Dungeon Robotics 127

Evening everyone! Hard to believe it is already friday. Scary how fast time can fly. 

Puppet

Speeding through the Beneath, we made good time. I didn’t know how the monsters worked down here, but we must have been moving too fast for them to bother with us. Given the nature of the Beneath, as long as we didn’t linger in any of the monster’s territory, we probably wouldn’t have to even deal with them.

Barely two days passed before we felt Father’s mana wave. It was behind us by about two hundred kilometers give or take of tunnel. I already planned to talk to Father about getting some drills down here to make straight passages. All these windings and curves just added time to our journey. Had it been on the surface, it would only amount to around twenty or thirty kilometers.

We rounded a bend when Natsuko held up her hand. We pulled the gravity bikes to a stop. “What is it?” I sent over the comms.

“I’m detecting a large mana reading up ahead and I mean large.”

“Everyone dismount. We’ll continue on foot until we assess what the threat is,” I order hoping off my bike and sending it to our storage. Everyone else followed suit before he drew our weapons and started making our way down the stone tunnel. None of us needed light to see, so we could continue on in complete darkness.

We still made good time and soon we were only one bend away from the large mana source. I motioned for the others to hold back while I turned my camouflage magic on. For all intents and purposes, I vanished from sight. Slipping around the corner, I easily made out the large force heading down the tunnel.

I wasn’t sure how to assess what I saw. Given what Father told me, the races walking down the tunnel should be enemies, not allies. High humans and elves, walked along with Dark elves there was certainly a tension in the air, but it would be surprising for centuries old enemies to get along perfectly.

I was going to let them pass when I saw the objective that we came down here for. Lady Louella was in the middle of the group. I couldn’t tell what their situation was from just a glance, but considering it looked like she was under guard. It couldn’t be good.

I quickly made my way back to the others. “I found our target! She’s with a party made up of two of the fractions down here.”

“Was she a prisoner?” Azra asked worried. She was fond of the woman since she brought her food and was helping to free slaves around the kingdoms.

“I couldn’t tell outright, but she was under guard.” 

“How do you want to proceed?” Z2 asked.

“We’ll set up an ambush and I’ll ask. If they don’t give her over then we’ll take her by force.”

Z2 cracked her knuckles. “Understood.” 

“I’ll fire the warning shot. They’ll never knew what hit them,” Natsuko said with a grin.

With that decided, we moved a bit further down the tunnel. We waited for several minutes when a large explosion sent a shockwave down the tunnel at us. Worried that they might have gotten the jump on us, Z2 and I rushed from where we’d set the ambush to see what was going on.

A large group of dwarves had created a connecting tunnel and were attacking the joint Fallen rose and dark elf force. The force with Lady Louella was holding their ground for now, but I was worried that might be the case for long. The dwarves had a vastly higher control of the terra mana around them.

I zoomed my sight in to get a better idea of the enemy. The dwarves almost appeared to be made from stone themselves. With strange cracks running over the surface of their skin. I almost wanted to call these golems rather than dwarves. They were almost overflowing with terra mana. 

“Let’s assist Lady Louella!” I sent over the comms, and the others rushed to us. Natsuko and Natsuo formed a defensive position as she dropped down to the ground and morphed her weapon to its rifle form. Natsuo created a barrier with his metal plates to defend against anything that might be thrown at them. 

Z2 and Lean charged ahead as Natsuko fired rounds that hit their mark every time. Three dwarves had their heads blasted off, before they wizened up to us attacking from their rear. The shifted the ground around them to create a barrier. Z2 threw a spell that froze the air and infused it with water mana to halt the stone from rising. 

I was right behind the two as we jumped over the partial stone barrier and laid into the dwarven lines. I brought my sword around removing the arm of the nearest dwarf. I wanted to go for incapacitation rather than lethal. While they were attacking the group with Lady Louella, we didn’t want to outright join any sides of the age-old war taking place in the Beneath.

Z2 and Lean were doing their part. Lean would engulf the enemy in shadows and they would be unconscious once he removed himself from them. Z2 liberally froze everyone around her. She’d gone for a rapier and anything she struck froze nearly instantly. Then there were the occasional out of nowhere headshots from Natsuko that would take a life every few seconds. 

With the Fallen rose group responding to their attack, and us attacking from their rear. The dwarves quickly found themselves in a tough position. Whoever was in charge, ordered a retreat as the dwarves started to pull back into their artificial tunnel. I debated chasing them, but Lady Louella was our priority.

The soldiers of the Fallen Rose party bared their weapons at us but made no move. I sheathed mine as a show of non-hostilities. A few of them lowered their weapons slightly but none sheathed them. Not that I could blame them. 

“I am Puppet. Son of Regan. We are here to rescue the Lady Louella, Queen of Vaihdetta. I know that she is in your ranks,” I shouted. I decided it was better just to have my purpose out in the open.

Lady Louella ran up through the ranks a few seconds later. I tilted my head as something seemed off about her, though I couldn’t place my finger on it. I had only met her briefly during my time at Tearfalls when she claimed the throne from the Prince.

“I am Lady Louella! Please don’t fight over me,” she said holding her hands up to both us and the soldiers from the group she was with. She looked back in my direction. “You said your name was Puppet?”

“Yes. Of course,” I said saluting her. 

“I am afraid my memory is lacking of late. The name Regan does ring in my mind, but… nothing much more.”

“I see. That is terrible. My father has worked to rescue you once he learned of your survival of the event to the west of Vaihdetta. He would have come himself but there were pressing matters to the north and east.”

“I understand. These people were helping me reach the surface then the source of the mana disturbance. They are not your enemies if you are my ally.”

I glanced at the soldiers that had lowered their weapons fully by this point with one or two of them putting them away. I nodded and Z2 let her weapon turn to water, and Lean took his normal mortal form. “We will join this escort and help protect you until you reach father.”

“Thank you. I know you are doing this for me and I wish I could properly recall who you all are,” Lady Louella said bowing her head.

“Its fine. Oh!” I remembered the package father told me to give to Lady Louella once we located her. “This is for you.” I handed the crystal cylinder over. She took it with only a slight hesitation and twisted the top. A lightning elemental, Gulv if I remembered correctly, shoot out into the air. It chirped in obvious sign of affection as it laid eyes on Lady Louella.

“I know you…” Lady Louella said as she held her hand out. The elemental flew down and wrapped around her arm then eventually her neck. “There, there.”