The sound of stones hitting the ground sounded throughout the cave. Every second that passed, a Golem was torn to pieces. But no matter how many times it fell, its body would reform endlessly.
Fried awkwardly swung the sword given to him by Ms. Eve. He managed to knock some of them down, but not even a few seconds later those reformed. He caught his breath again. He was not used to fighting. In fact, it was the first time he had ever had to fight. He looked at the mass of Golems in front of him. There were too many of them. Plus, they were constantly regenerating. They could not make it. He couldn't make it.
"Stay focused, kid!" Ms. Eve's voice woke him from his thoughts. "We must hold out until those Adventurers defeat the being that is causing all this." Ms. Eve, unlike many of her fellow villagers at that moment, fought in a much more agile manner, almost as if she were used to it. She swung her sword horizontally and with a single blow sent three golems crashing down on her.
Fried, who watched her for a moment fascinated by her movements, brought his gaze back to his front. Ms. Eve was right. They just had to hold on until the Adventurers killed the Golem Lord. He clasped his hands tightly around his sword and swallowed the saliva. His heart beat wildly.
The golems, which he had destroyed seconds earlier, were once again just a few steps away from him. With a surprising burst, Fried dodged their blows by spinning between their bodies and striking them with a horizontal slash, just as Ms. Eve did, and destroying them again.
"You learn fast, boy. You're an exact copy of her." She said, observing his attack.
"Of my mother, you mean? You have never told me about her, nor about my father."
"Someday I will, but now is not the time. Concentrate, boy."
The two resumed fighting. The other inhabitants also did their best. For several minutes, they managed to resist the stone creatures quite easily. Fatigue, however, began to set in.
Every one of them was panting. It was clear that none of them were real fighters outside of Karl and Ms. Eve. Not even Fried was exempt from the consequence of the prolonged battle.
Fatigue caused devolution, and devolution led to erroneous action.
A Golem ran toward Fried. The latter, his eyes fixed on him, raised his sword high, ready to lower it on him as soon as he was close enough. For a single moment, his vision became blurry, which led him to a grave error. His heart beat wildly, his mind panicked, and he did not understand what was happening.
In an instant, he saw the Golem inches from his face. He opened his eyes wide in fear and lowered his sword toward the monster. Unfortunately, it was too close, and the blow did not hit. The blow that did go in was the Golem's, which with a punch sent him flying toward the rock wall, knocking him to the ground and stunning him.
"Fried!" Ms. Eve exclaimed in an urgent tone. She could not distract herself, however, from the fight. He gritted his teeth and struck all the Golems in front of him.
The boy opened his eyes again. He crawled to his feet and, with his gaze fixed on the ground saw his hands, once two, had become four. He breathed heavily. He tried to get back on his feet, but his head turned and he repeatedly fell to his knees.
He looked ahead. His vision still failed to focus well, but he understood very well what it was that huge dark figure, which had become double at that moment, was coming toward him menacingly.
'Is this the end of me?" he thought distractedly. His mind began to wander through his memories, starting directly from childhood.
For as long as he could remember, he had grown up without parents. His only "parental" figure, so to speak, was Ms. Eve. The only thing he knew about his parents was that his mother died during a trip together with Ms. Eve.
He remembered the times together with her from when he was a child. She took care of him, but at the same time always kept herself distant.
He always felt alone as a burden to her. And this he regretted.
In any case, Ms. Eve was the only person in the village with whom he had a relationship. He had no friends. Therefore, from an early age he began to venture out and found solace in the forest.
There he stayed happy. Being in close contact with nature calmed him. In addition, he discovered a pastime that amused him: collecting the different species of mushrooms found within the forest. At home he had more than twenty and was convinced that there were still others missing from his collection. He even purposely had a book brought to him about the different species of mushrooms.
Fried smiled wryly. Is this what people mean when, on the verge of death, they say 'seeing life pass before them'? If so, then his life was coming to an end.
He did not even attempt to get up again. It was useless; his head would not stop spinning. At that moment, he surrendered to the reality of the facts.
That golem was going to kill him. And why should he have survived? He was weak. He had been inside the forest for a long time, and if there was one thing he had learned, it was that the weak always die. The strong eat the weak, no matter if they use dirty tricks to do so.
And it was clear at that moment who the strong one was.
He had only one hope in his heart: that even as a weakling he had managed to help, if only slightly, the Adventurers defeat the Golem Lord.
If so, then all his fighting, his death would not be in vain.
Through blurred vision, Fried saw a shadow appear on the ground in front of him and shadow him. He did not have to look up to realize that this Golem was preparing to crush his head with a single blow.
He threw out the air he had held in for several seconds and closed his eyes. He was calm. He was ready for his sad fate, with the hope that he had not been a burden to others even in death.
He heard a noise of something going against a body and the thud of something else falling heavily to the ground to his right. He thought he was the target, but he heard nothing. He opened his eyes. He could focus his vision now. He looked up at the spot where the Golem stood before. It was still there, its fist lowered, as if it had already inflicted its blow.
Fried slowly turned his head to the right, where moments earlier he had heard the thud of something falling. His eyes widened at the sight of the figure all too familiar to him.
Ms. Eve lay on the ground, rigid. From where she stood, Fried could not even see her breathing. At that moment, nothing existed around him for Fried. All the sounds of swords, of screaming, of stones falling to the ground stopped. Absolute silence enveloped the cave.
"Ms. Eve..." Muttered the boy, not believing his eyes. He did not understand what had happened. Had she taken the attack for him? Why? There was no reason at all. He was weak; he was just a burden.
She had thrown herself in there to save him. Tears streamed down her cheeks.
"Ms. Eve..." He called her back, this time in a slightly louder tone. She crawled toward the woman's lifeless body. "Answer me, please..." He took her body in his arms. "Please get up..."
She did not answer. She didn't seem to open her eyes. Nothing. This time Fried cried out. He cried at the top of his lungs. All noise around him stopped, leaving a silence broken only by his desperate cries.
The Golem, the same one that struck the woman, approached Fried yet again for the umpteenth time. The stone monster raised its arm to the sky, ready to lower it toward the boy with all its might.
The earth suddenly shook. The walls shook. Not even the rocky roof of the cave was spared.
Suddenly, roots emerged from the walls and grabbed the Golem behind Fried, steadily squeezing him tighter and tighter until he crumbled.
Fried, who sensed what happened, turned toward these roots. He first observed them surprised, but a few seconds later it was as if he knew exactly what they were.
He gently rested Ms. Eve's unconscious body and rose from the ground, this time without any sense of dizziness.
In his mind it was clear what he had to do. His hate-filled eyes pointed at those creatures.
"I will kill you over and over again." He exclaimed in a grave voice.
Exactly as before, hundreds of roots emerged from the walls this time, heading at great speed toward each of the Golems, destroying them on contact.
END OF CHAPTER.
------------------------------------------------
Little Fried doesn't seem to be so weak anymore, does he? And he who thought he had no magic....
Anyway, what did you think of the chapter? Yes, I focused totally on Fried and the villagers in this chapter, and that will be the case in the next one as well. I hope you won't mind.
If you liked the chapter, don't leave a comment, don't review, and most importantly, don't leave any power stones... No, wait!...
See you tomorrow, same time. Bye!