“Can you get through it?” Joe asks.

  “I don’t want to touch it!” Todd refuses.

  “What’s wrong?” Candra inquires.

  “We’re blocked in,” Joe responds. He instructs Todd, “put something through.”

  Todd doesn’t want to risk his ixwa. He starts thinking of what to test the barrier with when Officer Bernice interjects.

  “Kids, the tree is moving,” she announces with worry.

  There is a creaking noise from the room. Todd and Joe turn around with resignation.

  There, at the center of the room, the wooden pillar’s two main branches split apart and lower like many fingered arms. Shallow roots upturn the dirt as the lower trunk divides in half. The creaking grows all the louder as two stiff legs step out of the earth.

  The wooden figure doesn’t have knees, it wobbles like it’s on stilts. But its long arms reach down and out towards Todd and the others. Twigs and splinters converge like dozens of sharp nails.

  A blue panel appears over Todd’s vision.

  [Defeat the Wood Golem – Reward: 32 F-Grade Nexus Crystals]

  Todd swipes the interface away without really reading it. It’s not hard to understand what’s going on.

  The construct takes a step forward, it’s arm reaches out to grasp and impale. The four cultivators struggle to dodge. Cornered in the sphere, they scrabble upslope to an ever higher point.

  “Shit,” Candra exclaims. “What the hell, how do we fight that?”

  Officer Bernice hefts her roc pinion. “Piece by piece,” she declares.

  The policewoman swipes at the approaching branches. The smallest switches snip off. She reverses her swing and more spare kindling is trimmed free.

  As if it is alive, the wood golem recoils like it’s been bitten. Its branches lift high into the air. Then the right bough lowers to the side and the body pirouettes about one leg.

  “Scatter!” Joe shouts.

  The limb of the golem clubs through the air with a whump left in its passage. A tangle of thick branches collide with Todd as he scrambles to get away. He’s picked up off his feet by the impact, and hurled around in a short arc. He releases in a tangent to the circumference of the sphere and rolls against the wall as he hits it.

  His collection bag has burst open and its contents roll down into the center of the room. Dust enters his mouth. His left arm and ribs smart. There are scratches on his legs.

  Joe and Candra roll downslope towards the golem. Officer Bernice manages to right herself after being struck. She rises dizzily and shakes her head.

  The golem sways as it plants its raised foot. Wood groans as it takes a step closer. Its raised arm falls down towards Joe and Candra like collapsing timber.

  Joe shoves Candra out of the way, and the two split in either direction as the limb comes down between them. There’s a crash, and then the golem begins to spin once more, sweeping the ground to catch Joe.

  Todd kneels down in the scree and lines up a blast. The only problem is that he doesn’t have a good angle to stop the golem’s swing. Instead he aims at the foot of its planted leg, and a beam of water punches into the column from a distance.

  The hard wood slides an inch or two in the dirt. A small patch of bark is stripped off.

  But the follow through connects. Joe is ripped off his feet and hurled into the air. He wings the wall and bounces along its circular arc. Dropping his sword and bag, he slides along his backside down towards the center of the room again.

  “Kid!” Officer Bernice shouts. She plants her heels with each step as she plunges downhill.

  Her feather swishes through the air with a lethal whoosh. The two large branches are both facing different directions and her way is clear. That doesn’t mean she’s safe. The golem has no front or back, and the branches bend towards her to clap her in a hug. She slices diagonally and marks a long score in the surface of the trunk.

  There’s a swift and sudden blur as the leg of the automaton kicks Bernice in the groin. It flings her like a sack of wet potatoes and she collapses in a groaning heap. Her feather floats to the ground ten feet from her.

  Todd rushes down to her side. Candra is caught down in the bowl of the room and he shouts at her.

  “Get out of there!” he hollers.

  “Let’s get out of here!” she yells back.

  Todd doesn’t have time to explain that they’re trapped. The golem is stomping towards Candra and winding up both arms to smash down on her.

  He fires a [water spear] at the left bough, just at the crook at which it joins the trunk. The golem knocks off balance just enough to stumble backwards a step. The branches come down crooked and Candra dives out of the way. After a tuck and roll, she runs up the slope on her side of the circle and turns around.

  The golem spins, looking to select someone to pursue. Joe drags himself to his feet and searches anxiously for his sword. Wood stomps his way. Branches stab towards him.

  This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

  Candra throws herself in a zipping parabola. Her skill takes her right to the unprotected side of the trunk and she bashes her scepter into the bole. Just like a spring, she’s torn back. A small divot is left in the bark, the only sign that she’s done any damage.

  Todd helps Officer Bernice to her feet.

  “Wow. That was a wallop,” she mutters. He holds a hand to her chest and winces.

  However she is doing, Joe is in trouble. Leaving Bernice behind, Todd pushes energy into his skill fractal. This time he overcharges the skill, forcing it full to improve its power.

  He releases at the tree’s foot again, low to the ground. There’s a massive spray as the skill hits its mark. The golem turns and starts to tip. There’s a deep, wet drag mark perforated into the floor. It isn’t enough, the construct swings its arms to right itself and it plants its feet stably again.

  Joe however, has been granted enough time to tumble through the loose rocks and snatch up his sword. He rises to his feet with his shield in front of him and breaks out into a sprint.

  A swinging limb follows him around the circle. Joe runs until he’s out of reach and slides to a stop on the slope.

  “We need to cut up its branches first!” Joe bellows. His voice warbles from pain.

  Candra shouts from the opposite side of the room. “What am I supposed to do?”

  The tree swipes at Joe again. He hops backwards and swings [armor breaker]. Branches splinter.

  Officer Bernice recovers her feather and gathers herself. “Can you cover me if I get up close?” she requests of Todd.

  “I don’t know. I can’t do much –” Todd begins. He changes his mind. “I’ll try,” he says instead.

  Bernice charges downhill again. Todd moves at an oblique angle to maintain line of sight. Arms twist to intercept her. Todd shoots his skill and the limb is pushed slightly out of its trajectory. Weaving in between the bludgeons, this time the officer stops a little further away. She lashes out at the main body of the golem again. The barbs of the pinion rasp against the trunk and bark precipitates down.

  When the golem kicks at her again, she hops to the side and punishes it with a horizontal slice.

  Candra throws herself again, she slaps her scepter against the solid core of the trunk. “For fuck’s sake, be careful!” she chastises.

  Joe curses too and rushes downhill. He takes aim at the lowered branches and starts pruning them down with ranging swipes.

  The golem contorts, whipping itself around to eradicate Joe. Numerous sticks flog against his shield and legs, and he’s dragged six feet, but he holds his stance and does not fall. Before it retracts itself, he snaps out with his sword and a larger branch shatters at its base.

  With urgency, Todd paws through his bag. He rips through the clattering contents and unearths his latest vial of energy replenishment pills. Ciforre warned him about relying on them, but he hasn’t taken a dose yet. If not now, then when?

  Cosmic energy surges through his body as he swallows the medicine.

  Bernice is fastidiously dodging the stomping feet of the golem. The scraggle of a branch scratches and tears at Joe, constantly grasping. He delivers blows to it in a series of pyrrhic exchanges which pierce and batter him. Candra darts in on the other side, but there’s little she can do to the untouched branch she contends with. She does little but distract it.

  Todd propels another ray of liquid at the golem. It’s rhythm stutters as it tries to right itself.

  Shoving energy into the fractal in his hand, Todd tries to activate his skill again in short succession. It refuses him. [Water spear] has a short, but incontrovertible cooldown.

  His friends are risking their necks while he’s standing around. Dropping his bag and slipping down the concave, Todd rushes in towards the golem. He takes a route between its arms, firing a watery shaft at its top. Up close, he isn’t sure what to do, Officer Bernice is in his way. Her feather carves a broad, unapproachable zone. He sidesteps around her and makes to circle around the back side of the golem. As it kicks at the cop, he shoots at its planted leg and it nearly falls over.

  A branch comes down low, questing for him. He ducks underneath it. This close, it doesn’t have the momentum to do much damage. Dropping further, it mashes against his back, doing more to shove him instead.

  He throws himself into a roll. He wheels back. Baiting out the golem’s leg, he waits until it’s on one foot. Dashing in, he stabs the trunk with his ixwa. There’s a thunk and the weapon is affixed two and a half inches deep.

  He pulls, but the blade doesn’t release. As the golem kicks at him in retaliation, he relinquishes his spear yet again. Skidding to a halt from his backward jump, he pumps his arms and breaks into a run. Leaping feet first he thumps into the side of the golem, halfway up. Above the reach of its legs, he grabs hold of the handle of his ixwa and starts yanking. His butt slumps as he jerks the short spear repeatedly. After the fourth pull, a fragment splinters out of the trunk and Todd flies off the golem’s side. He hits the ground hard, and the breath is knocked out of him.

  Todd gets his elbow beneath him and drags himself off the ground. He’ll get stepped on if he stays down. He looks over. If he’s done any meaningful harm to the automaton, he can’t tell. Naturally, a spear is exactly the wrong kind of tool to take down wood.

  He spits out dirt. Aside from some tactical nudges, Todd’s contribution has been useless. In frustration, he overcharges another skill and releases it at the golem’s leg.

  To his surprise, this time the golem barely catches itself in time. Its branches slap into the dirt like hands and it holds itself upright. In this opening, Joe surges in and savages the closest limb. It cracks and splits as he delivers full force whacks.

  Todd looks over to see how Candra is doing, and finds she’s already altered her approach. She has her [mercury rod] out and is infusing it to change its shape.

  Todd closes the distance to the golem and cycles his cosmic energy through his legs and arm. This time he swings crossways and uses his ixwa like a dagger. He cuts a gash across the leg of the construct.

  He isn’t sure that he’s helping, but he at least feels better about it. He dodges to the right. The good news is that he’s relieving pressure off of Officer Bernice.

  Todd holds off his attack until the perfect moment. The golem isn’t an intelligent, learning creature. It’s motions are predictable, pre-programmed. When Bernice gets in range and strikes, its foot swings out to punish. Todd watches for the instant their opponent is at its least stable, and he shoots his skill at its root. Upended, the wooden automaton tumbles with a crash.

  All three of Todd’s teammates leap on top of various parts of the golem and start relentlessly hacking. Joe tears his way through his bough first, leaving behind wood chips and a stump. Candra swings a machete manically before the golem throws her off with a deeply damaged limb. Bernice has left deep gouges all across its body, but it continues to buck, trying to stand.

  Finished with his half, Joe moves to the center and he points to the right side. “Help Candra, let me do the middle.”

  Officer Bernice hesitates, but Joe points again more forcefully. She heads over to reinforce Candra and tackle the remaining branch.

  Taking over, Joe falls upon the trunk like a chainsaw. Deep chunks fly from the golem as he attacks it with all of his strength.

  He must be burning cosmic energy like wild. The only question is whether or not he’ll last.