Civilization

"Luke! Luke! Look, look. LOOOOOOOOKKKKKKKKKKKK!"

"Okay, okay, I'm looking."

Her jet-black hair twirls around in the air as she performs a backflip. Her clothes accentuate her already petite body. With just a small amount of cloth, some vines and animal skin, she looked like a war goddess descending from the skies as she lands. Except, her cheeky smiles and childish nature shatter the image in seconds.

"I'm glad you are all better, Sylvia."

Standing behind me were two women. A blonde hair slender elf as well as a silver hair curvaceous dark elf. After being with them for a while I had gotten to learn more about their circumstances. 

Originally, their two tribes were at each other's throats constantly fighting for supremacy until a wave of monsters attacked them at the same time killing most of their tribe. Some individuals were captured instead and were used as experiments in creating new kinds of monsters much like the failed goblin/orc thing that I faced a while back. 

The two of them were captured separately but tossed to the same location where they met. Having known each other briefly through their battles they were somewhat surprised to meet each other but due to their circumstances, they quickly bonded and tried to help each other survive. But their luck was going to run out, after a couple of months of dodging the guillotine they were going to used to feed a failed experiment however, I appeared and helped them out of the situation. 

After the battle, we quickly retreated away deep into the forest where we found a cave hidden behind some large trees and moss where we tended to each other's wounds and made sure that Sylvia was going to be okay.

Solar harnesses the power from the sun in order to display healing powers as well as light magic. Likewise, Stellar utilizes the moon's energy to display healing powers and dark magic. However, there were clear differences between the two's power.

Solar was more focused on healing and supporting magic whereas Stellar while she can heal her magic was more offensive-oriented and played more on stealth. 

"Well, that was all because of you two, Solar and Stellar."

"We didn't do too much. With the help of the energy from the moon and the sun as well as your own body's natural healing abilities, you were able to recover much faster than we expected."

Her smile grew even larger and it seemed like she had a cheeky grin on her face.

"See that Luke. My body is amazing! HAHAHA!"

"Yes, yes I get it. Well, now that you are all rested let's get a move on. While we were here, I did some scouting and found a couple of encampments in the general vicinity. We can start by taking down the closest ones and saving anyone in there to increase our strength as well as balance out our formation."

"Do you know what monster occupies the encampments?"

"Two of them were goblins and the last one was some sort of stone monster with wings and-"

"Did you say stone monster with wings?

"Yea, Solar what is wrong?"

Solar grips her head with her hands while Stellar replies for her.

"Those monsters were what attacked our tribes."

"What!"

Both Sylvia and myself exclaimed our surprise at the same time. 

"Those monsters aren't monsters in the conventional sense."

"What do you mean by that?"

This time Solar explains more about the monsters in detail.

"What you saw most likely looked like a large human with wings like a bat and claws for hands right?"

"Yes."

"Right, these monsters are like pawns to Kronos. While he prefers to experiment and create new kinds of hideous monsters he much like the other Kings has his own army. These stone monsters are golems he creates to substitute for a flesh and blood army while he spends his time creating stronger and stronger monsters to command the golems."

"So, they aren't living monsters?"

"That is half correct. They aren't living like how you and I are living but they are still very much alive. They make their own decisions in battle and have different styles of combat which they prefer. With only a golem core to power their movements and a hard stone skin to protect the core. They were thought to be one of the stronger armies of all the kings."

"Okay Solar, so that encampment which I saw is most likely one of the numerous bases Kronos has around this area right?"

"Maybe, I would think he is gathering resources for his experiments and he is using the golems to acquire whatever he needs."

"Should we fight them?

Sylvia jumps into the conversation after listening in and absorbing the content. 

"Kronos's army wouldn't all be here. This would be like a scouting party of some sort and there wouldn't be as many golems. OR we can raid the goblin encampment first and potentially gather more allies before attacking the golem army but if we do that we risk being detected by that golem army and they can attack us and we lose the element of surprise."

After hearing Sylvia's point I got to thinking, what would Ian do here? Would he attack the stronger army and rely on the 4 of us to be able to handle it? Or would he retreat and attack other places and recruit more people?

As I was thinking about it, the golden wolves which have been with me for the whole journey came back from scouting. I communicated with them about our potential plans as well as learned from them that the golem encampment is on the move. Some of the golems had left and only about half of them remained however one of the wolves saw a golem that looked different from the rest.

It was larger than the normal golem was wielding a white stone greatsword and it had a large horn in the middle of its forehead. Was it an evolved golem?

"Oh no, it's the horned golem. It's one of the generals of the golems. It looks like a golem because Kronos made it that way however, it is actually an experiment that turned out to not be a failure. Its strength outclassed our tribe's elders. We should avoid it at all costs!"

Listening to Solar's plea I decided to postpone attacking the golem encampment despite most of the golems leaving the encampment. The new horned golem just seemed like too big of a risk to fight against. 

Instead, I lead Solar, Stellar, Sylvia and the wolves to the furthest goblin encampment slowly while covering our tracks the best we could to avoid any accidents. The goblin encampment housed 20-30 goblins with two humans, a boy and a girl,  trapped in a cage. The goblins were dancing around the two constantly jabbing at them with their knives and spears while jeering and spitting. The terrified looks on their faces reminded me of my past experiences.

I grit my teeth as I watch the scene almost pouncing out of hiding from the rage that was building up inside me.

"Wolves loop around the right, Stellar stealth to the left, Solar support from behind and Sylvia you are with me."

I grip my knife tightly while looking at Sylvia as she tosses her knife in the air.

"Luke, don't worry. I have your back."

"Thanks, Sylvia. Letsgo!"