The Elementals : The Dawn of Darkness

Chapter 21 - Why Won't This Stupid Thing Just Die?!

"This is not going to work," she hissed a little while later. We were crouched on opposite walkways, Incaendium in my hand and a sharpened rod of steel in Sheira's.

I glared at her, "just trust me on this."

"This isn't trust anymore, I'm following a madman into the unknown."

"Just..." I tried to think up some valid points as to why this wasn't the most stupid thing I'd ever done, but nothing came up. "Just stick to the plan."

"We're going to be eaten."

I didn't answer that, mainly because the broken bot had just come limping around the corner and also due to the fact that yes, there was a very high chance that this could go to being mopped off the floor levels of bad. But there was no time to reconsider as the automaton had just caught sight of our lure and had frozen in place. It inched forwards, examining the human sized fireball I had positioned in mid-air that Sheira had told me would release the right amount of carbon dioxide to make this madness work.

I crouched there as still as I could, but I was trembling with excitement. Would it fall for it? It had to, right? Lets just hope its as stupid as I think it is. The automaton kept staring at the fireball and for the briefest second my heart dropped as it took a few steps back from the bait, but then I felt a massive grin spread over my lips as the robot lunged forwards, clamped its jaws over the fireball and the chains we had hidden just behind it and allowed its forward momentum to rip the tops of the vats clear away.

Setting it up had been a nightmare, what with securing all the chains to the vent systems of the containers and then somehow creating a blob of fire that resembled a human being, but it was completely worth it. As soon as the containers had been breached they had started spewing gas like there was no tomorrow and as predicted it was a complete sensory overload for the automaton. It roared and screeched as it was effectively blinded and as it thrashed around we made our way to step two.

"You ready?" I yelled over the noise.

Sheira paused and then looked me dead in the eye, "as I'll ever be."

"Alright then, NOW!"

We jumped. The automatons surface didn't have many places to grip but I managed to gain a foothold on the side of it head while I saw that Sheira had landed deftly on its shoulder. It realised we were there a lot quicker than it would have liked as it went completely mental. It wasn't meant to have people on it so naturally it thought it was under attack and was now swiping wildly and shaking its whole body like a wet dog. We hung on desperately as we were thrown about like rag dolls.

Somehow I managed to crawl up to the glowing orb in its skull, keeping my own head down to avoid losing it, and repositioned myself so I could get a better angle. The orb was flaring a dangerous scarlet compared to the amber I had seen earlier which further reflected the beasts aggression. Incaendium sat comfortably in my hand, waiting for the right moment where I wasn't going to get decapitated, and raised my arm and plunged the flaming piece of iron into the orb.

The reaction was to be expected of someone that had just had a meter-long piece of metal into their head that was also on fire. It freaked out. It started thrashing and attacking more violently now, slamming its head against any surface it could find in order to try and shake us off. It didn't succeed as I pulled my sword out and once again plunged into the robots skull, but this time I was followed by Sheira's own piece of rebar. That was the final straw for the automaton as I suddenly noticed the flat side of its paw heading straight towards us.

I braced for impact and then promptly realised that we were shooting through the air like a couple of darts, and the ground was getting closer at an alarming rate. I closed my eyes, waited for the impact and then felt something loop around my ankle. What the hell? No time to think any further than that as I was suddenly yanked backwards out of the air, so we went crashing to the cold hard ground. I blinked away the stars whizzing round me and turned, dizzily to what had just grabbed us.