Season 3: Chapter 88: The Dectus Highway

On the ancient Lemoidian lift, we waited, every member of the party tensed up as the old machinery dropped the elevator on the stone paved floor with a loud thud.

“Wow…” Tipsy let out, the gnome visibly drooling over a light bulb powered by electricity.

“How is this all so clean?” Simone asked in amazement, spinning to take in the facility dimly lit by what few functioning light bulbs remained.

“Maybe they've got an army of cleaning slimes?” Jesse snickered, “Or maybe there's another Hero buried down here. Haha. Wouldn't that be neat.”

“Oh… Lord Hiro-kun,” Slimey let out, the woman's skin turning reddish pink as the prospect of two mes entered her mind.

Suddenly a grotesque image entered my mind, one that involved two me’s, tentacles, and…

Ah. AHHHHHHHHBBB!

Slimey. Bad slimey! Bad! Horny! Slime!! I sent, rebuking the slime who was flushed and letting off steam.

After dealing with Slimey's delusions, Lhikan rallied the mules, the carts lined up in a single file line as we traversed down the eerily quiet tunnel.

“WOW! These tunnels are MASSIVE! This has got to be the biggest Lemodian find since the vault of Cary!” Tipsy yelled, her voice echoing down the well lit cave as she stood upon one of the carts attempting to touch the smooth mythril ceiling. “I can't believe several lights even work!”

“Ya know, I'm just realizing…” Jesse said, standing in front of the cart and acting as the party’s scout, “If this stuff can survive this long, what would a set of armor or sword made of this stuff go fo-OW!”

“DON'T EVEN THINK ABOUT IT!” Tipsy yelled, throwing her boot at the back of Jesse's head. “This place is an architectural wonder of the world! You try to put your grubby little hands on anything and I'll bite your ankles!”

“Little?! My hands are-”

Ignoring the pair, I focused on the features of the tunnels around us.

In all honesty, it was a disservice to call this highway a mere tunnel. In reality, it was a high-tech facility spurred on by my meddling and the Lemoidian ingenuity.

In short, this was a base of operations used to funnel supplies to the demon front, a HQ powered by… ehem… nuclear fission.

Yes. As in atomic splicing and the secret of the big ol bomb.

Which may or may not have been spilled during a drunken rant about elves and wanting to drop a bomb on Elveswhere…

Now that I think about it, I think they tried to make a death planet after I told them about a famous space franchise owned by a mouse.

Of course my understanding wasn't very thorough but the Lemoidians seemed to grasp it, creating a working fission bomb that went to powering their machines.

Fortunately for me this wasn't modern Earth so there was no worry of me being executed for spilling state secrets haha!

Yet, despite the technological advances spurred on by my blubbering mouth, the Lemoidians didn't choose to conquer the world.

Which is why I liked them.

They were a hard working people that liked to drink and build. Content with lending a hand and tinkering on projects, so it was kinda odd that they seemingly disappeared…

“Halt.” Lhikan abruptly called the group to stop, the old paladin interrupting Jesse and pulling him back as we came to a dimly lit area straight out of some horror movie.

“What is it sir?” Simone asked, the priestess stopping her mule.

Suddenly an influx of energy, a red beam slicing through the air and nearly striking me if not for Gobledo standing in the way with his shield.

“Senior!” Simone cried as Lhikan was hit.

“TAKE COVER!” The paladin roared, diving to the ground with Jesse as the mules and carriages were obliterated by lasers.

Immediately Slimey moved, shifting to avoid the attacks with the piercing attacks riddling her body with accurate attacks. Accurate how you may be wondering?

The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

Well they were striking her cores!!

Gobledo had managed to protect me with his shield, but from my limited sight through Slimey I could see he'd been struck.

Slimey fared no better with several of her cores pierced by the surprise attack before he could harden.

““Exterminate! Exterminate! Exterminate!””

Robotic voices began to flood the interior, the sound of heavy stomps and red lights flashing as the assault of laser bolts continued.

Lhikan and Jesse hid behind Lhikan's shield, while Gobledo protected me and Simone his behind a dead mule with Tipsy tucking herself into some kind of metal ball.

Using Slimey’s eyes, I tried to see what lay beyond hidden in the shadows but my senses neither picked up the threat, nor could Slimey see them.

“Is everyone ok?!” Jesse called back, the rogue laying prone with both hands holding up Lhikan's shield against the onslaught.

“We're ok! What are those things?!” Simone yelled, flinching as a red bolt hit the axle of the carriage and sent it crashing to the ground.

“Automatons! Lemoidian constructs used to protect important Lemoidian places!” Tipsy yelled, her voice coming out muffled from her ball before it was struck, sending the gnome rolling away

Oh… right. I forgot we had those.

Oops.

“”Exterminate! Exterminate! Exterminate!”

(A/N:Please don't sue me)

“How do we deal with it?! I need options!” Lhikan demanded, his shield beginning to glow as several beams conjoined to focus on the metal surface.

“They’re resistant to magic and heavily armored! Water works but they have to be drenched! Otherwise blunt damage or something extremely sharp like a Stygerian steel spear!” Tipsy’s voice echoed back, her ball armor being sent further away from the group.

Suddenly a sound of glass shattering echoed out, followed by Ayaka’s voice crying out, “I’M FREE!” Before her high-pitched joyful voice shifted to loud cries of panic.

Ayaka! Barrier! I sent, ordering the Drider to be useful for once.

Within moments, a wall of translucent sigils appeared, dampening or outright dissipating incoming laser bolts.

At the sight of the barrier, the onslaught seemed to dampened, a prelude to an assault by bipedal golden machines billowing steam.

Nearly five feet tall, the droids had triangular heads with a singular bulbous glowing red eye. On both arms, they sported gauntlets with barrels that no doubt were the source of the lasers. However to make matters worst, the automatons weren’t just kitted out with laser guns, but also heated swords, their red-hot melee weapons snapping into place and humming with super-heated power.

“”Exterminate! Exterminate! Exterminate!”

Immediately Jesse and Lhikan rose to their feet, they two papal knights ready to engage their challengers, but both didn’t know what they were up against.

Fortunately, and uh… unfortunately…. I did, realizing that a certain dwarf had managed to beat me in a bet.

The automatons design was something I was intimately familiar with. On the surface, they were a unique metal killing machine, but the truth behind their design was that they were modeled after robots from two video games I used to play. One about being a guardian and another about diving into planets. Just sketches really, a sly way to act as though I knew more about automatons than what I knew in an effort to uh… show off and win a bet.

Ehem.

With Ayaka in play and a slight reprieve, it was time to take charge.

Slimey! Short circuit.

Heading my instructions, Slimey shot off the ground past Lhikan and Jesse. Two portions of her body split apart, elongating and weaving across the ground to avoid the onslaught of laser bolts in a way only an amorphous blob could.

The doppelgangers attacked the constructs, throwing themselves at the machines to seep through the openings of their armor and reach their metal innards. Once in, Slimey sparked, conducting the automaton’s electricity through herself and short-circuiting the machines in an instant fatality.

Immediately the suits of armor were blasted by their fellow metal compatriots, the constructs seeming to track Slimey’s signature.

With the hail of beams moving to focus on amorphous clones, I sent Ayaka forward, the tiny drider given the order of infiltration.

Using her barrier magic, Ayaka leaped into the darkness, the source of the laser fire with Slimey joining her a moment later.

Suddenly the hail of beams stopped all together, a few seconds passing in silence with the humans glancing up out from their various covers.

“It is safe to proceed.” Slimey let out, returning with a triangular metal head sporting a singular bulbous eye in her hand. Atop the automaton skull, Ayaka sat, munching on something red.

“Holy macaroni! That was close!” Jesse exclaimed, standing up as Simone rushed to help the injured Lhikan.

“I’m fine lass,” Lhikan said, brushing the woman off to stand on is own two feet to gaze over the ruined carts and their dead mules.

“Oh… great,” Jesse muttered, “Not even a week into our journey back and all our mules are dead.”

“NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!” Suddenly the frantic tearful cries of Tipsy echoed through the hallway, the little gnome running past the adventurers to surprisingly snatch the metallic head out of Slimey’s grasp, “You destroyed it! Why?! WHY?! IT WAS ONLY DOING IT’S JOB!”

Tipsy hugged the head close, her cheek planted on the head with Ayaka suddenly finding herself squished between metal and flesh.

“Here we go,” Jesse sighed, earning him an elbow from Simone, “What? Those things nearly killed us!”

“You’re crushing me!” Ayaka cried, flailing about.

“Jesse, see what can be salvaged, Simone, check if any of our mules survived,” Lhikan ordered, ignoring the little gnome’s sobbing to kneel before me being held in Slimey’s hands as her clones joined her main body.

“Forgive me my lord for not protecting you and your consort properly.” Lhikan said, the man exuding an air of deep remorse.

“My Lord says to… not mention it.” Slimey relayed, blushing as the word Consort played over and over in her head with images of me once-

“Hey, not to be that guy, but what are we going to do if there are more of those automatons?” Jesse said, calling out as he went to lean on a wheel of a carriage only for it to break underneath him and send him to the ground.

Ah… ya know, for once he actually has a point. I mused. If the-

Suddenly what remained of the functioning lights turned off, only to come back on as deep blood red strobe lights as a siren blarred.

“WARNING! WARNING! INTRUDER ALERT! INTRUDER ALERT!”

Slimey’s senses pricked, the floor beneath us vibrating ominously as the winding gears of machinery turned and hundreds of red lights lit up in the darkness ahead.

“”Exterminate! Exterminate! Exterminate!”

Jesse sighed and closed his eyes. “Oh dear destina… we’re all going to die here.”