“Damn it,” Julia grumbled. “Fine. Stay close so that I can cover you.”
“That goes for you too,” Finn grunted at Daniel, the AI shifting closer to his shoulder.
Then they were sprinting across the room toward the blast door. “Kyyle, to us!” Finn called out. The earth mage glanced over in surprise as he saw them barreling past, but he caught on quickly and soon joined them.
Beams of molten energy rocketed past them as Finn and Kyyle tried to stay behind Julia. Most of the energy splashed against her shield, but the occasional beam rocketed past the metal disc – the energy crackling and pulsing with heat. Finn felt a lance of pain along his left arm as the dense fire mana seared through his robes and flesh. Just a glancing blow but enough to leave blood leaking down his arm. He stumbled, but Kyyle caught him. And the pair continued their headlong charge.
Finn ignored the pain, barking out instructions to Kyyle. “Once we get close, you need to have Brock help shove the door closed.” He saw the earth mage nod slightly.
Then he shifted his focus to the blocks of metal slag lying along the inside of the pylon chamber – the metallic bricks that Julia had blasted inward with her battering ram. More of the metallic substance still clung to the doorframe – remnants that Finn hadn’t been able to melt away entirely. He doubted that they would be able to fully close the blast door with those fragments in the way, and there wasn’t time to remove them. Which meant he was going to have to reform that barrier. The only positive was that the metal the facility’s staff had used was less dense than the material they had discovered in the Abyss. He’d learned that while precutting the metal before they breached.
Heat rank level 3 should do it. His right hand was already moving, words drifting from his lips. But the metal was too dense to melt all at once. He’d have to take this one block at a time – while under fire, with the corrupted racing at them from behind, and a gigantic death robot mounted a couple dozen feet away.
So… no problem.
Finn ground his teeth, narrowing his focus. He couldn’t afford to think about that – not right now. Flames soon rushed across one of the blocks, and he swiftly ratcheted up the heat. The fire surged before condensing back on itself, turning into blueish flames as the metal heated swiftly to a dull red. Then a brightly glowing crimson. The block was drifting airborne at the same time, spinning slowly in place to keep the substance contained and to avoid splashing the floor with molten droplets.
Finn felt himself shoved through the doorway, and Julia turned to face the room they had just left, raising her damaged shield as the lone turret continued to pelt her with beam after beam. That spine-tingling wail – like metal claws on a chalkboard – was growing louder now. The corrupted were close.
Kyyle shouted instructions at Brock, and the earth elemental moved. He pushed inside the pylon chamber, his rocky body shifting and contorting to squeeze through the narrow crack. He placed his hands against the door, the rocks shifting once again to find better purchase on the reinforced rock and metal. With a massive heave, the elemental began to shove the blast door closed, the rock grinding in protest against the frame.
Yet it was moving – if only barely.
Brock nearly managed to shove the door back into place before it ground to a halt, leaving at least a foot-long crack between the frame and the edge of the portal.
Finn didn’t wait. The molten sphere slammed into place along the top of the doorway, the liquid metal splashing against the frame and the door. With a twitch of his fingers, Finn ensured that the metal fully filled the gap. Then he dropped the spell and channeled Mana Absorption, pulling the heat from the metal and refilling his own mana in the process. Finn let out a hiss of pain as he felt the heat burn along his skin before seeping into his bones. Yet the metal cooled in an instant, returning to a solid, dull gray.
Finn’s fingers were moving again as he recast Imbue Fire on another of the metal blocks. His movements slowed as he saw the corrupted round the corner in the other room, a rainbow-colored wave of gnashing limbs and grinding metal. It almost looked like a living tidal wave in Finn’s Mana Sight. At the same time, the Supervisor managed to repair one of the turrets in the pylon chamber, the metallic sphere surging with fire mana and letting out a screech of metal as it rotated toward them.
“One of the turrets is back online!” Finn shouted over the wailing of the corrupted and the drumbeat of their limbs against the floor.
“Switch,” Kyyle said to Julia, placing a hand on her shoulder.
Finn’s daughter pushed back into the room, squeezing through the crack and kicking her discarded battering ram out of the way where it lay along the floor. Then she turned to face the interior turret with her shield raised.
Kyyle swiftly moved into the gap in the doorway. Emerald streamers of energy curled around his staff, and then he slammed the butt into the floor. A wave of earth jutted outward from his position, rippling across the adjoining room and striking the oncoming wave of corrupted. The earthen swell sent the mech-human hybrids flying backward, and several of the creatures smashed against the walls in a shower of metal. They would soon repair and recover, and that spell must have cost him a decent chunk of his mana pool, but Kyyle had bought them a few precious seconds.
Finn directed the next metal chunk forward, fusing it into place, and pulling the heat from the metal. Then another. Then another.
Just one more to go, he thought to himself as he recast once again. A beam of energy raced past him, ricocheting off Julia’s shield and scoring a line across the interior of the blast door. Julia intercepted the next beam head-on. The dark metal disc was beginning to crumble, the molten energy having carved off the entire edge of the shield with that last blow.
“You need to hurry!” Julia insisted, her voice sounding strained as she blocked the next attack. “I can’t keep this up forever.”
“I’m going as fast I can,” Finn bit out, trying to ignore the searing pain that rippled across his body. His skin had turned red, welts forming along his good arm from repeatedly absorbing the heat that infused the slag.
The last block floated nearby, giving off waves of heat as he brought it up to temperature. He couldn’t move too soon, or the metal wouldn’t be able to fuse properly to the door and frame, and the corrupted would just smash it free again.
A blast of energy struck Julia’s shield again and carved off another sliver. She let out a frustrated grunt. Holstering her lance, she unstrapped the shield from her left arm. Julia waited for the next blast, using the shield to deflect one final beam, then she used her opening. She hurled the shield at the turret like a giant metal frisbee, putting most of her considerable strength into the throw. The diamond-edge shield soon struck home, cutting through the turret’s shell before embedding itself in the ceiling.
Yet Finn knew their problems weren’t over. The Supervisor had almost repaired the other turret, the neurogem connections beginning to regrow more quickly now as they displaced the dark metal.
Shit, we need to hurry.
The dense ball of molten metal was ready, and Finn shifted his attention back to the door. The corrupted had recovered and were surging forward, almost at the barrier. Kyyle was standing in the gap, his staff aglow. A beam of molten energy from the turret outside cut through the air, and Kyyle barely side-stepped behind the blast door in time. Yet the beam still cut a line along his arm, and he almost dropped his staff.
The corrupted followed up on that moment of weakness.
Flaming metallic claws tore at the air, reaching for the earth mage as he frantically formed barrier after barrier to ward them off. Their limbs cut through the flimsy earthen shields – Kyyle unable to reinforce the stone. Time seemed to slow as Finn saw one of the mech-human hybrids dart around the next makeshift wall and lunge forward. Its claws raked at Kyyle, on a direct collision course…
At the last moment, Brock’s rocky body intervened. The elemental shoved Kyyle aside roughly, the earth mage crashing into the ne
arby wall with the telltale crunch of bone. Flaming claws tore into Brock’s arms, cutting deep grooves in the stone. More followed behind the first, the corrupted ripping and tearing into the elemental’s body as he physically blocked the opening. Finn hesitated to move the molten metal into place. The elemental was in the way, and he didn’t see an easy way to avoid splashing him with the metal.
Brock’s head rotated toward Finn, a pair of glowing green eyes surveying him. “Seal the blast door. You must move now. I won’t last much longer.”
Finn ground his teeth. Gods damn it!
But he didn’t have any choice…
With a gesture, the molten metal swept forward, surging into the gap. Finn did his best to avoid Brock’s body, but even so, the orb caught on the rocks of the elemental’s torso, and the stone began to heat rapidly. The corrupted completely ignored the molten material, plunging their mechanical limbs into the magma as they tried to reach the glowing cluster of earth mana that lingered in the elemental’s chest. The heat immediately warped metal and burnt through the salvaged, decayed flesh that riddled their bodies. Finn shoved the metal more firmly into place, and then tugged outward, fusing the substance into the crack and welding the door to the frame.
Then he canceled his spell and immediately switched to Mana Absorption. He swiftly drained the heat from the metal before the corrupted could carve into the molten surface and damage the barrier. Heat rippled out from the metal in a wave, crashing into Finn’s body and racing along his skin. He drew in another sharp breath as the pain hit him, but he pushed through it.
As the metal solidified, Finn could hear dull clanks against the other side of the blast door – the corrupted beating feebly against the wall and hardened metal. Many had been caught halfway through the opening, their limbs now fused into the metal and twitching awkwardly. Brock’s body was also embedded in the barrier, his green eyes flickering erratically as the last of his mana drained from his body. Then he went still, and the loose rocks on their side of the door tumbled to the ground with a crash as the gravity well that held him aloft fully dissipated.
“Fuck,” Kyyle muttered, eyeing the pile of rubble as he pulled himself to a sitting position, leaning heavily against the nearby wall and cradling his left shoulder. His robes were singed and burnt, and his flesh marred with cuts and burns. A glance at his group UI, confirmed that the earth mage had burned most of his mana defending them and was sitting at 50% health. It would take him a few moments to regain use of that shoulder…
A rumbling grind echoed from the far end of the room, and the group turned as one, their eyes trained on the Supervisor. The hulking metal monstrosity glowed ominously in Finn’s vision. They had survived the wave of corrupted – the mech-human hybrids that continued to beat against the other side of the blast door in a staccato drumbeat of dull thunks and thumps. But now they were trapped inside the pylon chamber and facing this hulking mechanical monstrosity.
They may have stalled out the corrupted, but this fight wasn’t over.
Not by a longshot.
Chapter 22 - Terminated
“Intruders detected. New ambient source of mana found,” a mechanical voice echoed from the far end of the pylon chamber. Despite speaking within an eerie metallic quality, it had far more semblance of sanity than the corrupted. “Pylon chamber breached. Initiating defensive formation.”
What the hell does that…
Finn didn’t have to wait long to find out.
The Supervisor’s body contorted, its limbs drawing inward and compressing. The panels of metal along its back shifted forward, reinforcing its torso as its dome-like head sunk into its chest. Only the tip of the sensor array of light-mana crystals was visible above the cage of metal. A fan of white light swept across the room at regular intervals.
The panels along the front of the Supervisor’s body were thickening with each passing second, stretching out to either side to create a 180-degree barrier of solid steel and crystal. Its mana cores had shifted to the mech’s center, retreating behind that metallic shield for protection, and each of its six arms rotated backward and plunged into the surface of the terminal where it was mounted, tendrils of crystal burrowing into the console. They’d now have to circle the mech to attack its more vulnerable cores and Najima.
It’s turtling, Finn suddenly realized. It’s protecting its mana cores and Najima. But then how does it plan to attack…?
The Supervisor seemed to anticipate his question. Mana surged along those six limbs and down into the console. It didn’t stop there. A mixture of multi-colored mana flowed through the crystalline lattice that laced the floor of the chamber before creeping up the walls, and lit the room with a dull orange light. Finn eyed the turrets along the ceiling, waiting for the mech to repair them. Yet the Supervisor seemed to have something else in mind.
The mech’s energy pooled along the floor, just below the metal and rock debris that littered the ground. As Finn looked on, the mana crackled through the air like electricity – forking and branching. Several mana cores lying along the ground flared to life as the energy touched them. The group looked on in shocked horror as threads of the crystalline neurogem material coiled around those dense clusters of mana, stretching out to snatch stray metal panels and pull them together. Within mere moments, three security mechs were being formed from the scrap and debris around the room.
The mechs soon began to rise from the floor. They were malformed, their original pneumatics destroyed, and no telltale bits of flesh indicating the presence of Najima. The Supervisor was forced to improvise, powering them almost exclusively with fire mana. Finn could see that it was channeling a sustained flow of energy into each mech, using the conduits in the floor to help power them.
“I need you to buy me some time,” Finn said under his breath, glancing at Julia. “The Supervisor is powering the mechs, and their cores haven’t been replenished yet. If you break their connection with the floor, you can take them offline and slow them down,” he explained quickly.
“I’m on it,” she grunted and charged forward.
One of the mechs swung at her, the movement jerky and halting. She parried with the metal gauntlet along her left hand, the blow sending off a shower of sparks and scratching a deep groove in the surface. Then she ducked and swung her retracted lance like a club, smashing apart the mech’s legs and breaking its connection with the floor. The mech promptly went limp and crashed into the ground with the dull clank of metal.
Another mech was already online and charging toward Julia, each step becoming more fluid and graceful as the Supervisor repaired its limbs. Julia turned to her next opponent and lashed out with her lance – the weapon telescoping outward in an instant. Finn could already see the Supervisor beginning to repair the first mech where it lay along the ground, crystalline threads swiftly piecing the limbs back together.
She can’t keep that up forever, Finn realized with a grimace.
This strategy would only buy them time.
The third mech was approaching Julia from behind, and emerald energy flashed. A stone spike jutted from the floor, slamming into the mech’s torso before sending it crashing against the nearby wall in a spray of metal and crystal. Finn glanced to the side and saw emerald energy still swirling around Kyyle’s hand. He was holding his staff in his injured left arm, barely able to keep a grip on the weapon, and grimacing through the pain as he tried to assist Julia.
Finn’s eyes skimmed to the group UI. Kyyle’s mana was sitting at about 35% after the absorption and was ticking up quickly, but not nearly fast enough. He needed to come up with a plan – and soon.
“Now would be the time for that scan,” Finn muttered to Daniel.
“I just need the magic passphrase,” the AI quipped.
“Pretty please hurry the hell up,” Finn barked.
The fire elemental flashed once, and an image appeared in Finn’s peripheral vision. It showcased the Supervisor before its defensive transformation. But a glance with his Mana S
ight confirmed that the wiring around its mana cores and Najima was still roughly the same. Daniel had also populated the scan with helpful data that scrolled down the margin.
The delay between each wave of white light: approximately five seconds.
Estimated self-repair time based on the turrets and mechs: 10-30 seconds depending on the extent of the damage.
A tentative calculation of the Supervisor’s mana regeneration and total mana storage based on the size of its primary core and similar encounters with the mechs. Likely 70+ mana/second. Estimated mana capacity of 8,000.
The only thing the scan didn’t show was a weak point or vulnerability. The damn thing was self-healing, it was storing excess mana in that massive central core, and it was using the Najima to regenerate. The six cores were giving it a similar regeneration rate to an experienced mage. Left alone, it might stay online indefinitely.
Attrition is out. We need a way to take out its cores or disrupt its Najima, Finn thought. That’s the only way we’re going to beat it.
His eyes centered on the limbs that jutted from the back of the Supervisor’s body. The tips were still embedded in the floor, and mana pulsed along their length. Bright spots of energy lingered in each limb, indicating that they were a combination of human flesh and metal. If he was able to destroy those limbs, then maybe they could slowly whittle the creature down – depleting its energy until it couldn’t fight back.
First, he’d need to test its defenses.
Finn pulled another dark orb from his pack and then waited for the next flash of ivory light. Once the fan swept the room, he flung the dense sphere, his hand winding through a complicated series of gestures as soon as the metal left his fingertips. The orb was soon awash in flame, and Finn ratcheted up the heat swiftly. As he guided the missile toward the Supervisor’s shield, the metal left an orange-tinted blur of energy in its wake. The orb closed swiftly on the mech’s defenses, and Finn held his breath…
Awaken Online: Inferno (Tarot #3) Page 24