Corey provides us with more anchor swinging action in the fifth installment of Axiomatic Anarchy!
Robbed of true victory, Gritgut refuses to submit to the will of Penance Arbiter, and is set upon once again. Will the vengeful kolyarut's golem guards be too much for our savage hero? Read on and find out!
Its anchor time!
Oblivious to the inevitable looming over him, Gritgut howled at his retreating foe and slammed the iron pikes of anchor into the floor, gouging portions of rock from the foundation. "Halt!" And still the savage ignored Penance. He continued tearing a sizable hole in the ground, desiring to cleave the undead monstrosity into a thousand drops of sludge. The kolyarut paused a moment before adding, "So be it."
At some unseen signal, a squad of six construct warriors clad in full-plate clanked onto the field. They bore no weapons, though a trained eye could tell by the slow swing of the arms that their fists were laden with weights. Gritgut's instincts warned him, and he raised his blood-blackened gaze to glare sightlessly at the six troopers. He charged forward and brought one of the anchor's spikes home on the first guard's helmet, denting in the right eye and spinning the thing toward a flanking cohort. The two tumbled to the ground, only to recover moments later, but the savage charged on. The warriors fanned out around the beast, stoically taking slashes and blows from the iron instrument in Gritgut's white-knuckled grip.
Then the pounding commenced - twelve lead-laced fists hammered into the enraged opponent. The savage lashed out, giving as he got, and one of the troopers collapsed, its head caved inward after a flurry of downward swings. Another quickly shifted to cover the space of its fallen comrade, and the five worked in unison with dreadful accuracy. Gritgut finally felt his muscles failing him, the pounding numbed his body and forced sustaining air from the hale oltreggan.
Suddenly, the two troopers behind the savage burst into a thousand splinters of warped metal. The stadium erupted in a torrent of jeers and boos as Landon stepped into view. He wiped grime and blood from his face as he forced his swollen eyes to open. Blasted razoredge - the mage knew of these constructs. As deadly as they were animated, they held a final surprise if not destroyed correctly - their armor could explosively shatter into a multitude razor fine shards. He had no desire to face a gyre of sharp objects. Landon raised his hand and forced his split lips to mouth the auran words he knew well.
Light filled his vision for a breath as energy jumped between his palm and the nearest razoredge. The bolt of electricity thundered as it blasted out of the construct's armored back and seared the remaining two that stood nearby. Despite the momentary scorching, the two razoredges continued to pummel the kneeling savage, who still refused to submit, lashing out with fist and chain.
Gritgut did not realize he had fallen; to him, the blur of hands and dull thuds could have been his own arms dealing pain upon his foes. However, the obsidian void - empty of sound and feeling - soon washed over and swallowed him.
Landon rushed forward to assist his timely help. Whoever the savage creature was, he didn't deserve to die at the fists of animated armor. The sorcerer intoned a powerful verse of elven to reave the magic from the closest guardian and refuel his vastly depleted arcane strength. But as he finished the last syllables, a jolt of searing pain blistered down his spine. Powerful magic rooted him to the stone floor and Landon cursed as he realized the geas on him had activated.
"To your hold, human!" The kolyarut's voice brimmed with authority.
Landon smiled as he worked within the confines of the command, drawing on other secrets of his training. He mentally conjured an image of the gray realms of the Ethereal plane. Its infinite potential leaked into his body before it danced out as invisible strands that coiled around the fallen oltreggan. The constructs hadn't relented and continued to pound at the unconscious beast, but now they find their fists hindered by a sphere of phantasmal energy.
Smiling at his success, Landon never saw the blow of the enraged kolyarut.
