The corridor was relatively in good shape from what I could initially tell, but when I lit up my surroundings with a ball of light, I realized that maybe I had spoken too soon. The metal and stone surfaces of the walls and ceiling seemed to be etched away in places, almost like something had worn away certain layers. It reminded me of what sulfuric acid could do to a surface, if the acid was high enough of a concentration.
With a thought, the ball of light shot forward lighting up the corridor ahead of me, and I saw more and more of the corroded surface until the light floated above my advance guard of metal eaters, They were busy hovering around large pieces of crumbling exoskeleton. Hearing me arrive, they turned around briefly, their claws and tails slightly waving before hesitantly continuing on. I walked past the remains, just noting how much damage had been done and wondering how well my own basilisk hide armor would fare.
When the the mid tier metal eaters reached where their brothers had no doubt put up their last stand, they also paused, handling the remains briefly but carefully with their claws before continuing on ahead. From my skeleton avatar, not too far behind them, I noted their behavior, somewhat surprised at the metal eaters for showing at least some kind of respect for their dead. It was maybe another mark in their favor, as they did not seem to be as drone like in their behavior as I had believed them to be.
After a few minutes of walking, all of us finally reached the end of the corridor, which opened up into another large open space, at least five stories tall. The corridor led to a walkway that spanned the width of the large open area, leading to the other side. Sending a half dozen balls of light up into the air to illuminate our general surroundings, I got a good look at the nearby portion of the armory/barracks. If I had to compare it to anything from Earth, a very long aircraft hanger would have probably been the closest comparison.
Along one side of the armory/barrack's space, five different levels, that were open to view, extended both to my left and right side. Each of the levels had large amounts of skeletal remains and ruined sets of armor, and if my memory was correct, there had once been thousands of low level skeletons stored in each of the levels. Every twenty meters or so, large elevator like constructs connecting each of the levels still stood as a testament to the almost modern thinking that Neduzar had put into the storage and deployment of his undead legions.
Along the side from which we had exited, there were messy piles of metal and former wooden constructs, no doubt the remnants of the bizarre siege and battlefield weapons that had once been stored and maintained in this area. It was like like looking at some soviet era graveyard of weapons and vehicles, most of which had rusted away in storage or where they had been parked due to neglect over time. While I was somewhat depressed, I didn't take it too hard, since I had already expected this. I was just thankful that the whole place wasn't some kind of ammo depot with old rusty bombs that could go off at any given time.
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As my allies and I made our way down to the ground floor using a nearby ramp, I sent the globes of light racing both directions of the hanger, as far as the spell allowed me to. However, the distance mattered only somewhat, at my goal was to see if my target was nearby. The enemy, if I was right about its identity, wasn't something I wanted to fight at close range.
What caught me somewhat by surprise, instead, were the remains of what looked like a handful of golems nearby. Neduzar had been more traditional, when it came to his wizardry by not really messing with other areas of magic unless it had some affect on whatever crazy undead stuff he had been researching at the time. However, one of the topics he had spent some time researching had been golems. Looking at the humanoid creation collapsed on the floor, I was amazed at the various 'modern' parts that were visible inside the rusted and wrecked armor of the golem. I saw joints, gears, and even ball bearings. If I didn't know I was in a fantasy world, I would have sworn I was looking at a mechanical layout of a robot.
Traditional golems were essentially made with large slabs stone or metal, carved or molded into certain forms and then imbued with a mana source/soul that formed the golem's core. Most golem makers back during Neduzar's time had tended to use elemental summons as the 'core' for their golems, while some had relied on necromancy. That second part was why Neduzar had shown interest in golems. That and trying to see if he could mass produce mid tier strength golems that relied purely on their material make up their strength rather than relying on the strength of their core or embedded soul. However, he had run across the usual issue, where a golem that was sufficiently durable and heavy, required large amounts of mana to move it around. The mechanical parts in the golem had been the results of Neduzar trying to decrease the 'load' on the golem's core, but he had abandoned the research in lieu of just spamming more low level skeletons with regular armor and some specialized weapons.
There were a lot of pros and cons to his decision, but I was willing to bet that the crazy bastard could have started an industrial revolution on this world with just what he had stuck in one of his golems if he hadn't been so fixated on necromancy. Sighing, I turned my attention back to looking at the rest of the wreckage around me, wondering if there was anything worth salvaging. However, seeing my metal eater allies taking quick bites out of some of the metal piles, when they thought I wasn't looking, I decided that it was probably better to just use some of it for their rations.
Just then, I lost connection with one of my balls of light. The metal eaters, who had been acting like they were at a buffet, suddenly dropped their munchies and began making scraping and rustling noises as they formed up in the direction that the spell had been snuffed out in. I had [Mind Speak] already cast on one of the mid tier metal eaters from when we entered the armory/barracks, and I saw and felt its fear through the chaotic images and emotions coming through the link. It began sending me images, telling me that the enemy was coming.
I immediately began prepping my spells as well, and my skeletal summons began taking up a shield wall like position facing the same direction. Beside me, Bas finally reacted, hissing “Preeeeeyyyy....” through my link to him. Though the magic senses in my mid tier body told me something large was coming my way, they weren't good enough to make out exactly what was in the darkness so far off. However, my normal vision was functioning well enough as long as there was light to see by. So, I got a good look at the tentacle made from viscous, green fluid, that quickly shot out from the dark and snuffed out another ball of light that I sent out as bait.