Lu had to assume that the seven-person squad rapidly approaching was comprised of Mechanicals, one of the brotherhoods he hadn’t really interacted with. What kind of abilities will they have? Metal related? Shooting lightning, like Sulphur?
As both sides sent out volleys against the other, the answer seemed to be… bullets, mostly. Panels slid open along the sides of the vehicles, extruding guns of various size and shape already in the act of firing. Slugs of lead cut through the air, too fast for mere inner disciples to dodge – the front row was hit, Ging and Lady No flinching as the bullets flattened themselves against enchanted ceramic.
But his side had struck true as well; the dragonfly’s wings along their left side were sheared off by a beam of light, and it crashed to the ground violently, its own speed dragging it along the surface of the desert as it turned from a flying machine into a cloud of shrapnel.
Lu let out a slight breath. That’s a relief. Sure, a bullet would be a threat to me – maybe even the other disciples, if one hits a vital area – but with the armour we should be basically invincible. His balls of explosive ice launched in a tightly spiraling triangle, aimed for the leader.
The Snowballs accelerated, their individual forms blurring into a single smear of white as they approached the leader. It was angular, almost like an oversized coffin, and though there was ample room inside for a person to shelter, Lu had the impression that there wasn’t – not a whole person, anyway.
His spells came within a metre of the mirrored vehicle, but a moment before impact the thing slid to the side in an unnatural motion. The Snowballs impacted the leader’s wake, exploding into cold mist that washed over its back and coated it in frost.
Then the enemy rearranged themselves, and Lu started to feel the fluctuations of a massive attack building. Oh dear, that’s not a small amount of ki.
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Flying Angle’s radio zeroed out to static as Warmastra felt more than saw the impact. Dead instantly. Not a bad way to go.
His cores wailed with emotion as frost touched them, the insane things filling his head with contradictory nonsense which he tuned out through long experience. His remaining team’s radio chatter was much more coherent, “Saw the bullets hit, no injury.” “Got clipped by a fireball, guess we’re fighting knights.” “Makes sense – that’s some thick-ass armour.”
“Switch to esoteric attacks. Jim, Bubbles VIII, break off. These are Warboss-tier, alright.” The clan has to know.
Various quick acknowledgments, as well as an increase in attacks as they pierced further into the enemy formation – not that they had a formation, as such. They seemed to be all moving independently of each other, spread out to avoid stepping on their neighbour’s toes, in contrast to his squad’s perfect synchronisation.
To his left, Jim and Bubbles peeled off; Jim’s thick, armour-plated chassis blocking any hits that could have otherwise sent the rocket-propelled Bubbles down the same path as Flying Angle. Sorry boys, no glory for you today.
“Line formation. Concentrate on my target.” Cold continued to seep into his internals, and his focus narrowed. “The one with the damaged leg.”
Each core mounted along his top surged as his squad joined their strength to his, their wills subsumed into his own, and his speakers crackled as he announced his attack.
“Warriors treading upon the lands of Junk Dog, know that you face Warmastra, Raidboss of the Brotherhood of the Mechanicals.” Within his body, a pressure built, flowing through veins and wires without distinction. “Understand your mistake. Light of Warmastra!”
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A beam of light erupted from each of the six white spheres imbedded in the leader’s top, like a spray of Light Rays cast with incredible power. Lu could swear he could feel the ki being moved by the attack, not just the fluctuations but the entire field, wobbling like gelatine being cut into by a dull knife.
Space Ripper took him to the side, but this wasn’t a single blast; the beams were continuous, swivelling to track him even as he continued to fold space just barely ahead of their reach. Ah, that’s- the side of a beam grazed his forearm, the white material blackening, that’s a lot stronger than Light Ray! I need to..!
Disjointed Image took his place as he dropped into camouflage, preparing a counter-attack – but the beams didn’t seem to be fooled; some peeled off as his allies swooped in with their own arts readied, but one stubbornly continued nipping at his heels, completely ignoring his Image.
“Fine! Fine!” It’s time to demonstrate my hard-won combat abilities! I didn’t get much of a chance against the Grandmaster, but you aren’t nearly such a formidable foe! A fourth realm tower shield flashed into existence, and rather than continue dodging Lu leapt right into the beam. Combine a shield and a light-bending illusion, and you should get..!
Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
Like it had encountered a perfect mirror – which is exactly what Lu’s shield was, in a sense – the beam glanced off, reflected back at the lead figure. “Yes!” Only for it to immediately curve back in a physics-defying display, aiming right at him again.
Ack! Dodge! Space Ripper moved him, but now he was exactly back where he had started, dodging the sweeping beam with centimetres to spare. Frustrating! Who said you could make it curve like that? Or see through my illusions? That’s too many effects for one attack to have!
Nine extra rifles appeared hovering around his head, joining the one in his hand to make ten, and the next moment ten perfectly-aimed bullets hit the leader in his front. “Take this! A taste of your own medicine!”
The beams didn’t stop, but Lu’s heart jumped at seeing some visible damage to the vehicle’s body; some of the bullets had deflected off the metal, but a few hit hard enough to crater it, cracking the outer plating and burrowing a fingerlength in.
Not nearly as capable at defense as offense. Keep attacking! He was dimly aware of the others performing their own manoeuvres, scattering the remaining enemies, but there was too much going on for him to focus on anything but himself. I don’t think anyone’s dead, on our side. Let’s finish this before they pull out any other super-attacks!
Forms built in his head, and a tremendous amount of qi was sucked from his cracked dantian. Then he weaved even more forms out of mental effort, attaching them to the nascent spell. “Three-Headed Snake Conjuration, attack!”
Lu couldn’t see the qi construct forming behind his back, but he could definitely feel it moving the ki around – and almost, he thought, smell it. Though it was only a third realm spell, the Conjuration was one of the most complicated spells Lu had ever learned – while it lacked the sheer length of Lu’s Interpreter, Lu’s Scent Discerner, or the invisibility art he should really name at some point, it was composed almost entirely of third realm forms and required at least one other spellform to be stapled on to provide substance to its breath attacks.
Lu had chosen three different arts, a standard fire-ice-lightning combo of elemental attacks. Extending his sense a bit, he could see that his Three-Headed Snake, while much less impressive than Ging’s Eight-Headed Hydra, was still fairly imposing. It was longer than a man was tall, with smooth cream-coloured scales and three identical heads like that of a corn snake; long and thin, with the eyes near the snout. A bit cute, really. Now- I’ll focus on dodging, while my Conjuration attacks!
Lu put all his focus on casting Space Ripper as quickly and powerfully as possible, moving forward while avoiding the powerful beam. Within moments, he had come up beside the Mechanical’s leader – from this close, it almost felt like each of the orbs really was an eye, staring directly at him.
His Snake blasted the vehicle as he teleported away, three beams of his own meeting the one that was still tracking his movements. They held for a moment – then were blasted away, only the dregs of the attack making contact.
Lu ground his teeth. The beam isn’t tracking me quite as well up close. Maybe I should..? Dreamfever said not to worry about putting the enemy down, but having that attack following behind them at they fled would be terrible. I’m sure I can spare a few moments; the speeder is still trailing behind a ways, I’m not slowing the group down at all!
In the blink of an eye, rifles appeared in groups of four, fired, and were replaced with fresh rifles. Twenty bullets impacted the Mechanical’s side, chipping away its metal body to the point Lu could see wiring deeper in. Fireball! Kalak’s Acid! Virtuous Destructive Wave!
Spells and beams from his Conjuration bit even deeper into the enemy, and the thing’s own beams suddenly cut out. Ki washed over Lu’s body in chaotic waves; something powerful was happening, but he was certain this wasn’t a structured attack. Yes! Explode, explode!
It really did seem like the machine-man was about to explode – but the next moment Lu felt ki reaching to connect with the leader, and the explosion-feeling became less intense. What? It’s coming from…
The subordinates. There were still two left, the skull-adorned hovercraft and a man whose lower half was a two-wheeled ground speeder, like some sort of mechanical centaur. Are they… dual cultivating? He could feel the leader’s ki settling between one second and the next, bolstered by the connection.
Lu’s foot hit the ground, and time seemed to slow down as he waffled between attacking again and continuing past – then a dozen or so lightning bolts dropped down out of the sky, grounding themselves near him and the other disciples. Ah! What?! His Image burst apart, and several of his group had been hit directly – though the armour had shown its worth; no-one was down. I think it’s about time to go. That was definitely the Sky-Touchers getting involved, and trying to fight someone a kilometre up would be… unwise.
He renewed Disjointed Image – at least the lightning is fooled, if nothing else – and once again pumped as much qi into Desert Crossing Fist as it could handle.
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Fellhair gripped his radio rather than let it hang on his side, giving the thing an incredulous look. “You say that Junk Dog told you it was aliens? Directly?” He sent another bolt down, only barely aiming; at this distance, the electricity would go where it would go. Trying to actually hit something in particular was a game for fools and Warbosses.
The voice on the other end was wired up, their emotion badly hidden behind a curtain of seriousness. “His exact words were ‘invaders from another world.’” An explosion caused a flare up in static, drowning out some of the Raidboss’s words. “-Don’t see what it matters. Wherever they came from, they’re strong. My boys make it?”
A pause. “Sorry.”
The radio grunted. “Shame.”
“Yeah.” Looking down at the battlefield far below, Fellhair’s expression became complicated. “We don’t exactly have a lot of strong guys around. Might have to ambush ‘em inside the Pit.”
Another grunt. They were thinking the same thing; that’s the old way of doing things, but what other option is there?
Below, one of the armoured figures parried a lightning bolt with his fist; just straight-up brushed it aside like it wasn’t anything. Another bolt hit the speeder, but it was ground out by a tendril of water trailing all the way down to the ground.
His teeth ground. “That would be the smart thing to do – but I’ve got one more trick to pull.”