Of course, they’re built differently! Vir cursed under his breath. Did it even need its head? Or was it just for show?
Black metal cables sparked from its neck stump, but otherwise, his attacks seemed to have done no damage.
All that effort. Wasted… Or perhaps not? Vir thought as he looked at its neck.
Blinking to the back of the Automaton, Vir grabbed a cable—one that wasn’t currently arcing—and pulled prana. Without Imperium metal armor to block him, he sucked the Automaton’s prana dry in an instant… and the enemy fell to the ground, lifeless.
One down. Only one more to go. If he could reduce their numbers to three, Saunak would be forced to give up one of his guards. And then he’d be defenseless.
“Give up, Saunak,” Vir announced, ducking under another bladed arm while launching his Prana Bladed katar into the nearest Automaton’s chin, sending it staggering back. “I’ve proven I can take them down. How many more of your precious Artifact machines do you want to lose today?”
Saunak laughed happily. “Why, I don’t mind losing them all, if it means gauging your ability!” he said with a crazed look.
Gauging? Vir thought incredulously.
“Is that what you’re doing?”
“Why, yes! What better way to get you to display your full ability than to force you into a crisis? Far better than any duel, if you ask me.”
“You’re insane,” Vir snarled, Blinking to Saunak. His katar lashed out with inhuman speed, and was met by an equally inhuman Automaton’s blade.
“I’m afraid you won’t be getting through that way,” Saunak said.
“Is that right?” Vir asked, summoning his chakram back to him. “How about this, then?”
Vir sent his disk flying, aiming directly at Saunak. The thaumaturge’s eyes widened in surprise, and Vir saw a hint of fear flash through his expression.
Good. Let him squirm.
Until now, Vir couldn’t afford to fire the disk at Saunak. To do so meant he’d have to face three Automatons on his own—a losing proposition. But now, there were only four, and it took two of his guardians working together to keep the disk from eviscerating their charge, which left Vir with two opponents.
Doable—barely. And then Saunak turned the tables on him again.
“I should warn you. The tower is keyed to my life. Should I perish, this facility will self-destruct, annihilating anything and everything within it. A safety measure. To ensure my research is never compromised.”
Compromised? Vir couldn’t fathom how Saunak’s mad experiments could be corrupted any further.
The Automatons were incredibly durable and deadly, but Vir held the edge in mobility. After exchanging a few blows, he Blinked around them, hurtling straight for Saunak.
I’m going to have to play this smarter. Vir suspected Saunak would have some sort of defense mechanism, but the destruction of the whole tower? Vir hadn’t thought of that scenario. He hadn’t thought it possible.
He sent a Katar Launch sailing at the demon, forcing his guardians to intercept. But doing so meant allowing the chakram to kill their master.
What are you going to do now? Vir thought. You have no options.
Just when he thought he had Saunak, one of the Automatons did something Vir couldn’t have imagined. It sent its blade arm through the hole inside the chakram, pinning it against the wall.
Were it a normal chakram, that would be the end, and it’d be rendered useless. The inner edge of a chakram was normally blunted to avoid harming the wielder. At best, it’d spin uselessly.
But this was an Artifact, custom designed by Vir and Ashani herself.
Razor blades deployed along the inner perimeter, ripping savagely at the Automaton’s limb. It bit steadily into the metal, and within seconds, the limb was gone. Amputated at its ball-jointed elbow.
Saunak’s guardian had sacrificed itself, but in return, it’d stopped Katar Launch.
Smart, Vir thought begrudgingly. It had five limbs left. Sacrificing one wasn’t a huge loss… though it wasn’t a strategy it could afford to keep up for long.
If it was resorting to such desperate tactics, it meant Vir was close. Just a little more.
If I only had a little more help…
Vir continued fighting off the guardians, hurling his chakram at Saunak when he could. Unfortunately, in the following two minutes, he’d managed to do so only thrice. Each time, his bodyguards sacrificed their limbs. It wasn’t fast enough. Not nearly.
A black blur fell from the ceiling. Had Vir not spotted the glowing blue eyes, he might’ve mistaken it for a bundle of prana.
Vir’s eyes looked up to find a small open hole in the ceiling.
A ventilation shaft! Like the ones in the Yaksha vault!
The fight was over the moment Shan hit the floor.
The Automatons couldn’t counter the wolf. Even if their minds were fast enough to register the new threat, their bodies certainly were not.
Shan’s head slammed into Saunak’s stomach, sending him hurling across the room.
The thaumaturge hit the wall… and crumpled to the floor.
For a brief moment, Vir’s stomach lurched. Saunak was a weak old demon. He had none of the strength-enhancing tattoos Cirayus did, nor his giant’s constitution.
But when the prana inside Saunak continued to course, Vir knew he wasn’t dead.
All four Automatons moved into a protective formation around their fallen master, preventing Vir from approaching.
Capturing the thaumaturge would’ve been nice, but ultimately infeasible. At least he was out of the picture, and Vir had a way out.
High Jumping, Vir sailed into the ventilation shaft, forcing his way inside.
He didn’t need to go far. Unlike the room below, the shaft was dark, allowing him to slip into its shadow.
Shan bounded up behind him, and he pulled the Ashfire Wolf into the Shadow Realm along with him.
Locating a nearby exit, Vir emerged beside Cirayus to find the giant embroiled in a fierce battle of his own in the circular hallway.
“Lad! Are you well?” he asked as Sikandar sent an Automaton flying across the circular hall.
“Fine. But we need to get out of here.”
“Aye. Question is, how?” That was a good question. For while Vir had escaped the trap Saunak sprung, they weren’t out of the woods yet. Not by a long shot.
Vir looked around and counted a half dozen Automatons. “At least there aren’t too many enemies,” Vir said. On his own, they’d be an issue, but with Cirayus? He was confident they could escape.
That was until the tower’s lights turned red. Sirens blared, and spider-like Automatons flooded through the walls. By the dozens.
Well, grak.
68SAUNAK’S TOWER OF TERRORS
“We don’t need to beat them,” Vir shouted. “We just need to escape!”
The spiders proved challenging opponents, not because of their strength, but due to their sheer numbers. They poured from every hallway, and they even emerged from the very walls themselves, appearing from holes that hadn’t existed just moments prior. They dropped from the ceiling and even materialized from the floor.
“Aye, lad! But how?” the giant roared back. “Not exactly an easy way out of this place.”
Despite Balancer of Scales weighing them down, slowing them, their resilience made them tough foes to defeat.
When Cirayus swung mighty Sikandar, a dozen would go flying, but often, they’d simply slam against some wall unharmed.