Derek punched his way through the rest of the wall over the following couple minutes. “Phew. That was rough. This wall isn’t thin like the one we were supposed to go through.”
I blinked. “What happened? And didn’t you say we’re supposed to not destroy the normal walls, because of spire guardians and such?”
“Yeah, that’s the funny thing. I realized a spire guardian was just what we needed. Punched a wall a whole bunch until one showed up. Huge iron golem, really mean. Then I punched through him, too.” Derek cracked his neck, and then wiped his lips.
Was that blood?
“Anyway, his body is big and heavy enough that the wind can’t push it. Unfortunately, I can’t push it very well, either. Thing must weigh more than a train car. So, I busted all the way through here. His body is blocking the wind on the other side of the passage. He’s around the middle of the room, though, so it won’t get us the whole way through.”
“If I can get in half-way, I can look for ways to disable the wind. There’s probably a trigger somewhere,” Vera suggested.
We pushed ourselves to our feet. Derek’s strength had come through for us again, but we’d need to handle the rest ourselves.
And, at a second glance — yeah, his lip definitely was bleeding.
Even he wasn’t invincible.
We carefully made our way through Derek’s hand-made tunnel, emerging behind the colossal form of the fallen spire guardian.
Derek hadn’t been kidding about how large it was. The golem must have been thirty feet tall when it was standing. Now, fallen on its side, its shoulder was just about as high as I was tall.
That realization made me look up. The ceiling of this room was absurdly high, probably thirty meters up.
Across the room, I could see a series of runes on the wall that were generating the blasts of wind. If we could neutralize those runes somehow, we could stop the gale.
Between the runes was, of course, another door. No sign of a lock on this one.
“How high up do you think the wind goes?” I asked Orden.
“Interesting. If you’re thinking I could levitate someone above the wind, and then lower them next to the door... You’re probably right, but the winds would still catch them on the way up.”
“Can you disable the runes if you get close enough?”
“Yes.”
I still wasn’t very familiar with how to disable existing enchantments, but I knew it could be done. If Orden said she could do it, I had no doubt that she could.
I turned to Vera. “Vera, can you check how high the wind goes?”
She nodded. “Yeah, I can detect that if I touch the wind. One second.” She stuck a hand into the wind, jerking it back a second later. “Only goes up about twenty feet.”
I turned back to Orden. “Could you levitate Derek up, then across the room once he’s out of the wind, and then lower him back down in front of the door? I don’t see a rune right next to the door itself.”
“Certainly, but Derek could not turn off the runes. Ah, you want to use Derek as an anchor, then I can teleport to him. Yes, that will work.” She turned to Derek. “Derek, brace yourself up against the wall. I’ll lift you, but the wind will be pushing against you full-force for a bit, so use your shroud defensively.”
Derek nodded. “Yes, Professor Orden.”
Derek walked over to position himself with his back up against the wall and braced against it. That’d prevent the wind from slamming him straight into the wall, at least.
“Levitate.”
Professor Orden raised her hand and Derek floated upward. When he rose above the level of the golem, the wind visibly bombarded him, pushing against his clothes. He just stretched his hands outward, pushing right back.
He floated upward more slowly with the wind causing him to drag against the wall, but when he got above twenty feet, he slipped free of the wind’s force. Orden moved her hand and he floated safely across the room, then back down right in front of the door. As we’d predicted, there was no wind right in the doorway. He was safe there.
“Teleport.” Professor Orden disappeared, reappearing next to Derek.
“Keep me steady,” she told him.
“Yes, Professor Orden.”
Derek held onto Professor Orden as she reached into the wind and pushed her arm toward the closest wind rune. Within a moment of her hand touching the rune, it visibly dimmed until the glow was completely gone.
They repeated the process, walking around the room until the last of the wind runes was extinguished.
“Great idea, Corin.” Derek gave me a friendly nudge. “I was not looking forward to having to try to walk all the way across the room in that. The wind was getting more intense the further I pushed through it.”
I nodded. “No problem. Glad I could help. Also, way to make an entrance there.”
He laughed. “I do love my entrances. C’mon.”
We made our way to the door. I glanced back toward the golem, pondering if I could salvage any part of it, but I didn’t know the first thing about how they worked. Maybe I’d ask after we saw what was in the next room.
“Everyone ready? You may want to step out of the way of the door, just in case we get another nasty surprise.”
We all quickly complied.
Derek swung the door open.
Inside was a simple square room with a large fountain flowing with fresh water. There was a door directly on the opposite side, as well as a door to our left.
The doors were heavy stone rather than the wooden ones we’d been seeing in most of the rooms, but they looked fairly ordinary otherwise.
Aside from that, the room looked completely empty.
Derek glanced back at Vera. “Vera, check for death traps?”
“You bet.” Vera knelt down at the doorway, touching the tile, then touching the wall above it. “Seems safe right at the entrance. Give me a couple minutes to poke around?”
None of us were in a hurry.