“Revin, Awake!”

Revin jerked up from where he lay, breathing rapidly. He winced at the gash on his face. He looked around. The massive form of Scarback lay sleeping next to him, her breathing loud compared to his own.

He looked to his left just as someone charged him with a drawn sword.

Revin jumped, tripping on his bad knee as he scrambled for the sword which lay to his side, drawing it and swinging it up just in time to block the blade.

It was an automaton with a mouth. It had orange eyes and looked like it was made of newly polished metal.

“Time to die,” the automaton said.

Revin’s eyes widened as he recognized the voice.

It was Densal Valen.

The metal Densal let out a hollow-sounding growl and brought her sword around for another blow. Revin swung barely in time to block again. But the block was clumsy, and Densal carried forward with her momentum to strike Revin in the chest with a metal elbow.

It struck Revin’s mastersuit, but he still felt the impact, bumping into Scarback’s leg.

Scarback had already begun to stand, glaring down at Densal Valen.

Revin pointed his sword in challenge as Birdy landed on his shoulder, screeching angrily, and Scarback let out an earth-shaking roar. Revin hoped he struck an intimidating figure.

“Oh, Jebuthar’s coming for you too!” Densal shouted at Scarback. There was bitterness to her tone.

Revin sensed Scarback’s pain at the mention of Jebuthar’s name.

Densal jumped forward and swung at Revin. Revin jumped frantically to the side, avoiding the blow and falling to the ground again.

Scarback plowed forward, jaws open. Densal slid out of the way. Scarback continued towards the trees, missing.

Revin gasped as dozens of automatons poured out of the forest, converging on the giganotos.

“No!” Revin yelled. He heard a click and turned. Densal stood several feet away, drawing a pistol and aiming it at Revin’s head.

Revin’s eyes widened and he ducked right before the blast hit the ground behind him, the explosive low whistle causing his ears to ring. He pushed himself to his feet. He found himself breathing fast. Too fast. The breaths weren’t enough. The sound of the gunshot called other memories. Dying ceratops. Tiny bits of metal moving at flesh-tearing speed. Each inch a javelin of pain.

He heard a roar as the giganotos were up and fighting. The automatons were timid and careful, they didn’t have blades or guns, just nets.

They didn’t want to kill them, just capture them.

“No!” Revin yelled. He turned and charged for Densal Valen, swinging his blade widely.

Densal easily blocked his attack and tried to stab Revin in the chest, but Revin stepped to the side, the blade cut across the robe at his side, scraping his mastersuit.

Densal smiled, an odd smile with the metal shifting upward unnaturally. She swung her leg around in a kick to Revin’s chest which knocked him to the ground again. The wound on his face split and Revin screamed at the tearing agony, blood dripping down his face. He held a hand to it, trying to stop the bleeding. But touching the flesh only increased the pain.

She waited patiently as Revin stood. Revin glared at her. Densal was just playing with him.

“If I couldn’t kill him, what stupidity makes you think you can?” Densal said.

Having mastered the giganotos the night before, he didn’t have to look to know how the battle was going. The giganotos, as valiantly as they fought, were taken down. Dozens of automatons were smashed and torn apart, but more kept coming. The giganotos groaned in anger as they were restrained with chains and dragged off to cages.

If Revin didn’t do something now , it would be over. But what could he do? The metal tide had come.

The little ones squealed in terror as cold metal hands took hold of them. Revin let out an angry shout and attacked. The automatons ignored their fight, and Revin knew that if Densal tried hard enough, he’d be dead in moments.

Densal tripped him and put her blade up to Revin’s face.

“Jebuthar is not a man, he is a force of nature.” Her metallic face betrayed no emotion, but her voice did. There was anger and pain there. “If you can’t stop him, you must join him!”

Revin twisted around and grabbed Densal’s legs with his, tripping her to the ground. He screamed as the heavy metal weight landed on his injured knee, a like a dagger of pain running up the center of his leg. Densal dropped her blade and stumbled to the ground.

The loud humming of ships buffeted the air. He remembered saurian minds and souls torn from their bodies, placed into clockwork prisons, their minds twisted, and molded, taught new ways of thought and obedience, all semblance of what they once were, gone.

He tightened his glare until his teeth creaked and his jaw hurt. Then, with his throat and gut, he shouted. “No!”

Revin rolled over and swung at Densal. She raised her forearm defensively and Revin hit her on the elbow, scraping her metal body.

Densal grabbed her sword and leaped into a new attack. Revin felt a burst of pain. Scarback was beaten to the ground. He tried to get the giganotos to move, to fight. But too many automatons held them down. The giganotos’ desperation turned to despair as they sensed their coming defeat. They were hungry and tired. Some still fought, but most had given up on seeing their leader taken down.

Densal swung her blade down at Revin, who barely managed a glancing block. Densal immediately recovered with a follow-up attack, stepping in close with a sliding swing which knocked Revin’s sword to the ground a dozen feet away.

Revin jumped for it, but Densal was faster, catching Revin in the chest throwing him down onto his back.

She laughed, placing her heavy metal foot on his chest.

Revin closed his eyes. “Help me, Father God!” He shouted to the sky.

“You think gods can save you now? If they ever existed, they’ve long since abandoned us.”

Revin opened his eyes again. His sword lay just out of reach more automatons approached with cannonballs. He recognized those, and his heart too turned desperate. They would increase the giganotos weight so much that some would be killed, and others would lack the energy to fight. His sword didn’t have enough range to protect them. He braced himself for what the giganotos would inevitably feel, the compounding of their own weight unto death.

He had failed, again.

But the giganotos felt nothing. They were tired, yes, and depressed. But they felt nothing beyond the nets. Revin looked at the cannonballs, wondering if he’d been confused. No, he knew the color and texture of the metal, he’d seen dozens of saurians and thousands of men die around them.

But the giganotos weren’t affected.

A glint of light bounced off the metal spines on Scarback’s back, and he noticed their color again. Dark gray. He looked at his sword. They were the same color. They were the same metal . Resistant to the weight-increasing magic.

He looked up, seeing the sun break through the grey clouds, illuminating the automatons as they stepped back from the giganotos.

This was why Jebuthar is afraid of them!

He reached out toward the giganotos, sending a command. It came out louder through with his mind than his voice, but he filled it with every ounce of courage and anger he had.

“Fight!”

His voice seemed to echo in the silent forest. The giganotos were despondent, and even Scarback was afraid, remembering what Jebuthar had done to her mother, and she was so tired from months of hunger.

“They can’t, they’re weighed down.”

Half of the automatons piled back into the ship. Revin felt another voice in his mind. “ You have failed, little monk. And now, I will destroy these beasts in the most painful way possible.”

Densal lifted Revin up by the shirt, glaring into his eyes.

Revin reached out again to the giganotos’ minds. “Their weapons can’t hurt you! Don’t be afraid!

A few moved slightly.

“Their spirits are broken.” Narazoth’s voice echoed in his mind.

“Get up!” He sent out thoughts of their food supply being destroyed by Jebuthar. Revin looked into Densal’s eyes and shouted to the giganotos in speech and mind. One final thing to fight for.

“FIGHT FOR YOUR CHILDREN!”

All was terrifyingly still. A small animal chirped in the distance. The trees rustled in the wind. There was a sense of hesitation. Of fear. But, beneath it all, a feeling of concern for their young swelled up. Muscles tensed. Rage grew. Memories of burned saurian carcasses, sour to the taste. Thoughts of metal men and nets. Thoughts of Jebuthar, cutting across Scarback in a rage, as Scarback’s mother lay bleeding from slashes in her legs and throat. The fear of the same happening to their young.

Then, almost as one, the giganotos rose, their sharp metal spines breaking the chains which lay on top of them. Their muscles lifting the nets and any automatons that hung on. Densal turned her head slowly, watching as the giganotos finally realized their strength, shaking off their manacles. The automatons carrying cannonballs paused. The giganotos were unaffected. They stood tall, ignoring everything Jebuthar had brought to bring them down.

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Densal’s jaw dropped.

Scarback let out another earth-shattering roar, she was joined by others. The combined effort of their screams sent a rumbling in Revin’s chest, and every automaton froze.

Many automatons dropped from their erect postures and fell to all fours, a primal fear taking hold beyond the power of Narazoth’s brainwashing. An instinct deeper than any other:

Escape the giganotos.

Sensing prey, the giganotos leapt into action, their massive skulls smashing automatons left and right. A few automatons stood firm, switching to a more lethal form of attack, drawing blades and spears and rifles.

They were the steady few scattered among the fleeing many.

Densal let out a yell and shoved Revin to the ground.

Revin dove for his sword and jumped back to his feet. He charged and struck Densal in the chin, scoring her armored body again. Revin took advantage of her surprise at the strike and hit again, shearing a line through her metal vambrace.

The giganotos roared in rage and charged up the ramp and into the ship, where more automatons had fled. Revin heard the breaking of metal and the screams of men. Apparently, Densal had brought a few humans with him. They screamed as muscle and teeth bore down on them.

Densal let out a blood-curdling scream and charged Revin.

Revin blocked her blows with difficulty. It took everything he had to stay alive, and he continued to step backward. He mentally called out for help, and one giganoto plowed forward, shattering two crawling automatons in its way. Revin jumped to the side. The giganotos massive head struck Densal, cracking her chest armor and launching her through the air, striking a tree and tumbling to the ground.

“Densal!” Revin shouted, “You don’t have to fight for him!”

Densal stumbled to her feet. There was a flash of orange light emanating from the crack in her chestplate.

“I don’t have a choice, if I don’t follow, he’ll kill me. He’s already turned me into this.” She motioned to her body, voice and posture full of anguish.

“You don’t have to! We can take him down together!”

Densal paused and lowered her blade.

“Why should I work with you?”

Revin scoffed. “You hate Jebuthar, I know it. I know what Jebuthar has done to your people.”

Densal frowned.

“Work with me, we’ve got a chance!”

She looked around at the giganoto’s and the fleeing automatons. Densal’s frown of confusion, so odd on a metallic face, shifted into a look of determination. She nodded. “Maybe we could-”

Densal twitched. Metal clanked within her chest. The faint orange light shone for a moment before it moved out of view, replaced with a blue light.

Densal’s eyes changed from orange to blue. He face went slack. Expressionless. She gripped her sword with two hands.

“Densal?”

“I had a feeling she might do that,” Narazoth’s voice echoed in his head, “ So I had to add another core, just in case. A core loyal to me.”

Densal charged.

Revin stumbled reaching out to the giganotos for help again.

Without a yell, Densal swung, not as efficiently as before, but more ferocious.

She wasn’t playing anymore.

The metal face stared blankly at Revin as it thrust. Revin half blocked and fell to the side. The still emotionless Densal raised her blade for another attack. Scarback approached Densal from behind.

Revin seized the potential opportunity, and asked Scarback to roar.

The sound was deafening, and Densal frantically turned to face Scarback. Dropping her blade. The survival instinct of the saurian mind inside the blue core kicking in.

Revin gripped his sword with a bloody hand and jumped forward, half stumbling because of his knee. He still managed a strong downward hack, breaking Densal’s mechanical arm off with a shower of gears. Densal fell with a cry of agony, landing hard on her chest then rolling onto her back, the core halfway between blue and orange. Revin stood over her.

“Pain?” Densal shouted, body twisting, “He said I wouldn’t feel pain!”

One eye was orange, the other blue. Her metal face frowned. Then, all the orange fully switched back to blue. With a swift kick she tripped Revin and stood. Revin dropped his blade again and crawled backward. Narazoth’s mind echoed into Revin’s. It seemed to come from Densal’s blue core. All who stand in the way of Jebuthar shall-

A massive mouth clamped down on the metallic form, cutting off Narazoth’s thought. Scarback’s fury echoed in Revin’s mind, and the massive giganoto growled and crunched down.

Scarback dropped a bent and crumbling metal figure to the ground, gears and metal shards scattering. There was blood, Scarback’s mouth dripping with small cuts. She turned her attention away from Densal and to the few remaining automatons, charging them with another deafening roar.

Revin crawled toward Densal Valen. Her armor was smashed, and her head was attached by only a handful of bars and gears. Her eyes were wide, and orange once again.

Revin dragged his sword forward and investigated Densal’s chest. With a grunt he stabbed the blue core in her chest, watching it crackle like glass, leaking blue mist until it turned gray. The orange core was cracked too, but it leaked much more slowly.

Densal managed to turn her head with the sound of crunching metal.

“This isn’t what I wanted,” Densal said.

Revin knelt at her side, surprised at the pity he felt. She had attacked them on more than one occasion and had threatened to kill an entire city. The words of Sephitaro coming to his mind. Though they were about Narazoth, they seemed to apply here. She’s lost, and just needs to be found…

“I’m sorry, Densal,” Revin said.

“Kill him for me,” Densal said, her metallic voice losing its strength.

Revin nodded. “I’ll kill him for all of us.”

Densal managed a barely perceptible nod. The orange lights faded to grey, and the gears inside ceased their spinning. What was once Densal Valen, Princess of Sendevalia, was now only a pile of broken gears.

The giganotos cleaned up the few remaining automatons. It looked like a giant clock graveyard. He reached out with his mind and counted his giganotos. Three dozen giganotos lived, eight had been killed, and several others were wounded to the point that they couldn’t be saved. He’d thought many more would have died.

Sadness hung over the air. The small ones let out honks of mourning, and some of the larger ones lashed out at broken automaton corpses.

Revin sat and watched. The young were herded away, and the larger ones approached the dead and the near-dead giganotos. Revin gasped as they were torn apart, bloody chunks of meat carried off to be eaten by the little ones. These giganotos wasted neither the lives nor the bodies of their fallen. This food would sustain them for a short while, despite coming at a great cost. He was surprised they’d moved the young ones out of sight as they did so.

He looked at the ramp and saw a man cautiously fleeing from the ship. Running where the other giganotos weren’t looking.

Revin jumped up, sword in hand. He tried to run but tripped on his bad knee and fell into the dirt and grass. He sensed the excitement of a giganoto who noticed the man and charged.

Revin got up as the giganoto closed the distance. The man’s eyes widened, and he let out a scream, but Revin called for it to stop, and calmed the others who heard the shout.

He approached the man and pointed his blade. Revin tasted coppery blood, which dripped from the reopened gash in his cheek.

“Do you know how to fly that?” He pointed at the ship

The man trembled, looking at the giganoto towering above him.

Revin repeated the question with a shout.

The man’s nod came out as a more exaggerated form of trembling.

“How much do you want to live today?”

“A lot,” the man said.

“If you fly that for me, then I won’t let them eat you.”

“You’re supposed to be a monk, you wouldn’t let them do that!” He looked like he believed that Revin would.

Revin shook his head. “Jebuthar has caused a lot of suffering, human and saurian. Someone needs to pay.”

Revin looked to the giganotos sharing the meat of their dead.

“They are starving. Even after eating some of your friends on the ship.”

The man let out a gulp as the giganoto near him growled hungrily.

“Also, I don’t know if I’m a very good monk.”

The man nodded again. “Fine. I’ll fly you. Better to die quickly at the hands of Jebuthar than…”

“Oh, you wouldn’t get eaten slowly. Can’t say I recommend it either.” Revin said, glancing at the giganoto.

The man nodded again. “The big ones will have to walk; the ship won’t fly well with them inside.”

Revin cocked his head, “Why?”

“Normalizing gravitonium, growing out of their backs. I don’t think the little ones have enough to cause the ship to malfunction too much. But the big ones do.”

Revin nodded. He recognized the word gravitonium from what he had gleaned from Narazoth. “Fine, they’ll follow from below.” Revin hissed at new pain in his cheek, dizziness at feeling his torn flesh threatened to topple him again. “Can you do stitches?”

The man nodded.

“Then, hurry before I pass out. You won’t live long if I’m not conscious to hold them back.”

The man’s face paled and he nodded more urgently. “Follow me.”

Revin and the man walked toward the massive ship. The cavernous hold could fit thousands of soldiers, but it was mostly empty. The ramp was splattered with blood, but not a bit of flesh remained.

Revin ignored the carnage and sent his thoughts to Scarback. As soon as you’re done, we’re going to meet my friends.

He felt a rush of excitement and a mental image of a field of automatons, broken and scattered. And a particularly graphic image of Jebuthar himself, crushed and bleeding in Scarback’s jaw.

Revin barely kept himself from vomiting. Scarback’s excitement helped. Once we rejoin the others, yes. You can kill as many automatons as you please.

And eat that nether-spawned tyrant right off his throne.