Enter the Octagon

“I could do with a little more info,” John grumbled as he read the Observe. “This reads like an ad.”

“What more do we need? It’s clearly an up close and personal fighter,” K’mels said as they marched down the stairs. “No tricks or anything in that.”

“We don’t know that,” John pointed out. “Hell, given that the Observe says it can have multiple service modes, it could have some ‘gets down to half health and goes berserk’ programming.”

K’mels stopped and glared up at John. “Would your fancy magic always make something like that known? Or are you overthinking things?”

John had to shake his head. “No, Observe isn’t a full-on cheat sheet.”

“Then the only way we can proceed is to get into fighting,” K’mels said. “We need to beat one and move on. Simple as that.”

John flexed his left hand and lifted it up. “Then maybe we should start with ranged attacks.”

“And get caught up halfway down the stairs and have to do a fighting retreat up to a small platform? I think I’ve overestimated your skill in combat,” K’mel snorted. “Don’t shoot an enemy unless you can fall back or are in a spot you can still effectively fight.”

“Yeah, that’s a good bit of advice,” John admitted. “So once we get down there, shoot at the one that starts moving, right?”

K’mels grinned, showing his teeth like a wild animal bearing its fangs. “That is a much better plan. Aim to blind, so we can flank it.”

John nodded as they resumed their descent.

‘If he wasn’t such a surly bastard, K’mels wouldn’t be bad at leading people into battle,’ Senka remarked.

‘He is the clan’s best warrior and I don’t think that only applies because of how few there are left,’ John replied. ‘Maybe he’ll cool off once the clan really gets settled and everything becomes normal again.’

Senka hummed in agreement as they reached the last steps. The moment K’mels placed his foot on the ground of the arena, one of the centurions took a step towards them, adjusting its arms to bear its sword at them while covering its body with the shield.

“Well, what are you waiting for?” K’mels snarled at John. “Fire!”

‘Give a guy a second to assess things, will ya,’ John complained as he cast Fiery Pursuit. He lobbed it high, watching as it flew towards the centurion, ready to adjust course as needed. Right before getting hit, the construct swiftly lifted its left arm, intercepting the fireball with its shield at the last moment.

The fireball exploded without dealing damage, but it did achieve their primary aim of obscuring its vision. K’mels darted forward, rounding the centurion’s right side before leaping in to attack with his twin axes.

The centurion pivoted to use its sword to parry one of K’mels strikes and snapped its shield down to block the other.

K’mels snarled and quickly disengaged before any counter attack could be made. John moved to keep the centurion between them, tightly gripping the handle of his sword.

'It's definitely a cut above the stuff we’ve been fighting,’ he thought as he took stock. He’d only used a small amount of mana overall before this, leaving him with just over one hundred left. But the current unknowns regarding the centurion’s abilities made John adopt a cautious stance.

‘We need to see more of what it can do,’ John decided. ‘If it can just keep moving its shield in to block long-range attacks, we need to know if there’s a limit or cooldown.’

Plan made, John moved in to attack. During his assessment, the construct had shifted its stance, keeping K’mels at bay with its sword while bearing its shield towards him. K’mels, not one to maintain passivity for longer than necessary, sprang into action as well, one arm stretching back, ready to snap forward in a devastating blow.

Instead of trying to deal with either of them, however, the centurion swiftly backpedaled, its long legs allowing it to quickly get away from their pincer attack.

“Slippery bastard,” K’mels spat as he adjusted his route, hyperfocused on the attack.

“Makes sense,” John said as he did the same, though with less zeal. “It’s job is to keep us from getting the flag.”

‘But,’ John thought to himself, ‘if that’s its main objective, why even move closer to us and be ready for attacks? Just because it’s supposed to be a fight? Or is there some gimmick I’m not seeing?’

John cast his eyes around the chamber once more, looking for anything that could give away just what the centurion was programmed to do. But the only thing he saw were the other constructs.

‘Could that be it?’ John wondered, his eyes widening. ‘Is the trick to grab the flag from one of the inactive ones? Then what, fight the active one either to victory or until we can make a break for it?’

It sounded like that could be a plausible play they could make and John had to test it. He waited until the centurion was a good distance away from its inactive compatriots, with himself and K’mels in the way, and summoned Candle. The fox spirit wasn’t quiet, despite John’s attempts to instruct her otherwise, but still darted towards the two unmoving centurions.

Maybe due to the noise she made or maybe because it saw her running towards its fellows, the centurion’s posture rapidly changed and it darted straight towards the spirit. K’mels was quick to step into its path, brandishing his axes to contest the centurion’s advance.

“Well, looks like there’s some kind of trick to get a good fight out of you!” K’mels shouted before glancing over to John for a brief moment. “What did you do?”

“The trick is we don’t need to grab that one’s flag,” John answered. “We can grab one from the inactive ones so I sent back my fox spirit. Guess they don’t want us just grabbing and running.”

K’mels let out a frustrated grunt. “I’d rather just take care of this one and claim the spoils. Don’t turn your back on an enemy when you can kill them.”

“That implies we can beat it in a timely manner,” John retorted.

“I will not walk the coward’s path, human,” K’mels snarled as he launched into a flurry of swings, forcing the centurion to stop and weather the attacks with its shield. “Now, either assist me or make space.”

As much as John would rather take the easy route after all the prior fighting, he knew that if he wanted to get K’mels more on their side, he had to bite the bullet. With a mental command, he ordered Candle to hold before she could try to grab either of the flags. The spirit made her displeasure known and John saw her paw the ground frustratedly, the desire to pounce and grab her promised target strongly radiating from her.

John kept a close eye on her, in a manner of speaking, and joined K’mels in the ****. With Candle so close to the other centurions, the active one wasn’t reverting to its fabian tactic of drawing them away and instead weathered the storm of their attacks with blocks and parries.

‘So it’s programmed to try and stop us from snagging a flag from the inactive ones at all costs,’ John noted as the centurion shifted from a defensive posture to one of offense, taking the initiative in a brief pause between John and K’mels’ attacks to strike.

Its gladius shot out like a viper as it brandished its shield to sweep aside K’mels axes, the tip of the blade piercing into his gut. The goblin let out a hiss of pain as he flinched back, blood beginning to drip from his wound.

Then, the centurion turned and rushed towards John, its shield acting as a battering ram. John backpedaled quickly, thinking about how to deal with the increased aggression when a cold chill shot up his left arm.

Debilitation Aura Activated. Strength, Endurance, Agility, Max Mana and Mana Regen reduced by 50%.

In an instant, John’s body grew sluggish, the sword in his hand growing heavier and his mana bar contracting. With his stats halved, the centurion was suddenly far more dangerous and knew it, abandoning its more defensive posture to press its newly gained advantage. With sweeping flourishes, it attacked and John barely was able to block the first few strikes, each parry or dodge draining more of John’s stamina than he was used to.

The weakness in his form made it possible for the centurion to strike during an overextension, driving its sword into John’s shoulder.

-12HP

John held back a scream as he was pierced, the pain fading quickly as his body returned to its baseline state. He **** himself to retreat faster, his mind racing as he tried to find an out. He saw K’mels staunching his wound; that combined with the halving of their stats left him unable to get close.

‘Need to close the distance and get this debuff off,’ John thought.

‘Summon me,’ Senka insisted. ‘I can keep it occupied.’

‘As much as I want to, I need to save my mana to heal us,’ John bitterly remarked. ‘We don’t know if our mana will go back to what it was before. When mine got halved, it took Candle’s sustain cost to my reduced number. I’ve only got fifty-two to work with. That’s one cast of Bloom of Life I’d rather guarantee that works over anything else at the moment. With our stats back, K’mels can fight while I recharge with the battery.’

‘I hate when you’re right, especially in situations like this,’ Senka thought and John couldn’t help but smile at the pout he imagined she was making. That smile faded as he considered the situation. He dismissed his sword for Senka’s vessel, the lighter weapon letting him more effectively dodge and parry. But that did little to get him the room to dash back to K’mels.

As he dodged another strike, he caught sight of Candle waiting by the other centurions and his eyes widened.

‘It only moved to attacking us in earnest once Candle stopped,’ he realized. ‘It's designed to protect them as its highest priority, then. Candle, try to take one of those flags! Then keep away from the guy attacking me!’

His plea was heard loud and clear by the spirit and Candle sprang into action. Barely a second had passed from him giving the order before the centurion’s attention snapped to its stationary companions and it darted to stop her. Trusting his spirit would be able to evade, John dashed over to K’mels, stowing his knife and withdrawing the Staff of Invigoration.

Once he got close to K’mels, the chill of the debuff vanished and, much to John’s dismay, his mana remained diminished. He didn’t waste any time and cast Bloom of Life. The pulse of vital energy washed over them, sealing K’mels’ wound and restoring around fifteen points of health. More importantly, their physical states would be enhanced by fifteen percent for close to a minute.

“You good?” John asked, already grabbing the full Mana Cell Battery and draining it completely, his mana now back over one hundred.

“You really are full of tricks,” K’mels said in lieu of a proper answer. Still, he stood tall, eyes quickly locking onto the centurion as it attacked Candle. In the few moments John’s focus had been dedicated to reaching K’mels and healing them, the centurion had reached the spirit, managing to drive her away before she could wrench free one of the flags, and was now trying to run her down, its sword swings only just missing.

K’emls rolled his shoulders. “How long does the blessing you put on me last?”

“About another thirty seconds,” John answered.

“Long enough to get some good damage done.” K’mels grinned, lifting his axes up. “Let’s get some payback!”

The goblin warrior rushed at the centurion, John not far behind, greatsword back in his hand. The unlikely pair descended upon the construct with furious strikes. Their attack **** the centurion to abandon its attack on Candle to block and parry them, but the boost to their stats threw off the machine’s estimation of their power.

One of K’mels’ axes bit into its shield and the Golmerk warrior used the leverage to wrench the shield to the side, his other ax crashing down upon its now **** arm, tearing into its armored limb. In the same moment, John overpowered its attempt to deflect his thrust, and drove the tip of his greatsword into the construct’s shoulder, sliding past the gladius in a way that if his weapon had been metal, John reckoned it would have produced a harsh screech.

25 DMG
17 DMG

The damage came right as their buff faded but neither John nor K’mels were going to let the centurion regain its footing. K’mels tore his axes free and swung low, aiming to take out one of its knees.

9 DMG

No longer boosted, his strike wasn’t able to break through its armor as easily, dealing what John likened to a minor flesh wound, given the low number and lack of penetration. Not that his own second attack was any better; a quick thrust with the aim of deepening the wound he already inflicted missed due to the centurion pitching slightly thanks to K’mels’ attack.

Hitting the undamaged armor with a moderately strong thrust wasn’t enough to pierce it, but the chestplate of the centurion was dented by his attack, giving John a good idea of how hard he’d have to attack to further damage it.

The centurion counterattacked, swinging both arms to **** John and K’emls back, the pair making sure to keep close. John cast an eye to Candle, the spirit still following his order and trying to pull free one of the flags. She leapt up after building up speed and bit down on one, and it began to loosen.

Then she got smacked down by the now awake centurion, sent flying by its shield.