“The elevator!” Vir shouted, narrowly dodging a spider Automaton’s slash. “To the elevator!”
It’d do a lot more damage if he could swing it freely, Vir thought as he returned the favor, sending the spider that’d attacked him flying with Blade Launch.
Cirayus held Sikandar in three hands and a regular greatsword in another. The halls, though generously sized, still weren’t quite wide enough to allow a full swing of the enormous weapon. The greatsword, while backed by Cirayus’ prodigious power and Balancer of Scales, didn’t have the same impact.
Comparatively, Vir had an easier time dealing lethal damage—their Imperium metal armor was thinner than the humanoid Automatons, and his Artifact chakram made quick work of them.
Blade Launch and Prana Blade were also effective, but even with all that, it wasn’t enough. When Vir killed one, three would appear in its place.
Shan did what he could, but his claws simply weren’t strong enough to deal lethal damage to the spiders. He did kill several, just not fast enough to make a difference. Realizing this, the Ashfire Wolf instead darted around, attempting to confuse the enemies.
A valiant effort, but one that ultimately failed. Deeming Shan a low-priority threat, they mostly ignored him, much to his frustration.
These Automatons weren’t living beasts, nor did they behave like them. Lacking self-preservation instincts of any kind, they were more than content to throw themselves upon the enemy in droves, regardless of the damage incurred.
Just how many of these things does Saunak have? Or rather, how many does the tower have?
It was almost like an automated defense mechanism by the tower itself—like it was attempting to purge its intruders.
Which was why Vir thought his plan might work. The tower wanted to eliminate them, but if it couldn’t kill them, perhaps it was smart enough to…
Together, they fought their way to the elevator, with Cirayus laying down a suppression field as Vir pressed through the hallway, carving a path. They’d then switch, with Cirayus taking the lead, blasting the critters away, allowing Vir to press on, and so forth.
In this manner, they slowly made ground, though they weren’t killing the spiders as much as hurling them back. Eventually, the mass of enemies grew too thick to make any more progress. At times like these, they were forced to turn aside, navigating a different hallway.
Eventually, they made it back to the central, circular room where the elevator sat. The room had a single entrance—a long corridor.
Vir ran to the elevator, hoping against hope that its doors would open for them.
They did.
“Cirayus! The lift works!” Vir cried, about to enter it.
Cirayus concentrated Balancer of Scales in the hallway directly in front of them before retreating to Vir and Shan. Applied over such a small area, its force grew tremendously, bringing the spiders that pursued nearly to a halt.
They piled up over one another like a slowly moving wall.
The ability granted them a reprieve, but it wouldn’t last long.
Cirayus grabbed Vir’s shoulder, stopping him from entering the lift.
“Lad, you said the spiders were a defense mechanism, yes?”
Vir nodded. “It’s trying to get rid of us.”
“Then wouldn’t this lift be a perfect opportunity to do exactly that?”
Vir’s eyes widened in surprise.
“That’s…” A distinct possibility, he thought. He’d operated under the assumption that, being unable to kill them, the tower was trying to get them to leave. But the lift was the perfect opportunity for it to kill them. All it had to do was let the thing freefall, and they’d be squashed like bugs.
“Then let’s test it,” Vir said, grabbing one of the overgrown spiders and lobbing it into the lift.
The moment he did, the doors slammed shut, and the elevator plummeted.
Vir blinked in surprise. He’d only half-expected the gambit to succeed. If whatever entity was controlling the elevator was smart enough to discern life forms, it wouldn’t have worked at all.
They watched as the elevator picked up speed and then disappeared down the transparent shaft.
“That’s… falling way too fast, isn’t it?” Vir asked.
“Aye.”
“You might’ve just saved our lives, Cirayus. Or mine, at least. You could probably survive that, huh?”
“Probably,” Cirayus shrugged, slashing at the elevator door with Sikandar. The enormous weapon barely left a dent.
“Allow me,” Vir said, lobbing his Artifact chakram at the closed elevator door.
While its armor wasn’t as thick as the humanoid Automatons, it still took the disk some time to carve out a hole large enough to fit them.
Time that they didn’t have.
The wall of spiders grew ever higher, piling up in the hall, creeping forward. Only a handful of paces were now left between them.
Slowing matters, Vir had to constantly recall and launch the chakram to get it to cut the shape he wanted—its built-in intelligence wasn’t smart enough to know that they intended to carve out a door.
But with the spiders concentrated at the choke point that was the hallway, and with Cirayus cleaving any who made it through his Balancer barrier, and Shan mopping up any who made it past that, they allowed Vir to concentrate.
The spiders crept closer.
“Vir!”
“Almost there!”
Three paces. Two. The spiders’ pincers started cutting into Cirayus’ tough skin.
“Lad, we’re out of time!”
“It’s done!” Vir announced as his chakram made its final cut. Vir kicked the plate open, sending it tumbling down the empty elevator shaft.
“I shall go first!” Cirayus said, scooping Shan in his hand. The giant dove through the hole—barely fitting—and the moment he did, the wall of spiders that had been held at bay by Balancer of Scales collapsed, the spiders tumbling over themselves.
That brief window gave Vir just enough time to dive in after the giant.
It was then he realized he’d erred.
The exit was on the ground floor. The shaft itself went deep underground. All the way to the bottommost reaches of Saunak’s lab.
Really should’ve thought that one through, Vir admonished himself as he picked up speed.
Luckily, Cirayus had anticipated this issue. Spotting Vir, the giant adjusted his weight with Balancer, flaring his limbs to match Vir’s fall.
The giant remained several dozen paces below Vir, and it was only until the wind rushing by doubled in intensity that Vir understood why.
It wasn’t crashing they needed to worry about—it was the elevator coming back up to smash them to pieces!
Cirayus placed his hands against the shaft’s wall and roared.
Vir witnessed the deluge of Earth and Life Affinity prana flood into Cirayus’ tattoo. Life from the air, and Earth from walls of the shaft.
And then, the unthinkable happened.
The four-armed giant slammed the elevator back down.
Ordinarily, Cirayus ought to have gone flying. Vir couldn’t guess how heavy the giant was, but he doubted it came anywhere near that of the elevator.
Of course, Cirayus wasn’t just a giant demon. He was a giant demon with Clan Baira’s Ultimate Bloodline tattoo.
Imperium metal crumpled under the awesome force as Balancer of Scales activated, simultaneously making Cirayus as heavy as a boulder and the elevator as light as he could make it. The impact was so strong that the mangled elevator reversed course and shot down several paces before screeching to a stop.
Vir had barely a split second to activate Light Step before he collided with the top of the wrecked lift.