Two, three, four. The group of buzzing drones floated into my direct vision and peripherals.

Alright, it was obviously battle time then, even if I partly wished it wasn’t.

I’d been in worse situations though. I could handle this. I had to, as always.

I winced and pulled myself up from my crouch.

The gear beneath me rotated to reveal more enemies in the spanning chasm of gears and pipes. The occasional burst of steam shot out from one stop-gap release valve or another, every other second.

The bugs seemed wary to approach me, but they were definitely sizing me up.

Good. Every second was helping me recover.

I opened my dominant hand wide, reluctantly urging the mana to pulse from my soulcore and into my grasp. It was sluggish to travel over my pathways, pathways that ached.

I might be recovering my mystical energy, but my body was taxed. The soulcore in my chest could output the energy I needed, but I wasn’t sure how long I could withstand it doing so.

My mouth tasted like iron, as my flaming purple rapier lengthened from a gout of raw fire and into a glowing weapon.

The sword was already a well-worn friend; even if it had a new shape than its original, it felt as if it was always the same blade no matter how many times I summoned it--it was merely evolving alongside me.

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The gear rotated and so too did the drones begin to swarm and circle around it.

I heard a whooshing and I instantly cursed Gwen’s absence. It came from behind; making it amply clear that no one had my back as I’d grown so used to.

I almost didn’t dodge the detached beak of the mosquito-like drone as the pointy, metallic needle soured past my shoulder.

Instinct had saved me, along with the mana that I’d swarmed into my perception to speed it up and slow down the time around me.

The needle bounced off of the gear’s surface in front of me and instantly began to spin.

Another needle came next, which I deflected off of my rapier, and then another which glancingly tore a tuft from my enchanted armor.

If the damage to my equipment kept up I was going to be fighting in tatters again.

The bug drones were obviously ranged fighters and had one over on me in their numbers. They also had the benefit of being less squishy than most other mobs due to their metallic nature, but I’d been shredding the creatures of the tower all day now.

And I was mobile too.

I allowed my body to break into a swarm of flame, dodging a few more projectile needle beaks as they seemed to telekinetically redirect themselves towards me after missing my vital spots beforehand.

My gauntleted hand reformed first and my grappling spear launched out, dragging my reforming body through the air.

My sword arm, only half made solid again from the flames I’d become, lashed out and cut a worker drone in half as I soared towards and my feet slammed into the side of another pipe.

I shifted my head away from the gushing of purple steam that billowed out of the pipe, from where my grappling spear had punctured it, as I hung off its side and glanced back towards the disoriented looking, but ever machine-like drones that remained.