The Weight of Stone

  The group prepared for the assault at first light.

  Dan carried his iron-banded club and his scraped together shield.

  Chris had done his best, but ‘shield’ would be a strong word.

  George had their axe on his shoulder.

  Everyone had a rough club swinging at their waist.

  Against rock, they knew only heavy, blunt force or specialized Affinities would work.

  Kim, now radiating the confidence of her Core of Inexorable Flow, moved with a new, fluid grace.

  The hike to the Fissure was tiring for those without Cores, showing the growing power disparity.

  At around midday, they settled onto the ridge overlooking the valley, dropping into prone positions behind massive boulders.

  "We stick to the plan," Dan stated, his voice a low rumble.

  "Jimmy, call out anything that's needed. Annette and Jaime, support the flanks.

  Kim, see what you can do with your water, but stay back. Dad, Chris, we need blunt impact.

  Hit it with everything."

  Stars twinkled in his pupils, as they darted to and fro.

  "The resonance… it is powerful," Jimmy whispered.

  "These golems will be dangerous. We need to isolate one."

  The Elementals were even harder to distinguish than described.

  They looked exactly like the debris—piles of chunky gravel and shale—until they moved.

  Their patrols seemed random, slow, the wanderings of the brainless.

  "There," Kim pointed.

  A six-foot elemental—a squat tower of compressed limestone—had lumbered about forty feet from the lip of the fissure.

  It occupied a small, exposed patch of hard earth, far from any silica friends.

  Dan grabbed a handy fist sized rock.

  He bounced it in his palm a couple times, nodding.

  With a twist of will, his hand sagged a bit, steam rising off the glistening surface.

  He eyed the pitch for a moment shaking his head.

  Nodding, he wound up, and delivered a fastball.

  The rock impacted the Elemental's chest with a resounding clack, a small chunk flaking off.

  The creature paused, its heavy form vibrating, then turned its jagged layered body.

  Its ‘head’, just another slab of stone, had no discernible features.

  It started a slow, inevitable march towards the direction of the provocation.

  “Good throw.” Jimmy whispered.

  “Fall-ball, baby,” Dan chuckled quietly.

  Annette could feel the anxiety of the other un-Cored cultivators.

  Jaime’s shifting feet, Belle’s twitchy fingers.

  Her own racing heart.

  She emitted her Aura of Stillness, trying to calm their anxiety.

  She felt Jaime’s own Protection flare in response, and Belle’s fingers tightened on her throwing stick.

  The group waited until the elemental was well away from the main debris field before revealing themselves.

  Dan charged forward to draw attention, channeling his Qi into his stance, bracing for the impact.

  The elemental, radiating dry heat and raw density, struck first.

  It swung a massive, blocky forearm in a sweeping arc.

  Dan roared, raising his shield to meet the blow.

  The blow hit with the force of a car crash.

  His sad wooden shield shattered instantly into a hail of splinters.

  Shockwaves traveled up Dan's arm, vibrating through his teeth and rattling his eyes in their sockets.

  Dan's Qi of Heavy Frost kept his arm from being broken, frost cracks spreading.

  Took it head on.

  He had time to think, as he was sent flying to his back.

  Bad… Idea.

  His world faded in and out.

  Jimmy sprinted in, flashing a cone of light at the towering being.

  It was unclear if the light did anything or not, but it did shift towards the smaller man.

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  It brought its arm crashing down, trying to turn him to paste.

  The archer dove to his left, evading the life ending blow, then gave the elemental a good smack in the side with a club.

  A tiny flake chipped off.

  Damage minimal.

  Just as suspected.

  Their situation looked dire.

  Dan, shaking his head, still lying on the ground.

  Jaime, Annette, Belle, and George all hit it with throwing sticks, to little or no effect.

  The elemental, its arm having cratered the ground, swung a backfist at the annoying gnat that poked its side.

  Jimmy ducked the swing, cracking it on the leg, then backed up.

  This dodge tank thing is not so bad.

  The Archer felt some new found confidence as he jumped to the side to evade another downward strike.

  He hustled forward to give it another whack with the club when the towering entity did something unexpected.

  It threw out a quick kick.

  The golem’s leg didn't swing, it just shifted.

  A piston-like thrust of limestone that clipped him mid-dodge.

  The world blurred into a smear of grey rock and blue sky as he streaked backward.

  He tumbled, coming to a crashing stop against a boulder.

  The ground shook as it waded forward.

  Struggling to open his eyes, the bolder the only thing holding him up.

  …Have to stop it… Slow it down…

  Or we are dead.

  He spat blood, and choked out, “K-Kim, soften the g-ground below it…”

  Kim stood frozen.

  Bioluminescent eyes wide, the swirling light matching her Core.

  The living mountain loomed ever larger.

  “K-KIM! GRO-ground!” Jimmy coughed out another mouthful of blood.

  Luna whined as the trembling in the earth only grew.

  The small, scared sound finally snapped her out of the cascading fear of their impending deaths.

  Kim nodded as all the sound of the last few moments hammered home onto her panicked mind.

  She stepped forwards, determination holding her firm.

  I will get back to him.

  The ocean released.

  Air temperature dropped as it swirled about her, curly hair tossing in the breeze.

  Raging rivers of torrent drove deep into the cracked, hard packed soil.

  As the lumbering giant took another step back in their direction, its leg sank, bringing it crashing to the earth.

  George and Annette rushed to the archer’s side.

  His mother, tears in her eyes, tried to still any internal bleeding.

  George’s face twisted into a map of wrinkles.

  His fingers glowed a dull, rich green.

  Jimmy gasped as his ribs began to 'itch' with the bone-knitting, a sensation more agonizing than the break itself.

  He shuddered in his own silent hell, as the last rib pulled back into place.

  The relief it brought cut through the haze of his mind, a thin breath finally escaping his clenched throat.

  As clarity returned to his eyes, his arm raised, hand giving an exhausted twitch.

  A caricature of Jimmy appeared in front of the Golem.

  Too big eyes, a smile taking up half his face, its movements stiff and awkward.

  It flickered, reception fading in and out.

  It was terrifying.

  Whether or not the golem had eyes, it seemed to take notice of the illusion.

  It swiped back and forth, still half submerged in the ground.

  Puppet Jimmy bounced and twirled awkwardly, a marionette in a cloud of dust.

  Each broken illusion just gave way to another grinning caricature.

  This did not seem to bother the Elemental, seemingly on a vendetta against any and all Jimmy’s.

  Luna slunk forwards, tail tucked and hugging the ground, and gave off a low rumbling growl.

  A vibration started to build, centered on the trapped enemy.

  It flinched away from her, ignoring the dancing illusion, trying to pull itself from the mud.

  Get. Up.

  Dan struggled back to his feet with a groan, shrugging his aching arm, blinking away the confusion.

  The golems’ leg shifted slightly with a loud sucking-squelch, its body starting to raise off the ground.

  NO.

  Dan charged, steam billowing in his wake, thundering footfalls rivaling the elementals’.

  Poorcaliber rose over his head in a two handed grip.

  His Domain flooded the iron banded wood as it tore through the air, the super cooled weapon creaking.

  The chimes of shattered ice rang, crystals forming in the air, before colliding with the descending club.

  CRACK

  A crack broke through its torso, chunks of limestone flying, as it was driven into the mud.

  Luna’s growl rose, the vibration only growing.

  Again, and again Dan pummeled it, frost and cracks growing from each strike.

  Finally, on the fourth, its torso crumbled apart, revealing a dull brown gemstone.

  Poorcaliber fell from Dan’s numb fingers, twisted and shattered.

  They stood, stock still around the collapsed pile.

  In shock that it was over.

  In shock, that they were alive.

  A vast, thick cloud of multi aspected Qi steamed from the debris.

  "Chris, get the heat, hurry up!"

  Dan commanded, rubbing his sore arms and looking grimly at the shattered remnants of his weapon.

  It was just a club…

  It wasn’t even that cool…

  Chris stepped forward with glee, hands rubbing, pulling at any embers he could find.

  The Qi was dense and profound.

  A godsend to their combat medic, and in turn, the rest of the team.

  It flowed right through George’s channels, and into his Core.

  Around him, small specks of verdant green light formed loose clouds.

  They swarmed the downed archer and the unsteady powerlifter.

  It drove deep, working its way through their bodies, finding any and all damage.

  The Qi influx gave Jimmy’s body the fuel needed to start healing itself, taking just a bit of the load off the old biker.

  Extreme weight and sturdiness slammed home on Dan’s Core.

  The ice planet shifted, cracking and rumbling with the increased mass.

  Chris sat in his haze of thermal bliss.

  “Yeah baby, that's the good stuff..”

  His hooded eyes deepened.

  There's something else there.. I'm just not sure what..

  Squatting down, he scooped up the small dull gemstone.

  I just know, it's got somethin’ to do with this.

  Static buzzed against his hand, reaching.

  Searching for connections…

  Chris turned the gemstone in his palm, feeling the tingling itch.

  "This could change everything."