Chapter 23

"Will they be all right in your opinion?" Sofia asked the others. The group was hurrying on all the way through the cave, hoping to find the Golem Lord as soon as possible.

"I hope so. In any case, let's hurry to make sure that no one dies. Remember: their lives depend on us. The quest is to save the village of Veridale. If they die, there will be no village left to save." Lucia reminded them.

"You are right." Samuele nodded. "Killing the Golem Lord would make no sense if those people die."

"It is thanks to them that we have been able to move forward. We absolutely must not let them down!" Manuele exclaimed in a determined tone.

The group did not stop for a single second. They continued until they came to a door about ten meters huge and bare, devoid of any carvings or decorations.

"Are the Bosses' doors always this big or is it a coincidence?" Manuele asked, slightly intimidated.

"To my knowledge, it varies from the boss in question."

"So one wrong move and this Golem Lord can crush us like a pancake, am I right?" Said Samuele, looking at the door for all its height. His neck almost hurt.

Lucia's eyes tried to look beyond that door that hid the boss. Her heart, as well as that of her companions, beat wildly. Going through it could mean completing the quest, but it could also mean dying.

She did not know what form this Boss had or how strong he would be. Did he use any other magic besides creating Golem? Was he a hand-to-hand fighter? Was he slow or fast? What would have been the best way to attack him? What kind of attacks was he weakest to? All kinds of questions swirled in his brain.

The lives of everyone, the inhabitants and her comrades, depended on her. She absolutely had to know what she was up against and prepare accordingly. About this Boss, however, she had no information.

A hand rested on her shoulder and she winced in a barely visible way. She turned to Samuele, who had an apprehensive look on his face.

"We have to rescue those people. We'll think once we get inside about what to do. You are not alone."

At Samuele's words, Lucia almost opened her eyes wide. It was as if he had read her thoughts. She looked at the rest of her companions. All were nervous, but their eyes were determined. She took a breath to calm her heart. "Thank you." She realized that Samuele was right. She turned again toward the door. She was not alone. She could count on their help. Together, they would defeat the Golem Lord, whatever it took.

"Are you ready?"

"Yes!" All the Adventurers exclaimed in unison.

Armed with great courage and determination in addition to their weapons, they walked through that gateway so simple, yet at the same time unsettling. They did not have to try very hard to figure out where the boss, the Golem Lord, was.

In front of them stretched a large room with a throne at the end of it. Unlike what the group expected, they saw a, on the surface, ordinary man sitting comfortably on the throne. Only on the surface, however. Upon closer observation, this man wore stone scales on his face, and not only that. Even his naked torso was covered with these strange scales. One could well imagine how these extended all over the rest of his body as well.

"Would this be the Golem Lord?" Manuele asked in an almost disappointed tone.

"I was expecting a huge stone monster, honestly." Sofia agreed.

"That doesn't change his level of danger. Look at his face: we don't even look like a challenge to him." Lucia alerted.

The boss looked at them with a bored look. He did not move completely from his position when he saw the group enter.

"It will mean that we will change his mind." Affirmed Samuele, preparing for battle.

"You're right. Let's not waste time!" Lucia shouted, expanding that fire of determination in the hearts of her comrades.

The group went on the attack, but Golems stopped their advance. These lined up as if they were an impassable wall that grew tighter and tighter around the Adventurers.

"Damn it, them again!" Manuele exclaimed annoyed.

"We should have expected this. He is still the Golem Lord." Samuele rightly observed.

"Eyes open. We have already seen how the slightest mistake can be fatal. We must take the right opportunity to go around them and attack the boss. We cannot afford to waste too much energy against these monsters!" Lucia ordered.

The group arranged themselves in a circle and defended themselves as best they could. None of them gave a single blow. They all waited for the right moment, which was not long in coming.

"Attack now!"

At the same time, they all struck the monsters with their slashes, destroying them all instantly. Immediately, they ran toward the boss.

YOU ACTIVATED ACTIVE SKILL: "TIMELY BLESSING"

Samuele was not slow to use his ability to make himself faster and hit him with a surprise attack. As he approached him with great speed, he saw how the boss did not even move.

'He didn't notice me. This is my chance!' He went to cut off his head and finish the quest, but as soon as the sword approached his neck, it was stopped by a stone hand. A Golem had just formed a step away from him.

"Damn!" He exclaimed with a snap of his tongue. The monster hurled him several meters away.

The other Adventurers did not stand still. They all attacked the boss, but were stopped without much difficulty by other Golems.

"It's not possible! These Golems are forming too fast!" Sofia exclaimed in a nervous tone.

"No matter how close we get to him, his Golems are an impassable defense." Said Manuele.

Samuele meanwhile got up from the ground. In front of him stood the Golem that had just blocked his attack. Behind the latter, he saw clearly how the Golem Lord was just giving him an indifferent sideways glance.

'You're not even useful as a warm-up.' This was what he said to him with his gaze, and Samuele understood it perfectly. His gaze went to Lucia. He wanted to check if she had a plan in mind, something that could guide them to defeat the monster that was looking down on them.

Lucia did not take her eyes off the Golems in front of her. She stepped back slightly and moved into an attack position. She clenched her teeth, trying to carp at the Golem Lord's weak point. It was unthinkable to her that a level 20 portal boss could be so much superior to them. She was a level 19, only one level below that of the boss. Could there really have been such a difference in power between the two of them?

No. The real problem was the Golems he himself created. They were weak, so weak that with a single blow they would fall to the ground. Their strength was that they would reform in very few moments. Without those, the Golem Lord would never have had that look of superiority towards them. He knew he was safe.

Suddenly, everything around them trembled.

"What is that?! An earthquake?!" Manuele asked. All of them almost had difficulty standing because of the strong tremors.

"It's not an earthquake! It's magic!" Samuele exclaimed, drawing everyone's attention. The moment the tremors began, he felt an incredible amount of magic emanating from the direction from which they came.

"Are you sure about this! Who is releasing magic so powerful that the whole cavern is shaking!" Sofia asked in amazement.

"I just hope it's not another enemy, otherwise we're in even more trouble!" Said Lucia.

Soon after, the cave stopped shaking.

"Um, guys...I don't think it's an enemy." Said Manuele, slowly. Everyone looked at him. His gaze showed concern, fixed on someone.

"Why is the boss more surprised than us..."

The Golem Lord, who until that moment had left his bored look unchanged, opened his eyes wide and gritted his teeth, as if angry.

"I don't know whether it's a good or a bad sign..." Sofia spoke.

"Both I would say. At least this magic is not from an enemy." Samuele replied.

"Yeah, but now our enemy here is pissed as hell!" Manuele exclaimed visibly nervous.

Around them, all the Golems crumbled, surprising the group once again.

"A surprise attack!" Lucia shouted, alerting everyone, who looked everywhere, ready to launch an attack at the slightest sign of a moving shadow.

Nothing happened, however.

"I don't understand, what's going on?" Sofia asked. Lucia was more surprised than she was. She expected them to form at any moment, but they did not. She looked at the Golem Lord, as if trying to figure out what he was up to.

Then the girl opened her eyes wide, as if an idea had come to her. "Let's attack him as a group!" She ordered. All of them, after a moment's hesitation, did as she said.

The moment they approached him, no Golem formed. They unleashed their attacks and the boss showed his rabidly clenched teeth. He quickly dodged their attacks and stepped back a few meters from them.

"What the hell...?"

"You understood something, didn't you, Lucia?" Samuele asked her, receiving a nod. He, too, had just realized what had happened. They finally had an opportunity.

"There is a limit to how many Golems he can create. Feeling that strong magic, he decided to use everyone he had left against that source."

"So now he has no chance, right?" Manuele asked hopefully.

"Not really." Samuele replied, receiving moans of disappointment from Sofia and Manuele. "This boss is not stupid. It would make no sense to use all his resources against someone he is not even challenging directly and remain defenseless against us. If I were him, instead, I would have put all my strength against you and only then focus on that source of magic."

"So that means..."

"That he has an ace up his sleeve that we don't know about." Lucia concluded, continuing Sofia's interrupted sentence in the middle.

Just as if to affirm this hypothesis, the Golem Lord let out a howl of rage, the tone of which gradually went lower and more powerful. It was not only his voice, but also his entire appearance changed. The stone scales expanded and his body grew several meters in size. If before the boss could be identified in a human form, he now seemed to have become for all intents and purposes the leader of the Golems. He was identical to them in every way, with the sole exception of his size.

"E-explained that gateway..." stammered Manuele, trying to lighten the moment but failing miserably, as he first was terrified to death.

"And to think he could have done it from the beginning..." Sofia thought aloud. How were they going to defeat a monster of that size? "He was already untouchable without this transformation, what should we do now?"

"It's not like that..." Samuele muttered. Sofia, who was standing next to him, heard him and frowned, confused.

"Don't be intimidated!" Lucia exclaimed. "There must be a reason he didn't do it sooner, right? The best situation for him was to be defended by his Golems. Without those, he has no way to easily stop our attacks anymore. Also, because of his gigantic stature, his movements will be slower. Compared to before, our chance of killing him has increased significantly! This time we will not hold back! Let's use all our power to beat him!"

YOU ACTIVATED "ACTIVE SKILL: PARKOUR"!

Without even having it repeated a second time, the whole group moved to attack him. Manuele made sure to get his attention. Having succeeded in his goal, he nimbly dodged all the attacks the Golem threw at him.

"He's really slow!" Manuele exclaimed with a smile.

YOU ACTIVATED "ACTIVE SKILL: TIMELY BLESSING"!

"It's you who are too agile for him!" Said Samuele. He ran at full speed toward the monster's ankles, trying to cut him off and make him fall to the ground. The Golem, however, did not fall into the trap. He noticed Samuele's position and immediately stretched out his hand from which huge stones came off and headed at full speed toward him.

Samuele had almost no difficulty in dodging those boulders that dug into the rocky ground.

'He is still the boss, after all,' he thought. Just because he was cornered did not mean they would kill him easily.

The Golem Lord reformed his hand quickly enough and turned toward the strongest enemy among them. He sharpened his eyes and stretched out his arms toward Lucia.

The girl saw what he did moments earlier against Samuele and wasn't taken aback. He began to run sideways, dodging the stones that were thrown at him at great speed and eventually cutting them with his slashes. Soon after, his trajectory changed completely and he ran toward the monster, forcing himself to shield himself with his sword from all the Golem Lord's attacks.

The closer she came to him, however, the more difficult it became to defend herself. Hers was a very risky move, but she knew she was not alone. She smiled, remembering Samuele's words.

In fact, the boss was so focused on her that he did not notice that on either side of him, Manuele and Samuele had joined him. The Golem Lord could only open his eyes wide as the two Adventurers cut off his arms. Compared to normal Golems, this body was much stronger. They understood this not only from the fact that they had to put all the strength they had to cut them off, but also because their sword broke.

Lucia understood that this was her moment, and Sofia seemed to understand it as well.

YOU ACTIVATED "ACTIVE SKILL: SPIRITUAL REINFORCEMENT!"

Sofia used her ability on Lucia, greatly increasing her stats. Lucia jumped toward the head of the Golem Lord, the latter now defenseless, and turned her torso sideways with her sword behind her shoulder.

YOU ACTIVATED "ACTIVE SKILL: AIR SLASH!"

With a single slash, he blasted off the Golem Lord's head, which fell to the ground noisily. His body crumbled, and everyone stood with bated breath, waiting for the moment they so distressed.

[CONGRATULATIONS!]

YOU KILLED THE BOSS.

YOU LEVELED UP!

The entire group of Adventurers rejoiced joyfully.

END OF CHAPTER.

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Finally, some real, healthy fighting. What did you think of it? Did you enjoy it? Did you hated it? Both? Tell me in the comments.

As usual, see you tomorrow, same time. Bye!