The Granite Golem Attacks

"Rumble!"

A tremendous commotion erupted in the forest. From above, one towering tree after another could be seen crashing to the ground. The violent collapses kicked up clouds of dust, making it impossible to tell what was happening.

"What's going on?"

Lin Lei wondered. The fruit in his mouth suddenly didn't taste so good anymore. He picked up the Green Dragon Crescent Blade from the ground, mounted Red Hare, and rode toward the source of the noise to investigate.

Before this, Lin Lei's sweep had gone very smoothly. He hadn't expected that after the first day's cleanup, most of the surviving magical beasts would learn to avoid danger and flee their homes with great wariness.

This had greatly reduced the soldiers' workload, and not a single soldier had been killed. Even injuries had become rare.

After all, before, it had been two or three soldiers against one beast. Now, it was five or ten against one. With everyone ganging up on them, how could there be any casualties?

That was why Lin Lei had been in such a good mood, with time to spare for fruit. Otherwise, he would have been busy hacking away at magical beasts.

"What in the world is that thing? It's making such a racket. Could it be a dragon? Why can't I sense any dragon might?"

Lin Lei stood on a high hillside, cupping his chin in his hands as he rubbed it thoughtfully.

"Why does it feel like that thing is getting closer and closer?"

Just as Lin Lei stopped to study the smoke, Bambu came sprinting with all his might. He looked up, spotted Lin Lei in the open, and immediately headed straight for him without hesitation.

The figure chasing Bambu was the Granite Golem recorded in the Kobold tribe's chronicles. Bambu had spotted it as soon as he reached the mine.

After waking the creature with a punch, he had stolen the ore beneath it. The ore was the Granite Golem's food, and if anyone tampered with it, the already ill-tempered golem would hunt that person down relentlessly.

It was nothing short of a glutton.

"Whoosh."

The Kobold dashed past Lin Lei and fled, leaving him face-to-face with the Granite Golem.

"Roar!"

In the Granite Golem's eyes, Lin Lei was no different from the Kobold. Having lost sight of its original target, it naturally turned its attention to Lin Lei.

Lin Lei had been caught in the crossfire.

Still, judging by Kobold Bambu's actions, it seemed his scheme had worked.

"So I'm the scapegoat? The one who just ran past looked like a Kobold. I'll settle things with you lot once I'm done here."

Lin Lei grumbled, his ears aching from the deafening roar. The Kobolds had just made it onto the blacklist of Lin Lei, a man who was steadily growing more ruthless.

"Damn it."

Lin Lei had barely caught his breath when a fist as big as a door came hurtling toward him. And it was made of granite, to boot.

Lin Lei shifted slightly, leapt onto the Granite Golem's hand, and sprang backward.

The Granite Golem's enormous fist smashed into the spot where Lin Lei had been standing, tearing a five-meter-long crack in the ground. Lin Lei, who had dodged to one side, broke out in a cold sweat.

"Where did this monster come from? It's huge, and its body is purple... Purple... Stone."

Lin Lei muttered to himself, then suddenly remembered the monster from a game he used to play. It was one of the strongest monsters in the game, second only to dragons, and had a full nine levels of units.

"The Granite Golem? How could it be one of these things? It's got health, damage, and damn magic immunity. What an infuriating monster."

Lin Lei was at a loss.

"Bang!"

Lin Lei had let his mind wander, but the Granite Golem didn't stop attacking just because of that. It swept its arm across and sent him flying. He smashed through seven or eight trees before finally coming to a stop.

"Roar, roar."

Seeing its enemy sent flying with a single blow, the Granite Golem laughed gleefully.

"Cough, cough."

Lin Lei pushed himself up from the smoke. The ice-blue armor he had always worn was covered in spiderweb cracks that showed no sign of mending.

This was the first time since he had obtained Guan Yu's skin that Lin Lei had ended up in such a sorry state. It was also the first time his armor had been so badly damaged.

"It really is a tough opponent."

Thanks to his ice-blue armor, Lin Lei hadn't been seriously injured. The armor had absorbed most of the force behind the Granite Golem's massive blow. He had only sustained internal injuries at the moment its hand struck his body.

"Whoosh, whoosh."

With a thought, Lin Lei made several leaps and reached the spot not far from the Granite Golem where the Green Dragon Crescent Blade had fallen. He picked up his weapon.

"Come and get me!"

Lin Lei taunted the Granite Golem. The golem, which had been happily winding down after its attack, flew into a rage. It summoned its own magic power and used its signature move: hurling a boulder.

The boulder the Granite Golem conjured was even bigger than Lin Lei. If it hit him in the head, it wouldn't just stun him like in the game. It would send him straight to his next life.

"Bang!"

The boulder flew over Lin Lei's head. After smashing into several towering trees, it rolled off into the distance.

"Thunder Half-Moon Slash!"

Lin Lei shouted. Despite the name, it was really just a matter of wrapping the blade in battle qi, lifting it, and bringing it down.

"Bang!"

Lin Lei's blade struck the Granite Golem's fist, producing a deafening collision.

But it didn't do much. A two-inch-long gash appeared on the Granite Golem's fist. For a human, an injury like that would be fatal. For a granite golem, it was nothing—barely a scratch.

"Bang! Bang! Bang!"

Lin Lei didn't lose his courage. Instead, he repeatedly leapt around the golem, attacking the same spot. If an iron pestle could be ground down into a needle, why couldn't he punch a hole in the Granite Golem?

After fighting for a while, Lin Lei realized that his only advantage was his speed. He might not have the Granite Golem's hard body or immense strength, but he was agile enough to stay out of its reach.

You had to stay alive to deal damage, and you had to land your attacks to hurt the enemy.

Lin Lei bounded around the Granite Golem as its fists chased after him. It kept swinging at him, but more often than not, it ended up hitting itself.

"The lord is in danger! Everyone, follow me!"

While Lin Lei fought the Granite Golem fiercely, Allen, Furell, and the others, who had been waiting for the lord to return, followed the trail and caught up with him. They found him fighting alone.

Allen drew his sword and shouted to the soldiers behind him.

At his command, the soldiers who had been jogging along behind him charged at the Granite Golem like mad bulls.

Lin Lei looked at the soldiers and saw not a trace of fear—not even fear of the Granite Golem's enormous form. Their eyes held only the resolve to face death without hesitation.

"Let me handle this!"

Furell, whose strength was at the Gold rank, charged to the front. He raised the bone club he knew best and brought it down on the Granite Golem's knee.

The Bugbear's strength was no exaggeration. With the help of his heavy weapon, hairline cracks appeared in the Granite Golem's left knee. A few more blows from Furell would shatter it.

"Prepare the heavy crossbows!"

At Allen's command, the strategic weapons Lin Lei had been reluctant to use were brought out.

"Everyone, get away from the monster!"

"Fire!"

Allen gave the order impassively.

"Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!"

Crossbow bolts as thick as spears tore through the sky. They flew with the howling wind and rained down on the Granite Golem. Its body staggered backward under the barrage until it finally reached its limit and toppled over.

"Stop!"

Lin Lei ordered the heavy crossbows to cease firing.

He darted over to the Granite Golem and climbed onto its body to inspect it.

The Granite Golem now looked like a giant porcupine. Its tough hide had kept the bolts from piercing through, leaving them embedded in its body.

"Lord Baron, be careful!"

Not long after Lin Lei climbed onto it, the Granite Golem began to stagger back to its feet. Having no sense of pain, it seemed not to notice the hail of bolts piercing it. Once the tremendous force of the barrage had ended, it simply tried to get up.

"Bring the vine nets!"

Hundreds of soldiers used thick ropes to tie down the Granite Golem, pinning it to the ground so it couldn't move.

This time, Lin Lei could climb onto it without worrying about anything. The Granite Golem was bound to the ground, unable to move.

"Snap! Snap!"

The Granite Golem clearly didn't want to stay bound. It struggled again and again, and the sturdy ropes began to snap. At its current pace, it would break free of all the ropes and regain its freedom in less than five minutes.

"It should be here, right?"

Lin Lei felt around on the Granite Golem's chest. Once he had pinpointed the spot, he began digging into the stone with his blade.

Each stroke only cut a little way into the rock, but with no one to interfere, Lin Lei made quick progress. Before long, he had dug a hole deep enough for half a person.

"Found it. This purple core is the one."

Lin Lei dug out a purple gem the size of a human head. As soon as he removed it, the struggling Granite Golem fell still.

The soldiers who had been pulling on the ropes all tumbled to the ground at once.

"Haha, the Granite Golem is dead! Everyone can rest and clean up the battlefield now."

Lin Lei called out to them.

What he had just removed was the Granite Golem's core, the equivalent of a human heart. Without the energy from its core, even the most powerful golem could only become a pile of scrap stone.

"Ding."

A few notification sounds rang out in Lin Lei's mind. They were probably alerts that he had earned some lottery draws. He paid them no mind for the moment and put away the purple core.

"How bad are our losses? What happened to the soldiers?"

Lin Lei asked Allen and Furell.

"Not good. Nearly thirty human soldiers were killed outright, and there are too many injured to count."

"That many? We'd only been fighting the Granite Golem for fifteen minutes, and we've already lost so many.

Furell, how many casualties did your Goblins suffer?"

"Things aren't much better for us. Fifty-three of our Goblins were killed or injured, though we had relatively few wounded."

Furell spoke dejectedly. These Goblins had made up a tenth of his tribe, and now they had all fallen to the Granite Golem.