Cici meandered out a good distance away from the mouth of the cave enjoying the early afternoon sun. The big guy had a loaf of some food in one hand while his other arm made random but fluid maestro-type motions. Sometimes he would gaze up at the sun with his eyes closed, chomping on his most recent bite and sway side to side. Other times he would do a turn here or a little gyration there, dancing to internal music; his own silent disco. A one man, slow-jam, dancing machine.

Rays of light poured down on Cici, his dark skin absorbing it all like a battery charging. The sun's rays brought him happiness and warmth, joy and comfort. Add that to the enclosed, protected nature of the small valley and the absence of danger, Cici was teetering on a Moment of Zen, so to speak. It was nothing more than an instance of peace with some tranquility sprinkled in. A chance to breathe without worry; smile without cause. He could nap here if he knew how long Kopius was going to take.

The thought had merit. Cici glanced back at the cave entrance while taking another bite of his lunch. He would need to finish his food before any naps could be had. Cici wasn't one to waste morsels and he was half way finished anyway. He retrieved his waterskin and took a healthy sip. That's when he heard it, the sound of a bull going ape shit in a tea shop.

Cici, waterskin still puckering up to his lips, turned towards the cave in time to see frantic looking Kopius exiting at full speed. He was yelling something, pointing back at the cave a few times mid-stride. The lad was too far away to hear any words clearly but he would reach Cici shortly so the big man waited.

An earth shaking ROAR! erupted from the cave just before the stone golem burst out on the scene. A chill reached inside Cici and plunged every nerve cell in the man's body into an icy bath of 'what have you done.'

"Run!" finally made its way to Cici's ear but all the big guy could do was lower waterskin.

"RUN!" Kopius shouted much closer this time, waving his hands frantically.

"WHAT HAVE YOU DONE, LAD?" Cici shouted back, his hands waving around the food and drink like some drunk tailgater about to get himself into a fight.

"Getthefuck-outtahere!" That was all Kopius could manage to screech as he zoomed past Cici.

"WHAT DID YOU DO, LAD?" Cici shouted at his fleeing friend.

Kopius yelled something back but whatever the guy said was lost to the wind. The air elemental didn't even bother to look back, he just made a direct line back towards the trail that led them here.

That boy sure is fast, Cici regarded absently as he watched his friend fly across the small glen. He sipped his waterskin again and turned back to find the rock golem looming over him.

"Agh," Cici yelped in surprise, jerking a step away from the creature. "Damn infernal creature!"

Cici shook off the intrusion much the same way a mean girl might blow you off in high school. Though the Bard was considered taller than the average, he always enjoyed sizing up a bigger opponent. As he looked up at the golem, the angry jumble of rocks did the puppy, head-tilty thing as Cici took another bite of his lunch.

The golem roared.

"What?" Cici answered with some annoyance, his mouth half full. He used his unfinished food to point roughly back in the cave's direction. "It wasn't me, lad." With his other hand, Cici used the waterskin to point in the direction Kopius went and then to shoo'd the golem away.

It didn't take the thing long before dirt and debris flew out behind the stone monster like a car peeling out on sand. Its legs spun two trenches in the ground before it sped off after Kopius, spraying Cici with earth and rock. The Bard watched the monster zip away as he dusted off his remaining food.

"He'll be fine," Cici reasoned, taking a final bite. "Builds character."

A few minutes earlier…

"Fuck me," Kopius managed to groan as the golem charged. With the torch spouting off light from the floor in the other room, all Kopius saw was the monster's silhouette grow exponentially. A fight/flight switch activated somewhere in his mind and if ever there were a time to run, now would be one of them.

Where the brain of Kopius had made a responsible decision, his body was still recovering from the backhanded pimp slap that had flung him across and out of the room. He glossed over the whole "nobody slaps me and gets away with it" diatribe; willing to let the matter slide this time.

He wanted to leap, dive out of the way, ninja roll into a run and then find out exactly how fast he could sprint. The Hall was straight, his Night Vision would guide him and the light at the end would help stop him from splatting his innards across the artwork.

So, what happened?

To begin with, his leap turned out to be more of a leaning-over hop. The kind where the person appears to be falling over at first, like diving into a pool. When he tried to initially leap, every muscle from his abdomen to his shoulders collectively said: "Too soon." His upper-body basically seized while he managed to flop to the side like fish out of water. Things were not looking good.

Not all was lost though–there was still Plan B–as he was about to cast his first, honest-to-god-the-universe-or-whomever-runs-this-shit-show, magic spell: Push. This, of course, came with its own set of issues: some prerequisites; provisos–if you will.

Had Kopius bothered to read either the Scroll or Tome of Push, he would have seen it clearly written that Push is not a shield spell. It is not a 'stop anything and everything in its track' spell. It's a deflect 'move bitch, get out the way' spell. Had he taken it a step further and read past the intro, he might have come across the importance of steady footing, the enemy weight ratio calculation, mana overdraft; or maybe where it explains effective/ineffective uses for the spell(with pictures).

Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.

One of the 'ineffective' examples, ironically, used a rock golem as a point of reference. That particular section explains that there is a limit, a threshold where instead of being the 'pusher' you become the 'pushee.' An equation exists somewhere but the long and the short of it is–roughly–the body weight of the caster multiplied by their Strength and like a side of Willpower. For someone like Kopius, weighing around 210 lbs with a STR of 14, he could deflect a charging bison or hippo; anything heavier than that–well he was about to find out.

With none of this in mind, Kopius–mid-dive–could tell he was about to become roadkill. Already vertical and off the ground, he shouted the words he had assigned to the spell, "PISS OFF!" Obviously, whatever Kopius felt was going to happen did not transpire. Besides not being squished–which, he supposed, was the ultimate goal–he found himself at a loss as his body torpedoed down the Hall. He careened off one of the large statues without taking any damage but hit the floor like a ton of bricks, skidding to a stop after a flip-flop or two. While all that was happening the golem smashed into the space Kopius had just occupied, pummeling the two nearest statues in its rage. It all sounded as if the Hall itself was collapsing all around.

Between the healing potion doing its thing and his own, seemingly endless supply of adrenaline, Kopius skipped past the part of registering the pain and semi-ninja rolled to his feet. He stumbled once up, did a few wavering self-corrections until he was backpedaling towards the cave. Kopius turned his lucky-ass around, flipped on his Night Vision, found the dot of light at the end of the tunnel and hit the proverbial gas.

Statues flashed by like a flipbook as he put pedal to the metal. He barely noticed they were even there until they turned back to the wild beasts and monsters. The sudden change broke Kopius from his focus, allowing the sounds of the entire event back into his mind.

The crashing noises had stopped and that alone brought some peace to the mind of Kopius. He was left with his feet assaulting the ground, his heavy breathing and his beating heart. There was a forth sound happening, one that Kopius would have sworn he had heard a thousand times. It was practically the same sound he would hear as a boy, when pulling up to the long gravel driveway that would eventually lead to his grandparents house.

It was faint at first, noticeable but distant. A rumbling sound joined in but it was hard to hear given the circumstances. Kopius pulled up his interface to check his vitals. Health looked full, Stamina had about 15% of it empty. He stumbled, almost tripping, as he double checked his Mana levels.

"What.The.Shit," Kopius managed to say between gasps of breath.

'Push' had used half his total reserve. His boots had barely registered a difference when he lit a fire, now he was using half his pool: wtf may have been a better question.

A vibrating roar from the golem relieved Kopius of his internal wonders. It was accompanied by louder and faster noises of stone wheels grinding on a stone floor; the brief stumble had allowed the monster to make up a considerable ground. Now the rumbling and grating of the creature sounded like it was breathing right down his neck.

Kopius didn't bother to glance back, instead he got his feet back on track. Gadging that he had no more than four-hundred yards to reach the cave–thanks to his Measure Once Skill–he redoubled his effort to escape the angry rock spirit. His arms and legs pumped with gusto, his mind working out a way to make a ninety degree turn without losing momentum.

Just as life will come at you fast, the cave entrance was right there before he could formulate a plan. His instincts took over. As if he were stealing second base, Kopius hit the ground into a slide. He glided across the smooth-ish floor, for what seemed an eternity, before pulling a Trea Turner vs. PHI circa 2021, springing back up to his feet(Google it.(F the Dodgers)).

It was so fucking smooth Kopius almost cracked a smile. That was until he looked back down the Hall in time to see the golem enter his Night Visions periphery.

Leaping this time, Kopius easily avoided getting smushed between the golem and the stone tapestry. The rock monster collided into the wall inside the cave and obliterated the stone artwork. The place sounded like one thousand plates all shattered at once. Debris flew in all directions, many of the pieces managing to pelt Kopius. The golem turned as our air elemental quickly got to his feet.

Kopius backed away slowly and put as many objects between him and the monster as he could. As he passed by a sculpted dresser the golem attacked with no regard for its surroundings. It smashed through a stone couch as if the thing had been made of toothpicks, uppercut two end tables as he went by them and crushed the dresser like a tin can. The amount of crashing, breaking and splintered explosions that occurred all at once was enough to make a bull blush. The way the golem pummeled everything it could on the way to Kopius gave the man all the motivation he needed to parkour the entire cave.

Jumping over a bathtub in a single bound, Kopius slid across the stone bed and then into a run and jump; using a bookcase to leap an entire dinner room table and chairs. He had to zig-zag through the cave as he tried to avoid an enraged golem and get to the exit. Pieces of shattered and broken stone continued to carreen off Kopius as the monster trampled its way around. They continued this song and dance until Kopius caught sight of the way out.

The cave's exit looked as if the Universe itself had lit it like a golden portal, a path to safety, a beacon of hope. In the second it took for him to adjust course, a cacophony of devastation made Kopius look over his shoulder. Part of the cave wall that separated two sections had exploded and the rock golem had somehow wedged itself; its leg-wheels spinning in place.

With not even an 'f-you,' Kopius counted his lucky stars and hit the open air, exiting the cave. He turned towards the firepit but there was no Cici. Two more paces into his sprint and he saw the Bard standing half way across the glen.

"RUN!" Kopius yelled as best he could, pointing back at the cave sporadically. "FUCKING. RUN!"

Why. Is. He. Stillstandingthere! Kopius wondered between breaths.

A mighty ROAR ripped out from the cave sending a chill down his spine. He wasn't going to look back. If Cici couldn't hear his words, the Bard surely understood the scenario now.

"RUN!" Kopius yelled again.

All the big guy did was lower the drink from his mouth.

"RUN!" Kopus kept trying, waving his hand frantically.

Cici raised his hands up and shouted something back but Kopius didn't understand. He was preoccupied with several things and the words were just added noise. He kept pumping his legs, closing the distance to the Bard quickly. Initially he was going to stop and quickly explain things but that plan got thrown out the window. It was clear that the golem on wheels was faster than Kopius on his legs. Instead, Kopius relayed his message on the fly-by: "Getthefuck-outtahere!"

"WHAT DID YOU DO, LAD?" Cici shouted as he flew by.

Kopius heard the words that time and for a few steps was at a loss as to what to say. He managed to shake his head in disbelief while sprinting. There might be. A lesson to. Learn here, he hastily thought between strides.

Not even bothering to turn around, he shouted his reply: "I WAS DOING! THE RIGHT THING!"

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.