Fighting these things on the ground was undoubtedly a bad idea. Staying in the air would see her either beset by the elements or increase the odds of attracting unwanted attention from more distant monsters. That meant the only option was to lower herself back onto the golem.
Considering that it was still burning hot, she would need to make some changes if she didn't want to injure herself.
Standing on top of the steel creation, Cattleya wrapped her coat around her face to keep the sharp grit out and began to chant. Water Wall was a pretty long chant and the fastest she could get it out without mangling the words was thirty seconds. At the same time, her inability to multitask while controlling a golem meant that the construct remained immobile while she worked.
A searing pain lanced through her thigh just as she finished, one of the dog-sized scorpions having managed to climb up the golem and sting her. The pinkette let out a piercing scream at the sudden pain, both from the sting itself and the torrent of water ripping the beast's weapon from her leg as it was smashed back down into the ground.
Steam rose up all around her, drenching her clothes and turning the golem's surface slick. Long dry dirt greedily sucked up the liquid, turning to mud as the Grimm scrabbled for purchase amidst the sudden flood. None of that really registered to Cattleya, her mind caught up on the weeping puncture wound in her thigh.
The enchantment on her shirt meant that she didn't need to worry about the monster's poison, but it hurt! Being injured in bear form did nothing to prepare her for the agony she was in at that moment. The glowing barb had pushed through her flesh as if it wasn't even there, nicking the bone and ruining muscle. The only reason she hadn't fell off was because of her Levitation enchanted boots.
Tearing up from the pain, she commanded her golem to crush as many of the small to medium sized scorpions as it could while she tried to staunch the blood flow. With not many options and not wanting to destroy any of her clothes that might save her life, she ended up tying her shirt around her wound. It wasn't great, but it would have to do.
Most of the Grimm that remained below the next she looked were the larger ones. If any of the smaller scorpions survived, they were either fleeing or so coated in mud that they were invisible to her eyes. Rather than wait to find out, she quickly set to Transmuting her nook on the golem. As far as she knew, clay wouldn't get nearly as hot as metal, so that was what she changed it to. Just a few inches to protect from the heat was all she needed and after that, she filled the entire space with water.
By that time, the horse sized scorpions were making a combined effort to topple her golem. Two partially climbing the legs in order to reach the hip joints with their pincers while the other four struck at the upper body with their stingers, denting metal with each blow.
A swift kick obliterated one of the monsters attacking the hips, the other scuttling out of the way when its partner died, and a sting was intercepted by a three fingered hand that proceeded to fling the beast over its shoulder and down onto a large shard of glass. The remaining four gained their distance and began to circle, but Cattleya didn't have time for that. Whether from the pain, shock, or blood loss, she was starting to feel woozy.
Dropping into the water, she froze the Grimm to the sodden ground before sealing the chamber with clay and steel.
Trusting her golem to withstand their attacks for a while once they freed themselves, the pink haired mage sat in the dark and began to imbue the water with healing magic. Nowhere near as powerful or fast as the spells Louise had come to learn, their people's ancestral healing magics would use the water to replace the missing or damaged flesh and would keep her from bleeding to death while it worked. It was a water spell, but technically it was also earth based due to using transmutation, the water magic guiding the earth magic which in turn encouraged the water to become part of the caster.
But really, the best part of the line-tier spell was that it soothed the pain.
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When Cattleya finally finished repairing the worst of the damage and came back to her surroundings, it was to the sound of the beasts hammering at her golem. Her leg was a bruised mess that would be horrendous to walk on and the deep ache meant she hadn't fixed the scraped bone as good as it could have been, but she wasn't in any danger of dying from it anymore. The majority of the water int the chamber was gone as well, either from going into her wound or being wicked out by the desert heat upon the metal construct.
Willing a slit to form in the wall, she saw that night had fallen and another dozen Grimm had gathered. Humorously, the four from earlier hadn't managed to free themselves from the magical ice and had become platforms for their fellows to attack higher points on the golem. A flash of movement at the edge of the view slit caused her to close it immediately, a tiny tail with a glowing sting dropping into the water at her feet as it was cut off by the sheering metal.
The pinkette wasted no time forcing the dangerous appendage through the bottom of the chamber before having the golem take a knee. If the scorpions were crawling all over her creation, then there was only one sensible thing to do.
Slamming the construct down onto the ground, earning a crunching of bone that was hopefully one of the bigger monsters being flattened, she ordered the golem to roll. The sound of shells cracking and ichor sticking to the exterior was oddly satisfying.
The muted roar and following explosion that rocked the golem were much less so.
Status: Heavy bruising, immobile leg.
Magicka: (1780/3000)
[] Stand the golem back up and open another view slit to see what's attacking now.
[] Don't expose yourself. Wait for it to attack and then counter in the direction of impact.
[] Just keep rolling, rolling, rolling.
[] Write in.
