Bright flashes of red and blue lights filled the chaotic hallway, making it a bit hard for Percy to aim. He kept moving, not only to avoid the stone golems surrounding him, but to also stop the ground from devouring him.

He aimed and shot out the legs of the golems while Thalos and Hugo zipped between the slow creatures, disarming them, cutting off their limbs and weapons.

George was chanting beside Percy, swinging his axe in a silver arc. Each time he eviscerated a golem, it simply reformed by gathering its pieces together. They couldn't be killed while connected to the earth

But that wasn't George's main focus. He slammed his hand into the ground as the chant ended, and several pillars rose from the earth.

Each pillar sent a golem streaking towards the high roof of the tunnel. Percy turned his Spellbolt upward and cursed under his breath; aiming while he was on the move was hard enough already, doing it while shooting upward was damn near impossible.

He shot three times after taking a while to aim, but he only had a limited number of shots in a Spellbolt. There were more of them in his storage, but he couldn't take them out where everyone could see. So he had to be frugal.

His three shots landed, thankfully, turning the falling golems into a cloud of debris. At the same time, Hugo and Thalos used the pillars George created as footholds to launch themselves up and slash a bunch of golems up.

The fight didn't last much longer than that, and Percy was able to come to a few useful conclusions. Once the last golem was destroyed, they started running down the corridor towards one of the staircases.

There was no time to waste; the Whitemoon people would have heard their fight echoing towards the west edges of the temple. They also had to fight golems too, so they couldn't come here, but they would know that it was Percy trying to get up the temple.

"Okay, here's what I've observed," Percy said as they ran. "There's only thirty golems formed in a corridor every few minutes, and if we separate a block of stone from the floor, we can stand on it, like the pillars George creates."

Hugo nodded.

"So we don't waste time fighting the golems. Clear a path with Earth magic and just run towards the next staircase."

"Yes, exactly. Hugo creates a highway where I can stand still and shoot. Once the golems appear, we have to kill fifteen in ten seconds to clear the path, then we continue running till we get to the stairs, forgetting about the others."

There weren't many words said after that, but they perfectly executed the plan. At the end of the hallway, thirty new golems appeared after what Percy counted as a minute.

The hallway took them three minutes to get through, but that was at a slower speed since they stopped to fight the golems.

This time Hugo and Thalos moved forward with merciless precision, carving a path through the golems. George cast another spell that created a crosswalk above the floor and golems, which Percy used to accurately pick off golems and make it easier for them to push forward.

A rumbling sound grew from the roof as they ran. Golems shot down from the above like missiles, catching them offguard

But Thalos was faster.

Marrowbiter waved through the air in a hypnotic red haze, and five crimson sword slashes shot through the air and eviscerated the golems.

Percy didn't bother aiming up. He shot at the golems falling from the walls and rising from the earth. One of which suddenly grabbed Hugo's leg as it was still forming. The former assassin kept hopping on one foot to avoid stopping, while Percy quickly shot through the golem's arm.

The way the stairs for this place was built was that on any level, if you found a staircase on the corner of a corridor, the next level would hide the stairs at the center of the temple. This was likely done to force intruders to fight golems on each level.

There was also the insidious trick of a person stopping at the stairs to find the next. The moment you stopped moving in here, then you were dead.

Percy shouted as they reached the center of the hallway, where the next set of stairs spiraled up to the next level of the temple.

"Don't stop moving!"

Percy's eyes as they crossed the doorway into the stairs. The stairway was built into the hollow center of the temple, rising against the eastern wall. There was also a roof in the hollow space to prevent people from flying to the top of the temple.

There was another staircase on the western wall, one that he assumed would be used by the Whitemoon on the western side. But they weren't there, so they were either a floor below or above.

Either way, both sides had to keep moving, and if the Whitemoon was ahead of them, they had to speed things up soon.

Golems formed from the walls and steps, so they had to be a bit more careful with the limited space. He cursed the annoying guardians of the temple but stopped as he heard something on the western side.

Men cloaked in black armor and clothes entered the staircase opposite them, pointing at him and the other three intruders. It must have been a squad the Whitemoon sent to slow them down.

He was halfway sure of that because of the low number of enemies. That meant they had another team that was likely already a floor higher than them… or even two.

The men in black armor pointed their hands at them and began chanting; others drew bows and spears to attack from range. But they also needed to keep moving and fight the golems that formed on the staircase.

We all look a bit ridiculous right now

Jokes aside, the hollow center of the temple shook as Whitemoon grunts sent fireballs roaring towards him. George raised a hand, and multiple stone blocks ripped themselves free from the walls and intercepted the fireballs with a blinding explosion.

But that wasn't all. Wind spells, water spells, and the occasional boulder were flying towards them. The walls and stairs behind Percy exploded with ear-rupturing force. But he could stop

Thalos glanced back at his son, eyes widening. He pushed forward faster, carving a path forward for them, and they struggled to keep up. Percy did his best to ignore how the world was exploding around them and tried keeping his balance.

George simply grabbed him off the ground and kept running. He did his best to not feel embarrassed or punch George in the face, but it really was unfortunate.

Without George, this entire fight would be a lot harder. He was the only one with Earth magic and was very skilled at intercepting projectiles. His spells were beyond useful, and it made Percy feel he was a bit out of his mind when he didn't want George to follow them.

Those Whitemoon bastards would have buried them at this point without the father of nine.

He glanced over to the western staircase and found their enemies struggling against a ridiculous number of golems.

Which meant they couldn't attack anymore. He also noticed that the number of golems on this side was reduced. There was only one or two golems forming on the eastern staircase.

"Try not to harm the temple too much!" Percy shouted ahead. "Killing golems is okay, but destroying the temple makes more golems form to attack you!"

"I've been using my Earth magic on the walls for a good amount of time now," George said. "That doesn't count as an attack?"

"No, I don't think so," Percy said, smiling as they reached closer to the end of the stairs. "We're at the end of the road; you can drop me now."

George let out a hearty laugh.

"Let's keep going like this. We can move faster, and you can focus on using your magic tool."

Percy opened his mouth to refute this based on how embarrassing it was to be carried, but saying it aloud would just make things worse.

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