I called up the power of water and let it flow through me, emerging in a crackle of forming ice to make plate armor all across my body. Practice had let me refine my Frozen Armor technique so that the plates fitted perfectly to me and left me agile, as if I were fighting in just my clothes.
Around me, my companions were also preparing. Kumi pulled out a water skin, poured its contents into the air, and started weaving it between her hands, chanting as she used the Song of the Sea. Kegohr and Vesma summoned Flame Shields and sent more fire flaring down their weapons. Tahlis laughed as he raised his leaf-bladed spear.
“Quite the statuesque beauties, aren’t they?” he said as he watched the golems approach.
“They’re regular Michelangelos,” I replied. “All that’s missing is a little full frontal nudity.”
“Are you saying they’re dressed?” Tahlis asked. “Because I’m not hearing the rustle of tunics.”
“All I’m seeing is a whole lot of weapons.”
“And they won’t be seeing much of me.”
Suddenly, sand swirled around Tahlis. He vanished, as he had done while fighting us in the sand-swept village.
Since that fight, Tahlis had explained the technique he used, Hidden Burrow, and now that I knew what I was looking for, I could follow what was happening. The swirling dust was just for show, a bit of misdirection to throw off observers. While it was sweeping around him, the earth opened and swallowed him. The ground around him became like liquid, and he was able to walk swiftly through it. Moments after he had disappeared, he appeared again behind one of the golems, again in that distinctive whirl of sand.
“Hello there.” He tapped the golem on the shoulder. As it turned around, Tahlis’ spear slammed into its head. It staggered back with a long, pale scratch across its face.
Tahlis held his arms wide and unleashed another of his techniques—Sandstorm. A blistering whirlwind burst out around him and flung fine dust in every direction. The leading golems clutched their faces as sand swarmed their eyes.
While they were distracted, we seized our chance. Vesma darted between the golems on the left. She put out a swift flurry of blows with her spear, each one jabbing at the exposed joints of a golem. None of those blows were hard enough to break anything, but they drew the creatures’ attention, and a whole pack turned to go after her.
That left the creatures’ backs exposed, and Kegohr hefted his mace in both hands and swung it at the back of the nearest creature’s head. There was a crack as the stone neck exploded, and the head went flying across the crowd to smash another golem in the face. Even as the body fell, Kegohr struck again. His mace hit another golem in the side, and dust flew as cracks rippled across its chest.
I leaped in among the golems that Tahlis had blinded. Fighting with a trident was different from fighting with a sword. I couldn’t rely on slashing and hacking, but there was great power in stabbing at an opponent’s weak spots. That power was reinforced as I sent my Vigor flowing down the weapon so that its tips were encrusted in ice crystals and imbued with the pure power of water.
I thrust the trident into the joint around the waist of a golem. There was a grinding sound as metal drove deep between the two sections of stone. The golem turned to face me, and I pushed harder, driving my weapon deep inside, then twisted. The power flowed through me, and a mighty crack resounded as the creature split in half.
“You call that an attack?” Tahlis said. “Twist as you stab, use the full force for leverage.”
Another golem, half-blind from the sand in its eyes, tried to grab me from behind. I swung the butt of the spear into its face. As it staggered, I twisted around and swept its legs out with a kick. It hit the ground with a heavy thud. Before it could move, I thrust the trident into its neck with all my strength. The neck snapped, and the head rolled off. The slain golem lay still.
Sensing movement, I ducked just in time to avoid being decapitated by a blow, then rolled forward and away from the attack. As I came to my feet, I turned around to face three golems, all with twin stone axes raised.
I flung up a Smothering Mist that blocked the golems’ view, then used it to get clear of their advance. They marched into the edge of the mist and swung at where I had been, even as I darted around a boulder and came at them from the side. Next, I launched an Ash Cloud so that my enemies became surrounded by another cloud, this one black and dry as the desert itself.
While the golems stumbled into each other in the darkness, I reached out and called part of the Ash Cloud to me. The particles settled in my palm, and I squeezed them tight with both my hand and my Augmenting. Under the concerted pressure of Compress Ash, those particles became a slender knife blade as hard as any metal in the world.
When the first golem emerged from the cloud, its body smeared with soot, I lunged forward with the knife. I buried it in the golem’s shoulder joint before it even had time to react. As the creature reached around to try to pull the weapon out, I knocked its hand aside and slammed my trident onto the knife handle, like I was hammering in a nail. The golem’s arm broke off and fell to the ground along with the ax it had held.
Behind the ash-stained golems, Tahlis was still using the same mischievous tactics he had deployed against us. He would blind
