[X] Hold the fort. With its sword arms, digitigrade legs, and your supply of paper, it won't be able to climb up the ropes, slide, ladders or even the stairs, let alone get close to you. You don't know what Lucille's planning but she seems to know what's she's doing. She putting faith in you so you should put faith in her.
You decide to believe in Lucille. It's not like there isn't any merit to staying where you are and standing your ground. It won't be easy for something of the golem's shape and stature to climb up to where you are, though you are half-expecting it to try something like chop down the wooden supports holding up the wooden fort you're on. You don't know what Lucille plans on doing but from how determined she looked, the ORC president seems to know what she's doing, or so you hope.
Whatever the case may be, you have to focus on your current situation. You sense the golem somehow and it is nearly here. Your only real weapons are hardened paper spikes that you can fire fast one at a time with enough strength to pierce through wooden planks. You can only hope that they're strong enough to pierce through the golem's clay body.
After a short period of anxious waiting, the golem comes into view about fifty metres away from where you are. Your eyes widen when you spot a small crack on the left side of the golem's body. Did it get that from when it rolled down the hill? At the very least, it shows that it can actually be hurt. Some scrap pieces of paper cling to the surface of the golem's clay body, most likely the remains of your cranes. Other than that, however, it looks just the same as ever. Ready to kill.
It seems to blink in confusion before looking up and spotting you standing on the roof of the mini fort. You see it narrows its single eye and begin its approach. Yep, it's not happy. Right, go time. Tossing a sheet of paper into the air, you draw out your power and begin the counterattack. Your will rolls the sheet into a cone and hardens it to the level of sheet metal. With a mental twitch, the spike shoots forward towards its assigned target.
The golem's eye widens in surprise but before the spike can hit, it swings its arm in an attempt to slash through the spike. To your pleasant surprise, instead of cutting through the paper spike, the sword ends up deflecting the spike away from the golem. However, you see a scratch on the sword. The golem's eye briefly looks at the scratch before returning its attention back to you.
It continues its approach, walking rather than running, disconcerting considering how fast it was when it first attacked. You realise that it's being cautious. Rather than rushing in recklessly, it preparing itself to defend against your attacks. Well, you're not one to disappoint. Pulling out your notebook for science, you swing the book out, pages flying out wildly before you grab them with your power. Time to being firing.
The sheets of paper gather around you in a ring and you point at the one in front of you and snap your finger as though you were firing a gun. The sheet launches forward, twisting into a spike aimed at the golem. Like before, it brings its other arm to block the spike but as soon as the spike has been knocked aside, the next sheet swings into place ready for you to impose your will on it.
Spike after spike fire one after another, each one leaving a scratch on the arms of the golem. Every time you use up a ring of sheets, you rip more out from your notepads and textbooks. It pushes on forward despite the spikes that are slowly chipping away at its arm. Unfortunately, you haven't managed a solid hit on the golem and the damage does nothing to impend the golem's gradual approach.
Right, a slight change in tactic then. The ring of pages around you converge above you and with a wave of your air, you throw them at the golem. The clay creature stops and braces itself against the white flurry of pages. However, that was a mistake on its part. A spike thrown through the tiny storm of paper strike the centre of the golem's body, the blow staggering the clay beast. From where the spike is embedded, you see cracks radiating out from the point of impact. The golem is visibly shocked and you immediately ready another spike.
However, before you can fire it, the golem opens its mouth wide open and without any warning lets out an ear-splitting screech.
God-damn it is loud! Clapping your hands over your ears does nothing. You lose concentration and the paper around you float to the ground. Crap, your ears are ringing but you need to continue shooting your spikes.
That's when you notice the golem's legs tensing up. Was it going to try and charge towards you, despite you being up several metres above it? Before you can get yourself together, the ground cracks and suddenly the golem is airborne. It was so sudden that you are almost skewered when the golem comes falling towards you with its arms swinging.
Crap!
Barely dodging out of the way, you fall off the playground equipment and land badly on your leg, a sharp pain exploding from your right ankle. Grunting in pain, you scramble to pull yourself together before the golem attacks again. A shadow form above prompts you to roll away just into time to avoid being crushed as the golem drops back down to the ground.
Everything about this golem breaks what you know of reality. It shouldn't be able to move as fast as it should be, let alone jump that high! Up close, you can see small cracks all over its body. It had taken damage from its landing but now it's got you within its range. You practically push yourself off the ground, narrowly avoiding getting your head chopped as the golem swings it arm down.
Fuck fuck fuck! Your ankle hurts like fuck! You might have sprained if from falling earlier which means you're in big trouble! You pull in paper from nearby, mostly those from your spikes, and throw them at the golem but this time, the golem just ignores them. It is close enough that all it needs is a lucky hit to end your life. It's a now a high-stakes game of cat and mouse as you continuously dodge its swings.
You just need one shot but you can't concentrate while it's attacking you. It's taking your all just to evade its attacks.
"JAMES!" Relief floods your system the moment you hear Lucille. The golem stops to look up and you finally manage to make some distance between you and it before you look to where Lucille is. She's in her witch's hat and her cloak, standing beneath the lamppost lighting up the playground. Before you can say or do anything, Lucille charges towards the golem. "THIS ENDS NOW!"
The golem seems to disregard Lucille and turns back towards you. However, that's when you notice what's hidden under Lucille's cloak.
"YEEEEAAARGH!" With a roar, Lucille twists around, making her cloak spread out around her shoulders, giving you a full view of what Lucille's is holding.
Where the fuck did Lucille find a sledgehammer?!
Dragging the thing off the ground with all of her might, Lucille smashes through the left arm and side of the golem, the clay construct making a sound, not unlike a vase being broken. Its single eye is wide in disbelief. It wasn't expecting someone that couldn't see its true form to being able to attack it like this.
It's not finished just yet.
Lucille, thrown off-balance by the weight and momentum of the sledgehammer trips and the golem, despite its crumbling state, manages to turn around towards the fallen girl and raise its remaining sword arm to cut down the life of the one that had dealt it a fatal blow.
There's no way you can stop it in time. Your paper won't be able to stop it and you can't move fast enough to tackle the damn golem down. Because of you, Lucille was going to die.
[LIMIT BREAK]
No, you can't let Lucille get hurt. Not when she just saved you. Not when she poured out her heart and soul to you. Not when she gave you a beautiful smile against a rain of stars.
Without thinking, you grab every single piece of paper nearby with your power and somehow they respond. You can feel them all, every single piece of paper in the park answers your call. Candy wrappers, newspaper, food packaging, lunch bags, each and every one of them gather above you in a true storm of paper before connecting and hardening together to form a shape. The golem notices what you're doing and looks up shakily and its single cracked eye widens in what you hope is terror.
A giant hand of paper held together by your will hangs in the air right above the golem. Clenching your fist, the giant construct mirrors your action. You give the golem a look of contempt for daring to think about hurting your friend.
"Disappear." Swinging your fist down, the paper fist comes down on the golem like the angry fist of the gods. And just like that, it's over.
The fist stays intact in the small crater that it made before it starts to fall apart. Lucille has gotten up and is staring at the pile of paper that made up your construct.
"James, just…what was that?" Lucille asks in awe and you let out a breath of relief seeing that the ORC president is just fine.
Suddenly strength leaves your body and you collapse to the ground. Your eyes begin to swim and your vision starts flickering in and out of darkness. You hear Lucille run to your side and the last thing you see before you lose consciousness is Lucille's worried face.
…..
…..
There is a star. It is small yet it still shines within the depths of that which it has chosen. Nearby, several tiny sparks appear - five in total. However, only two of them comes and join with the star while the others join together to form a new star that disappears into the depth of another.
The sparks however still make the star shine a bit brighter, stronger, and better.
You can feel a shift in your power occur.
…
…
Having defeated the golem, your powers have grown. While not as much had you defeated the golem by yourself, you still obtain the sparks of potential that can be spent to strengthen aspects of your power or even gain new aspects. Now choose what to spend these sparks of potential on.
Current Aspects
Control 1 – Move the equivalent of 12 sheets of A4 paper. Can gather paper in a 5-meter radius.
Hardening 1 – A single sheet of paper can be made as hard as a thin sheet of aluminium. Hardening remains for 1 seconds after release.
Form 1 – A single sheet of paper can be folded rapidly without touch. A construct made from a single sheet can be made autonomous and given a single simple command.
Choose 2 upgrades
[ ] Control 2 – Move the equivalent of 36 sheets of paper. Gather paper within a 10-meter radius.
[ ] Hardening 2 – four sheets can be hardened to aluminium hardness. 1 sheet can be made as hard as steel. Hardening remains for five seconds after release.
[ ] Form 2 – A construct the size of a person's head can be made autonomous and given simple commands. Up to four sheets can be folded rapidly.
[ ] Sharpness 1 – A single sheet of paper can be given a razor edge. Sharpness rapidly deteriorates after a single cut.
What does James Miller look like?
[ ] (insert picture)