The note rolled through the vault like a church bell rung underwater, rattling every loose rivet along the walkway. Ray felt it in his back teeth, a low buzz that made the pistol grip tingle against his palm.
"Please tell me that overgrown chandelier didn’t just learn the note I played," he whispered, backing up a step.
The chieftain hauled itself onto the walkway, crystal plates scraping the edge as the whole platform tilted under its weight. It stood nearly three times Ray’s height, a mountain of grey muscle armored in violet glass from collarbone to knee.
’Every manual says to aim for the soft parts, but this guy clearly skipped the soft parts at the factory.’
"Hey there, big fella," he called up at it, "is there any chance we can talk this out over a cold beer, my treat?"
The chieftain answered by tearing a length of railing loose and flinging it past his ear into the dark.
"I’ll take that as a no, then," he muttered, the wind of the throw still cold on his cheek.
’No HUD means no painted curve, which leaves the fancy bending rounds sitting this dance out.’
He put three plain rounds into its face, each one whining off the plates in a spray of violet sparks.
"Rude, those were three perfectly good bullets, you ungrateful rock pile, when I’m on a strict budget down here!"
"What’s happening down there?" Yuzu called from the hatch, her rapier a pale line against the gold glow above.
"Plan A just bounced off its face, though plan B is already warming up!" he yelled, ripping Severance off its strap.
He swept the prongs across the chieftain’s chest plate, listening for the shiver that rang sweetly on the little collars. Something answered, a deep bell note buried under the crystal, though the brute kept moving too fast to lock it.
’Close enough is a terrible rule for surgery, but it’s the only rule I have left down here.’
He squeezed the trigger, the prongs screaming as the note slammed into the chieftain’s chest to spread through every plate.
[ SEVERANCE ]
[Resonance Lock: Partial]
[1/3 Remaining]
Nothing shattered, the crystal drinking the note instead as every plate flared bright enough to turn the whole vault bruise-purple. The chieftain shook its huge head like a dog with water in its ears, then it charged straight at him.
"That was the wrong damn note, now it’s glowing brighter and extremely annoyed with me!"
"Did you just make it stronger?" she shouted down.
"I tuned it instead of breaking it, so somebody please explain who designs a gun like that!"
He backpedaled along the walkway, the planks bucking under every stride the brute took after him.
"Next time I swear I’m reading the whole manual before I—"
A fist the size of a barrel cratered the walkway where he stood, splinters spraying as he threw himself clear.
He came up behind a pillar with water streaming off his coat, the chieftain’s breath steaming around the other side. It reached around blindly for him, glass claws raking long grooves into the pillar a hand’s width from his nose.
"Peekaboo, you big ugly bastard, I see you’ve never played this game before."
’Its knees bend like anybody else’s knees, so that collar comes down to my level if I ask nicely.’
Ray dove under the next swing, rolling through violet water to slam his heel into the back of its knee.
The joint buckled, bringing the fused collar down to chest height where it glowed like an open furnace door. He drove his right fist at the seam, triggering the gauntlet a heartbeat early as the chieftain twisted aside.
The spike punched out with a crack like a mule kick, stabbing nothing but a curl of steam.
[ HARD SELL ]
[Charge Discharged]
[1/2 Remaining]
’You fired early like an absolute amateur, so the next one waits until steel is kissing crystal.’
The chieftain ripped a rusted girder from the draw-wheel frame, swinging it backhand across the walkway in a sweep. It caught Ray across the left side, two ribs cracking like snapped kindling before he slammed into the pillar.
"Aghhh, shit, that was two of my ribs, I definitely heard both of them go!" he wheezed, sliding down the pillar into the shallows.
Every breath scraped along his side like a dull saw, turning even the smallest twist into a white flash.
Above him the hatch blazed gold, claws shrieking against Yuzu’s Veil as more goblins poured in from the upper gallery.
"There are a dozen of them at the hatch, stop looking up here and kill that thing!"
"I’m working on a new plan as fast as my ribs allow... which honestly isn’t very fast!"
The Veil cracked like a dropped plate, gold shards raining down the ladder shaft as Yuzu screamed through her teeth.
He shoved himself off the pillar, "Talk to me, Yuzu, what’s happening up there?"
"The Veil broke, I’m holding the seam shut with my arm, now finish it!"
’She’s pressing her bare arm into a broken ward, giving me maybe ten seconds before she cooks.’
The chieftain lifted its head toward the ladder, sniffing at the gold light the way a bear sniffs at honey.
"Ray, it’s turning toward the—" she began, her voice cracking under the strain.
He whistled through his teeth, loud and shrill, the way he used to call cabs on a rainy Manhattan corner. The chieftain swung back toward the sound, its glass teeth grinding together as it searched the dark below for him.
"Hey, ugly, your dance partner is still down here, keep those pretty eyes on me!"
His breathing slowed to nothing, something older and colder settling in behind his eyes.
The chieftain stopped mid-step, its glass teeth parting as something animal in it found the real threat.
He pushed ten mana into the pistol, putting two infused rounds into the chieftain’s left eye mid-blink.
The eye burst in a spray of violet jelly as the chieftain reeled onto one knee, clawing at its face. Ray walked square and slow, every breath stabbing his side, the gauntlet raised like a man about to knock politely.
A claw lunged for his head, so he slipped inside it to plant the housing flat against the collar seam.
’Seat it first, then sell it, the only lesson this basement ever needed to teach me.’
"Hold very still for me, please... this only takes a moment."
He fed ten mana into the spike while steel pressed flat against crystal, then he fired.
[ HARD SELL ]
[Seated at Contact]
[Mana Fed: 10]
[0/2 Remaining]
[Mana: 30/50]
The spike went through the collar like a nail through a melon, bursting out the back of its thick neck. Every plate on its body went dark at once, the carcass toppling sideways into the sump with a long hiss.
Above, the shrieking goblins broke off together, scattering back into the gallery like puppets with their strings cut.
The vault went quiet except for dripping water, the violet glow draining from the sump one ripple at a time. Ray stood over the carcass with the gauntlet still raised, waiting through a full ten count before he trusted it.
"That ticket is closed, with a strict policy against refunds or second opinions," he said, his lopsided smile crawling back as his arm finally dropped.
Yuzu came down the ladder one-handed, her left forearm held against her ribs with its sleeve burned to the elbow. The skin beneath was blistered in an angry red stripe, the exact shape and width of the seam she held.
Ray stared at the burn, "You held a broken ward shut with your bare arm, are you completely out of your mind?"
"You took a girder to the ribs, so not one word about my judgment."
"That girder was an accident with extremely bad timing, not a decision," he grumbled, wincing as he straightened.
"Sit down, you’re breathing like a broken bellows."
"Arm first, Doc, or I’m not letting you anywhere near these ribs."
She unstopped a vial of sunleaf tincture with her teeth, "It’s a ward burn, not a blade wound, so it will scar but it won’t spread."
"Scars are just receipts, while you officially own the biggest receipt in this whole basement now."
She pressed two glowing fingers to his side, ignoring his yelp, "Two ribs cracked, not displaced, so keep your body square and stop arguing."
"Square, got it... so from now on I’m basically a very angry cupboard."
Gold light seeped from her fingers into his side, warm as bathwater, numbing the grinding edges until he could breathe. Her own arm shook the whole time she worked, though she refused to look at it until he was done.
He tore a strip from the lining of his coat, wrapping it loosely around her forearm above the blisters.
"Your knot is crooked, but it will hold until we reach clean water," she said, checking it like a clerk testing a forged coin.
"Heh, coming from you that’s practically a medal," he said, easing back against the pillar.
He thumbed the magazine free to count what the brute cost him, tapping each round with a fingertip.
[ AMMUNITION ]
[Rounds Remaining: 43]
"Five rounds, twenty mana and two ribs for one goblin, the worst exchange rate I’ve seen all week."
"You forgot to count my sleeve."
"Next time I wrestle the giant and you hold the hatch," Yuzu said, flexing her blistered fingers once.
"Deal, as long as the hatch comes with a chair."
Past the carcass a rusted door sat sunk into the far wall, its hinges crusted shut with violet scale. He tried the handle once with his good arm, feeling something on the other side pull at the water.
’The brute is down while the hatch held, leaving only one tap between us and clean water.’
Somewhere past the dead chieftain, behind that rusted door, something with pins in it went on drinking.