Corvayne climbed to the corner of a house. With light rain falling from the amber cloudy sky he could see his breath mist as he pressed his back to the cool, slightly damp siding of the house. The ground where he was standing was sloped, being further along the edge of the neighborhood. Navigating up the steep slopes of the road proved difficult, but he was now a few miles away from the entrance. He peeked around the graffiti covered corner he was at. With his eagle eye ring boosting his sight he could just make out the sleek top of the robot peeking above a home in the distance. It had been tromping around in a circle for the last half hour. It's head was looking from side to side as it moved, and he had no doubts the three story tall robot was looking for him.

If he was alone he'd not have to deal with the machine at all. With his friends on their way, he had to risk pulling it away from the entrance and losing in the massive empty neighborhood. Getting it's attention wouldn't be hard, as it seemed the drones were working with it. He was pretty sure he just had to kill a few and the robot would come over. The more dangerous step was evading it and sneaking away. To that end he had made a route that crossed through homes and looped around and back, with a few random doors thrown open to confuse the giant machine if it was smart enough to track him that way.

The only downside of his plan was that he had to leave Seru alone. She'd be okay for an hour or two. Hopefully. Now, to see if the same could be said about him.

The house he was standing at had gravity that absolutely followed the slope. Things he picked up seemed to shift back to going down. The home he was by was only at about fifteen degrees off kiter. Everything was a steep hill, but not as bad as trying to ride on the back of an elder bone worm. He hoped that the slope effect would also mess with the monsters trying to aim across the divide, giving him possibly a few extra shots before it compensated.

He frowned as he looked for and found the bobbing head of the bot again. He didn't know how fast the thing could haul it's cookies over to him nor did he know what it's targeting range would be if he wasn't entirely covered by his cloak. He stretched the collar out and the cloak shifted to a scarf. He vaulted over a fence and made his way to a tilted street. A zombie shuffled into his way and he dispatched it, the body stumbling forward as if his spear broke the spell planting it to the hill.

He found what he was looking for at the next crossroads. A swarm of drones was following the street. One turned and the rest swiveled as well. He had a shadow hand give him a hatchet he had pulled out of a garage, then swung it to activate [Whirling Axe]. A blade made of greenish energy flew out and clipped one of the drone's propellers, causing it to spin out of control.

The other four opened fire as he ran down the road. His shadow hands swapped weapons for him. He owed them a few high fives after he got out of this stupid extra climb. He dared to look to the side and was pretty sure he saw the big robot turn his way.

Corvayne ran and got a building between him and the robot. Using the ability to run full speed with his boots on a slope, he got the drones to empty their guns then dispatched them when they dive bombed. Another pack came buzzing in from another direction, visible between houses as they skimmed low over a pool trying to match his direction. He continued running, legs pumping down the street as the drones popped out from the other side of the house he was running past. Corvayne turned and already had his shadowy limbs pushing his two handed sword into his hands. He jumped out of his pivot and used [Circle of Death], wrecking three of the drones as the world blurred from him making a near instant 360 degree spin. As he had learned, having the right weapon to use an attack made a huge difference.

He took a shot to the ribs from the last drone flying but swung his spear before they could plink him again. Hopefully that was enough mayhem. He ducked into a house he'd opened the door to previously, and squeezed his cloak to make it fan out again. He put the hood of stealth on then yanked his cloak hood over his head. Then he slid out the back. From between houses on the slope he could see the giant robot scuttling over to this part of the neighborhood. He moved through the houses he opened in a blur, not even bothering to engage a zombie that moaned at him from the other side of a dining room table.

Through a door, around a pool to another garage, out the front door and into another and then out a side door and cutting across more lawns. He forced himself to focus on moving quietly and smoothly, resisting the urge to try to stop and figure out where the robot was. A few more homes and he had reached the strange spot where a line marked the perfectly folded neighborhood, cutting down a street into a flat half and one tilted up to a place miles away where an even steeper fold was. He tried not to look, it gave him vertigo, as did when he looked into the horizon and started seeing hints of further grids of endless suburbia. He was near the end of his planned run when heard something behind him.

He turned and saw two moderate sized mecha skittering along the street, headed in the direction of the big one. Even with his cloak, he knew that he was still visible as a smudge while moving. Both robots stopped and activated laser range finders, sweeping across where Corvayne was running. He could see the bright red light flashing across the deeper red of the street and so he lept forward into a roll as the first mech pounced after him. The second charged him after, trying to trample him.

What the hell, were these things melee robots? He switched to his double handed sword again. Right tool for the right job. Actually, he wanted to test something. He lined up with the first robot who had turned and was readying another pounce. The other had crashed into the wall of a house, so he had time to first use [Sundering Blade], using the flat of his sword to hit one of the monster's legs and crumpling it in a way that wasn't natural even given how hard he swung.

He drew his sword in, then used [Cross-Skill: Sundering Strike] as he thrust forward. Both moves were designed to do damage to equipment, and the effect on the robot was impressive. The leg and half the robot's main body shattered, shards of metal, wire, and pipe flying across the lawn. Then, a cloud colored like rust burst from the machine like a hurricane expanding.

[Combo: Shatter Storm]

It ate through both robots then faded, leaving two rusted husks of robot with a few shiny parts. Corvayne grabbed a box he was pretty sure was an untouched energy source. He guessed either nuclear or plasma batteries given it's density and the milk-jug shape attached to the electric output. No time to marvel at it. He could feel vibrations in the ground and considered fighting it as he hiked away. He had a shot at fighting the robot with his new combo. Perhaps if some wise master told him he needed to break his limits, or the robot had kidnapped his beloved Wick, or there was a clock ticking down and he needed to kill it to win a prize... maybe then he'd fight it. But Corvayne's goal was to draw it over to where he was. Getting an engineering toy was just a small plus.

Corvayne dashed away from the two broken robots and resumed ducking into and through houses, moving into hiding in backyards and sneaking between homes until he had circled back to near the start of the neighborhood. He didn't see the huge robot, but he didn't hear it either. And that was his end goal. He was tempted, for just a moment, with the idea of getting his hands on something that put out enough juice to power a ship-sized fold drive. He didn't need a ship that badly. Yet.

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He knocked quietly then opened the door to the garage. Seru startled in a way that meant she had fallen asleep.

“You scared the shit out of me!” She hit his arm, which didn't hurt.

“It's your own fault you were up late.”

He lead her back to the house they had slept at, then took a moment after letting her in to check for his friends. Looking at the ridge leading into the neighborhood he was pretty pleased to see Grunt trundling down the slope, Wick behind him talking to Mister I and... Nyxion and Lady Blood Claw. What the heck?

Wick was happy to see him at least. She waved and he waved back. He met them halfway. Wick wrapped her arms around him, squeezed, then stepped back. He was about to hug her back but he saw she looked nervous even just hugging him. He buried a little disappointment and suspicion that she didn't want to act affectionate in front of Nyx. She had her ups and downs. He stepped back and smiled.

“Don't stress yourself Wick. I'm glad to see you.” He looked past her fidgeting form and nodded at Grunt, who thumped his chest: Good to see you again bro.

“Same. Sorry. We were worried... worried we'd get another weird boss, but the floors were clear and uh, Grunt handled it. Did you keep that idiot safe?”

“Yeah.” He had to fend Mister I off from his back, as the old monk had spotted the bow. “Ease up, I haven't used it yet, don't know if it's cursed.”

He lead them to the marked house. “Let's hurry. There's a huge robot that's patrolling the floor with scout drones. I've picked off a few but I think it's going to keep bringing in bigger machines if I keep killing them.”

Nyxion held up a hand. “Did any of them have shield belts? Or advanced weapons?”

“... Oh yeah, your stuff got completely wrecked by that asshole.” Corvayne noticed now he was missing his nice toys. It wasn't just his own missing shield buckler.

Nyxion shrugged. “I did just fine with a mace, thank you.” He showed off the same weapon Seru had left behind. Lady Blood Claw had one of the spare two handed swords strapped to her back.

Nyxion pulled plastic wrap off the recliner and sat down. “Let's take a break.”

Seru came back from the bathroom and Corvayne wasn't surprised when she started pointing at Lady Blood Claw and said “She's not human!”

“That's really rude.” LBC countered, folding her arms. “Go through a few dozen floors and see if you don't have weird features that make you look like a freak.”

“Seru, stop harassing LBC.” Corvayne said with what he felt was a stern tone.

Nyxion gestured at the woman. “The goblin and elf I get, but why exactly did you run up a one-way path for a-”

Corvayne cut him off before Nyxion started another pointless argument. “That's a whole other can of worms I'll get into later. We need to find an exit and get off this floor. That big robot has guns on it.” Corvayne folded his arms.

Lady Blood Claw shrugged. “So we don't fight it. You lured it away, right?”

Corvayne nodded. “But it might return. Also sooner or later we're going to run afoul of the drone scouts, and they seem to call out to it. There's also zombies. They are slow but I've seen bigger abominations fighting drones. Not as big as the tent zombies from the castle, but... I don't want to find out the undead side of this floor also something like a three story tall spider tank.”

Nyxion laughed once. “Fine. We won't try to replace our gear. We need some down time however. Wick has been running us ragged.”

Mister I nodded. “A short break is good. Perhaps this is meant to be a sneaky challenge. Some floors are a test of courage! For a lion! And others require a light foot. Like a mouse. Perhaps like a mouse we shall sneak from house to house in the dark, listen for drones and hide, and try to use quiet weapons to nibble on undead.”

LBC sat on the couch. She rubbed her arms, little spurs along them retracting as her hand ran across them. Her skin turned teal then light orange. “Icariii is correct. The logic in one of these spaces is to not spend any time you don't need to on floors that have a factor you can't completely control. The only good news is that it's fair in some way. If the huge tank has incredible range and accuracy, there's a factor to dealing with it that makes it appropriate for floor six.”

Corvayne turned to her. “You sound like you've been in one of these before.”

The lady's skin turned brown. “Yes? Of course. Why do you think my stupid skin keeps changing color?”

“That's a power?” He blinked.

“No it's a side effect. The Magus had more advanced apprentices pull me through twenty floors of three different places. It was to try to push me to unlock a better magic affinity, but it didn't give me anything he found interesting.” She folded her legs, her skin turning light purple. LBC always had a very professional demeanor but sometimes Corvayne got a sense she was bottling everything in.

Nyxion nodded. “I had told Wick, we didn't expect to find any of these... towers... as Lady Blood Claw informed me that the Magus had told her ages ago they are associated with the extensive ruins. They are, as far as she was told, part of a scrambled transportation system. That there are two on the same world is a monumental concentration.”

“The wizard had told me that he was hoping my magic would shift to item enchantment or summoning.” LBC added. “Even in my day, these places were extremely tightly controlled by the Magus. My theory is the Collective groups that have supernatural powers are hording these spots.”

Mister I nodded. “Some of the less sane personal palaces and Military complexes I imagine are covers for these then. Like L'Tderu Estate. It would explain why someone build it in a glass-storm planet.”

Seru tugged Corvayne's sleeve. “What's a glass storm planet?”

Mister I laughed. “Imagine instead of rain, a place where super heated sand forms molten glass then whips it about at several thousand miles an hour. A planet sized blender.”

Seru looked around. “How would you build something? Also wouldn't that erode any ruins instantly?”

LBC shrugged. “Nyxion's personal shields are expensive novelties, but there are ship sized ones too. You can enter with extremely thick diamond glazed hulls. That was how they shipped in materials to build it. Now that shielding is good enough that you can insert into the air currents and ride with them. It's a hot gas giant, and the L'Tderu Estate moves with a mostly stable wind band floating on a layer of clouds..”

“Any advice then for navigating these towers?” Corvayne had to remember not to just default to term D1. He appreciated that LBC seemed to avoid using that word as well.

“Intent seems to affect which powers you get, but it's also warped by some inherent factor. That's why I was abandoned. The Magus considered me a failure since my magic is mostly pointed inwards.”

“His loss. I'd be ecstatic to work with a skilled warrior like you who can make herself faster on command.” Corvanye shrugged. Lady Blood Claw looked at him evenly and her skin blossomed into a deep purple. Some time he'd have to ask her if the colors meant anything.

Nyxion waved his hands. “Stop buttering up my second in command. Pah, and here I thought I was a philanderer. You shameless flirt!”

“I'm not buttering her up.” Corvayne frowned. There was a reason he had sparred with her for two weeks every day. She was a natural with a sword, good with a bow, and fair enough with a knife fight to where Corvayne didn't just win every exchange. It felt like Nyxion was, again, sparing no effort to rub him the wrong way.

Nyx laughed and gestured with a gloved hand. “Coming from me, it's a compliment. I've rarely met anyone who was a rival for my looks and charm. Not to mention my lovely associate is usually not much of a talker.”

LBC gave him a look that radiated irritation, her skin shifting orange. “Nyxion, on the other hand, talks too often and for too long.”

He glowered back at her, and Corvayne couldn't keep a tight grin off his face. “Either way, we need to move on soon. Once you've caught your breath, we should move away from the direction I pulled the robot and try to find a stairway.”