My (Monster?) Hero Life

Josh stared at the menacing statue before them. Dotted around the room were four other entrances and a carved stone door that looked like a sealed exit. With a calm expression on his face, Josh studied the statue in greater detail. It was around eight foot tall with six arms. There were three arms situated on each side of its torso. 

The ones connected to its shoulders were the longest, while the ones at its waist were far shorter. It was like it had been designed to fight at different melee distances. The longer arms held a spear each, while the ones in the centre held a hammer and an axe. The shorter ones had nasty looking daggers for their weapons.

As Josh continued to cast his gaze over it, he could not help but think that there had to be a reason to incorporate this style. It was like every aspect of it was designed to keep its opponents at a distance. 'Those daggers don't have great reach, but they're situated in a way that allows them to protect its waist.'

The body was made of stone and had intricate runes carved into its surface. It wore a metallic belt that held up a pair of red, flowing trousers. The centre of the belt housed a dull, red gem. 'That's probably a source of power for it.' Josh guessed at its importance. Since the statue had failed to react to their presence, he felt it was safe to assume that it was an autonomous construct. Something that would only begin to operate once a target was within a certain distance of it.

Josh turned his sight to its head. Its face had been carved to look like some kind of demon with a topknot hairstyle. A pair of terrible looking tusks projected from its mouth, giving the statue a look of pure malice about it. 

'If that gem powers it, then this should be simple. The men can distract it while I fire off some spells to slip past its guard. With any luck, we can shatter that gem in short order. Josh let out a rare smile as the simple plan took root in his mind. 

"Alright boys, listen up. It looks like we'll have to brute force our way through this one."

The crew stared at him with sober expressions. Nobody voiced a complaint this time. They had already set their determination to make it through these trials alive.

Josh nodded at the look in their eyes, acknowledging that everyone was prepared to give it their all, "You guys just need to distract it long enough for me to shatter that big ass gem on its waist."

The crew's expressions relaxed slightly as they realised that they did not have to destroy the statue itself. 

"If anything happens to me, you must focus on destroying it as soon as possible! Is that clear!" Josh roared, stirring their battle spirit.

A battle cry erupted from the crew. Their expressions turned dark and focused as they stared at the statue that barred their way forward.

"Go get him, boys!" Josh roared as he swung his sabre to point at the construct. 

Brenden leapt forward, leading the crew to battle. His arms were spread wide as he held a sabre in each hand. They raced towards the unmoving guardian. A chill sweat ran down their spines. The gem on the guardian's waist suddenly began to glow. A pulsating red light beat in time with a human's normal heartbeat. 

The runes carved onto its body started to emanate the same light. A grinding noise filled the chamber as it began to turn its head in a motion reminiscent of someone cracking their neck. It turned its eerie face to stare at the incoming assault, its mouth curled up into a snarl. 

The guardian slightly crouched its looming figure right before leaping towards the charging crew! Its speed was far faster than what it had appeared capable of as it caught the crew by surprise. Weapons were raised to block the two deadly spears headed for their ranks. 

Metal shattered as the force of the guardian's thrust was too much for their weapons to bear. The spears ran straight through the men behind them, continuing onwards until four struggling bodies hung from their shafts. The initial power displayed at that moment smothered the crew's enthusiasm. 

"Break up! Don't stick together!" Brenden roared as he dashed towards the guardian's left side. 

As the crew moved to follow his order, Brenden discovered a mass of stone swinging for his head! He threw himself on the ground as a gust of wind passed overhead. He had narrowly avoided being turned into meat paste by the guardian's hammer!

Cries of pain went up from behind him and from the other side of the guardian. Not everyone had been so lucky. The guy directly behind him now suffered from a few broken ribs and a limp arm as he was sent sprawling on the ground. Two fellows on the other side had unfortunately been severed in half by the guardian's sword.

A few idiots blocked Josh's line of sight to the guardian's jewel as they ran straight forward. A vicious exchange of blows ensued as the guardian protected its gem from their attacks using its daggers. 

Josh cursed as he held his spell at the ready. At this rate, even if he destroyed the gem, he would no longer have a crew to his name. He had grossly underestimated the difficulty of this challenge! 'Fuck!' He roared in his mind as he cancelled his already prepared spell. Until he got a clear line of sight, there was no point in standing around doing nothing while his crew was quickly culled. 

The air dropped to freezing temperatures in Josh's immediate area as a dull threat leaked from his aura. Right now, his priority was to preserve their numbers. As he unleashed his new spell, a wave of wariness wracked his body. Reminding him of how inconvenient his body currently was. 

The air between Josh and the guardian began to sparkle as chains of ice began to form between them. The guardian fixed Josh with an angry glare. It ignored the crew around it as it leapt forward once again! Josh stared at the incoming two points of its spears. A knowing smile spread on his calm face.

The massive guardian jerked in mid-air as the chains finally finished coming into being. They pulled tightly on the guardian's arms and legs. Causing its spears to miss their mark as they slammed into the ground on either side of Josh. Only the hand that held its daggers seemed to have enough strength to prevent themselves from being pulled away from their defensive posture in front of the gem. 

"Hurry up! Smash this fucker!" Josh roared as he felt himself struggling to maintain the spell that locked down the guardian. 

"Ohhh! The Captain's amazing! Look at how he's tied that brute down all by himself!" Other things similar to this was shouted from amongst the crew as they raced towards the immobile guardian once again!

Sweat ran down Josh's brow as he heard the distinct sound of his ice cracking. Either way, the guardian would free of its constraints soon. 'Hurry the fuck up!' He screamed in his mind, even as the first man reached the guardian's position. 

"Fuck! I can't get a clear shot!" The man shouted as he noticed a problem. The guardian's daggers covered the majority of the gem. Only a sliver of it was visible from underneath where the two blades crossed.

"Don't waste time! Just fucking hit it with everything you have!" Brenden roared as he caught up. 

There was only so much room to swing their weapons, making most survivors feel useless as the two swung hammering blows one after the other. A crack appeared on its shining surface after several seconds of taking a constant beating. At this point, the guy attacking alongside Brenden had to bow out and give his place to a crewmate with more energy.

CRACK!

A giant split appeared on the chain that held back the guardian's hammer. The weapon inched towards the gathered crew by a large margin before the chain managed to subdue it again. The crew wore grim expressions as they recognised the look of a severe struggle on their Captain's face. They were clearly running out of time!

The clanging of metal on the surface of the gem continued to resound as Brenden, and his comrade continued to widen the crack that had already been made on the gem. Excitement crossed their minds as the gem looked ready to break! The furiously assaulted it in one last push!

The gem shattered! Falling to the ground, even as the guardian's runes began to lose their glow. 

THUD!

Brenden gasped as he felt a dull pain land on his back as he was suddenly slammed into the guardian's solid waist! The men surrounding him gasped in a panic! The icy chain that had held it back had finally broken! Allowing it to make one last attack before its power failed it…