Brokenridge pulled up, arresting his remaining speed and taking a deep breath through his nostrils. He almost seemed hesitant as his gaze swung over the Corrupted mechanical landscape like its makeup was something he had not been expecting.
“I smell nothing but decay and hatred. No magic guards these lands, and nothing stirs at our approach. There is only grinding metal, burning oil, and endless, futile striving.” The Dragon growled, shaking his head in disapproval. Aside from the slow-moving progress of whatever mechanical processes were at work below them, the entire landscape was devoid of life, with the exception of the gargantuan version of the Corrupted Tree that Tilly had faced once before.
“We had to deal with one of these while you slept. It will wait until you are close, maybe even allow you to attack, and then once you are too close to escape, it will make its move.”
“I am no fool, Human. I know it waits. Just like I can smell the riches stored at the top of the spire. But my claws itch at the thought of taking the obvious bait and moving straight for the top. This race is new to the plane, but I am familiar with the metals used in many of the structures below… They will not burn like as the spiders did,” He breathed, cunning eyes scanning the approach to the center of the Faction with a surprising amount of restraint.
Tilly eyed the huge, twisted growth at the base of the spire, his hand drifting to an item on his belt in consideration,
“I have something that would, at the very least, serve as a distraction, and possibly even force them to show hidden defenses early.”
At his words, Brokenridge’s eyes slid over him as if he wasn’t there, but Tilly had spent enough time with the dragon to know that it was his version of an invitation to continue, “Instead of making a move for the top of the tower first, we can start at this creatures center, near its base. If their integration is as complete as it seems, then any successful attack on the root will damage and distract the whole system. Also, depending on how much Corruption these beings carry, your flames should be more effective than normal, even if they are made of metal.”
The dragon took a deep sniff of the air and sneezed, “The bugs smelled of this substance as well, it sullies the air, and I will take great pleasure in burning its stench from the Land.”
“Great, get me close enough to drop the payload, and then drop me off to pick up the treasure… but for God’s sake, don’t just throw me at the building again. I won't be much good to you if I die because you broke both of my arms before I could even start fighting the enemy.”
The dragon bore all of his teeth, his gaze settling in on Tilly for the first time in their conversation as something akin to hunger glowed behind his eyes, “And what happened to the defenses you showed me at the entrance to my chambers?”
“Got them ready to go,” Tilly lied in a growl, attempting to use anger to cover over his sudden discomfort, “It’s just a limited use ability that I want to save for when it matters…. Now are we going to talk all day, or are we going to pillage these idiots and take back the dragon throne?”
Whatever temptations Brokenridge had been considering faded from his serpentine face at Tilly’s reminder of their purpose. The smoke lazily curling from his nostrils caught fire and the dragon turned back toward their target, face set in renewed focus.
“It is time to crush these sullied constructs. My destiny awaits.” He growled, before tucking into a sudden dive. Tilly swallowed down his stomach as the sudden weightlessness hit him, ‘Kindle, break away and join back in when you see an opening.’ He sent, mentally preparing himself for another wild battle. The phoenix sent a mental affirmative, pulling herself free of the pouch sewed into the back of his jacket.
Then with a small push, she was away. ‘I will watch, and remain ready. Fight well, Bonded’ she sent back climbing through the air as they continued to free fall. Once they had picked up enough speed, Brokenridge whipped out his wings and started beating them powerfully, adding velocity to his dive even as he slowly leveled it off until they were moving rapidly in a line directed pointed at the base of the skyscraper-sized spire that made up the center of the Perfected Golem Faction.
Tilly pulled free the message twig in one hand, and the Doom Ducky in the other, ready to finally test the experimental item. He felt a thrill of excitement from Kindle as she sensed his intention and Brokenridge roared in challenge as they dived toward the bulbous body of the gigantic Corrupted Tree. He didn’t know what would happen when the item activated, or how the Corrupted Faction would react, but whatever happened, he was going to be ready to break the link this time.
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Some of the roots they sped over were as big around as city buses, and this time, Tilly didn’t trust any of them to stay still when the shit really hit the fan. But if its behavior followed previous patterns, it would wait until we were fully committed.
This time, that was going to be a huge mistake.
Their dive had probably reached over a hundred miles per hour and they would be within striking distance in seconds. Tilly pulled back his arm, taking aim, belatedly realizing that thing was so huge that the quality of his throw would not matter at all. Wincing with anticipation, Tilly focused on the item in his hand and inflamed its contents. He allowed only the barest hint of his mana to release from his palm, before lobbing the glass duckie into the air just below their dive.
Once free, the small glass projectile immediately began to fall behind them as the wind resistance, which seemed to have no effect on Brokenridge, caught it and pulled it back.
“That's it! Pull up!” Tilly shouted ahead, as the dragon reared its head back to unleash some sort of breath attack.
By some miracle, the plunder-crazed monster reacted immediately to Tilly’s voice, fanning out his wings and ripping them out of the dive. Doom Duckie zipped below them, continuing along the path of their dive. The thing had begun flashing like a strobe light, as Tillys Mana stirred up the reactionary substances contained within the vessel.
As the force of Brokenridge pulling up from the dive shoved Tilly's chin into his chest, he watched the item’s flight in fascination. It soared through the air like a tiny space probe sent to a distant planet for a few more beats of Brokenridge’s wings before crashing against the side of the giant root growth.
The wind rushing by Tilly’s ears robbed him of the sound of the initial impact, but he felt the reaction that followed deep in his chest. The item shattered against the thick protective bark, allowing the Phoenix-empowered primordial flame access to the surrounding atmosphere for the first time since the item’s inception.
The flame vaporized all of the oxygen surrounding it in a 30-yard sphere before flashing back to its original size in an instant. This produced a vacuum the size of a building, which collapsed in on itself with a thunderous crash, sending high-pressure air rushing back toward the flame at unimaginable speeds. The resulting secondary explosion produced a shock wave that almost snapped Tilly’s neck in the other direction as it knocked Brokenrigdge from his flight path and sent the dragon tumbling through the air.
Ears ringing and eyes dry from the heat that suddenly suffused the atmosphere, Tilly attempted to blink away the spots clouding his vision. His body was jerked from side to side as his senses came back to him one by one. First, pain bloomed across his body as if he had been slapped from the air by a giant hand.
Then the sound of roaring of rushing wind returned, followed by the pitch grinding of tearing metal and a multi-octave shriek that arose from across the Faction. Finally, as their frenetic flight stabilized, Tilly's vision cleared and he found Brokenridge having regained control of their flight with powerful beats of his winds. A few hundred feet beyond the dragon, the Spire stood, now tilted a few degrees to the right.
Tilly’s eyes trailed down the damaged structure until he found its base and the havoc his attack had just caused. The massive root ball of the Corrupted Tree was missing a chuck the size of a city block in a perfect burning circle. Blue flames spread from the epicenter of the blast, eating through the giant growth like acid. The growth’s road-sized roots shivered in pain as whatever passed for the creature's intelligence attempted to understand what had just happened. Brokenridge pulled his serpentine eyes away from the aftermath of the blast and zeroed in on Tilly, who responded with a heroically calm smirk,
“Plenty more where that came from.” He declared in a scratchy voice, throat dry from the intense heat radiating through the air.
The dragon looked back at the base of the leaning spire with a snarl, obviously hating the display of power from his inferior. Before he could come up with an appropriate response, a wailing siren rose above the screeching of the Corrupted Tree, and hundreds of previously invisible doors slid open up the side of the clockwork spire.
“INITIATE ANTI-AIR DEFENSES.” A tinny voice announced.
Every opening running up the spire was suddenly choked with a diverse range of clockwork figures. The only bodily feature shared by all of them seemed to be their ability to fly as they launched from the openings as one, forming a dense cloud of air combatants. They seemed to achieve flight through many forms of power and held many different shapes, some of which Tilly could tie to creatures existing in nature, others of which looked more alien. They blasted through the air toward their attackers, propelled by steam, combustion, or in some cases, actual turbines. Brokenridge roared, accepting the challenge and shooting toward the cloud, intent on taking the threat head-on.
Whipping through the air a few dozen yards behind him, Tilly put the twig between his teeth and pulled free both his hatchets. He had no clue how he was going to participate in the aerial battle, especially while his location was fixed behind the dragon, but he wanted to keep his options open. He needed experience and he was going to level… no matter what.
Brokenridge unleashed a geyser of liquid flame just before he crashed into the formation of clockwork combatants. He immediately curled his body over itself, whipping his tail in a long arc behind him. The combination of his plasma hot stream of fire and the bludgeoning follow-up of his tail softened up the aerial formation considerably.
Tilly had half a second before the melee rolled over the collision and found him. Taking a page from the dragon's book, he unleashed a full-force Flame’s Expulsion, concealing his exact location and bathing the oncoming combatant in fire. He crossed his arms over his face in anticipation of impact, holding his hatchets at the ready as flames flowed out of him in every direction.
Brokenridge’s entrance into battle had hardly slowed his speed, and Tilly was as much whipped into the enemy as they charged into him, half melted through his curtain of flames. Tilly screamed in what he hoped was a battle cry as the metal constructs hit him, crashing into his body and shattering against his Endurance-enhanced frame. Most were too structurally damaged to get off an attack before the impact.
But that did little to reassure him as he was pounded almost nonstop by projectiles and metal constructs that should have knocked him from the sky. However, due to his spatial link, each of them met an unstoppable force instead, and if there was one thing Tilly could do… it was take a hit.