Chapter 232: Armored Units_Millennial Mage

Chapter 232: Armored Units

 T was finally ready, her preparationsplete.

 She stood within a guilds main hold, within the city of toiri.

 Around hery the broken bodies of basic model automata.

 Before her stood the entrance into the next section of this dimensional pocketplex.

 Her tungsten sphere pairs were gravity amplified to lethal levels and awaiting her need in the pouch at her waist.

 Not Kit. A different pouch.

 Kit hung beside the lesser pouch, together bncing out Flow that hung on her opposite hip.

 She had contemted holding Kit when she went through, but decided that there was no need.

 She still did have her tungsten rod and sphere in position, along with the three defensive discs in random orbit around herself, however.

 The book didnt say anything about rangedbatants, but they sure did seem to throw urately enough.

 With onest nod to herself for confirmation, she unlocked the door into the next section, watching with her mage-sight as defensive fields and spatial locks retracted to give her ess.

 Instead of swinging open, the doors faded away, and she was left standing in a decorative archway, leading deeper into the facility.

 She knew from the book that if she put the key back into the center of the empty space she could reestablish the doors and seal off the wee atrium, but that shouldnt be necessary.

 Sadly, there were no convenient automata standing right in front of the door this time, so she was forced to leap to get within range of the closest ones.

 Flow snapped into her hand, taking the form of a ive as sheshed out.

 The space she was in now was a faux outdoors, roughly a mile or so across.

 Dozens of outbuildings were scattered throughout the lightly wooded area.

 The trees were conifers, a mix of pine and fir if Ts guess was right.

 The ground beneath her feet was a well-manicuredwn, and there were seating areas, including pic benches, scattered throughout, especially concentrated near the paths and waterways.

 It was a park, exclusive to the guild and their guests.

 Well, now exclusive to solely their arcane creations.

 -And you.-

 T smiled at that. And me.

 The first automata she slew in quick session were all the base model, and none of the first dozen even had time toe out of their magic absorption mode before they were dmissioned.

 Regardless, it wasnt long before she saw squads of the armored variant, the foot soldiersing her way.

 In addition to the armor, they were all armed with mundane weaponry, but nothing seeming to be long range.

 -Yeah, what sort of madwoman would throw a sword?-

 Hush you.

 There was a single odd automaton in the middle of each squad of five armored units.

 Thats odd. Do you remember anything like them mentioned in the book?

 -No, but the concentration of power within them is much greater than the others.-

 Conveniently, there were four squadsing Ts way, so as she fought through the base automata she pulled out pairs of spheres, switching their targets one set after another, to take out the twenty armored enemies.

 The air cracked with a series of reports that sounded like hail striking a metal drum, assuming the hail was asrge as Ts fist.

 The first two armored foes died easily, but not in the way T had hoped.

 Their chest armor, heavily reinforced over their cores, was harder than shed hoped, and it deflected the tungsten sent to destroy them.

 Blessedly, the angles of the armor sent the attack up at an angle, into their heads.

 Two heads vaporized, and their bodies began to fall.

 T took a couple of punches from the basic units around her as she finished sending off her twenty spheres.

 This is ridiculous. Holding them in pouches is slower than keeping them in my hand, and still takes my hand to get them free for use.

 They didnt really hurt as her elk-leathers defenses actually deadened the blows. Hey! My defenses weren''t immediately overpowered.

 That was a nice change, honestly.

 Four more bodies dropped, then twelve had were falling, then sixteen.

 Interestingly enough, as T had targeted the things cores, the tungsten returned to m into the fallen bodies once again, sometimes ending up resting in a newly created divot in the tough armor exterior, and sometimes finding a way down inside to actually reach the targeted destination.

 Even so, while they were struck down, they were adapting.

 T could see magic flowing through their armor as it reshaped. It wasnt fast enough for most of her targets, but the final four? It did quite a lot.

 The seventeenth and eighteenth armored foes had morphed enough of a deflection that only half of their heads were blown off, rather than the entirety being basically vaporized by the redirected impact.

 It was still dmissioning for them, but it was an improvement from a defensive standpoint.

 The neenth and twentieth had enough time to alter their armor, having morphed the defense to have something like a gorget, but grown up from the breastte. Isnt that called a bevor?

 -Your guess is exactly like mine.-

 In any case, it caused the spheres to deflect up and to one side, knocking the targets around, but not killing them.

 T cursed, but it quickly didnt matter as those spheres, like all the others, were still locked onto her foes cores.

 The tungsten slowed as it moved away then quickly elerated back down with another nearly unified crack in the air.

 They drilled down through the less armored necks and struck the cores.

 Gravity for the win! It wasnt a single attack that could be deflected and then ignored. Her projectiles just starting, and they dont stoping, forever.

 Well, until they hit their target, but that means theyve arrived.

 -The sentiment stands, I think.-

 T held in a maniacalugh as she finished wiping out the twenty-five or so basic units that had swarmed her at the beginning.

 That worked so, so well.

 -Well, aside from having to pull them out of your pouch.-

 Yeah, that wasnt ideal, but the rest? Amazing.

 With the armored units dealt with, she just had the four examples of the unknown variant. What idiot in the guild decided tried to hide these?

 They were approaching slowly, making T wish that shed kept some spheres back to speed things up.

 The four were still more than a hundred yards from her when another group of armored foes charged through arge, decorative shrub just about thirty feet to her right and sprinted at her with incredible speed.

 The two in the lead would reach her at the same time, and from what shed seen with the deflection of the spheres, she didnt think a single cut would go through both armored enemies cleanly.

 So, she transformed Flow into a ive and thrust it with her dominant hand, skewering the one on the right. To her surprise, her grip held firm, despite the somewhat awkward angle even as the massive thing rammed home upon the de.

 Its weight and momentum threw her backward, but she held her stance and slid across the ground, even as the skewered automaton was already eliminated, its core breached.

 The one on the left closed thest feet a little slower than it expected due to her backwards movement, and T had time to get into position and m her left hand forward in a half-fist punch.

 She almost just used her fist, but something deep inside her made her realize that she needed prative power, so she trusted herself, and her body, to get the job done.

 Her hesitancy was unfounded.

 T often forgot that she was strong.

 Her bones were strong, her connective tissue was ridiculously robust, and her muscles were even stronger.

 Sure, she used her elevated strength to do quite a few things, but she rarely used it directly.

 Now, she did.

 She felt the bones in her hand groan in protest as her knuckles rammed into the magically reinforced armor of the automaton.

 If all she did was punch, shed be more likely to throw the attacker away than do real damage. That is why had used the extra moment of set-up time to jerk her three defensive tes into ce behind the foe, pulling them against the things back to act almost like a tripod to support it, and force it to take the full power of her strike.

 A low crunch resounded over the battlefield, T slid further back, causing her ive to pull free.

 An instantter another crunch resounded, and Ts fist exited the back of the being, coated in purple fluid and fragments of the automatons core.

 At the same time, the opponent that had been skewered upon Flows de fell to the ground with a heavy thud.

 Hah! Take that, you rusting creations.

 The foe shed punched through became a limp weight on her arm, dragging her downward, and she let it as the next three enemies arrived.

 Flow took off two legs while in the form of a sword, one from each of two of Ts foes.

 As Flow was literally cutting their legs from under her enemies, T kicked the right knee of the third opponent, breaking the magically reinforced joint and causing that one to copse next to her as well.

 She then plunged Flow into three cores in the form of a knife, each piercing thrust getting more difficult as the armor over each subsequent automatas core thickened in anticipation of her tactic.

 It wasnt enough.

 She rolled back to her feet to face the odd variants, even as she felt power build above where she had just been kneeling.

 An explosion of purple fire washed over the downed automata that T had just dmissioned, and she watched as they melted into an indistinct puddle.

 There was no heat outside of the fire, but T could tell that within was hotter than a forge.

 Yeah, thats pretty obvious due to the melting automata. She grimaced. And, great. Theyre magic users?

 -We knew they absorbed power.-

 To reinforce their bodies, t! Not to act like rusting Mages! Needless to say, there had been nothing about this in the notes.

 Who begs for a favor, then doesnt warn the asked about rusting magic users!?

 The second Mage variant lifted its hand, and T was engulfed in the arcane fire.

 The elk-leather defenses, mundane and magical, kept out most of the initial st, but heat was still unbelievable, as it warred with all the enhancements within her own body.

 She found her body failing.

 The fire onlysted a second, and when it had passed, Ts body reknit itself.

 Blessedly, nothing had truly scorched, it had just started to melt.

 Yeahthats a thats a real blessing. T grit her teeth against the pain as her body pulled back into proper cement.

 -Deep breath! Itsing again.-

 The next one extended its hand and even though T dodged, the fire still sted down upon her.

 This time, however, she noticed a few things.

 First, her tungsten began to look a little droopy, which seemed bad. With a thought she willed the sphere and rod out of the fire.

 Second, the fire seemed to be shooting from a single point over head, rather than simplying into being all around her. That exined why her aura hadnt been contested.

 Third, her iron paint had shed off, even under her elk-leathers.

 Thats annoying.

 She filled her lungs with power, inverted the spell-form and exhaled upward at the down-rushing fire.

 The ending-tree power mmed into that of the arcane fire and consumed it, eating the entirety of the power remaining in the st.

 Good, thats an okay counter. Its a bit annoying that I have to look at the source and exhale, but its workable.

 Well, it would have been workable, except that the final Mage variant was extending its hand, and she had just fully exhaled.

 She had a choice to make: Was she going to take the full brunt of another st?

 Yeah, no. Rust that.

 She acted on reflex, allowing her instincts and reactions to counter the attack more quickly than even her enhanced thoughts couldmand.

 She extended Flow upward into the form of a void ive.

 The power requirements were enormous, and she knew her body would be utterly drained dry of power in less than a second, despite the massive void-channels she was already directing into Flow.

 But that was more than enough time.

 The void-ive stabbed through the point at which the purple fire was about to erupt, and it consumed the working whole.

 Even better, if more expensive.

 Flow shrank back to its dormant, knife shape, and T took a couple of panting breaths.

 She looked critically towards the four enemies moving to surround her.

 Defense isnt going to win me this one.

 -Well then, lets go.- t sent T the impression of a determined, fierce smile.

 T flung Flow in the form of a sword towards the farthest enemy, while charging towards the closest herself.

 -See? Madwoman.-

 I said hush.

 She lunged and wove, managing to stay out of the areas of effect of the next two purple sts.

 The fourth never came as Flow easily cleaved through the Mage variant.

 Sadly, the one right beside it, less than five feet away, was unharmed. Why do I feel like I should be able to hurt that one too?

 -Life is a mystery sometimes.-

 T vaulted thest stretch as she mmed her knee into the chest of the automaton. With both her hands free, she grabbed onto its shoulders as she did so, riding the thing down to the ground.

 Even as it mmed down, she grabbed its head, giving a great, twisting pull.

 She used arge portion of her strength as her back arched, and she growled in determination.

 With rtively little resistance before her efforts, the head tore free.

 I might need to get another weapon somehow. Throwing Flow is awesome, but it leaves me unarmed.

 -Your hands work pretty well.-

 Yeah, so would a rock, but its not ideal.

 -Fair, fair.-

 She pulled, and Flow zipped back to her, clipping another of her foes on the way by.

 Sadly, that damage was healed rather quickly.

 Feeling a bit ironically vindictive, T flung the headless Mage variant at its fellows, sprinting after the body to capitalize on the chaos.

 Less than half a minuteter, the other three Mage like things were out ofmission.

 Not bad, T. Not bad at all.

 -Yes, let the self-congrattions flow through you.-

 Rust you, t, Im doing great.

 t just chuckled. -Youre right; you are.-

 T took a moment to look around at the park-like surroundings. They were a bit torn up nearby, but for the most part, this ce was still pristine.

 Good. I think parts of this can be quite useful to us.

 A thought urred to her, likely born of what shed seen out of the edges of her vision earlier.

 She pushed Flow into its void-knife form, and her vision changed.

 With the void-sight, she was able to see the edges of reality for the simple reason that there was nothing past them at all.

 Ahh, I can see the void.

 -Well, you can not see anything, and that absence indicates the void.-

 Semantics.

 -Fair enough.-

 This pocket dimension ended only a foot or so below T. She could also see that, below the trees, great bowls of reality had been created, extending down and out in a half-sphere to allow the trees to have a solid foundation.

 Thats a clever way to save on internal volume while still allowing healthy,rge trees.

 She continued her examinations as she retrieved all her tungsten spheres from the bodies of the armored automata.

 She could feel something watching her.

 The book had indicated some sort of unified connection between all the things, and that it could observe within the hold as a whole. So, the feeling wasnt unexpected.

 Even so, she wasnt in a rush.

 In fact, no matter how long she was in here, within reason, her duties would be taken care of by others. It would be nice to have a bit of a break from the monotony, honestly.

 It couldntst forever, sadly.

 I give it a week before Paun is sent in after me.

 She definitely wouldnt need a week, but she was tempted to take as much time as she could, regardless.

 Eh, Ill see how this ys out.

 Thats when her enhanced hearing began to pick up the thud of footfalls.

 She hadnt had a chance to charge up more than a single set of tungsten spheres to a lethal level.

 Well, thats irritating.

 She also really didnt want to hold the spheres

 She cocked her head in thought, an idea striking her. With a mild application of focus and power, she willed her elk-leathers to grow a set of ties on her upper chest.

 She then deftly fastened those around the two spheres, using the dip between them to keep them from moving side to side.

 Their attraction to each other was sufficient to allow her to pull the cord rtively tight without pulling between them.

 She tested it out, moving around. The spheres did pull a bit, but it wasnt too bad.

 Shed reduced their downward pull first, so they werent weighing her down with anything but their inertia.

 Well, lets give this method a try.

 She looked up as, around a bend in the main path, a unit of ten automata came into view.

 These were armored as expected, but a few things seemed to have changed.

 First, their armor had grown.

 This was not mere stretching or reshaping. Unfortunately, they looked to have doubled, if not tripled, the mass of metal in their armor asparted to the initial armored units T had in.

 Additionally, their heads were pulled lower, seemingly more closely connected to their shoulders. The shape of the armor was now clearly meant both for deflecting blows away from the head and core and to make it difficult to get a good grip on the head or neck.

 They can upgrade to counter me, too? Not just change behavior or do surface level changes?

 -This was listed as a factory for them, T.-

 Yeah, but their production speed cant be this good.

 -I believe that these were merely upgraded based on your previous shes.-

 That made a lot of sense, actually.

 Building new ones? Slow.

 Upgrading existing ones with a bit more armor? Fast.

 Alright, then. I suppose its time to make some more scrap.

MillionNovel

Chapter 232: Armored Units