Dungeon Robotics 146

Hey Guys! I hope September is treating everyone well? I'm good here, well I would be if my internet hadn't gotten fried due to a power surge, using my hotspot right now. That said, I plan to take friday-sunday off. I'm heading out of town for those days. 

Louella

The battle was intense. Goblins using mechs that had been enhanced by gnomes to use weapons that dealt cold and ice damage swarmed the battlefield as beasts and men made of flames washed over them. Without much in the way of physical forms, it was hard to block their advance. The mechs only barely managed to hold the worst of the flaming horde back by using energy shields of some sort.

Moving over the battle, I assisted those that were being overwhelmed. I thought it would be difficult for me to be much help in this fight given my new aspect, but it actually helped out in the end. I didn’t even notice the heat or the fire itself as I dropped down and blocked an attack that would have killed several goblins and gnomes. 

With a surge of lightning, I wiped out the pack of flaming beasts before leaping back into the air. There was a boom, on the other side of the battlefield. Turning I found Soza in a different form. She looked more like a giant snake with two legs near her head. She was rolling through her side of the battle literally eating the flames.

“That is going to give her indigestion later,” I mumbled before turning back to my side. I couldn’t be outdone after all. 

I placed both my hands in front of me and started creating a spell. It quickly grew to shine brighter than the flames under me. I was about to launch it when my girls joined in and started adding their mana to the spell construct. With a grin, I unleashed it on the flaming monsters below. 

Tendrils of lightning ripped through the enemy on this flank. They tore the ground to pieces as the flames died one by one. By the time it was done, I had cleared a five-hundred-meter section of the battle under me. Our forces quickly charged forward to cover the ground and flank the middle section. 

“Not bad, but I know you can do more.” I heard in my head. I glanced around but couldn’t figure out the source. I knew it wasn’t Regan as I had his voice and mental tone memorized due to how often he liked to drop in my thoughts. 

“Who’s there?!” I growled looking casting my senses out.

There was no reply and the battle had been joined forcing me to drop the issue for the moment. There was a never-ending tide of flame coming from the west tunnel entrance. For every flame monster or man that we destroyed, another took its place.

Everyone was fighting as hard as they could to prevent lose of life on our side of the battle, but there was only so much we could do. The combined number of goblins and gnomes was close to twenty thousand and there was Regan’s thirty or forty thousand automata in the mix. For there part, the automata were sacrificing themselves to save gnome and goblin lives, but that only made the two races fight harder. 

Explosions of ice signaled Regan’s daughter Z2 on one side of the battle as she ripped through the enemy. Lean was just as destructive as his shadows absorbed the flaming monsters whole and grew with each one consumed. The rest of the party was equally effective at taking down the elementals. 

Izora was leading her royal guards with her usual skill. Her control over multiple elementals allowed her to be almost as destructive as Z2. The flames didn’t appear to affect her with the magic armor that Regan made for her protecting her.

There was a boom, and Regan came flying towards me. He stopped his momentum just next to me. “Hey! Nice day for a war, don’t you think?” The crack of thunder and rain seemed to punctuate his statement. 

“Do you need some help?” I asked. Not to toot my own horn, but I was the most powerful person down here. 

He rubbed the back of his neck looking embarrassed. “Probably. Everything tiers three and down just washes off of her.”

“We need to seal the breach, or this battle will be endless,” I said tossing some lightning down in the flame monsters’ ranks. They exploded one by one until the attack ran out of charge.

“We need to deal with Glourios himself. Sealing the breach won’t help for more than a few minutes. Still. He has to be tapping into a source of power for him to be launching such a consistent attack.”

Memories flashed through my head causing a spike of pain. I groaned as I gripped my head. “Source… of… power!” More images flashed. A castle made from flame model stone still in the center of a cavern. Magma flows all around it that made it unbearably hot for any not able to dampen or absorb it. Red crystals that hummed with power hanging from the ceiling. A man standing at the center of it all as mana flowed into him.

“Do you know where he is?” Regan asked placing a hand on my head. His metal fingers brought cooling relief. 

“Sort of. Its all hazy,” I said honestly.

“That’ll be good enough.” He pulled his hand back and held it out. “Do you mind?”

I shook my head against my head again only this time I felt some mana flow into me through our link. A link that had been there for several months. The sounds of the battle faded from my world as my consciousness sank in on itself. 

When I opened my eyes, I found I was back in the valley, only it was before the city really started to flourish. The modest manor I had called home for six months before Regan appeared in my life almost made me homesick. The idled life I had before him had been peaceful after all.

I blinked and the scene completely changed to that of the current city. Non-stop and always in a hurry, the people of the city were in a rush to get from point A to point B. To be fair, more than a few things had led to this situation. Several attacks, a small war, a dungeon core that liked to change every ten minutes.

“I just like to keep you on your toes.”

I spun and found Regan next to me. Only he was vastly different from how I knew him. He was an elderly man with white hair that spoke of intelligence rather than age. The only thing that echoed the Regan I knew was a device that seemed to replace his eye. 

“Regan?”

“Who else?” He asked then seemed to notice his hand was made of flesh instead of metal. “Ah, I see. This is my body from my last life. I have no idea why it is showing up, but we are in your head so strange things are bound to happen.”

“You look good. I might even be attracted to this form,” I said then clamped my hand over my mouth. “Why the hell did I say that!?”

Regan gave a grin that was exactly like his metal form’s. “Awe, I’ll take that as a compliment.”

“Can we just do what we’re here to do!” I shouted, crossing my arms and turning away from him before I got myself in more trouble.

The image started to change around us, but not before I noticed a massive shadow that towered over everything. I blinked and it was gone. Was it my mind playing tricks on me? The scene morphed until we found ourselves falling down a massive hole. It soon stopped when tunnels of the Beneath appeared.

In a blurred rush, we flew down a series of tunnels until we reached a cavern that paled in comparison to Regan’s underground city but was still massive given that there were millions of tons of stone above us. From there it was much like I saw previously. “Quant little place he found,” Regan said looking around. The image was blurry and looked like it would change at any second. 

There was a burst of light and something was flung down the tunnel behind us. A few seconds later, a red version of me came walking out of the cavern and down a tunnel. We were pulled along until we reached a place where the image solidified. I remembered it was when I first recovered Helios and regained some control of myself.

“Does this help?” I asked. My head was starting to feel like it was being pulled through a tiny hole. 

“This will work perfectly.” He held his hand out and an orb appeared. I felt Regan go through the process that I had done to place the markers for his teleporters in the past. His only took a few seconds though. “Alright.” He gave me a grin. “See you on the other side.” 

The image broke around us as the sounds of the battle rushed back in. I would have vomited had there been anything for me to vomit. That was when I realized I hadn’t eaten anything for several days. Regan held me as I had started to fall.

“That was… horrible!” I said dry heaving.

“Yeah. Next time I’ll make sure not to do that in mid-air.”

There was an explosion drawing our attention. Another giant had joined the fight only this one appeared to be made from metal and wood. She swung a sword that caused a shockwave every time it connected with Frusoga’s battle-axe. It looked like the new giant was working off some rage issues as she rapidly struck out with her sword.

“Is… is that Alara?” I asked coughing to clear my throat.

“Yep. I forget she is actually older than me and knows much more about fighting being born in this world. I’m going to let you go know or we’ll both have hell to pay. She’s been a little jealous lately.”

“Stop showing up with new women,” I retorted then chuckled at his expression. I knew he didn’t do it on purpose, but his personality and demeanor drew people to him. 

I moved away from him then we both shot toward the flaming giantess. We needed to finish her, or we wouldn’t be able to move against the real threat. With Alara keeping her occupied, the rest of us were able to surround her and focus on creating a spell to actually bring her down.

I worked on supporting the others since many of my attacks would have only fed the giantess more energy to fight with. Unlike the lower level flame monsters, she would be able to use the heat from my lightning as fuel. I decided to go a route I knew I could do, but had only attempted once before during the battle.

Focusing on the atoms, as Regan calls them, and how they were moving. I created a spell that would draw that energy into myself. I wasn’t sure how it would affect the giantess, but at least it wouldn’t feed her any energy. With a heavy blow from Alara, the giantess was knocked back. Julie, Wrakras, Regan and I all unleashed our spells at the same time.

A tidal wave of shadows washed over the left side of Frusoga. The flames vanishing without a trace. My spell lanced into her right side and as if it froze, the fire started falling to the ground in solid chunks. Regan’s spell had the most effect though. There was a single spot that pulled all the remaining flame of the giantess as it condensed into some sort of gem. 

He gestured and the gem flew toward him as he swung his sword. The gem shattered then was absorbed into his body. He coughed which caused a few flames to jet from his mouth. “Excuse me.”