A/N: I'm getting back into this story, so let's get right back to it!

Chapter 4

For the longest time, the two sides stared each other down. Metaphorically speaking, that is. The two earthen creatures were ambiguous in every sense of the word, even to the point where they didn't have faces. But, unlike Set's monstrosity, these two didn't give such an air of dread or anything. They simply felt as if they existed.

Amun couldn't describe the feeling much further. In addition, the creatures didn't make a sound. They were completely silent as they stood, shorter than Amun and taller than Phoebe. Beneath his mask, he smirked. He trained all his life to fight, but gripping the relic sword for battle somehow filled him with new life.

Behind him, adrenaline flooded Phoebe's system, causing her senses to sharpen. The range of her glow became all too apparent to her and she brightened as she tensed. The princess looked to her ex-boyfriend, examining his posture. Finn's body was surprisingly lax and he had no particular stance. The lithe way he stood steered her thoughts more toward irritation.

Obviously, this was an attempt to impress her again. Phoebe inwardly scoffed, Like he can impress me with a sloppy fighting style. But, he looked at her and she caught herself. This was Finn she was thinking so harshly about, not some hotheaded novice. Finn was looking at her with a mixture of question and wariness, as if to ask if she was okay.

His eyes then told her to relax, so she did. She exhaled, and something he told her a while back came to her head. "The less effort, the faster and more powerful you will be," he had told her.

She knew that Finn had been doing this sort of thing practically since birth, so she trusted him, for the first time in a while. Suddenly, with a great lunge, Amun was on the attack. His relic sword was unsheathed now and, apparently, the humanoid golems could be taken by surprise. With a heavy rightward swing, the blade dug into one of the golems' shoulder and dragged across its torso in a horizontal gash. But, Amun didn't let it stop there, for as soon as his blade released the stony surface, he spun on his heel and cleaved his blade back across to make an "x" all along its chest.

As quickly as it happened, the beast was on him, making swipes at his arms and legs. As the older human dodged left and right, above and below, he thought it strange. It's as if it only wants to incapacitate me. But, he couldn't pay it much more mind because the other golem joined in. For being made of stone and mud, they moved quickly. "I gotcha, Amun!" Phoebe cried and charged one of the golems.

Her hands flattened, every swipe the fiery monarch made at the creature was tailed by a razor-sharp stream of fire. As Phoebe began picking up momentum with her attacks, they became more and more effective. Finn jumped into the fray with Amun, making slashes with his own sword into the golem. Its torso then dislodged from its waist as it swung both its arms. Both of the humans ducked under the helicopter effect its attack made.

The masked man held a hand out, facing him. There was a blue mist that was exuded from it, with ribbons of the same energy slowly swirling around it to confine the mist to a sphere of sorts. With a determined grunt from Amun, he gave one final lunge and shoved his hand into the golems chest. With a flash of pale blue sparks, the sphere burst, blowing the golem to pieces. He panted ever so slightly and Finn hardly seemed fazed, but he supposed that was to be expected of the first dungeon, which was usually the easiest.

They turned to help the fire elemental, who was still slashing at the struggling golem, but were stopped when they heard the rumbling of pebbles, then rocks, then boulders. Before their eyes, the golem manifested once again, but this time, a red hue glowed from within its core. Then, the stubby rock fingers it'd previously had connected to its lanky boulder forearm retracted. Colorless, transparent crystals slithered their way out of the stub of it until the amount of spikes were nearly countless. Finn and Amun had their weapons ready.

But, Finn heard a cry from the elemental and turned. The golem she was fighting had finally dodged a miscalculated strike and sent her flying the hero's way. He caught her, mid-flight, and set her on her feet, "You good, FP?"

Her eyes were still closed as the ringing in her ears faded. She nodded, shook off the blow, and glared at the creature, "That royally ticked me off."

Finn snorted and dropped into a more fitting stance, "Yeah, I'm sure we'll give this guy a royal beating, your Highness."

"Oh, har-har," and they both dove in.

As Flame Princess slashed at its chest again, it swung at her legs and arms in its attempt to incapacitate her. She leapt over its head and Finn charged in where she had been as the golem turned to fight her. A mighty swing of his sword cleaved its head off of its shoulders. Finn used the momentum of his run to vault over its arm to Phoebe's side. "Alright, FP," Finn motioned for her to stand back with him, "This is where it gets tricky."

Meanwhile, Amun had been parrying attacks left and right to avoid being gored on the golem's crystal pikes. The crystal was just as strong as his sword and he was hesitant to see if his blade might break it. But, the golem had its chance. A quick jab and Amun shifted to the left, but he was met with the golem's right hand, which was still normal. Disoriented, Amun was helpless as the creature continued the onslaught, bringing it's stalagmite-riddled arm to knock the relic sword from the guardian's hand. The same arm was brought back to bash into Amun, sending him into the air and to the ground, sliding until he went over the edge of the arena.

Just barely, he managed to catch the ledge, but he still dangled there. A single looked down and he let out a terrified whimper, now breathing heavy. Finn noticed the poor man and muttered, "Dammit," then cried, "Amun!"

"Keep fighting," he shouted, "I can hang on for just a while longer."

Finn dodged an arm, "How do we beat them? Anything we do with a blade just regenerates."

Phoebe's flames flared brighter as she growled with frustration. Her flame was nearly white when she cut through one of the golems' arms, and it fell limply to the ground. The nub of its arm bubbled and smoked. Unfortunately, that only seemed to further anger the being, as its red core suddenly turned black. There was a cosmic, whiteish-purple glow lining the blackness.

Its torso disjointed again as it spun out of control, the crystal pikes becoming more like a horizontal saw. The princess stepped back, only to meet the edge of the arena. Her glow dimmed a little as she panicked, green eyes darting around for something, anything! The golem moved towards her at a snails pace, but there wasn't enough space for her to get out of the way. Phoebe flared up and brought her arms up to defend herself.

She felt a pair of arms grip her waist and she was yanked out of the way. And Finn cried out in pain. Phoebe was now to the right of the golem, who had stopped spinning when its attack missed. It was twitching and looked unstable. Finn groaned and was on his hands and knees.

There was thick, warm blood covering his back and staining his shirt. A few large openings had been gouged into his back by the crystals. "Oh, no. I'm so sorry Finn," she cried.

The hero's breathing was shaky. His only response was a thumbs up. Phoebe picked him up as best she could and put some distance between them and the golems. Amun was on the opposite side of the arena and she could hear his struggle to hang onto the ledge. The wound on Finn's back was bleeding heavily.

"Finn, I've gotta stop you from bleeding," she used the gentlest voice she could manage as she reached for the relic about his wrist, "This is gonna close it up, but it's gonna hurt for a second, okay?"

The wristlet was off and she placed her hand on top of a section of the wound on his back. Finn tensed and pounded the ground with his fist, but held his tongue as the elemental cauterized the gashes. His skin screamed at him, his blood boiled, and hot tears streamed from his eyes. "I'm sorry, Finn," she whispered and tried her best to comfort him.

The golems were closing in on them and there wasn't a way out this time. Finn's wounds were closed up now, but it wouldn't really matter if they died anyway. But, then she felt the ground beneath them. The soft, doughy soil was familiar to her, its reddish color recognized. It was clay.

She knew how to beat them.

Phoebe stood to face the golems, in front of Finn. She heated her body, raising her core temperature rapidly. Her skin lightened to almost white, her eyes looked more chartreuse, and her hair glowed blue at the roots and yellow from there. With a glare, she said, "Fire beats clay."

She stretched out her hands and sent a stream of flamed out from them. The flames engulfed the two golems and seared them until they boiled, bubbled and slowly melted. But, that wasn't enough. A sharp cry came from the fiery monarch and more heat was pushed out. Now, they began to solidify.

As the flame slowly died down, the golems had solidified and were effectively stuck in place. The glow within both died. Phoebe fell to her knees, panting. Her coloration returned to normal, but she was still panting and wheezing. She forced herself to move and made her way to Amun.

Eventually, he was pulled back up onto the ground. Flame Princess laid there for a second while Amun went and got Finn. She looked over to see her ex with his arm draped over the older man's shoulder. She could catch little bits of what Amun was saying, "I'll patch you up, kid. Don't worry."

The clustered voice of whispers echoed throughout the vast room, "Well done. I had but a moment's doubt if you would succeed. But, I have been proven wrong. Go. Claim the shroud for your own."

"Thank you, spirit," Amun said.

He set Finn down next to Phoebe and proceeded to unfurl the familiar golden wisps onto his back. The gashes slowly closed and disappeared the longer he held the spell. Just short of him being completely healed, Amun stopped. "I'm sorry," he panted, "My reserves of magic are nearly empty. And that wouldn't be very good, now would it."

There was a silence among them until finally Finn began chuckling breathlessly. Soon thereafter, Phoebe joined in and then Amun. Soon enough, all of them were laughing joyously at their victory. "Woo," Amun chuckled, "Alright... Let's go get that cloak. The Divine knows we've earned it."

Over the course of two minutes, they tried getting themselves up, laughing slightly. Now at the far end of the room, Amun gently stroked the silken fabric of the black cloak. Beneath the mask, he smiled as a new feeling of progress filled him with joy. He was one step closer to revenge. "Hey guys," he got Finn and Phoebe's attentions.

Amun draped the cloak about his shoulders over his own cloth. Everything draped in it vanished. Oddly, and a bit out of tune, he sang, "I ain't got nobody, and a-no a-one a-cares a-for a-me."

Silence.

"No? Well, then. Erm, let's just get out of here."

When they finally backtracked out of the dungeon, Finn melodramatically yelled, "Natural light!"

Phoebe giggled.

The way back to Finn's Treefort, they talked about their just past year.

I'm sure you want to know what they talk about. Well, I'm feeling gracious, so I'll begin the next chapter with that. So, until then... See ya!