Jiehong must've recognized Zan's shocked look. He asked, "Is that him?"
"Yeah. How are we going to do this, bud?" Zan asked, really feeling the pressure.
Although Zan really needed to hear a strategy, Jiehong was silent. Zan nudged him but he only replied, "I really don't know, man."
Feck-on-a-stick! What were they going to do? Zan drew his sword and equipped his buckler shield. "We'll fight our way through the old-fashioned way!"
Trudging into the mass of golems Zan struck out and destroyed several as he let his sword do the talking. Unfortunately, the few he destroyed with little effort were merely regular golems. Now, he came upon several red golems intermixed among the normal.
Zan knew continuing his bladed assault was the best option against these slightly reinforced red golems. Because the red golems had a defensive veneer, however, Zan would need to break through their partly defenses without overextending himself. He conjured magic into the same hand as his buckler while blocking an attack; launching a counterattack right after he blocked, another golem fell.
To his right, Zan saw Jiehong destroy an equal number of golems, though he could not see, totally, his fighting style, he knew Jie must be ragged himself. Shaken from the exo-suit if nothing else.
With the magic energy gathered in his palm, Zan shot out a basic fiery blast. The blast consumed the red golem, quickly eating away at its exterior, until only ash and a weakened and burned frame fell to the floor.
Continuing their assault, Zan mowed down more golems -- upper-slash, downward slash, full-skewer. Zan fought with whatever made sense in the moment. He didn't let himself become too bold. He knew he had to conserve energy. Which meant letting the enemy take a blow at him, so he could responsibly block and counter.
His System continued to give him notifications regarding his stamina levels and magic levels. Both were under half. Both notifications were not something he found useful. Zan already knew he was tired. Knowing or not, the System gave him notifications regarding Jiehong. He fared no better than Zan. Jiehong's energy levels were the same if not worse than his own; his one advantage over Zan was the metallic cage which surrounded his body and could act as a shield to block simple attacks from cruddy weapons. Zan would not encourage Jiehong to overly rely on the cage to block attacks, least the one attack he attempts to block overwhelms the cage and breaks it, but for now, Jiehong did not need to worry over blocking. He could focus solely on attacking.
"Light your sword!" Jiehong shouted.
"Oh, right! Fire sword!" Zan replied. Seeing the next enemies still several steps away, Zan had time. He placed his index finger to his thumb and hummed. Sometimes, humming helped Zan focus his magical generation. He slid his fingers carefully along the blade, giving birth to powerful flames.
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With his sword alit in flame, Zan stepped toward the automotrons and took a running cleave at a gold-painted golem. The blade had force behind its motion, allowing Zan to wholly cut in half the golden foe with only one swing -- a new personal best!
Zan kicked the partially melted slab of a golem into a nearby group of automotrons. Ready to do more battle despite his tiring condition, Zan's eagerness to defend himself was interrupted when Mentality's voice called out over the enraged room, halting the automotrons advance.
With everything silent, all eyes turned toward Mentality in the captain's chair.
"Arrogance! What else do you call it?" Mentality shouted. "Before I butcher you and your friend, what is your name?"
"It's Zan! Didn't he already tell you?!" Jiehong shouted back.
"And what do you mean butcher? Like, kill? You can't kill us. That would go against that holy legal thing. From the gods?" Zan added.
Mentality did not have an answer: "Destroy them," he instructed his automotrons, admitting his verbal defeat. But the automotrons did not move. "Shet," Mentality said, though some ways from the microphone-device, as Mentality's cursing was hardly heard as he attempted a troubleshooting process for getting his golems activated again.
"Ignore the asshole!" Zan shouted as he and Jiehong ignored whatever it was which Mentality was saying and pressed their advantage: if the golems weren't yet moving, that was to their benefit. And the benefit of their flaming swords.
Though over-driving themselves wasn't the smartest move, they couldn't be picky when their enemies offered their lives up on silver platers. Both friends drove their blades with a frenzy. Golem after golem fell to them, the gold-golems fell first. "Crap!" Mentality said, not to them, but to the situation. "Why are the golems -- wait. I didn't say the action word? What was the action word?"
Mentality continued to mutter to himself as Zan and Jiehong continued cutting down golems. Sweat flopped from Zan's hair and face as he worked himself to get to as many golems as possible before Mentality got his crap together and became a threat. Zan remembered how formidable Mentality could be as a foe. He didn't know exactly what trouble was unfolding for his foe, but Zan welcomed the trouble all the same.
Before long, Mentality found a solution to his trouble. Barely heard above the din of waging war -- blade on wood -- and with the room smoggy with smoke from the burning dead and emblazoned sword, Zan saw the golems jerk before coming back alive. "Finally!" Mentality shrieked. "Why was that the code word?" he added to himself, cussing
Launching several fire balls at the enemy, more automotrons vanished into damnation and collapsed to the floor in piles of ashes. [Ally: Jiehong: Magic Depleted], the System informed Zan.
'Okay. That's fine. We just have to... what do we have to do?' Zan speculated as he turned his attention to the figure in the dyed porcelain mask.
Do we have to defeat Mentality? Zan questioned as he looked Mentality's way. I guess that depends on how the airship is flying without a captain...
Was Mentality the captain or was it another person or golem? Zan's thoughts were interrupted immediately. An alarm came on the airship's intercom system. Zan did not have the time to appreciate how another structure aside from the Command Center had an intercom system. A very rare find! With the ship's voice saying, "WARNING! WARNING! Ship is losing altitude. Please correct or crashing is imminent." The warning repeated itself before a violent and unwelcome CRASH made everything go dark.