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.

  Kaius hissed. Whatever they were doing, the flow of mana within them looked different to when they had fired their heat beams, but it still couldn’t be good. Checking his condition, he found his chest half healed. The destruction to the muscles and his obliques still made his movement on the right side feel clumsy, but the support from Greater Regeneration would let him operate well enough.

  He raced in, throwing together the best plan he could.

  “Ianmus, Kenva — fire now! We can’t let them build anymore mana, their last ability was too dangerous already!.”

  His backline didn’t respond, but he knew they’d heard him by the roar of power that came from behind. An arrow packed full of energy lanced forward, smashing into the other Centurion’s head. Too swift to be dodged, the shot ruined its lens utterly as the steel cylinder was ripped from the top of the creature's torso.

  Kaius watched it fly free and smiled. They might have had levels and bodies of armoured steel, but fragile artifice was fragile artifice — and Kenva’s Howl of the North Wind was a devastating thing.

  After the shot landed, a shockwave of wind burst out, staggering the two Centurions. Just long enough for a swirling orb of tightly controlled solar mana to drift down the hall.

  Ianmus’s Preeminent Halo unleashed from the keyseal atop his staff — a barely constrained explosion that growled its desire to burst.

  The mage had had the unique mana construct active the entire time they’d been in the ruin. All the while, it had gathered and stored an internal reservoir. Until now, Ianmus had only used it to supplement his own solar lances, just about doubling the output of his attacks. But that had left the reservoir mostly untouched — all the better to unleash the second tier war magic when they needed it.

  Kaius grinned as he saw it, the simple light spilling off it, almost scorching his skin like the heat of a midsummer sun. If now wasn’t the time to lean on such a power, he didn’t know what was. Hells, he would have used his own Starfall, if he was confident that he would get the opportunity to re-inscribe the sole charge he had — the gods’ could damn the consequences of using such a spell in a tunnel.

  Linked to his senses, Porkchop suddenly pulled back, retreating away from the blast that would soon come without turning to look.

  Yet before Ianmus’s spell could reach, the boiling magic within the Centurions spilled over. In a sudden blast of light, warping out like angelic wings from their backs, bubbles of force wrapped the artificed warriors. A force shield, Kaius realised, gritting his teeth. He didn’t slow his charge.

  Ianmus’s Preeminent Halo impacted the force shield of the leftmost Centurion right as the pair hunkered down beneath their physical defences. For a second, all Kaius heard was a subtle pop. Then the light expanded into a ball that swallowed the whole hall. The very air burned, igniting a death scream that echoed agonisingly off the hardened walls. Even with his Truesight, the light was blinding; at its peak, it whited out his ability to see the champions. He blinked, and as the light dissipated, Kaius scowled.

  The Centurions’ energy shields had been shattered, and the door-sized slabs on their arms glowed cherry red as rivulets of molten metal dripped to the floor. But they still stood. The metal cooled unnaturally fast. Steam vented from cracks within their bodies as they swivelled to face Porkchop, who even now raced in, ghostly antlers appearing from his head as he embodied his Glade Spirit. Kaius watched the closest Centurion take a step, stumbling as a cylinder on its leg buckled. His eyes sharpened — the heat had fouled the delicate machinery that made the creatures tick.

  Ignoring the searing heat of the scorched metal, Porkchop charged in unhindered, smashing the Centurions with blow after blow. Kaius raced in behind him, a tide of arrows and spells falling from their backline as they targeted whatever joints they could spot. Watching his friends’ projectiles land, Kaius knew they were having a tougher time than with the worker drones. Every limb on the Centurions was overbuilt and heavily armoured, leaving far fewer angles that exposed the gearing that made them function. Whoever had constructed these war machines was a genius. He cursed them for it.

  Arriving at the front, the closest Centurion to him pivoted up high and sliced down with its sword — large enough, larger than he was. Kaius raised his own, trusting in his skills as he tapped into Mercurial Reversal. He stepped to the side, slamming his blade edge to edge into the Centurion’s own. A titanic force cascaded through his body as he felt his bones creak. He gritted his teeth, a low roar boiling in his chest as he slid back — yet his skill did its work, stealing energy from the strike.

  Kaius moved with the giant blade, allowing it to guide his own blade down.

  He wasn’t truly trying to deflect the blow. After all, he’d already dodged. He was just stealing its strength.

  Dashing in, he infused his blade with Mystic’s Rend to layer with the force that Mercurial Reversal had already stolen from the centurions attack.

  He wasn’t done. Reaching for the bond he had with his blade, Kaius dove deep into their connection. Gritting his teeth, bound mana roared through the glyph on his hands as a Stormlash burst free. Its potential was siphoned — stolen away by Hymnfocus to saturate his blade. A crackling storm surrounded his weapon; he took three quick steps, slipping around a shield bash to appear inside the Centurion’s grasp.

  Dipping low, Kaius drove the Stormlord’s own blade through the automata’s guard.

  Layering so many abilities into his blade strained his mind and forced him to rely on his authority to steady the raw, raging energy within it. Yet the results were undeniable. A Father’s Gift punched through steel as if it were made of simple paper.

  Judging from the way the Centurions had guarded the lower centre of their chests in his earlier shots, and based on some of the records they’d seen in the guild, its core should lie in the very centre of its torso.

  His aim was true.

  His blade slid in; a storm of fury unleashed. Mystic’s Rend snapped to a point, volatile and caustic arcana exploding through the Centurion’s internals — devastating force eating the intricate runecraft from within. Less than a heartbeat later, an electric storm of lightning erupted within the creature as flashing arcs jumped from plate to plate, its metallic construction proving its undoing as the force of the spell amplified and spread through the entirety of its body all at once.

  The Centurion stiffened, and Kaius grinned, tasting victory. The mana within the artificed creature grew unstable — a writhing storm. Crystal screamed against metal as Kaius ripped his blade free, ready to engage the next.

  The sudden sensation of danger that followed pricked like a knife against his throat.

  Even with its core ruined, venting mana by the heartbeat, the Centurion was still mobile. Its two lower limbs — agile, and tipped with hooked spikes — lanced out faster than he could blink. Raw mana seemed to overcharge the movements. Caught off guard, Kaius tried to spin away, but as many-jointed as they were, the limbs simply wove through the air like snakes, hooking his armour and dragging him in.

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