the boundary of his domain, trying to break free and enter their afterlife but they were too weak to even affect the barrier and John was too busy to care about them now. He got the smart golems to test out the goblin weapons, those clubs look small and kid like in the golem hands and did not look reliable at all. Still it was better then nothing so 4 of the smarter golems held on to a weapon each. John grimly watched the goblins as they throughly ransacked the first to third floors, its not that he didn't dare to fight them, but his outnumbered 56 goblins to 37 golems. If he sent all 37 to fight maybe he can win with some ambush tactics but if he lost then its over. Also if he sent out all 37 there will be none left to protect him. If he split his forces he will also surely lose. In the end John could only watch on as the goblins searched with impunity. They screeched warnings when they came across the bloody aftermath on the 4th floor and sniffed around his previous crystal room on the 5th floor. Soon the first goblin scouts were staring down the dark and long staircase leading to the 6th floor while all his golems stared back up. John had this gut feeling that a very important battle will soon break out and he hurriedly got the 5 smart golems to mive away the soil boulder and join all the other golems at the staircase landing. LEAD THEM TO VICTORY he commanded. Afterwards like a turtle he anxiously got the 2 female golems to place back the soil boulder.

The smarter golems scattered themselves among the other golems and John tensely waited to see what the goblins will do next. He didn't have to wait long as the goblin commander soon arrived. This was a goblin larger then the rest with a fancy armband around his biceps. The goblin commander threw several of that glowing stone they all had and lighted up the area near the staircase landing, revealing the silent ranks of golems quietly staring at them a short distance away from the stairs. The goblins broke into nervous chittering.

Yes, that's it.... Retreat you little tweeps, John thought to himself. The goblin commander however was having none of it. He gave a rousing speech to the other goblins, his team mates helping him by slapping those that dare to disagree and harassing those that appeared unconvinced, until all the goblins were reluctantly agreeing. Then he picked a slightly weaker looking goblin, kicked him down the stairs and roared for the rest to go kill the enemies while he and his team mates waited upstairs.

At first John was happy as he thought the goblin commander was sending him a free frag but the nimble goblin caught itself mid fall and tried to run back up but he was firmly pushed to the front by the rest of his peers charging down the stairs. KILL THEM!!!! John mentally shouted to his golems. The golems surged forward as one, some suddenly falling as they got tripped by the strange goblin ropes and causing the golems behind them to stumble as well. The battle lines clashed and Johns side had the initial advantage. Goblin after goblin was smashed to death by pure brute strength as the unfeeling golems easily tanked blows with their body of soil. The goblins with no free space and tightly packed together, found dodging very difficult and were easy targets for the golems, their scrawny teen like bodies easily smashed by punches and stomps or crushed by squeezing.

After awhile of brutal fighting, the front lines of golems began to have casualties, the cunning goblins concentrated their attacks on the golems knees, causing some golems to fall down after losing a leg. To the dismay of the goblins, the golems simply continued to crawl forward with their hands, still eager to catch and rip apart any goblin they can grab. Meanwhile the other golems simply stepped on their ground hugging comrades to continue raining blows from above on the disorganised goblins. The goblins in front found that they had no where to go, surrounded on all sides by other goblins, they could only force themselves forward or die while trying to retreat.

The goblin commander at the back, with the help of his team, continued to keep up the pressure, preventing those ahead from retreating, thus forcing those in front to fight or die. Seeing his goblins doing badly, the commander's body turned strange with vague broken symbols of runes emerging from under his skin, covering his upper body in a wild pattern. The commander gathered his strength and then gave a wordless shout, the sound waves sweeping through the goblins fighting below. All the goblins touched by the soundwave turned into little green devils, their eyes became filled with bloodlust as their strength and speed increased. The goblins surged forward with a storm of wild swings, usually this tactic works very well, unfortunately for the goblins the golems are not creatures of flesh and blood. The golems either endured the blows or exploded if they got too damaged. Meanwhile their arms and legs never stopped attacking the goblins. Despite the explosion of soil here and there, it was obvious to John that the goblins were dying much faster..... he was winning!. The goblin commander face turned pale as he realised his trump card failed. There was nothing else he can do, the goblins won't listen to him while in this frenzied state. Without further hesitation, he turned around and ran away, with his team hot on his heels.

John saw the goblin commander running and berated himself for losing focus. He should have tried corrupting the commander earlier. Thinking for awhile, John quickly switched vision to the rope ladder. Heh heh heh, there's only one way out of this dungeon, since your already here, why don't you stay..... Forever!. John gathered the dungeon mana around the rope ladder, straining his mental strength to pull as much mana as possible in the short time the goblin commander took to run back up. As the goblin commander scampered up the ladder, John sprang his trap, forcing the mana into the goblin's body. Unfortunately the time was too short and he only gathered a small amount of mana and the goblin had a surprisingly strong spiritual resistance. The magical ambush frightened the goblin but failed and the goblins escaped from the dungeon.

John gave a disappointed tsk. It would have been interesting to corrupt that goblin and study his mysterious runes. Oh! Maybe he can capture some of the normal goblins below and corrupt them to see what happens. John quickly switched vision but he was greeted by the sight of a bloody end to the battle. The ground near the stairs was red and sticky with goblin blood, packed with ugly dead goblins who look even more disgusting when dead and countless fragments of magical soil from exploded golems. The battle was already over, the golems had followed his order and killed all the goblins. Oh well... John didn't dwell on the lost chance for goblin prisoners and instead inspected his remaining golems. Out of the 35 which fought, he can sense only 21 left. The good thing is after killing so many goblins, all the surviving golems had leveled up. John looked on with satisfaction as his golems silently repaired themselves without any orders from him, looks like this battle was worth it. Even more surprising is the 4 golems moving around and helping to repair other golems without any commands from him. From what he knew, smart golems should only be able to repair themselves, so this 4 golems should be at the next level already.