Zelhaut gave the command and the golems reacted immediately. He just could not hold himself back from killing the annoying lizard.

The golems quickly closed in on the warlock as Zelhaut pulled out his glaive in preparation for resistance. His action was justified as not a moment later, flashes of light flew out of the warlock and materialized into three figures. A guardian class holding a large tower shield was front and center, a lancer class holding a long lance was directly behind the guardian, and finally, an arcanist class who was already drawing strange symbols in the air with a pointed wand.

Zelhaut remained silent as he joined the charge, running towards the warlock. Unfortunately, a magical shield materialized in front of him. But that was only a slight hindrance.

He quickly made a small cut on his arm, then flung the black blood that spilled from it onto the barrier. The blighted blood quickly ate through the barrier, creating small holes that weakened it.

He reared back, then charged forwards again, breaking the barrier. The sound of shattered glass was heard, and the other golems that had previously been hindered by the barrier quickly advanced. Krindle was on the other side, dealing with the guardian's ridiculous shield.

The lizard took its eyes off of Krindle and stared in shock at Zelhaut.

“You're not a golemnist?!”

Zelhaut continued his charge, getting closer and closer. Until suddenly, out of the corner of his eye, he spotted a paladin wearing black, silver gilded armor, bearing a shield with a golden eight-pointed star rushing towards him.

Bang!

The shield hit him hard. He was flung back five meters onto his back.

After level one hundred, people get to pick an offshoot class that suits them the most. These offshoot classes are more powerful than the “beginner” classes.

“Remember people, avoid that things blighted blood. Other than that, search for the golemnist.”

Looking behind the lead paladin, he saw five more people sporting the colors of the dark church. Zelhaut turned his eyes to glare at the lizard but was surprised to see the confusion on its face.

Zelhaut quickly rolled into a kneeling position and started running towards the lizard. Krindle was occupying the guardian, his other golems were mobbing the lancer, the arcanist was too busy supporting their comrades, and the lizard was still distracted by the entrance of the church.

As he was running, the paladin moved to intercept him again. Zelhaut quickly spat his blood at the paladin, forcing them to block the projectile with their shield. As the paladin was distracted, he closed the distance. With a swing of his glaive and a smile on his face, he lopped the lizards head off.

“Hehe.”

He did not bask in his glory for long as a net clouded the sky, and he quickly rolled away. Jumping up from his roll, he began to sprint away.

It was too bad that he had to leave behind his iron golem spirit vessels. The fact that the iron golems couldn't even move to defend them was a drastic oversight on his part. He had already scratched out their command circles in preparation for more spirits.

Krindle quickly disengaged from the guardian, who was already fading, having their mana supply cut off. The new recruit, Raldo, was already running away. Zelhaut pumped his legs and accelerated, heading north to the border.

Behind him, his wooden golems mobbed the five church warriors. The golems tried to kill them, but the warriors defended adequately. The problem was the lead paladin that first charged him. The paladin managed to evade the golems and was quickly catching up to the group of three.

The paladin behind them reached into a pouch on his waist and withdrew a knife. The paladin lifted the knife into the air and prayed. The once silver knife then turned black as a holy aura descended onto the blade.

Zelhaut pumped his legs even harder as a foreboding feeling crept up his back. The aura that was on that blade, he knew well. How could he not when he experienced the “heavens” for such a long time. The feeling of a god gave him the chills. Goosebumps sprung up all over his body and his teeth clenched.

The paladin stopped praying and flung the dagger in his direction. The dagger moved unnaturally fast and quickly cut through the air.

He tried to change direction, but the dagger followed after him. Soon the dagger arrived and pierced through his back, into his heart. He lurched forwards and fell.

A stab to the heart was still recoverable, but his hp was pretty low. Krindle was quickly rushing back to pick him up, but the paladin arrived first. Zelhaut turned on his back, careful to not move the knife. He saw the paladin's sword sweeping towards his head. He raised his arm to deflect the blade. The sword cut through his wrist, severing his hand, but it was enough to force the sword off course into the ground next to his head.

While the paladin was in the open stance, Krindle jumped in the air and ax kicked the paladin's helmet, creating a large dent. The paladin stumbled back while Krindle quickly swept me into his arms and ran off, princess carry style.

Krindle handed his hand to him. He took it and put it into his spatial bag to keep it fresh. Then he took out some rope. Using his remaining hand and his teeth, he tied off the stub where his hand used to be, cutting off the blood that was flowing out of it.

He took a look behind Krindle and saw the paladin standing still, apparently dazed. Farther behind, the other church shits had destroyed all his golems and were rushing to catch up. One of them shot a crossbow bolt. It traveled fast and then bounced off of Krindle’s back.

The church shits had about the same speed as Krindle, the paladin was dazed, so getting out of the immediate area was doable. But getting across the border would be difficult.

Raldo was keeping pace with Krindle, and soon the church shits behind us began to drop one by one out of exhaustion. Golems don't get tired as long as they have mana, so we can keep this pace going all the way to the border if need be.

…

“Ok, stop.”

Our group was a fair distance away from Likenwood city now. Krindle set Zelhaut down on the ground, stomach down.

“Pull it.”

Krindle grabbed the knife in his back.

“On three commander. one, two.”

Krindle yanked it out. Then the golem used mana to quickly heat his hand and cauterized the wound.

“Fuck! Back away from the vapor!”

Krindle quickly backed up, wary of the blighted blood vapor somehow getting to his core.

“Oh, that feels better.”

He reached into his bag and pulled out some bandages and his hand. He untied the rope around his stump, jammed the hand back onto where it should have been, then wrapped the whole thing in bandages.

It would have been better to have a full arm cast, but hopefully, the bandages would hold the hand in place till his body reattached it.

“Ok, I'm still too weak to run, so pick me up again. Keep heading north until you reach the border. Once there, hopefully, I'll have thought of a way to cross by then. Hear that Raldo, we’ll be entering the Unistead Empire once we cross the border.”

‘You are surprisingly resilient, master.’

“Don’t call me master, it’s weird. Just call me commander. After all, you are now part of my army. An army of three, fuck!”

Krindle picked him up and continued running alongside Raldo.

…

He was not discovered on his way to the border. But once he arrived, it was obvious why.

His hand had reattached, and he was currently high up in a tree, observing the border. The border with the Unistead Empire consisted of another river. He observed multiple warriors of the church, marching up and down the riverbank in groups of four.

On his travels he had replenished his golems numbers, using blank wooden statues that he kept for backup in his spatial bag.

He would quickly engrave circles whenever they stopped to let him rest. Of course, he had been getting about an hour of sleep every day, so he was a little grumpy.

But lack of sleep was not the only reason he was frowning.

For his plan to work, he had to sacrifice all of the golems he made.

“Bastard gods.”

He descended the tree, muttering his hatred of the gods to himself.

Once he landed, Krindle and Raldo were waiting for him, while his other golems were quite a ways away.

“Get ready. I’ll signal the distraction now.”

With those orders sent, the squad of twenty wooden golems began to head towards the river.

Once the sound of battle began, he waited another five minutes, just in case any stragglers were lagging behind while heading to the fight.

“Let's go!”

Zelhaut dashed through the forest and quickly came upon the wide river. Krindle grabbed him and then walked into the water while Raldo followed behind. We were careful not to make too much noise. Zelhaut took one last breath then dunked his head under. Krindle carried him along the river bed, his weight ensuring we sank to the bottom.

While along the bottom, he tried to open his eyes and look around, but it was a muddy river. He couldn't see anything.

Zelhaut closed his eyes and focused on slowing his heartbeat. Then suddenly, something scaly slapped him across the face. He spat bubbles out but made sure to not breathe in any water.

It was the same kind of fish that had slapped him on his way into Darserf. He was sure of it.

“Pah!”

The group breached the surface and Zelhaut looked around.

Zelhaut could not see any guards nearby, and the sound of battle was fainter but still ongoing.

“Help me catch one of those fish.”

“Commander, we should really get going!”

“No! I will eat those detestable fish. Now come help me. You to Raldo, get in here.”

Zelhaut stood in the water, reaching with his hands, searching for any fish. But as the sound of battle grew fainter and fainter, his sense of urgency became more and more.

Zelhaut stopped searching and stood up. His eyes turned away from the river, looking into the sky.

Soon a flash of blue lept from the water, firing itself tail first at his face.

Zelhaut opened his mouth and caught the fish's tail strike in his mouth. He bit down into the raw fish, breaking its scales and backbone. He reached up and grabbed the fish. He angled its head into his mouth and bit it off, then threw the headless body back into the river.

“Ok. I’m satisfied, let’s go.”

—

Krindle ran through the forest next to Zelhaut, his commander.

If someone were to ask his thoughts on what just happened, i.e. The commander wasting precious time to get a tiny bit of revenge on an entire species of fish. He would say that his commander was crazy.

The commander took all that risk, just for a little bit of revenge. It was not the smartest thing to do, dare he say, stupid.

And yet. There was just something so satisfying about it.

He may think the commander was crazy, but that doesn't mean he dislikes like him. In fact, he could not think of someone more perfect. That little act of vengeance just sang to his soul.

Just thinking about caused a smile to appear on his face.

“Krindle, why are you smiling?”

“Oh, no reason.”

“Ok?”

—