*
Lucius had just about had enough of this golem. Sure, he could understand it not wanting to let go of prey, but did it really have to cast such a destructive spell? Even worse, to kill something as small as he was?
Still, despite its destructive power, much of its damage seemed to have been absorbed by the trees around him, so he was barely affected. Though he had to admit, being trapped under so much debris would've killed him if his strength stat hadn't been maxed out.
~Good thing I told the others to stay back,~ he thought to himself as he clawed his way out of the debris. When he finally got out, he found the golem jumping up and down in celebration.
~It didn't even find my body and it's celebrating?~ he thought to himself, before attempting to sneak away. There was no merit in fighting the creature right now, besides, from all the noise it had made, more creatures would probably be approaching.
Though just as he was about to leave, he felt his body being lifted into the air. The golem was currently pointing its index finger at his floating body, sparkles of red energy exuding from its hands.
"How creature still alive?" the golem shouted, before attempting to clap its hands. Just then, Lucius shot a stream of poison from his tail, hitting the golem right in the eyes.
~I'll knock it out with my poison,~ he thought to himself, before converting his poison to its fourth form. However, just as he had suspected, this version of his poison wasn't enough to knock the golem out.
~The fourth form probably doesn't work on beings past a certain threshold of power ~ he thought to himself, as he struggled to free himself from the creature's magic. Unfortunately, even with his poison attack still causing it to scream out in pain, its magic did not halt.
"What have you done to Gevrot!?" the golem cried out, before lowering its index finger, sending Lucius crashing into the ground.
It felt like he had just been bumped by a truck, and there was no doubt in his mind that some of his internals had been broken.
The golem repeated this several more times, all the while Lucius attempted to escape. His poison wasn't like the arachnid's, it didn't burn away at skin but instead had to be injected for it to properly render its effect. So despite all the poison he was shooting at the creature, only the stream he shot into its eyes seemed to deal any damage.
At this point, he was beginning to feel like broken glass, with cuts and bruises all over his body.
~ Things wouldn't have gotten to this point if I hadn't tried being so kind to this creature,~ he thought to himself in realization as he was smashed into the floor yet again. It seemed the golem wanted him to suffer before he died.
He had wanted to start off on good terms with the golems, after all, they would be allies soon enough. However, that was an intention now buried far away in his mind at this point.
"I'm not weak," Lucius whispered, as the golem raised him into the air with its magic once again.
"Huh?" the golem called out, covering its eyes in an attempt to block any more of Lucius's attacks.
"I said, I'm not weak. You think I'm weak... don't you," Lucius asked, before calling out his crux. Being clobbered like this reminded him of how helpless he had been during his torture... which only served to fuel his fractured mind.
The golem swatted at his crux as it came towards it. Of course, its hands flew right through.
"I'm not weak, look, look at just how much power I have," Lucius said with a sort of grin. The sap on his face so much, that only his teeth were visible.
He then injected solar energy into the golem, sending it on a rampant within the golem's body.
The golem seemed to notice this and began using its magic to try and push Lucius out. As it battled for control over its own body, Lucius fell down to the ground, no longer a prisoner to the golem's magic.
At first, Lucius was losing the battle for control, but soon enough he began to get a special feel for it. It was like a circuit, he just had to choose the paths of least resistance.
Before soon, his energy had spread throughout the creature's body.
The golem spasmed onto the ground, breathing loudly as if it were suffocating.
"I'm not weak, see," Lucius whispered, before limping his way towards the creature. White sap still covered his face, but the yellow's of his eyes pierced through now, like those of a predator.
"F-Forgive Gevrot. G-Gevrot did not know that puny creature was not prey," the golem strained to say. However, its pleas fell on deaf ears. Lucius was now more interested in the information he was collecting from the golem's body.
There was a small area at its left leg that for some reason he could not run his energy through. However, after a moment of thought he realized what it was.
~So this is your core?~ Lucius thought to himself, limping to climb on top of the golem's body.
His energies slithered around the golem's core, trying to get a read of the interactions between the two.
[Processing...]
[New spell acquired... 『Eclipse』.]
[Adding 『Eclipse』 to 『Solar Sorcery Index』...]
[Complete. 『Eclipse』 has been added.]
He had completely cut off any energy that the golem tried to send out from its core, effectively taking away its magic.
"I wonder what's inside it?" he whispered to himself, before attempting to force his energy into the golem's core. To his disappointment, it was incredibly dense, so struggle as he may, his energy could not pierce through
Still, it seemed to have an effect on the golem as it began convulsing and howling in pain.
"P-P-Please," Gevrot struggled to say in between convulsions. Lucius was visibly surprised it could use such words, however, it was wasted on him.
There was no pity to be seen in Lucius's eyes, to him, Gevrot was nothing but a science experiment.
