The heat from the fireball was burning Lith's lungs while the light blinded him, but by switching to Life Vision he became able to see again. He unleashed a burst of Origin Flames, which the Golem shrugged off as if they were nothing more than a parlor trick.
Flesh Golems were so heavily enchanted that a single breath of Origin Flames could barely heat their stone surface due to the powerful magic coursing through their bodies that amounted to several tier five spells.
The construct struck with its fists again, activating even more fireballs. Lith was exactly in Neshal's situation. He couldn't block nor dodge the enemy's spells, yet he had one more means of defense.
Instead of wasting his Origin Flames to attack, he used them to cancel the fireballs as he stepped back to avoid the physical attacks. Origin Flames' greatest weak point was that it required him to exhaust the air in his lungs, leaving him breathless.
'Beware, this thing isn't trying to take you alive.' Solus warned him.
The Golem had no idea what was happening, so it tried to switch to darkness magic, only to have its black waves devoured by Lith's blue flames.
Lith infused his prototype Gatekeeper with air magic, to boost its speed and piercing abilities, but thanks to the mix of earth and air magic the construct used to move its body, the Golem was as fast as an Awakened.
The stone fist shattered the blade before it could get even one centimeter under its skin. The other fist struck at Lith like a charging bull, making him bounce on the floor before sending him crashing against the back wall.
Even with the boosted protection of the Skinwalker armor and Solus promptly covering his chest to shield him, Lith's vision was blurred and his focus lost. He used Invigoration to recover his strength, but it felt like a fool's errand.
Magic was useless and so were physical attacks. Lith refused to surrender and used a sudden wave of spirit magic to lift the opponent and sending it slamming against a wall.
The Golem was surprised but unfazed by the invisible energy, so it just resumed its magical onslaught, forcing Lith to interrupt his breathing technique to use Origin Flames to save his life.
A sudden explosion and the Golem's power core becoming invisible again made Lith aware of Neshal's death. Lith racked his brain for a path to victory, but he kept not finding any.
'Damn, Golems are too powerful. Now I understand why the Odi made the entirety of Kulah out of metal. Without earth to manipulate against them, they are nigh invincible.' Lith thought.
'I have only one shot left, but I need your help, Solus. It's dangerous and likely to fail. You could remain…'
'Just do it.' She replied while reading his mind.
Lith took a breath as deep as he could before hurling a wall of flames against the construct. It ate all of the incoming spells, sticking on both the flesh and the stone parts of the Golem, leaving the creature blinded as its human side suffered in agony.
The moment the flames struck, Lith bolted forward, infusing himself with all the elements and striking at the power core hidden inside the Golem's left thigh.
Just like it had happened for the sword, the moment his claws pierced its rock skin, the construct's fists fell down like hammers, shattering Lith's arm in several places and sending him sprawling on the floor like a ragdoll.
The Golem lifted its foot to shatter Lith's skull, but suddenly it lost its balance and fell to the ground. Solus's glove had detached at the last second, using the blue flames as a cover and the hit's momentum to reach the power core.
The Golem had failed to notice the damage she had inflicted due to Origin Flames dulling its senses and its lack of sense of pain. However, victory came at a cost. Lith was barely conscious and so was Solus.
Between the Origin Flames and the construct's attacks, she was heavily wounded. It took her several seconds to collect all of her pieces spread throughout the room and return to his side.
Lith used Invigoration again, knowing that until Solus recovered, using that trick a second time might kill them both.
***
Phloria had Blinked while holding Quylla, foiling the Odi's plan to split them. She knew that her sister wouldn't last a second alone against a construct. When Phloria Blinked again, much to the construct's surprise, she was running away along the path they had taken to get there instead of facing it.
It made the Golem's array useless and forced it to give them chase.
"Any idea?" She asked Quylla. They were just around the corner. Instead of wasting her mana, Phloria had opted for hide and strategize.
"None. If I can't touch the Golem, I'm useless. You?"
"Even if I can see its power core, I doubt it will let me strike at will. Quylla, does indirect contact work for tier five healing magic?" Phloria asked.
"Only if I touch a living being, I can't transmit Scanner through metal."
"Good enough for me. Stay close to me, no matter what." Phloria would have liked to Blink by Lith's side, but with their visual obstructed, she had no idea which direction he had gone, nor she could Warp to an unknown location.
***
Lith had just recovered enough to stand up when his nose picked up an odd smell. Following it, he noticed a small hole in one of the metal walls that separated him from his companions.
It allowed whoever was on the other side to look at Lith's position.
A split second later, Morok Blinked in front of him. His clothes were tattered to the point of being rags. Even an army uniform would take some time to recover from such damage, yet the Ranger looked alright.
"Man, I hate Golems. No vitals, immunity to most forms of magic, terrifying recovering abilities. They are a pain in the ass even for those like us."
"Us?" Lith echoed, not understanding the meaning of Morok's words.
"Come on, there's no need to be shy. There's just the two of us now."
"How the heck did you get rid of the Golem so fast and how did you pierce that wall?" Lith asked, still incapable of making heads of tails of those words.
"Fine! I'll show you mine and then you'll show me yours." Yet instead of taking off his clothes, Morok shapeshifted.
His skin became snow-white, with only one big red eye in the middle of his forehead, another eye the size of a football appeared on his chest, and two more on his shoulders.
His appearance was still humanoid, but he was now over two meters (6'7") tall.
His nose had disappeared, leaving only two slits on his face and his mouth was full of several rows of shark-like teeth. Lith recognized immediately the Emperor Beast known as Tyrannical Eye, or just as Tyrant.
They were the magical beast equivalent of Balors, but unlike them, Tyrants weren't part of the Fallen races and their mastery over the elements wasn't as developed.
"All those abilities, they didn't belong to your weapons, it was you all along." Lith finally understood many things, like his fellow Ranger's heightened senses and inhuman battle prowess.
'Solus, you told me he wasn't an Awakened.' Lith thought.
'He's not. Morok is just like Gadorf, the offspring of an Emperor Beast.' She replied.
