Emerilia Box Set, page 122
part #1 of Emerilia Series
Induca jumped down from the control center; flames slowed her drop as she stood next to Anna. “Okay, I can give you about two shots with the plasma cannon before I’m going to pass out from the strain,” Induca muttered so no one else could hear.
“You sure?” Anna asked.
“Yeah, so make sure you make them count,” Induca said.
“Thank you. I will.” Anna pat her on the shoulder.
She heard the telltale sign of a plasma cannon being fired on the other side. It seemed Deia had stepped up her game.
“Incoming!” the fighter with the shield said. Their shield went up as they ducked behind cover. Anna dropped as she heard the whistling of bolts.
The shield bearer had half a dozen arrows in their shield before they hit the ground. Two more Stone Raiders were hit with the bolts, losing a good third of their Health.
Suzy’s creations surged ahead, painting a picture of their targets. Three behemoths with various modifications jogged toward the command center. Two of them had their arms and head replaced with repeaters. Repair bots moved over them, reloading the repeaters as a behemoth with a shield arm and sword followed behind.
The hall was too narrow for them to do anything but run in a line.
Centurions wielding weapons followed.
Anna sighed, happy to see that none of them had magical arms or augments. Those bastards were powerful and scary in tight spaces. The AI here is strong, but not strong enough to control all these creatures and magical weapons.
Anna ducked back as one of the repeater mounts started to fire.
“Your shots will take out the first two, but then the third is going to be the biggest pain in the ass with its shield and sword,” Anna said.
“Just tell me when.” Induca stood behind the barricade, her eyes glowing.
Anna felt her senses tingle. She allowed her magical sight to take over. Induca was a veritable raging inferno. That wasn’t what caught her eye, though. Malsour and Dave were putting off an incredible amount of Mana.
But Deia’s aura seemed to dominate the room as Anna heard another plasma round go off.
“How does she have so much Mana?” Anna asked.
“We all have our secrets,” Induca said, clearly knowing who she was talking about.
“Why didn’t you say anything?” Anna asked.
“It wasn’t any surprise for us. Our family isn’t exactly the weakest.” Induca grinned. “Now, we going to shoot these things or what?”
Her family isn’t the weakest? Is she saying that Deia is part of her family? But Dragons don’t change into Elves; all of them look like humans when they change forms. So, who else could be in her family and that powerful in human form? Anna shook her head. It was a thought for later; right now, she had three behemoths to kill.
“Hit them whenever you get a clear shot,” Anna said.
“Alrighty.” Induca held her arms up.
The multi-colored flames made Anna look away as they settled onto Induca’s frame. She didn’t show any sign of being burnt or even hot from the miniature inferno next to her head. Induca stepped out, bracing herself.
“Down!” Induca yelled.
Anna crouched as the plasma cannon bellowed. Anna’s ears rang from being so close to the cannon.
There was a flash of light and the sound of something getting torn apart as Induca stumbled back behind the barricade. Anna caught her and lowered her to the ground.
“I’ll be good in a minute,” Induca said.
Anna had to read her lips; her ears were still ringing. Anna gave her a thumbs-up and looked down the corridor. One of the behemoths had been torn apart; the repair bots on the second repeater-behemoth were scattered but it had plenty of bolts already loaded.
Anna ducked back as bolts once again filled the air.
Induca held her head, trying to pull herself back together after all the Mana she had just expelled.
As soon as there was a pause in the bolts, Anna started to dance. Her teeth pulled back into a hungry smile as she unleashed her teachings. Blades of Air cut into the repeater-behemoth, striking its armor, leaving deep grooves and taking off the repeater mounts.
She cut down the scouts and repair bots. The fighters were harder to kill but Anna had distance and time on her side. She took them and the weaker archer experiments out as the handful of centurions and behemoths continued on.
“Ready!” Induca said, not sounding so good.
“Shoot!” Anna said. She might be doing damage to the now weaponless behemoth but it was continuing on, its wounds of small consequence to it.
“Down!”
Once again, everyone hit the ground. Anna covered her ears this time.
Wind seemed to race toward Induca before a flash of heat and a wave of Air was thrown back out. Anna jumped up as the round slammed into the behemoth and tore it apart. Plasma burned through everything it touched, taking out a few centurions and leaving smoking craters on the third behemoth’s shield.
Induca took a step back before she fell like a wilted plant. Anna reached her before she hit the ground.
“Good work,” Anna said. Induca was out cold.
“Just need forty seconds!” Dave yelled.
A bolt flew out of the control tower, slamming into a centurion, and exploded, ripping the armored creature apart.
Anna once again threw her wind blades at the behemoth as it exited the hallway and came into the open area around the control center.
A flame trap covered the behemoth with bright red veins, but its Health barely changed. One of Dave’s crossbow bolts slammed into its shield, leaving a dent in the thing, but not doing any harm to the behemoth. It stepped on a shadow rune; darkness covered it. Dave’s bolts flew true, hitting with a metallic dong.
“Focus on the smaller centurions—we’ll get the behemoth after!” Anna yelled.
The melee fighters roared out their defiance, leaping to attack the centurions.
They were slower than the ones Anna had fought in the past, but they had thick armor, couldn’t feel pain, and they were good with their shields and swords.
The melee fighters came in and tore through them. They had better weapons and even if they had low levels, they had been training since coming to Emerilia. Many were E-heads and they fought as if their very lives depended on it.
Anna was surprised by their viciousness and their fighting styles for a moment. Her ears flattened as her tail swished in anticipation. “It isn’t the village, but this lot know how to fight!” She jumped into the melee, leveling automatons with her great sword.
“Stay out of the shadow trap!” Dave yelled.
Everyone made sure they were clear as explosions went off. Dave’s arrows hadn’t just been simple metal constructs.
The shadow trap faltered moments later; the behemoth had lost ten percent of its Health.
A repair bot archer hit it in the chest, making it turn to face Steve, who slammed his way through the automatons with a look of glee on his face.
“I see why people find pinatas so fun!” Steve hit a centurion so hard that its metal innards were sprayed across thirty feet.
Anna shook her head, looking at the behemoth that was now charging Steve and his group of fighters. Anna sprinted; the floor behind her cracked from her steps as she turned into a blur. The wind pulled at her face as she held her sword behind her, headed right at the behemoth’s back.
Blue spots appeared on the behemoth, showing weaknesses. Anna launched herself. There was no sound, only her sword whistling as it cut through the Air.
“Wind drill.” The Air threw her forward, a dart with a sword in her hands. The wind turned into a white spiral just moments before she ripped into the behemoth.
Her blade pierced; the metal around it tore apart as her blade became buried in its back. She braced herself, trying to pull the blade out as it jumped, trying to crush her underneath him. She jumped free and watched as her blade broke from the behemoth landing on it. At the same time, she noticed that its shield arm wasn’t functioning. Her attack had taken it out.
Steve didn’t give the behemoth time to recover. He cut its arm off with a powerful swing, running past as it tried to move.
“Finish it!” someone yelled.
“Wait!” Dave yelled.
“Why?”
“It can’t get up and we’ve got five seconds till this place resets itself. I’d like to have that thing on our side instead of having to repair it.”
“Automaton workshop reset. Insert command crystal. Command crystal inserted. Integration complete. Security settings updated, wiping old rune coding. Connecting to main Shard for instructions and verification,” Shard’s robotic voice said as any of the still moving automatons stopped their movements.
“Well, this is a fine mess you have here. It looks like the other teams that were sent here got stuck in different areas. None of them were engaged with the automatons. I am opening up the workshop and updating them on the situation. I am going over logs. This has presented a number of different possibilities to upgrade the automatons. Good work in completing your quest,” Shard said.
Quest: Aleph Homecoming
You have cleared the old malfunctioning runes from the Aleph Automaton’s Workshop and started the process to bring it back online.
Rewards: Ability to improve/repair current automatons and create new automatons.
45,000 EXP
Increased standing with Aleph people
Lights, not just those directly around the control center, started to come online.
“Okay, I’m saying we get some damned food and rest before we go and check on the forge. I’m beat.” Dave sat on the edge of the control center where a wall had been.
“Agreed.” Deia looked tired as she slumped down, smoke, dust, and sweat on her face.
“Dave! I’m going to need a new blade,” Anna said.
“Do you mind being a bit flashy?” Dave asked, half his mouth filled with bread.
“Why?” Anna asked.
“‘Cause if you don’t, then I might have just the thing for you, though I’m going to need your help shaping those wind holes you had on your old blade,” Dave said.
“Okay.” Anna had liked her blade and been through many tough times with it, but she needed a new one if she was going to continue to be able to fight the enemies the Stone Raiders were finding.
Dave munched happily as the rest of the Stone Raiders sat down; eating, drinking, resting, and talking of their fight.
“What happened?” Induca asked groggily.
“We defeated the AI while you decided to take a nap.” Malsour drifted down to the floor and threw Anna and Deia a water skin before he moved to his sister, who was holding her head.
A metal spear landed next to her as Suzy rode her metal creation down next to Induca.
“Always getting yourself right in the middle of it,” Suzy admonished, putting her knees under Induca’s head as she gave her water.
Anna saw Malsour smile before he stepped into the control center.
“If I get this treatment every time, I’ll do it more often.” Induca grinned at Suzy. Suzy’s eyes thinned as her face got closer to Induca. She gave her a quick kiss, a smile on her face. “What was that for?”
“For being my idiot.”
Induca giggled as Suzy checked her over.
Suzy examined every inch of Induca for any sign of wounds.
***
The repair bots had carted away the majority of their broken brethren turned experiments.
They had all got a scare when the intact units started to move, only to wander away. As if they had never tried to kill them.
Deia closed the private chat she’d had with the party that had cleared out the forge they were supposed to be visiting next.
“Okay, it looks like the forge is all cleared of possible threats. There was a bunch of rock worms there. They do have a big issue with the forge’s refinery being all stuck up from the metal that was supposed to be smelted in it solidifying. Runes are all a mess from being warped by heat. The whole place is apparently pretty damn hot and massive,” Deia said to the gathered parties.
“Woohoo,” Dave said, sounding like an unenthusiastic, deflating paper bag.
Deia gave him a look as he shrugged sheepishly and gave her a smile. She couldn’t stay annoyed at him long, looking away and smiling to herself.
“Get your stuff together. We’re moving out,” Deia said.
People tossed what they had brought out back into their bags of holding. It would sort it anyways and ten minutes later, they were headed out of the Aleph automaton workshop.
Deia didn’t want to see any more experiments or messed-up AIs that could control behemoths ever again.
Chapter 32: Within the Densaou Ring of Fire
“Every time I think that the Aleph have run out of impressive things to do, they shock me once again,” Dave said in an awed voice. His Touch of the Land extended out to search through the forge for what was wrong with it.
There was plenty wrong with it. It was hot as Fire’s own home, but Dave marveled at the brilliance and smarts of the Aleph once more.
“What?” Malsour used his own senses and sight to spread out his awareness. “That is impressive.”
“What is?” Deia asked.
“You’ll see soon enough, my dear. This is something that has to be seen to be believed.”
As unenthusiastic as Dave was about going to his third Aleph location that day, he didn’t catch Deia’s questioning glance to Malsour and then Anna. Malsour was not willing to ruin the surprise and Anna was as confused as her.
The forge was one large rectangular prism, with one end that accepted raw materials, took the raw ore, purified it and then separated it. For some, like with steel, different elements were added at different stages or went through different stages to create different materials.
Most were poured into ingots and were either sent directly to the forges and factory lines that would turn the metals into sheets, beams, and other common items, stored in massive warehouses that lined the sides of the forge facility or sent on to the rest of the Aleph facilities to be used in some manner.
The entire facility was hot enough to make people remove their layers and still have sweat pouring off them. Dave felt at home, used to the heat of the forges and refiners of the Benvari Mountains or his own Cliff-Hill.
Finally, they came to an odd window, one that had thin lines moving through it.
“You wanted to show us an odd window?” Deia asked, as the others stepped up to look through.
“By now, I shouldn’t be surprised.” Suzy shrugged and shook her head at what she saw. In front of them, there was a magma chamber.
“The magma’s heat is channeled into the blowtorches and the smelting furnace, heating the entire thing up. All we need to do is back the process up a little bit and the system can heat up the metals that solidified. The runes are going to be a bit of a pain to fix, but then that’s why I taught everyone the basics.” Dave looked to the crafters he had taught in the power station.
They looked eager to try out their newly learned skills.
“As you say,” Deia said, looking out over the magma chamber.
“Are we in the Densaou?” Malsour looked to Induca.
“Ye-up. One of the colder reaches and out a bit, but we’re in the circle of fire,” Induca said.
“The realm of Dragons and Fire herself,” Matt said. It looked as if he had sucked up some of Emerilia’s lore.
“These Aleph are pretty badass.” Jackie grinned. “Damn, I love this game!”
The other Players laughed and smiled, their excitement clear. They had only been playing for a few months and there was no end in sight for the fun that they had been having.
Dave knew that feeling and smiled too. It faltered after a few moments as he thought about what he knew, the truth behind it all and the reality that these Players and all the Players across Emerilia might have to come to terms with.
“Well, if you lot get working on finding the problems and getting this place up and running, I’m going to get to the forges. Anna, going to need your help to figure out your great sword’s requirements and then I have to work on the drop pad,” Dave said.
“Crafters, partner up with a few melee types. I’ll get the other parties to meet up with us. Once we’re done here, we can get back to the city. Anna and Dave, take a trip past the command center and put in our command crystal so Shard can get to work.” Deia pulled her eyes from the slowly churning magma.
“Can do!” Dave headed toward the command center, his Touch picking it out for him.
“So, Anna, what do you need from the blade in order to have it whistle?” Dave asked.
“Well, I need you to make the different holes to different pitches. When they work together, then the vibrations of the Air passing through the blade and a bit of Mana leaking into it can form wind blades and other wind attacks,” Anna said.
“Couldn’t you have come up with an easier way of attacking?” Dave sighed.
“I like my two-handed great sword. It just has a problem with hitting people who are really far away. The wind dance and the holes help to make up for this problem,” Anna said.
“Fine. I’ve got to put a bunch of holes in it—how will I know they are right or not?” Dave asked as they continued their walk.
“That is simple. I have multiple different designs that will work.” Anna sent a folder over to Dave.
Dave looked through the hundreds of designs and passed them off to Shard. He muttered out different words, whittling down the different designs until he just had five. “These will work,” Dave said.
“Why not the designs for a heavier blade?” Anna asked.
“Because your blade is not going to be heavy as hell. Also, this one allows you to use more Mana through it.”
“Yes, but then it will not be a refined blade of Air,” Anna complained.
“Oh, ye of little faith. It is not just your noisy contraption that changes the flow of the wind—it’s the blade as well, which I can alter in order to make up for this. This is going to be a fun little project. You okay with flashy and watching your back?”
