Merchant Crab

Balthazar cried in pain under the monumental shellache induced by the giant hand holding him up in the air, when suddenly the sound of magic being cast came from the storage room’s entrance.

“Put boss down!” Druma yelled as several green arcane bolts shot out from his staff.

“Yes!” the crab muttered, glancing from the corner of his eye as his eyestalks curled in pain.

But as the magical projectiles hit the bronze guardian, both merchant and assistant realized the construct cared little for them.

Unfazed and unmoved, the living statue continued slowly tightening its grasp on the crustacean’s carapace.

[Health: 160/240]

“Do something! Anything!” the desperate crab cried out.

“Maybe if boss give back shiny brick angry statue stop?!” the panicking goblin said.

“Something else!”

“Ah!” exclaimed the captive crab, as he averted his eyestalks from the dangerously close flames engulfing the statue.

Blue hovered over them for a moment, batting her wings as she continued to rain fire upon Balthazar’s assailant, until she ran out of breath.

Even before the bright flames cleared, Balthazar already knew the attack had failed to harm the guardian, as the crushing pressure on his shell had not subsided at all.

Without so much as a scorch mark on his polished bronze helmet, the statue remained steadfast, standing between the rows of storage shelves, halberd in one hand, screaming crab in the other.

[Health: 130/240]

“I… didn’t… come this far… to fail now!” Balthazar said as he kicked and flailed, trying to slip out of the guardian’s grasp, but with no success.

Even if he could reach it, his claws were surely going to be useless against the hard body of his captor.

Any of his skills he could think of between the crushing pain being applied to his thinking box were of no help in that situation.

Talking to the animated statue didn’t seem like a very promising use of whatever little time he had left before that health meter reached zero.

Even if he wanted to try some kind of imbuing, he had nothing within reach, as his backpack was still on the floor below.

As he kicked his dangling legs, one of them hit the side of an empty shelf, making it wobble slightly.

“Wait a minute…” Balthazar said, struggling to twist his eyestalks to look at the old shelving.

An idea sprung to mind as the sound of cracking chitin became alarmingly louder, and with no time to waste, the crab activated his Leader’s Voice skill before yelling instructions at his companions.

“Druma, hit the feet of those shelves! Blue, tip the ones on the other side with your talons!”

Clearly unsure of what they were trying to achieve, but without wasting time questioning the crustacean’s orders either, the goblin and the drake got to work on their respective sides. Ṟ𝘢ꞐỘꞖÈȿ

Druma whacked the rusty feet of the huge shelf where the gold bar had been, using his magical staff like a common blunt weapon until the rack started leaning toward the statue and the crab.

Over on the other row, Blue used all of her weight to push the top of the shelves too, until they started tipping.

With perfect timing from the crab’s companions, both shelves finally tipped and crumbled toward the storage keeper.

The guardian turned its head as it heard the falling metal crashing down. It tried to shield itself using the hand that held the halberd, but the weight of the massive shelving proved too much even for the mighty construct.

Stumbling, the statue found itself forced to drop the trespassing crab as it fell down to one knee, holding the toppled racks over its head with both arms now.

Balthazar staggered for a moment, his shell hurting all over and full of small fissures from the guardian’s crushing grasp.

[Health: 100/240]

“Ow… I knew I was right to put all those points into health.”

“Boss, boss!” Druma exclaimed as he came to the crab’s aid. “Big statue is getting up again!”

Pushing the shelves aside slowly, the keeper was already getting back on its feet, its eyeless face searching for the merchant again, looking to finish the job it had started.

“We can’t fight this thing,” Balthazar said, grabbing his backpack as his assistant helped him limp away. “It’s too strong, and resistant to magic. We have to run.”

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

With Blue swooping over their heads, the crab and goblin made their way back to the main corridor as fast as they could. The sound of crumbling metal followed by heavy stomping told them that the guardian had freed itself and was once again coming to seize the trespasser of its storage.

“Wait,” said Balthazar as they were about to pass the archway. “There’s a door mechanism!”

Noticing the old, rusty chain next to the entrance, extending all the way up into the wall and a raised gate, the crab decided to make one last desperate move.

With a quick whack of his pincer to a rusted out part of the chain, the merchant watched as the mechanism broke apart and released the door above.

“Jump!”

The goblin and his boss leaped forward, making it through just as the heavy gate slammed shut behind them.

Balthazar got up, looking back with worry still in his eyes, but all he found was the sound of a thump against the door as the guardian hit it.

“Phew! That was close,” he said, helping his assistant up. “Strong as that guy is, I don’t think even he will be getting through this thick of a door anytime soon.”

“Boss,” said Druma, looking at the crab with a huge frown of concern. “Is boss… hurt?”

The merchant looked his shell over, the aching coming from everywhere still making him wince.

“Yeah, buddy, I am.” His eyes moved back to his assistant, who seemed on the verge of tears. “But don’t worry! I’ll be fine! Nothing that some time resting and a good pastry or two won’t fix.”

Balthazar’s eyes widened. “Time!”

Checking the status on the Golemancer’s Mark again, he realized that more than half of its duration was now gone.

“Come on, we don’t have much time left!” the crab said to his companions.

Moving down the corridor as fast as his injured body allowed him, Balthazar made his way to the next chamber, which was even bigger than the entrance hall from earlier.

“The Golem Forge…” he muttered, gazing up in awe at the room before him.

A titanic structure of forged metal and ancient stone stood at the center of the chamber, its countless pipes and vents extending far up into the distant mist above, toward the unseen ceiling of the cavern.

But the forge lay dormant, for not a single ember of light sparked from its cold and lifeless coals.

“No, no, no,” Balthazar said, limping closer to the workstation area of the structure. “How am I supposed to reforge a core without heat?”

The merchant looked around in a panic, scouring for a quick solution to his despair.

Discarded bits of unknown ores sat on dusty tables alongside cobweb-covered smithing tools. Scraps of paper and scroll parchments were scattered around the floor, likely remnants of long-since lost pieces of literature, back from when those ancient halls still housed flesh and blood residents.

Now the only inhabitants left were the guardian statues lined up against the walls of the forge room, quietly standing watch over the abandoned structure for eternity, waiting for the return of masters that had been gone since ages past.

“It was all for nothing…” Balthazar whispered, his eyestalks dropping in defeat. “I traveled this far, for months, went through so much, just to find out I can’t even bring my friend back.”

“B-boss?” Druma quietly said, approaching the crab and placing a hand on his shell. “Is boss alright?”

“No, Druma, I’m not,” the dismayed merchant muttered. “The forge is dead, and it’s not like I know how to operate it. I’m just a crab. A stupid crab who thought he could do this alone.”@@novelbin@@

“But… boss is not alone,” the goblin said, his huge eyes expressing a worried frown so deep it made several lines appear on his forehead. “Boss has Druma and Blue.”

“I… I know, buddy. That’s not what I meant.”

“Maybe book sir wizard give boss has answer?”

“No, Druma. I already went through it twice since yesterday. There are instructions on how to repair a core, but it assumes you have a working Golem Forge. There’s nothing about the inner workings of it or how to start it.”

Druma’s eyes went to the floor. “But boss can’t give up now…”

“What else am I supposed to do?” said Balthazar. “After so many setbacks, we finally got here and I realize I don't know what to do.”

The goblin sniffed quietly. “Druma was happy when boss find sir wizard. Druma think he will see Bouldy again. Druma miss friend a lot.”

Looking at his sulking assistant, the crabby merchant felt as if something was piercing through his cracked shell and reaching right for his heart, tightening it and making it ache.

But he knew that one specific bit of damage was not physical or something that system could show.

Blue stood a few paces behind the goblin, sitting with her wings folded and looking at Balthazar with her golden, piercing eyes. Not with her usual scowl, or glare of disdain, but with a sincere frown he seldom recalled seeing from his drake.

She may have spoken no words, but her stare told the crab more than enough.

“You’re right, Druma,” Balthazar said, gently tapping his claw on the goblin’s shoulder. “I can’t give up now. We can’t give up now.”

The small assistant raised his tearful eyes to his boss again, blinking.

“Boss has plan?” he asked, wiping his eyes on his arm.

“Yes,” the crab said, placing both pincers on the sides of his shell. “Figure it out as I go, like always!”

The merchant started looking around the workshop space, searching for a spark of inspiration.

“First order of business, light up this forge again!”

“Like… with fire?” said the green assistant.

“Yes! Exactly, Druma! You’re a genius!” Balthazar said, snapping his pincer. “And we got all we need for that job!”

He picked up one of the old coals sitting in the forge and shook off the dust from it.

[Magicoal]

[Like common coal, but capable of absorbing magical properties. Often placed in the stockings of young mages who were naughty the previous year.]

Tweedus, you crazy wizard! I really missed having a monocle like this.

“Blue!” Balthazar called. “I’m going to need you to light up these coals, so we can power this forge again. Think you can do that?”

The drake nodded and took flight, soaring over the forge. Whether she had finally learned to take the crab’s commands or she simply wished to help bring Bouldy back too, Balthazar did not know. And right there and then, he realized he didn’t care either. There was something much bigger at stake.

Hovering over the dead forge, the azure drake batted her golden wings forcibly as she unleashed a shower of flames from her mouth, raining blue fire onto the magicoals below.

The black coals took the magical fire in like dry soil takes drops of pond water from a dripping crab on a hot summer day, each one bursting alive with an intense sapphire glow.

Blue fire spread through the surface of the forge, each magicoal passing on its flame to the next, until the entire foundry came alive.

Metal whirred and gears groaned as the whole structure yawned, awakening from its ages-long slumber.

Balthazar smiled, both at the sight of the reignited Golem Forge, and at his goblin assistant, staring up in awe at the lit up structure with sparkling eyes.

“Alright, that was just the first step,” the crab said, propping his copy of Golemancy for Dunces on one of the tables of the workshop area. “Now comes the real work—reforging our friend.”