Claaang.

I cleaved another of the foot long, half-inch radius metal cylinders with the glimmering blade of Delirium of Ruin, the bisected cylinder split like a watermelon, it’s two fragmented pieces each crashed into the ground on either side of Chrys. My mind swam with the number of objects and vectors out in the darkness, which mixed with the camouflage or non-detection abilities of the Stalking Scavs, left me effectively blind, unable to find targets to electrocute. I could run out there, dashing about like a mad-man swiping at empty air, but then I wouldn’t be able to protect Chrys, and I had no real idea how many enemies we were even facing.

Charging around like an idiot wasn’t on the menu today.

This frustrated me. I had developed Bedlam Bolt to allow me to respond to threats at range, and now that I had a ranged attacks the enemy we faced seemed to vanish in and out of existence, leaving me completely unable to smite them.

“What’s a window for?” Arx Maxima asked me, her tone casual, almost bored. It wasn’t like she had to worry about getting pierced by a hunk of metal traveling with enough velocity to shatter stone on impact.

“How do you normally fight these assholes?” I asked Chrys.

“We usually resort to wide-ranged attacks of mass destruction,” Chrys answered me in displeasure. Neither of us, really, had that. I couldn’t summon Katrina in these tunnels and expect us to make it out alive, and even if I could, there was a strong chance the storm would fall back and destroy Schieferon.

I considered what Arx Maxima had alluded to. What was a window for? Windows, at their base use, allowed for light to transfer and visibility. But you could open a window, and let fresh air inside. I conjured a wall before me, and rested my back against the hard, safe, surface. I imagined a window before me, that looked down on one of the Stalking Scavs. I didn’t fail, a window formed, but I didn’t see a Scav in the view from near the ceiling of the cavern looking down at the rocks.

“Left side, next to the rock that looks like a penis,” Chrys chimed in.

“All rocks look like… oh, yeah, that looks like a penis.” When Chrys pointed it out, I still couldn’t find the Stalking Scav, but the more I stared at the rock, the more I thought I saw an outline, until suddenly vector information spawned for the concealed Scav.

I raised my hand and launched two quick blasts of black lightning at the hidden foe. Its armor smoked, delicate pieces exploded, and part of the metal dome of its helmet melted to reveal a scaly face with six eyes, and eight horrifying mandibles that clacked and twitched as life left its body. When I say it had six eyes, what I really mean is it had a set of eyes at the front of its face, a set at the back, and two stalky appendages that it could swivel around inside its helmet to fill in the gaps.

“That’s disgusting,” I grunted and closed the window.

“That’s a handy power. If we combine your scrying windows with my ability to follow sympathetic links, they won’t be able to hide from us!” Chrys kept her volume low, the sound of triumph entered her voice.

“Once they realize invisibility is out, what other tricks are they going to pull?” I wondered.

“They have explosives, projectile launchers, tamed beasts, and their last resort is physical combat. I assume you’ll be able to overpower them, I’ve never heard of one of them cutting projectiles in half mid-air.” Chrys elaborated on their weapons with a lack of detail that surprised me. Her artisan soul didn’t seem to be interested in the Scavs methods, even when it came to her own survival.

“Alright, I’ll be ready for that. Do we keep going straight?” I wished for a map, but the Gneisslings didn’t use them. Something about their ability to communicate allowed them to transfer detailed terrain information to one another non-verbally, so maps weren’t necessary. It also had the unanticipated side-effect of the majority of Gneisslings being atrocious at giving directions in spoken language.

“Straight, yes. Soon we will enter the ruins and be forced to fight in tighter quarters.” Chrys spoke with a dubious tone about straight, so I just accepted I would have to let her constantly update me on where we were going.

“Tighter quarters than the caves?” I asked in surprise, but I would make it work one way or the other. Delirium of Ruin could slice through anything, I would have to be mindful of not getting my weapon trapped, if I remained mindful enough it would be fine.

It ended up being close to another mile before we reached the entrance to the ruins. I estimated it took us close to an hour to cover that mile, far longer than it should have. The number of traps increased dramatically. I went from ignoring the obvious traps, to detonating them with blasts of lightning. I readjusted that tactic when one trap went up in a cloud of noxious fumes that forced us to retreat until the air was safe for me to breathe. After that incident, I took a good look at the traps before exploding them with lightning.

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I didn’t understand a lot of the traps. They were made of metal and something Arx Maxima called plastic. In a world full of magical powers, astral forces, and Mist Lords, the arcane workings and powers of science felt unfair, but Arx Maxima said that once I understood more science, I would not be so ill-prepared to deal with it.

“Knowledge is power, Emery. The more you understand science, the more you will be able to control reality itself. We are the Administrators of existence, there is no greater power than ours. You bound me to your essence, yet have not fully accepted and integrated us,” Arx Maxima bragged and chided, but maybe she had a point.

I don’t know how much more integrated we can be, than my body being full of your shards, us talking mentally constantly, and you floating around me all day long.

The silence in response to my statement wasn’t at all troubling. How close did Arx Maxima expect us to become?

“We’re here,” Chrys spoke softly. “There’s a guard,” she warned.

The cave ended abruptly in a metal hull. The exterior hull looked white, maybe gray, and it covered a huge section of the cavern like a wall. There were few markings on the hull, and those that there were looked to be made by people trying to break in. All the scorches, scratches, dents, dings, and burns failed to pierce more than a quarter inch of the wall. A single entrance, a circular door, spilled light into the cavern, and in the doorway stood one of the Stalking Scavs.

We had killed two more in the long haul to reach the ruins, but this was the first we had encountered who simply waited for us. Its armor lacked the camouflage effect, and instead had a sleek silver and black look. An axe with a wicked blade and a spiked back rested comfortably in its right hand, and a short sword in its left. A small, gleaming shield was secured to its left forearm.

A language I could only describe as something between chittering and screeching echoed from the shining sphere-helmet.

“Any idea what it said?” I asked Chrys.

“Not even a little,” Chrys laughed.

“It challenged you to single combat. If you win, you may enter the ruins and challenge their leader. If you lose, it gets to eat you and turn Chrys into a weapon.” Arx Maxima, surprisingly usefully, translated the creatures words.

“You want to fight me? Let’s go. Don’t interfere, Chrys.” I stretched my limbs as I walked towards the creature, and Chrys laughed at me as if I were an idiot.

“You’re just going to trust it’s honorable? You don’t even know what it said!” Chrys snapped at me, and I realized she cared if I got hurt. I felt bad for not explaining about Arx Maxima, and what the creature had said.

“I do, I’ll explain after I win.” I assured Chrys. Dubious about the situation or not, she didn’t protest again.

The Stalking Scav slowly approached, and I advanced to meet it. It nodded its domed, metal helmet at me, and I nodded back. That’s when it tossed a cylinder at me, the red flashes already increasing in frequency. My danger-sense went through the roof, and the second the cylinder reached my five-foot range, I shot it back at the Stalking Scav with Modify Vector.

BOOM. Roiling bursts of flame and a small shockwave exploded from the cylinder, vaporizing rubble and rock, about halfway between us. Did it go off on a timer, or did it have some other trigger? I’d just have to make sure none got too close to me.

“I thought you wanted to fight? Enough fireworks, come at me.” I gave Delirium of Ruin a flashy spin, then gestured for the Scav to come at me.

Surprisingly, it did. The Scav charged right at me to deliver an overhanded, high-powered blow with its axe. Speed wise, the creature fell into a category I would say went somewhere between where I was now, and where I remembered Claire being. The vector for its swing indicated it had greater physical strength than me, but I had something it didn’t.

I parried the blow with Delirium of Ruin. The blade of my spear sliced through the head of the axe splitting into pieces, which I shot away from the fight with a quick change to their vectors. I barely even felt any impact resistance against my palm, so keen was the bladed end of the spear.

Undaunted, the Scav pressed a button on the haft of its axe. A torrent of electricity flowed out and some of the arcing tongues of lightning hit me and Delirium of Ruin, coursing numbness through my hands and shooting a spasm through many of my muscles.

The Scav’s short-sword pierced the thin black bodysuit I wore with only minimal resistance, and then the blade sparked and screeched as it hit the scale-like flows of mists that traveled over my skin. The blade skidded a few inches lower, before the Scav’s strength pushed it through the durable mist and into my flesh.

I saw red, and spasms or not, flicked Delirium of Ruin in a counterstroke. The creatures domed, metal head fell to the ground with a clang, severed by the crescent moon blade on the bottom of my spear.

I winced and threw the creatures still standing body with a wave of my hand, the sword fell out of its lifeless fingers, and I yanked it out of my side. In the burst of pain, I bit my tongue again, and the taste of copper filled my mouth.

Fuck, that hurt.

“Real victory there,” Chrys said flatly, and her slightly cool hand pressed against my side. I hadn’t even started to heal myself yet, and here she was, warm energy flowing from her lifeless rocky hands into my stomach. The laceration quickly healed under her ministrations.

“How many more do you think we’ll have to fight?” I wondered.

“All of them,” Chrys answered grimly.

“Why do you think that?” I activated Fortress Restoration to quicken her healing, and to heal my tongue.

“When a Gneissling manages to kill them, they spend extra effort attempting to kill them in the future. You’ve killed multiple of them now. Even if you don’t have to kill them, do you want them hunting you down later?”

I had a hard time finding a flaw with her reasoning.