27 Rage (1/2)
Being the party's main line of defense, Boris moved in front of the others, shield in hand. The entrance to the building was a large set of double doors, he pushed them open quite easily. The hinges made a terrible noise as it happened. Clearly, the doors were not opened often.
With the entrance open, they all made their way inside. Unlike the laboratory Joshua had seen, this area was clearly not being maintained. There were cracks in the floor and on the wall everywhere and plants were even growing inside. This appeared to be an old entrance hall. There were broken chairs against the wall and the ruins of a counter in the middle of the room. A clerk had probably been stationed here long ago, welcoming visitors.
It didn't take long for Joshua's prediction to become true, an annoying noise started to beep in the whole place. Adding to the chant that was resonating through the whole building, there was now a whole cacophony of annoying noise causing everyone to have a cringe looking expression. Thanks to Joshua's explanations about machines, Catherine was familiar with the concept of an alarm system going off and making a lot of noise to warn people. No matter who was in here, they were clearly aware of their presence.
Ignoring the sound, Catherine scanned the room, there were several doors on the end of the room, each going in a different direction. Of course, she was hoping for a staircase going down, but due to the lack thereof, she picked the door that seemed to be the closest to Joshua's position.
As they were heading toward that door, another one suddenly opened. A large creature slowly stepped out of it. It vaguely looked humanoid, having two arms and two legs, but its body appeared to be made entirely out of stone. It had what appeared to be a face, except there were no facial features on it, no eyes, no nose, no mouth, nothing. It was roughly 3 meters in height and silently made its way toward the party, with clear hostile intentions.
Eric saw the thing walking towards them and prepared to strike. Considering the creature's body was made of stone, he doubted his fire attacks would harm it much so he tried a mental spell. He was quickly disappointed.
”This thing isn't sentient,” he told the rest.
”Destroy its head, that's where it's power source lies!” she told the rest.
Joshua's teachings didn't go to waste, she was able to recognize a power source and circuits. The creature's core was located within its head, with circuits powering the rest of its body. Therefore, as long as they got rid of its head, the thing should stop moving.
Boris didn't waste time and smashed the creature's head. Unfortunately, the electricity Joshua had added to his weapon wasn't of much help against a rocky creature. While part of the rock fissured, it wasn't enough. Lydia saw this and started to unleash a rain of explosive arrows. Those delivered a better result, fragments of rocks flew everywhere. Soon, a glowing rune became visible. Cynthia didn't waste time and smashed it with her staff. The rune was damaged and the creature started to zig-zag for a few seconds before falling over.
Everyone was relieved as they managed to dispatch the enemy pretty easily, but before they could rejoice, several other similar constructs made their entrance. Catherine bit her lip, while she was certain they could get rid of those things within a few minutes, she was worried about Joshua's well-being. He still wasn't replying to her, although the weapons were still functioning so she knew he was still fine. However, the chant was still going strong and she didn't have any time to waste.
”I'm going to go ahead, can you guys take care of those things?” she asked the team.
”Piece of cake!” Cynthia replied.
Considering the team's skill, she wasn't worried about them. She wished them luck and ran through the door she had pinpointed earlier. A construct tried to stand in her way, but Boris grabbed it with his chain and pulled it towards him. She kicked the door open and ran in the hallway that presented itself in front of her.
Using Luna, she quickly moved through several rooms, slowly building a map of the area. It seemed that the constructs were only going toward the main entrance, she didn't run into any more trouble along the way. The floor she was on was clearly in ruins, whatever was of interest here lied elsewhere. After a minute or two she finally found a staircase, going both up and down. Naturally, she went downstairs.
As she was going downwards, the chant suddenly stopped. Not knowing whether that was good news or bad news, she tried to contact Joshua again but was still met with silence. Finally reaching the lowest floor, she was on the same height as him and entered a corridor leading in his direction.