Chapter 112: Death Dealing
On top of a roof the rest of the group was waiting for the signal to attack.
It took a while, but they finally saw the explosion and realized how much they actually miscalculated the power of it. They just stared at it for a few minutes, in the sky they saw the army of drones flying towards the sky.
Clockwork watched the burning corpse of the factory, it delighted him that the explosives worked so well.
After watching it burn for a few more minutes and waiting for all the drones to leave... Bea finally gave the order to move out.
They ran through the streets and occasionally looked at the sky, where a light show was currently playing. Hellfire was throwing fireball after fireball, killing drones wherever they landed.
Every time they exploded, the night sky lit up for a second and dozens of drones melted. Sadly it also illuminated the thousands swarming around the three of them, it made the rest of the group run faster.
Soon they arrived to the factory and went around it, to the side where they saw the Death Dealer Mk3.
This was the third part of the plan, a frontal attack on the corrupted. Since the explosions were really chaotic they couldn't really make a foolproof plan. It was going to be mostly luck, which decides the outcome.
With Bea in lead they arrived where the robot army supposed to be, but of course there was only a crater there and a bunch of parts lying everywhere.
She stopped near the edge of destruction and looked around. Some of the robots weren't dead and with difficulty stood up, but vines swiftly grew out of the ground at killed all the survivors.
Eventually she turned around and ordered, "Clockwork! Find that corrupted!"
He immediately began to work. His eyes were the most enhanced out of everyone here, especially when it comes to finding high grade tech.
After a minute or two he already found it. The Death Dealer seemed to be in the process of repairing itself, it had two missing leg and arm, also one of its huge railguns didn't seem to be in working condition.
The robot also noticed him, or maybe it knew they were here all this time. It just tried to hide, to see if they could find it.
It exploded from the debris where it hid. Ruined pieces of machinery flew everywhere nearly hitting the group. Everyone dodged in different direction, Bea used the vines to make a shield for Vicky.
After the previous talk with Sera she realized how important these two people were to her. So throughout the battle her position won't be the usual front line attacker, but using her powers she will help defend her group and disrupt the enemy.
She never really uses her powers, so this is a great form of exercise... Even if it's a bit dangerous.
Since her last Heritage upgrade she noticed, that she couldn't improve further. At first she thought there was something missing, but now she knew what the problem was... Evolution.
The issue was that her rank was only evolved and to be able to advance further she needed to evolve more.
The robot after bursting out stopped and looked at each of them, then it did something that no monster they have fought with ever done...
It spoke...
"Scanning hostiles... Six in close proximity, three farther away... Danger levels... Most dangerous in proximity Queen of Nature and Soul Keeper... Solution... Kill them all..."
It's voice was robotic, but also intelligent which disturbed the group. The monsters that were the servants of Madness were very dumb, not in battle but in regular life. For example, no matter how high class they were, they couldn't speak. And that could only mean one thing...
The Death Dealer Mk3 wasn't a monster, just some other species.
It was very rare for such thing to happen, but it wasn't unheard of. Also saying that it's intelligent wasn't fully true. It seemed to have lost its mind, but not because of some outside influence... Probably it couldn't handle to be stuck this far away from its home or something.
It didn't matter for the group, they were going to kill it since it couldn't be reasoned with and they still need the robot for Clockwork's evolution, but this raised a new question in Bea...
If other intelligent creatures can be used for evolution... Then humans can as well. It was a disturbing thought, but all the evidence suggested it to be true.
Bea looked at the mech and instantly jumped two the side. The place where she stood disintegrated, the robot began running towards Vicky, but was stopped by the rest of the group.
Clockwork shot at its head, but some kind of energy shield rose and defended the attack.
Sarah and Will tried to summon water to short circuit the robot, but the shield stopped it as well.
Faith tried to go past it, but even in her shadow form it wasn't possible.
Only Vicky was able to attack the creatures soul. Bea could attack as well, since the energy shield was only a dome.
Below the mech vines shot out catching its legs and slowly moving into them, prying open panels and cutting cables. The robot had another defense mechanism, suddenly electricity ran through its whole body killing all of the vines.
Because the group couldn't attack, Death Dealer could cause as much damage as possible.
It used two of its energy sword to strike at Sarah and Will. They dodged in different directions and barely escaped the attack. Then it tried to grab Faith, but she just went into the shadows.
She thought the shadows were safe, since it was always a way of escape for her, but she should have known better. As the giant robot hand landed on her it created a small energy shield similar to the one around Death Dealer's body.
The shield was about 50 centimeter across, so she couldn't even change back into a human.
"One hostile disabled... Five remains..."
Said to robotic voice and began delivering more and more attacks at Bea, Will and Sarah.
It one point the mech's railgun was pointed at Sarah and she didn't have enough time to evade. When she was just about to die, Will jumped in front of her and using his shield defended against the attack.
In one second Sarah's life was flashing before her eyes, in the next Will was flying away... His shield in pieces. They didn't know if he was alive or not, but had no time to find out.
"Two hostiles disabled... Four remains..."
The counter seemed like a mockery.
Bea while dodging attack after attack and shot after shot, tried to summon more vines, but the electric field was still on the robots body.
No matter what they tried it was useless.
Sarah dodged a swing of one of the four energy sword, then jumped over another, the railgun was powering up as well, but this time she was prepared for that too. There was only one thing she didn't count on... The robot charging right into her.
Using its body as a ram it crashed into Sarah, its body electrocuted her and also sent her flying... She hit the ground hard and unconscious.
"Three hostiles disabled... Three remains..."
Using all her knowledge and every bit of power she had left Bea dodged and evaded everything, but also tried to hit the shield with her sword to keep the Death Dealer's focus away.
At this point Bea noticed a long time ago, that Clockwork was nowhere to be seen. Vicky was hiding behind some debris and Bea kept the focus of the huge robot away from that area.
Her essence was running out and her speed was slowing, but just when the robot was about to eliminate her as well, there was a sound approaching from below ground.
Death Dealer noticed it as well, but it was too late. Below him a huge beam of laser broke the concreate. It went straight through the robots body and because of the energy field it kept on bouncing inside it.
Just with one shot and a large amount of essence Clockwork took out the Death Dealer Mk3. All that was left of it is a burned pile of trash metal.
While he was still crawling out of some hole or sewer, Bea quickly healed everyone and with the death of the robot Faith was also freed.
When she made sure everyone was fine, Bea looked at the sky and saw as all the drones began falling.
'Guess we were right about them being controlled by Death Dealer.'
Soon Sera, Hellfire and Lucy arrived just in time to see Clockwork scream in pain as he evolved.
The whole group was very tired, so they just sat down at the edge of destruction and waited for Clockwork to wake up.
After all the sound of drones falling from the sky died down, only silence remained. The factory was mostly destroyed, but here and there a couple of small fire still burned.
The second hunt was complete, it wasn't as easy as they anticipated, but everyone was still alive and that is what mattered.