They scatter as the golem leaps, and Joey flings her acidic alchemical cartridges at the golem while it tries to leap at Drenar first, swinging mightily, but slowly. The golem isn’t doing a very good job of tracking his speed because he’s almost a blur to the human eye. He’s almost as mercurially fast as Angela, if she has to draw a comparison, and–nope, that acid didn’t work. Nor did that one, even though it’s rated to chew through platinum series metals. It must be a different alloy, maybe one weak against caustics?
“Drenar, that armor plating is too tough for you, give ground, and don’t get cut in half!” she barks out.
“We really need to mention to Volkir that there's another bug with his golems! They are bad at friend-or-foe identification!” He’s in motion and side-steps the slice of both blades and catches one on the backswing, chunking the armor plating but otherwise not disrupting its motion. “This is made of tougher material, it's got high hardness Joey! Any idea what could counter it? Color almost matches steel or some kind of steel blend!”
“Magicite steel! Use caustics!" She encourages Levine and Nick, who pull out their specialized elemental orbs for this. They’d been well prepared for this vaunt, and kept a contingency of the various orbs handy against any situation. Even including a battle against an armor-clad monstrosity.
The orbs smash and splash against the armor plating on the back, and begin sizzling and melting away the material from the rapid caustic attack. But there is so much of it, the activation and control wards are unharmed, deep in the core of the golem. Angela tries to make a swing of it, but a blade catches her on her arm, cutting a narrow path across it and she grimaces against the pain before pulling back, wincing at the blow.
“It’s not working!” Drenar barks, and tries a kinetic blast. The force knocks the automaton away, but does nothing to stop it. “Angela, I have an idea! Bulldoze the sucker off the platform!”
“If we even can!” she counters, and flings a rhythm with him of high and low-pitched kinetic blows, forcing the golem backward. But it quickly adapts against this strategy as a few new panels open up at the legs, and sharp spikes roll down the legging, digging into the platform like little talons.
So much for that strategy. She thinks with enough time, caustics could burn a hole in the control rune. At least, she hopes that’s not all the steps needed to pull this off. She does have a couple of ideas against constructs, and Kyle seizes on the idea first.
“Julia, focus fire on its back! Keep hitting it with plasma, the resistance of the metal will heat it up and cause it to melt! Charge Joey’s staff, it’s made of mage steel!”
“Done!” She throws a light lasso and Joey holds up the staff to receive the charge. There’s a light tingle in her hands, but Julia is quite precise in channeling to the metal only. The staff surges with power, and Julia dodges gracefully as a pair of arms tries to bisect her. Drenar closes the distance and knocks a chunk of metal away with a sweep of Luminari, and does superficial damage. Angela takes a plasma charge from Julia, power surging across her partially emerged scales.
They really do have a pattern of attack by instinct. She wants in on this one! Paneling folds away and opens up on the left arm of the golem. It looks like it’s cycling a crystal into position behind a prismatic lens in a cylindrical apparatus, with rifling in the dark steel material barrel. The rim is scorched with blackened dust on the edge of the opening. There’s a surge of blue light through the crystal–”
“Mana battery! Get out of the way!” Kyle screams. Drenar is already closing into range just as the golem blasts him with a searing blue-white beam–except he phases out of reality and strikes at a joint on the heavily armored legs from the flank, having narrowly dodged the blast. It does nothing, and it swerves around to try to slice him with the free arm.
“Hey, that golem is going to bring the whole platform down, watch where it’s shooting!” Volkir shouts from the armband, but they’re already immensely occupied with not being sliced into dragon filets and kitsune kibbles, respectively. Angela manages to vault onto its back, and slams Drenars’ dagger into it, slicing into the metal and shearing viciously. It has a notable effect as it staggers, shouting something about the creator in that garbled mechanical voice.
This is why golems are heavily regulated, because when you can’t turn off an automated killing machine, it causes problems like this. She flings another canister of concentrated plasma, arcing into the narrow hole that Angela had landed before she’d had to kick away from another deadly slice, and staggers it for a second. The mana battery cycles another crystal into the firing position, and now it’s–oh great, it’s targeting her?! She dashes to the side just as it fires and she rolls to safety. It still singes her hair, and she feels burnt on her back. That was a seriously close call, but she’s still in motion, uses her staff to vault over the back, and slams down with a satisfying crunch.
Most people would look at kitsune and think they’re, on average, fairly wiry. The truth of the matter is, that kitsune muscle density is through the roof, and she is exceptionally strong despite her slightly more slender appearance than the average kin. It would be more pronounced in her kitsune form, but that strength carries over somewhat. It’s a muscle density approaching dragon strength, so her hit does damage. The plating crunches, and she tries to leverage it away by getting under the metal and prying upwards. She has to abandon her effort with a swerve to avoid a deadly blade coming too close for comfort. She tumbles to the ground, shouting in pain at the impact.
“Keep hitting it in the back!” Drenar draws its fire while Nick and Levine hammer in armor-piercing rounds at the soft spots. This earns the constructs’ ire and it fires the cannon again, missing Nick but causing Levine’s arcane barrier to flare, and he staggers to the ground. His clothes on his right flank are scorched, but he’s still in the fight. Joey flings another plasma canister and staggers the construct–these charges are working, they’re just only causing temporary overloads of the internal arcanist circuits that control the logic and operations!
“This isn’t working, I think it’s auto-repairing, look!” Kyle shouts. It’s almost as if the metal is liquifying on the outer hull and sealing over the existing damage, much to her surprise. “Running doesn't look like a bad idea!”
“Go! Kyle, Nick, get Levine across and check his condition!” Drenar barks out, even as he hops to avoid a downward strike that cleaves into the platform and leaves a massive gouge in the paneling. This platform is shaking, and Joey looks up–one of the support chains has been hit by a mana battery round, and she points it out.
“We have to move, that link isn’t going to hold!” Julia casts out a plasma tether to try to reinforce the hoop and tries to pinch it shut, but the damage is already done. The construct lurches at her, trying to cut away and she hops, somersaults, and otherwise deftly avoids those deadly blades.
She might have a competitor for gymnastics if they get out of this alive! Drenar doesn’t waste the opportunity and thrusts into the golem’s servo motors at the joint, and Luminari flares with light. Boiling yellow fluid bubbles out and splashes out of the damaged line, and the construct kicks at him–this time he’s not fast enough, and his arcane barrier shatters. He’s sent spinning, coming to a stop next to Joey. He groans and struggles to pick himself up.
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“Are you hurt?!” she shouts out. He shakes his head.
“Just my pride, and who puts giant freaking swords onto a golem, anyway?” He dares a glare at Volkir’s face on the armband.
“Me. It’s me. Just say it’s me and try not to die.” This dragon is such a sarcastic jerk-ass, and she’s going to have very unkind words for this supposedly dead dragon sage.
Drenar’s hit has finally done lasting damage, and Angela slides in and swipes at the other joint while Nick fires and Kyle helps Levine stagger to his feet and towards the far exit. The construct cycles another mana crystal, and Joey flings a canister of locking foam to try to disrupt its aim. It’s just enough to freeze it in place while the foam cracks like glass, and it heaves with all its might.
“Joey, do that again, fling it when we knock it off-balance!” Angela insists. Drenarr and Angela both launch kinetic blasts at it, sending it reeling, and the damaged limbs can’t withstand the impact and buckle backward. She flings two more canisters, pinning its arms to the catwalk and it heaves upward, the foam cracking from the sheer force.
“Glitzy finishing move!” Drenar roars with unrelenting fury and plunges the sword down with all his might into the guts of the machine, severing wiring and arcanist circuits in a blaze of sparks that sting his skin, and Joey takes her last plasma canister. She leaps into position and thrusts it into the opening when Drenar hops off to try and slice the golem’s head plating, but it’s thicker and more resistant there.
She doesn’t bother with a ridiculous quip and just thrusts the plasma canister that’s attached to a detonator canister into the parted metal, and is flung away by the arm breaking loose and she gets hit by the blunt side of the cannon. She rolls to the ground, in pain and shouting in pain. Her arm feels like it’s on fire, but she’s sure it isn’t broken.
“Drenar, run! Ten-second timer!” she screams out. Angela and Julia are already darting to try and get the others moving, and Drenar slices down, shattering the prism lens of the cannon. He sprints over to her, slides, and picks her up to her feet in one swift maneuver, and she fights through the pain and runs.
Their foe isn’t giving up that easily, and dashes toward them, closing the distance far too readily after it shatters the restraining foam. She’s gasping for breath as they continue the climb up the catwalk to the upper tier, on their way to the hatchway. The platform is lurching side to side over that deadly blue lake and she bangs a rib into a safety railing, leaving her in reeling pain.
“Joey let’s go, I’ve gotcha!” he shouts out and gets her moving again.
“Take cover!” She grabs him and flares her barrier to maximum force, just as that little potent explosive detonates inside the golem, bursting outwards and a jet of flame nearly sears them. The construct lurches erratically, the metal is petalled outwards and it is unable to repair this time. Bubbling fluid is leaking out, and the lights on its sensors for targeting foes are dimming.
“Dave, where are you? Daaaaveyyyy,” it manages to utter before it slices at a support cable of the platform. The motion sends it listing dangerously to one side and she scrambles to hold onto a cable, and she hooks her arm around Drenar, who almost lost his footing. The golem tumbles over the railing and goes head-first into the pool of deadly acid, the spray barely missing them. The droplets splash against the metal of the railing and sizzle on impact.
“Uh, Drenar?” she says with a tinge of panic. “We should run. Like now.”
“Oh, what primeval goddess did I piss off to end up with a day like this?!” he screams out in a decidedly unusual comment. He hoists her up to the platform’s more level section, and she is sprinting for dear life and pulls her up with a boost of strength. They’re both pumping limbs and hoping that those cables hold for just a second–
The metal cable snaps and lets go like a supersonic whip, and the whole platform starts dipping, falling backward like someone lowered a drawbridge straight down into a moat. Drenar scrabbles for a grip, and she grabs hold for dear life on a nook and gets him with one hand, hoisting up with all her kitsune might.
“Pull up!” she screams out. Muscles burn and her rib still hurts something fierce, and it’s taking every inch of her being to keep climbing on the increasingly vertical section of the platform, and Julia is waving to them from the safety by the doorway.
“C’mon, hurry!” She’s almost there, she pulls Drenar along, and then the support cables that are remaining snap from the gross overload. Freefall hits her stomach faster than her reflex that she’s going to die.
Drenar grabs her with one arm around her waist, and there’s a surge of ethereal bright white light all around her. She blinks, and the next thing she sees is Julia thrusting out a cable of plasma energy, wrapping around her arm and wrenching it, with Drenar dangling on her before reaching the tether. Her arm feels like it’s on fire, and this time she can’t help but let out a seething gasp of pain.
“Pull!” Drenar screams, even as he helps hoist Joey up that short distance, with Julia being supported by Angela and heaving with all her might, muscles bulging on her arms and sweating bullets as she uses every bit of force she has. It’s not until they’re on level ground that she lets out the pain that she’s been fighting for the last minute, and she grabs her arm, the plasma having lightly scorched her sleeve, and burns are present.
But they’re alive. By Gaia, they’re alive. “Julia,” she gasps, and points to her hopper kit with a feeble motion of her hand, “burns. Spartifor extract. Green liquid.” She pulls Drenar closer, who is also clearly hurting from the endeavor, and his palms look burnt. “Treat him–”
“No. Joey dear gods, I am so sorry!” Julia pleads, even as she grabs the canisters that pop out with a thought command. This device is the one application of her psionics she’s proud to have made, and she scrunches up next to Drenar, in pain, and out of breath. She gazes at him and he nods weakly.
“You are really strong for your size, you know that?”
“Hey, what can I say? I’m a gal of many talents.” She manages a laugh brought about by pain and exhaustion, and winces when Julia applies the salve to her arm. Meanwhile, she glances at Drenar and sees a faint smile. “Besides, I need you. For uh, samples. And academic curiosity. And totally not for personal reasons.”
“That sounded…you know what, I’m gonna unpack that one later.” He lets out a deep-felt laugh, and winces when he rubs his chest. “Damn, that might be another bruised rib, ow. I’m gonna need a punch card for these injuries.”
“Get nine rounds of triage, and the tenth one is free. On me,” Joey replies with a chuckle. She’s in too much pain to mask her feelings…just this once. Angela looks like she wants to wilt, Julia has the biggest grin she’s ever seen, and Kyle and Nick are too busy checking on Levine to really notice.
This day is getting nothing but strange. After a few minutes of checking for any other injuries and several choice insults thrown at Volkir, who broods at all the shade thrown his way, Julia kicks the hatchway door open.
“Hey uh, think there's any chance that Val and company will be able to follow us?” she points her thumb at the destroyed sets of platforms, where the splashing acid had melted a few more sections and left them listing dangerously.
“They have dragons. But there’s no way they can fly through, too narrow. I wouldn't chance it and dissolve my wings,” Drenar points out, and takes the lead with his autobow unslung down the corridor of stone tiling and small wisp lights adorning the area. There are several boxes of refuse stacked nearby, likely meant for disincorporation.
Maintenance probably won’t get to them for a while, Joey thinks with a foxlike grin. This danger level is almost dangerously addictive. Or is it because of the company she’s with?
Joey, you are one weird, wild kitsune, aren’t you?
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