"There's at least 3 of them moving together. We should leave, there'll be easier encounters," Lucius said.
Avankor and the chief hesitated for a moment, before looking at the golem's body.
"What about your hunt? Will we leave this for the other golems to devour?" the chief asked.
Lucius had completely forgotten that consumption of once sentient creatures was commonplace here. However, he had already stained himself enough by what he had made the creature go through. And anyway, there were a multitude of non-sentient creatures they could hunt here, instead.
The core of the matter was that he wanted to keep certain lines from being crossed, especially with this new crux. There was no telling what kind of senseless beast he could become if devouring sentient creatures became daily bread for him.
"No, we'll find something else to eat," he replied, before quickly frisking Gevrot's corpse for any usuables.
On Gevrot's waistband, he found a pouch filled with several pieces of strange meat, weird herbs, and a glowing blue stone. He quickly tossed the pieces of strange meat -as they had a strong scent to them- before using Gevrot's waistband to fasten the pouch on his back.
Once he was done looting the group began moving away from the sound of the advancing golems.
When they were a good distance away, Lucius decided to climb to the top of one of the more massive mushroom trees around, to get a better grasp on the locations of the other golems.
Two groups were currently heading toward where he had just killed Gevrot, and from their statures, he could tell that none of them were Crenog.
~This will take all day,~ he thought to himself. He couldn't see a single golem who was moving alone, at best they were in groups of two. It seemed the Gevrot was an outlier... no doubt due to his lack of intelligence.
~I'll start with the groups of two, if I don't find Crenog before late afternoon, I'll just have to create new connections,~he decided, before making up his mind to approach a duo to the north.
"And if they're too aggressive, then I'll have no choice," he whispered to himself, before climbing down.
*
Once the group got close to the golems, Lucius gave Avankor the pouch he had looted and ordered him and the chief to stay far behind. With two golems, things going bad would mean widespread destruction.
Though he doubted it'd get to that point. Learning from his encounter with Gevrot, he would blind them before they tried to use their magic.
And if need be, he could send his crux to take away that magic, though he wanted to avoid that. If word spread that he was slaughtering golems and taking their cores, others might begin to hunt for anyone similar in description to him. Meaning that he would be putting his children in danger.
With his poison at the ready, he slowly approached the two golems -who seemed to be in conversation right now.
Once he got a little closer, he noticed a pile of what he could only describe as rotting flesh beneath one of them.
"Hello there," he called out, to which the golems immediately swung around to look at him.
"I don't mean any harm. I'm just looking for someone called Crenog," he continued, though the golems just stared at him with a scrutinizing gaze.
They clearly sensed that he was a threat, so much of a threat in fact that they were hesitant to attack him even though they had the numbers advantage.
"What business do you have with Crenog puny creature?" one of them replied. The tone they used was rather surprising, it was almost as if they were a scholar rather than a dull-giant.
"My name is Havon, and I've come to offer him my help," Lucius replied.
His interactions with the den's councilman had made him more aware of the politics of things. Even if he wasn't going to bow to their king, it still helped to make matters clear from the start; he was helping them, not the other way around.
The creatures broke out into laughter at this.
"Havon you say?" the scholarly golem asked in between laughs.
"Well Havon, If you want to know the whereabouts of the prince, then you'll have to prove to me that you're really who you claim to be," the golem added before whispering something to its partner.
Lucius was a little surprised at this, as he hadn't expected Crenog to be golem royalty. However, he supposed it made sense since Crenog had been confident enough to invite him to the Shuk'ahan.
"And how will I do that?" Lucius asked hesitantly, poison already flowing towards his tail.
"A battle of course. The true Havon should be able to fight hand-to-hand against even a behemoth. No magic, this will purely be a show of strength," the scholar golem explained, before stepping forward.
"My name is Wise, and my partner here is Guhron. Don't worry, Guhron will respect our duel- so long as you do not use magic," Wise explained, before getting into an odd fighting stance.
It was quite a comical sight, a 6.3-meter tall giant squaring up against a 1.4-meter tall creature. In fact, Lucius couldn't even understand why Wise bothered to get into a fighting stance.
"Very well then. How will the winner be decided?" Lucius asked as he stretched his limbs. He was a little worried since his recently enlarged tail slightly threw off his balance.
"When the other yields. Shall we begin?" Wise asked. To which Lucius nodded his head before rushing at the former.
Wise stamped its foot into the ground in response, sending small-scale tremors in a small radius around it.
This put a halt to Lucius' rush, allowing Wise to throw a punch at his now unstable body. However, Lucius reacted quickly, his tail lashing out to grab the punch.
Even though Wise seemed to be on the advantage, he halted, giving Lucius's tail a skeptical glance before backing away.
"You had him, why do you falter Wise?!" Guhron shouted in frustration. Though Wise remained silent, staring at Lucius with a confusing expression.
~Hmm, did he sense something?~ Lucius thought to himself.
Usually, creatures would only be able to get a read of his true strength after they exchanged a few blows, something they were yet to even do.
~Is he just a careful fighter?~ he wondered, before rushing at Wise once again. This time he decided to use the trees, going around Wise in a circle as he tried to look for openings.
Wise's body shifted to keep up with Lucius's speed. Something that wouldn't have been possible if not for Lucius's hindered balance, which forced him to reduce his speed to better control it.
"If you keep turning like that, you'll get dizzy," Lucius said with a smile, before launching from the tree he was on and zipping through the air towards Wise's face.
