A Journey Unwanted-Chapter 435 - 424: Wrath of a witch?

[Realm: Álfheimr]

[Location: Quadling Country]

"This is quite the mediocre action," Grimm said quietly. The words left him without urgency or anger. They were spoken almost idly, as though he were commenting on an unimpressive sight rather than the situation unfolding above him.

His helmet tilted upward slightly, and a large shadow had fallen across his tall frame. The source of it stood only a short distance away now.

It was enormous, a towering rocky figure that stood at least twelve meters tall, its body formed from thick slabs of rough stone that had been forced together through magic rather than any kind of craftsmanship. Its shoulders were broad and uneven, its limbs thick as pillars. Where a face might have been, there was only a blunt boulder-like mass with shallow grooves suggesting eyes and a mouth but offering no true expression.

Each step the creature took pressed deep into the rocky ground, the weight of it caused the earth to shudder beneath Grimm’s sabatons.

Behind it, two more figures stood, they were nearly identical in shape and size, their heavy stone forms lingering a few paces back as though awaiting instruction.

Golems, constructs of rock animated remotely through magic. Grimm didn’t need to search long for the source. The Good Witch, no doubt she had sensed an armored stranger sitting outside Bunnybury’s walls and decided that subtlety was unnecessary.

The nearest golem moved first, it took one heavy step forward, the ground groaning beneath its weight. Dust slipped from its joints as its massive arm lifted slowly upward, the thick stone limb rising high above Grimm’s head.

For something so large, the motion was surprisingly quick, the arm came down in a sudden, crushing strike aimed directly at where Grimm stood. The General moved just as smoothly, he simply stepped and leapt to the side in one fluid motion, his armored body shifting out of the way with minimal effort.

The golem’s arm struck the ground where he had been standing, the impact was immense. Stone shattered outward as the blow landed, sending fragments scattering across the rocky terrain. A deep tremor rippled through the earth, strong enough to travel several meters in every direction.

A crater formed beneath the golem’s fist, cracks spread outward from it like spiderwebs carved into the ground, racing across the stone surface toward Grimm. He landed lightly a few paces away, sabatons touching down with balance as the tremor rolled past him.

Dust rose slowly into the air, the three golems turned toward him in unison.

They did not speak, nor did they react emotionally. They simply faced him, their massive forms looming silently as though calculating their next movement.

Then they began walking again with slow and thudding steps that made the ground shake with each motion. Beside Grimm, another sound broke through the quiet, scrambling claws. The Cowardly Lion skidded to a halt near him, paws scraping across loose stone as he tried to stop himself. His wide eyes were fixed on the towering constructs now advancing toward them.

"T-the Good Witch is attacking again!" the lion cried, his voice shaking badly. "I—I knew we shouldn’t have stayed here. I knew this would happen!"

Grimm gave a small dismissive hum at the statement. He folded his armored arms across his chest as though the advancing giants were nothing more than an inconvenience interrupting his thoughts.

"I sense no presence nearby," he said calmly. "Which suggests the Good Witch cast this spell from the safety of her castle." His helmet turned slightly as he observed the constructs more carefully. "To maintain such a spell at this range, that is mildly impressive." He paused. "But to use it merely to create stone constructs?"

Grimm made a faint sound of disappointment.

"How dull."

The Cowardly Lion stared at him in disbelief.

"Dull?" he repeated weakly.

The golems continued their slow advance, their steps growing closer with every passing moment.

The lion’s ears flattened against his mane.

"W-we should get out of here," he said urgently. "This might not be all she sends. She could make more of those things!"

Grimm turned his helmet slightly toward the lion, the smooth alloy faceplate revealed nothing.

"You possess an ability that should make these things trivial," Grimm said thoughtfully. He seemed to search his memory for a moment. "Null Schema," he continued. "That was the name, yes?" The lion blinked. "You should not be so fearful."

"I still don’t want to fight!" the lion shouted.

Grimm leaned forward just slightly, it was not an aggressive movement. But the small shift was enough to make the lion instinctively step back. For a brief moment, the towering armored man beside him felt far more intimidating than the three massive golems approaching them.

"Oh?" Grimm said quietly. "This goes further than simple cowardice."

The lion froze.

Grimm studied him carefully.

"You possess strength," the General continued in the same calm tone. "You are physically capable of ferocity." His helmet tilted slightly. "Yet you choose restraint." He paused again, considering something. "Interesting."

Grimm leaned back, his posture relaxing again as though the conversation mattered more to him than the advancing threats. The lion blinked several times, clearly unsure how to respond to any of that. Meanwhile, the golems had closed several more meters of distance. Their heavy footsteps continued to shake the ground.

Grimm finally turned his attention back toward them.

"Cowardice is not inherently negative," he said while unfolding his arms slowly. "In fact, it is often responsible for keeping living things alive." The lion stared at him, still confused. "But in your case," Grimm continued, "it is unusual." He lowered his arms to his sides. "You fear battle despite possessing the means to win it."

The first golem raised its arm again.

The other two spread slightly apart, forming a slow-moving line as they advanced toward the pair. Grimm watched them approach without the slightest hint of urgency.

"Most creatures with strength eventually grow comfortable using it," he said calmly. "You appear to be doing the opposite."

The lion swallowed.

"I just... don’t want to hurt anyone if I don’t have to."

Grimm’s helmet shifted slightly.

"You are being attacked by animated rocks."

"I know that!"

"Then your restraint borders on irrational."

The golem’s arm began descending again.

Grimm stepped forward this time, the movement was smooth, his sabatons striking the stone once as he moved into the creature’s reach.

The lion’s eyes widened.

"W-wait—!"

The shout tore out of the Cowardly Lion’s throat in a strained, panicked burst that arrived far too late.

Grimm had already moved.

There was no wind-up or visible preparation. One moment he stood beneath the descending shadow of the golem’s arm, the massive stone limb beginning its crushing blow downward. The next moment his sabatons dug briefly into the ground as his body compressed ever so slightly—an almost casual shift of balance that lasted less than a heartbeat.

Then he launched.

The movement was so sudden that the lion did not immediately process what he had seen. Grimm’s armored form tore upward through the air with such violent acceleration that the ground beneath him cracked in a large ring. Loose stone shattered outward as the force of the launch displaced the air around him.

A sharp concussive crack followed a fraction of a second later as the pressure of his movement burst outward.

Grimm’s black armored form cut a straight line through the rising dust as he struck the first golem head-on.

There was no clash in the traditional sense or any prolonged struggle of strength against strength. Grimm simply passed through it, his armored shoulder and torso driving into the construct’s chest with such concentrated force that the thick stone slabs making up its body failed instantly. The magic binding them together collapsed under the impact as the General tore through the creature’s center like a cannonball fired from point-blank range.

The golem did not even have time to react; its torso detonated outward.

Huge sections of rock erupted in every direction as Grimm burst through the other side in a violent explosion of stone fragments and powdered dust. The golem’s upper half disintegrated completely while the lower half staggered forward two steps before collapsing into a pile of broken rubble.

He landed lightly several meters beyond it, his sabatons touched down with a metallic scrape on the stone ground, the Cowardly Lion stared.

His mouth slowly opened.

"Whoa—"

The second golem was already moving. Unlike the first, this one had seen the destruction unfold. Its massive stone head turned sharply toward Grimm as it closed the remaining distance with heavy pounding steps, its arm swung. The limb was enormous, easily the length of a tree trunk, its thick stone mass cutting through the air in a wide horizontal arc meant to crush everything in its path.

Grimm’s form shifted; it was a small movement. One foot slid slightly across the ground as his body rotated on his sabatons, his armored frame turning just enough to let the massive strike pass within inches of his chest. The air displaced by the swing tugged briefly at the dark fabric beneath his armor.

Then Grimm lifted his leg, and the kick came without visible effort. His armored heel drove forward into the center of the golem’s swinging arm just below the elbow joint. The sound that followed was not the dull impact of stone meeting alloy. It was an extremely violent rupture.

The golem’s entire arm exploded apart at the point of contact. Thick slabs of rock shattered outward as Grimm’s kick tore through the limb with overwhelming force, the magical structure binding the stone together failing instantly under the impact.

Fragments blasted away in a wide spray.

The remaining half of the arm spun violently backward as the golem staggered several steps from the shock, its massive frame reeling as if the blow had struck its entire body rather than a single limb.

Before the second golem could recover, the third one moved.

It surged forward with surprising speed for something of its size, both of its massive legs driving it into a heavy charge. The ground trembled beneath its weight as it raised both arms overhead, preparing to bring them down in a crushing strike meant to flatten everything beneath them.

Grimm watched it approach. He bent slightly at the waist and picked up a loose stone from the fractured ground beside his foot. It was an ordinary rock, roughly the size of a clenched fist. He turned it over once in his armored hand as the charging golem closed the distance.

Grimm threw it; the movement looked almost casual, as though he were tossing the rock aside out of mild boredom. The moment it left his hand, a thunderous noise split the air as the stone accelerated instantly beyond what the eye could follow. The sudden pressure change tore through the air in a violent shockwave that rolled outward across the rocky ground.

The lion’s mane whipped backward as a thin white distortion line carved across the air between Grimm and the charging golem.

Then the rock hit, it punched straight through the center of the construct’s chest with such speed that the stone body offered no resistance. The projectile tore through the front of the golem, blasted through the interior core where the animating magic seemed to be concentrated, and exploded out the back in a violent eruption of shattered rock.

The golem’s entire torso collapsed inward around the impact.

The force carried the massive construct backward several meters before it crashed onto its back in a thunderous collapse. Its limbs broke apart as it hit the ground, the magic animating it dissipating instantly as the body disintegrated into broken chunks.

Dust rolled across the area; now only one golem remained. The second construct—the one whose arm he had shattered—staggered as it tried to regain its balance. The broken half of its limb hung uselessly at its side while the remaining arm slowly lifted again.

The golem groaned silently as it lunged forward, raising its remaining arm high for a desperate final strike.

Grimm bent again, another stone came up in his hand. The lion watched, almost dazed now. The General did not rush. He weighed the rock briefly in his palm while the golem closed the last several meters, its massive shadow falling over him as the raised arm began its downward swing.

Then he threw again; the second sonic boom was even sharper than the first. The rock tore through the air like a fired artillery shell and struck the golem squarely in the upper torso. The impact shattered the construct instantly, the entire stone body burst apart into a violent cloud of broken fragments as the projectile ripped straight through it, leaving nothing but a collapsing spray of rubble where the twelve-meter creature had stood a moment earlier.

The remaining pieces rained down across the ground in a loud burst of stone; then silence returned as Grimm lowered his arm.

Dust drifted slowly through the air as the area settled as Grimm’s gaze turned upward.

"Not what you were hoping to see, I’d wager."