“The hard way”, as Calidi announced, involves getting up close and personal for lots and lots of stabbing. Unfortunately, the command golem is understandably reluctant to let its troops be thus penetrated and perforated.

Before Calidi can do anything more than take a stance, the combat golems duck and the archer golems extend their hands, which begin to glow.

“Behind me!” Darius jumps in front of Calidi and slams both of his adamantium tower shields onto the ground. Franky rushes behind the impromptu barrier just in time to avoid the beams of energy. The beams interdicted by the shield reflect off and sear into the walls like a high powered laser. The shields glow and the ground gets hot as Darius concentrates his domain and bleeds off heat into the cavern floor.

The attacks stop, but the group stays hunkered behind the protective shields with grim expressions. Even Darius, usually filled with bombastic confidence, is on edge. His shields tick ominously as they cool.

“Damn, that's hot.” Calidi says, staring at the slagged walls.

“Your spell looked more potent.” Jessa pops out from stealth and almost takes a flaming spear to the face, and doesn’t only because Darius grabs it mid thrust.

Jess freezes, the spear mere inches from her eye.

Calidi relaxes and Darius lets go of the spear. “Please don't sneak up on me.” Calidi says after a moment. She frowns as she remembers what Jessa just said, “No, my attack was powerful, but not nearly strong enough to damage the dungeon walls. Whatever that attack was, it could kill me.”

Franky taps his chin in thought.

“It was a light based ability, [Light Beam], I think '' Franky says, “and it had as much as my entire mana pool in that attack. It's possible that it can't use that ability again.”

Darius fuses his shields and melds them to the ground before letting go, “The Bulwark has fought magical monsters before, and most have run out of mana during fights… but those same monsters did regain their mana faster when they lived at the bottom of a dungeon.”

The ground rumbles again as the golems resume their march in the Adventurers’ direction Franky wants to lean out and take a look, but light-based attacks are nearly instantaneous. He mentally goes through the lists of skills he has, and decides he can probably deal with the lasers, but he needs to get close first.

“Well, we can't stay behind the wall forever. They’ll eventually surround us and then we’ll be dead. We need a way to stop them, or at the very least, distract them so I can do something about it. Any ideas?” the [Hero] asks.

Calidi shakes her head, “I’m not good in tight spaces. Anything I do to wipe out the archers will wipe us out too.”

“And I can't sneak up on them. They can see through all my stealth,” Jessa explains with annoyance.

Darius thinks thoughtfully for a moment, “If you only need a distraction, then the Bulwark can have it done.” He places his hands on the tower shields and releases a flux of mana. “Move to the shield on the right,” he orders and the group complies. When they move, Darius unmelds the left shield and slams it onto the ground. A moment later, and the shield folds upward and wraps around Darius, cladding him in a full set of adamantium armor. Not a second later, beams of energy strike Darius and fail to penetrate. The Bulwark, fully covered, charges the enemy golems while the laser attacks continue unabated.

At the same time, Franky calls up his mana and prepares to move. He looks to Calidi, “When I get there, I’ll disable the beam attacks. I’ll call you when it's done and you can join the fight.” He looks to Jess, “stay back until the commander's dead.

She nods and Franky prepares by sending his mana throughout his body.

He then waits, listening as the ground is sheared by lasers. A moment passes, then he hears the screeching of adamantine metal slamming into the bodies of golems.

Taking the opportunity, Franky hops in the open and looks at the fighting. Darius has engaged the enemy and has successfully distracted them.

“[Flash Step], [Flash Step], [Flash Step],” Franky’s body disappears and reappears in rapid succession as he teleports directly into the midst of the golems. He then spreads his arms, “[Zone of Light],” he activates his skill and takes control of light itself in a radius around him. With a thought, he disrupts the light based energy weapons of the golems, stopping them from being able to charge.

“Calidi, take em out!” he roars and dodges a bladed arm from a combat golem.

He blocks a thrust from a golem that morphed its arm into a spear with his shield and feels his shoulder almost dislocate from the force. He skids back and then rolls, narrowly dodging a mace aimed for his head. Taking an opportunity, he slashes with his sword and slices into a golems leg… and passes through the other side, the leg regenerating even before it is cut through. Cursing, he activates [Flash Step] and escapes several golems as they were about to trample his body.

A moment after he teleports, Calidi joins the battle inside a meteor and shears a line through the enemy army. Several golems’ cores are destroyed with her arrival, and several more die in next moments as her spear flicks out and easily melts both core and golem alike.

The command golem, realizing the new threat, redirects golems away from Franky and focuses them on Calidi. A smart choice considering she holds the most destructive potential of his entire guild, but a useless one considering how adept she is in close combat. Though the golems are fast and efficient, it means little when their very bodies melt if they dare to get near her.

Franky looks for Darius. He finds the man holding his own surprisingly well. The golems strike him with all manner of weapons, but the adamantine armor around the man is completely impenetrable. Spears, swords, hammers; nothing seems to even make a dent. Unfortunately, that is the extent of his ability deep down in the dungeon. Without the capability to effectively manipulate the earth around him, his destructive potential is limited.

With the fight going their way, Franky focuses on the most dangerous threat. The command golem stands behind its squad, out of the fighting.Its single golem eye studies the fight, trying to learn and coordinate the golems to fight more effectively. Unfortunately for the golems, so long as Franky maintains his skill, their most effective weapon is neutralized.

Three minutes pass and the last of the Golems perish at Calidi’s feet. The woman rests her spear across her shoulders with a satisfied smile. She looks around for a moment and finds Franky and Darius kneeling over the golem commander’s corpse and its half melted crystal core.

“Oy,” she calls out, “What are you boys looking at?”

Getting no answer, she walks to them both and pauses as she too takes a good look at the crystal. The broken core is red like copper with thousands of small white lines traveling throughout the broken crystal in a clearly intentional and organized manner.

“It's man-made,” Franky exclaims and Darius nods. Though rare, dungeons can produce golems instead of monsters, but, in all instances, the golem cores are always very simple and organically fractal in structure. These coress are not.

“The Bulwark is confounded.” Darius says.

“The situation is indeed not normal,” Franky taps his chin, “I can only guess that the dungeon took over the city and its defenses, which is what these golems were.” He sighs. “That still doesn't explain why the dungeon was inactive until we arrived.”

Calidi shrugs, “Then we just have to head to the dungeon core and find out. Should be easy enough.”

Franky grimaces, “I wouldn't call it easy, but it can be done. We have to attack first and fast if we see the golems again.” He drops the core and stands up, ”Let's head in deeper. Jessa’s already scouting ahead.”

_______________________________________________________

The following hours would have been a one-sided bloodbath if the losing side had blood. But there was no blood; instead, the hulks of metal and scrap, and the mingled puddles of molten crystal give the tunnel all the vibe of a post-apocalyptic scrap heap.

Eventually, the constant tide of Golems ebbs and then finally stops.

“Do you think they ran out?” Franky asks the group as they continue deeper. The fighting had become monotonous. Each squad of golems fought in the exact same pattern, so the Adventurers tore them apart the exact same way. Attack first, disable the archers, and then clean up the rest. Easy, simple, but exhausting. Even the commanders were not much of a threat if you didn’t allow them to learn and adapt.

“The Bulwark would not be surprised if they retreated in awe of the Bulwark’s resilience, but the Bulwark believes they understand futility, not fear.”

Calidi snorts tiredly. Out of everyone, she’d been doing the most work in these fights. Nobody else has the destructive potential to effectively defeat the golems. Heck, even she would struggle if not for her domain boosting her every skill. “Those golems are too powerful and expensive to produce continuously. Even a high-tiered dungeon would struggle to mass produce anything of that caliber in such short time.”

Franky frowns. Her words make sense, but only under the assumption the dungeon is a normal dungeon. For whatever reason, a dungeon seems to have taken over the city of Atlantis, and it's clear the golems were created by the technology in the city. “I’ve got a bad feeling about this,” he looks at Calidi, “We can turn back and rest, and then continue going deeper when you recover.”

Calidi shakes her head, “No, I’m fine. Just winded a bit. We should keep going, especially if they've run out of golems.”

The [Hero] sighs but nods. “If you say so. Let’s–”

“We have a problem,” Jessa pops into existence with a cocky smile right next to Calidi. The woman stabs toward Jessa in surprise, but the [Shadowblade] tilts out of the way with ease.

Calidi missed her attack with the spear, but her instantaneous follow-up sweep with her leg doesn't. With a yelp, Jessa falls to the floor and a spear halts an inch from her face. Calidi smirks down at the woman.

“Nice try.”

She removes her spear and extends a hand. Jessa accepts it with a pout.

Franky rolls his eyes while Darius smiles, amused.

“You said there was a problem?” Franky asks.

Jessa brushes the dirt from her clothes, “Yea, I think I found the city. But, well, you need to see it. There's a barrier.”

________________________________________________________________________

DEFENSE GOLEMS DEPLETED. RESUPPLY REQUIRED. ALERTING DUNGEON ADMINISTRATOR.

ADMINISTRATOR ABSENT FROM COMMAND CENTER. ALERT NOT RECEIVED.

SEARCHING FOR SECONDARY AUTHORITY…

SECONDARY AUTHORITY NOT FOUND.

SEARCHING FOR TERTIARY AUTHORITY…

TERTIARY AUTHORITY NOT FOUND.

…

…

ALL SYSTEM ADMINISTRATORS ABSENT.

…

…

ELEVATING EMERGENCY DEFENSE PROTOCOL TO HIGHEST LEVEL

ACTIVATING ATLANTIS BARRIER SYSTEM

____________________________________________________________________

“Forward supply base my fucking ass,” Turnock curses as he stares down into the dungeon. He’d sent a group and cart over an hour ago to get to the bottom and set up a camp. They are, judging by their lights, only halfway there.

“Relax,” Brock taps the dwarfs shoulder, but Turnock pushes the arm away with a glare. “I’m not going to fucking relax. That shit made these stairs so shallow they barely descended. Hell, we’re even taking a cart! We could have been at the bottom in half an hour if he made it right.”

Brock sighs, “you’re a [Bard], not a [Geomancer]. Why does this even bother you.”

“Cause I’m a dwarf!” Tunock huffs, “I grew up in a fucking mountain. We know how to mine and craft with stone. We have guilds whose entire job is to make underground transport as efficient as possible,” he spits into the hole, “and that is a horrendous waste of time and resources. The [Kings] of Svartalfheim would have stuffed a pike up a [Stonemason’s] ass if he built that.”

“Well, I doubt your king would have a Named human killed, especially one that can meld dungeon stone at will.”

Turnock growls and crosses his arms angrily. He opens his mouth to object, but stops as a scout rushes up to them. The woman, a [Veteran Ranger], arrives and skids to a halt.

“What’s–-”

She points in the direction she came, her eyes wide in panic.“There's an army marching this way!”

___________________________________________________________

Franky and company follow Jessa to the city of Atlantis, or specifically, the city's entrance. They stop a foot away from a foggy, transparent energy barrier. On the other side, though blurry, they see buildings reminiscent of, well, an earth city. He can see blurry skyscrapers, streetlights, and something that even looks like a vehicle. Some kind of car?

“How advanced was Atlantis?” He asks aloud.

Calidi walks up to the barrier and taps it. Franky senses a release of mana. The woman steps back with her mouth agape.

“This barrier seems to cover the entire city with ambient mana alone. I can't feel any kind of mana storage. How is this possible?”

Franky perks up, “Right, Aodean mentioned that Camelot has a city shield. How does that work?”

She raises her spear and stabs at the barrier, and the spear is stopped dead. “All barrier magic is costly to maintain and can’t be up indefinitely. This is even truer for a city which covers lots of land, so barrier magic is rare and almost never used on structures.” She stabs forward again with even more force. “Camelot can because it sits on top of a mana leyline which charges the city's storage crystals.”

The [Hero] taps his chin, “You think the dungeon is supplying mana for the barrier?”

She frowns, “I’m not sure. It seems like the only explanation, but dungeons have never used barriers before. This is something new.”

Franky tilts his head, trying to get a better look through the barrier, but everything is still blurry. He looks to the other Named, “Darius, what are your thoughts?”

Darius walks forward and does the exact same thing as Calidi. Franky watches as he funnels a constant stream of mana into the barrier. Darius keeps it up for a good thirty seconds and then steps away.

“The Bulwark can confirm that this barrier seems inexhaustible,” he announces, then smiles, “but it is not impenetrable,” he taps the barrier, his hands resounding like hammers, “if we strike often and hard enough, we can create a small opening to enter through.”

At his statement, three pairs of pleading, hopeful, puppy-dog eyes turn to Calidi. The Scorching Star snorts at their expectant stares.

With a flick of her wrist and a call of her mana, she strikes the shield with enough force that the entire dungeon shakes. The barrier cracks, but holds and starts to slowly heal.

Then Calidi strikes again

…and again…

…and again…

…and again…

… and one final time.

____________________________________________________________

The ground rumbles below while the pebbles above bounce. Garn raises his hand and orders the procession of Lycans and Arachnie to stop. The old Lycan kneels down and places his ear to the ground… and hears something shatter like glass.