Free Web NovelChapter 92: Run Through
Floor 6 was a labyrinth of active machinery, and the Nemesis Court had twisted it into a slaughterhouse.
Stamping presses slammed down with enough hydraulic force to flatten reinforced steel, their safety governors completely stripped. Rerouted welding arms swung in erratic, unpredictable arcs, their tips glowing white-hot. Massive conveyor belts roared along the grated floor—some carrying half-finished constructs, others running in reverse, waiting to drag an unwary Climber into a grinding mess of exposed gears. The air was a suffocating soup of vaporized oil, ozone, and the metallic tang of melting iron.
Nathan’s [Hunter’s Insight] painted the chamber in overlapping layers of crimson threat-markers. The sabotage was obvious once you knew how to look. Wires had been forcefully yanked from control panels and spliced. Steam vents that were supposed to clear the ceiling had been angled downward at head-height. The Court had been here, and they had left their signature on every inch of the floor.
"Stay close," Nathan ordered, his voice tight. "Step exactly where I step. The floor is rigged."
"How much of it?" Garrett asked, Volcan held at the ready, the mace casting a faint orange glow in the gloom.
"Enough to kill a party without an Insight skill," Nathan muttered, carefully stepping over a raised pressure plate that would have triggered a horizontal welding arm. "And maybe enough to kill one that does."
Steam Sentinels began pulling themselves from the inactive machinery, their shoulder vents already hissing with scalding vapor. Scuttling beneath them on the conveyor belts came the Iron Crawlers, their torch-mandibles blazing to life.
The party fell into a methodical, grueling rhythm. Mirko’s [Impenetrable Fortress] acted as a mobile blast shield against the vapor cones. Dillon’s [Thunder Edge] fried the delicate circuitry of the Crawlers, while Garrett used Volcan to cave in the Sentinels’ armored plating.
But Nathan could feel the strain settling into his bones. His mana reserves were dipping dangerously fast. The [Focus Shot] he had used to execute the Forge Warden on Floor 4 had taken a massive toll, and the Leyline Ring was growing uncomfortably hot against his finger as it desperately tried to replenish his energy. Keeping [Hunter’s Insight] active in an environment this saturated with traps was pushing him to the absolute edge.
F-Rank aptitude, he reminded himself bitterly. Even with the ring artificially bumping him up to an effective E-Rank, the sheer density of a High Class Tower was starting to expose his natural ceiling.
He drew back Moonlight, firing a [Mana Arrow] cleanly through a Sentinel’s exposed chest grate. The construct collapsed in a shower of sparks, but the draw pulled at Nathan’s core like a physical weight. He would need to be much more conservative if they were going to survive the boss.
[Floor 6 Cleared!]
Floor 7 was not a labyrinth. It was a single, cavernous chamber dominated by the assembly line itself.
It stretched wall-to-wall, a churning, deafening monster of industry. Stamping presses and welding arms worked in terrifying harmony. Every few seconds, a fresh Iron Crawler rolled off the end of the line, its metal chassis gleaming with fresh oil. Steam Sentinels lumbered behind them in staggered waves. The room wasn’t just defending itself; it was actively manufacturing an army.
"The central furnace!" Elise shouted over the mechanical roar, pointing her staff toward the heart of the chamber. A massive structure of black iron and molten orange fire stood at the epicenter of the chaos. "It’s powering the line! Break the furnace, and the constructs die on the belt!"
"Then we cut the head off," Nathan commanded. "Mirko, take the Golem and crack that furnace. Garrett, Red—hold the line against the swarm. Dillon, Kuro—sever the power conduits. I’ve got overwatch!"
The party splintered.
Elise’s Frost Golem charged straight up the middle, its crystalline body reflecting the hellish orange glow of the room. Mirko ran in its wake, [Impenetrable Fortress] flaring to deflect a hail of welding sparks and steam jets. Behind them, Elise raised her staff, sending a volley of compressed [Mana Bolts] that detonated against the furnace’s thick iron shell, violently rattling the metal.
The assembly line immediately responded to the threat.
Constructs flooded off the belts in a tidal wave of snapping torches and hissing vapor. Garrett and Red met them head-on. The Mad-Sheep lowered its armored head and crashed into the vanguard, while Garrett stepped into a brutal, sweeping arc with Volcan. The mace’s thermal pulse flash-melted a cluster of Crawlers into a puddle of slag. When a Sentinel tried to flank them, Red caught it on its horns, allowing Garrett to deliver a crushing [Impact Strike] directly to its chest grate. They formed an unbreakable wall of crimson wool and volcanic fury.
At the center of the room, the Frost Golem reached the furnace. It slammed its crystalline fists into the iron shell, the extreme cold forcing the heated metal to contract and warp. Mirko followed instantly with an [Aegis Strike]. The pent-up kinetic shockwave slammed into the brittle metal, shattering the outer casing.
Dillon and Kuro moved like ghosts through the chaos. [Flash Step] carried Dillon to the primary control panels. With a crackle of blue-white lightning, his katana severed the thick wiring bundles, frying the regulators. A moment later, Kuro dropped from the shadows above, driving her daggers cleanly into the exposed power conduits feeding the belts.
The furnace let out a groaning, metallic shriek. Orange fire vented violently from the cracks Elise and Mirko had made, and then the core simply gave out.
The assembly line seized. The stamping presses froze mid-strike. The welding arms went dark. Deprived of their power grid, the hundreds of constructs pouring off the belts simply powered down, collapsing into heaps of inert scrap.
[Floor 7 Cleared!]
Floor 8 was supposed to be a standard gauntlet—a straightforward test of endurance before the boss room.
The Nemesis Court had turned it into a meat grinder.
Traps triggered with absolutely no rhythm or reason. Steam vents violently ruptured from the floorboards without warning. Conveyor belts reversed direction mid-stride, attempting to throw the party into the grinding gears of adjacent machinery. The remaining constructs didn’t attack in coordinated waves; they swarmed like desperate, cornered animals.
Mirko gritted her teeth as her shield absorbed a blast of superheated steam from a rigged floor tile. "This is completely devoid of honor! A Tower is supposed to test our mettle, not our luck! This is merely... tedious!"
"Tedious can still melt the flesh off your bones!" Garrett roared back, bringing Volcan down on a Crawler that had literally dropped from the ceiling. "Keep your eyes up!"
Elise threw up a [Mana Shield] just in time to deflect a welding arm that had been wired to swing backward. Dillon used [Flash Step] to blink across a section of grating that abruptly gave way beneath his boots. Nathan didn’t say a word. His [Hunter’s Insight] was pushed to the absolute brink, tracking the chaotic, tampered mechanisms while mapping the constructs’ erratic movements. The Leyline Ring felt like a brand against his skin.
Near the exit portal, Kuro paused. She pointed a dagger at a heavy iron control panel.
Someone had used a blade to carve a jagged, crude message directly into the metal: TURN BACK. THE IRON HORDE IS NOT YOUR CONCERN. — THE COURT.
Nathan read it, his chest heaving as he caught his breath. "They’re trying to scare us off. Which means we’re getting close to whatever it is they’re using these Towers for."
"Or it’s just psychological warfare," Dillon said, wiping a mixture of sweat and grease from his forehead. "Make us second-guess every step."
"It doesn’t matter," Nathan said, pulling his bow string taut. "We aren’t stopping. Clear the room."
By the time the final construct fell and the portal to Floor 9 stabilized, the party was battered, bruised, and running on fumes. But they were alive.
[Floor 8 Cleared!]
