In the half-hour since encountering the robot, our situation had not improved over much. Or at all.
The pair of us were hobbling along the dark corridors as quickly as we could, though with the dart Lynnria had taken through the calf, that was far slower than we would have liked. I had only been able to spare enough Life Energy for a rough patch job, sealing the wound but leaving the internal injury all but untouched. The latest Renewal of Consumption had pushed me as close to the edge as I dared go.
I was now officially tapped and so hungry I felt physically ill. My muscles kept twitching randomly. And I felt cold for some reason. If it were not for the driving need to keep moving forward, I would have been tempted to curl into a ball and shiver like a lost foal.
But that would have been foolish. Just as I had feared, the strange robot had begun pursuing us as soon as it had regained its feet, driving us ever forward through the trap-filled corridors. We could still clearly hear it lumbering along out there, its steps oddly punctuated by that peculiar wooden creaking.
Worse, thanks to the unpredictable acoustics, we had no idea how far ahead we even were. One minute, it would sound as if we had finally outdistanced it, and the next, it would seem to have teleported directly in front of us.
As a result, our nerves were about as shot as my Life Energy.
“What are we going to do, Donum?” Lynnria asked, panting as we hobbled along. She was badly out of breath from all the running, and since we only had the two good legs between us, we had ended up supporting each other’s weight. “You seem to know what this thing is. How do we beat it?”
How do you defeat a robot?
In the games I had played, these sorts of enemies were usually sensitive to electromagnetism, which is a little odd considering that most enemies worked off of elemental opposites. Fire opposed water. Wind opposed earth. That sort of thing. Mechanical enemies on the other hand were both electrical and also weak to it.
But then, elemental weaknesses tend to break down when you think about them too hard. I mean, when you ask the question seriously as to what sort of element a computer is weak to, the answer is yes. All of them. Too much electricity? Yeah. Hosing it down with water? Oh yeah. Fire? Bro, don’t even. Hell, even dust can be catastrophic if you let it build up too much.
But that was assuming a great deal.
“Normally, I’d say electricity, but—“
“Electricity?”
“Oh, uh… lightning,” I clarified quickly, “but—“
“Lightning!?” she interrupted again. “How do you expect to manage that? Even if I could buy it, we’re indoors! There’s no way we could summon a lightning strike from in here.”
I glanced down at her in confusion. “What? No, not from the sky. I meant like… shooting it out of your hands or something.”
“Hmm…” She fell silent momentarily, considering the idea. “That sounds intriguing. I’ll confess, the only sorts of spells I’m really familiar with are all related to fire. Even so… I can’t imagine that I could buy it yet.”
“No way of knowing unless you try,” I quipped as we rounded yet another corner.
Then there was another click, followed immediately by something streaking past my eyes. The two of us spared half a second to stare at the short spear still quivering in the wall before shuffling on.
“Anyway,” I continued, “I don’t know that it would help. This thing might be a golem or some other magical thing… which now that I say it out loud sounds far more likely. So, there’s no telling what its weakness might be.”
“I can tell you one thing. Whatever kind of armor it’s wearing, it’s not metal. It felt like I was stabbing a tree.”
“That would explain the sounds it makes,” I mused. “If that’s the case, I would be inclined to suggest fire.”
“No.”
There was an absoluteness to that denial. From her tone, I intuitively knew that any further arguments would be useless. I might have been able to make her into some sort of mage against her wishes, but on this point, she would brook no inroads. Fire magic was out. Still, I felt a little probing was warranted.
“That seems a bit… short-sighted,” I said carefully. “Fire can be quite useful.”
She tilted her nose up in disdain. “Like Grandfather always says, ‘Fancy weapons are all well and good, but even the sturdiest of armors can be crushed by a big enough rock.’ ”
“I suppose that’s true,” I admitted. Though I was having a bit of trouble working out how it was relevant.
About then, we rounded yet another corner only to be confronted by a sudden dead end.
“What the…?” Lynnria quickly swiveled to look back the way we had come. “Did we miss a turn? This was the way the dagger pointed, wasn’t it?”
“Pretty sure,” I affirmed. Curious now, I limped closer to the blank surface in front of us. As far as I could see, it was just a perfectly smooth wall. Not even a single blemish marred its surface. “You’re certain the charm worked?”
“Not… totally,” she admitted. “But it didn’t fizzle. I know that much.”
“Maybe—“
The creaking of an old ship at sea sounded in the distance. That thing out there might have been slow on its feet, but it was inexorably closing whatever distance we might have gained in our flight. And with that realization came another.
We had passed no intersections. We were trapped.
“Do the charm again,” I said quickly. “But this time look for a secret door or a hidden tunnel. We might have passed one somewhere.”
“What about the treasure?”
“Treasure won’t do us any good if we’re dead!” I snapped. “Now hurry.”
She nodded, then began scrabbling at her sheath for the dagger. But of course, it was missing. She had left it buried in our pursuer’s thick carapace. “Donum…” she breathed.
Naturally, that was when the barrel-golem strode into view. It paused for just a moment on seeing us, then began to slowly march forward.
I swore violently. We had perhaps a minute at best before it was on us. “Quick! Start looking for a hidden catch or a button.”
“Where?” she shot back. “We don’t even know if there’s one to find!”
“I don’t know!” I yelled. “What else are we going to do? Punch it? And keep spamming that charm while you’re at it. We could sure use some luck right now.”
She nodded and quickly began twitching her fingers. Then she grimaced. “Blast! I can’t concentrate like this.”
“Just keep trying,” I yelled over a shoulder.
Then, I turned and hurriedly began running my hands over the walls, hoping to find anything to help us. But as far as I could tell, they might as well have been a single, continuous slab of polished granite. There was not even a hint of texture to them. Never mind a hidden lever, I could not even see myself climbing out of here.
Maybe I can fly out?
The walls were at least three times my own height up on all sides, but with only my dark-vision spell to go off of, I could not tell whether there was a ceiling capping it off or if it was open. But then even if I could, what of Lynnria?
I risked a glance back. The golem was perhaps forty seconds away.
Shit!
“Donum!” Lynnria shouted. “I don’t know if it’s working, but I’ve found something!”
“What?”
Seleroan
Hey there, gentle reader.
Enjoying the content? Well, why not drop by my Patreon? It helps me keep this show running, and allows me to afford great things like editors, cover artists, and food!
Each chapter is now being personalized with some... passable chapter-inspired AI generated art. I try. But it gives things a bit of color. And you can read ahead!
Come on down! We'd love to see you.
In the half-hour since encountering the robot, our situation had not improved over much. Or at all.
The pair of us were hobbling along the dark corridors as quickly as we could, though with the dart Lynnria had taken through the calf, that was far slower than we would have liked. I had only been able to spare enough Life Energy for a rough patch job, sealing the wound but leaving the internal injury all but untouched. The latest Renewal of Consumption had pushed me as close to the edge as I dared go.
I was now officially tapped and so hungry I felt physically ill. My muscles kept twitching randomly. And I felt cold for some reason. If it were not for the driving need to keep moving forward, I would have been tempted to curl into a ball and shiver like a lost foal.
But that would have been foolish. Just as I had feared, the strange robot had begun pursuing us as soon as it had regained its feet, driving us ever forward through the trap-filled corridors. We could still clearly hear it lumbering along out there, its steps oddly punctuated by that peculiar wooden creaking.
Worse, thanks to the unpredictable acoustics, we had no idea how far ahead we even were. One minute, it would sound as if we had finally outdistanced it, and the next, it would seem to have teleported directly in front of us.
As a result, our nerves were about as shot as my Life Energy.
“What are we going to do, Donum?” Lynnria asked, panting as we hobbled along. She was badly out of breath from all the running, and since we only had the two good legs between us, we had ended up supporting each other’s weight. “You seem to know what this thing is. How do we beat it?”
How do you defeat a robot?
In the games I had played, these sorts of enemies were usually sensitive to electromagnetism, which is a little odd considering that most enemies worked off of elemental opposites. Fire opposed water. Wind opposed earth. That sort of thing. Mechanical enemies on the other hand were both electrical and also weak to it.
But then, elemental weaknesses tend to break down when you think about them too hard. I mean, when you ask the question seriously as to what sort of element a computer is weak to, the answer is yes. All of them. Too much electricity? Yeah. Hosing it down with water? Oh yeah. Fire? Bro, don’t even. Hell, even dust can be catastrophic if you let it build up too much.
But that was assuming a great deal.
“Normally, I’d say electricity, but—“
“Electricity?”
“Oh, uh… lightning,” I clarified quickly, “but—“
“Lightning!?” she interrupted again. “How do you expect to manage that? Even if I could buy it, we’re indoors! There’s no way we could summon a lightning strike from in here.”
I glanced down at her in confusion. “What? No, not from the sky. I meant like… shooting it out of your hands or something.”
“Hmm…” She fell silent momentarily, considering the idea. “That sounds intriguing. I’ll confess, the only sorts of spells I’m really familiar with are all related to fire. Even so… I can’t imagine that I could buy it yet.”
“No way of knowing unless you try,” I quipped as we rounded yet another corner.
Then there was another click, followed immediately by something streaking past my eyes. The two of us spared half a second to stare at the short spear still quivering in the wall before shuffling on.
“Anyway,” I continued, “I don’t know that it would help. This thing might be a golem or some other magical thing… which now that I say it out loud sounds far more likely. So, there’s no telling what its weakness might be.”
“I can tell you one thing. Whatever kind of armor it’s wearing, it’s not metal. It felt like I was stabbing a tree.”
“That would explain the sounds it makes,” I mused. “If that’s the case, I would be inclined to suggest fire.”
“No.”
There was an absoluteness to that denial. From her tone, I intuitively knew that any further arguments would be useless. I might have been able to make her into some sort of mage against her wishes, but on this point, she would brook no inroads. Fire magic was out. Still, I felt a little probing was warranted.
“That seems a bit… short-sighted,” I said carefully. “Fire can be quite useful.”
She tilted her nose up in disdain. “Like Grandfather always says, ‘Fancy weapons are all well and good, but even the sturdiest of armors can be crushed by a big enough rock.’ ”
“I suppose that’s true,” I admitted. Though I was having a bit of trouble working out how it was relevant.
About then, we rounded yet another corner only to be confronted by a sudden dead end.
“What the…?” Lynnria quickly swiveled to look back the way we had come. “Did we miss a turn? This was the way the dagger pointed, wasn’t it?”
“Pretty sure,” I affirmed. Curious now, I limped closer to the blank surface in front of us. As far as I could see, it was just a perfectly smooth wall. Not even a single blemish marred its surface. “You’re certain the charm worked?”
“Not… totally,” she admitted. “But it didn’t fizzle. I know that much.”
“Maybe—“
The creaking of an old ship at sea sounded in the distance. That thing out there might have been slow on its feet, but it was inexorably closing whatever distance we might have gained in our flight. And with that realization came another.
We had passed no intersections. We were trapped.
“Do the charm again,” I said quickly. “But this time look for a secret door or a hidden tunnel. We might have passed one somewhere.”
“What about the treasure?”
“Treasure won’t do us any good if we’re dead!” I snapped. “Now hurry.”
She nodded, then began scrabbling at her sheath for the dagger. But of course, it was missing. She had left it buried in our pursuer’s thick carapace. “Donum…” she breathed.
Naturally, that was when the barrel-golem strode into view. It paused for just a moment on seeing us, then began to slowly march forward.
I swore violently. We had perhaps a minute at best before it was on us. “Quick! Start looking for a hidden catch or a button.”
“Where?” she shot back. “We don’t even know if there’s one to find!”
“I don’t know!” I yelled. “What else are we going to do? Punch it? And keep spamming that charm while you’re at it. We could sure use some luck right now.”
She nodded and quickly began twitching her fingers. Then she grimaced. “Blast! I can’t concentrate like this.”
“Just keep trying,” I yelled over a shoulder.
Then, I turned and hurriedly began running my hands over the walls, hoping to find anything to help us. But as far as I could tell, they might as well have been a single, continuous slab of polished granite. There was not even a hint of texture to them. Never mind a hidden lever, I could not even see myself climbing out of here.
Maybe I can fly out?
The walls were at least three times my own height up on all sides, but with only my dark-vision spell to go off of, I could not tell whether there was a ceiling capping it off or if it was open. But then even if I could, what of Lynnria?
I risked a glance back. The golem was perhaps forty seconds away.
Shit!
“Donum!” Lynnria shouted. “I don’t know if it’s working, but I’ve found something!”
“What?”
Seleroan
Hey there, gentle reader.
Enjoying the content? Well, why not drop by my Patreon? It helps me keep this show running, and allows me to afford great things like editors, cover artists, and food!
Each chapter is now being personalized with some... passable chapter-inspired AI generated art. I try. But it gives things a bit of color. And you can read ahead!
Come on down! We'd love to see you.
