Centros: The Metal Army [Archive]

[Mizagium]

"I'm so booooooored..." Leon was lying on the ground right outside the border to his home country, staring at the clouds above him as they meandered through the sky. "I haven't been on an adventure in aaaaaages!" he whined. "I wish there were something to do around here."

Just then, Leon got a brilliant idea, and an actual lightbulb appeared over his head. "Oh, wait. I'm a dimension mage. I can teleport," he snickered. Just as suddenly as the idea had come to him, the bored expression set upon his face again and he let out a loud sigh. "But where to? There's a million places in this dimension, and then a million other dimensions to go through. There's no ascertaining that any one of them will be fun. Or novel, for that matter. I've been on so many wacky adventures as of late, they all start to blur together." Leon attempted to recall all the adventures he had ever been on, but couldn't easily differentiate one from any of the others.

"Whatever, " he sighed. "I definitely won't be having fun if I just lie here all day. Here goes nothing..." Leon hopped up onto his feet, inhaled deeply and shouted at the top of his lungs "FUS ROH DAH!" His magically amplified sound waves were able to tear open a dimensional rift in front of him. Truth be told, he didn't have to scream "FUS ROH DAH", but he couldn't think of anything better to say. "Oh, almighty dimensional portal!" Leon began. "Take me to somewhere fun and exciting!"

The young sorcerer stepped through the spatial rift and emerged right in front of a giant metallic lion, The Clanker. The portal sealed itself to avoid the battle, leaving Leon here with the beast and a handful of other characters.

"What the f-

[Mizagium]

The very beast Perish had summoned had become Chase's greatest nightmare. Had it not been for the shield spell he had cast seconds before the great beast trapped him in it jaws, Chase would surely have been torn into shreds.

Trapped in between the beasts jaws, the beast flailed and thrashed, attempting to break Chase apart. Unsheathing and charging his energy cannon, Chase was surprised to find it emanating a faint purple light.

A cannon upgrade?

Pressing the cannon against the beast, Chase fired, unleashing a mighty beam blast that was 4x more powerful that his typical charge shot, literally vaporizing the beast's upper jaw; setting Chase free.

Landing rather violently, Chase stood up only to be hit by the beasts erratic thrashing. The pain from losing part of it's jaw had sent it into a frenzy, lashing out and knocking back Perish, Magnus, and Chase.

Try controlling it now, you arrogant old man...

[Mizagium]

Perish stood there for a moment watching her serpent wreck havoc on the place with zero care for friend or foe, altogether intrigued about her discovery and wondering if the other summons she couldn't control were like that. Granted, a few in particular would obviously be a power issue, but there were a lot in the grey area like the bone juggernaut, as it could probably function off total chaos too.

Though amongst her musings she started noticing a pattern of sorts in the bone serpent's behavior and frowned for a moment in concentration, considering she was observing something incredibly improbable.
She finally realized that mage from before was futzing with her creation.

"Hey! Get your own colossal monstrosity!" Perish called out, pouting a little as she started to think of how to foil his control.
Except she was interrupted by the very thing that held her thoughts -violently, as the mass of skeletal anatomy that made up its tail end smashed into her and sent her flying into a crowd of robots.

With a bit of a growl, Perish clambered her devilish metal-clad bulk back to her feet and stormed back to her ritual circle, taking up a sturdy stance and sending a pulse of power into the circle, changing the mass of symbols.
"How about I rewire the entropic tapestry? Have fun figuring out which buttons to press again," Perish grumbled.
The advantage of being the creator was knowing the intricate details of the magical network that kept the beast together, so it was fairly easy to isolate the bone serpent's magical construction in her mind and switch most of the necromantic energy flows around.

The serpents body composition started twisting about wildly as bones relocated, before its chaotic behavior returned with a touch more confusion due to the scrambled controls the mage possessed.

The other advantage was the serpent was already constructed so it didn't require too much effort on Perish's behalf, so she had ample time to start conjuring up a few lesser spells.
In Perish's left hand was a growing flame that showed flashes of black and other hellish colours, and in her right was a floating demonic skull being conjured out of thin air. It was probably the most amusing of the basics, as throwing fireballs and conjuring animated floating skulls were stuff apprentices would play with, but weaving the spells together caused a sentient burning missile.

She pushed the skull through the flames and sent both spells on their way, the animated, burning demon skull opened its fanged jaw and charged haphazardly for Magnus. Sentient missiles had two advantages: they chased their targets, and if at first you don't succeed...

[Mizagium]

Magnus saw the incoming missile and swore, jumping back and ducking around a corner to avoid the incoming attack. Only to barely dodge as the thing followed him around the corner, nearly taking his head off. "Damn it." he growled. "Sentient missile, huh? Two can play at that game."

He quickly summoned his mana into existence again, reforging the storm of swords, just in time to block the burning skull as it crashed against the blades.

Magnus drew on another spell and frost began to grow on his hands. Water elemental magic wasn't his specialty, but he'd be a poor mage indeed if he didn't know a few spells. He sent a wave of ice at the burning skull, burying it and then solidifying into a rock of ice that imprisoned the missile.

He could put that out of his mind, for the moment. It wasn't a permanent solution, but he had bigger worries. "Let's see how you like a taste of it!" he yelled at Perish, and sent his storm of blades howling towards the necromancer.

[Mizagium]

Perish smirked triumphantly for a moment as the mage retreated from the burning flying skull, just about to start trying to figure out the mage's technique for controlling the serpent when funny looking swords came back around the corner flying on their own accord and heading unmistakeably straight at Perish.

"Swords!?" Perish said incredulously as she raised both her hands, quickly recalling one of the basic sigils and forcing it out into the air before her in the same darkstuffs she always messed with.
A wispy black spirit burst out of the sigil like it was a gate or a window into this world and quickly zoomed over and latched onto one of the hilts of the sword.
Several others followed in quick succession to have a mass wrestle war with the animated swords.
She immediately followed it with conjuring a pair of skeletons and then conjuring her arms and armour onto them as well, taking a moment to cast a minor cantrip on hers and the skeleton's eyes to sheathe them in a frosty blue glow so you couldn't tell the difference between the three.

She put a fairly simple puppet-mimicry spell in effect on the skeletons so they'd copy her movements flawlessly.

[Mizagium]

"Thanks a lot!" Jeff hollered at Phase, his voice dripping with sarcasm. "Now what the hell am I supposed to do?" It was a rhetorical question, and he knew it, but he felt better for snapping. The grinding and whirring of the Clanker was too loud for him to think, so he had to voice his thoughts out loud just to keep them straight.

"Well...I'd say go for the head, but that seems a little more reinforced than I can handle. Esfir's got the right idea, let's try the legs."

So he grappled with the beast's undulating mechanical parts, effectively climbing down the beast's neck until he reached the left foreleg. "Here goes nothing." He raised his sword over his head and started hacking away at the joint. It was harder than he thought, since even the less-reinforced joints were still several layers thick.

"Oh, come on! WHO BUILDS SOMETHING LIKE THIS!"

The Clanker bucked back and forth across the town, flattening buildings, robots, and civilians alike. And some trees. I mean, come on. This thing is a monster. And with one eye damaged and a leg being attacked, it only got angrier.

It careened sideways in an attempt the shake Jeff off, but it crashed headlong into Perish's skeletons, taking her and Magnus with it as it skid across the battlefield. To it, there were no sides. There was only it, and enemies. And just then, it locked al three of it's functioning eyes onto two very powerful new opponents.

[Mizagium]

"Thanks a lot!" Jeff hollered at Phase, his voice dripping with sarcasm. "Now what the hell am I supposed to do?" It was a rhetorical question, and he knew it, but he felt better for snapping. The grinding and whirring of the Clanker was too loud for him to think, so he had to voice his thoughts out loud just to keep them straight.

"Well...I'd say go for the head, but that seems a little more reinforced than I can handle. Esfir's got the right idea, let's try the legs."

So he grappled with the beast's undulating mechanical parts, effectively climbing down the beast's neck until he reached the left foreleg. "Here goes nothing." He raised his sword over his head and started hacking away at the joint. It was harder than he thought, since even the less-reinforced joints were still several layers thick.

"Oh, come on! WHO BUILDS SOMETHING LIKE THIS!"

The Clanker bucked back and forth across the town, flattening buildings, robots, and civilians alike. And some trees. I mean, come on. This thing is a monster. And with one eye damaged and a leg being attacked, it only got angrier.

It careened sideways in an attempt the shake Jeff off, but it crashed headlong into Perish's skeletons, taking her and Magnus with it as it skid across the battlefield. To it, there were no sides. There was only it, and enemies. And just then, it locked al three of it's functioning eyes onto two very powerful new opponents.

[Mizagium]

Fury had been hit with a lot of different blunt objects in his time, but an alligator was a completely new one. He felt himself falling back down into the flooding buzzsaw chamber, struggling to keep his head above water, his limbs free of the spinning blades, and his entire body away from the snapping jaws of the sewer gator.

Fury was busy treading water, now over his head, and wrestling the gator when Mortlock suddenly dived down and attacked with a vengeance. It was too much for Fury. Holding the alligator in a headlock, he knocked Mortlock aside with a vicious backhand, then pried open the jaws of the gator. The toothy mouth was open just enough. Perfect.

Fury pulled a grenade out from, uh, somewhere, primed it, forced it into the gator's mouth, then quickly held the reptile's mouth shut. He maneuvered through the murky water until he was standing directly on top of the animal. He thought about making some kind of wisecrack, but he'd just as soon keep his mouth shut in this stuff.

The alligator exploded.

The animal's body and the water around them dulled the explosion just enough. Fury was sent flying free of the water, flying up through the air back to the top of the ledge. He tucked and rolled, back on the production floor. Soaking wet, sore as hell- but alive. He stood and expectantly raised his fists. He knew it'd take more than that to stop Mortlock.

[Mizagium]

Perish took a proper sword form stance in preparation, figuring she might be able to fend off those swords with some good old fashion swordplay.
"Okay, time to get-" was about all Perish managed to say before she was cleaned up by a giant metal monstrosity, her sword tumbling about in the air as its owner was taken clean away from under it and stabbing neatly in the ground upon landing.

She grumbled as she clutched onto the side of the beast that had crashed into her, finding the odd plate to jam her hands behind as she grasped the situation.
Perish was a little annoyed and punching this thing didn't seem like it was going to do anything, so she looked for the closest next best thing and found someone clinging onto the beast's leg that she didn't recognize from the King's army.

Almost carelessly, Perish socked Jeff in the face before beginning climbing up the beast onto its back and locking herself in place amongst the plates.
Stopping something this ginormous was going to need a little creativity, and creativity demanded versatility and versatility demanded blood. In Perish's case anyway...

Then again... this thing must have been sent by the King, so maybe it'd be better to just ride the storm out? But what if it annihilated both sides?
Sure, the King would hardly care that his army of robots would be killed, but this thing was just insane...

At any rate, a good old blood ritual would give her a good grasp on this whole situation as she could assist and attack the Clanker as needed.
Her concentration multiplied and all of the lost blood in a large area around the Clanker started streaming off toward the beast, worming its way up its limbs and up to Perish before spreading back out across the Clanker's hide in a whole variety of strange symbols and circles.
It'd take awhile to cover the whole thing but Perish didn't mind, as that meant it'd just make more of a mess of the Refuge and maybe provide more blood to work with.

[Mizagium]

The Clanker pitched back and forth as Perish struggled to gain control of the beast with her blood rituals. Jeff struggled to hang on while also chipping away at the leg. His face hurt from the punch, but he would live. As of that moment, he no longer knew where the battle lines were. Only that the Clanker was bad and it needed to be destroyed.

Finally, there was a deafening CRACK and the beast stumbled. The leg no longer seemed to be working; it was dead weight.

"One down...five to go. COME ON!"

The Clanker flung it's lame leg around until it could grasp it in it's deathtrap of a mouth - and tore it off. Now the beast had five legs and three eyes and was being covered in blood magic. And it continued to romp about haphazardly. Most of the robots (and the building were destroyed now). IT missteped, unused to the new distribution of weight, and crashed through (and I mean CRASHED) the manhole into the sewer area, opening a large chasm in the city.

-

Rurik watched his king for the better part of the hour as he slumped in his throne. "Sir...don't you wish to check on the battle?"

"It doesn't matter, Rurik. I sent the Clanker at them. Victory or defeat...it will make such a small difference. There will be no Heroes' Refuge left when the battle is over." He slumped even further, so that he was staring at his feet. "I should focus on consolidating the territory that I have now."

"You sent the Clanker...to destroy the village, didn't you?" Rurik understood, finally.

"It was my last shot. The Clanker is chaos. Destruction. Rage. It doesn't fight for me. It only completely destroys everything in it's path. And then it hunts. It can't be stopped. Or...maybe it can. By them." He clenched a fist and slammed it. "They're the reason why this land will never know peace. Such powers freely ranted to random people."

"Many of them have developed their talent over the course of their lives," Rurik reminded him gently.

"Indeed. But the knowledge...is dangerous. The Northyric Magister have already begun to make their move. That man...he is older than he appears, and very powerful mage."

"Is that why you sent the Clanker?" Rurik ventured. "To destroy the village so that the Magisters have no launching point?"

"Indeed, although I suppose it makes little difference. Portals can be opened anywhere there is a mage to anchor one. This...Magnus fellow appears to be that anchor. Heroes' Refuge is too close to the Chromium Tower. It went unnoticed for too long and now we may pay the price."

"But I don't understand how we missed it so completely!"

"Easy." The Mechanist King looked up with a sad smile. "Someone placed 'don't-look-at-me' runes all over the town."

[Mizagium]

Magus had managed to keep a hold on the Clanker as it took a swing at him and Perish. Holding on to the mechanical beast, however, was turning out to be a less than ideal situation.

"I think I'm gonna lose my lunch." Magnus groaned as he clung to the Clanker's back, holding on for dear life as the thing lost its balance and plunged into the sewer system.

Magnus saw his chance and leaped from the thing's back, grabbing onto the edge of the newly formed Heroe's Refuge Chasm and pulling himself up. Once safely out of the way he turned and surveyed the town.

"I know that we weren't exactly concerned with collateral damage.....but...." he didn't really need to say much else. The robot army had, by this point, been all but destroyed by either the defenders or the locals that had been firing mortars into them (also contributing the the lovely new town scenery). All in all....the main street of the town was pretty much just rubble, and there was a clear path that marked The Clanker's path through the town....not to mention the new hole in the middle of town.

"Okay...we should probably finish this up while there's still a town." he said to himself. And ending this pretty much meant finishing off the Mechanist King's agents, and The Clanker. "Right then."

Magnus returned his attention to the Clanker now thrashing around in the sewer area. He summoned his swords from where they had been...floating around somewhere. With a great heave Magnus sent them flying down at The Clanker. The hundreds of blades embedded themselves in the monster's legs. "Well, I hope there weren't too many allies on that thing." he muttered, and then snapped his fingers.

The swords began to glow blue with energy....and then exploded like miniature bombs.

[Mizagium]

The Clanker's arrival into the confrontation had been sudden and swift, throwing Chase off his guard. He was even more surprised when the ground gave way, sending the Clanker and anyone near plummeting towards the murky sewers below.

Managing to reach out a grab a kink in the giant's armor, Chase held on as the beast landed on the murky ground below, sending him flying into the water. As he arose covered in Creator knew what, he was finally able to take in the complete picture. Friend and Foe alike were attacking the Clanker, desperate to destroy it before it caused anymore harm.

So much needless destruction.

Chase knew what the Clanker was. What it had done to his King. But to unleash it on the town? The Mechanist King clearly had no intention of sparing anything, or anyone in the town. He had lied to Chase. He was alone, and he wanted to survive. Which meant slaying the Clanker.

He watched as the Clanker gnawed it's own leg, revealing it's weakness. Chase outstretched his arms, channeling mana. He looked up, noticing Magnus's magical swords flying down towards the Clanker.

Excellent.

Chase aimed and fired. The combined explosion of Magnus's swords and Chase's blast devastated the Clanker, blowing off a leg, sending the beast reeling.

[Mizagium]

The Clanker was thrashing about so much from all the attacks that Perish was having trouble holding on let alone work on the blood runes littering its body. But she persevered upon discovering the army she came with was less than that, so the Clanker was kind of the only option for success here, and it possessed enough raw power that it'd probably succeed with a bit of help.
Fortunately Perish's blood rituals had amazing versatility and she'd had the forethought to start early, as the Clanker's missing legs weren't too much of an issue.

Problem was she'd have to hijack most of the Clanker for any necromantic limbs to really work, otherwise they'd simply be deadweight too.
An idea came to mind of a soul sensory network, as surely the Clanker would be able to control any limbs she gave it awareness of, and with Perish in the network she'd probably be able to give the Clanker hints and nudges.

The elaborate tattoos of blood flashed dark purples and blacks for a moment, the symbols warping slightly to reconfigure the ritual.
First she'd need materials to reconstruct the legs, and fortunately her bone serpent was sort of kicking around, except it was literally falling apart probably due to her haphazard rewiring ruining the entropic tapestry and causing it to unravel.
Regardless, they were parts she could use especially when their entropy was spent, so Perish stretched an arm out and called to the pieces, causing the serpent to rapidly fall apart and most of its mass tumbled over to the Clanker in a tidal wave of bone.

In mere minutes her blood ritual had hooked up to the bone pieces and she finished connecting the ritual to the Clanker so it'd be able to control the legs as they assembled themselves on the blown stumps.
It wasn't long before the legs were constructed did the blood symbols trace over them and vast slabs of the same black armour that composed Perish's suit, slowly materialize over most of the Clanker.

Perish was getting pretty tired as she finally called the blood to cover herself in symbols too, hooking herself up to the Clanker.
With its legs restored and damaged sections plated over, Perish was hoping to get some rest in whilst merely guiding the Clanker's efforts more productively.
The link probably went both ways but it was doubtful the Clanker would find much use in influencing Perish, especially with her being tired.

::C'mon Clanky-boy, gotta stay mobile and make it harder for them to hit you, I can't keep reconstructing your limbs, I'm running out of juice:: Perish thought to the Clanker.

[Mizagium]

As the Clanker toppled into the sewer system, the splash it created sent waves flowing all the way across the town's sewer system towards the pipeline in the factory. Samson, still stranded in the murky waters, felt a gentle rippling, barely nudging him. The force of the waves grew stronger, and one mighty tide threw Samson high out of the water.

"Wooooah!!" he bellowed, his arms flailing as the stinking sewer waters launched him through the air towards Fury.

Samson soared clean over Fury's head, landing and bouncing off the ground behind him with a loud grunt. The tidal wave of sewer water splashed across Fury, caking him in the filthy muck. Lying beside his trusty axe, he snatched it back into his hand. Samson was back on his feet, holding his nose to peg the smell of the sewer water that soaked Fury.

"Them fancy guns of yours, they don't work too well with water do they?" he chuckled.

"Hell, my axe might even rust a little." he laughed to himself as he backed up towards a stack of logs.

Grabbing a log of wood into his free hand, Samson tossed it into the air, and in one fluid move chopped it clean in half, and batted both halves flying towards Fury with the flat of his axe. Samson turned and grabbed another log, firing projectiles one after another at his opponent.

[Mizagium]

Fury ducked, rolled unnecessarily. One of the logs passed cleanly over them. He smirked, stood back up, just in time for another thick hunk of wood to smash directly into his face. He fell, grunted as another one smashed into his ribs.

Fury finally admitted to himself that he was losing. Well, not much sense in fair play, then. He stood and fled deeper into the factory, heard the giant lumberjack pursue him.

Without much of a head start, Fury climbed a rusty ladder up to the grid of catwalks that dominated the second story of the factory. He fled, struggling to remember the place's layout.

Ah, here it was. Fury looked down in appreciation. The huge open vats, each the size of a small house. All of them containing bubbling, sickly green acid.

Fury grabbed one of the red-painted and highly explosive barrels that littered the incredibly unsafe factory, lifted it well over his head. "Time ta end dis ones and for all!" he yelled, as he heaved the barrel into a pile of other barrels stacked at the base of the tanks. Like so many other things around Fury, the barrels exploded in an impressive fireball.

The acid tanks shattered, releasing a tidal wave of hissing corrosive fluid across the floor. Though some did successfully drain into the sewers, it mostly swept out the doorways and into the streets of Heroes' Refuge, dissolving everything in its path.

Fury belatedly realized the obvious flaw in his plan as the supports for his catwalk were eaten away. It lurched, sending him tumbling over the side. He only barely managed to grab onto the railing and stop himself from tumbling into the sea of acid.

[Mizagium]

Jeffrey Valentine gave up. He had managed to hold onto the Clanker, even as Perish did her blood ritual thingie, and even as it crashed into the sewer and created a chasm which swallowed the town. But then a wave of corrosive acid washed over what remained of the town (which was little more than a few walls and some foundations) and he threw up his hands

"What the hell, guys? Why is there a chemical plant in this town? Also, where is it? I didn't see one when I got here?"

The Clanker finally accepted Perish's gift of self-awareness. It remembered the time before, when it was a mindless beast of rage. Now it could reason, could think. speech hadn't been worked out yet, but it was coming. Before, no teams existed for it, no sides, only it and the others. But now...it knew the Mechanist King as it's father, Perish, Mitch Fury, and the changing-color robot as it's allies. The others were...

A green liquid washed over it, burning through the metal. It howled in pain and fury. Metal melted wherever the acid touched. It's feet disappeared and it stumbled through, tryinf to find higher ground. IT ran horizontally to the flow, desperately scrambling for dry land.

When it found a slightly raised area that the acid hadn't touched yet, only the front right leg remained intact. The other five legs (including the bone leg) had been irreparably damaged by the acid. Part of it's face was melted away and only one eye could see clearly now. It was a horrible, twisted mockery of the beast it had once been.

Somewhere within him, pity welled up in Jeff. "Here," he muttered. "Let me." He held his sword point-down, over where the brain should be. Whatever power he had enhanced his muscles so that he jumped several feet into the air, fell, and planted the key-sword deep into the skull of the Clanker.

It struggled for a moment before relaxing and falling limp, letting out one last echoing roar - the unmistakeable sigh of relief.

"It's over," he observed. "There's no battle anymore. There's no town. I don't even know who won - him or us?" Shaking his head, he dismounted the beast, his sword disappearing and becoming an innocuous keyring once again.

"It's over guys. Let's...stop fighting. Please."

[Mizagium]

"Haha, awesome!" Leon beamed as he held the index and middle fingers of his right hand in the shape of a 'V', striking a traditional, anime style victory pose. "All in a day's work for wandering adventurer Leon," he chuckled, knowing full well that he didn't actually help slay the Clanker at all. And frankly, he preferred it that way. His smile quickly faded to a grim frown as he surveyed the town ruins around him. "How pitiable..." he sighed. "It would be a terrible waste to just leave the beast's remains lying here!"

"To the laboratory with you! WULD NAH KEST!" Leon shouted into the sky above him, calling forth a shadowy vortex that absorbed several of the unmelted scraps of metal, casting them off into some unknown dimension. "I'll save those for later! Perhaps I can make a new monster..." Leon's frown changed back into a smile once more.

[Mizagium]

"it's....over?" Magnus asked himself more than anything, not quite believing it. Honestly it had happened a lot quicker than he expected. One minute the Clanker was writhing around and the next it was just...gone. Absently Magnus noted that he would need to figure out where this apparent dimension-travelling kid had come from...and why he seemed to familiar.

"Alright then..." Magnus let out a sigh, relaxing. Sure Mitch, Perish and Chase were still there....but at this point Magnus figured they didn't care any more. "Alright guys! I guess we did it! We saved....the....town.." he trialed off, looking around and realizing that there wasn't much of a town any more. The outer building on the edge of town were still standing, but Heroe's Refuge had had a hurricane of damage cut through it. It was almost like a hollowed out fruit.

"...well damn." He cleared his throat and cupped his hands to his mouth. "Okay, who's not dead? Sound off!" he hollered. Distantly he heard three cries from a nearby artillery battery. '....holy crap, some of the mooks survived.'

[Mizagium]

The battle was indeed over. Unsure what to do, Chase reverted back to his previous standard power's. His armor the color blue once more, Chase approached the key-sword wielding young man, and bent on one knee.

"My name is Chase, loyal servant to my creator, The Mechanist King. I have failed in my duties" he paused, looking down at the floor "Do with me as you wish."

[Mizagium]

Fury, sweating, hauled himself to safety and looked over the town. The fighting seemed to have ended, with few surviving buildings- or inhabitants, for that matter. Slowly, Mitch Fury nodded to himself from his vantage point.

"I have brought peace to this town."