[color=1a7b30][h2]Rezello[/h2][/color]
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[quote]Rezello barely made it in time, circling to find the golem from the side just as it passed by. A precise blow found the back of the knee, a familiar crimson lines spiderwebbing from the point of impact before it summarily frizzled and died. The resulting impact resounded in a satisfying dull thud, the metal striking stone and found it wanting.

The golem still continued forward, but an increasingly discordant grinding noise echoed from the joint and at the third step something snapped. It stumbled, the damaged knee missed a beat and the following iced heel found the ground at an awkward angle, slipping uncontrollably instead of finding a measured landing.

It fell heavily onto its knee, one arm catching the ground to avoid fully dropping.[/quote]

Rezello took a step back from the golem as the impact of his attack took effect; though the outer shell initially remained intact, the concussive force of the blow resonating within had evidently damaged some internal mechanism as the struck leg stumbled and ground itself into a collapse. Before he had even readied another attack, the foreign swordsman burst towards the golem, emanating some unknown, malignant force; whatever power it was that burned within him, he transferred it to his curved blade before plunging it through the golem's torso. Though the 'wound' left behind from the attack was small, the internal damage it had caused - and continued to cause - was evident enough.

As the golem crackled out some distorted verbage, the damage it had taken rendering its speech incomprehensible, more attacks made their way to the golem. A flurry of arrows into its exposed internals from Roxas, a spray of misted frost from Fia, a thrown javelin from Tillius, and a rush to strike from Carnatia.

[quote]A moment of prescience willed Carnatia to duck really low, an instinctual reaction from her combat experience as the mirror images charged forward. A titanic counterblow whipped mere inch over her form, passing through the illusory fighters and the pillar they used as cover, shrapnel of stone and gravel loudly bouncing off Rezello's armored form.[/quote]
Rezello lifted an armored hand to cover the exposed portion of his face from the incoming shattered stone; the rest of him was protected well enough to prevent the shards of rock from doing any serious damage, but it didn't take much force for a direct blow to the head to knock someone out, or worse. Coincidentally, the golem had, in the meantime, taken a pair of strikes to the head; one magic-dispelling thrust from Carnatia's rapier that fragmented its glowing crystal eye, and a powerful shot from Gray Flame's bow that had shattered it completely.

Despite the damage, magic energy continued to build up throughout the golem, some managing to bypass the hole in its torso while the rest spilled out in sparks and flames. Roxas put up her barrier, the edge of which just managing to reach Rezello as it engulfed roughly half of the party, Fia making her way into the barrier after taking an avian form. Of the four that remained outside, Carnatia was the least protected against what came next; she rushed the golem, landing a decisive blow on the golem's head.

Though it could no longer build up energy, it still had enough charged to release a powerful beam attack, the shattered fragments of its crystal eye producing a labyrinth of fragmented energy blasts, several of which briefly struck Carnatia before being intercepted by the recovered Engelbert, his armor absorbing the magic attack as he threw the golem to the ground and held it there under his boot until what energy it had left was extinguished. The guardian of the workshop lie defeated, body mangled and reserves drained.

As the dust of battle settled, Roxas went to heal the wounds Carnatia had received from the golem's final assault, Tillius offering something to her, presumably the healing-enhancing brooch they had found in the abandoned home before. Meanwhile, Fia went to extinguish the flames that had engulfed one of the bookshelves. Rezello released his weapon back into his armory, its form engulfed by a flash of silver light before disappearing. He stepped over to the 'corpse' of the golem, inspecting the warhammer it carried; if none of the others objected, and it didn't carry any lifespan-enhancing enchantments or other such magics that would prevent it from entering his Armory, he considered taking the heavy weapon for himself.

[quote][b][color=#4269E2]"Are we cataloguing this library, or shall we move to the next room? I recall daytime is allegedly quite dangerous here, we dont have that much time."[/color][/b] Said the knight at their boss, sword now secured where it belong. Sunrise was still a few hours away, but there's a lot of books to go through not to mention more potential security measures. His attention momentarily shifted to the golem. [b][color=#4269E2]"We can probably borrow the hammer to force entry if the door isn't opening."[/color][/b][/quote]
[color=1a7b30]"Probably better to finish what we came here for and decide on that afterwards,"[/color] Rezello commented, looking around. [color=1a7b30]"Wouldn't want to end up encountering another surprise or two and exceed our limit."[/color] As much as he wanted to scour the collection for information - it was his reason for joining the party, after all - acquiring the knowledge he was pursuing would be pointless if it meant dying in Lasse.