The golem beat his chest in a primal showing, perhaps as a form of intimidation before he and Felix even began battle.

  Felix, for his part, had calmed his shaking arms. The Golem had taken him by surprise, but now he had a clear picture of what he was facing. Like him, the golem wouldn’t be operating at full power without the moon.

  Quickly for its size, it took a swing at him which he ducked underneath, the missed blow causing the grass to rustle from its force.

  Not ending it there, the golem followed up with a forearm strike from its other arm. Clang! The blow connected with the Fang, Felix able to parry the attack. However the sheer power of the blow sent him off his feet and sliding across the grass on his back some feet away.

  The golem strided toward him and grabbed his ankle. In a flash, it lifted him off the ground above its shoulder and slamed him into earth, then again, then again.

  If it wasn’t for the Nethermorphic Fabric coat absorbing the force he’d have a few broken spinal bones. It finally tossed him backward, he bounced once before landing at the lip of the pond.

  “Puny vampire, you weak!” Billowed the rock monster, resuming the ritualistic pounding of its chest.

  “If this is what he’s like now, I’d hate to see him under the moon.” Felix thought to himself while climbing back to his feet.

  The Golem charged forward, angling so it was in position for a shoulder charge straight through Felix.

  Thinking fast, Felix leaped over its head, pressing his hand off its rocky back to continue propelling it forward.

  Felix completed a front flip landing on his feet smoothly, meanwhile the rock monster found itself unable to stop and tumbled into the pond. The water shot upwards in a plume that was ten feet in the air.

  The Golem sat upwards, loose liquid streaming down its head and shoulders back to its origin. It dipped its arm into the depths out of sight and with a bit of visible effort loosened and tossed a part of pond bottom sediment at its vampiric foe.

  Felix responded with a quick flourish, cutting the mucky earth from the pond in two. It now harmlessly splatted against the ground.

  Felix breathed heavier, the light of day also taking a toll on his normally more capable stamina reserve.

  “Look, we really don’t have to do this, we’re just two Monsterkin trying to survive the Trek.”

  “NO! You sit on me! Ultimate insult to the golem kind!” It roared back.

  “For what it’s worth I’m really sorry about that, I had no clue it was you.”

  Felix pleaded his case, though it seemed to fall on deaf ears, the Golem pulling itself out of the pond and readying for a renewed assault.

  He was in a tough position, Golems didn’t have blood to speak of, only a core which acted as their heart and held the body together. Even if the rest of them was destroyed, so long as the core hadn’t taken any critical damage they could reform their body from even that.

  The Golem smashed its arms into the earth sending a shockwave along the ground towards Felix’s position. In response, Felix jumped over the attack and decided now was the time to go on offense.

  In a blur, he rushed towards his opponent. The golem attempted to encircle him in its arms for a crushing bear hug, but Felix slid between its legs, avoiding the attack and giving him the opportunity to cleanly slice through the more vulnerable joint on its left leg!

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  Now behind the golem, he watched as it fell flat on its face with one of its legs now taken from beneath it. Without the light of the moon, the golem’s stone body was essentially just normal rock with no special properties.

  Even weakened, Felix’s Fang sword could still cut through it like butter if given the chance.

  The Golem began what one could call a tantrum, flailing its arms and remaining leg in frustration.

  “Me supposed to crush you, no fair!”

  It tried to stand up shakily on its remaining bottom limb.

  However, Felix didn’t give it a chance, slicing through its right leg just as swiftly as the left. He had to roll out of the way as the golem came crashing down on its back with a loud thud.

  Now just a torso, the golem angled its neck upwards to glare at Felix once more, it had one last trick up its sleeve available to it. The granite-like cheeks swelled before it began to spit out pebbles at velocities which made them comparable to machine gun bullets!

  Undeterred, Felix cut through each of them one after the other in a blur of motion that left afterimages of his previous movements, culminating in him reflecting the last of the pebbles back at the golem with the flat of his sword!

  The projectile embedded itself straight into the monster's forehead, causing it to snap backwards and leaving it stunned and vulnerable.

  Felix swung one last time, the Fang’s red blade shimmering from the light of the sun as it detached the section above the golem’s chest.

  What had once been the monster's head, shoulders and arms were now unrecognizable from normal stones as they shattered apart on the ground. From the remaining solid portion of the main body tumbled out a white circular object with a faint glow, the core.

  There was a calm now, Felix, no longer in immediate danger, strolled up to the defenceless core. He lifted his weapon above his head, preparing to bring it down before stopping himself.

  Slowly, he lowered the blade and sheathed it once more. Felix turned and began walking away.

  “Why? Why you not finish me off?”

  Felix paused now, a voice emanating from the white core. He was unaware before that moment that golems could communicate even in such a state.

  “What would be the point? All I’d be accomplishing is taking the opportunity of making it home away from a fellow Monsterkin.”

  He faced the core now, a weak smile from exhaustion gracing his face.

  “To say it again, I’m sorry. I thought you were just a normal rock, any disrespect was unintentional on my part.”

  Silence followed for a bit, until the golem spoke once more.

  “No…me sorry. Me not think before attacking. It why other golems laugh and call me dumb.”

  Felix approached his former foe once more, falling to a knee in front of its core.

  “Do you have a name?” He inquired.

  “Me Mason, what you name?”

  “Felix. It's nice to meet you Mason.”

  It was something of a miracle, for the second time in less than 24 hours, Felix was making peace with a Monsterkin that attacked him.

  Slowly, the rubble of Mason’s body began reconstituting itself around his core. Felix made no effort to stop his reassembly, the pendant had returned to its natural blue by this point, indicating that the aggression had passed.

  Once fully back together, Mason sat down so he was closer to eye level with Felix.

  “Ok, you boss now. What we do?”

  Felix was stunned for a moment, he stuttered a bit when opening his mouth before managing a response.

  “Boss? What are you talking about?”

  He wasn’t sure if the exertion was getting to him and he was hearing things.

  “You beat me in fight fair and square. In Golem society that mean you boss now and me lackey, simple.”

  Mason’s explanation didn’t detract from the suddenness of the proposal.

  Felix didn’t really consider himself as much of a leader, in the rare group activities back at Nightshear he typically deferred to Emily’s judgment on matters.

  Still it was a tantalizing prospect with both potential boons and drawbacks. On the positive side he’d have some backup now, quite capable at that, especially once nightfall came again. A Golem was hardy enough as well that he wouldn’t have to put himself in jeopardy to protect him very often.

  On the other hand, stealth would be a much harder prospect with someone of Mason’s stature in tow, even if he could camouflage himself surprisingly well as Felix had unintentionally discovered.

  The more concerning idea would be that there was no guarantee Mason wouldn’t abandon him or stab him in the back at the first opportunity. Just because the pendant indicated he wasn’t out for his blood didn’t mean any guarantee, as had been proven by Dinah’s ambush.

  Still there was one thing that tipped the scales of his decision. The loneliness he had felt just before this encounter, finally at least for a while he’d have a companion to keep company with if he accepted. Thus he decided once more to entrust his gut rather than head.

  “Alright we’ll travel together, but there’s one thing I want to make clear…”

  Mason’s body shifted, preparing for some sort of harsh condition Felix was about to impose.

  “I’m not your boss and you aren’t my lackey. We’re partners in this Trek, allies.”

  “Allies.”

  Mason rolled the word over his inanimate tongue, a term seemingly foreign to him. Felix stuck out his hand for a handshake. Mason cautiously, but enthusiastic reciprocated the action.

  It was a funny thing, despite the golem’s hand having no flesh to speak of, Felix could feel a light warmth running through it which was all the reassurance he needed that Mason would not betray him.

  “Let's continue walking towards our future then Mason.”