The golem strode forward into the weakened barricade. It kicked aside the last of the section in front of it, picked up a table, and used it like a bat to smash away more of the structure to left and right. Wood splintered, and objects fell. Barrels went rolling across the street. Demons were knocked flying by chunks of furniture.
Kegohr, Vesma, and I let fly with another blast of fire. By now, there wasn’t much left of the barrier in front of us. As the empowered Untamed Torches hit, the timbers exploded in a shower of ash and sparks, creating another gap.
The golem strode on, turning whole chunks of the defensive line into splinters. For the first time, the demons started to retreat, not in fear but as if called by some other voice, summoned back to a duty we had yet to see.
“Forward!” Ganyir roared. “Don’t give them time to regroup!”
Together, we surged through the remnants of the barricade, smoke billowing around us. Soldiers, Pathless, initiates, and traveling Augmenters advanced together on the Palace of Hyng’ohr. As Ganyir had said, we were together now, no distinctions of class or status between us, a single body set on a single purpose.
Beyond the barricade lay the steps up to the temple. In front of those steps stood another mixed army. This one was built on magic rather than human allegiances. Priests of the Cult of Unswerving Shadows gathered in their black robes with the gleaming edges. Corrupted disciples of the Steadfast Horn Guild stood in their guild’s colors but with the black triangle of the Unswerving Shadows stitched onto the breast. And among them were non-human warriors—lesser demons like those we’d fought in the square and lesser golems like we’d faced in the Vigorous Zone. There were as many arcane bodies as there were natural ones.
We had survived the first round of the battle, but the second round was just about to begin.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Mahrai was on her golem’s back, her staff in hand. Her minion was the first to hit the enemy line. It charged straight at the lesser stone golems, as if it recognized its kindred and felt some deeper animosity at seeing them lined up against it. There was a loud crack as it kicked the nearest of them, and the lesser golem skidded through the assembled priests and demons, sending them skittering across the ground like so many bowling pins. The greater golem picked one of the miniature versions of itself up by the arm and started using it as a crude stone cudgel against the rest. Rock crashed against rock, and flying shards sliced the faces of nearby priests.
I raised my hand and produced a Sandstorm. The air in front of the golem swirled, and I formed the same technique but focused on making it harder and more vicious. Sand blasted outward, tearing the skin from a demon that came too close and knocking others over. But the stone golems stood unflinching in front of the blast.
Our force was advancing through the barricade, ready to take on Saruqin’s army. Soon, the two sides would clash again, and there would be enough action for everyone. Even so, I could see that Mahrai’s position provided the best view of the battle. It was the place where I could do the most good.
I ran over to the golem and sprang onto its back. My fingers grabbed the rough edges of the stone, and I scrambled up past Mahrai. The golem’s greatest form had plenty of space for us both to ride the mighty colossus.
“Hey!” she shouted. “This one’s mine!”
“After everything else we’ve shared, you’re not willing to share a golem?” I asked with a grin. “Just how close are you to this thing?”
“It saves me from worrying about size.”
“It’s what you do with it that counts. And from up here. . .” I reached the shoulders and stood, gripping the golem’s head with one hand. “From up here, I can do things no one else in the city can.”
I swayed as I stood, constantly shifting my balance to avoid falling as the golem moved around, but it was worth it for the view. I could see across the whole battlefield and the forces arrayed before us, could make out where the largest knots of enemies were and where they were gathering to launch attacks. I could target my Augmenting perfectly to make the most of my opportunities.
I started with Mud Entrapment technique. The combined powers of water and earth flowed through me out of the mud core I had forged and into the world. I made the effect wide rather than deep, aiming to inconvenience as many of the enemies as possible and give my side an advantage as they charged in.
The first Mud Entrapment appeared in the ground directly in front of the golem. Humans, demons, and lesser golems alike sank into mud that reached almost to their knees. As they struggled to pull themselves out, our golem knocked them flat, as if it were playing a brutal game of whack-a-mole.
My previous worries about not having enough Vigor to fight Saruqin vanished. The survival of our new army depended on me giving everything I had.
I poured Vigor through the widest pathways inside me and then lengthened them while slowing my breathing. A different kind of Mud Entrapment swelled from the ground, turning half the street in front of the palace into a sea of mud, full of thrashing bodies covered in the brown ooze.
With the mud in place, I moved on to the next stage of my plan.
The water inside the mire allowed me to activate Crashing Wave. There wasn’t a lot of liquid, but it was enough to make the mud ripple and surge. I gritted my teeth and continued burning Vigor to manipulate the wave’s movement. I almost fell from my perch on the golem’s soldiers but managed to guide the
