Read Extermination (Daniel Black Book 3) for Free Online

golem.
    “Daniel Black!” He called. “Just the man we need. I wasn’t sure you were still alive.”
    “It’ll take more than an army of undead to finish me off, Leo,” I replied. “Do you know what’s happening?”
    “The enemy came marching in right behind the storm, and caught the garrison with their pants down. A couple of their giant beasts smashed one of the gates open before anyone could get organized, and got into the city. The only good thing is they’re marching down the highway in a single column, so they aren’t arriving all that fast. But we need that gate sealed quickly, or we’ll end up losing the whole Trade District.”
    “I take it that’s where I come in? Well, lead the way. I can throw a wall across a gate easily enough.”
    “Assuming we can reach it,” he pointed out. “They’ve got several companies inside the wall already, and dozens of those giant beasts.”
    “We’ll find a way,” I replied confidently.
    We mounted up again, but barely made it two blocks closer to the wall before encountering more of the enemy. This time it was a company or so of infantry armed with normal-looking spears and bows, cutting their way through a few dozen men at arms who had tried to slow their advance. Leo led his golems right into the melee, the hulking iron shapes easily smashing their way through the enemy. But the lines were too confused for me to risk any of my ranged attacks.
    “Time to stash the bike, I think,” Cerise said. “We can’t ride it through that kind of mess, and we both fight better on foot.”
    “Yeah, I think you’re right.” I dismounted, and approached the melee cautiously. There was a swirling red mist creeping up the sides of one of the golems, and a swarm of insects pestering another one’s rider. These guys had all sorts of magical tricks, didn’t they?
    Leo pointed his sword, and a bolt of sickly green energy erupted from it to sweep through the enemy troops. The red mist dissipated, revealing a golem that was now pitted with rust and corrosion. Not enough to seriously affect such a large mass of metal, but ordinary armor would have been eaten through in that length of time.
    Then the golem rider the insects were attacking screamed, and fell off his mount.
    “Should I go looking for their mages?” Cerise asked.
    “Not yet,” I decided. “Let me draw their fire, and then you can pick them off when they expose themselves.”
    I drew Grinder, and thumbed it to life. A blade of violet plasma sprung from the stone hilt, filled with spinning blades of force shaped like buzz saws. A shriek like a jet engine split the air, and I strode into the fight.
    It was completely unfair. Their spears and arrows couldn’t penetrate my force field, let alone the additional layers of protection beneath it. But Grinder cut through their wooden weapons and leather armor as easily as the flesh and bone underneath.
    I stepped between two militiamen to stab an ape man in the face, and his head blew apart in a spray of charred gore. A step forward, and a sweep of my arm cut another one in half despite his attempt to block with a spear shaft. Grinder growled like a giant wood chipper as I swung it back and forth, cutting a path through the enemy. I’d have been covered in gore if not for my force field, and more than once I saw an enemy I hadn’t hit flinch back from the carnage.
    They fell back before me, and I triggered a plasma jet. The violet beam was hotter than the surface of the sun, and dense enough to sear through flesh in seconds. More ape men fell, their chests and faces burned away to expose the bones and organs beneath. The beam played across the leg of a war golem for a moment, leaving the iron surface glowing faintly with heat.
    Then a swarm of insects was swirling around me, finding their way in through the gaps in my force field. I crushed some of them with force magic, but a couple of the wasp-like creatures managed to sting me.
    “Ow! Fuck, that hurts. Ah, damn