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pile of
marrow could be capable of fighting anything we might find in the
Moor?
    We saw something emerge from the viridian vat
less than a minute later, hot steam rolling off its surface. My
golem was in the shape of a man, and my twin in height and frame.
Its skin was like a sheet of smoldering embers, but in the place of
flame there was the corrosive substance of the pool. The acid ate
away at my creation, only for patches to grow back just as fast.
This gave his body the appearance of a sea of tiny tectonic plates,
with the solid bits floating amidst veins of poison gas.
    He moved until he was kneeling before me, a
hand over his fist in the strangest interpretation of a knight I'd
ever seen.
    " Massster. " Its voice was like a
steam vent, hissing between the syllables. " Hasss you naaame for me? "
    "Uhh..."
    " Uhh ," the golem repeated.
" Uhh confirrrmed ."
    "Wait! No, I didn't mean that your name was
Uhh."
    My golem cocked his head, puzzled.
    Diana laughed.
    "I can't believe you can recite a rune that
complex, but don't even know that the first name you grant a golem
is permanent."
    Leo cackled as well. "Don't take it too hard,
Marvin. Uncle Larry got into one of his rants while his golem was
still forming."
    I shot him a withering look. "I doubt it's
worse than 'Uhh'"
    "Well, considering his name is Bustingmyballs,
I'd say yeah, it kinda is worse than 'Uhh'."
    "Yeees?" Uhh asked.
    I slapped myself in the face. "I can't believe
this is happening."
    " Maaaster... ready yourrrself. "
    "Ready myself?" I looked at Uhh and wondered
if he was broken. "Ready myself for what?"
    Diana whirled around.
    "Combat."
     

 
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
    10: Fleshy
Uglies

    Please don't be
fleshy , please don't be
fleshy.
    Great GODS ABOVE, DON'T LET IT BE
FLESHY!
    But, as usual, the Gods have shitty reception
this far beneath the surface. I stared straight at a pair of
hulking... brutes? Monsters? I didn't know what the hell they were
besides ugly.
    Two, giant, fleshy sacks of ugly.
    The Uglies in question looked like
the failed, rotten leftovers from House Soma, with bulging muscles
and flailing limbs sewn together by the most questionable kind of
tailor. There was no head on the damn thing, and my cowardice was
tempered by my confusion as I looked at it, a mass of arms and legs
in a roughly spherical shape, hobbling towards us from behind a
pile of bones.
    "Uhh, is there any chance those things don't
want to kill us?" I asked.
    " None. " My golem tilted his head.
" Sshall I errradicatte
them? "
    "That would be nice," I squeaked.
    Uhh charged into action, followed by Tully,
who had hopped off Leo's shoulder and started plodding off to face
these giants.
    Diana was calm, something that went deeper
than her porcelain facade. I knew it from looking at her impassive
expression, borderline boredom from what I could tell.
    Tully nabbed one Ugly by a swollen ring
finger. The monster did its utmost to shake the bird off, but its
flesh must've been in worse shape than I thought, since Tully
succeeded in tearing off the digit.
    Uhh, meanwhile, ran up a heap of bones and
jumped directly onto the second Ugly.
    I'm going to take a brief mental breather to
state that the name "Ugly" is going to stick, provided I didn't
discover an actual term for these things.
    The Ugly that Uhh had landed on began to run
backwards, probably hoping to squash its attacker by crushing him
into one of the many stalagmites. The fact that these things had
any sort of intelligence was both fascinating and worrisome, as I
watched the Ugly destroy the rock behind it with laughable
ease.
    Uhh clung to its surface valiantly, melting
off the Ugly's skin by grace of his corrosive nature. The air
reeked of acid and necrotic flesh, and my golem tore his arm
through to the core of his foe.
    I heard a disturbing, gelatinous
sound, almost like an exaggerated pulse.
    Self preservation led me take a
step behind Leo's massive frame.
    Now that Uhh had destroyed the Ugly's