Time paused.
“So, little one,” Finn said, directing his attention to the slowly transforming man bobbing on his cock. “What should Charlie do?”
Erwin pulled off the cock and turned eyes that were growing slitted and reptilian up at his master. No… he didn’t know why he kept thinking like that when all he was looking at was the dragon.
“Erwin… err, I think…” Erwin’s voice was higher pitched and yappy. “he maybe should distract it?”
Finn cocked a brow, an odd expression for a powerful dragon, “How have you been able to pay attention?”
“Erwin… I,” Erwin clarified, brow knitting as he wondered why he was having such difficulty talking normally, like English was his second language. “Erwin good at multi-tasking.”
Finn chuckled and pressed the kobold into a hug. “My goodness, you are simply perfect!”
Erwin squirmed, happiness blooming in his heart. Master Finn was proud of him! The man looked up, wondering why the dragon seemed taller than he had a minute ago. Was he growing larger?
“Let’s see how this plays out, then.” Finn reached out a claw and the scene resumed playing.
Erwin sniffed, his nostrils beginning to pull forwards into a snout, and dove back onto that luscious cock.
Finn chuckled and shook his head, then directed his attention back to the screen. This should be fun. He hadn’t expected the kobold to make good choices.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-==-=-=-=-=-=-==-=
The robot’s scan swept closer and closer towards the black wolf’s hiding place.
He needed to make a decision and he needed to do it now. While Charlie could hide behind the statues, he had no idea how powerful the robot’s detection capabilities were. What if it could Detect Living? Basically, heat vision. Charlie would be done for - no amount of hiding could conceal his body heat. Not without magic, anyways.
That left retreating or distracting the golem as his only two options. If he tried to slip away now, the golem might detect the movement and fire the ray. What he needed to do was at least make the robot look away for a moment.
Charlie dug a paw into his coin pouch, wincing as it clinked.
The robot, thankfully, hadn’t heard the sound.
Holding his breath and saying a silent prayer to whatever god in this world would help him, Charlie flicked the coin behind the golem.
As soon as the coin hit the ground, the golem’s head swiveled almost a full 180 degrees, giving Charlie the opening he needed to quietly slip past the hulking man and into the main chamber.
His eyes widened as he took in the scene.
It was more like a factory than a tomb or ancient ruin.
Townsfolk were entombed in metal coffins with glass lids. A spidery golem then hung those coffins up on special hooks and they were swiftly hauled to the ceiling. Then, they were moved out of the room via a system of chains, out through a hole near the top of the far wall into the next room. There were two such systems installed in the ceiling. One was directed into a hole on the other side of the wall, and likely into a separate room.
Charlie wasn’t sure what this chamber was for until he saw a spider golem pull a struggling fox woman from its gullet and place her in a coffin. She beat on the lid when it slid into place. The golem pressed a button and wisps of some white gas filled the coffin. The vixen's struggles slowed, then stopped, her head lolling into unconsciousness.
Then the golem scanned her with its eyes.
“Polymorph Potion Detected,” it said in a garbled robotic voice.
It attached a hook to the coffin that raised it up to the ceiling and sent it down the opposite system.
So, the polymorphed citizens were sent into that room on that line, while non-polymorphed townsfolk were sent down the main line, Charlie concluded.
He had questions.
For instance, why sort them? Where were they going? His knowledge of Earth told him the next rooms the coffins were sent to would likely be storage, and if the pulley system continued beyond that, processing of some kind. Processed into what?
Golems didn’t necessarily need a living master. Once you gave them an order, they would follow it. Forever. But this was an adventure, and there was always an antagonist behind everything. The warnings on the tomb had said they’d buried someone here.
Charlie guessed that person would be in a living space, which not coincidentally would also be the last room in this place. That entrance would definitely be trapped, but he was getting ahead of himself. He’d done his survey of this room, knew the foe’s number and weaknesses. Now he needed to find any traps or hazards.
Above both doors at the end of the room was an orb made out of a crystalline substance. Whenever the golems walked through said doors, the orbs scanned them in the same way the golems scanned their surroundings. It was obviously a security system of some kind.
The wolf stroked his goatee. How would he get through the scanner? It would be best not to alert the bad guy. They might be able to handle four golems, but that was a tall order. If the facility went on alert, they’d have all the golems descend upon them and that was almost certainly a party wipe.
Charlie didn’t want to die. Or, rather, he didn’t want Finn to force re-roll him. He liked his character. Even if his hand was deformed and his asshole was twitchy and might be cursed or something. This game had been fun so far and he wanted to know more about his backstory. Plus, who knows what he would end up as – Finn was definitely getting bored and he had mentioned more players, which meant he was likely already inviting their replacements over.
Charlie couldn’t wing this. He needed to survive, which meant that he needed to study the golems.
Could they kill them and then wear them? Or was there some kind of object on them that allowed them past the scanner? He wouldn’t know until they killed one and pulled it apart.
He waited for the security golem to finish its patrol, then slipped quietly back to the others.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
“And that’s basically what we’ve got going on in there.” Charlie said, detailing the situation in the chamber beyond.
The others nodded.
“My Rangers are ready. The glowing visors should be easy targets.” Oswin said confidently.
“Good. Palseks, back us up,” Charlie said, “Gregory, work with Geoffrey. You’re the front-line of defense. Veles, conserve your spells. Fire only when you are confident.”
“And you?” Veles asked.
“I’ll target them one by one and take them out. Stay away from the doors. There’s security and it starts scanning fifteen feet out.” Charlie said. “There’s no do-overs here.”
“Lead the way,” Gregory waved.
Charlie nodded, then stepped back into the ruins while the others followed a good distance behind him.
Hearing the familiar clank of metal on stone, Charlie paused, once again blending into the shadows as he waited for a security golem to walk past, then struck out with his blade with savage swiftness, aiming for the joints in its leg.
The dagger lodged into the back of the robot’s ‘knee’ and it fell over.
As soon as it went down, the others rushed in, raining blows on it. It was spectacular, the golem barely having time to react before being cut down by a rain of arrows and a drop-kick from Geoffrey. The polar bear’s kick sent the head clattering against the far wall.
There was a buzzing sound. From the end of the hallway came more metal clanking on the stone.
While the Rangers were busy reloading their crossbows, the other golems turned to face the party.
All hell broke loose.