B4 Chapter 445: Imperium Mortum, pt. 5

They moved like forgotten horrors, twisted creatures of gearing and steel. Dozens of legs undulated with unnatural jerks, slipping from motionless to blurring speed as six automata raced down the hall in loose formation.

Kaius slowed his approach, cautious. This was a new foe, and for all that an eager hunger simmered in his chest, his blood-song had been tempered by experience. They might have done research in the guild for histories of combat against these beasts, but he knew better than to trust such things with his life.

He couldn’t help but focus on their build. They were dissimilar from the descriptions he’d heard of the ancient Empire’s weapons of war — too small, and their armour too thin, with three arms on each side ending in tools of all things.

He wondered if they were more the corrupted tools of artifice than true guardians. Still, a chisel stabbed as well as any knife, and even though they were smaller than what he’d heard of war automata, they were not small. Each one’s torso was wrapped in flawless metal plating that looked equivalent to medium armour. With their long spider-like legs, they towered at least as tall as Ianmus, at seven strides, perhaps more.

Their lack of heads only made them seem more imposing; it left nothing to humanise them — just many-limbed hunks of deadly steel.

Still, if they were automata, they should have levels, although perhaps that was only true of the combat models. He focused his Truesight to be sure.

Imperial Worker-drone – Level 150

Automaton, Artisan

Kaius tensed in surprise. They were artisans… but for crafter automata to have that level. An unpleasant surprise, indeed. He pushed the information he had gleaned to Porkchop through their bond, knowing that the rest of his team had their own identification ability. All he got was a growl of affirmation.

Kenva struck first.

Mana surged through her bow and stamina fuelled her limbs. She loosed, an arrow racing down the hall with a snapping crack. Wreathed in a howling aura of wind, it punched straight through the chest of the leading automaton. Sparks and snapping discharges of mana ruptured from the torn rent in the metal, and shrapnel burst outwards.

To Kaius’ displeasure, the creature didn’t even stumble, ignoring the wound as it continued charging forth. He’d known that fighting the creatures would be similar to undead, but these were made of metal — metal reinforced with the power of stats. He’d seen Kenva’s arrow tear through the defences of Silvers; in comparison, the damage to the automaton had been minor.

They needed to locate the core if they wanted to destroy the creatures. At the very least, Kenva’s shot had proven that their strength was still enough to sunder the angled plates that surrounded the artificial life’s innards. Without the regenerative properties of Health, they could focus on fouling the fine gearing that was exposed on the joints of their limbs.

He called out his ideas to his team as they rushed to meet the approaching threat. Porkchop could blunt their charge, while Ianmus and Kenva focused on disabling movement. He was confident in his blade, especially when backed with the powers of Mystic’s Rend and Mercurial Reversal. Plus, with Sergeant’s Insight, he should have the best shot at finding their core. Kenva would likely be able to help with that as well, considering the sensitivity of her own ocular skill.

They charged as the strides disappeared between them and the approaching force. Thank gods that these automata lacked true projectile weapons, letting his back line assault them with impunity as they closed the gap.

With every step, arrows and lances of light shot past him, yet, to his surprise, not all of them found their mark. The automata were wily, agile things that skittered to and fro. Their joints seemed to have a full range of motion, bending in ways impossible to creatures of flesh and blood as they reacted instantly to the incoming projectiles.

While he and his team far outpowered them, they moved with seemingly perfect cohesion.

Still, the power of stats was impossible to deny. Kaius watched as one of Ianmus’ sunbeams lanced into one of the reticulating arms of the leading automaton right at the shoulder. The joint fouled, seizing, yet it had four more below it; the movement of the limb was only partially frozen.

Seeing the level of redundancy, his back line shifted to the lower limbs and, one by one, they slowed the approach of the mechanical creatures.

Porkchop let out a roar, speeding up his pace as the very ground quaked beneath his feet, tapping into his skill, Breaker of Men. It took him bare moments to reach the automata. As the gap closed, he plunged his claws into the ground at the last second. A shard-wall erupted, breaking the charge of the automata. A cacophonous metal clang filled the air, as the solid wall of orichalcum smashed into the insectile creatures, .

Kaius raced in behind Porkchop’s skill, ready as soon as the magic dissipated. Vision restored, he found the creatures quickly recovering — fallen in a battered tangle of limbs, yet righting themselves with unnatural precision, without fear and confusion. Despite the sudden assault, their artificial minds brought them to their feet in moments.

Hells. He was barely even sure if they’d managed to take down the three automata at the rear of their formation. It looked like, as soon as their closer allies had been impacted, they’d relied on their precision reflexes and agility to dart back in time with the moving wall.

Still, they were corralled right to where he wanted them. As Porkchop bounded in to his right, setting on the meat of the group with his bulk and the smashing blows of metallic crystal, Kaius set his eyes on the left-most in the pack. Time to see if ancient steel could match up with his reborn blade.

“Hold off the pack! I’ll take one and locate their cores!”

He dashed in as soon as he got Porkchop’s affirmative grunt, leaning on his senses and skills as he drank in his opponent. Target or no, he was not so green as to forget the rest of the battle. One automaton lunged, capitalising on a blind spot that Porkchop had, only for a clawed paw to snake out and dig into its chest as Kaius fell deep into his bond, feeding his senses to his brother. The path was clear.

Kaius kicked off with his back foot as his many-limbed opponent flew into a blur of smashing hammer-blows and stabbing chisels and drill bits. As it moved, time almost seemed to slow—arcs of violent intent cutting through the air. Kaius could see the very paths of its assaults, and he flowed around them like water.

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Witnessing its arm whip up high into a hammer-blow that would come down towards his skull, Kaius snapped his blade up. Energy flooded his sword as he tapped Mercurial Reversal, accelerating his parry as the edge of his sword screamed its way through the air. , Biting deep into alchemical steel, Kaius levered as he stepped in to slip around a lancing chisel that shot for his chest.

With the creature’s arm caught in his bind, Kaius felt the force leach from its strike, flooding into his blade and potentiating in a gleaming shine at the tip of his sword.