by David Aries
We abandoned stealth and rushed forward as fast as we could.
The rollerbots gave chase. In their ball form, they had no problem catching us up.
Faris responded with precise pistol shots.
Her lasers bounced off the spinning shells.
“What’s happening?” Faris said.
“I am afraid the sentries’s outer armor is resistant to gunfire,” DD explained as she glided forward as if ice skating. “As long as they are under attack, they are programmed not to enter their attack state.”
“That’s a good thing, yes?” Casella panted.
“Not quite, Lady Casella. The sentries are still capable of attacking when in their mobile form.”
A blue light gathered around the sentry leading the pack. When it had fully bathed itself in the glow, it shot toward us like a violent hog-sized pinball.
My adrenaline surged. I growled and reached for my axe.
Vay swung her greatsword, crushing the rollerbot beneath its bulk.
“Resistant to gunfire, was it?” she said as she retrieved her blade from the wreckage. “Does this look like a gun to you, little robots?”
The next two sentries charged up and raced toward Vay.
She crouched low, catching them both with a swing that ended with them crumpled against the wall.
“And there go another two,” Vay said, cackling. “What say the rest of you? Do you think you can conquer ‘The Indomitable?’”
The rollerbots hesitated. Instead, they opened up and prepared their cannons to fi—
Lasers tore them apart, courtesy of my gunslinging mates.
“I’ll take that as a no,” Faris said.
I snickered, but my grin was short lived. More sentries were inbound, and, this time, they were coming from all directions.
“DD,” I said. “How many of these bastards are there?”
“By my last count, there are 5,462 operational sentries located within this facility.”
“Over five thousand?!” Akko squeaked. “We’ll never destroy that many.”
“We don’t need to,” I said as I opened my recharged shield. “Cover me. We’re breaking through.”
A swarm of sentries rolled down the path ahead.
If Vay could shatter them into pieces, I didn’t see a reason why I couldn’t. Holding my shield ahead, I charged forward.
Lasers raced past me, bouncing off the sentries’s shells. They didn’t break through, but they stopped the rollers from opening up.
When I approached, they started glowing.
“Not today!” I said, springing forward and putting my axe through the robot’s top.
My weapon wasn’t as heavy as Vay’s, but I had the raw overwhelming strength to compensate. The sentry crumpled like a cracked egg.
Without wasting any time, I moved onto the next, piercing from above so I always had gravity on my side.
One by one, I turned the vicious killers into scrap.
The next row opened up, bringing out the literal big guns.
I roared and charged, bashing into them with my shield. Before they could recover, I swung, severing clean through their narrow midsections.
They didn’t stand a chance.
Alright! I knew melee was the way to go.
Guns? Pff! A waste of my stats.
Who needed a pistol when an axe would do the trick?
Scrap dirtied the ground beneath my feet, but it did little to change the balance of numbers tipped against us. The sound of approaching reinforcements echoed through the tunnels.
“Let’s keep going!” I yelled. “DD, guide.”
“Please take your second left, and then the following right.”
We marched ahead to the beat of DD’s instructions, ripping through every robot that threw itself in our way.
Just as DD had alluded, it didn’t seem to matter how many we destroyed, they just kept coming. If I crushed two, another four appeared. If I blitzed four, eight arrived. If I shattered eight, then it was up to sixteen, and so on, and so forth.
I didn’t let them stop us. My axe was forged to destroy, and destroy it did. Every robot that dared stand between me and our goal ended up as debris, be that by my own hand or thanks to my talented mates.
After working up quite the sweat running through a seemingly never-ending web of metal, we arrived into an open hall that had some sort of glass chamber in its center with an entrance on both sides.
“We have arrived,” DD said.
“So that’s the elevator?” I asked.
I’d been expecting another grav lift, but it turned out we were going old school.
There was no time to admire—trouble was coming. Plenty of hallways fed into this one room, and each was rumbling with activity. On top of that, there were turrets on the ceiling lining themselves up for a massacre.
“Inside, quick!” I warned as I threw my shield overhead and ushered everyone into the room within a room.
It was empty apart from a central terminal and a few turrets taken down by some snappy shooting.
DD glided to the control panel as rollerbots poured in from every entry point.
“Get us moving!” I said.
“I am trying, Master Brandon,” DD said, fingers tapping away. “The terminal appears to have locked itself. Please buy me time.”
“Seriously?!”
“But there’s so many of them!” Akko squeaked.
Earlier, they’d been limited by tight corridors. Not anymore. It was like eight dams bursting at once, feeding their contents into a single reserve.
“Defend the doors!” I yelled as I threw my shield in front of the entrance and braced.
The robots charged in, slamming against its face.
My body jerked back, but I gritted my teeth and refused to budge another inch. I kept my shield firm and served as a wall to protect my mates.
Over and over, the sentries refused to accept they weren’t getting in. They thumped my buckler, polluting its natural blue shine.
Sure, I could stand my ground as much as I pleased, but if my shield didn’t do likewise, it wouldn’t mean anything.
“Get back!” I roared as I drilled my axe around my guard.
My blade dented every robot it hit, but I couldn’t land any decisive blows from my position. Nor could my mates handle it with their guns, especially when they were busy picking off the rear support trying to jump into attack mode.
With how quickly my shield was deteriorating, it would be game over if lasers were added to the mix.
Even without them, I was already up to orange alert.
I growled through my teeth as I swung with extra ferocity. Somehow, I had to hang on. There were too many robots outside to keep at bay like I’d done before. I had to hold like this.
Something soft pressed against my back.
Sylvetty smashed her hammer over the shield, striking the metal swarm. “Get away, ya fecking pests! I ain’t ready to meet the Crystal Maiden.”
Her hits, like mine, weren’t deep enough to rip the sentries apart. However, Sylvetty compensated for her weakness with intensity. Her blows were a wrath-filled flurry that turned the pristine antagonist spheres into chewed-up orbs, making it harder for them to spin at their maximum intensity.
It wasn’t much, sure, but if it bought us a few seconds; that was more than good enough for me. Together, Sylvetty and I battered the shield-thumping sentries as lasers pinged overhead, sniping our foes.
Our kill count continued to rise… but so did the number of guards. More were filling the room, and my shield was entering its last legs. It had abandoned its orange color and became a flickering red.
A few more hits and my defence would crumble.
I snarled. “DD!”
“One more second, Master Brandon. And…”
The lift’s doors snapped shut, pushing me into the elevator and keeping the sentries outside.
They didn’t like that one bit, as they proved by attacking the glass.
I slumped on my ass, taking the chance to catch my breath.
Too close…
Then again, shouldn’t I be used to that by now?
Why was nothing ever simple on this planet?
“Sweetie!” Akko said as she dropped to her knees in front of me. “Are you okay?”
“Fine… just need to catch my breath.”
Vay laughed from the other side of the elevator, where she was resting in a similar position to me. Her shield was even the same shade of red. “A thrilling encounter, was it not?”
“I guess that’s one way to put it…” My heart was racing, although I preferred when that was due to my mates rather than something trying to kill me.
Still, we made it.
Somehow, we’ve pulled it off once again.
All that remained was to make this facility ours.
After a swift journey, the darkness ebbed, and a blue shine poured into the elevator.
Casella gasped and pressed her face into the glass. “Look!”
We’d entered a brand-new room which couldn’t be compared to the bland walls of gray above. It was a dim cylindrical chamber, built around a screen-covered centerpiece connected to the ceiling by a collection of blue, glowing tubes.
“Welcome to the Inner Core,” DD said.
Trez whistled. “Now this place looks fancy. That’s one badass computer.”
DD giggled. “Only something of that caliber could operate a facility of this size. Soon, it shall all be yours.”
The lift thudded to a stop on an elevated outer rim and opened up.
“Don’t mind if I do,” Trez said as she scuttled off.
Casella did likewise. “Wait for me!”
“Alright,” I said as I got back to my feet, dusting myself down. “Let’s do this.”
“Before we go,” Sylvetty said, turning to DD. “There ain’t gonna be anymore more blighters, are there? I’m sick of dealing with yer damn civilized contraptions.”
For a moment, DD stared. Then she gasped, resting her fingers on her lips. “Oh, my. Did I forget to mention the sentinel?”
I froze as I was about to leave the lift.
Huh?
Chapter 10
I lingered in the lift’s doorway, eyes locked on DD.
What did she say?
A feminine scream sliced through my air.
Molten hot adrenaline rushed through my veins. I bolted out of the elevator and jumped down to the lower level.
Trez and Casella had fallen down in the face of a titanic robot that had seemingly appeared out of thin air.
It didn’t look too dissimilar to the mining robot that had once come within a hair’s width of claiming my life. Although, neither of its hands were made for drilling.
“Get away from them!” I roared as I shot over, axe first.
The robot lifted its arm, creating a curved square blue shield that was less Roman centurion and more shipping container.
My weapon bounced off the wall of light, knocking me back.
“Muscles!” Trez said.
“Are you guys alright?” I responded, eyes focused on the mighty sentinel.
“Mhm,” Casella answered. “Just stunned is all…”
A weight lifted from my shoulders, but it wasn’t enough to erase the tension from my posture. It’s hard to be relaxed when you’re standing in the shadow of a towering metal monster.
“Get back. We don’t have any idea what this thing might—”
Its spare arm opened on a hinge, revealing the head of a huge mace.
My instincts screamed, and so did I. “Run!”
The sentinel shot the spiked metal ball like a javelin straight through its shield.
I grabbed Casella and Trez and jumped back as far as I could, dodging away from the weapon smashing into the ground.
It appeared to be some sort of flail, attached to the sentinel’s body by a fancy spiked chain.
“What the feck is going on?!” Sylvetty screamed from the upper layer.
“That would be the sentinel,” DD explained. “It is the Inner Core’s personal guardian, who acts as a last line of defense against intruders.”
“A little warning would have been appreciated!” I yelled back.
The sentinel lifted its arm, heaving the spiked ball up. Then it flung, letting launch.
I growled and jumped away, taking my mates with me.
Damn, that thing looks nasty.
At least it’s not a gu—
Instead of continuing toward the ground—to the location where I’d just been—the ball changed course in mid-air, chasing after me.
My heart jumped in my chest. I threw my arm up and activated my recharged shield.
The ball smashed into its front.
It was like being hit by a crane. My barrier did what it could to protect me, but there was no nullifying the full force of the hit. I was forced off my feet and flung across the room while cradling my mates tight.
We came down hard meters away, forced to roll through before finally skidding to a stop.
“My Brandon!” Casella squeaked, saved from the worst of the fall by my arms. “Are you okay?”
“Fine,” I groaned. “You two?”
“I’ll live,” Trez said, eyes aiming toward the sentinel. “I hope…”
It was already tossing its spiked weapon our way.
I growled and went to lift my shield, but it was already red.
From a single blow?!
I should have known after how far it had sent us. There was no way my shield could block a second hit before it got time to recover.
We need to get away, quick!
But the spiked ball was almost on top of us. There wasn’t any time!
Vay roared as she leapt down, slamming the flail with her greatsword. It wasn’t enough to cut into the brutal weapon, but it did knock it off target, sending it slamming harmlessly into the ground.
“Who gave you permission to lay your balls on my man?!” Vay bellowed. “The only one allowed to lay their balls on him is me!”
“I’m… grateful for the help,” I said, emptying the lungs of the breath I didn’t realize I’d been holding in, “but what are you talking about?”
We didn’t have time to discuss it. The sentinel swiftly dislodged its weapon from the floor and shot it at Vay.
She blocked the worst of it with her sword, but it didn’t stop the flail from advancing. It pushed her across the room, slamming her into the wall.
“Vay!” I yelled, jumping to my feet.
My first instinct was to slice the chain apart with my axe… but there was a small problem. When I’d been hit, I’d lost hold of the only weapon I had any idea how to use.
It was nearby, I could see it, but that was time I couldn’t afford to waste. Instead, I threw myself and my shield into the spiked chain.
The impact killed my barrier, but it also freed Vay from the weight trapping her against the wall.
“Are you okay?” I yelled from my hands and knees.
Vay groaned as she dragged herself out of the xioth-shaped indent in the wall. “Never better!”
The corner of my mouth twitched up. If there was any of my mates I could count on to stroll out of an attack like that, it was Vay.
Not that I had time to celebrate.
The flail was already on the move, and it had once again chosen me as its target.
I growled and rolled away at the last second, giving the spiked ball no time to follow. As it buried itself into the floor, I rolled to my feet and charged back toward where this crazy fight had begun.
Alright, you son of a bitch. It’s my turn!
Picking my axe up onroute, I made a beeline for the shield-wielding giant standing between us and having control of this twisted facility.
The sentinel retracted its chain.
“Sweetie, behind you!” Akko screamed from the bleachers.
She didn’t need to; I knew the ball was coming and hurdled it when it tried to wipe out my legs.
You got me with that first trick, but that’s not going to happen again.
I proved as such by dodging the sentinel’s next effort and placing myself close enough to counter.
Something I did with no hesitation.
My axe struck the sentinel's giant shield, bouncing off for the second time.
That not enough? Then try this!
I roared as I unleashed a quick flurry of strikes designed to test how good that oversized shield was.
The barrier flashed, but it didn’t dip lower than turquoise.
Are you serious?!
My poxy portable buckler would have been butchered by that combo. How was the sentinel’s barely damaged?
“Allow me, stud!” Vay roared as she jumped in with a downward swing that could have ripped a wyvern in half.
The enormous barrier ate the hit and asked for seconds.
Vay’s eyes widened. “Impossible! That hardly did a thing.”
“Tell me about it,” I snarled through my clenched jaw.
“Move!” Akko squealed from across the room.
I did just that as the sentinel slammed its flail between me and Vay.
Too slow. I said you were never going to—
My instincts pulsed.
While the metal ball sat in a crater of its own making, its visible points shot out upon flexible strands.
I jumped away while swinging my axe at the volley of spikes coming for my life.
My swipe took most of them, but a couple evaded and continued forward, locked firmly on me.
Oh, shit!
They were inches from giving me the worst acupuncture treatment of all times when they were swept up by a spear passing through. Faris had entered the fray. She landed on the ball, having intercepted every spike coming for me and Vay in the process.
“I was wondering where you’d gotten to, little herix,” Vay said, several spike-tipped metal threads wrapped around her blade.
“I’ve been grilling DD,” Faris replied.
“Please tell me you’ve found a way through this shield,” I said.
The sentinel drew back the spikes while throwing its flail into the air.