Chapter 233: That Depends
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Chapter 233: That Depends
Tala laid on the ground, surrounded by slowly leaking, broken constructs of metal and magic.
That was actually pretty exhausting. What the rust?
The ten heavily armored automata had required her to get in close and hack through their defenses a little at a time, all while evading the ones she wasnt currently assaulting.
The stupid things had had wells of power that were entirely too deep, and had that power directly connected to their own integrity-defending magics, rendering her disintegration breath ineffective, at least not at its current efficiency.
The automata were too quick to cut their losses and seal off limbs for the void-blades to reasonably drain them.
They had just enough magical weight to make enacting workings directly on them infeasible.
Shed tried to hold them in place to deliver punishing blows, but theyd worked together to wriggle free or otherwise minimize the damage.
Thus, most of her hits had sent them flying away, allowing that target to heal while she fought the other nine.
Throughout, theyd struck her with armored, empowered fists and mostly mundane blades.
The attacks had hurt, but only occasionally made her bleed, sometimes internally, sometimes mixing her red blood with their purple vital fluids to splash across the ground.
Thus, the fight had turned into a contest of endurance.
It was no surprise to Tala that she had won in the end, but it had taken a couple of hours.
That was dumb. She was no longer panting.
Honestly, shed never needed to breathe heavier, but her body still had that reaction to extended, strenuous activities.
How can something requiring such precision, and filled with so much action, have been so boring?
-Repetition?-
It had been incredibly repetitive.
-They knew you to be an unstoppable force with what they had available, so they sent a delaying force?-
Yeah that would be my guess from their actions as well. She sat up.
Even knowing that this hold was delaying her for some reason, she still wanted to prepare. Sure, she could go sprinting off to find whatever they were doing, but a half-hour more of preparation would set her up so much better for whatever this place had in store and shouldnt mean the difference between success and failure.
-Deep within the bowels of the guild hold, the Tala-destroyer neared completion. They just needed twenty more minutes. Their best minds were at a loss: How could they delay the invader? Little did they know, the invader was delaying herself.-
Rust you, Alat. Im trying to be wise and methodical.
-Definitely the wise choice. This wont be the point at which, in a poetic twist, your standard brashness would have been the wiser course.-
Tala glared at nothing in particular, making it very clear that the look was intended for Alat.
-Fine, fine. Do what you want.-
I was going to anyway.
Tala pulled out a set of one-inch tungsten spheres and hesitated.
You know, instead of tying these on after, I can skip a step by She applied her will and power to the garments, and a small flap of leather extended from the front of her elk-leathers.
She held one ball in place on either side.
First, she reduced their downward pull, then she amplified the gravity between them.
Soon enough, they were holding themselves in place, the bit of leather all that separated the two.
Tala was able to let go, and they stayed in place.
Ha! Thats great.
She moved just a bit, and they tried to roll off the leather to get closer together.
No! No, no, no. She grabbed them, forcing them back in place, as their pull still wasnt that strong yet. This was just a test, after all.
The tie had held them just fine. Why was this different?
It was a raised ring.
With that realization, Tala caused a circle of elk-bone to grow within the leather, encircling the point where the two balls pushed closest.
Eh? She moved a bit, and the spheres swayed back and forth a bit. She pulled the leather tab back in, until the two were held tight against her, and that seemed to work.
Alright! Lets do this.
-That was well thought through.-
Why, thank you, Alat.
Tala ended up fully amplifying all ten sets of magic-marked tungsten spheres, placing five on her front, and five on her back using leather with embedded bone-rings as spacers and to hold them in place.
She had done them one set at a time because while she could do more than that, it would slow down the amplification a corresponding proportion, thus not actually being faster in the end.
There we go! Lets see what we have to deal with next.
Tala moved through the park quickly, checking each building she passed, but finding them empty.
The buildings were the heart and soul of the guilds daily operations, just as the book had described them to be. They were offices, meeting rooms, laboratories, and libraries. There were storage buildings, cafeterias, and even living quarters scattered throughout the parklike section of the hold.
A few were locked, but Tala opened those with a small application of force.
As she finally approached the far side of the space, she came around a turn in the path and saw the door to the next area.
In front of it stood a dozen of the much more heavily armored automata, standing in groups of four, each group around what looked like a Mage variant, containing even more power than the few shed seen so far.
You have got to be rusting kidding me.
They hadnt reacted to her presence, so she had a moment.This chapter's initial release occurred on the n0vell--Bjjn site.
In that moment, she had a thought, and she opened up Kit.
Terry?
Terry flickered into being on her shoulder, looking around.
Do you want to fight some metal people?
He gave her a deeply incredulous look before vanishing once more.
By the traces of dimensional power evident to her mage-sight, he returned to his playing and hunting within Kit.
I guess not, then.
Fine. How do I want to handle this?
She could just blast the fifteen units in the head, but she didnt know what lay beyond them.
-Yeah, just keep hitting them til you hear a DING-
Yeah. Tala grinned. That would be nice.
-I could offer that, but you and I sense the same things. I feel like it would just be annoying.-
Thats true, yeah. She sighed. I suppose its just not to be.
She quickly collected her tungsten spheres and began re-amplifying one set, placing the other sets in their pouch.
-You arent going to recharge all of them, are you?-
No, I feel like that would be a foolish delay. Besides, I still have three sets. This one makes four.
-Good, good.-
When the set she was working with reached proper power levels, she nodded to herself and walked up to the massive doors.
After a moments examination, Tala pulled her knee to her chest and kicked the door with her bare foot
The door held and her own strength threw her backward, tripping her up and causing her to fall onto the ground.
Ow
-Why did you do that?-
I was curious if I could?
-Fair enough? But you could have done something to enhance yourself, you know. Increase your weight, mirror void into a shoe, something.-
Yeah, I could have. Theyd already discussed it and firmly agreed that mirroring void into herself would be a very bad plan, at least for now. But I wanted to see if I could on my own.
-You wanted to see if you could kick down one of the most secure doors, within a very wealthy guilds hold?-
I didnt think it was likely, but I still wanted to know.
Alat sighed. -You do you, I guess.-
Tala climbed back to her feet and pulled out the keyring. Ready?
-What? Why are you asking me? Im not going to be doing any oh, youre mocking me again.-
Just poking. Tala grinned as she put the key in the lock and turned it.
The door vanished, revealing a simple thirty by thirty-foot cube-shaped room, the walls lined with the white steel.
In the center stood exactly what she expected, while not being what she expected at all.
This was the last defender of the hold, an automaton of the highest caliber, designed as the final failsafe to protect the core, which lay behind the doors on the far side of the room.
Apparently, the critical equipment and research materials were also behind that door. So, Tala was incredibly excited to open it.
Tala had expected the defender to be massive, for some reason, even having read a description of it.
State of the art combat programming, each portion of the armor more defensive than a squad of the armored variant. Able to chop through the lesser versions with a single swing. That last part is actually the most telling. Even Flow had some trouble cleanly cutting all the way through.
No, the issue was that Tala had imagined a hulking thing, a juggernaut of strength and defense.
What stood before her was a figure that was thinner than she was, while being about the same height.
It looked alien, like an emaciated child that had been stretched to the height of an adult. The covering, while still white, had subtle purple lines running through it, like inscriptions or spell-forms.
They didnt make sense to Talas mage-sight.
I dont know what else I expected. The unknown medium and material would make interpretation difficult even if I was a master inscriber, which Im obviously not.
Its face looked human, if subtly off. Its eyes were, as expected, purple, and the back of its head seemed to house an orb of some kind.
Tala had a sinking feeling that she knew what the orb was, even before her mage-sight made it obvious.
It looked almost identical to Rob.
Was Rob an early version that they pawned off to recoup costs and cover their tracks?
-This is a crafting guild, the idea that they sold off some of what they created is just logical.-
Not to mention that Rob was obviously odd and experimental in many regards. It makes sense that it came from a place like this, I suppose.
The orb, more than anything else, was a housing for an embedded fount.
This thing would not be running out of power.
Seems like they dealt with the self-destructive desires?
-And the chatty-ness.-
The eyes somehow seemed to be staring through her, even though they had no pupils, so Tala couldnt have said what they were looking at in either case.
To get her mind off of how freaky the thing looked, Tala decided to continue her banter with Alat. In any case, see? They werent delaying me at all. There is only one.
-Or, this is part of the delaying tactic. And something even worse is being finished behind those doors.-
Tala growled. Fine. Well be fast, then.
She willed two spheres to eliminate the threat, one aimed for the head and the orb at its back, the other the core and the heart of the automatons magical functions.
-You know that probably wont work, right?-
Would be better if it did.
The snap in the air had an off echo, and the automaton was suddenly standing in a different position, a sword held in a high guard, edge rippling with purple energy.
This energy was purple in rank, simply in the color it gave off to her mundane eyes, just like everything else about these automata.
Tala had felt her two workings vanish, the blade having deflected or bisected the spheres, and the energy in the weapon having dispersed the magical signature Tala had based the gravity amplification on.
Well, I should have thought of that possibility.
Strangely, the automaton didnt move further, seeming to just continue to stare at her.
It was slightly eerie, just highlighting the inhuman nature of the thing.
-It didnt react until the spheres entered the room.-
That just means its even faster than it seemed. I dont suppose youll just let me pass?
It still didnt move, but its mouth opened.
Rather than a nutcracker like motion, this model seemed to be capable of more biological looking facial movements. That depends, what are you offering?
Huh I was not expecting that.
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Chapter 233: That Depends
Tala laid on the ground, surrounded by slowly leaking, broken constructs of metal and magic.
That was actually pretty exhausting. What the rust?
The ten heavily armored automata had required her to get in close and hack through their defenses a little at a time, all while evading the ones she wasnt currently assaulting.
The stupid things had had wells of power that were entirely too deep, and had that power directly connected to their own integrity-defending magics, rendering her disintegration breath ineffective, at least not at its current efficiency.
The automata were too quick to cut their losses and seal off limbs for the void-blades to reasonably drain them.
They had just enough magical weight to make enacting workings directly on them infeasible.
Shed tried to hold them in place to deliver punishing blows, but theyd worked together to wriggle free or otherwise minimize the damage.
Thus, most of her hits had sent them flying away, allowing that target to heal while she fought the other nine.
Throughout, theyd struck her with armored, empowered fists and mostly mundane blades.
The attacks had hurt, but only occasionally made her bleed, sometimes internally, sometimes mixing her red blood with their purple vital fluids to splash across the ground.
Thus, the fight had turned into a contest of endurance.
It was no surprise to Tala that she had won in the end, but it had taken a couple of hours.
That was dumb. She was no longer panting.
Honestly, shed never needed to breathe heavier, but her body still had that reaction to extended, strenuous activities.
How can something requiring such precision, and filled with so much action, have been so boring?
-Repetition?-
It had been incredibly repetitive.
-They knew you to be an unstoppable force with what they had available, so they sent a delaying force?-
Yeah that would be my guess from their actions as well. She sat up.
Even knowing that this hold was delaying her for some reason, she still wanted to prepare. Sure, she could go sprinting off to find whatever they were doing, but a half-hour more of preparation would set her up so much better for whatever this place had in store and shouldnt mean the difference between success and failure.
-Deep within the bowels of the guild hold, the Tala-destroyer neared completion. They just needed twenty more minutes. Their best minds were at a loss: How could they delay the invader? Little did they know, the invader was delaying herself.-
Rust you, Alat. Im trying to be wise and methodical.
-Definitely the wise choice. This wont be the point at which, in a poetic twist, your standard brashness would have been the wiser course.-
Tala glared at nothing in particular, making it very clear that the look was intended for Alat.
-Fine, fine. Do what you want.-
I was going to anyway.
Tala pulled out a set of one-inch tungsten spheres and hesitated.
You know, instead of tying these on after, I can skip a step by She applied her will and power to the garments, and a small flap of leather extended from the front of her elk-leathers.
She held one ball in place on either side.
First, she reduced their downward pull, then she amplified the gravity between them.
Soon enough, they were holding themselves in place, the bit of leather all that separated the two.
Tala was able to let go, and they stayed in place.
Ha! Thats great.
She moved just a bit, and they tried to roll off the leather to get closer together.
No! No, no, no. She grabbed them, forcing them back in place, as their pull still wasnt that strong yet. This was just a test, after all.
The tie had held them just fine. Why was this different?
It was a raised ring.
With that realization, Tala caused a circle of elk-bone to grow within the leather, encircling the point where the two balls pushed closest.
Eh? She moved a bit, and the spheres swayed back and forth a bit. She pulled the leather tab back in, until the two were held tight against her, and that seemed to work.
Alright! Lets do this.
-That was well thought through.-
Why, thank you, Alat.
Tala ended up fully amplifying all ten sets of magic-marked tungsten spheres, placing five on her front, and five on her back using leather with embedded bone-rings as spacers and to hold them in place.
She had done them one set at a time because while she could do more than that, it would slow down the amplification a corresponding proportion, thus not actually being faster in the end.
There we go! Lets see what we have to deal with next.
Tala moved through the park quickly, checking each building she passed, but finding them empty.
The buildings were the heart and soul of the guilds daily operations, just as the book had described them to be. They were offices, meeting rooms, laboratories, and libraries. There were storage buildings, cafeterias, and even living quarters scattered throughout the parklike section of the hold.
A few were locked, but Tala opened those with a small application of force.
As she finally approached the far side of the space, she came around a turn in the path and saw the door to the next area.
In front of it stood a dozen of the much more heavily armored automata, standing in groups of four, each group around what looked like a Mage variant, containing even more power than the few shed seen so far.
You have got to be rusting kidding me.
They hadnt reacted to her presence, so she had a moment.This chapter's initial release occurred on the n0vell--Bjjn site.
In that moment, she had a thought, and she opened up Kit.
Terry?
Terry flickered into being on her shoulder, looking around.
Do you want to fight some metal people?
He gave her a deeply incredulous look before vanishing once more.
By the traces of dimensional power evident to her mage-sight, he returned to his playing and hunting within Kit.
I guess not, then.
Fine. How do I want to handle this?
She could just blast the fifteen units in the head, but she didnt know what lay beyond them.
-Yeah, just keep hitting them til you hear a DING-
Yeah. Tala grinned. That would be nice.
-I could offer that, but you and I sense the same things. I feel like it would just be annoying.-
Thats true, yeah. She sighed. I suppose its just not to be.
She quickly collected her tungsten spheres and began re-amplifying one set, placing the other sets in their pouch.
-You arent going to recharge all of them, are you?-
No, I feel like that would be a foolish delay. Besides, I still have three sets. This one makes four.
-Good, good.-
When the set she was working with reached proper power levels, she nodded to herself and walked up to the massive doors.
After a moments examination, Tala pulled her knee to her chest and kicked the door with her bare foot
The door held and her own strength threw her backward, tripping her up and causing her to fall onto the ground.
Ow
-Why did you do that?-
I was curious if I could?
-Fair enough? But you could have done something to enhance yourself, you know. Increase your weight, mirror void into a shoe, something.-
Yeah, I could have. Theyd already discussed it and firmly agreed that mirroring void into herself would be a very bad plan, at least for now. But I wanted to see if I could on my own.
-You wanted to see if you could kick down one of the most secure doors, within a very wealthy guilds hold?-
I didnt think it was likely, but I still wanted to know.
Alat sighed. -You do you, I guess.-
Tala climbed back to her feet and pulled out the keyring. Ready?
-What? Why are you asking me? Im not going to be doing any oh, youre mocking me again.-
Just poking. Tala grinned as she put the key in the lock and turned it.
The door vanished, revealing a simple thirty by thirty-foot cube-shaped room, the walls lined with the white steel.
In the center stood exactly what she expected, while not being what she expected at all.
This was the last defender of the hold, an automaton of the highest caliber, designed as the final failsafe to protect the core, which lay behind the doors on the far side of the room.
Apparently, the critical equipment and research materials were also behind that door. So, Tala was incredibly excited to open it.
Tala had expected the defender to be massive, for some reason, even having read a description of it.
State of the art combat programming, each portion of the armor more defensive than a squad of the armored variant. Able to chop through the lesser versions with a single swing. That last part is actually the most telling. Even Flow had some trouble cleanly cutting all the way through.
No, the issue was that Tala had imagined a hulking thing, a juggernaut of strength and defense.
What stood before her was a figure that was thinner than she was, while being about the same height.
It looked alien, like an emaciated child that had been stretched to the height of an adult. The covering, while still white, had subtle purple lines running through it, like inscriptions or spell-forms.
They didnt make sense to Talas mage-sight.
I dont know what else I expected. The unknown medium and material would make interpretation difficult even if I was a master inscriber, which Im obviously not.
Its face looked human, if subtly off. Its eyes were, as expected, purple, and the back of its head seemed to house an orb of some kind.
Tala had a sinking feeling that she knew what the orb was, even before her mage-sight made it obvious.
It looked almost identical to Rob.
Was Rob an early version that they pawned off to recoup costs and cover their tracks?
-This is a crafting guild, the idea that they sold off some of what they created is just logical.-
Not to mention that Rob was obviously odd and experimental in many regards. It makes sense that it came from a place like this, I suppose.
The orb, more than anything else, was a housing for an embedded fount.
This thing would not be running out of power.
Seems like they dealt with the self-destructive desires?
-And the chatty-ness.-
The eyes somehow seemed to be staring through her, even though they had no pupils, so Tala couldnt have said what they were looking at in either case.
To get her mind off of how freaky the thing looked, Tala decided to continue her banter with Alat. In any case, see? They werent delaying me at all. There is only one.
-Or, this is part of the delaying tactic. And something even worse is being finished behind those doors.-
Tala growled. Fine. Well be fast, then.
She willed two spheres to eliminate the threat, one aimed for the head and the orb at its back, the other the core and the heart of the automatons magical functions.
-You know that probably wont work, right?-
Would be better if it did.
The snap in the air had an off echo, and the automaton was suddenly standing in a different position, a sword held in a high guard, edge rippling with purple energy.
This energy was purple in rank, simply in the color it gave off to her mundane eyes, just like everything else about these automata.
Tala had felt her two workings vanish, the blade having deflected or bisected the spheres, and the energy in the weapon having dispersed the magical signature Tala had based the gravity amplification on.
Well, I should have thought of that possibility.
Strangely, the automaton didnt move further, seeming to just continue to stare at her.
It was slightly eerie, just highlighting the inhuman nature of the thing.
-It didnt react until the spheres entered the room.-
That just means its even faster than it seemed. I dont suppose youll just let me pass?
It still didnt move, but its mouth opened.
Rather than a nutcracker like motion, this model seemed to be capable of more biological looking facial movements. That depends, what are you offering?
Huh I was not expecting that.
Chapter 233: That DependsTala laid on the ground, surrounded by slowly leaking, broken constructs of metal and magic.That was actually pretty exhausting. What the rust?The ten heavily armored automata had required her to get in close and hack through their defenses a little at a time, all while evading the ones she wasnt currently assaulting.The stupid things had had wells of power that were entirely too deep, and had that power directly connected to their own integrity-defending magics, rendering her disintegration breath ineffective, at least not at its current efficiency.The automata were too quick to cut their losses and seal off limbs for the void-blades to reasonably drain them.They had just enough magical weight to make enacting workings directly on them infeasible.Shed tried to hold them in place to deliver punishing blows, but theyd worked together to wriggle free or otherwise minimize the damage.Thus, most of her hits had sent them flying away, allowing that target to heal while she fought the other nine.Throughout, theyd struck her with armored, empowered fists and mostly mundane blades.The attacks had hurt, but only occasionally made her bleed, sometimes internally, sometimes mixing her red blood with their purple vital fluids to splash across the ground.Thus, the fight had turned into a contest of endurance.It was no surprise to Tala that she had won in the end, but it had taken a couple of hours.That was dumb. She was no longer panting.Honestly, shed never needed to breathe heavier, but her body still had that reaction to extended, strenuous activities.How can something requiring such precision, and filled with so much action, have been so boring?-Repetition?-It had been incredibly repetitive.-They knew you to be an unstoppable force with what they had available, so they sent a delaying force?-Yeah that would be my guess from their actions as well. She sat up.Even knowing that this hold was delaying her for some reason, she still wanted to prepare. Sure, she could go sprinting off to find whatever they were doing, but a half-hour more of preparation would set her up so much better for whatever this place had in store and shouldnt mean the difference between success and failure.-Deep within the bowels of the guild hold, the Tala-destroyer neared completion. They just needed twenty more minutes. Their best minds were at a loss: How could they delay the invader? Little did they know, the invader was delaying herself.-Rust you, Alat. Im trying to be wise and methodical.-Definitely the wise choice. This wont be the point at which, in a poetic twist, your standard brashness would have been the wiser course.-Tala glared at nothing in particular, making it very clear that the look was intended for Alat.-Fine, fine. Do what you want.-I was going to anyway.Tala pulled out a set of one-inch tungsten spheres and hesitated.You know, instead of tying these on after, I can skip a step by She applied her will and power to the garments, and a small flap of leather extended from the front of her elk-leathers.She held one ball in place on either side.First, she reduced their downward pull, then she amplified the gravity between them.Soon enough, they were holding themselves in place, the bit of leather all that separated the two.Tala was able to let go, and they stayed in place.Ha! Thats great.She moved just a bit, and they tried to roll off the leather to get closer together.No! No, no, no. She grabbed them, forcing them back in place, as their pull still wasnt that strong yet. This was just a test, after all.The tie had held them just fine. Why was this different?It was a raised ring.With that realization, Tala caused a circle of elk-bone to grow within the leather, encircling the point where the two balls pushed closest.Eh? She moved a bit, and the spheres swayed back and forth a bit. She pulled the leather tab back in, until the two were held tight against her, and that seemed to work.Alright! Lets do this.-That was well thought through.-Why, thank you, Alat.Tala ended up fully amplifying all ten sets of magic-marked tungsten spheres, placing five on her front, and five on her back using leather with embedded bone-rings as spacers and to hold them in place.She had done them one set at a time because while she could do more than that, it would slow down the amplification a corresponding proportion, thus not actually being faster in the end.There we go! Lets see what we have to deal with next.Tala moved through the park quickly, checking each building she passed, but finding them empty.The buildings were the heart and soul of the guilds daily operations, just as the book had described them to be. They were offices, meeting rooms, laboratories, and libraries. There were storage buildings, cafeterias, and even living quarters scattered throughout the parklike section of the hold.A few were locked, but Tala opened those with a small application of force.As she finally approached the far side of the space, she came around a turn in the path and saw the door to the next area.In front of it stood a dozen of the much more heavily armored automata, standing in groups of four, each group around what looked like a Mage variant, containing even more power than the few shed seen so far.You have got to be rusting kidding me.They hadnt reacted to her presence, so she had a moment.This chapter's initial release occurred on the n0vell--Bjjn site.In that moment, she had a thought, and she opened up Kit.Terry?Terry flickered into being on her shoulder, looking around.Do you want to fight some metal people?He gave her a deeply incredulous look before vanishing once more.By the traces of dimensional power evident to her mage-sight, he returned to his playing and hunting within Kit.I guess not, then.Fine. How do I want to handle this?She could just blast the fifteen units in the head, but she didnt know what lay beyond them.-Yeah, just keep hitting them til you hear a DING-Yeah. Tala grinned. That would be nice.-I could offer that, but you and I sense the same things. I feel like it would just be annoying.-Thats true, yeah. She sighed. I suppose its just not to be.She quickly collected her tungsten spheres and began re-amplifying one set, placing the other sets in their pouch.-You arent going to recharge all of them, are you?-No, I feel like that would be a foolish delay. Besides, I still have three sets. This one makes four.-Good, good.-When the set she was working with reached proper power levels, she nodded to herself and walked up to the massive doors.After a moments examination, Tala pulled her knee to her chest and kicked the door with her bare footThe door held and her own strength threw her backward, tripping her up and causing her to fall onto the ground.Ow-Why did you do that?-I was curious if I could?-Fair enough? But you could have done something to enhance yourself, you know. Increase your weight, mirror void into a shoe, something.-Yeah, I could have. Theyd already discussed it and firmly agreed that mirroring void into herself would be a very bad plan, at least for now. But I wanted to see if I could on my own.-You wanted to see if you could kick down one of the most secure doors, within a very wealthy guilds hold?-I didnt think it was likely, but I still wanted to know.Alat sighed. -You do you, I guess.-Tala climbed back to her feet and pulled out the keyring. Ready?-What? Why are you asking me? Im not going to be doing any oh, youre mocking me again.-Just poking. Tala grinned as she put the key in the lock and turned it.The door vanished, revealing a simple thirty by thirty-foot cube-shaped room, the walls lined with the white steel.In the center stood exactly what she expected, while not being what she expected at all.This was the last defender of the hold, an automaton of the highest caliber, designed as the final failsafe to protect the core, which lay behind the doors on the far side of the room.Apparently, the critical equipment and research materials were also behind that door. So, Tala was incredibly excited to open it.Tala had expected the defender to be massive, for some reason, even having read a description of it.State of the art combat programming, each portion of the armor more defensive than a squad of the armored variant. Able to chop through the lesser versions with a single swing. That last part is actually the most telling. Even Flow had some trouble cleanly cutting all the way through.No, the issue was that Tala had imagined a hulking thing, a juggernaut of strength and defense.What stood before her was a figure that was thinner than she was, while being about the same height.It looked alien, like an emaciated child that had been stretched to the height of an adult. The covering, while still white, had subtle purple lines running through it, like inscriptions or spell-forms.They didnt make sense to Talas mage-sight.I dont know what else I expected. The unknown medium and material would make interpretation difficult even if I was a master inscriber, which Im obviously not.Its face looked human, if subtly off. Its eyes were, as expected, purple, and the back of its head seemed to house an orb of some kind.Tala had a sinking feeling that she knew what the orb was, even before her mage-sight made it obvious.It looked almost identical to Rob.Was Rob an early version that they pawned off to recoup costs and cover their tracks?-This is a crafting guild, the idea that they sold off some of what they created is just logical.-Not to mention that Rob was obviously odd and experimental in many regards. It makes sense that it came from a place like this, I suppose.The orb, more than anything else, was a housing for an embedded fount.This thing would not be running out of power.Seems like they dealt with the self-destructive desires?-And the chatty-ness.-The eyes somehow seemed to be staring through her, even though they had no pupils, so Tala couldnt have said what they were looking at in either case.To get her mind off of how freaky the thing looked, Tala decided to continue her banter with Alat. In any case, see? They werent delaying me at all. There is only one.-Or, this is part of the delaying tactic. And something even worse is being finished behind those doors.-Tala growled. Fine. Well be fast, then.She willed two spheres to eliminate the threat, one aimed for the head and the orb at its back, the other the core and the heart of the automatons magical functions.-You know that probably wont work, right?-Would be better if it did.The snap in the air had an off echo, and the automaton was suddenly standing in a different position, a sword held in a high guard, edge rippling with purple energy.This energy was purple in rank, simply in the color it gave off to her mundane eyes, just like everything else about these automata.Tala had felt her two workings vanish, the blade having deflected or bisected the spheres, and the energy in the weapon having dispersed the magical signature Tala had based the gravity amplification on.Well, I should have thought of that possibility.Strangely, the automaton didnt move further, seeming to just continue to stare at her.It was slightly eerie, just highlighting the inhuman nature of the thing.-It didnt react until the spheres entered the room.-That just means its even faster than it seemed. I dont suppose youll just let me pass?It still didnt move, but its mouth opened.Rather than a nutcracker like motion, this model seemed to be capable of more biological looking facial movements. That depends, what are you offering?Huh I was not expecting that.
