Rebecca followed Annie, keeping her Sacred Aegis active. It was essentially her usual Arcane Shield, except now it fully worked on one other person and still only drained her 'energy', which regenerated very quickly, especially due to another faster regen power. But the range of the thing was terrible, and she had to stay right on Annie's heels.

This was a problem.

The little redhead ran like hell, swinging her somewhat comically large axe and gouging chunks out of the robot's legs. The thing finally seemed to notice her and spun, one of its gun-arms blasting with some kind of shrapnel spray. A chunk or two hit Annie, but bounced off Becky's shield, and the little axe murderer just kept on chopping.

Next came a tube spraying mist. Or steam. Or some damn thing. It looked like a fire extinguisher, except everything it touched seemed covered in ice. Becky had no idea if her Aegis even really stopped that.

"Look out, Annie! I think he's trying to..."

The 'fire extinguisher' swept a path right over Annie, and Becky skid to a stop in a panic, ready to hold up her new Familial Shield or leap aside if the weapon kept on coming for her too. But it ran out if juice and pulled away, the robot's attention for the moment diverted to Mason or maybe Blake's constructs.

The mist faded slightly, and Annie rose from the path of ice with some skin turned red, some more turned white.

"You OK?" Becky said, running to the girl.

"I'm fine." Annie's face was expressionless as she looked up at the huge construct. "I need to get higher."

"Uh, right. Maybe Blake can toss you," Becky said, entirely kidding. Then Annie nodded and ran straight at Mason's brother, and Becky winced. "Wait! I need to be close to shield you, girl! Wait for me!"

* * *

Blake was not terribly pleased with how things were going. He launched Mason the goblin's key, and hoped that would bear fruit sooner or later. But his constructs were being slowly (and not so slowly) crushed, melted, and shattered while Blake mostly just watched.

He had a great deal of mana, however, and after watching the battle a bit it was time to act. He decided on a flying arcane version, most of its body designed to swing a big pick.

Blake hunched down next to his Defender and opened True Making, quickly pulling together the model he'd already imagined, forming the details into reality. Navi finally floated back down near his head while he worked.

"I have finished a full inspection, Master. The enemy construct is very well designed, built with a huge array of parts, mana, and effort. But it is made with lesser forms of making. It is unstable."

"It looks pretty stable to me, Navi. Explain faster please."

Blake was getting more and more used to his Partitioned mind, and kept what felt like his full attention on his Making despite being engaged with Navi, and still watching his constructs fight.

"The construct is weak to magic, Master. The more mana it uses, and the more mana used against it, the more its core and power distribution will become...vulnerable. I believe that is the essence of Pliny's plan to disrupt it."

Blake stopped his True Making work, glad he hadn't begun the channel. Maybe it should have been obvious since their opponent was a giant, fully metal creation, but physical damage likely wasn't the right strategy. Blake forgave himself since they had overcome nearly every ludicrous challenge with physical violence before.

But with the massive amount of deadly weapons swinging around the sphere, Blake decided it was only a matter of time before his constructs and then maybe him and everyone else (except Mason) was blasted apart. And it seemed unlikely they'd kill the thing first.

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"Where should I aim?" Blake said to Navi, looking up and charging an often neglected Arcane Blast.

"Just below the pilot is best, Master. But anywhere should be useful."

Blake was about to channel when he saw Annie racing towards him.

"Throw me up top," she yelled as she got closer. Blake understood her intention but knew it wasn't worth his time. At least not yet.

"Not now. Keep distracting it. Calypsa, go with them too. I'll tell you when."

The mostly silent nymph gave Blake a 'you aren't in charge of me' kind of glare, but ran off with her spear. Blake took his mana gem out, and started channeling. It had been awhile, and it was time to see just how big he could make an Arcane Blast...

* * *

Mason was about halfway up the giant robot when everything shook and started blaring sound.

Warning, shrieked a vaguely automatic sounding goblin voice. Power level critical. Diffuse mana. Diffuse mana now.

One of the many barrel-like tubes managed to point at Mason when he paused, and he dropped to avoid it. Then he grabbed on again slightly lower. But the shot never came.

Instead a high-pitched whining sound rose in volume, and the barrel flashed with some kind of explosion and stilled. Mason grinned, and climbed.

His hand was healed now, though it came back more like a claw. His body was also now mostly covered in carapace, and he'd taken a vaguely shotgun-like blast at close range without going splat. So as long as the key worked, or if he could just finish climbing and start Duality-of-Strength-smashing, things were looking up.

Mason could hear Toofik roaring in outrage, and the robot stilled entirely as the sound of steam or something hissed. The stink of depleted arcane energy filled the air in an almost oppressive fog that clogged Mason's senses. But he saw his chance.

The robot was mostly smooth metal with very few handholds, but Mason's strength and agility were beyond reasonable now. He threw himself up with just his arms, grabbing gun barrels and joint cracks until he'd reached the 'power source' he could see with Ranger's Mark. Then he took the slightly battered key from his pocket, and stuck it against the smooth metal.

Nothing happened.

"Come on you piece of shit!" He wiggled and shook it and tried to improve the connection, but still nothing. He was reminded he'd always hated technology.

"Fine." The thing had stuck so he left it attached and kept climbing towards the pilot. Apparently he just had to do it the old fashion way—smashing his fist into the thing until it broke.

As he arrived to the clear cockpit, he and Engineer Toofik exchanged a brief stare. The goblin looked vaguely shocked, as if he could hardly believe what he was seeing. Then Mason punched the 'glass'.

It hurt. And did nothing. He punched it again and again, not concerned what it would do to his hand. By about the fifth hit he heard the goblin cackling like a madman.

"Stupid human! Can't break with fist. With anything! Now you die. Your friends die. Chief Engineer show you. He show everyone!"

As Mason kept on punching, the construct shook and made a sound like an engine humming to life. Mason heard something rattling beneath him and spared a glance at the key. He saw crackling blue light flaring as the thing vibrated and pulsed with energy.

Warning, screeched the same autonomous voice. Power levels critical. Diffuse mana. Diffuse mana now.

"What?" shrieked the Chief Engineer. "I just did it you stupid, useless...levels are fine! Kill now! Kill!"

The barrels all started moving again, and Mason saw pulses of energy and renewed projectiles spraying around the room at the others. He saw Duality of Strength ticking in the corner of his eye, so he held firmly to the robot, and kept on punching.

Everything seemed to be glowing now.

Mason wasn't sure if it was some kind of light or the key overcharging the construct or what, but he didn't stop hitting. Finally the 'glass' cracked, and the Chief Engineer stopped to stare with his mouth hanging open to show broke, yellowed teeth.

"Not possible..." he whispered. "Not possible!"

Mason struck again, and the crack widened into a spiderweb of fractures. He punched at the same spot until finally the thing broke enough to make a hole, then he grabbed the bottom edge and pulled, not caring how sharp or jagged it was.

"No! Kill! Kill!"

The pilot was bringing multiple weapons back now to aim at Mason. He heard them coming before he saw them, the air whooshing by as huge limbs all raised and started swinging around to face the torso.

"I wouldn't do that," Mason said low to the goblin, getting ready to jump.

"Die!"

Toofik screamed like a madman as he clearly pulled some kind of trigger. Mason grabbed two handholds and propelled himself downward, hoping to escape the majority of the damage.

Instead, nothing happened.

System overload, blared the voice. Engaging system protect protocol.

Then, in a familiar voice.

"Warned you, didn't I?" Pliny cackled from somewhere below. "Now you see. But you see too late. Much too late."

Mason had just about enough time to decide trusting the undead goblin might not have been the best decision. Then something pulled him flying away from the robot. The world went white and blue and quiet. Until he struck the hard stone on the far side.