Harm and Harmony

-Chapter 40-

Day: 22

Days Left: 5458

Lives Saved: 0

The summit of the mountain was partially flat, slightly sloped to one side from where it had crumbled away due to rain. Despite the cracked and crumbling earth, Corinna made it up to the top and stood firmly with her cricket bat, ready and waiting for the golem. Her eyes cast down the sheer drop off the cliff and the surrounding darkness, though it seemed that with every growing second, the sky seeped into light, a dim grey light but a light nonetheless. Perhaps to improve the quality of the footage to show the sponsors, Corinna theorised. Regardless of the motive of greed, the young woman was grateful that she could now fight in proper lighting.

A globulous hand reached out and clawed its way up the mountain, dragging a flat trail of clay and sand behind it. Once all of it had caught up, the clay compacted together, squishing all of the sand into the centre, then rose and formed into the golem's original form. Along the way, the golem had combined itself with rogue collections of dirt and earth from the mountain, storing them in its most inner layers and wrapped them in clay to form a replacement arm.

As none of the sand or dirt was in the outer layers, Corinna deduced that the golem could only control its original components of clay. The sand and dirt were just used to solidify and strengthen the structure.

A smile crept onto Corinna's face.

This would all be too easy.

With a thundering step, the golem lunged forwards with a clay fist. Corinna evaded to the side then swung her cricket bat down, and the creature's arm snapped off. Due to the thin layer of clay, even without heating it up, Corinna could easily break it.

The severed arm fell to the ground, cracking open on impact, revealing the dirt inside the hollow structure. Whilst dodging another swing attack from the golem, Corinna counted how many seconds it took for the former clay arm to eventually move again and rejoin the main body.

Ten. Ten seconds. That's my time frame.

The severed clay finally reattached itself back to the golem, moulding itself into an arm shape, though this time thinner and hollow. Now, it was so weak and fragile that Corinna instantly whacked it with her cricket bat and it fell to the ground once again. Dodging the golem's swinging arm, the young woman scooped up the dropped clay in a cut duvet square, then tied it up.

The golem shrieked and howled as it watched Corinna throw the wrapped up clay off the mountain. Its cries of pain were only amplified when it was splashed with the whole quantity of lighter fluid. Cowering, it screeched and howled, its sunken hollow eyes staring up at the human looming over it. There was something in those eyes of hers, something dark like she was enjoying this. The human aimed the can of bug spray and set the golem aflame.

The flames burst in a blinding spark of light and warmth, consuming the lighter fluid and devouring the golem's layers of clay skin. Enraged by the pain, the golem charged at the young woman, still ablaze.

As its skin hardened, the golem became slow and sluggish. It was like child's play to avoid its attacks. Every time Corinna swung her cricket bat and severed another arm, she deftly tied it up in a cut duvet square and tossed it off the mountainside. Fruitlessly, the golem resculptured itself each time, regrowing back another arm to continue its unavailing assault.

It was all too easy.

The clay golem was now shorter than Corinna, small and thin, focusing all of its power into its arms and legs. Just a few more swings and it would be finished.

Corinna readied another duvet square as another clay arm fell to the ground. But she had become too cocky, too arrogant. She cut the timing close as Corinna taunted the golem and feinted to the opposite side before diving to the arm. Her fingers fumbled as she attempted to tie it up, barely evading the golem's strike. Rolling to the side, Corinna finally managed to tie the knot with only a second to spare.

Making a run-up to the cliff edge, Corinna hesitated for just a fracture of a second upon seeing Harmony climbing up the mountainside. The severed clay arm burst out of the wrapped-up duvet and latched onto the young woman's face. Desperately clawing at it, trying to rip it off of her, Corinna stumbled and collapsed onto the ground. She heard a blood-curdling howl, and then a pair of talons tear the clay from her face.

Spluttering, Corinna looked up and saw the chimaera hurl the clay off the side of the mountain.

"Harmony..." Corinna coughed, still gasping for air.

The chimaera stood defensively in between her and the golem, blocking the golem's attack. The clay arms melted and spread across Harmony's arms. Then with one final groan, the golem lunged forwards, disconnecting its own arms that had restricted Harmony's hands and charged at Corinna.

She did not have enough time to act. She was forced to the edge of the cliff then felt the earth beneath her crumble and give in. Her feet lost its footing and Corinna fell.