“Oh how p-p-p-poetic, how l-long were you h-h-h-ho-oldin’ that g-g-em of a phrase in yer m-m-m-mind?” the fighter known as Tenacia growled in response, her face still unfrozen. “Y’ain’t g-g-g-oin’ to get away with this!”
“Yes yes, spare me that bravado Tenacia Ironvale, you've done quite enough damage on top of our Brass Behemoth… I won’t be killing you, for you and your brother still have jobs to do down here” Karagoz replied, chuckling darkly.
“We told ya before, we ain’t doin’ anythin’ for the likes of a crappy cadaver! Just turn this oversized donkey cart around and bring us back home!” Tenacia barked back, too angry to stammer from the increasing coldness of the ice.
“Ahh, but you forget you pathetic creature!” Karagoz sniggered darkly, he raised a finger and suddenly the ice around Tenacia rose up their body faster, "You don't get a say in the matter"
The man with the sword on the other hand looked at Tenacia in great concern and walked forward between Tenacia and Karagoz.
“You may want to do what he says,” he whispered to Tenacia.
“D-drop dead you wannabee berserker!” she snapped, "I don't need help from you, I c-can handle this witless wizard easily!"
“I am a necromancer...“ Karagoz laughed, shoving the swordsman out of the way and drawing a dagger.
"So you are far more useful to me dead than alive!" Karagoz dramatically said, stabbing the dagger into Tenacia's head... Or so he thought. Karagoz soon found Tenacia unstabbed.
Karagoz stared at the dagger in his hand, he tried to move it to no avail. Karagoz let it go and stared in astonishment as the dagger hovered in midair.
“S’matter? M-magic ain’t workin’ right?” Tenacia taunted.
“Silence!” he hissed, he pointed his staff at the hovering dagger. “Frigid gale, move this stupid knife!” he roared at it. A chill wind suddenly blew, but the mushroom didn’t budge an inch. It didn’t even gather frost.
“What is this stupid-“ Karagoz started before he got a face full of Tenacia’s boot, who was now suddenly unfrozen and running as fast as she could.
“I dunno whats goin’ on myself, but I better find Hubert!” Tenacia thought to herself, briefly looking at her free body in confusion. She ran past the astonished swordman to a door that jutted out of one of the great smoke billowing pipes that rose nearby, some of the cloaked workers following closely behind. The dagger Karagoz had held suddenly fell onto the ground with a clatter.
Karogoz grabbed the dagger and got himself up, fuming with fury and indignation.
“What’s this crap?! Dwarves and those with dwarven blood can’t cast magic! Who is responsible for this?” he looked at the melted ice that laid as a puddle where Tenacia had stood, what was once the icy prison form from his freezing spell.
“I don’t know sir, but I assure you I will figure this out” the man with the giant sword said confidently.
“You had better Lionel, so far you have not proven to be as great as your reputation…” Karagoz rumbled.
Lionel stiffly gave him a salute and ran in the direction Tenacia went, right into a door that led into the behemoth.
Out of sight gripping the edge of the behemoth’s back, Twist held on to to the side with one arm and held an ebony staff with the other. It was he who had stopped the mushroom in place with a spell of pausing and got the ice off of Tenacia by fast forwarding so far it eventually melted. For alongside Air, one of Twist’s specialties was Time magic.
“Most intriguing,” Twist thought to himself, as he clambered down the side of the behemoth to avoid detection.
“I’ve certainly made a lot of discoveries,” he thought deeply, “First I find this gigantic walking machine, then I find out within it live a knight, a sorcerer, and a lot mechanical beings.”
He landed on a nearby balcony, scratching his chin as he kept summarizing everything he had seen.
“Not to mention, that woman is half-human and half-dwarf! Incredible! But no time to theorize what is going on, I need to save her from this batch of ne’er do wells!”
Twist looked around the balcony. Nearby was a door. He turned the knob, only for it to stay put.
“Infiltration is the only way I can save Tenacia,” he thought. “Hmm I don’t want to be using too much vis after those time spells though. No more vis means no more spell casting after all! Well, not much else to do, I need this unlocked.
He leaned down and looked at the door’s keyhole, then he raised the tip of his staff to it.
“Wind of the Grey Vale do as I say, enter the lock and open the door right away,” he whispered.
There was a small rush of wind that entered the keyhole, it shook and several small clicks could be heard inside. Twist heard one big click and the door now opened without any resistance, which Twist quickly ran into.
Tenacia ran as fast as she could down the hallways inside the behemoth, going down stairways and turning into various different corridors at random. She eventually came to a crossroads of numerous passages, with a big wall that had a large picture of the behemoth on it. Near the center of the drawn behemoth was a large X that had the words “You are here” written next to it.
“’Kay, I’m near the Engine Room,” she thought. “The dungeons are way in the back of the beast… In its butt… Gross! Now how do I get there?”
Tenacia gazed at the various lines that indicated all the ways through the behemoth, her mind swam as she tried to make sense of the elaborate maze.
Tenacia heard footsteps approaching her from where she had ran.
“Time to just wing it!” she thought, so she dashed down a hall at random, one that went downwards like a stairway. She soon came across a great heavy door, with her great strength she opened it in a flash and was met with sweltering heat that smacked her in the face.
The massive room in front of her contained several large gears that clattered and span, it was like a tower inside and she could not see the ceiling. The gears eventually connected to devices that were themselves connected to pipes, all of these pipes were connected to a huge dome-shaped machine in the room’s center that was the source of the tremendous heat. This device rumbled and strained as it sent an unknown substance through the pipes and let loose the energy that moved the gears.
“Welp, looks like I’m taking a detour through the Engine Room,” Tenacia groaned tiredly.
She looked around, she noticed spiraling staircase that spun around the room’s walls and went upward into the darkness above, at some points the stairs connected to little platforms on which were doors that led to different parts of the behemoth. Not sure where else to go, she jogged up the stairs as fast as possible and picked a door above at random.
“Ok, once I find Hubert,” Tenacia strategized internally “Then we just need to find our weapons, which those jerks took and threw into the hoard in this thing’s belly, then we can make our back to the surface! Easy pasy!”
As she ran past a door, it slammed open and out came Lionel.
He smirked at Tenacia, then from his hip unsheathed a short sword which he pointed at Tenacia.
“Flame Missile!” he shouted.
Out of the sword’s tip came out a large arrow shaped plume of flame that flew right for Tenacia. It hit her squarely, but there wasn’t a scratch on her or the jacket she wore.
“Dwarven jacket ya moron!” Tenacia laughed. “It will take a lot more than fire to hurt me!”
Lionel frowned, then focused on his short sword.
“Alright then, you asked for it… Flame Whip!”
He swung the sword overhead and the flames formed into a long snaky rope of fire that caught Tenacia by one of her arms. She gave an angry shout, Tenacia almost grabbed the flaming whip but quickly deciding touching it with her other hand would be a bad idea. Holding the sword with both hands, Lionel pulled and dragged Tenacia off of the stairway where she fell to the ground. She landed squarely on the arm that had been grabbed.
“Give up miss, you are caught once again,” Lionel said rather smugly. Tenacia groaned from the pain of the fall, then quickly glared at him.
“No way!” she yelled in response. She got up and ran, or more accurately hobbled, as fast as she could with a now broken arm. As she tried to make her escape, she turned to the large dome-like device in the room’s center. Tenacia now noticed the various valves and buttons that were across it, as well as a huge latched metal gate on the side of the dome. Her plan turning to sabotage to distract Lionel, she rushed to the gate and tried removed the latch.
“Stop!” Lionel yelled close behind “Don’t do that! You’ll kill us all!”
The latch was almost as big as Tenacia herself, but with a mighty lurch she pulled it up. The gate opened with a snap and out of the gate came a terrible conflagration.
This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
“No!” Lionel yelled as he ran forward and yelled “Extinguish!” to his sword.
The runes on it dimmed and the fire whip that had been tied around Tenacia’s leg vanished. Tenacia got up and readied her fists to punch Lionel as he ran toward her.
Then he ran past her, Tenacia turned and looked in surprise as Lionel tried to force the gate on the engine to close. Then like an explosion another burst of flame came out and a metallic arm reached out of the dome, grabbing Lionel with its steely claws.
Tenacia looked in horror as whatever was in the engine dragged Lionel into the engine itself. She ran to the flames to try and help him, but then there was a the clang of a metal door slamming open. Tenacia turned to the source and there was Karagoz, entering the room through a door from above.
Tenacia paused for a moment, then cursed as she ran and grabbed Lionel’s hand before he fully vanished into the flame. With a great pull she she threw him against the wall, then ran quickly to a different door on the bottom floor.
Karzgoz got to the bottom floor and ran after her, ignoring the flaming hand coming out of the engine to grab Lionel again. This time though the knight was prepared, as tired as he was. He gave the hand a grim look and stabbed it with his short sword. The runes on the sword glowed and suddenly the flames around the hand began to dim, as if the sword were eating the flames. The hand fell to the floor weakened, which Lionel quickly pushed back into the engine and closed the gate with its latch back on.
Then he fell onto his back, completely exhausted.
“The gal saved me… Cool, maybe I could ask her out when this is all done,” Lionel thought to himself.
Twist made his way through the behemoth, running as fast as he could but also taking time to look at the workmanship of the interior.
“Amazing, the craftsmanship is impeccable… Is this truly a work of mortals?” Twist marveled, then he shook his head.
“Ok, focus Twist… Someone is in trouble. Now lets find her, everyone on this machine is already on high alert so no problem with exposing yourself,”
Twist cleared his throat, inhaled deeply, and let out a brief but powerful shriek. His ears perked up and he listened closely.
Most of what he could hear was the booming clockwork and running fuel, but with his sensitive inner ear he could still make out what his echolocation picked up. It bounced throughout the labyrinthine interiors, picking up various humanoid shapes, those moving within the behemoth. Eventually, he picked up one much squatter than the others, one that was also injured and barely scraping by.
Tenacia ran down another hallway.
“Gotta get to Hubert…” she panted, limping from her burned ankle.
Then she slipped and with a yelp fell onto her front. She tried to get up, but her hands could find no grounding on the ice she was suddenly on.
There was the sound of slow sarcastic clapping.
“Well done wretch,” Karagoz chuckled behind her, putting great emphasis into each mocking clap “You were able to delay the inevitable, but now it is time for you to join our band of explorers and carry out your duty.”
“Over m’dead body,” Tenacia growled.
“I will happy to oblige you, after you have served your purpose,” Karagoz said, getting out his sharp dagger again.
“Back off! A wounded dragon is still a dragon” Tenacia barked.
“Oh me oh my… Whatever will I, an accomplished sorcerer with powers you cannot begin to comprehend, do? Ha! I am not afraid of you child”
“Ha! Ya sure seem like you are, why else are you backing away?”
Karagoz then realized he was walking backwards and putting the dagger back into his cloak.
“What is… Argh! Time magic again!?” Karagoz spat and glared at Tenacia. “Who is behind this? What is your secret? Insignificant creature!”
Tenacia looked at him in confusion, having no idea what was causing the magic herself.
“That would be me.”
Tenacia and Karagoz looked at the newcomer, a tall bat-like person wearing a black cloak and tall black top hat, his yellow eyes glimmered as he was pointing his staff at Karagoz.
“So sorry to interrupt fellow mage, but you don’t seem a decent sort and I think this good lady may need some help,” Twist said casually, walking to Tenacia’s side keeping his staff pointed at Karagoz.
“Hey! Don’t call me lady!” Tenacia snapped.
“Oh wait, you aren’t?” Twist gasped, extending a hand to help her up.
“No I am a lady, but I don’t wanna be called lady or milady!” Tenacia growled as Twist helped her up. “You make me sound like a damsel-in-distress! Just miss or ma’am will work!”
“Certainly! I will remember that!” Twist chipperly replied.
“Good, you are the only polite person I’ve met in this stupid place” Tenacia said with a smile.
“What are you two blabbering about?!” Karagoz roared, suddenly furious “And who are you bat?! What are you doing here?!”
Twist looked up at Karagoz.
“My name is Twist, remember it well!”
He then waved his staff at Karagoz.
“Time and order, bound without limit,” he said grimly, the violet orb at the staff’s end glowed “Send this miscreant back a minute!”
The orb let out a great flash, then Karagoz continued to walk backwards far away, he threw a variety of swears and curses at Twist as he did so.
Twist lowered his staff and panted heavily.
“Ok! That’s enough moving people through time for one day” he breathed, leaning on his staff.
“You sure YOU aren’t the one needing rescuing?” Tenacia said with a mix of derision and concern.
“Don’t worry! I’m just out of vis. And I still have plenty of physical power,” Twist said smiling, though still panting heavily.
Suddenly he found himself slung across Tenacia’s shoulder.
“Hold on there ma’am!” Twist yelped, his white fur hiding his blush “I can walk just fine, besides it isn’t right that you with your injured arm should be forced to carry me!”
“Buddy, I ‘preciate the chivalry, but I got dwarven blood and bones! Don’t sweat it! Jus’ tell me where to go!” she said confidently.
Twist paused, then gave directions on where he had gone. His entry would now be an exit.
Karagoz reversed all the way back into the control room of the behemoth before the spell finally wore off, behind him was the eyes of the behemoth: a great glass window where many workers were twisting knobs, pushing buttons, and pulling levers. On the left side of the window was a great metal tablet where various glyphs and runes arranged in a way they looked like a huge maze with one glyph bearing a resemblance to the behemoth and moving along the maze.
“Ahh High Priest Karagoz, what is going on?” said a calm voice from the control panels, Karagoz turned around and faced a masked worker who was a bit shorter and thinner than the others. His mask was different as well, it wasn’t blank but was a simplified human face with no nose or ears, just two glassy eyes and a thin mouth that moved when he spoke.
“Rebellion and filthy cheating!” Karagoz snapped “The half-dwarf is loose and there is a noctav running around the behemoth who is helping her escape!”
“A noctav?” Zelos repeated in surprise, “This is illogical, how is there a noctav here?”
“I have no idea! But I know what to do: put the Brass Behemoth into turbo mode, we must prevent those fools from escaping and reach the city as fast as we can!”
“Affirmative, we will quicken the great Brass Behemoth’s pace,” Zelos replied “It seems Sir Lionel has stabilized the engine, we will just need to calm our prisoner before he regains more strength.”
Then he walked back to the huge control panel and commanded the other workers to ready something.
The masked workers opened up four compartments in the behemoth’s control panel, within each one laid a dark metal handle. They twisted and pushed these handles in as Zelos went back to his station, on his station rose a large golden lever. Zelos grabbed and pushed the lever away to its limit.
The behemoth let out a horrendous sound, like the clattering of a thousand bells within the belly of an erupting volcano. On its back the numerous pipes let out more smoke than before and the beast started to walk forward with greater urgency, eventually the walk became a monstrous gait with each leg making an earth-shaking thud with each step… Then suddenly it stopped dead in its tracks, the plumes of smoke now faltering. Slowing down in the middle of its gait, it became a statue as it lost all power.
“Well, this is unfortunate,” Zelos remarked blankly.
Tenacia ran to the door Twist had unlocked, with some hesitance when she realizing this would lead to the side of the behemoth, several feet above the ground of the Gray Vale.
“And here is where I came in,” Twist finished.
“Well that is cool and all, but we can’t escape through here!” Tenacia retorted “We’ll fall to our deaths!”
“Have no fear! We can glide down safely,” Twist laughed, unslinging himself from Tenacia’s shoulder.
“I can’t! I don’t have wings!” Tenacia snapped.
“Oh right, sorry!” Twist quickly said, quite embarrassed.
He looked at the ground beneath. They had to get going before the Behemoth moved again.
“Alright then, get on my shoulders” Twist said with a confident smile, leaning down for Tenacia to get on “I’ll glide us both down to safety”
“No, that won’t work,” Tenacia gruffly replied “You don’t look strong enough to carry me. I may be short, but I’m dense like a rock.”
“Can you think of anything else?” Twist asked, a tad exasperated.
Tenacia sighed and got up on Twist’s shoulders. He gave a wheezing gasp.
“Told ya I was too heavy,” Tenacia said, trying to hide a chuckle.
“ITS FINE. HERE WE GO,” Twist said through clenched teeth.
Tenacia tried to argue further, but whatever she intended to say became a shriek as Twist leapt off the Behemoth. He spread his wings to glide, though right now it was more of a fall as he tried to steady himself.
“MUST… PULL… UP…” Twist thought to himself, trying with all his might to correct his course.
At the last possible moment, he pulled up. Twist then gracefully glided into ground, sending both himself and Tenacia rolling across the cavern floor. Tenacia bonked her head on a rock, though didn't seem dazed. Twist meanwhile skidded across the ground, glad that his travel clothes were tougher than they looked.
Twist remained face down on the ground as Tenacia got up.
“That was a stupid idea, but it worked! Good job Mr. Bat,” she chuckled, trying to help Twist up.
Twist stood up on two shaky legs “Thank you Miss Tenacia! Now lets get out of here as fast as possible,”
“But my brother is still up on that mechanical monstrosity” Tenacia protested, glaring at the Brass Behemoth.
“Ma’am, we need to reinvigorate and regroup! Certain death awaits us if we try to siege that machine in our current sta-sta-AAAAASTATE!” Twist said, sneezing and blowing out the gravel that had lodged itself in his nose
Tenacia kept looking at the Brass Behemoth, then she looked down at her burnt ankle that had been grabbed by Lionel's flame whip. She reluctantly nodded.
“Fair point, Mr. Bat” she said.
“Mr. Bat? Haha a fine name! However I already have one, my name is Twist!” Twist said, smiling and tipping his hat to Tenacia.
“Tenacia Ironvale” she replied, holding out her hand for Twist to shake.
Twist tried to raise his own hands, but the combined efforts of powerful spellcasting and gliding into hard rock had taken its roll. Twist fell onto his back and fainted.
“What do you mean Faestus is still fighting the machine?!” Karagoz shouted at Lionel, both now in the control room. The knight's armor was severely singed and he had to hold himself up with his long sword. He wasn’t overtly injured, but burnt and exhausted. If Tenacia hadn’t saved him, he would have been a goner.
“Sadly the half-dwarf opened up the door to his prison wide open” the knight explained, “He even got an arm out of it and dragged me in! Thankfully I was able to fend him off, but he was still able to break himself from the bonds you put on him. Right now Faestus is REALLY throwing a tantrum,”
“Hmm so that is why the behemoth is now immobile,” Zelos commented.
Karagoz clenched his fists and growled in utter frustration.
“Disgusting! Revolting! It is all the fault of that miserable bat!” he growled and glared at Lionel. “What are you waiting for? Go contain Faestus! Make sure that overgrown firebug stays contained!”
Lionel gave a curt nod and walked back to the engine room.
“At least we have the dwarf with us” Zelos noted “Even without his sister, his cleverness and tinkering ability combined with my substantial intelligence will ensure we can carry out our mission”
“Fool! We must pursue his sister! And the bat! Both of them!” Karagoz roared.
“Calm down now, High Priest,” Zelos said calmly “We must keep a level head”
Karagoz growled then cracked his neck. “Perhaps so, but remember that It makes no sense for a nocatav to be out and about right now. He should be trapped with his people! We need to capture him and Tenacia, question them, and ensure the secrecy of our mission.”
Zelos nodded ominously “This is very true. Once is Lionel is healed and Faestus is fully contained, I will send our servants to recapture the half-dwarf and delete the noctav.”
Karagoz stroked his chin, then he smiled. Or rather the corners of his mouth raised, revealing his rotting yellow teeth.
“No, keep the automatons here. Instead, contact the kingdom of Boroti,” Stolse said.
“Why?” Zelos asked in surprise, turning to Stolse with his glassy eyes.
“They owe us a favor and have a hero who can be most useful to us.”