Chapter 30: Arret's Entertainment

They were all dressed for battle in their new equipment. Vault was wearing his Burning Haunted Knight Armor set along with the sword. Harmony was wearing the combination school uniform battle armor set that he had created for her.

The wolf continued using the same sword that it already had when they first met. As for the bat, they couldn't really think of anything to give her and they felt pretty bad about that. She wasn't exactly weak, so it wasn't the worst thing for her. Regardless, they all still had to head into battle with the hand fate dealt them.

It didn't take them long to hear the stomping of a few golems in the distance. They did their best to remain out of sight, knowing that if they made the wrong move, they would be alerting the enemy to their location. If it was just fighting one golem or even two, it wouldn't be so bad.

In this case, fighting even just one of them, with the possibility that all of them have some form of shared sight or locator, would lead to an army of them just swarming from all over. They would be buried under so many rocks.

They took a more stealthy approach, and managed to get pretty close to the cave where they met the crazy lady. They found a few golems, now larger, most likely a side effect from leveling up, standing guard right outside of the entrance. They analyzed the situation and decided to make the first move.

They had sent the little bat ahead to act as a distraction. She had flight, speed, and was small, so she was much more difficult to hit. She was the perfect one for the role when it came to drawing attention. Plus there was the fact she was a bat in broad daylight, the strangeness of the sight would definitely be the center of attention.

She flew around the golems, but not too close to the point where they could actually make contact. Her annoying flying and screeching got on their nerves. Harmony could tell by the way they kept trying to vigorously swat at her with their fists. Sometimes they even threw little rocks at her.

Well to them the rocks were kind of small, but to Harmony’s party they were about the size of a beach ball. The bat dodged the rocks with a little bit of difficulty, but she managed to avoid getting hit. Harmony charged in, and threw her brand new chakrams at the back of the leg of one of her enemies.

She made one topple over into the other and black smoke exploded out from the collision. They had made the first move and gotten the advantage. As the area began to smother with darkness, she could hear the voice of the dungeon speaking to her. “Fe…For…!”

She caught her weapon as it returned to her, while the smoke continued to spread. Eunice spoke to her in her mind. “<The first of many battles has begun. We are now at War.>”

Everyone had now gone into battle mode. It was Harmony, Vault, the wolf, and their little bat friend against three golems that were bigger than the ones they had seen before. Based on the turn counter order, it seemed like their size had definitely slowed them down.

Harmony's party were the first ones to take their turn. The turn timer began for Vault. He turned his attention to the HP for the two golems that had bumped into each other. Their armor rating had dropped by somewhere between one quarter, and one half. It was a great start for them, especially since it also dealt them a little bit of HP damage.

They needed to take all the advantages they could get in rapid succession. It was the only way to make sure they could make it all the way to the end with as little damage as possible. Even if they had potions, they couldn't afford to go crazy with them. They didn’t have an infinite amount on them.

He lunged at one of the two golems that had been injured before, and aimed for the same leg. The armor rating dropped for it along with a little bit of HP. He could definitely feel a difference compared to last time. They had dealt more damage, but also he could feel himself moving with much more ease.

The wolf and the bat each took their turn one after the other. They also aimed for that same golem in the same spot. They're combined attacks completely destroyed the armor and dropped its HP down to half. The center of its being, the iron core core, became exposed.

Harmony took out her new chakrams and brandished them. “I'm ready for you guys this time!”

She dashed over to her target, leapt into the air, and did a x-shaped slash right onto its weak spot. She took out the golem with that one hit. They received notifications about their defeated enemy just before the remaining two began their turns.

The other two golems each took their turn, one after the other, and aimed for Harmony. They both threw a punch that pushed her back and made her lose a little less than a quarter of her HP total. She looked annoyed because it felt like every time she went up against them, they always focused on her.

She couldn't understand why this was the case. It could be because of her Extraction skill, or maybe there was some other reason that she wasn't aware of. Regardless of that fact, she needed to stay focused on defense and offense.

They had a few tricks up their sleeve, but they decided to save them for the final battle, or at least in a desperate situation when they truly needed them. It wasn't good to show all the cards in your hand too early. Vault took his turn and struck the other golem that had some damage done to it from the start of the battle.

The wolf and the bat both followed up with attacks at the same spot as before. Harmony dealt a finishing blow when the iron ore core was exposed once again. There was now one golem remaining and just like before, this one also threw a punch at her.

A little bit of blood trickled down her mouth and she wiped it away with the back of her hand. “These things still throw a really mean punch, but it doesn't hurt as bad as before. Guess, we really did get a lot stronger.”

Vault charged in and dealt a blow to the back of its legs just like before. This time he made it fall over and it collapsed on its back. “We still shouldn't let our guards down. We don't know what that crazy lady is fully capable of.”

They heard a voice call out to them. “I can hear you, ya know. I have a name.”

All of them turned their attention towards the source of the noise. They saw Arret standing in the cave entrance with her arms crossed, and leaning against the wall. She had her face completely exposed out of her usual cloak shroud, and was giving them an unamused look.

“My name is Arret. By the way, try to make this at least a little entertaining.”

They were all confused by her sudden presence being there. She hadn't shown up on the turn timer counter rounds as an invader. They all checked back for the turn timer and saw that the wolf’s turn timer was halfway through.

They didn't have time to wonder about it for too long. The wolf and the bat both charged in again, and attacked the golem. Meanwhile, Harmony was still confused by the crazy girl’s sudden appearance.

Why was she here? Why was she not appearing in the system’s turn timer rounds? Why is she just gloating, and watching them instead of trying to power up her monsters or something?

Harmony attacked the golem and her strike caused the core to be exposed. Arret smiled and did a taunting gesture using her finger, telling them to follow her. She went deeper into the cave.

Her twisted playful demeanor of the situation filled Harmony with rage. “Get back here! Where are you going?!”

She tried to chase after her, but found herself unable to move due to it not being her turn. The last golem struck her, and her HP dropped down to a quarter. Vault turned back to her with a look of concern.

He glared at the golem, “I know how you feel, but we need to stay focused. We can’t go after her until we’ve taken care of the enemy in front of us.”

Eunice's voice chimed in Harmony's head. “<The fear you felt leading up to this moment was overwhelming you, but don't let your rage get the better of you either. Try to remain somewhere in between. Be cautious, but courageous.>”

Harmony nodded as Vault began his turn, and he took out the golem with one strike by attacking its weak spot. They received system notifications signaling the end of the first of many battles.