Once again, the Earth Golem stood tall, facing the Gobzkin Gigant, but neither of the two giants seemed like their former selves. The Gigant no longer underestimated the Golem, the Golem appeared sharper and more dangerous than before.
Adam, inside his golem, heard the voice of Kahori ringing in his head.
{ Benefactor, there are Three Factors of what you call the System that your people seem to have misunderstood. Sage Hendrick has called them Statistics. }
"Might, Trick, and Spirit." Adam said, confused. He was speaking to himself inside the Golem's head cavity, yet wondered how Kahori could be listening, "Are you reading my mind with your… er… Mind Rune?"
{ Such a technique is way beyond my control, Benefactor. } She replied, sounding honest, { I merely connected our minds with a Messenger Technique, a minor technique of the Mind Rune. }
As she replied, the Gobzkin Gigant seemed to be trying to reach out to the Golem, testing if its longer arm could hit the Golem before the latter could reach it.
Adam didn't react for a while, keeping his Golem as still as a statue, but when the Gigant got a bit braver and tried to make a swing against the Golem with its already extended arm, the Golem ducked its head past the arm, strafed to the right with a single step, and used its left to punch the top of the Gigant's round belly.
"GRAAA!"
The shout of pain was clear, as Adam was aiming for a weakness that would affect the Gigant's breathing and core strength.
The Golem's posture was like that of a boxer, arms raised like the number 11, legs apart, and its stance was now more dynamic, taking a much more drastic approach to the fight.
The Golem took a wide step ahead; the Gigant reacted, not wanting to engage, but something forced it to raise its two arms high, trying to scare the Golem off and appear big, which only put a smirk on Adam's face.
"Here is that big ugly mug!"
With clean one-two jabs, the Golem's fists found their way smoothly and easily to the Gigant's face. The Gigant was stunned by the fast strikes, and tried to descend its arms on the Golem, but Adam made the Golem sidestep and tried to launch another jab. However, the Gigant took three hasty steps backward, not wanting to engage more with the boxing Golem.
{ That was impressive! } Kahori's voice rang in Adam's head again.
"Can't believe the boxing lesson Megan's dad gave me has taught me this much!" Adam laughed and shook his head, remembering a trauma from two years ago, but then shifted his focus back to Kahori, "You were saying something about Rune techniques. Anything that can help?"
{ Rune Techniques are like how you can bend Air and Earth with your Runes, the different applications, in a sense. Your control of the Bending Rune is impressive, seeing how you made an Earthen Warrior with it. But it must be draining you with every move. }
Adam only replied with "Aha!" but that wasn't the case at all. Kahori's understanding was that Adam was using his Bending Rune, not the Puppeteer Rune, and from what Adam knew, he shouldn't have a rune without an item that holds it. A rune inside him is something the Alfari can't imagine, an advantage that he was going to keep to himself.
He also realized that they didn't even suspect he was using the Puppeteer Rune, which gave him another realization: the Alfari aren't aware of the existence of such a rune to begin with. This was also another piece of information that he wasn't going to share.
{ What you must know, Benefactor, is that Runes react differently to different factors. The factor of Spirit gives capacity and quantity to how much you can affect a Rune. }
"Like the Output." Adam followed up as he moved his Golem around the Gigant, anticipating another round.
{ That's right. } Kahori confirmed, { The other two factors affect the Runes in different ways. Might gives the Rune explosive power. }
"I thought the Psyche skill was responsible for that." Adam noted.
{ The Psyche burns, but Might makes it burn hotter. Your way of the Mystic, as I understand it, and one like yourself can benefit greatly from investing your Insight—what you call EXP—into your Might. }
Kahori's words made Adam understand something new. He thought the Stats were like RPG attributes from games and fictions; rather, they were some type of energies. Might was a physical energy, Spirit was a magical energy…
"What about Trick?" He asked.
{ It affects precision, timing, and efficiency. }
… which makes Trick the Focus energy.
This granted Adam more understanding of the System, and explained to him why Kave, despite being thin and scrawny, can exert so much power with the little femboy muscles he had.
Adam opened his System Profile.
——————————
Name — Adam Clay
Role — Survivor
Class — Sorcerer
——————————
Statistics (EXP: 4)
Might — 3
Trick — 3
Spirit — 7
——————————
He noticed that he had 4 EXPs, enough to raise either Might or Trick once, something that he wasn't willing to go for easily since he was thinking of min-maxing his Spirit stat, but since he is in a moment where he can use some advantage over the Gigant, it would be extremely beneficial to allocate it now.
"So if I allocate my current EXP to Might?"
{ It is your choice, Benefactor. }
"Fuck it. More power."
——————————
Name — Adam Clay
Role — Survivor
Class — Sorcerer
——————————
Statistics (EXP: 0)
Might — 4
Trick — 3
Spirit — 7
——————————
With the fourth point added to Might, Adam felt confidence growing within him, a feeling more amplified than when he had invested a point in Might upon first awakening his System.
Though mental energy controls the Runes, Might, Trick, and Spirit represent three distinct ways of outputting that energy. These methods would naturally converge when the situation called for it, and a Sorcerer engaging in melee combat with his Golem was undoubtedly one such instance.
Explosive power, that's how Kahori described it, but confidence and bravery seemed like the original product of the Might stat, and Adam immediately ducked into the stance of his Golem and launched forward into an all-out attack.
The Gigant winced but still was compelled to charge ahead, this time, trying to catch the Golem in a grapple. Adam knew the Golem would be disadvantaged in that kind of fight, a fight that leaned more on weight, so he avoided the Gigant's attack and drove the Golem's knee into the Gigant's belly once again, causing it to groan from pain.
The Gigant seized the chance to wrap its arms around the Golem and began pushing towards the defense line. However, the Golem raised its fist, and Adam manipulated the Earth around it, causing a cluster of spikes to rise from the earth around the fist like a Morning Star mace before descending right on the Gigant's back, causing it to immediately let go of the Golem and back off with pain ringing through its back and green blood oozing out.
Seeing his enemy's back wide open, the Golem went for a charge, trying to catch the Gigant one more time for a suplex, but the Gigant actually started running.
"Fine, I won't chase you."
Adam put on a vicious grin as he turned around, facing the rest of the Gobzkin horde, which seemed to have shrunk to half its size, and ran through it with its Golem, hitting left and right without mercy, and targeting the remaining Hobgobs.
The sight boosted the morale of the defenders to no end, and the Gobs were flying wherever the Golem was running.
Adam then decided to grab a few Gobs that were trying to climb the Golem and pressured them with the Golem's hands, before throwing them onto the other Gobzkin the same way the Gobzkin had done with humans. He even turned around and started throwing them at the Gigant that had retreated away, but his aim was off, and he couldn't execute perfect control, yet they still flew everywhere, some even landing on the wooden platform that was pulled by the human slaves.
Just then and there, a Gob fell through the damaged planks of the wooden platform, and by some luck, Adam noticed something: movement, activities going on under the platform.
Then a thought flashed in his mind. If there was some sort of command unit that was meant to control the Gobzkin units, it would be there.
"Kahori, are you still listening?"
{ Yes, Benefactor! }
"Correct me if I am mistaken: the Gobzkin Shamans are the ones who organize the Gobzkin ranks, right?" He asked.
{ You are right, but only the ones who can transmit orders with a Mind Rune similar to mine or use their weird rituals. }
"That's all I needed to hear."
Adam's focus now shifted, no longer ravaging the sidelines of the Gobzkin force, but turning to the wooden platform down the street past the hundred human corpses that were lying all over. With a heavy sigh, Adam asked forgiveness and stepped towards the platform, with the full intent to obliterate whatever was under that it.
Yet as he walked, he heard a loud thudding come from his left and turned around.
"GRAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"
There, the Gobzkin Gigant came back running, and it wasn't barehanded like before. It was carrying a truck—a jumbo fridge truck—in all its glory, hauling it over its back, running towards the Golem, and with a motion of raw power, it slammed the truck against the side of the Golem.
Adam felt the full force of the collision reverberating through the body of his Golem as its entire being was launched sideways into the building nearby, getting lodged through its front.
The truck fell aside with terrible noise as the Gigant launched itself with full speed, right where the Golem was stuck, and with a barrage of attacks, it started punching and clawing against the humanoid clump of earth, trying hard to reach towards its head where it knew Adam was.
It seemed to have understood it now; if it was to kill Adam, the one in the Golem's head, the Golem would be nothing.
Without delay, Adam jumped off the Golem's head and down into the building, and found himself on the second story of an empty industrial building, nothing but junk and pillars. Behind him, the Gigant reached its hand past the Golem, trying to catch Adam and squish him, no longer concerned about the Golem itself.
Adam started running and avoiding the rubble that flew everywhere as the Gigant tore through the front of the building. As for the Golem, it stumbled down after the Gigant went after Adam, and stood back on its feet, headless this time.
Adam still felt his earthen puppet as he was running behind the thick pillars and took his pistol out. He looked back and saw the Gigant trying to claw its way inside the building, but it was both too dumb and too big.
He wasn't able to see the street, but he was able to feel his Golem, and with mental control, Adam remotely moved the Golem the same way he practiced with the smaller puppets, causing it to start rushing down the street, charging towards the platform that was being desperately protected by the Gigant.
He didn't need to see; he had all the proof he needed that what was beneath the platform was vital for the Gobzkin operation, and all he needed was to get his Golem there and make the place quake.
At that moment, the Gobzkin Gigant realized what had happened and was immediately called back by whatever was pulling its strings, trying to rush past the Golem, but it was all too late.
The Golem was there, two golem-sized steps away from the platform, and it jumped high, ready to crash it down.
Yet right before that second…
VWOOOSH! CRUSH! CRACK!
Something heavy came flying, snapping the Golem in half mid-jump.
It thundered through the building as it crashed into it, and Adam felt as if a vital part of that building was starting to collapse by that thing alone. And then he saw it through the big windows, the Gobzkin Prince standing in a throwing pose, its club nowhere around him, nor was Lord Kaimu.
But the damage was already done, and half of the wooden platform collapsed under the weight of the upper Golem half.
Screams started rising from the Gobzkins' side, their ranks faltering, and both the Alfari spear warriors and the humans were getting the final push against the crumbling Gobzkin side.
Victory's sweetness was easily felt at the tongue of every defender, but not by Adam, who was standing face to face with an angered Gobzkin Prince whose army had been obliterated by the defense Adam managed to organize.
Army to army: Adam won.
Leader to leader: Adam's legs were starting to give away.
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