“-secret tunnel and get the hell out of here!”
Zola Ironwood smirked as her security system repeated the girl’s words in real time. It had been a bitch and a half to get the scrying spells to connect to the circuits she’d designed, but the results were more than worth it. Her Dad was going to be so proud when he realized she’d caught intruders on her very first day! Even better, he’d be sure to fund as many of her projects as she wanted when he saw how effective they were. She might even steal Reggie’s place as heir!
Of course, that was only if she actually managed to pull this off. She only had a few guards left, after all, so she’d mostly be relying on her own inventions… which would only help if they found the button needed to open the passageway…
Hmm. That might be a problem. What were the odds that they’d actually be able to find it now that they’d killed all the guards? Unless -
Whoops! She’d hit the remote release switch! How’d that happen? She giggled conspiratorially to herself as the thud that marked the opening of the steel trapdoor echoed through her control room.
It was a risk, sure - Dad would be furious if they actually got past her - but everything would be fine as long as she won!
As she saw the confused invaders gather around the trapdoor, Zola flipped a long series of switches, arming the traps scattered throughout the tunnels.
After all, if she absolutely had to win, why should she play fair?
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“Y’know what’d be great right about now?” Belycus asked idly as they descended the mysterious ramp. “Someone invisible who could scout ahead without fearin’ discovery. That’d be right handy, don’t ye think?”
“I said I was sorry!” Damaia shot back defensively. “It’s not like I wanted to get caught and cause a fight, but once it happened, my options were do nothing and stay invisible or help fight!” She wasn’t entirely sure why the potion that’d made her invisible stopped working when she hit someone, but she was sure that the explanation would annoy her. Pure magic was a frustrating tangle of arbitrary rules that made absolutely no sense!
“Aye, I’ll grant that ye had a stroke o’ bad luck there,” the merchant sighed, “but let me grouch an’ grumble a bit. That potion was a pricey thing!”
“Not as expensive as coming down here!” a voice cheerfully echoed throughout the underground corridor as the trap door behind them slammed shut. “Tell you what, though. Throw down your weapons and turn yourself in, and we’ll let you live. Especially you, big guy - I might even be able to get your sentence commuted to something a little more… pleasant.”
“Who the hell are you?” he growled irritably. Something about the suggestive way she’d phrased that irked him.
Much to his surprise, Jubel answered for her. “Zola Ironwood. Only daughter and youngest child to Zentus Ironwood. Unless she changed a lot in the last couple years, she’s clever, cocky, vindictive and short tempered.”
“Rude,” the echoing voice said, annoyance clear in her tone. “How exactly do you know me anyway, half breed?”
“You remember when some asshole practically threw wine on you ‘accidentally’ at that party a year and a half ago, and you ranted and raved at the servants who came to clean the mess about all the things you’d do to get back at him? I was the servant.” The half elf decided it was best not to mention that the asshole in question was his cousin.
“Oh.” Zola sounded a bit taken aback. “Gotta be honest, that’s kinda disappointing. I was expecting a much more complicated or sinister answer, like ‘we have files on all of you’ or something. Oh well - servants get shredded the same as assassins when the knives come out. Speaking of which -”
A mechanical whirring noise caught their attention as the ground began to tremble. All around them, walls began to fall away, revealing long, winding corridors, one of which contained a large rectangular metal device that looked to be composed entirely of gears and saw blades held together by a slim metal frame. The device clattered to life, blades beginning to spin as it slowly made its way towards them.
“Godsdamnit,” Lucas grumbled as he shifted into his lycan form once again. “30 gold, gone!”
“Have you considered just not betting against her?” Damaia asked absently as she pulled out a small metal sphere. “She only brings money into it when she’s sure she’s right. Jubel, can you land a hit on the glowing mark along its side?”
The half elf glanced where she was pointing, his eyes narrowing. “The big one on the right, or the smaller one along the left edge?”
“Right.”
He flexed his right hand, a cold, dark emptiness flickering to life around it as he took aim at the faintly gleaming mark. The arrowlike shard of void that erupted from his fingertips not only tore through the glyph, leaving it dark and lifeless almost immediately, but left a long gouge in the metal casing surrounding it.
Damaia didn’t hesitate, tossing the sphere into the heart of the machine and covering her eyes to shield them from the blinding flash that followed. Lightning coursed through the machine as her creation tore through the arcane circuitry that allowed it to function. Sparks and steel shards flew from the metal maw of the device, and in seconds, only a cloud of smoke and a heap of ruined metal remained.
“Insulating runes were a great idea,” she said loudly, addressing the girl who’d yet to show her face. “Next time, though, I’d put them on the inside of the device. It looks intimidating enough without the external ones, and they’re a painfully obvious target for anyone who knows runecraft. Which way’s the next deathtrap? I’d rather get this over with quickly, if it's all the same to you.”
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Belycus laughed as the ground began to tremble.
“I think ye might have made ‘er mad, lass.”
“About time someone else had a bad day,” she said harshly, her eyes flickering with a pale orange light for a moment as a fresh wave of fury burned through her veins. If the brat in charge of this place wanted a fight, she’d get one.
Of course, things were rarely so simple. A solid steel wall fell from the ceiling, directly above the engineer. She leapt back just in time to avoid being flattened, only to have Lucas yank her out of the way of a second one.
“Yep. Ye definitely made her mad. Well, that, or she’s chosen a right interestin’ time to redecorate.”
The engineer scowled. She’d almost been looking forward to dismantling the snarky elf’s mechanical minions, but she supposed she’d settle for slugging the smug kidnapper in the face when she finally saw her in person. “Save the jokes for later. I don’t know about the rest of you, but the fact that she left us a way forward doesn’t exactly fill me with a sense of confidence. Lucas?”
The shapeshifter tilted his head to one side, listening. “There’s something… a rumbling. Sorta like the sound of a carriage, but more… metallic? It’s getting closer, too.” Valorous turned to face the empty end of their lone remaining path as the ground began to tremble.
A massive metal beast emerged from around the corner, its plain steel casing blending in almost seamlessly with the walls of the maze. Rather than legs, it had three heavy wheels attached to a triangular base, and the blocky, nearly humanoid torso perched atop it was so large it almost scraped the ceiling, but its size wasn’t what drew the adventurer’s attention. Neither, for that matter, were their eyes drawn to the massive axe blade and buzzsaw that lay at the end of either arm. No, what almost immediately drew their attention was the pair of full sized cannons emerging from its shoulders.
“I’d say ‘it’s been nice knowing you’ but that’d be a fucking lie,” Zola drawled, her voice emerging from a speaker located where the thing’s head would’ve been if it were human. “Still, I’m not heartless. I’ll give you one last chance; drop the weapons and wait for a security team, and I’ll spare you. No jokes, no tricks - you’ll be arrested, sure, but it beats dead, right? Given the circumstances, I’d say I’m being pretty generous here!”
“Generous?” Damaia's smile didn’t reach her eyes as she slowly took a step forward. “I have a feeling, Ms Ironwood, that we have a very different idea of what that word means. Here’s my generous counteroffer.”
The felblood charged straight toward the mechanical monstrosity with death burning in her eyes.
If not for the hours of painstaking upgrades and modifications she’d made to her armor, the cannon shot that slammed into her ribs would’ve killed her almost instantly. As it was, thankfully, the rune-carved magitech suit kept her in one piece as she flew through the air only to slam headfirst into the solid sheet of steel that now stood between them and the entrance to the maze. She slowly pushed herself to her feet, dimly aware of noise in the background, but fell to her knees almost immediately as her senses failed her. Why was the room spinning? Where was everyone else? A strange silence filled the air for a moment - Jubel must’ve intercepted the next shot with his void shield.
Good! That meant nobody was hurt.
She coughed up blood.
Well, almost nobody.
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Zola scowled as she watched the suicidal charge. Couldn’t that idiot see she was trying to save them?!? Her father had far worse than her High Impact Machine- Blasting Ordinance 1 to throw at them, and he wasn’t exactly renowned for being merciful. Honestly, she was kinda surprised to see the girl in one piece after a shot like that. Sure, her ribs were probably shattered, but surviving a close range shot from that cannon was more than most buildings could manage.
Now that she thought about it, maybe she should’ve made a better offer. Reggie had always said ‘crime is born of desperation’, which meant these people were probably just really broke, right? If nothing else, she could use someone who knew magitech that could pull her back a bit when she got a little too ambitious.
Then there was that werewolf…
He could talk.
Therianthropes were notoriously savage, all but mindless when they transformed, but this one was capable of complex thought! If she could take him alive and convince him to work for her she’d have the most fearsome bodyguard in Milassi history, not to mention an unprecedented case for her - and the Ironwood Bioresearch Team - to study! Of course, the first half of that was dependent on her being able to convince him to work for her, but she was sure they could come to some sort of an arrangement.
Preferably one that involved her, his human form, and a total lack of clothing.
Or money, she supposed. Money could also work. She suspected it was gonna take a long while to seduce the big guy, what with their introduction involving so much murder. And attempted murder. And violence in general, really. What a shame - he was just her type!
And she’d probably ruined any chance at hiring either of them by losing her temper and lashing out. Again. Damn it… could she just have one day where she didn’t make life harder for herself?!
She turned her attention back to the screens with a scowl as she cracked her knuckles. The half elf and the buff werewolf had closed the distance between them and HIMBO in short order, and were currently tearing apart the arm that held a mounted sawblade with astonishing efficacy. The engineer hadn’t gotten back up, as she’d predicted, but the elf girl had taken advantage of the distraction the boys had provided, and was already tending to the felblood’s injuries.
Mercy is a weakness that can and will be exploited by your enemies! Her Father’s voice cracked like a whip in the back of her mind, demanding that she take manual control of the cannons and wipe out the healer and her patient in one fell swoop. She moved without thinking, activating the small, crystalline terminal nearby that allowed her access to HIMBO’s manual controls just as a small chiming noise informed her that HIMBO’s autoloading cannons were ready to fire once more. She couldn’t disappoint Father!
But -
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“Enough!”
The cannons mounted on the mechanical monster’s shoulders abruptly tilted up before firing, showering Valorous in debris and shrapnel as the shots gouged out chunks of the steel ceiling.
“I’m starting to lose my patience. Think! It takes just under twenty seconds for me to reload this thing and you’ve barely even been able to scratch it so far. Throw down your weapons, and I will guarantee your safety. This is your last chance, intruders! You don’t have to die!” There was a faint note of desperation to the unseen woman’s voice.
Belycus chuckled as he sidestepped a downwards swing of the device’s massive axe blade with the same sort of urgency most people approach their choice of breakfast. “Well, ain't ye just the sweetest thing to make so kind an offer? Pardon me for sayin’ so, lass, but yer a shite negotiator. Offers like that only work when you’re winnin’!”
Naturally, that’s when all the displays in the control room abruptly went dark.