CHAPTER 28

CHAPTER 28

“Well, that’s new.” Johnny muttered in awe.

The wreckage still burned when the ground trembled with the mechanical beast's force and weight. Julia ran up to Johnny’s side, the battlefield sparse with opponents worth the sword in her hand. Her eyes were wide, fixed on the massive, mechanical tortoise. It was huge, larger than Johnny expected it to be and most prominent was the cannon mounted on its back.

That’ll be trouble for sure.

It moved surely but slowly, with a brutal certainty in its sway. Its eyes were an electric red, powered by unknown but powerful mechanical tech.

“What in the Radiant is that?” Julia gasped.

After a couple of steady steps the monster paused. A projection— hazy, crackling with magic— flickered into existence above its bulk. It was the goblin war chief, his bone, feather headdress was lopsided on his head and a dark aura frothed from the machined monster as he sneered down at the battlefield.

“Now…” his voice boomed, “which one of you maggots blew up my ship? If no one talks, I’ll just start blasting everyone!”

True to his word a cannon sprouted out of the machine monster's back, it quickly began to smoke, steaming in anticipation of its destructive order. Its malicious glow and heat terrified several of the alliance soldiers. But their terror seemed unnatural— forced.

Several of the extremely terrified warriors pointed straight at Johnny, “It was him! It was the Champion!” They yelled, earning scowls from Margaret hovering above them but it seemed not even her ire was more frightening than whatever the goblin chief had done to them.

“Yes, it was me!” Johnny admitted proudly, popping his head out of the Voyager and waving frantically at the goblin chief. “I destroyed your ship!”

The goblin’s projection chuckled. “See? That wasn’t so hard!” The cannon’s glowing muzzle shifted, locking onto the Voyager.

Johnny’s hands moved fast. “Hang on!” he shouted, one foot already slamming the gas as Julia hurriedly hopped in.

She cursed under her breath as Johnny drove off. “Damn Fear Aura. I hate that trick, classic Devouring Darkness.”

Johnny was a bit confused but too busy to ask any questions. He yanked the wheel and skidded into a sharp turn as the cannon fired. A beam sliced through where they’d been seconds ago, scorching the earth into a molten trench.

“Would you stay still already? Do you know how long it takes to charge this thing?!” The war chief’s projection snapped.

Johnny didn’t give him the satisfaction of a free shot. The Voyager rushed through the rough terrain, carefully avoiding slow and injured Alliance warriors who watched in awe and confusion.

“Gotta put distance between us and the others,” Johnny said, speeding away from HQ. “If he’s after me then there’s no point to get everyone else in the crossfire.”

Another blast lit up the edge of the horizon behind them, trembling the earth and sending debris raining across as the machine came charging through. “Albert!” Johnny barked, knuckling white around the steering. “Lock missiles onto that thing’s cannon and fire!”

He watched the imposing machine rumble through the savanna, seemingly having no trouble keeping up with the Voyager. Johnny gritted his teeth as the weapons atop the Voyager whirred into position.

“Target acquired.” Albert chimed. Twin rockets launched from the top of the Voyager, smoke spiraling behind them as they flew, covering the ground between them and the charging goblin chief in moments.

One slammed into the target, exploding against the silver sheen armour. But the other barely touched the thing before being repelled by a magical barrier, flung out to the side where it exploded harmlessly in the air.

“Of course, it’s warded.” Johnny muttered. “Maybe some Radiance would’ve helped…”

He shook his head and gave Albert new orders. “Redirect power from non-essential systems to the Creation Core, we need more missiles now!”

“Johnny, all power is being used by the propulsion systems as you—”

“Then take it out of there and make me some more missiles, Albert! Quick!”

“Understood.”

Julia’s bracelet buzzed and crackled again, Cameron’s now familiar voice came through. “Julia? Come in!”

“I’m here! Still with Johnny, we’re leading the final threat away from HQ!” Julia said, grunting at Johnny’s reckless yet precise driving. The chief’s mechanical beast hadn’t run out of power one bit and screeching beams of heat scorched the earth as they fled forward.

“It’s Korby!” Cameron said. “He broke out again. Couldn’t stop him, he’s on the manaboard and outpaced us all with it. He’s heading your way!”

“Ah…of course he is.” Julia groaned, holding on to the handlebars as an errant, a waning blast rocked the bottom of the Voyager.

Johnny grunted and bothered to look over. “Korby’s the tech-head, right?”

“Yeah, don’t let his antics fool you, he’s dangerous when he chooses to be and right now…seems like he wants to be.”

“Two more missiles are ready for fire, Johnny.” Albert chimed.

“Finally!” Johnny cheered, his hands glowed with a Radiance he hoped would make its way into the missiles. “Time to take the fight back.”

He swung the Voyager around, so they stopped fleeing, the missiles whirred into position atop the roof as they came face to face with the charging behemoth— and just in time to watch it get struck.

A blinding beam of blue energy slammed into the mechanical tortoise’s shoulder. The weapons hoisted upon it burst into explosive flames as the monster teetered over on its side. The chief goblin’s holographic projection fizzled and vanished.

“Sorry I’m late, Julia!” A bright voice called over Julia’s bracelet.

She groaned, burying her face in her hands. “Of course it’s you.”

Korby laughed. “Good to see you too! You’ve got to admit, that was one hell of an entrance. Did you like it?”

“You’re a risk to everyone when left alone,” Julia snapped at her bracelet. “We don’t have the resources for your little experiments, Korby!”

“Hey, risks bring rewards,” Korby chirped. “Speaking of, check out the new upgrades. My mana rifle absorbs ambient energy. Now it really packs a punch!”

Another searing beam blasted into the metallic tortoise as it started to power up again, clambering up on its feet. The goblin chief yelled as his machine stumbled, “Damn you pale skinned fiends!”

He released a scattered blast of his cannon, sending a heated beam scouring over the air where Johnny drove through, barely making it free.

“Watch how you aim, Korby!” Julia yelled into her bracelet, watching the tortoise collapse with a thunderous quake and a blanket of dirt and dust.

Johnny drove towards it carefully; there was no certainty of something as large and advanced as that machine was fully destroyed yet.

As they approached Johnny caught a figure flying around the settling dust of the machine. The figure caught sight of them and headed their way. In seconds Johnny could make them out; a red-furred five-tailed fox demi-human hovering on a blue glowing manaboard. He cradled a massive white-gold rifle that looked like it belonged on a battleship rather than in someone’s bare hands.

Johnny blinked at Julia, “I guess…that’s Korby?”

She shrugged, her face scrunched up like giving a full explanation would take long and birth even more questions. Johnny sighed and gave Albert the order. “Fire the missiles now, Albert.”

“Radiant-enhanced warheads launched.” Albert affirmed.

The radiant-infused missiles spiraled through the sky and slammed into the mechanical tortoises toppled back, blowing the cannon clean off. Fires erupted across its hull as the goblin chief’s rage echoed from within.

Yet, that didn’t seem to be the end of this threat. The machine began to shift, to segment. Pieces of it aflame unraveled themselves into one another in a repeated and programmed process that quickly saw hundreds of smaller automatons forged on the spot. Each of them bore the scars and dents of the attacks their previous form had weathered but all were as large as a wolf. Like wolves they wasted no time chasing their prey.

“Oh crap.” Johnny hissed.” Albert…uh, freaking unleash everything!”

Gunfire roared from the Voyager as Albert did just that. Ammunition rolled free over the top, pouring down the windows like raindrops. Julia wound down a window and vaulted out, a shimmer of Radiance summoned her bow to her hand.

“Hey! What the heck happened here?” Johnny heard Margaret call, just before she slammed her two-handed hammer into the head of one automaton. Radiant flames curled around it and as she flew away to the next victim the last exploded in a heap of flames.

“Protect Johnny!” Julia shouted, her arrows spearing through the incoming automatons as fast as Albert’s free gunfire.

Margaret spun into the fray, her grin wide and free as she swung her hammer freely into the crowds of metal automatons. “Time to SPLATTER!”

“Johnny!” Albert was alarmed. “The core can’t keep up with the demand. At this rate the core will be forced into an emergency shutdown—”

Bang!

A shiver ran through Johnny at the sound of the core exploding in the back. An electric smoke wafted into the car as the Voyager began to stall and slow. Hacking and coughing Johnny didn’t stop, he’d ensured that when Cole Mcdaris was designing the Voyager there was provision to manually restore power to the reactor, at least enough to keep it moving at nominal speeds.

“Protect the Champion!” Julia roared as she leapt off the Voyager and into the fray of battle. Her arrows flew freely as Margaret bashed and busted automatons left and right.

Korby launched from his board, flipping mid-air and releasing another barrage. Radiant blades extended from his sleeves as he twirled through the chaos, laughing wildly.

The automations swarmed—then shifted attention toward him.

“Oh, now you want to play?” Korby shouted. “Let’s dance!”

Johnny popped open a compartment on the dashboard, lifting up Albert’s fancy display to reach in and pull the releases he needed. The Voyager roared to new, albeit temporary life as soon as he did.

He hit the gas and surged forward, by the sound of Albert’s gunfire it was obvious the Creation Core was busted too and they were running out of bullets.

Might just have to take the fight to them. Johnny tossed that thought aside as he saw Margaret and Julia dive away to safety. Korby’s radiant-lance shots came too close, exploding and dissolving the metal of the automatons with ease.

“Hey! Watch where you aim that thing!” Margaret and Julia screamed at him.

Johnny stopped beside them and yelled, “You two get in here, now!”

“No can do!” Julia called. “Korby’s shots are too strong, even we’re not immune to radiant fire if it's been souped up by him.”

As if on cue, one of Korby’s shots careened toward the Voyager.

“Johnny!” Julia screamed.

He ducked. The beam scorched the door, heat curling the metal. Smoke filled the cabin. His hair sizzled from the proximity.

Then the passenger door creaked open and Julia crawled in. “Johnny! Are you hurt?”

Johnny groaned. The battlefield had gone silent, save the soft crackling of flames and Margaret smashing fallen automatons. All enemies had been neutralized.

He stood up and rubbed his head. “Yeah, I’m fine. Can’t say much about the Voyager though.” He muttered, looking at the once brand, spanking new vehicle. It was a smoking heap of burnt and twisted metal, the most important bits of it. “Dimensional and Creation Core are toast for sure…and there’s no way of fixing either.”

Julia laid a comforting hand on his shoulder. “I’m going to inspect whatever’s left of that machine…it wasn’t normal, not even by our standards.”

Johnny nodded, it had managed to transform from a flying ship to a hounding battle tortoise and then into an army of automatons. If Korby and the Wardens weren’t present Johnny had doubted the regular Alliance warriors could take it on.

“You should check after that goblin chief.” Johnny said. “It was only a hologram but…he might have been inside one of the machines.”

Julia nodded in agreement. “As for your vehicle problem. Korby can help you later. He may be idiotic at times, but he is very reliable.”

Johnny snorted. “You’re leaving me with the fox? Well, I guess he did prove his worth.”

Julia smiled and pinched his cheek as she backed out of the Voyager. “I’ll leave you with Margaret while I figure things out.”

He quietly watched her walk away, his thoughts were far from Nsukka or the Alliance. He’d broken his only way back home, possibly permanently judging by the smell.

“God, things are really up shit creek.”