Mechanized Infestation

The drones fired in perfect unison, four shots of blue flame flying fast towards John. He jumped to the side, scrambling to put distance between him and the incoming fireballs. The bolts soared through the open door and crashed into the far wall, detonating with a deafening roar.

-8 HP

“Aeolia! Vivian!” John shouted as he lay sprawled on the floor, where the shockwave from the attack had knocked him.

“We’re fine!” Aeolia responded from the second floor, her voice hard to hear over the ringing in his ears. “We made it up the stairs in time!”

Relief flooded John, along with adrenaline as he staggered to his feet. His restored hearing picked up the mechanical clacking of a drone approaching and John tensed, summoning his newest weapon.

The still unfamiliar weight of the wooden sword filled his hand and he readied himself to use it, holding it with two hands, and hefted the blade over his head. John held his breath as the drone entered, its dented body scuttling around in place as it scanned the room. Before it could bring John into view, he swung down with all his might, letting out a grunt of exertion as wood crashed into metal.

20 DMG

The drone’s still mostly spherical form dented further as John’s strike cleaved into it. The patchwork pieces of metal began to peel away at the seams, revealing the internal mechanisms, and John drew the sword back to strike again. The damage to its exterior didn't impede the drone’s mobility and it deftly avoided John’s followup, scuttling first to the side to dodge the attack, then forward to counter.

-5 HP

John let out a pained grunt as it clamped a pincer around his leg, the sharp bits of metal tearing through his jeans and into his flesh. The drone tried to ignite its flame, but only produced a sputtering spark.

John didn’t want to give the drone the chance to come up with an alternative attack, but its hold of his leg left him unable to effectively swing the greatsword. He swapped out the large weapon for his first, Senka feeling ever at home in his hand.

His intent to stab down was reflected as the knife manifested pointing downward and John quickly drove the sharp point down into the depression his first strike left, where the plates of metal had peeled open, exposing the machine’s internal workings.

24 DMG

Sparks shot up as Senka tore into some of the drone’s internal systems, causing the construct to jerk away from John, its pincer losing its grip on his leg. John drew back, slightly worried that the sparking robot might explode. It didn’t, it merely collapsed into a heap of scrap before fading away entirely.

Harvest Drone 2 of 5 defeated.

John took a second to catch his breath, straining his ears to hear if the remaining drones were closing in. Outside was eerily quiet, which caused a greater worry to settle in his gut.

“John.” Aeolia’s call drew his attention to her as she flew down from the second floor, back in her small form.

“I’m fine,” he responded. “Little scraped up, but nothing too bad.”

“That’s good,” she said, landing on a bit of rubble. “But I don’t think we’re in the clear.”

“Yeah, there are still three more of the drones out there,” John interjected. “And who knows what else.”

Aeolia nodded, her face drawn into a frown. “Vivian’s working on something to help with that. Had to shake her back to her senses though. She’s definitely not done things like this before. Honestly, I’m surprised you’re taking things as good as you are.”

“You forget how I was back at school,” John said as he made his way towards the ruined stairway. “I pretty much froze when those hounds showed up.”

Aeolia flew onto his shoulder. “What kicked you into gear anyway? One second I’m fighting the hounds, the next you’re throwing something at one and getting it to chase you.”

John smiled a little. “I got tired of being weak and I hated just standing there while you got ambushed by the alpha hound.”

“Yeah, that might have been a bit much to handle,” Aeolia admitted as John clambered over the debris and began to climb the stairs. “Thanks for the help, by the way. I don’t think I said that before.”

“It’s not a problem,” John asserted. “I think the help you’ve given me more than speaks for itself. And well, last night, um...”

A sly smile crept its way onto Aeolia’s lips at John's bashful recollection of their midnight rendezvous and she whispered into his ear, “That doesn’t have to be a one-time thing.”

John felt his pants tighten at Aeolia’s words, a condition worsened when he saw Vivian’s jean-clad rear as she leaned near an empty window along the front wall, the rim of a silver circle filling some of the vacant space.

“What do we have out there?” Aeolia asked her, flying off John’s shoulder, seeming unaware of where John’s eyes were.

“Two of them are moving around the building,” Vivian responded, pulling back slightly. “The third one headed back down the road.” Her shifted position let John look at her work. The circle was empty, with none of the lines or symbols he had become accustomed to.

“Wait,” John said, drawing closer to the window. What was seen through the silver ring wasn’t the cityscape beyond the window, but a live feed of one of the harvest bots as it circled the building. “You can make cameras?”

“It’s more of a mirror,” Vivian clarified. “I’ve got a few rings like that floating outside and I’m using them to redirect what they ‘see’ back here.”

John turned his attention to Vivian’s mana bar, catching it in time to see it tick down slightly, nearly twenty percent spent. “Are you going to be able to maintain this? I don’t want you to run yourself dry.”

“I can keep this running for a while,” she informed him. “Since the Shine Dust carries a charge, it doesn’t take much input from me to do something this simple. Since we don’t know how many of those spider robots there are, keeping a sharp eye sounds like a good strategy.”

“Well then, a bit of good news,” John interjected. “Those drones came in a group of five and we’ve taken out two. Exp and loot will only show up once they’re all beaten, but we’re nearly halfway there.”

“How much damage can they take?” Aeolia asked, watching the drone channel as Vivian cycled through her spying circles.

John searched his memory for the damage reports. “The one I Hexed took around thirty damage from the explosion and about the same from that concussion trap. And it took some landing damage, so I think somewhere in the seventies. The one I beat downstairs took the same damage from the trap, and I did over forty so that’s around seventy again.”

“So we’ve got three creepy crawlies with around seventy hitpoints surrounding us,” Aeolia summed up. “How do we deal with them?”

“There’s something else about them that might be a problem,” John said. “Observe said these guys function as a collective unit, so they might have some kind of link-up.”

“So the two we’ve taken out so far might give the rest info on how we fight,” Vivian muttered, “that means they know about my trap.”

“And my ability to counter their fireballs with Hex and my weapons,” John added. “Which might be why they’re just circling right now.”

“Well, we can’t just sit here twiddling our thumbs,” Aeolia said, bouncing her glaive against her shoulder. “So, game plan?”

“We might try to snipe them,” John suggested. “Hit them hard when they can’t see us so we don’t give them more info. Wish my goggles didn’t have such a short-range. Photonic Blast would be really useful right now. We’ve only got your wind slashes for long-range attacks, Aeolia.”

The winged woman smirked. “Then it looks like it’s my time to shine. Think I should use big heavy attacks or fast smaller ones?”

“Let’s try one of the smaller ones,” John answered. “Get a read on how much damage that does. Actually, think you can do the same amount of power in your natural size? Try to hit them where their plates are connected and break through to the internal stuff. I did more damage hitting that stuff than trying to cleave through the armor. ”

“You think I can’t dish out damage like this,” she teasingly said, flying to the windowsill. “Just watch me.”

She took a step out into the air, wings unfurled, and soared upwards. After reaching the height of the five-story building, she turned to the right, flying towards the nearest drone. She disappeared from John and Vivian’s view, and the redhead pulled up the feed of the drone, the vision appearing in the ring right as Aeolia flew through it, wings tight against her body and her glaive alight with green wind.

She let loose a blade of wind at her quarry, aimed directly at the point where a plate of rusted iron was welded to one of green copper. The verdant arc crashed into the drone, the sound of rending metal echoing off the crumbling buildings.

“No damage info,” John noted as he watched the drone jerkily move as Aeolia circled above it, a massive tear in its armor. “Happened yesterday too when Aeolia and I took on separate enemies. Pretty much confirms that if I’m not fighting something, I don’t get reports from it.”

“At least you won’t get distracted by popups you didn’t cause,” Vivian chimed in.

“Yeah, that’s a good point,” John admitted.

On the projection, Aeolia dived at the drone, looking like she was going to deliver the next blow up close. The screen flashed white as the sound of an explosion rocked the building.

Harvest Drone 3 of 5 defeated.

John turned sharply and bolted for the stairs the second the message popped up. He leapt past the debris at the bottom and rushed onto the street, turning right when his feet touched the pavement.

‘Please be okay,’ his thoughts raced in time with his legs. When he rounded the corner, his heart clenched as he saw Aeolia lying prone on the ground, her glaive some distance from her. And worse, a drone was approaching her.

Fear transitioned into fury and John charged at the drone, summoning the Greatwood Sword into his hand. He cast Hex at the bot, the spell causing the machine to stop suddenly. As John neared the frozen construct, he lifted the blade over his head and brought it down with all his might.

31 DMG. Critical Hit

The blow cleaved into the drone’s metallic carapace; the impact overwhelmed its non-functioning legs and drove it to the ground. John wrenched his blade free, tightened his grip on the hilt, shifted his stance and swung again, this time aiming at the bot’s side.

20 DMG

The second strike hit the paralyzed construct and knocked it away from Aeolia. John strode purposely toward the drone as its limbs began to twitch as Hex’s effect ran out, but the damage it had taken rendered it capable of only minimum movement, unable to regain its footing.

John adjusted his grip and aimed the tip of the sword at the tear his first strike had made and thrust it at the exposed insides.

25 DMG

John drove the greatsword into the sensitive pipes and wires, causing a shower of sparks to shoot out around the wooden blade. John wrenched his weapon free and drew back, ready to invoke Stony Skin in case it exploded.

That caution wasn’t needed as the sparks ceased and the drone faded from view.

Harvest Drone 4 of 5 defeated.

John ignored the message and rushed to Aeolia. Once he got close he saw her health bar had dropped below twenty percent. A gasp drew his attention. Vivian had followed him and looked at Aeolia in shock.

“Do you have anything to heal her?” she asked quietly, hands fidgeting with the hem of her shirt.

“Yeah, I do,” John said solemnly, his rage no longer overwhelming his gut-clenching fear. “Keep an eye out. I don’t want to get ambushed by the last drone or anything else that might be out here.”

Vivian nodded, her mana bar dropping slightly, but John paid no attention to that as he stowed his sword and withdrew the Reinforced Limb. The wooden arm filled his hands and he quickly cast the item’s Evocation.

Aeolia’s body took on a faint purple glow and her health bar ticked up slightly a few seconds later. John let out a sigh of relief. He returned the unlikely healing item to his Inventory and gently picked up Aeolia, cradling her in his hands.

“Okay, she’s healing,” John said as he carefully stood up, turning his attention to Vivian. “Could you grab her glaive?”

“Already got it,” Vivian replied. “What does that arm do?”

“It’s restoring a third of her HP,” John answered softly. “Hopefully that’ll wake her up. Did the last time I healed her while she was knocked out.”

“You certainly have been in a lot of danger,” Vivian muttered.

John recalled what Aeolia said before in their makeshift hideout and looked at Vivian intently. “Is that going to be an issue? I mean, I’d love to find a way to level without fighting, just to have the option, but…”

John trailed off as Vivian gave him a slight smile. “I was fully aware that fighting would be dangerous. It’s just, knowing something and experiencing it are two different things.”

John adopted a sour look. “Yeah, I get that. I was kind of frozen when things went down in the Trap Barrier I met Aeolia in.”

“That’s the world we live in,” Vivian intoned, like it was a mantra she had heard repeatedly. “We can either step up or step aside. I’ll be fine. I’ve got a point to prove and can’t walk away. Got to crawl before walking and all that.”

“If it's any consolation, that trap you had at the door did some real damage to those drones,” John said, hoping his words would assuage her sense of inadequacy. “And you whipped that up in what, a few minutes?”

Vivian’s smile grew slightly along with the blush on her cheeks. “It isn’t that impressive. Kinetic arrays are rather simple.”

“You two can chat about that stuff later,” Aeolia groaned from John’s hand. “Not a big fan of nerd talk after getting blown up.”

John let out a sigh of relief, “It worked. Thank goodness.”

“Yeah, I’m fine,” she said, her tone a bit weary. “No need to gush over me.”

“What happened anyway?” Vivian asked. “My feed wasn’t in the best spot to catch everything.”

Aeolia let out another groan, this one less about her pain and more annoyance over the situation. “It just blew up when I was going in to take it out. Really shouldn’t have gone in close.”

John frowned. “Did it explode on purpose? None of the other bots blew up.”

“Just my luck,” Aeolia morbidly joked, “I’d get the suicidal robot.”

“I think it may have done that because it got the chance to hurt you,” Vivian theorised. “They’re interlinked, yes? One saw you attack and your target detonated as the only viable way to attack.”

“I only saw the one,” Aeolia said, her brow furrowing. “Think the one we lost sight of is watching us?”

“If it is now, it’s getting a distorted view,” Vivian answered, a touch of pride in her voice.

“What do you mean?” John asked.

“When you were healing Aeolia,” Vivian explained, “I took the liberty to create a refraction around us. We’re not invisible, but anything looking our way would see us several meters to the side of where we really are.”

“That’s awesome,” John exclaimed softly, eyes scanning the surroundings. “If it looks like we’re looking somewhere else, we might be able to spot it without it knowing we did.”

“Then we can snipe them,” Aeolia added, raising to her feet with only a slight wince and flying over to Vivian’s shoulder, the redhead handing over the glaive. “Bust out that scope.”

John gave her one last, mildly worried glance and pulled his goggles over his eyes. He increased the magnification to its max and scanned the nearby buildings.

“Got it,” he reported softly. “It’s in the building on the corner, fourth floor. How are we going to deal with it?”

Vivian adjusted her glasses. “I’m not sure if I can maintain the refraction once we try to move. If the drone picks something up, it would ruin the whole plan.”

“We can’t just sit here and wait for the bot to run out of power,” Aeolia stated, eyeing where John had pinpointed their enemy before a gleam entered her eyes. “Hey, Vivian. You can focus light up there, right?”

“Yes,” the redhead answered slowly. “You think we should blind it and move to a more advantageous position?”

“My idea’s a little more direct,” Aeolia responded, looking at John with a sly smile as she leapt down from Vivian’s shoulder and grew to her full height. “Feel like making an airdrop with me?”

“Like, you fly us up there and we both attack while the bot’s blinded?” John asked, making sure he was on the same page as the winged woman. When she nodded, he let out a slightly nervous chuckle. “Well, it certainly is a plan. And a good one. Alright, let’s do this.”

Aeolia clapped John on his shoulder and worked her magic. As his body began to shrink, John activated Mana Sense. He felt Aeolia’s mana flow over and through him, like a strong, steady wind blowing through a forest. In a few seconds, John was reduced to a third of his normal height.

“Well, this certainly is a bit of a role reversal,” John said, looking up at the now giant women. Aeolia bent down and offered a hand for John to step into.

Vivian’s eyes dashed between the pair. “You can shrink people? I thought you said your power was a growing one?”

“Guess it’s a little bit of both really,” Aeolia answered, lifting John to her shoulder. “Can only shrink things to a third of their normal size and I can’t make them larger... before you ask. And I only used enough mana to keep John small for a few minutes, so we should get things moving along.”

“Oh, right,” Vivian said, a touch flustered as she turned to face the drone’s hidden location. “I think a few seconds should be enough, yes? Just say when.”

Aeolia nodded and flared her wings and John tensed, lowering his center of gravity. “When,” she said, beating her wings down and taking off. John felt his balance waiver but he maintained his footing, taking hold of the fabric of Aeolia’s dress to keep steady.

They had barely left the ground when the floor the drone was on suddenly bloomed with light, the floors surrounding it growing dark as the light was redirected.

“Ready to get the drop on this bot?” Aeolia asked John as the light levels began to revert to normal.

“As I ever will be,” John said, already feeling the steady flow of Aeolia’s magic fading from him.

Aeolia flew towards a broken, floor-length window and into the building. The drone was where John had spied it, though it made no indication it had seen their approach. Aeolia flew over the drone and John summoned his greatsword and leapt off her shoulder as her spell reached its end.

He fell upon the drone, growing to full size in an instant, and brought the full weight of his fall into his attack, cleaving into the composite exterior of the final spider-like robot.

40 DMG. Critical Hit

The drone’s armor buckled from the hit, the plates peeling away at the weakest points. John pulled free from the construct and twisted away, giving Aeolia the opening to strike with a scythe of wind, the green tempest striking the same spot John had just vacated.

35 DMG

Harvest Drone 5 of 5 defeated.

237(13) EXP

Aeolia’s attack blew the drone away even as John got the notification of its defeat and the experience he was owed. The drone’s defeated form crashed into the corner, where it faded away, leaving a pile of loot in its place.

John let out a sigh of relief, “Well, that’s done. Let’s hope the rest of what’s in this Barrier isn’t as tricky.”

Aeolia nodded. “I’ll go get Vivian. We can rest while you look over your loot.”