Chapter 19: Reversal

Laurence rolled as he hit the ground and began sprinting the moment he cycled back onto his feet. He had only woken from his meditation on Creation minutes before, but when he saw Cleo’s situation he immediately galvanised himself into action. He had taken the time to store as much mana as he could in his muscles before leaving his realm, simply because it would be a pain to enter battle in such a weak state. The golem closest to him was like a beast that had noticed its prey was in a perilous state. It managed to pick up pace once more and dived forwards.

Pivoting round, Laurence immediately watched the movements of his enemy and began making slight adjustments to his stance. Jormugand appeared in his right hand before sliding deftly into his left as well. Holding the hammer a third and two thirds up the shaft, the boy was like a coiled spring, waiting for his opponent to show himself.

Laurence could hear the blood pumping round his body, churning away as he prepared to do battle and wreak havoc upon his enemies. He often wondered if his father had felt like this. There was no doubt in his mind that a man nicknamed ‘Bloody Gus’ had heard the call of battle, but did the blood of berserkers flood as thickly in his veins as it did in his son’s? Laurence often wondered if the berserker in him was the voice that he heard, the one that took over when he felt too much.

Casting the thoughts out of his head, Laurence focused on the battle ahead of him. He knew that he was not much stronger than any one of his friends, but he knew that he had two overwhelming advantages. He was trained, and he knew how to end the life of one of the golems. He knew that if he could stop just one, then there was a chance that he could hold back the momentum of the whole group, so he steeled himself and prepared to continue using his created forms. Laurence waited for the perfect moment, stared down the horde that approached him and finally released all the pent up power a second before the golem arrived. He sprung to the left, slid his hands down the shaft of his hammer and swung it back round behind him towards the side of the golem. As he span, the shaft of the hammer stretched, catching the back of the golem with it. Laurence grinned. Step one complete.

The moment his hammer connected he galvanised all the mana in his upper body and pushed it through his arms. The muscles bulged and his whole body shook but he kept spinning, dragging the golem back around Laurence and towards its companion. The golem desperately tried to stop its forward momentum but it could not, it had no purchase on the ground to hold on. It spun back towards the oncoming mass of its brethren and within moments struck the front line of them. It span, flipped and bounced irregularly, but the changing terrain was not something that the group could deal with. It began with one, but soon the entire group of golems had become a pile up of stone limbs, all desperately trying to get up to hunt down the creature that had defied them.

Laurence began laughing then pushed all the mana he could muster into his legs and sped off, covering the length of the plateau in an instant. As he was around a hundred metres from the cliff edge he began slowing down drastically, before finally stopping merely a metre from the edge. He could finally see the other side of the mountain range and he was worried. He hoped there would be some sort of canyon beyond the mountains, something difficult for the golems to surmount once he broke their momentum, but in front of him was a purple, grassy plain. There were a few ships that flew in the sky, like the balloon based skyships from the fifth floor, and one was even nearby. It seemed to have seen Laurence running from the golems and was dipping towards him in some misguided attempt to perhaps save him from the creatures chasing him.

Laurence frowned, turning to look back at the golems who were beginning to get out of the pile up that he had caused. He did not have much time, and he could not ask anyone to help in what he was going to do next. He needed to do this on his own, he needed to jump to the ship as soon as it got close enough. He was not confident, but he could feel the mana was thicker here. It was not much, but the fact that he had mana at all, mana that was not refusing to work because it was so desperately trying to repair the world around it, meant he was slightly more confident in making the leap.

He waited as the ship slowly descended to about fifty metres from the floor and desperately began pumping mana into his legs. Looking back, Laurence bit the inside of his mouth to keep focus. The golems had untangled themselves and were finally making their move on him. He did not know if they had pride, but if they did then what Laurence did thoroughly bruised it even though he had not actually managed to damage a single one. They moved closer and as they moved he could feel the mana in the region seep away slowly. It was now or never.

He leapt into the air, the precipice he stood on as he jumped cracking, breaking and falling into the depths below him. The cracks spread under him as he flew, not daring to look down at the emptiness below him. Reaching the peak of the jump, Laurence was still nowhere near the ship. He had travelled over half way, but there was still fifteen metres to go to reach the side of the ship. He began falling and swore, sticking out his left hand and releasing a coiling chain of light that slammed into the side of the ship. He began pulling himself up Inklight, looking down at the golems below him. Counting thirty golems, he smirked at the sight. At least ten had fallen off the plateau, but the rest had stopped. They were all looking at Laurence and he could not help but think they were waiting to see if they would get their revenge on him. It seems they are vindictive after all, he thought as he climbed over the railing and onto the ship, at the surprise of the crew who had been heading down.

A man in a blue uniform walked over to him, followed by a man and a woman in white garb. He stuck his hand out in front of him and said, “Colour me impressed. I didn't think you would survive but then I've never seen a Saint as young as you. The name is Captain Grikor Alfiggin, and this is the good ship Return To Sender. How in the name of the tower did you survive that hellscape? Since last year it has been completely impassable for people”.

“It's a pretty long story,” Laurence replied. “I'll tell it on the way out of here, but I would suggest leaving as soon as possible. I think I annoyed the golems below, and if what my friends and I discovered is true then I annoyed all the golems”.

“Golems?” said the man in white behind Grikor.

“The stone soldiers. They are very reminiscent of one of the ninety-nine Myriad Manifestations of the Book of Creation, called the golem. They are much more basic than an actual golem, and less intelligent in general, but I reckon that they are much worse to deal with than real golems simply because of that mana drain ability”.

The eyes of the man lit up, and he quickly put his arm around Laurence. “I'm sorry for the loss of your friends, young man, but perhaps you can tell me more about the Book of Creation”.

“What are you talking about?” Laurence said, looking at the man like he was an idiot. “They are perfectly safe... though I should probably let them out now”. He clicked his fingers and his five friends who had been inside the band appeared on the floor, sat in a circle. The whole crew on deck were stunned into silence, with some of them looking at Laurence like he was the devil, while others looked at him like he was some sort of deity incarnate. Both Grikor and the man in white were in the latter group.

“Incredible...” the man in white whispered. “Young man, sir, you must show me how you did that! It could help us regain the land we lost to the stone soldier incursion! It might allow you to fix what we did!” His eyes were bright with a fervour Laurence recognised. He was often struck by the feeling that the man in white was releasing. He could not help but smile. He had found another person to gift the Book of Creation to.


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