Chapter 46.3: Moving Target

Still backing away, Ventyr kept his attention on the golem, staff raised in ready defense. Fjornsson needed time to recover himself, but Ventyr had to reach the jade—he had to. He shot glances toward the landing at the north end of the room, the handful of fighters actively engaged behind him, Crusader Yult, and then back to the golem just on the other side of the wide doorway. Earlier, it had been unable to pass through it, being too tall. Ventyr would have to take advantage of that, even if those projectile arms complicated the matter.

“Crusader Jindel,” he called, still keeping his eyes on the approaching construct.

A voice came back, but it wasn’t the crusader’s. It was Penny. “She’s a little busy at the moment, Sergeant. We all are.” The sass in her address grated.

She was right, of course, and he knew it. The two human women were fending off at least two remaining test subjects, again from opposite directions, and Minkus knelt in focus beside Scholar Yissa, probably healing her numerous injuries.

Yult still needed assistance, though.

“Can someone reach Crusader Yult?” he called at the others again.

Ventyr heard several cracks of gunfire, over a series of gurgling, animalistic cries. There was a brief respite and the scuttling of feet, before yet another explosion shattered the quiet. Something else back there cried out in pain.

“Stop throwing those!” Jindel screamed.

Penny snapped back at her, “I didn’t throw anything, OK? It was an explosive round—small, focused blast to knock that thing on its ass.” Her feet shuffled, there was another shot, and the tormented wailing stopped. “There,” she said. “Dealt with.”

There was a time the self-satisfaction in her voice would have amused Ventyr; Penny had been an entertaining friend to keep. But no, he reminded himself, she was no friend; at best she’d only ever been an acquaintance, despite his best efforts. Friends shared values and commitments, a common sense of place in the world. He and Penny shared none of those; she’d proven it. The only commitment Penny had ever made was to herself.

Ventyr felt the flames spark inside him, and he set his mind back on what had to be done. “Someone get to Crusader Yult!” he snapped.

There was a loud slam that shook the floor and rattled the glass and steel wreckage around him, something like the sound of a dolyak herd ramming into a city gate. Ventyr snapped his attention back to the golem in the doorway, only just catching the sight of it cocking back an enormous arm for another strike. He didn’t even have time to widen his eyes.

Fist up, the limb lashed forward in a tall arc that met the head of the doorway with another resounding crack. Bits of rock blew out the near side of the wall, and the steel track of the sliding door groaned as it bent. The whole structure threatened to give way, and the golem was already drawing back for another blow.

Despite himself, Ventyr froze. Why hadn’t the golem done this before? It had stood there for so long, immobile and impotent, almost afraid to touch the walls or door, and now it was suddenly prepared to obliterate the structure? What in Tyria was…

Ventyr gritted his teeth, suddenly understanding Kikka’s strange words: structural precautions, she’d said. That was it. Whatever restrictions had kept the construct from harming the labs or their equipment before, they had been removed; she’d removed them. The machine wasn’t going to stop now, quite possibly for anything. Neither, he assumed, would Kikka.

The towering golem slammed stonework again, this time squaring up and striking with both fists in an overhand smash that split huge stone blocks in two. They fell loosely to the floor.

Someone swore just feet away from him. It was Penny. Sweat ran down her face, and she breathed hard, but that didn’t stop her from taking a moment to comment on the scene. One gun-wielding hand rested lightly on her hip, and the other pointed. “Gods, what did you do to piss that thing off so much? It was leaving us alone before.”

He bit back a rebuttal, refusing to look at her. It wasn’t worth the energy. Instead he used that energy for something useful, reaching his will into the ground beneath the golem again. Wind would have little offensive benefit here, and the element of fire might prove useful eventually, but at the moment, the earth was Ventyr’s greatest weapon.

He split the ground beneath the stones again, creating another sinkhole that sucked in the construct under the force of its own weight. It dropped a few feet straight down, and he pushed out the earth behind it at the same time he levítated a single block of stonework flooring into the air and slammed it through golem’s torso, knocking it backwards into the trough he’d carved out. Groaning with the exertion, Ventyr didn’t relent, though. He took control of shattered scraps of his collapsed barrier and drove them into whatever joints he could find, a dozen slivered spikes that he drove like woodcutter’s wedges into the gaps in the golem’s armor.

They all struck, and there was a single moment of repose. He drew breath like it was his first, ever, and he stared, silently begging the Pale Mother that it had been enough. He knew it hadn’t, though. Motors were already working audibly, cracking and grinding shards of stone as the golem began to roll, like a turtle trying to right itself. 

Ventyr turned to Yult. To his surprise, Penny was already there, trying to help the huge man to his feet. Tearing a bent pauldron off his shoulder, he stretched, wincing, and something passed between them.

“Did you just say ‘rocket hands?’” Penny barked incredulously. She glanced at the grounded golem still working to right itself. “Great— just wonderful. Rocket hands and psycho magic. Why the hell can’t these asura kill us like normal people?!” She rounded back to Ventyr. “Seriously, though. Why is that thing tearing the place down now?”

He scowled openly. “Kikka disarmed some kind of damage limitations it had. Regardless, we need to move. The jade is in the central courtyard.”

Penny barked a lifeless laugh, pressing a hand to her hip. “Oh, now you want to get out of here, huh?”

“The objective hasn’t changed,” he said flatly. “Only the location.”

Impertinence returned to her face, but she was cut off by the sound of footsteps. Both of them snapped to attention.

“Enforcer,” Kikka’s shrill voice demanded, “get up!”

She was right beside her giant construct, which had nearly rolled itself over, onto its armored belly. “Get your inept body up and back in pursuit!”

Her focus moved from the turtling golem to the three people watching her, and she strode slowly, intentionally forward, all but snarling at them. She held a handgun of some type, currently aimed limply at the floor. Ventyr couldn’t say he’d seen its like before, but something about its tubular design felt familiar. Perhaps it was just the way they designed everything around here, or maybe it resembled the cylindrical shape of that jade cannon for a reason.

“You’re unexpectedly and infuriatingly capable, sylvari,” Kikka hissed over the residual crackle of equipment sparking throughout the testing chamber.

“Compliments won’t get you anywhere,” Penny snapped back.

Fjornsson grabbed his sword from the ground and cracked his neck. “You,” he growled, leveling his weapon at Kikka. “You set the thing free that took my team.”

Penny drew rounds from her belt pouch and loaded her gun. “That’s the rumor on the street, Jumbo. She leaves a lot of bodies behind her.”

“Enough. We don’t have time for this,” Ventyr demanded, still backing away from the rising golem. He looked to Penny and Yult, then to the four still engaged behind him. “Everyone to the courtyard, now!”

Penny didn’t meet his eyes, and Crusader Yult nodded to the golem, which had gotten a knee under itself and a hand wrapped around the doorframe.

“Something tells me Steelfists over there isn’t going to let us out without a fight,“ Penny said. “And I’m damned sure this little bitch isn’t. If you want to turn your back on them, be my guest, but I’m good here.”

Ventyr swallowed his indignation, saving it for later. Penny was actually right. He wanted as much support as he could get when it came to taking that load of jade, but if they all turned to leave now, they wouldn’t make it out the door.

Ventyr gritted his teeth. “Yult, can you guard our exit?”

The norn growled happily. “Yes sir.” His eyes never left the asura.

“As soon as we clear the room,” Ventyr instructed, “I want you on our heels. Do you understand?” He needed a clean exit, yes, but he still wanted the norn’s power where it mattered when it came time. He’d expected neither a rescue nor support, but now that he had them, he intended to leverage every possible ounce of it to the utmost.

“Yes, sir.” Yult nodded, his eyes still fixed on the asura.

“And me?” Penny asked, venturing a glance at him. He couldn’t tell if it was smug or genuine.

Ventyr dismissed her with a wave, turning to move. “Do what you want, Penny.” 

Kikka called something insulting at him, but he had no time for it, already dashing for the others.

Hearing coordinating talk between Yult and Penny behind him, Ventyr reached the two asura on the floor and dropped to a knee beside Minkus. “What’s her condition?”

Minkus’ eyes snapped open in surprise, and the glow of healing magic faded from his hands. He recognized Ventyr and sighed in relief. “I— oh, my ears. Apologies, Ventyr. I— well, you startled me.”

Had he missed everything that had happened? Ventyr shook the question away. It didn’t matter.

“How is she?” Ventyr repeated. “Is she ready to move?”

Minkus hemmed for a moment, glancing awkwardly between Ventyr and the scholar. “I don’t really know,” he admitted. “Her bones are set again— restitched, I think. But— well, she fell uncons—”

“Unconscious?” Yissa groaned, pressing hands back into the stone floor beneath her. She raised herself to lean against the containment cylinder at her back. “I only wish I was unconscious. Apparently the only thing more acutely excruciating than breaking a collarbone is having one healed.”

Minkus’ face fell and he scratched his ear. “It shouldn’t hurt. But— well, maybe accelerating the process—”

Ventyr broke in. “I apologize, Minkus, but I need you to get her up as quickly as you can. We’re leaving.”

Abashed, the asura hopped into action, and Ventyr rose back to his feet, something that was harder than it should have been. His knees ached with simple movement, and he felt himself quiver briefly. He had no time for the weakness, though; he was already on his way to Crusader Jindel.

Ventyr reached her just as she dug an axe into the back of a murellow cub that had latched onto her shin. It had tugged her leg out from under her, dropping her to the ground and continuing to tear at a leather boot cuff that only just protected the young woman’s flesh. She slammed the weapon into it again, and again, until finally the thing’s back split. It screamed, but returned just as quickly to its gnawing, ripping, and tugging with the half of its body that still worked. That was enough to freeze Ventyr, if only for a second.

Whatever Kikka had done to all these creatures, it had driven them so mad that pain meant nothing; they shrugged off irreversible physical damage; and perhaps strangest of all, their natural instincts for quick and efficient killing were reduced to this manic, mindless, ineffective violence. They were hardly even animals at this point. Ventyr blessed the Pale Mother, grateful he’d escaped that fate.

“The head!” Jinkke cried, suddenly entering Ventyr’s field of view. “Aim for its head. A complete halt of brain activity is the only working solution!”

Blood flew in spatters off the axe blade as Jindel continued to rain blows on the little bear, moving up the body until she finally struck the neck. The murellow wailed, its body falling away limp and leaving nothing but the head still in motion. All its sound stopped, and it fell off Jindel’s shin, jaws still chomping, wild and aimless, pushing it freakishly across the stonework floor.

Jindel pushed herself back away from the slowing dance of the cub’s severed head. “Good gods,” she swore, frantically getting to her feet.

They all watched as the head finally worked itself to a horrible stop, eyes rolling back. There was another momentary silence.

“That wasn’t exactly what I intended,” Jinkke said, still grimacing down at it. Ventyr only then noticed the steel cap on the asura’s head and the bandolier of rifle ammunition over her shoulder. It was all Vigil gear.

Before anyone could say or do anything else, Ventyr started for the door, steadying himself with his staff and actively ignoring the sticky slide of gore beneath his bare feet. “Gather your things and come with me,” he commanded.

“But sir,” Jindel questioned, slipping up beside him, “the jade? Didn’t you want—”

“It’s not here. It’s in the courtyard.” A breeze whisked impatiently toward the door. “Which of you knows the way?”

“Minkus does,” she said, keeping pace.

“Minkus,” Ventyr called over his shoulder. “Are you and Scholar Yissa ready to move?”

One of them mumbled a response in the affirmative, and despite himself, Ventyr slowed his pace long enough for the three asura to catch up. The two siblings each had an arm beneath the Scholar’s shoulders to keep her moving.

Ventyr gestured them to the front of the group, and Minkus began to lead them out. In only a minute, the sounds of conflict between the golem and their comrades died away behind them. With any luck, Fjornsson would be rejoining them soon.