Chapter 10: Bellona Thorn

Chapter 9

Mark

I woke up to see a strange metallic face looking at us from the cave entrance. He was unable to get inside because he was too big. He looked to be made from black metal.

“No way,” Alex whispered.

“What is it?” I asked. I remembered that black metal from my past, not where, only that it was dangerous.

“Stygian Iron. You can’t make automatons from it.” She said.

“Apparently you can,” I replied, getting up and packing away my things. “By the way, my Dad got in contact with me, don’t take their weapons head on, your weapons will break.” The rest followed my example in putting their gear away, complaining about the message my Dad gave me. The automaton looked up the mountain.

“Caligulan Steel unit 15 has found intruders.” It said, its voice echoing up the mountain. Crud. As soon as I finished packing I burst into action, diving under its legs and slashing Ignus up its back. I barely left a scratch. The automaton moved, faster than its size implied, and swung its sword sideways at me. I dived under it and stabbed Glacius into its hand. I pierced the steel hand, removing several fingers in the process, but the automaton reacted as if I had thrown paper at it. It let go of the sword with that hand, keeping a hold of it with its other hand, and used the damaged hand to try and swat at me.

Alex jumped in slashing at the upper arm, and barely breaking the metallic skin. It spun again to confront this new enemy when Steve’s celestial bronze cord whipped out and sliced through its sword arm. The arm fell to the ground and the automaton looked at the lost appendage in confusion. I used this opportunity to climb a nearby rock and jump on its back, stabbing Glacious in the shoulder and slamming Ignus into the back of its head, where the control unit should be. It stiffened, but instead of falling over deactivated it reached up with its missing arm to try and grab me. Once it realized that arm was missing, it tried to grab me with the other. I pulled Ignus out and stabbed it into the chest. This time the automaton stopped moving completely and fire shot out of the places where we had actually damaged it.

“Good thing your immune to fire,” Alex said as I was climbing down from our enemy’s still form.

“Too bad this thing is so hard to beat.” I said. The others agreed and we proceeded up the mountain carefully. Enemies like this were very dangerous. As we climbed up I explained that they should aim for the chest, about where the human heart was. That was where the control unit was located. We ran into two more on our way up, Jackie fired a crossbow bolt that took out one carrying a hammer, and Steve was able to take out another who used two swords. We avoided the other six we saw.

Once we were at the doors we found those six waiting for us.

“Caligulan Steel Units One through Six have located the enemy and is engaging.” The one in the lead said. It was armed with a spear. Jackie fired a bolt taking out one that held a two handed sword, and Steve sacrificed one of his daggers to take out another that had two axes. Four left, one that had a shield and sword, another with a spear, a third with a hammer, and the last with an axe. We each took one.

My opponent, the shield and sword fellow, moved pretty darn quickly. Since I couldn’t meet his weapon with my shield I had to dodge a lot, which I am not used to. He kicked me, which sent me flying back into the wall. I was winded and unable to move and the automaton moved forward towards me. I heard Alex cry out, and she was suddenly in front of me as it’s sword was falling towards me. She blocked the sword.

With a gut wrenching shriek Agni was torn in half, and the explosion of magic outwards blew Alex into the wall above me and into the face of the Automaton. When my vision and hearing returned I saw that the entire front of my opponent was melted away, and Alex’s opponent was closing in on us. I tried to get up, and noticed that Alex had fallen onto me. Anger flowed into me, giving me the strength to get up and gently lie her down. I checked her pulse, and confirming that she was alive, gave her a quick once over to check for injuries. There appeared to be none. I stood and turned towards the approaching automaton.

It was the one with the big axe. In the background Steve had sacrificed another dagger to take his opponent, the spear, out and was helping Jackie with the hammer. I charged and Axe swung to cut me off. I leaped above its attack, and it had over extended itself and was unable to recover as I stabbed both my blades into its chest. It stopped moving. I then rushed Hammer as it focused on my other friends and stabbed its knees. Without whole Kneecaps it could not move forward and it fell. It sat up and tried to swing at me, but I ducked under and stabbed the hammer shaft.

The automaton tried to turn its hammer around, and because of the damage I had inflicted the hammers head flew off. It stared in confusion as I jabbed my two blades into its chest as well. Then I heard the creak as the door’s to the City of Gold creaked open. I turned to face them and saw four more of these Caligulan Steel Automaton’s walking out towards us. As they cleared the doorway they rushed us.

I crouched down, ready to do what I needed to to destroy these opponents when, from behind them, there came a red glow and a yell. A blade sliced from the left hip to the right shoulder on the first, followed by a reversed attack on the second. The last two began to slow down and tried to turn towards this new threat when the third was taken out by a stabbed blade. As the fourth stopped its charge and began to move I dove at it, stabbing Ignus and Glacius into its chest.

I looked toward the source of the red glow and saw Alex at its center. She had activated her armor and was holding a giant blade. That is the only way I could think to describe it. Her hand rested in the middle, which was a handhold only big enough for one hand. As she reached down with her other hand, a second handhold appeared. She moved her hands together (The handhold stretched to accommodate, and her old handhold became part of the blade) and then tapped the bottom on the ground. The whole thing became a staff.

“Nobody breaks the weapon of a child of Ares,” was all she said as we stared in wonder.

Chapter XI