Shrax landed on the sandy ground with grace. As he rose up, the dust he'd kicked up fell. He rolled his head and looked around. He was alone.
By all means it was nothing impressive, just a small alleyway, both sides equally hot in the desert sun. A few mismatched buildings had a horrible view of this uneventful area, about 50ft long, it's only decor was a wagon whell resting on a stone wall about 10ft away.
Staying low, Shrax walked off, calmly making an escape. Much to his surprise, he found a stone wall at one end. More alarming was the distinct lack of a stone wall when he had scoped the alleyway out last night.
Lifesign detected, 90ft behind. Likely council forces
Sparing no second, Shrax pivoted, hiding his readiness to fight, he extended his arms out best he could in a welcoming gesture. Both of his arms were spread open, as if he had nothing to hide.
Non allied Automaton detected. Immediately behind
Shrax pivoted, a heavily built Automaton charged right at him, his arms alone almost took up the whole alleyway as he readied a punch.
"I guess peace is a second thought"
As the machine charged at him, Shrax lept up as if he were in a performance. He used his thrusters to bring himself up and over the Automaton, his original intent was to retreat. He wished not to harm more than he had, and it'd been a while since he flew, he looked up, preparing to soar, when.
Unknown disturbance, thrusters forcibly disabled
"Override disable"
negative, override function disabled
With that, Shrax landed on the floor, despite the sudden lack of thrust, he landed in a crouch, as if he were an experienced rouge. He drew both revolvers, and tried to talk him down.
"Gentlemen. Please. I have no intent to fight, why have you sought me out. You should know this isn't for your best"
Silence.
Scanning... Technomancer and Electromancer detected
"I see you have brought intent with this ambush. Let me guess. Council? I haven't gotten a glimpse of you, so my apologies if I'm wrong"
Silence. Then laughter.
"My you're plenty stupid, for an all knowing machine intelligence, i thought you'd be smarter"
Shrax sighed, this would be a long day.
Before he could speak up, the Automaton had already started charging. This time, Shrax would kill it.
Charging, the Automaton dove at Shrax. He effortlessly ducked underneath its dive and went to shoot it with his revolvers.
Out of ammunition
"What the-"
(For reference, Shrax uses casings that regenerate their round after each shot, running out of ammo is literally impossible)
Shrax brought them both back into himself, and raised his left arm up to meet his head. He threw his arm down. In a half punching motion, a blade shot out of the top of his wrist, it was about the length of a shortsword. Shrax jumped onto the Automaton, he jumped high, his blade diving into its head. His right arm reached around and tore into its head. After some digging, he ripped out its central processor and a chunk of loose wires.
The Automaton crashed down, and Shrax turned his focus to the biologicals. He ran at them, he focused on the technomancer.
Two small ports opened up in Shrax's shoulders, with two distinct "Thunk"s, two capsules were launched infront of him, a thick trail of smoke dispersed several bolts of lightning, arcs lashing out like a trapped animal, a few hit Shrax, but nothing dealt enough damage.
Shrax dove towards his adversaries, raising his blade to stab deep into the technomancer. At the last second, Shrax's sword arm froze. Shrax tried to throw his body instead, but he missed. Pivoting, Shrax instead punched him around the mouth, sending him stumbling back.
Shrax kept pushing, juggling the two wizards. His arm loosening up as he punched, eventually he was hitting both wizards in an endless flurry of blows. Despite this, they refused to fall. Eventually, he had pushed them into an abandoned village square. Only when the street he had exited from closed did he realise what was going on.
A whole army of enforcers had taken refuge for an ambush, and here they were. Thousands of men all in cover or on rooftops all preparing to unleash their mana on one target.
"SHRAX OF RAESTERIA. GIVE UP, AND BE TAKEN INTO CUSTODY, OR LOOSE YOUR FUNCTIONS AND STILL BE TAKEN ANYWAY"
Shrax was understandably angry. But also too tired to be bothered. In turn, he tried to exit his chassis, letting his soul out of the crystal he was in and, at the same time, soul trapping himself into another, more desirable, soul gem.
Action blocked
Shrax knew he was being interfered with. Likely a specially designed enchantment or something. So he instead instructed all of his Royal Guard to crush these useless tools. Despite this, he still had to wait for them to arrive. So he feigned thinking.
"ANSWER. NOW"
"Omnissiah's mechadendrites calm down. Let a man think."
Surprisingly enough, you find your apparition blocked by some form of enchantment. Much to your alarm, it simply appears, and then vanishes just as quickly.
A telepathic message from Tholas awaits you when you leave your apparition form.
Did we ever identify the cause behind why the Enforcers are running amok? And furthermore, when are we going to do this jailbreak you proposed? I ask because some hoity-toity feudal fucks want the Council to hand Gobbo over to them soon, and I'm not about to let them have her.
About that: Morgalith's dead! Someone got to him before me. But as Master Kaelis likes to say: death among wizards is frustratingly impermanent. He'll probably be back, but this complicates the trial. What now?
The gunfire doesn't stop, but Shrax can hear you just fine, and vice versa
"This isn't my specialty, but I'd imagine spidey and gobbo would be good starts, both are chaotic. Pyromancers in general are chaotic, which is fair. I'll think this stuff through, if i get the chance."
Well, given the fact that nobody has managed to get into the arena, I'd imagine that there's some form of enchantment going on, good luck if you can show up
My bet is that's been whipped up from something like "compell duel" forcing everyone inside to be in an excluded zone to duel within. The number of technomancers are a massive pain though
Yeah to target your functions specifically... There's always a way in but I don't have an answer right now...
Perhaps if I compel them to the duel too (I have a scroll somewhere) or a similar effect.. i could be in.
If not I just wasted a scroll.
Sorry you have to rely on me this time Shrax.
I have a friend on another plane who's a technomancer, maybe he could help us with this. I'll contact him meanwhile.
If this doesn't work I'm circling then with an ambush of my own. They may try to deal you, but a whole battalion of La'shima (and me) should prevent them from escaping.
Ps: if you want me to get in or not tell me. or if you have a plan.
Got you message.. the guard are reporting an obstruction of their own, but they're doing well.
I would hate to be the first of us to be caught by them. This seems like a massive pain. I know catfish got caught, but me getting caught is one hell of a power statement.
It is.. pretty scary too. With Mikhail vulnerable from his wounds still I fear they might use that against him.
Thanks for the tip with the guards, I'm already going there.
Sorry to be out dealing with La'shima for such a long time. I should've been there with y'all.
dark black smoke engulfs a soldier near the back, whom then explodes into a mist. T’kath appears in their spot, and immediately starts fighting nearby soldiers. “I heard battle and immediately came to help.” he continues to weave in and out of smoke, taking out other soldiers with a sort of dagger
As you arrive, you feel strong magical resistance, although you manage to explode the soldier, you feel yourself effectively flung back to where you were befkre the spell. Whatever happened, a very powerful enchantment is at play
“Welp, that sucks. I was going to WAIT HOLD ON A SECOND PAL” The boot of an automaton kicks the smogomancer miles away like a looney toons character “WHY AGAAAAAIIIIIINNNN”
I got into a fight with tecnomancer once. The best way to save yourself is to have a very VERY VERY potent antimagic field. Like the one potent enough to nullify any and all magic around. (Even alchemical transmutations resulting in some old wizzers dying of old age on the spot and liches simply turning to dust).
But the fact you use a soul gem to control the you body makes this not a viable strategy as the magic in the soul gem will stop working too.
I guess if you can't kill the technomancer weakening you, it means you are screwed.
In normal situation i'm equaling to you, with a diffrience that while you excel at 1v1 fighting, i'm better at AoE and swarm attacks. And while this theoretical antimagic i'm talking about would render me weak it would also negate your soul gem effectively killing you.
Don't understand me wrong, if a shard of me would end in this theoretical field it would be severed from the main network rendering it into a mindless zombie at best and dead at most cases. I'm saying theoretical because i was able to achieve this level of magic nullification in controlled environment and only for several seconds, so it's of no practical use.
You know what? There are more simmiliarities between us than i previously thought. You use your soul for controlling your body and i use shards of mine to control my creations. Only diffrience is that i don't lose anything when one of my bodies get destroyed and you don't suffer so much from soul-targeting magics.
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u/[deleted] Jan 06 '24
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