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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lazybones" data-source="post: 4221419" data-attributes="member: 143">Chapter 40THE POUNDINGAs the golem slammed its fists down toward Aerim, Ozmad stepped forward to meet it. The elf looked almost pathetic as he lifted his slender hands, but even as he moved he began to... change.  His body swelled, his arms growing thicker and longer as they rose up to meet the golem’s attack.  His face also transformed, his delicate elven features replaced by an almost bestial, fearsome visage.  His skin deepened in shade to a deep blue, and tufts of red hair erupted from his skin in dozens of places.  His billowing garments became instantly tight, but the cloth expanded to cover, bulging with the bulk of huge muscles and long limbs.  Finally, a pair of horns emerged from his forehead, black shafts that ended in twisting points.  The ogre mage caught the golem’s wrists in his hands, absorbing the force of its attack with a mere grunt.  The two stood there for a moment, locked in a battle of strength for which they were apparently closely matched.  The golem still had a significant advantage in terms of weight, but Ozmad held his ground, his muscles swollen with magically-enhanced strength. Behind him, Ghazaran drew Aerim out of the fray, while Parzad used his psionic abilites to slide the unconscious Falah back down the rubble-strewn passage.  There wasn’t much more space left to retreat; the bend of the corridor was only a few paces behind them, now, and the deadly stretch of spinning blades lay not far beyond that. The stalemate between Ozmad and the golem had only lasted for a second or two, but another golem was already starting to push around them, and a third was adding its weight to the first by pushing hard against its back.  Suddenly the ogre mage yielded, releasing his foe and stepping quickly back.  The golem bent almost double as its fists slammed into the floor, striking just inches from Ozmad’s feet; his boots had resized with him, but clearly weren’t up to providing protection against that kind of blow, had it connected.  The golem, still moving with magically enhanced speed, reacted quickly, but Ozmad was faster.  The ogre reached to its belt and drew out its mattock, which looked tiny in his huge fist, but almost instantaneously the weapon began to grow as well, extending until it was almost twice the size of Aerim’s sword, the shaft nearly as long as that of a spear, only several times as thick.  Despite the crowded quarters the ogre wielded it as effectively as the Duke had his blade, lifting the huge weapon easily and driving the hooked end down into the golem’s shoulder.  The blade caught like a shovel biting into earth, and a huge chunk of the creature, including its right arm, came away as he yanked down on it.  The golem was in poor shape now, but its companion took advantage to push past and attack, driving a solid punch into the ogre’s flank.  The blow should have punished even a foe as large and powerful as the ogre, but Ozmad merely grunted and reversed its weapon, taking off half the golem’s face with a two-handed strike.  Within the confines of the corridor Ozmad could not manage the wide swings that had been so effective against the stone trees earlier, but the short, curt strikes he was unleashing seemed hardly less deadly.  The one-armed golem he’d just crippled lunged forward to attack with its remaining fist, but he slammed the mattock into its side at the hip.  The limb gave, and as it fell it crumbled into rubble.The temperature in the corridor was below freezing, now; Navev’s chilling tentacles filled the corridor from end to end, and the outer shells of the golems were starting to crack as the supernatural chill took deep hold of their bodies.  Aerim and Falah were both on their feet again, if still sorely hurt, but there was nothing for them to do but watch as Ozmad destroyed one golem after another.  The ogre mage took hit after hit, but his own wards and magical protections absorbed a good deal of the attacks, and as soon as he’d stabilized Falah, Ghazaran took up position directly behind Ozmad, touching the back of one leg repeatedly with a healing wand.  The stone warriors did not relent, and soon the mound of debris was the size of a low wall, clogging the passage and impeding the movement of the next ranks.  But still the golems came, their skin cracking as they tore free from the tentacles, leaving flakes of frost and shattered bits of stone in their wake. It was some time later, no more than minutes, certainly, although it felt like much longer to those standing in the corridor.  By the time that the noise of the golems grew still, and the last crumbled into debris, they were all pale and shivering with cold, all save Ozmad, who looked like a demon with his hide covered in stone dust that was caked with blood where he’d absorbed blows hard enough to break his skin.  Navev had dismissed the tentacles, but it still felt like the interior of a meat locker within the confines of the passage. Ghazaran threw down his wand, its power utterly depleted.  “My remaining healing resources are... limited,” the cleric said.  “We need... to rest,” the Seer said.  His breath came out in white plumes in front of him, and he trembled as though it had been he who had held the line against the golems. “We cannot stop,” Ozmad said.  The ogre mage lifted his mattock, which began at once to shrink back to its usual diminutive size.  Tucked back into his belt, it looked almost like a child’s toy rather than a weapon. Jasek stepped forward and looked up at the ogre mage.  He said quietly, “Not that I want to agree with... him,” he said, indicating the Seer with a jut of his elbow, “but we’ve all taken a beating, especially you and the Duke there.  I can’t feel my arms and legs, and that’s not going to help when it comes time when you need my skills.  We need to take a breather, find someplace to hole up for a while, catch our breath.”The ogre shook his head.  “The Duke and myself will recover quickly from our wounds.  As for the rest of you, Ghazaran will do what he can once we are free of this corridor, but we cannot linger long.  Look for yourself.”  He gestured toward the mounds of rubble, and as they collectively turned to look they could all see what he meant.  The heaps of shattered stone, its odd multicolor shadings matching those in the walls and floor, were beginning to diminish.  On closer examination it could be seen that the rubble from the golems was slowly seeping into the floor, absorbed back into the substance of this place.  “What’s happening?” Jasek asked. “I imagine if we continue forward, we will see the stone guardians slowly reforming,” Ghazaran said.Ozmad nodded.  “Indeed.  We must be past their cavern by the time that they are reborn.”“And when we return?” the Seer asked. “The Ravager will open a path that anyone will be able to follow,” Ghazaran said.  Ozmad had already started forward, his huge boots crunching on the rubble as he trod forward toward the gaping opening where the mithral door had stood at the end of the corridor.  The others, after a moment’s hesitation, followed after him.</blockquote>

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