Chapter 15 - The Golem

As Leah and her legion continued to ascend the mountain, the resistance intensified. Hobgoblins attacked in greater numbers, more organized, more brutal. But every fight was fuel for Leah. She devoured their strength, and her own power grew.

Even when darkness fell, Leah didn’t slow.

She pressed on through the icy wind, her cloak whipping behind her as she glided just above the snow. The legion pressed forward through the darkness like a slow-moving tide of crimson and black.

But then the ground beneath her vibrated, softly at first, barely a murmur. She slowed, floating in place, eyes narrowing at the distant cliffs ahead.

The earth rumbled again. Harder this time.

Behind her, some legion members stumbled. Others caught themselves, weapons raised, scanning the terrain.

Leah turned her gaze upwards, towards the halfway point of the mountain. There, just barely distinguishable from the cliffside, something stirred. It shifted, massive and slow, like stone dragged across stone.

A giant figure stepped forward.

It was a towering humanoid, built entirely from rock. It moved with immense weight, and every footfall sent a wave through the mountain, causing snow to spill from ledges and cracks to splinter through the ice.

Leah turned to Kogg and tilted her head.

Kogg stepped forward, visibly unsettled. "I lived near the base, not here. I’ve never seen that thing before."

Daraena, crouched nearby with her hand on the snow. "I think it is a giant golem. But I’ve never seen one of this size."

Suddenly, another violent tremor hit, and then a low, thunderous rumble followed it.

Leah turned and her eyes widened slightly.

A massive avalanche was cascading down the mountain, snow, ice, and boulders all roaring towards them like a divine punishment. The white wave passed by the golem’s ankles like a river parting around a pillar.

Leah cursed under her breath. She turned back towards her legion.

"We deal with the snow first," she barked. "Then the giant."

She used her Blood Connection skill and pulled them into formation. Her soldiers closed in tight, huddling behind shield-bearers, bracing themselves for the coming onslaught. Leah didn’t wait to see it crash. She launched herself into the sky.

The avalanche slammed into the mountain below her, a wall of chaos and death. She barely cleared the main body of it, but snow and shrapnel still struck her as she climbed. Her vision blurred as snow clouded everything.

She kept flying, straining upwards, wings thrashing against the storm. After what felt like forever, she burst free of the swirling snow into the clear night sky.

Panting lightly, she looked back at the mountain and turned her gaze forward. She froze.

Up ahead, rising from the mist like a living nightmare, stood the golem.

It was larger than anything she had expected, easily taller than one of the skyscrapers Leah had seen back on earth. Its limbs were long and thick, its back hunched beneath layers of jagged stone. Its face had no expression, only two deep hollows where its eyes should be.

Leah’s eyes narrowed. She scanned its body, then racked her mind. Did the goblins send this down to deal with her and the legion? And if they did, how did they get their hands on something like this? Her questions would have to wait.

The golem took another step, the ground shaking beneath its weight as it moved closer. Leah’s eyes narrowed, if it continued down the mountain and reached the ice plain, it would destroy her city. She had to stop it. Now.

Leah flew forward, wings cutting through the air. As she neared the golem, she felt an enormous mass of blood signatures concentrated at the centre of its head.

She angled upwards and soared for the face, aiming for one of the golem’s hollow, cavernous eye sockets. It was like flying into a tunnel.

She slipped through the opening and into the dim interior. Darkness gave way to a faint blue glow from deeper within. Leah pressed on.

Soon, she emerged into a space as vast as a stadium. A wide, circular chamber stretched before her, surrounded by immense stone walls. Below, thousands of goblins stood in perfect formation, encircling a great pit in the centre. From that pit, a brilliant blue flame rose.

She watched, eyes hard, as hundreds of goblins at a time marched toward the fire and threw themselves into it, vanishing in bursts of light. With each sacrifice, the flame blazed brighter. Leah looked upwards and saw something.

Stolen story; please report.

Suspended in the air was a rock platform, hovering above the madness below. On it, a hobgoblin floated midair, bathed in ghostly blue energy, and with their arms outstretched.

In front of them stood an old female hobgoblin draped in thick furs, a massive staff clutched in her gnarled hands. Her eyes glowed faintly. She looked up at Leah’s approach, her face wrinkling into a frown.

With no time to waste, Leah flew straight to the platform and landed at the edge, sword already in hand. Her gaze locked with the hobgoblin’s.

The old hobgoblin raised her staff. "Everything you’ve built will be destroyed by tonight!" she shouted.

"Oh really?" Leah replied, drawing her blade fully.

"I am the great shaman of this mountain," the hobgoblin snapped. "And I will stop you here."

Leah’s eyes flicked to the floating hobgoblin suspended behind her. Then she looked down over the edge of the platform, towards the goblins feeding the flame.

Her lips curled into a smile. "I get it now," she said. "The goblins, they’re the fuel. And that one—" she pointed her sword at the glowing hobgoblin "controls the golem."

The shaman’s flinch said everything.

Leah’s grin sharpened. "What’s your name, shaman?"

The hobgoblin narrowed her eyes. "Why do you ask?"

Leah twirled her sword once and rested it on her shoulder. "I’d like to know what to call you, once I’ve converted you."

For a moment, the shaman was silent. Then she let out a sharp, furious cry and slammed her staff against the stone. A wave of jagged ice erupted from the ground, racing across the platform towards Leah.

Leah stepped backwards off the platform and launched skyward, just as the ice spikes ran over the spot where she had stood. She flew hard to the left and shot out two tendrils towards the shaman.

The old hobgoblin exhaled a frigid breath, and frost poured from her lips like a blizzard, engulfing the tendrils. They froze instantly and shattered like glass, raining crimson shards down below.

Without missing a beat, the shaman sprinted to the edge of the platform and jumped. A slab of ice formed beneath her feet, solid and shimmering, catching her midair as she soared after Leah. She thrust her staff forward, firing a volley of sharp icicles.

Leah twisted, slapping them away with sweeping arcs of her tendrils.

The two began circling each other in the air. Leah extended a tendril from her palm, coiling it tight like a whip, and lashed it out.

The shaman caught it with a blast of cold magic from her hand, freezing the tendril solid. But the strike still followed through, the frozen edge cracking against her arm, splitting skin and drawing blood.

As the shaman winced, Leah took the opening. She rushed in, blade raised and swinging.

The shaman barely raised her staff in time to block, gritting her teeth as Leah’s strength pushed her back. She snarled and opened her mouth wide, releasing a cone of freezing wind.

It blasted Leah head on. Ice crept across her armour, her cloak stiffened, and her flight wavered. Gritting her teeth, Leah thrust her foot forward and kicked off the shaman’s platform, breaking free.

The shaman flew backwards, steadying herself.

Leah circled again, raising her sword. Blood gathered atop it, coiling and thickening until it formed a long, crimson lance.

Seeing it, the shaman tightened her grip on her staff. A swirling orb of frost began to gather before her, swelling in size, crackling with cold, bitter, energy. It grew into a massive boulder of ice.

Leah charged forward. The shaman released her attack.

As Leah neared the boulder, she stretched her lance forward. Then, she smashed right through it. Shards exploded in all directions. The gleaming tip of the lance shot forward, and tore through the shaman’s shoulder.

Fur, skin, and muscle were shredded as she yelped and spiralled sideways.

Leah flew past. She spun midair and readied her lance to strike again but she paused.

As the shaman breathed out a ragged breath, she raised her staff and swung it in a wide arc. A wave of frost surged out in a crescent.

Leah veered back, narrowly dodging it as it swept under her.

As it thinned, Leah found herself hovering above the rock platform once more.

She looked behind her, at the unguarded hobgoblin still suspended in blue light.

The shaman looked at Leah and widened her eyes.

She screamed, "No!" just as Leah raised her hand.

A tendril snapped out like a whip, slicing through the air and cleaving clean through the suspended hobgoblin.

The hobgoblin’s eyes widened for the briefest moment before rolling back into their skull. The ethereal blue light around them winked out. Their bisected body fell, thudding onto the platform in two lifeless pieces.

All around them, the entire skull of the golem shook for a moment before halting still.

Leah turned back towards the shaman. Her face was twisted in frustration and fury. Without a word, she gripped her staff in both hands and levelled it at Leah. With a sharp cry, a focused ice beam erupted forward.

Leah veered hard to the left, wings beating fast. The shaman moved the staff after her, carving the beam through the air. She darted and twisted, dodging narrowly, but the edge of the beam clipped her side.

Leah gritted her teeth as ice began encasing her, freezing her armour and flesh. She immediately formed a thick blood shield around herself. The outer layers froze quickly, but she pulsed the blood, shifting it continuously to break off the accumulating frost.

The unrelenting beam continued, but it began to falter. Its brightness dulled, its force thinned. Finally, the stream flickered out.

The shaman sagged slightly, breath ragged as she stood on her ice platform.

Leah let the shield fall and let out an icy breath. She then extended her hand, and a single tendril lanced forward.

The shaman tried to raise her staff, but it was too slow. The tendril stabbed straight into her chest and launched her backwards. She crashed onto the rocky platform, the breath knocked from her lungs.

Leah flew closer. Even as the shaman bared her teeth in a final snarl, Leah’s tendril pulsed, already flooding her with blood. The shaman’s resistance flickered, then died. Her skin flushed crimson as the conversion began.

By the time Leah landed, the shaman lay still, eyes wide and glassy.

Leah walked up and kicked her sharply in the side.

"Get up."

The shaman blinked, then sat up with sudden clarity. She stumbled to her feet, eyes still glazed, and whispered, "M-Master…"

Leah tilted her head. "What’s your name?"

"Gabba." the shaman said.

"Alright. Now to take care of this…" Leah replied, turning away and walking towards the edge of the platform.

As she stared down into the pit of goblins below, Gabba shuffled up beside her, still clutching her staff.

"What are you going to do with the others down there?" she asked.

Leah pointed her sword and clenched the hilt.

"I’m going to feed," she said flatly, "then kill them all. I don’t need that many goblins following me around."

With that, she stepped off the edge and plunged downwards.