B4 Chapter 447: Imperium Mortum, pt. 7

Kaius wheezed, shoving down the burning agony of the hole in his chest. He didn’t know what the centurion’s beam had been made of, but it was potent. It had scythed straight through all of his defences.

Hells, his second-tier scalemail had practically been melted into slag! There were drips of metal still glowing as they splattered to the ground at his feet.

Rotten roots, none of that mattered. The wound, no matter how dire, was healing swiftly.

Summoning a potion to hand, Kaius downed it quickly, the taste of spring shoots filling his mouth and sinuses, as it mingled with the ash and blood that was already there.

They had killed beasts with far more levels than this. Guardians had fallen before them — these were simple creations of artifice. That said, they were war machines. And made of slabs of steel. Their durability would no doubt be insane. He was not so much a fool as to ignore the capabilities of a creature that had just violently eviscerated them.

Ahead of him, Porkchop summoned another Shard Wall, blocking the creature’s advance for yet another moment, giving Kaius just enough time to think.

His mind raced, the screech of metal forgotten as his backline dropped drone after drone — their spilling remnants crushed almost immediately by Porkchop.

For all he was confident in their abilities, the centurions were vicious things. Their beams were strong. Lethal. If one of them had hit him in the head — helmet or no — he’d be a warm corpse right now. Hells, even with A Moment of Flow giving him warning, he still hadn’t been able to dodge when the Centurion struck.

Mechanical precision was a terrifying thing.

Another of Porkchop’s Shard Walls slammed home. Both Centurions dug deep, slamming into the slab of orichalchum with their shields as their spider-like limbs dug in. Steel screeched on the ground as they slid back.

They still hadn’t fired another beam.

Kaius narrowed his eyes. Was it possible they couldn’t? Those beams had taken an immense amount of mana, and while he could see the creatures sucking in more from the surrounding air, it seemed like whatever inscription allowed it had a downtime.

That was a reprieve they could use. Those lenses on their pseudo-heads looked fragile.

“Kenva!” he called. “The heads! We can’t have another one of those beams.”

She nodded, drawing her bow as stamina and mana roared into its limbs — lethal violence taking shape with a visual glow.

Kaius had no intention of waiting on the sidelines while his friend worked. Spells flowed from him like rain. He dropped the shimmering form of Warhaven over Ianmus and Kenva, a layer of protection should they be targeted. Reaching for Eirnith, he wrapped his grip around Zone of Discombobulation. Mana surged in his temples, the runes glowing bright on his skin as a warping field dropped over the Centurions. They staggered, coordination failing from the sudden change to their senses.

He knew it would be weak compared to the effects on a normal beast, both due to the creatures’ strength and also their resistance as automata — their false minds less beholden to sensory-changing effects. Still, every little bit still counted.

He couldn’t rejoin the front until his chest was healed, but he only needed a few more seconds — and that wouldn’t stop him from joining the battle either way. Muthryn waited, runes glowing as embers fell from his throat.

He reached for VOS, that unknowable, ineffable thing — growth, opening, strength, and might. It was a magnitude of strength that he needed now. Steeling his will, he called the warping image of the great rune to mind, focusing as he honed in on the smallest fraction of its whole. It was tiny, nigh on pathetic compared to his earliest uses of the skill, but manageable — and it meant he’d have to spend far less on Muthryn. Still, it was only enough for one shot. He had to make it count.

As eldritch ruin coiled in his mana, Kaius unleashed a Nail.

A spike as long as his forearm erupted from the glyph on his palm to cut towards the Centurion that had injured him. As fast as his shot was, the creature still tried to react, snapping to the projectile and raising its shield.

With the pair of them linked so deeply, Porkchop moved in conjunction with his attack — a simultaneous movement. A roar left his throat, Bulwark’s Challenge shook the beast and forced its attention to him. Warped by the influence of Kaius’s Zone of Discombobulation, it was ever so slightly more effective than his previous attempts.

The creature froze for just a moment before it was forced to rebuff Porkchop’s Breaker of Men-backed charge, spikes erupting from the ground to foul its footing as a smashing blow impacted its shield.

Kaius’s nail slammed home, right into the glass lens of the centurion’s head. Steel unfurled, branching deeper and deeper as layers of shattering crashes echoed out. The expansion was forceful, tearing at the steel cylinder and buckling it outwards.

Primal satisfaction coursed through him, there was no way it could fire its beam with that lens ruined!

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Reacting to his attack, the Centurions rallied, locking into formation with their shields raised. The leftmost one forced Porkchop back with a sudden stab of its gargantuan sword — all the while mana built in both of the automata’s chests.