IM2: Chapter #17 (Patreon)

So far, all of the metal that Thorn had seen in the ruins had the appearance of stainless steel, so when the bluish hue of the giant metal ball entered his sight, he got the feeling that he was looking at something special. Whatever alloy formed the metal was outside the scope of anything he had ever seen before, and as his mental sense ran over it he found himself fascinated by its composition.

“What is this?” he asked, placing his hand on the cool metal.

“Something that you probably shouldn’t touch,” Eve said, rolling her eyes. “What if it suddenly attacked you?”

“Oh, come on, Eve, it's clearly off. What could possibly happen?”

No sooner had Thorn said that than the lights in the room blinked on, flooding the whole space with soft light, and the giant orb began to move. As he hurried to retreat, the side of the orb that he had been touching began to shift. What had appeared to be a solid wall turned out to be thin strips of metal that rotated in opposite directions, forming a horizontal lattice. Through the lattice, Thorn could see into the center of the machine where layer after layer of metal was spinning around.

With a hiss, the entire orb activated, lifting off the ground with gentle grace until it hovered two feet above the stone floor. The slowly turning metal walls created a hypnotic pattern, but what drew Thorn’s attention was the figure at the center of the twisting sphere. Formed from pure mana, the figure was more of an outline than anything else, but Thorn was more worried about the intensity of the figure’s mana signature.

A garbled voice drifted out of the sphere as the figure lifted a hand to point at Thorn, causing his heart to fall. Without hesitating, Thorn pulled the surrounding mana together and double cast another layer of shields that appeared by his side. Even though he couldn’t understand the words that the figure was using, their meaning was as clear as day to him.

“Thorn, we’ve got company.”

“I see them.”

Above the spinning sphere, two chutes opened and out of them dropped two round objects, falling quickly toward the floor. Just before they reached the top of the sphere, wings of blue metal emerged from their smooth sides and their momentum shifted, allowing them to shoot forward.

“Drones? Really? Who were these people that they have autonomous drones?”

Chuckling at Eve’s question, Thorn was more preoccupied with the two prongs that poked out of the front of the flying enemies than he was with their origins. Lightning glittered on the two prongs, arcing back and forth as they began to charge up. Without waiting for them to attack, Thorn pointed his staff at the drone on the left and spoke a command. Mana surged as an ancient rune appeared in the air in front of the drone, completely locking down the air. Slowing to a crawl, the drone’s wings flared as the enchantments that kept it aloft surged with power.

The other drone dodged to the side and unleashed three bolts of lightning at Thorn, charring the air as they burned away two of his shields. Each bolt of lightning was as thick as his forearm, and carried nearly twice the power of the spell that the jellyfish monsters had thrown at him. Grimacing, Thorn used Blink to dodge the attack of the trapped drone as he hurried to recast his destroyed shields.

“Um, Thorn, I don’t mean to be a downer. But there are, uh, more drones.”

“I see them,” Thorn said, his eyes narrowing.

While he had been fighting against the two drones, small doors in the walls on either side of the room clicked open and six humanoid figures appeared. Seven feet tall, they held shields and short spears as they locked onto Thorn and began stomping their way forward. Energy crackled along their short spears and as soon as they were within a hundred feet of Thorn they drew back their arms and threw their spears at him, causing trails of lightning to stretch out like thin chains.

[Blink]

Flashing away, Thorn was stunned when the metal golems tugged on the lightning chains and the spears retraced their paths, snapping back into the golems’ hands. With six golems on the ground and two drones up in the air, Thorn was starting to feel the pressure, but he didn’t want to counter attack in the off chance that there was still a way to solve the situation peaceably.

“Eve, the being at the center of the orb has marked us as unauthorized individuals. How long do you think it would take to spoof that mana signature?”

“Two and a half minutes,” she replied, still sitting calmly on the end of his staff. “I’m already working on it.”

“Thank you. I’ll play tag with these guys until then.”

Pulling up a wall of stone to block one of the spears, Thorn continued to retreat as four of the golems tried to flank him on both sides. They didn’t appear to be very fast, but their steady pace was deceptive and they covered ground quickly. Weaving mana together, Thorn thrust his staff out in front of him, lightly touching the ground.

[Stone Labyrinth]

Racing out in a randomized pattern, the mana that powered the spell made thick stone walls that rose into the air, transforming the area around Thorn into a maze. Figuring it would buy him some time, Thorn winced as three bolts of lightning slammed down on his head. Just before they struck him, his magical shields rotated to block them, quickly burning away under the intense energy the bolts contained. Up in the air, the drone he had trapped was just about to struggle free, so Thorn threw out another rune, strengthening the frozen air to keep it locked in place.

Before he could finish casting, the wall behind him exploded and a lightning charged spear shot toward his back. Spinning around, Thorn used the butt of his staff to knock the tip of the spear off course while he finished his ancient rune. Snapping his fingers, he cast a spell using the rock from the destroyed wall that was still flying through the air.

[Triple Stone Spears]

The flying stone stopped in place and then shot back toward the opening it had come from, lengthening into a sharp spear. Sensing the attack, the golem lifted its shield to block the three spears Thorn had created, tugging on the lightning chain at the same time to recall its own spear. Catching the short spear, the golem used it to intercept one of the stone spears even as it blocked the other two with its shield. Lowering its shield, it froze, having lost track of Thorn who had Blinked away.

Counting down the seconds, Thorn pulled more mana from the Atlas Star to replenish his shields as he tried to block and dodge the attacks of the drones while avoiding the golems in the stone labyrinth. He had been hoping that the stone walls would interfere with the golem’s ability to target him, but they were able to home in on him without fail no matter how many walls were in the way, making him think that they were connected to the drones flying up above. Sixty seconds had passed, leaving Thorn with another minute and a half of running, so he poured more mana into the labyrinth, causing the ruined walls to reform. At the same time, he thrust out his staff and spoke an arcane command.

[Covering Darkness]

From the end of his staff, thick darkness began to boil outward like smoke, rapidly covering Thorn. Darting through the labyrinth, Thorn used his mental sense and the Blink spell to avoid the golems, all the while trailing a thick cloud of darkness that poured out of his staff. It didn’t take long for the smoke to settle above the labyrinth, effectively blocking the sight of the drones that still flew above him. Just as Thorn had suspected, as soon as the drones lost sight of him, the golems on the ground started to move aimlessly, as if they had lost their target.

“Eve, how is it going?”

Instead of replying, Eve waved Thorn away with some irritation, as if telling him not to bother her. While that did not inspire any confidence, Thorn knew better than to pester her, so he focused on maintaining his spells. He didn’t bother keeping the second drone that had been trapped locked in place and instead just focused on the darkness that covered the labyrinth and the stone walls.

Time ticked by and eventually the golems and drones just began to attack indiscriminately, trying to destroy everything around them. Without a target to attack, they broke down the walls with their spears or shot bolts of lightning into the darkness to try and hit Thorn. Hiding from all the attacks, Thorn counted down the last few seconds in his mind, but when he was done, Eve still hadn’t budged.

“Eve?”

“This isn’t going to work,” she muttered, shaking her head. “The guardian is already in defense mode and is rejecting any input.”

“What does that mean?”

“That means that unless I can interface directly with the guardian, you’re in for a fight.”

“By guardian, you mean the glowing guy in the middle of the orb?”

“Correct. He controls the server system,” Eve said, frustration clear in her voice. “Right now he is locked up with trying to kill you which means he is not accepting any input, including this element code I just figured out.”

“What if I retreat? Will he reset?”

“Unlikely. I need to get close to him. Do you think you can deliver me to the orb?”

“Yes, but it will put me right in the golem’s crosshairs.”

“It's either that or fight it out to the end.”

“Got it. Give me a second.”

Planning out a route in his head, Thorn took a deep breath and opened up a doorway with Earth Step. The labyrinth he had created was around two hundred feet away from the giant spinning orb, which was close to the maximum distance that he could travel with Earth Step, but his problem was not getting there, it was getting back once he was there. Centering himself for the upcoming fight, Thorn stepped through the doorway, reappearing next to the metal orb. Seeing an opening in the spinning metal shell, his staff reached out and Eve took off, flying as quickly as possible toward the center where the guardian hovered.

As soon as he appeared, the drones caught sight of him and the golems rushed over, their bodies smashing through the stone walls of the labyrinth, sending stone flying. Spears and lightning bolts shot toward Thorn, forcing him to teleport away.

[Blink]

Reappearing twenty feet away, Thorn saw all of the attacks land where he had just been standing, striking with such force that the air warped and tore. The lightning bolts seemed to empower the spears, causing their edges to glow with a terrifying light as their piercing power was drastically increased. Realizing that there was no way his shields would be able to maintain themselves against the combined attacks, Thorn decided that he would need to take down some of the enemy if he wanted to survive.

Inside the giant metal orb, Eve was still flying forward, doing her best to dodge the rotating plates. Weaving this way and that, she darted through a small opening, only to get smacked by a fast moving plate. Tumbling sideways, she muttered something unpleasant under her breath and threw herself into another gap. Halting abruptly, she avoided a spinning chunk of metal that passed so close it brushed against her nose before springing through the small hole it left in its wake. With every lurching movement, she got closer to the center of the orb and the figure that floated there.

Outside the orb, Thorn had changed his strategy from one of complete defense to a mixture of defense and offense. Since the enemy favored lightning, he took a different tack, focusing on earth spells.

[Biting Wolf Chains: Earth]

Gleaming black chains that shone like old iron in the bright light burst from the ground, catching both of the drones with the heavy jaws of the wolf heads attached to their ends. Despite the tough metal that covered the drone’s forms, the sharp teeth flickered with a dark light that allowed them to sink in deep. At Thorn’s command the chains started to retract, trying to pull the drones out of the air even as their wings lit up with a bright glow to resist.

Since he was taking more of an aggressive stance, Thorn was not shy about using his mana. Thrusting his staff out, he summoned a shield to block a spear with one hand while weaving mana into a complex spell construct. The entire time, he was rapidly calculating his position and the positions of the six golems. Lifting its spear, one of the golems suddenly charged toward him, intending to enter melee combat while two of the other golems abruptly threw their spears, locking Thorn in place.

Instead of trying to retreat, Thorn threw himself forward, his staff parrying the stabbing spear and his foot lifting. Sensing the incoming attack, the golem lifted its shield, but Thorn’s foot was moving too fast. Borrowing power from the ground under him, Thorn kicked straight out, crashing into the golem’s shield. The force was magnified as a small Ved rune flashed above his head and the golem was launched backward, covering thirty feet in a flash and slamming into another golem. Bowled over, the two golems were tangled up for a moment as they both tried to regain their feet, but that was just enough time for Thorn to drop the spell that he had been holding.

[Fissure]

Gravity slammed into the two golems, causing their bodies to crumple slightly as they were forced back down to the ground. Half a second later, the spell construct hit the ground and the entire area shattered. From the point of impact, fissures tore through everything, ripping chunks of the golems apart. One of the fissures broke apart the chest plate of one of the golems, exposing a glittering crystal that resisted the intense force for a moment, before shattering, releasing the energy it contained inside.

With a boom that shook the room, the golem exploded, completely obliterating the other golem’s metal shell and setting off its core as well. In the aftermath of the two explosions, there was next to nothing left of the two golems apart from a crater in the stone floor. Grimacing, Thorn glanced back at the big metal orb where the guardian was glaring at him.

“Perfect!” Eve yelled. “Keep doing whatever you just did! You’re distracting him.”

About to agree, Thorn heard the soft click of the doors on the wall and two more golems stepped out, returning the number of enemies to eight.