With a dozen bismuth golems oozing towards me on their extending amorphous limbs I had only a moment to incant a spell before I was beset on all sides in a chorus of grating metal.
As we clashed my fist met the lead angular spear, several of the struts at the tip cracking. I’d expected to shatter the offending protrusion, but with an order of magnitude more mana packed into each it seemed these golems were a significant upgrade – the exchange even left my hand bloodied where a corner broke the skin.
An ordinary human might have been quite pleased with herself to have broken a golem’s fist, packed with dense mana, barehanded, but an ordinary human would have died several hundred times here in the Underworld, so that was scant comfort as I flexed my throbbing fingers.
More appendages grew from my foes, stabbing towards me from every angle, forcing me to focus on prediction and evasion, sparing the bare minimum of attention for the incantation I was brewing.
I wasn’t the only combatant preparing a supernatural attack however; all around I could feel the concentration of huge volumes of essence as the hovering ranged golems prepared projectiles, each one giving off surreal square crackles of energy, mana forking off the corners of the bullets they were charging.
The first shot launched with a boom, the clump of metallic bars moving impossibly fast. Aimed for my head as I weaved through tangles of melee blows, the shot left me nowhere to dodge!
Hooking the nearest golem with my foot I heaved the squirming sea-urchin robot up into the path of the bolt while my fists turned aside more jabs aimed at my neck and chest.
The projectile shattered the golem, shrapnel continuing on through the ruptured form, several chunks flattening against my skin, a jagged piece tearing a cut in my lip, my incantation spluttering out.
If that was the force from a blocked impact those shots were absurdly powerful.
Fighting the weaker golems around the city had posed no threat, but these…. Each was a threat on its own, and I was outnumbered more than thirty to one. Cold prickled my skin even with my exertion, as I recalled the hopeless fight at Grand Chasm.
But this wasn’t Grand Chasm. The Valkyries had been there. I’d fought in the open air, in the middle of hundreds of allies.
This was the Underworld, buried many miles under the mountains, so far from home it could have been another world. I was trapped in the desolate ruins of a long dead civilization, inhabited by nothing but far too many enemies ahead and behind, chasing the dimming hope of a path back to my beleaguered friends.
Another shot shattered the stone at my foot. I realized I was running, but I couldn’t even remember deciding to retreat.
Jumping over a second lance of metal the third clipped my head with a flash of pain, impact sending me tumbling to the ground.
There were too many of them, even escaping was going to get me killed!
Scrambling into the shelter of one of the macabre immolating statues I had a moment to catch breath I didn’t remember losing. It could be only a moment; the airborne golems were already spreading out through the square to flank my hiding spot.
Huddled against the base of the pedestal my hands and feet pressed against the cool, smooth stone under me as I felt my head throbbing, blood wetting my hair. I could sense the golems charging more shots, the concentration of essence like a beacon giving out their positions; I had only a second, two at most before they’d round the corners of the pedestal and open fire again.
In the distance I could hear more golems making for the square, and the low rumble of something larger.
What the hell was I doing?!
My confidence moments earlier had turned to fear before I even knew it, but cowering and hiding wouldn’t save me.
Alone as I was, I had to save myself.
Outnumbered and in mortal peril, this was the danger I was returning to the surface to face once more, I just hadn’t expected it to come to me.
It was naïve to expect to risk my life only on my own terms.
My digits curled in frustration, nails carving up the rock under me, fists crushing handfuls of stone into powder. Even if I escaped, fleeing from the city to the relative safety of the Underworld, my friends would still be risking their own lives on the surface. They lacked the luxury of retreating and trying again later.
Seemingly my life was more precious to me than I’d long thought, yet I wasn’t the only person who mattered. There were more lives on the line than just my own.
I couldn’t afford to run away and I couldn’t afford to die.
Golems rounded my shelter, lances of energized metal taking aim as I scrambled to my feet.
As they fired I kicked through the pedestal, the square pillar shattering, spitting debris in all directions. My hands dug into the falling masonry, my feet planted, anchored in place. Straining my muscles I swung many tons of statue in an arc, smashing aside the incoming shots.
My implement lost a head and most of the arms, but ample material remained. A second strike sent two more golems closing in behind me spinning though the air, slamming against a building in the distance at the edge of the square.
Another charging golem wailed with rending metal, audible over the titanic boom of the statue hammering down upon it, both reduced to rubble.
More shots were coming however, a second volley already charged, and my reserves of statuary were depleted. Meanwhile on the ground I was outnumbered ten to one, with more golems flowing into the square to join the battle all the time, the melee closing upon me once more.
Yet there lay my opportunity; my only cover against the sniper fire was the bodies of those golems now engaging me. Ducking and leaping over attacks I fought to keep as many of them between me and the shooters as possible, forcing them to continually adjust their aim lest they destroy each other.
It was a daunting challenge, but I’d fought a lot of golems so far that day, and even if these were faster and stronger, they still had all the same moves, moves I’d seen dozens of times now.
Their fighting style was focused on straight thrusts, the fastest and most powerful attack the rectilinear machines had. They could simulate curving movements through the use of many shifting right angles, but such attacks were weaker.
Inhuman and variable as their bodies were, the attacks that sprung from the shifting masses of metal were also clearly telegraphed once you knew what to look for. The shifting of internal mass, the gathering of aligned struts and the adjusting of posture in preparation to strike; their combat was a whole new language compared to that of humanoids, but once you learnt the words it all came together much the same, with a mechanical predictability, the grammar of their battle immutable despite the countless permutations of their weapons.
Everything was falling into place as I danced between attackers, my senses pushed to the limit to take in everything, my awareness spread thin as I dared. Without magic I had no finishing move that could destroy my enemies, yet somehow I felt a sense of calm and confidence settling in my mind.
My foes were rock like the city around us, unyielding and immovable, but inflexible; brittle.
I was wind and water, fast as a storm yet drifting with their blows, curving around each barrier and impediment, never still, light as a feather against the hulks I battled.
A voice somewhere deep inside kept protesting, telling me I was hopelessly outnumbered, with no way to finish the fight even if I could endure.
In the flow of my fight I left it behind, extraneous thoughts falling away as my every step came quicker, every strike sharper, every counter faster.
Somehow the air itself seemed to resist me too, growing thicker as my movements sped. My muscles sang at the challenge. Blood roared in my ears louder than the symphony of metal and the background rumble, awareness suffusing my form, taking in every sensation as I pushed my body to new limits.
Weaving past stabbing limbs I eluded their attempts to cage me even as I dodged projectiles. The back of my hand deflected an incoming thrust, then my arm crooked around a second, twisting the attack to pierce another golem behind me as it was readying a strike of its own.
The impaled golem shuddered, metal grating as it immediately reorganized its innards. Behind it two more were poised to stab me, coordinating to cover for their damaged ally. I could be faster. I had to be.
With the merest moment to anchor myself I aimed a turning kick at the automaton with all my strength, willing my twisting leg to spring out and drive into my target, cutting the air as it clutched at my calf.
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Pressure broke against my skin with a crack like a whip, a shock of mana rippling the air!
The machine shattered, pieces slamming into those behind it as my foot impacted like cannon-fire, dazzling gouts of angular mana billowing in a trail from the ruptured forms as they flew.
With a transitory gap in the press of foes I hopped over the sprawling forms of more broken golems that had piled up around me.
Weaving around the cover of the gruesome statues, chased by a score of terrestrial golems and as many again aerialists in the sky above, I pulled the fight back towards the centre of the square. I was heading in the direction of the staccato boscage of squared pillars that grew like innumerable tree trunks around the grandiose Research Institute.
What would have made perfect cover was painfully distant however, given the need to battle through a horde of hostile ground forces; I was only nearing the halfway point when the airborne golems gathered ahead, blocking my path with concentrated fire.
A hail of crude bolts rained down, forcing me to divert into the shelter of the sinister central stage. Shots bored into the stonework, a crackling detonation of angular mana erupting where they bit though some power system beneath one of the flames.
I doubted the golems were smart enough to deny me the terrain advantage of the pillars – they were just defending the Research Institute from intrusion – or so I hoped.
Fighting in the shadow of the pedestal, back to the wall with ever-more golems entering the square all about, a lance of rainbow metal screamed out at my face. Slipping to the side, I heard the stone behind me pulverized, the golem coming perilously close to piercing the huge reservoir of essence inside the structure.
Kicking off the momentarily halted machine I flew over the crowd to land atop the giant pedestal, careful to avoid the regularly-spaced flames that still burnt. The surface underfoot was grated, pipes and nozzles arrayed just beneath.
Those golems without flight were quick to follow, for which I was glad – already more shots were raining down.
Anchored in place, legs spread, I gathered my strength once more. I extended my fingers, hand forming a blade, willing every morsel of essence I could into my fingertips.
I struck.
Metal and stone sheared apart with a crack as I stabbed deep into the podium underfoot, my whole body behind the blow, cleaving through to the innards of the structure, and the huge charge of power I could feel there.
Roiling energy welled up, something akin to liquefied essence spilling out in surreal rectilinear waves, bubbling with square hollows of pure mana.
Leaping away I could see the rupture coating the golems as I incanted. My simple spell could never have defeated the metal machines, but the words were short and light to speak.
Flames burst from my outstretched hand, a fireball streaking into the spreading fluid below and on down into the ruptured core of the structure.
Shimmering color built within the crevasse I’d gouged. A moment later the light was a blinding.
Ripping out through the structure an absurd cubical shockwave led a deafening detonation, the huge podium scattered in an instant, as were the golems atop it!
Nearby statues shattered to dust. Broken chunks of stone and golem assailed me, peppering my arms and torso as I covered my face, ripping at my clothing and skin alike, the force of the explosion hurling me aside like a bug.
Slamming into one of the columns of the Research Institute I felt the stonework giving way.
By the time I’d fallen to the floor the blast was over, the square home now to a smoldering crater, molten stone pouring into the angled gouge in the surface, plumes of square flame still bursting up from severed arteries of essence beneath.
I laughed at the sight of the devastation, despite my aching body. The explosion had been a gamble, but it looked to have paid off. My wounds were shallow and I saw not a single intact golem anywhere near the now-inverted podium.
“See if you can put yourselves back together from that one!”
A flight of golems rounded the pillar, projectiles already charged to fire.
“Oh, right….”
Retreating into the maze of corners and planes I was able to lure in half of the flying golems, the rest spreading out to fire down the alleys between pillars from outside.
More enemies were still approaching the plaza, but they weren’t models equipped for flight so it would take them a while to get to me; it was just me and the flyers for now.
They might outnumber me more than twenty to one, but those were numbers I could process. Reading their attacks and weaving around my ample cover I did all I could to lure more of the machines inside the enclosed space, where their flight was restricted and the roof made escape difficult for them.
With the vertical surfaces all around I could reach any foe beneath the stone ceiling, yet as I leapt up at a target the golem slipped away with surprising agility, my fist connecting only with the pillar behind, which spat debris as I blew through it.
More dodges saw me inflict little harm on the airborne foes, instead just ruining the once pristine field of columns and destroying my own cover. Flying near the top of the space the golems had ample time to see me coming when I jumped, even with my speed, the dedicated flight structures I sensed on their undersides responding near instantly.
But that was just fine. This was no open-sky battle against the Stormqueen after all. I just needed to keep them focused on me, not on what I was doing.
Another golem slipped away from me as I kicked the nearest pillar apart. It was lucky golems couldn’t understand read my smile as they clustered overhead in the now-clear space beneath the ceiling.
With a crack felt more than heard, the weight of the colossal stone slab overhead shifted once more.
Around the periphery of the hollowed space pillars burst under the shifting pressure, then another crack announced the final surrender of my valiant foe – the roof atop us collapsed!
First to be struck by the falling, fragmenting rock were the golems, flying as high as possible to evade my attacks. Amid the avalanche that followed several were overwhelmed, crashing to the ground amid the broken pillars, pinned under many tons of masonry.
The same fate would have befallen me, but now the distance was in my favor. I dodged most of the collapse, shattering several boulders with my fists as they plummeted towards me.
When the dust and debris was finally settling I stood atop the wreck of the Institute entrance, three golems entombed under it, layers of metal crushed together to incapacitate them.
The rest had escaped back out of the forest of columns, but three immobilized should be enough. I only hoped I could find an intact flight engine on one of them before the rest of the flyers returned.
With suspicious luck I stuck pay-dirt with the first golem I tried, heaving a slab of stone off the machine to reveal the damaged automaton already reassembling itself, one of the modules intact in its possession.
It didn’t get to keep it for long.
Prying the boxy mass from a battered golem I could already sense the mana signatures of the others returning; it was time for step three of my crazy plan.
Clutching the boxy device to my chest uncomfortably, I pressed as much skin as I could to it, feeling my mana pouring into the metal. The brilliant glow it gave out shone off the surviving pillars in rainbows that mirrored the lighting throughout the city, but I had no chance to enjoy it – with a whoosh I hurtled into the air!
Flying out of control into the city skies I clutched the engine tight as I dared, afraid both to lose my grip and to crush it.
For the plan to work I had to do more than just hold on however; I had to control the thing. I had to control my mana.
All about the other flyers were flocking after me like angry insects intent on avenging their mauled hive, readying their shots like so many stingers.
Projectiles flew as I tightened my focus, blocking out everything but my body, the sensations of muscles and skin, heart beating, cuts and bruises throbbing, mana flowing….
Not with a hand, but with my will I touched the streaming essence. It felt thicker than oil and heavier than rock, yet little by little the flow responded. With terrific effort I could nudge the direction, just a little.
My eyes snapped open as the engine surged with power and I went into a spin, wheeling through the air and diving towards a skyline that could have been the upper or lower for all I knew.
Too much force, clearly – the device was operating far outside its intended use, already crackling with an overload of directly-injected mana – I had to be gentler or it wouldn’t even last another ten seconds.
With the lightest touch I could manage I pushed a trickle of mana through, directing it to try to steady the careening engine.
Little by little I leveled out as it responded.
I had no control over the direction I was heading, but at least I could feed it a steady, even supply of energy.
Steering I’d have to handle the old-fashioned way.
Twisting the device in my arms I began to turn, flying back towards the Research Institute, and the source of the rumbling sounds that had underscored my battle.
Spotting it, perhaps half a mile from the square where I’d fought, I did my best to aim for the gargantuan construction golem that was one of several I’d observed chewing huge swathes through the ancient city, smaller maintenance machines following in its wake to repair the damage.
Hot on my heels my pursuers dived behind me as I flew down towards my target.
Landing safely was never part of the plan; I crashed into the towering square structure the machine was eating through, punching a hole in one of the walls and landing sprawling on an internal floor, head and chest aching from the abuse.
The room was surprisingly normal, a bed to one side with a soft-looking surface, a table opposite, a surprisingly ornate painting of the city over it.
Getting to my feet I brushed off chunks of the smashed engine, most of the device a sparking mess against the far wall. I headed in the other direction, back out the hole I’d left to jump down into the space of the working construction golem.
Snaking limbs grabbed at me mindlessly as they did the other debris and the eroding building above; but so too did they assail the other golems hunting me.
As I focused purely of defense one of the robots was snagged, the construction golem ripping it apart to reduce it to the component pieces. It would reassemble of course, but with its parts tossed in the huge hopper on the giant’s back, rapidly buried in more metal and stone, it was effectively out of the fight.
Soon more were grabbed and dismembered as they tried to catch me. The sight would have been gruesome for anything but golems, the struggling shapes being picked apart by countless insistent mechanical arms.
The golems clearly weren’t programmed to have to fend off their own kind, the battle machines neither attacking nor effectively dodging the constructor. Some did understand something was wrong and try to pull back and fire from greater range, but getting out of the towering machine’s reach meant hitting me amid the debris was all but impossible.
In the end they were all lured in, to their demise.
With that the battle was won, with a resounding victory!
There were still other hostile golems about of course, but they’d have to catch me to present a problem.
I was beaming as I returned to the Research Institute.
I did it, I won! With a crazy plan I still couldn’t believe worked.
After so many setbacks, painful defeats and traumatic escapes, this time I’d overcome everything the Underworld had thrown at me, without running away or screwing up.
It was time to see what secrets the Dweomer researchers had for me.
~~~
Entering the Research Institute had proved tricky, the gate hidden among the ruins of the ceiling I’d brought down, but it turned out to my advantage; destroyed security systems couldn’t summon additional golems to attack me or lock a shattered door to keep me out.
The interior of the building was spacious but utilitarian, white corridors blank save for darker lines of inlaid stone set into the walls to direct visitors. Everything was lit with a steady white glow from a band running the length of the ceiling in each corridor. After the rainbow cityscape outside it was surprisingly clinical and plain.
Advancing through the institute I passed a checkpoint flanked by two golem alcoves, but it was the open space before it which drew my attention, a break room or waiting area of some sort, with uncomfortable square-edged seats in rows around several tables, all sized for people a foot or two shorter than I.
What had caught my eye were the objects on one of the tables, silky fabric bound together in what were clearly books. Time was of the essence, but anything I could learn about this place might help me, so I took a seat to look them over.
The chair surface deformed under my weight with a low groan, then cracked and disintegrated, sharp chunks poking at my rear and legs.
“Look, I’m just curvy, alright? This isn’t fat, it’s muscle,” I told the wounded furniture as I stood, brushing bits off my… admittedly thick butt.
A puff of dust emerged from the broken surface like a last breath.
“I’ll have you know that even queens have told me I look great!”
The undersized seat had nothing to say to that.
Perhaps I’d been alone in the Underworld a little too long. Arguing with a chair wasn’t my most rational moment.
Whatever the seat was made from, the eons must have been unkind to it.
Standing to read, I scooped up a book; “On the Frailty of Flesh and the Strength of Stone.”
The fabric split where I gripped it, fibers disintegrating to dust in my hand, the book pouring through my fingers to splat on the floor with a dry puff.
“Et tu, book?” I sighed. “I guess it has been… actually I have no idea how long it’s been. Thousands of years. Maybe hundreds of thousands? Oh, and now I’m talking to myself. Great job Saf, really keeping it together down here.”
Putting a stop to that, I moved on.
Passing the checkpoint roused the two golems, but even if they were upgraded models, they were no match for a fully charged lightning punch.
Heading deeper into the building I followed signs for the ‘First Researcher,’ presumably some sort of director or coordinator.
Descending through the structure showed just how large the place was, my progress through the building hampered by the frequent encounters with security systems, active thanks to my earlier break-in most likely.
Reaching the First Researcher I found the greatest level of security yet, a powerful cubic barrier erected around what must have been the office or lab in question. Knowing what to look for, I could sense a second layer further out, ready to activate should I try to break through. Any intruder who managed to get this far would have been stuck there, trapped between the inner and outer surfaces, to be gassed, crushed, suffocated, or just pinned in place until the golems arrived.
For me it was a welcome opportunity to practice my mana control on a far weaker target than the vast barrier which I’d encountered earlier.
Soon I was stepping through a beautiful cascade of bursting fragments from the shattered ward to enter what looked to be a small office.
Aside from the expected contents such as a desk and chair, most of the remaining space was taken up with a machine that glowed all over with flowing mana, bismuth circuitry forming a tangle of fractal structures around a silver metal sheet like a mirror, glittering wafts of essence discharging periodically from vents at the sides.
Approaching I wondered if by some miracle I’d found a portal to send me back to the surface.
Instead as I stood before the mirror my reflection dissolved into angular swirls, spiraling and branching lines of color that formed the impression of another person entirely, moving and shimmering like an animation constructed from the same cuboid struts as the machine and the golems.
Proportioned like a slimmer dwarf, it looked much like the statues outside, although details like facial features and clothing were vaguer – there was only so much that could be done with metal bars.
“Welcome.”