UFF: Chapter 42 (Patreon)

<<<Author's Note: Had a bit of a time getting into the scene, before I realized there needed to be a song. So I created the song, and then the scene just flowed naturally from there. Hope you enjoy it, the song is attached and available at this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A4gCA9QI9DQ>>>>Chapter 42

The world seems too fast. I was already off due to my delayed start where I almost got overrun straight from the beginning, making this already Impossible scenario even tougher to comprehend. To make matters worse, the world  was just fast, faster than it had any right to be.

While I was moving and casting my Disruption Field spell, the mobs that would be impacted by the spell were too numerous. Fortunately, there was already a bottleneck, but that was only temporary as I was programming and rewiring the display consoles of large miner bots, larger hauler bots, that is the bots that apparently went with the miners to haul away their harvests, then finally the super small, but also important sorter bots, these are the ones that are needed to help differentiate the different types of resources that are being harvested, and clean them.

Stars for miners, squares for haulers, upside-down triangles for the gold sorters, and finally right-side-up triangles for gemstone sorters. That is what I got. I was certain that there were patterns with both the stars and squares being upside down as well, but mainly it was too much to look at, and once I had a machine open thanks to my Break In Spell, it didn’t matter what one I had, nor why. All that mattered was that my new bots were not seen as hostile by either the other rampaging machines, nor my own machines.

Still, despite my modicum of traction, I was falling behind. Or rather my mind could not keep up with the pace. That is, until I heard the distinctly subtle grinding of gears, and whirring sounds that I instantly knew.

I knew, and worse, I was the one who was out of rhythm the entire time, which seemed to be part of why I felt so slow. I wasn’t slow I just kept having to pause my beat and rhythm to match the natural cadence of combat.

Only once the mechanical gears went back to the start of their movements did I begin to mutter the lyrics to the all too familiar battle sequence.

“This Land (is mine)

I'll take it with my blood and soul

I'll take it and make it whole”

Part of my problem was that this wasn’t the normal song sung in the ancients, but rather the song that would always play when Claudia Von’Roseblade needed to lead her army into battle to unite the lands. Just hearing the song’s cadence in my head, allowed the world to slow down, just a touch. What had originally been too much to handle began to all in line.

The more I sang, the more the rhythm of the world called to me.

“[Pre Chorus 1]

I'll make my stand (for me)

I'll take this land (for mine)

This Land is mine (is mine)

[Pre Chorus 2]

You can't make me leave

As long as I believe (in myself)

Believe in this song (Believe I belong)”

After each beat and segment I would cast a spell, going in unison first with Disruption Field, followed by Break In. I’d get a moment to work, on new machine I targeted with Break In.

“This Land (is mine)

I'll take it with my blood and soul

I'll take it and make it whole”

Before I had to cast Disruption Field and the whole process over again.

[Chorus 1]

The world is dark but I am a light

I'll save the world from its plight

Perfect Disruption Field

[Chorus 2]

This land, I’ll make it mine

This land, has served the test of time

In this world, I’ve got nowhere else to go

This land is the only true home I know

Perfect Break In

This Land (is mine)

I'll take it with my blood and soul

I'll take it and make it whole

Perfect Disruption Field

[Pre Chorus 1]

I'll make my stand (for me)

I'll take this land (for mine)

This Land is mine (is mine)

Perfect Disruption Field

[Pre Chorus 2]

You can't make me leave

As long as I believe (in myself)

Believe in this song (Believe I belong)

Perfect Break In

[Chorus 1]

The world is dark but I am a light

I'll save the world from its plight

Perfect Disruption Field

[Chorus 2]

This land, I’ll make it mine

This land, has served the test of time

In this world, I’ve got nowhere else to go

This land is the only true home I know

Perfect Break In

“This Land (is mine)

I'll take it with my blood and soul

I'll take it and make it whole”

Perfect Disruption Field

That was it, the whole song, then it would repeat and loop back. Oddly enough, the double layering of Disruption Field was perfect for the swarms that would come in, the first cast would catch new waves, while the second cast would reset the previous timer on all the mobs in my area. Then I could operate and try to create the intended shape. Knowing what design was assigned to which machine was priceless as it was just a matter of me arranging the angles and edges to the correct directions. I even found that I could make the edges point whichever way I wanted, thus if I wanted a right-side up triangle, I could get one. Then if I wanted an inverted one, I could also make one. I didn’t really know how many I had converted over time. Other than the number of selectable targets began to dwindle down the longer I went.

The dwindling numbers was a good thing, as it proved my combat posture was going well. A quick glance back during the first of my back to back Disruption Fields showed that Octavia and Marie were also fine. They had debris near them, part of which was a fallen railgun, just seeing the dropped mega weapon, I felt like I could kick myself, even now the thought seemed stupid.

“De-dating,” I hiss to myself, before I begin signing the next chorus part, trying to keep with my newly found battle rhythm. A battle rhythm that perfectly tells me when to move, when to cast, and most importantly when to rest.

Fighting is exhausting, and singing probably shouldn’t help, but it oddly does. As I feel more motivated during each cycle, and I make sure to get my perfect castings off at the exact right moment, in between each stanza to make this all manageable.

I am sweating, but it is the good kind of sweating caused from a healthy workout, one where you pushed yourself to your limits and beyond.

This is where relying on my singing to keep me motivated and focused is important. As I have become accustomed to chain casting various Boost spells to help me meet my physical needs. I know for a fact I would gladly use this moment to cast a Stamina Boost, but that would be wasted due to my multiple layering casts of Disruption Field. Which would easily remove my own buffs. I even have to use my time between bursts to make sure I move back, away from my ultra-golems, lest I disrupt their own ability to react. Fortunately they are much larger, with a wider attack radius, making it so their reach is far longer than the mobs we are fighting, meaning all I have to do is keep moving back and away, and the mobs who are programmed to target the invading king will target me.

It’s going well, almost too well, which is why I can’t help but feel that I am missing something. Bad start, relentless monsters, multiple chances of friendly fire. Everything seems like it can go wrong at a moment’s notice, and we are hanging on by a hair’s breadth, but it is fantastic.

This is probably the first battle I’ve been in where I haven’t swung a weapon, as I’ve been too busy casting my Arcane Repair spells for crowd control, and then crowd domination. With my Tier 1 mastery of all Arcane Repair spells, and the natural pauses put in by the song, I am managing to keep up with this new pace. I lost a lot of my mana reserves while trying to find my rhythm, but once I did, the pace is easy.

Sing, and move to the right two, three, cast.

Sing, move to the left two, three, cast.

Sing, move and try to reprogram.

Sing move two, three, cast.

Everything goes at its pace and cadence. Then just when I have the betraying thought that we just might win, that we’ve got this, that’s when the two things happen simultaneously.

First, I feel  an intense awakening within me, as the songs I’m singing become both easier to sing. But at the same time, I felt a deep fear rising in me, as I knew this level of singing could only mean one thing. We were at the part where the lyrics would change, and we would have to finish off the waves of monsters, while simultaneously dealing with the final boss.

Rumble.

Then as if reading my mind, the world chose that exact moment to start rumbling and rolling beneath me. That’s when Marie chose that exact moment to tell me the obvious.

“Beneath you!” Marie cried out.

I almost wanted to cry out that I knew the ground was rumbling, but a quick glance over at her, showed that her eyes were glowing in that odd vision way that she sometimes got when she could predict the future.

Then for the second time this day, I found myself cursing, “frick!”

As the world chose this exact moment to royally screw me, for the land beneath my feet began to open up. Casting Disruption Field one last time, I began moving and weaving my way through the various machines. My Disruption Field was apparently powerful enough to stop the floor from splitting apart from underneath my feet, but that didn’t stop much. As I looked, I through the floor would separate in simple square like patterns, but that would have been too easy, for the floor instead went way in triangles. Sharp, jagged triangles that looked almost serrated with the way they had differing grooves and edges that threatened pain if we were to fall.

I was moving, but it was not nearly fast enough. Still, every time the floor threatened to move again, I just cast another Disruption Field, which stopped the monsters from chasing me, and from me falling through the floor.

Already, I could see that the floor didn’t care about friendly fire, as several of the robots I had been fighting or at least dealing with were already falling. For while the floors and their gears stopped them from moving, momentum and gravity still worked perfectly well, creating a number of falling hazards that I then had to jump over and around to get away.

I was busy moving, instinctively trying to get closer to Marie and Octavia, first they were closest to the two thrones that needed to be protected, which made the most sense. Also, being close to your other party members was always a smart play.

Especially as Marie chose that moment to cast her healing spells in rapid succession over me.

“High Heal,” Marie shouted, as a wave of warmth washed over me and healed my aching body. It did little to stop the boob sweat I was suffering from, but it did help in that I now noted the sweat as the most annoying part.

“Thank you!” I hiss out, missing the beat and subsequently forgetting to hit the next Disruption Field in time. Fortunately, it didn’t matter, for I was back on the last row with Marie and Octavia and we were safe.

Only to stare forward and watch in horror as two things happened simultaneously. First the floor opened up, revealing what I could only expect to be the super boss of the floor. However, the description was not lying when it said the difficulty had increased from Hard mode to Impossible mode as not one, not two, but three massive sets of glowing red eyes filled the under ground tunnel that was opening up, while simultaneously rising upwards.

There was some good news and some terrible news that happened at this time. For while the floor was opening, it was nondenominational in who it let fall down the fiery pit to the monsters that were being revealed below. Meaning that hundreds of mobs that I had only managed to stun or stop at that point were dropped, presumably removed from the field entirely.

Then the first line of trouble hit, as all of the robots that I had spent the last hour or so reprogramming, also began to fall. But no, the horror continued, for the floor kept opening, until finally all of my guardians also fell into the widening cavern.

As the massive twenty-five-foot tall ultra-golems fell, I began to see the size and scale of just how massive the not one, but three final boss monsters were as they fell down onto the face of one, only to be thrown off the way one might a wasp that got too close.

The size and scale of the monsters was massive, as the floor continued to rise up.

“Is it too late to run away?” Marie asked, seeing the sheer size of the three behemoth monsters, each of which is both a mechanical nightmare given working gears, and so large that they should almost have their own zip codes.

“Do you think we could jump it?” Octavia asked, looking at the rapidly shrinking floor that was now not one, but multiple rows apart. Each row being roughly thirty feet or more, meaning we just had to somehow jump over 100 feet.

“Even if it was possible, Lady Laurain wouldn’t still be hunted,” Marie declared, her eyes apparently seeing a bit into the future.

While they were talking, the pit below lit up, as fiery red lights began to hiss and glow, from all the awakened and moving monsters down below. Seeing them all, it looked like a scene right out of hell. One where the top three largest demons arose from the pit first, and if they didn’t somehow kill us, then all of the minor monsters that fell and somehow survived below would definitely be able to hunt our injured bodies down and kill us.

Then, an idea hits me. An idea that is so brilliantly stupid that you know it will only work, if you commit fully to it from the start.

“I think I might have something,” I state.

“You do?” Octavia asks, with a note of hope in her voice.

“Of course she does,” Marie replies with far too much confidence that I do not deserve.

“We do, but if I tell you to go, you need to move quickly, okay?” I ask, as probably the most elaborate final boss fight slowly grinds its way up. By now, the heads of the three great monsters can be seen, and they are all on large crane like necks that remind me of giraffes. That is if someone took the concept of giraffes, put fierce lizard, wolf, and snake heads on them, then had those heads designed to dig for resources.

“Okay,” Octavia responded.

“Anything,” Marie declared.

“Okay, first met me test to make sure it works, but once it does, I’m going to need you to cast your longest and most powerful regeneration life spells on me, can you promise that?” I ask, my body somehow teleporting next to Marie as I hold her hands and lock gazes with her. In this moment, I can feel our connection growing, had this been a scene with one of the love interests like Darren Drakerton, I would easily gain a full heart from the intimacy. Fortunately, it is Marie, which means she knows this is serious and that I am trusting her.

“Yes, my strongest Regeneration spells, when do you want them?” Marie asks, her eyes clearly noting that she believes in me more than I believe in myself at this moment.

“When I say go, begin casting them, layer them actually,” I say, realizing that one coating might not be enough.

“And for me?” Octavia asks.

“You have the most important job, once I drop out of sight, you grab Marie and run to shelter in the back, don’t even worry about the thrones, just get out to safety,” Octavia replies.

“Wait, we can’t—” Octavia and Marie both declare.

“It’s an order!” I demand, using my minor authority over the two of them for the first time, and hopefully not the last time.

They are quiet, as I can feel the weight and pressure of my words weighing them down. I turn before they even have a chance to break the spell.

Then getting next to the edge, I give my test. Trying out the one stupid path, that might possibly work in this ridiculous situation.

Taking a breath, I center myself then make a perfect cast.

Perfect Factory Reset.

And to my utter shock, and disbelief it works.

By casting the spell, I force the now wide opened floor to begin to close again, just as the giant heads of the three mechanical super beasts begin to appear.

“It worked,” I declare looking back at Marie and Octavia.

“It did?” They cry out in unison as the floor leading to the throne room began to close.

“Yes,” I reply. Then pausing for a second, I take a step away, following the path of the rapidly closing floor triangles with spikes. I balance my weight right on one of the spikes, as it begins to extend outward over the burning pit of red lights and violent mechanoid monsters.

“Wait, what are you doing?” Marie asks, a note of confusion filling her voice.

“I’m ending this, here and now,” I reply.

“How, what?” Marie asks, but it is already too late as the giant mechanical heads are looking over the lip of the triangles, and all are staring at me. I can already see jets of highly condensed water spraying from the snake’s mouth, while the lizard shoots flames, and the wolf just directs concussive blasts of sound. All methods of mining large stone from quarries that could be used to build magnificent structures. Just seeing their grandeur and scale let me know that the Ancients valued aesthetics and functionality.

“It’s go time,” I declare turning back to Marie, to make sure she head me. Then once I see the look of fearful recognition fill her face, I turn and don’t even look down as I close my eyes while running forward. One step, then a jump, and suddenly I am falling.

All the time I am falling, I only have one threat fill my mind, this is incredibly stupid.