The students slowly snacked on the rice and beans as they watched the sun begin to slip further toward the horizon. Betty was right, they were going to have to remove that blockage before the valley would drain, and the best option to do it was Golems.
The problem was that the mages who could use Golems didn’t really have good ones, other than Dana, so sending them to pull whole trees from a riverbank was a pretty big request.
They were still Common Grade Golems, for the most part, so they wouldn’t have the strength, and many of them were small mud and clay golems, which weren’t big on physical strength to begin with.
Karl looked out into the pouring rain with a rueful smile. “Well, it looks like this one is on you, Dana. Just have them grab one of the logs and use it as a poker from the shore to break up the blockage a little, and it should be alright. We used to make dams in the creeks when it rained, so we didn’t have to pump water to play in. But when the creeks got too full, you had to drain them back down to normal levels.”
“Alright, I will have the Golems give it a try. They’re not the most intelligent, and I’m not going to go out there to supervise them. So there is a good chance that it will take them a while to get it right.” Dana reluctantly agreed, not hiding the fact that she had no intentions of going out into the storm.
“But on the bright side, if they do fall in the water, at least they won’t drown. All they have to do is just keep working until the log jam is broken, and it’s perfect.” One of the other mages joked.
The driver turned to look at them. “You know, she’s got a point. The golems are strong, right? I’ve got a length of chain here with a hook on it. You could have them hook a few of the logs and just pull. Most of the time, these blockages aren’t all that solid.
It’s not like it’s blocking all the water, just enough that the increased flow of the river isn’t moving past, but the flow of the river will be filling up the gaps with sediment and mud, so the faster we can fix it the better.”
That meant that someone had to go outside to get the recovery hook, which was intended to attach to the winch on the front and back of the bus. But Dana kindly extended the barrier for him while the driver got the equipment out, along with a hundred metres of wire rope.
“There. If you can explain to them how to use that, they will be able to pull the logs free in no time at all.”
Karl looked outside at the tangled mass of logs and shook his head. There was no way that the Golems were going to figure that out without help. But the rain was starting to slow down to just a moderate downpour, and he knew that he could give them proper directions.
“I will go out with the Golems and give them the orders. I have a barrier ability that might help, and if not, I’ve got dry clothes here for when I get back. I will help the Golems get the river flowing properly again.” Karl informed the group.
Nobody was going to argue. The Golems needed a supervisor, and they didn’t want to go out in the rain with them, but Karl didn’t actually know if the Refreshing Lightning barrier would keep him dry.
[Thor, any thoughts?] Karl asked.
[Rain feels good on the scales.] The sleepy Lightning Cerro answered.
[No, about the barrier stopping the rain.] Karl replied.
[Oh? Probably, I guess. It blocks most things.]
Dana called out the pair of Golems with directions to take the equipment and follow Karl’s orders, and Karl stepped out into the rain with the Lightning barrier active.
The rain simply sheeted off him, not actually touching him, and Karl smiled in satisfaction. That would do well enough.
It wasn’t far to where the blockage was, but he didn’t want to go down the hill and risk himself plus the Golems slipping in the mud and ending up in the floodwaters.
He could likely get Hawk to save him, but it would be embarrassing, and unnecessary.
“Pass me the equipment.” Karl ordered once they were as close as he felt comfortable getting to the edge of the washed out hill.
The Golem turned over the coil of wire and the large hook, and Karl did his best to remember how they did the lasso throw in cowboy movies. They had a cattle rancher with them on the bus who would know how to do this, but he didn’t want to wait all night for the rain to stop and the logs to pack up with mud to the point that it would take a construction team to extricate them.
Karl tossed the hook, and when it had flown past the upright log he wanted to try first, he pulled back on the wire to stop it and throw again. But to his surprise, that made the hook dive down into the log, and as Karl tried to shake it loose, he ended up wrapping the one he wanted with the wire.
“It looks like I intended to do that. Alright, you two, get a good hold on this cable and give it a nice steady pull until I tell you to stop.” He ordered.
The Golems grabbed the wire and began to pull, which began to tilt the log and lift it up out of the pile. It was really working. They might not get the whole pile free, but they had a good start on the first log.
Then with a booming crack, the log shattered, and the Golems took two steps backward as the top half of the log came flying toward them and landed on the hillside.
“Stop. That’s good enough.” Karl ordered.
The top of the pile began to collapse, and a few dozen logs broke free to float down the river, which sent a torrent of water flowing over the top of the other logs, and dislodged even more of them.
“Pull the rest of the rope back up here so I can free our log and try again.” Karl ordered as the water level began to equalize at the top of the new dam a few minutes later.
Six failed attempts to replicate his first throw later, he had hooked another log, and the Golems gave a mighty heave, digging themselves into the dirt as it began to tilt. This one wasn’t coming up out of the pile, it was taking the pile with it as it lifted out of the mud, and it was unclear if they had the strength.
“Thor, come out and help pull.” Karl ordered.
Then he grabbed the wire himself, standing between the Golems and Thor, who had grabbed it in his mouth, further back than his sharp beak.
The four of them pulled, and a massive explosion of logs was thrown up in the air, creating a proper breach in the dam, and a massive flood of water began to pour through, raising the flood level on the other side by over a metre as the water raced to escape.
Anyone downstream of that was not going to be happy with him.
