Battle Against The Golem

Vim rushed toward the scene where the humans and the magical beast were actively locked in combat.

“Stop the carriage here!”

Vim had the carriage pulled over slightly ahead of the battlefield. He calculated that driving the vehicle straight into the fray would be far too hazardous.

“Hana, you stay behind to guard the carriage and Rolf. Misa, you’re with me.”

Vim issued the directional orders to the two of us, before vaulting cleanly out of the carriage. Misa followed his lead without a single split second of delay, leaping down onto the path behind him.

“Alright, let’s execute the cleanup.”

Vim sprinted toward the exact coordinates where his detection magic had registered the signatures.

“Good grief… this is horrific,” Misa murmured under her breath.

“Yeah. It certainly is.”

Spreading out before their eyes was a fierce skirmish between a massive golem and a platoon of soldiers clad in knight’s uniforms. While golems were notoriously slow-moving entities, they boasted an absolute, ironclad defensive threshold intersecting with immense destructive power. More than half of the knights on the field were already entirely incapacitated and stripped of their ability to fight.

“I’ll provide tactical fire support with my magic. Do everything in your power to draw the golem’s aggro and misdirect its field of vision,” Vim instructed.

“Understood!”

With that crisp reply, Misa unsheathed the blade buckled to her waist and charged in a perfectly straight line toward the construct.

“Over here, you pile of rocks!”

Misa was skillfully drawing the golem’s absolute focus entirely onto her quadrant. Seizing the perfect opening she provided, Vim methodically prepared to deploy his magical arrays.

“Sever.”

As Vim muttered the trigger word, a violent blade of compressed wind cleaved through the air toward the construct. In a single split second, the golem’s right arm and left leg were cleanly amputated. Deprived of its structural balance, the massive entity collapsed heavily onto the earth.

“Detonate.”

The moment the command left Vim’s lips, a high-caliber explosion detonated squarely around the construct’s center of mass. Once the smoke from the blast dissipated completely, absolutely nothing remained but the thoroughly pulverized, shattered shards of the golem’s wreckage.

“Remarkable. Your spellcasting is truly top-tier,” Misa praised.

“No, it was strictly because you masterfully misdirected its attention away from me. You saved me a massive amount of trouble.”

With the threat neutralized, Vim shifted his gaze down toward the mangled knights scattered across the ground.

“Area Heal.”

Expanding a high-grade Area Heal matrix across the field, Vim systematically mended the injuries of every single wounded soldier simultaneously.

“Who is the commanding officer in charge of this platoon?”

“That would be me.”

A man stepped forward, clad in a knight’s uniform that featured a significantly more lavish, intricate design than the others. Undoubtedly an officer of Knight Commander caliber, Vim calculated. As far as Leoria’s formal military branches were concerned, he was only personally acquainted with the Third Order. Since this man’s face was completely unfamiliar to him, he was bound to belong to either the First or Second Order.

“I am Oliva, the Commander of the First Order of Knights. You rescued my men from a total disaster. You have my immense gratitude.”

“Please, think nothing of it. We simply needed to traverse this highway ourselves, so clearing out any obstructions blocking our path was a basic operational requirement.”

Delivering his detached response, Vim reached into his coat to produce two distinct items: his signature guild card certifying his S-rank status, and a brilliant golden card etched with the official crest of the Royal Family.

“I am Vim Arbel. We are currently navigating a highly tight schedule, so would you mind if I left the remaining post-battle cleanup entirely to your discretion?”

“An actual S-rank adventurer… No wonder a golem that left my entire elite platoon completely helpless was utterly obliterated in a single heartbeat…”

“I calculate that the core issue stemmed largely from the fact that swords possess a terrible tactical compatibility threshold against golems to begin with,” Vim noted calmly. Because a golem’s defensive physical parameter is so completely overwhelming, direct blade strikes yield terrible efficiency. Executing a sustained barrage of magical artillery is the textbook strategy for dismantling them.

“True enough. Regardless, please leave the remaining administrative tasks to us. To go so far as to completely mend the wounds of my subordinates… you have my profound thanks.”

“Don’t worry about it. However, please note that I have merely closed up their physical lacerations. The blood they have actively lost cannot be replenished by basic structural healing, so ensure they refrain from any reckless exertion.” A standard Heal spell lacked the computational data to spontaneously replenish lost blood volume.

“Understood. We shall execute a full tactical withdrawal for the day.”

“That would undeniably be the smartest calculation. Still… what on earth caused a golem to manifest in a safe sector like this?”

“To be perfectly honest, that is a mystery that completely eludes us as well,” Commander Oliva admitted, his brow furrowing.

While golems occasionally underwent spontaneous natural generation, the vast majority of cases involved entities artificially constructed by mages. Furthermore, an artificially programmed golem was strictly restricted from launching unprovoked assaults on humans.

“In that case, the moment your investigation yields any concrete data, ensure a copy of the formal report is routed through channels to my attention.”

“Consider it done.”

“Well then, we shall take our leave.”

With a polite nod, Vim guided Misa back toward the coordinates where the carriage sat waiting.

“Lord Vim, did you encounter any disasters?!”

The moment they breached the perimeter, Hana was the absolute first to call out to him, her voice laced with worry.

“Yeah. We’re perfectly fine over here. There was just a rogue golem blocking the highway, so I dismantled it. How did things look on your end, Hana?”

“Everything is perfectly secure on this side. Zero anomalies registered within our perimeter. But still… to think you casually dismantled a whole golem on a whim…” Hana’s expression had transcended mere shock, morphing into absolute exasperation. Turning toward her companion, she offered a solemn warning. “Misa, you must maintain absolute vigilance at all times. If you leave yourself wide open around Lord Vim, your entire grasp on the concept of common sense will be ruthlessly bent out of shape before you know it.”

“I… I shall ensure that warning is explicitly carved into my memory,” Misa replied, her eyes wide with a trace of panic.

Hey, hold on a second. You definitely don’t need to carve a bizarre warning like that into your memory. Vim sighed internally. Hana has certainly grown remarkably vocal lately. Sometimes, the female contingent of this party can be genuinely terrifying.

Evaluating their current group dynamic, while Vim was supposed to sit at the absolute apex of the hierarchy, he couldn’t help but feel he actually occupied the absolute lowest rung.

“Right, right. Let’s focus on pressing forward,” Vim called out, offering a supporting hand to help the two girls mount the vehicle. Stepping into the compartment right behind them, he settled into his seat.

“We are resuming our advance, sirs.”

Answering Rolf’s announcement, the carriage jolted smoothly back into motion, picking up speed as the orderly, rhythmic clatter of horseshoes striking the earth echoed through the compartment once more.

“Well then, I am going to indulge in a brief midday nap. Ensure you rouse me the exact split second any anomaly occurs.”

Based on all regional navigation maps, the sector ahead was supposed to be a safe zone completely devoid of magical beasts.

“Understood. Rest well,” Hana replied.

Securing her confirmation, Vim unbooted his feet and stretched himself out across the long, cushioned bench of the carriage. Cradled by the exquisite, rhythmic swaying of the vehicle and thoroughly sustained by his full stomach, a powerful wave of drowsiness claimed his mind almost instantly. Within moments, Vim allowed his consciousness to slip away into a deep, peaceful darkness.