CHAPTER 29: CLOCK TOWER
The clock tower was empty... the entire exterior courtyard was completely empty...
Magus: What in the inferno...?
Xelloss: Could they be hiding?
Alucard: Dracula's men don't even know to stay at intelligent points and not all gang up in one easy spot. Hiding is just way too intelligent for them. Suddenly, a dark shadow was above Magus, making him look draped in omnious shadows. A second later, a new Mecha zombie was in front of them. It looked a lot like the older ones, but had wings and a tail.
Magus: What are we at now? 5174 if I remember right? Two more fell from the sky. They looked at each other for a second and attacked, each a separate foe. In a matter of seconds, Magus found himself holding off his with both his swords crossed to block his opponent's claws. The sheer power it was pushing down with made it to be beyond most others... it's true also that none of the others had never gotten so close. He barely noticed in the corner of his eye the machine's tail flying at him, it's spikes out to impale. He sidestepped, letting the thing's claws fall torwards the ground, but instead it immediately recovered and was already slashing back. Alucard's fight had begun with the same basic tactic, except that it lost it' claws when he blocked. It's tail burrowed within the stony floor and emerged with splintering effect. But Alucard cut it in half. The zombie then leapt back in the sky and dissapeared. Magus still struggled with his foe. Each blow was countered and then parried, each enemy attacked seemed planned and well thought. Magus did something real stupid there, he dropped his guard for a second and got a vicious stab in the gut for that. The zombie's claws descended for the kill, but it's head went flying and landed in a hole in the wall.
Xelloss: Well, it seems I made a hole in one...
Magus: T... hanks...
Alucard: Are you allright?
Magus: Y...eah... I've... had worst...
Alucard : Um... Your gut is coming out of your body even though your hand is trying to keep it in. And you've had worst? Are you sure you're thinking straight? ... Oh... Wait... you did get worst. Sorry.
Magus: Yeah... those zombies we... saw are equipped with... powerful AI... They managed... to memorize and counter... all my tactics... could you two... hunt them down... while I heal up?..................
Alucard: He's fainted.
Xelloss: Not quite. He's merely placed himself in suspended animation during the length of his healing spell, that way, since not having to maintain his vital functions, his energy can all go directly to fixing up that claw wound.
Alucard: Oh... You lost me way back there, but I understood the basics of it. The pair entered the clock tower and found it even more dangerous than before. Above them were gears with razor sharp sides, Pistons to squash you, electrified wires hanging loosely, countless ammounts of spikes on the walls, stupid medusa heads to thrown themselves in the spikes and no signs of any mecha zombies.
Xelloss: Well, this is a rather cheerful place to look for murderous robots, wouldn't you say?
Alucard: You've got to be kidding me... Alucard leapt to the first platform and saw one of the gears detach itself, planning on cutting him to shreads. He turned to mist and let it pass and continue it's deadly journey.
Alucard: Oh, this is going to be a pain... They progressed slowly and carefully up the dangerous clock tower. About halfay up the shaft, they noticed the spikes on the wall start to move.
Alucard: What the?
Xelloss: Well, it appears we've found our foe after all... The entire wall's spike rows started to move, get up and reveal mecha zombies 5174. In all, there were around 100 of them.
Alucard: So many of them... The air around them got heavy as the pressure rose. Everything that could move was still... And then the horde took flight, swarmign their foes in instants. Each of Alucard's swings took out around half a dozen, but he took more than a dozen wounds varying in gravity. Xeloss kept flipping in and out of the astral plain, takign out a zombie with each new appearance. After around half an hour, the horde was scrap at the bottom of the shaft, Alucard was on his knees gravely wounded and Xelloss didn't have a scratch.
Xelloss: Well, it seem that they don't fight so well in groups, do they?
Alucard: That's too bad for them...
Xelloss: Now now, let's get you haled and go get Magus...
Magus: That's a mighty fine job you two just did... Magus was on a platform above them, clapping his hands.
Alucard: How did you?
Magus: The way at the bottom was blocked by scrap metal, so I levitated to the top and came in through the window.
Alucard: Ah FUCK!! To think we risked our lives getting up here! Magus healed Alucard and they got to the top. In the next room was a giant metal armor with a sword. Magus ran to it, passed between it's legs cutting them off as he passed and watched it fall and break. The next room was a small vertical shaft leading down. After avoiding three gears, they stood beside a large metal door, no lock on it whatsoever. As thy got close, it slid up and dissappeared into the wall, letting them in a large room where one larger than normal Mecha Zombie 5171 stood.
Zombie: Welcome, murderers of my people.
Alucard: It can talk!!
Magus: Shut up! You were saying...
Zombie: Well, actually, I was goign to make a long and boring speech about how you destroyed many of my children and so on, but I'll just skip to the I'll kill you for your actions.
Magus: Fine by me... But what are you exactly?
Zombie: I am the 5170 Test type
Magus: Oh... that explains the intelligence enough for speech.
Alucard: I don't get it...
Magus: The first two, the test type and the prototype are much, MUCH stronger than the cheap replicas of 5170 and above... unlike the others, they have souls. Damn Sylansel... The robot raised it's hand and a bunch of 5174's came out of fissures in the walls.
5170: Now get ready... In seconds, all three were battle ready. Each having picked their foes.
5170: Now fight for survival! The robot's arms extended anf grappled Magus'S legs, dragging him in the air. His sword flew in an arc from the floor to the being's arm, bouncing helplessly against it.
Magus: What's this?
5170: My armor's much more advanced than the crap you've been fighting up to now... Sylansel had too many problems with us and made the other models weaker and mindless, trying to find where his mistakes were ion our design, making them a bit stronger every time, but nothing compared to us.
Magus: So it's because of you that Sylansel's been building crap?
5170: Actually, the idea of infusing souls within machines came to him much sooner, back when he was working with the Ragnarok series... Rune Reaperblade and Nether Epyon were the ones that taught him the terror of soul infusing within machines... We're nothing but his second attempts at the matter.
Magus: Hm... He concentrated a bit of power and cast a Bolt wave spell at it. Two bolts came out of his hands, spreading in size and range rapidly, envelopping the robot in it's deadly current. The shock made it let go of his prey. Magus took his sword and stabbed at the robot's pants, seeing an expression of agony on the being's face. He looked at it fall to it's knees, grabbing it's groin.
Magus: Sylansel really does make his robots anatomically correct, doesn't he? I'd say that if robots could have kids you could forget the idea... He turned and looked at how the other two were fairing. Xeloss was teleporting around, continuing to fight with his one working am, the other one having been damaged earlier in the fight. Alucard was swinging like a maniac, hacking robots to bits. He also noticed the walls were still spewing thousands of other robots.
Magus: Okay, I'd better do something about that ant colony...
"Light which burns asunder above our heads day and night
Force of nature, anger of the heavens, raging thunder
Lend me thy strength, twy power, twy might
To render my foes to smoldering piles of ashes!
Thunder C..." Magus was dragged off his feet by the robot's arm, having gotten over the pain... He noticed his mistake a bit too late, as Magus was totally upside down and looking straight at him...
Magus: "Thunder Clap!" An oval of electricity bolted out of his hands and collided straight with the Mecha Zombie's face, bursting into a tremendous lightning show. Electricity flared in every possible direction Snakes of lightnign ran arund the room, destroying every zombie that came in contact with it. The wall's zombies were retreating within the safety of the wall instead of trying their luck outside.
Alucard: Thanks... Where's Xelloss gone?
Magus: Probably to heal himself, he got quite a wound in the fight... Well, let's keep going! The room beyond was pendulumn filled. A close inspectin at what was over showed a green liquid emanating a smoke of the same color.
Magus: Uh Oh... Magus cast a light spell and sent it in the fog and it dissappeared.
Magus: Anti-magic fog... as long as we're in it, forget any type of magic, so we'll have to cross this room honestly... hope your timing's good because you do NOT want to fall... They swung from pendulumn to pendulumn for quite some time, meeting a few medusa heads ner the en d makign it hard to aim, destroy monsters, time jumps and hold the pendulumns at the same time. At the end of the hall was a large door much like the one Death was guarding. The ystarted to hear the soudn of a dragon sleeping nearby.
Alucard: Is that a good sound or not?
Magus: Well, it isn't awake, isn't it? Magus put his hand to the handle of the gate and froze...
The clock tower was empty... the entire exterior courtyard was completely empty...
Magus: What in the inferno...?
Xelloss: Could they be hiding?
Alucard: Dracula's men don't even know to stay at intelligent points and not all gang up in one easy spot. Hiding is just way too intelligent for them. Suddenly, a dark shadow was above Magus, making him look draped in omnious shadows. A second later, a new Mecha zombie was in front of them. It looked a lot like the older ones, but had wings and a tail.
Magus: What are we at now? 5174 if I remember right? Two more fell from the sky. They looked at each other for a second and attacked, each a separate foe. In a matter of seconds, Magus found himself holding off his with both his swords crossed to block his opponent's claws. The sheer power it was pushing down with made it to be beyond most others... it's true also that none of the others had never gotten so close. He barely noticed in the corner of his eye the machine's tail flying at him, it's spikes out to impale. He sidestepped, letting the thing's claws fall torwards the ground, but instead it immediately recovered and was already slashing back. Alucard's fight had begun with the same basic tactic, except that it lost it' claws when he blocked. It's tail burrowed within the stony floor and emerged with splintering effect. But Alucard cut it in half. The zombie then leapt back in the sky and dissapeared. Magus still struggled with his foe. Each blow was countered and then parried, each enemy attacked seemed planned and well thought. Magus did something real stupid there, he dropped his guard for a second and got a vicious stab in the gut for that. The zombie's claws descended for the kill, but it's head went flying and landed in a hole in the wall.
Xelloss: Well, it seems I made a hole in one...
Magus: T... hanks...
Alucard: Are you allright?
Magus: Y...eah... I've... had worst...
Alucard : Um... Your gut is coming out of your body even though your hand is trying to keep it in. And you've had worst? Are you sure you're thinking straight? ... Oh... Wait... you did get worst. Sorry.
Magus: Yeah... those zombies we... saw are equipped with... powerful AI... They managed... to memorize and counter... all my tactics... could you two... hunt them down... while I heal up?..................
Alucard: He's fainted.
Xelloss: Not quite. He's merely placed himself in suspended animation during the length of his healing spell, that way, since not having to maintain his vital functions, his energy can all go directly to fixing up that claw wound.
Alucard: Oh... You lost me way back there, but I understood the basics of it. The pair entered the clock tower and found it even more dangerous than before. Above them were gears with razor sharp sides, Pistons to squash you, electrified wires hanging loosely, countless ammounts of spikes on the walls, stupid medusa heads to thrown themselves in the spikes and no signs of any mecha zombies.
Xelloss: Well, this is a rather cheerful place to look for murderous robots, wouldn't you say?
Alucard: You've got to be kidding me... Alucard leapt to the first platform and saw one of the gears detach itself, planning on cutting him to shreads. He turned to mist and let it pass and continue it's deadly journey.
Alucard: Oh, this is going to be a pain... They progressed slowly and carefully up the dangerous clock tower. About halfay up the shaft, they noticed the spikes on the wall start to move.
Alucard: What the?
Xelloss: Well, it appears we've found our foe after all... The entire wall's spike rows started to move, get up and reveal mecha zombies 5174. In all, there were around 100 of them.
Alucard: So many of them... The air around them got heavy as the pressure rose. Everything that could move was still... And then the horde took flight, swarmign their foes in instants. Each of Alucard's swings took out around half a dozen, but he took more than a dozen wounds varying in gravity. Xeloss kept flipping in and out of the astral plain, takign out a zombie with each new appearance. After around half an hour, the horde was scrap at the bottom of the shaft, Alucard was on his knees gravely wounded and Xelloss didn't have a scratch.
Xelloss: Well, it seem that they don't fight so well in groups, do they?
Alucard: That's too bad for them...
Xelloss: Now now, let's get you haled and go get Magus...
Magus: That's a mighty fine job you two just did... Magus was on a platform above them, clapping his hands.
Alucard: How did you?
Magus: The way at the bottom was blocked by scrap metal, so I levitated to the top and came in through the window.
Alucard: Ah FUCK!! To think we risked our lives getting up here! Magus healed Alucard and they got to the top. In the next room was a giant metal armor with a sword. Magus ran to it, passed between it's legs cutting them off as he passed and watched it fall and break. The next room was a small vertical shaft leading down. After avoiding three gears, they stood beside a large metal door, no lock on it whatsoever. As thy got close, it slid up and dissappeared into the wall, letting them in a large room where one larger than normal Mecha Zombie 5171 stood.
Zombie: Welcome, murderers of my people.
Alucard: It can talk!!
Magus: Shut up! You were saying...
Zombie: Well, actually, I was goign to make a long and boring speech about how you destroyed many of my children and so on, but I'll just skip to the I'll kill you for your actions.
Magus: Fine by me... But what are you exactly?
Zombie: I am the 5170 Test type
Magus: Oh... that explains the intelligence enough for speech.
Alucard: I don't get it...
Magus: The first two, the test type and the prototype are much, MUCH stronger than the cheap replicas of 5170 and above... unlike the others, they have souls. Damn Sylansel... The robot raised it's hand and a bunch of 5174's came out of fissures in the walls.
5170: Now get ready... In seconds, all three were battle ready. Each having picked their foes.
5170: Now fight for survival! The robot's arms extended anf grappled Magus'S legs, dragging him in the air. His sword flew in an arc from the floor to the being's arm, bouncing helplessly against it.
Magus: What's this?
5170: My armor's much more advanced than the crap you've been fighting up to now... Sylansel had too many problems with us and made the other models weaker and mindless, trying to find where his mistakes were ion our design, making them a bit stronger every time, but nothing compared to us.
Magus: So it's because of you that Sylansel's been building crap?
5170: Actually, the idea of infusing souls within machines came to him much sooner, back when he was working with the Ragnarok series... Rune Reaperblade and Nether Epyon were the ones that taught him the terror of soul infusing within machines... We're nothing but his second attempts at the matter.
Magus: Hm... He concentrated a bit of power and cast a Bolt wave spell at it. Two bolts came out of his hands, spreading in size and range rapidly, envelopping the robot in it's deadly current. The shock made it let go of his prey. Magus took his sword and stabbed at the robot's pants, seeing an expression of agony on the being's face. He looked at it fall to it's knees, grabbing it's groin.
Magus: Sylansel really does make his robots anatomically correct, doesn't he? I'd say that if robots could have kids you could forget the idea... He turned and looked at how the other two were fairing. Xeloss was teleporting around, continuing to fight with his one working am, the other one having been damaged earlier in the fight. Alucard was swinging like a maniac, hacking robots to bits. He also noticed the walls were still spewing thousands of other robots.
Magus: Okay, I'd better do something about that ant colony...
"Light which burns asunder above our heads day and night
Force of nature, anger of the heavens, raging thunder
Lend me thy strength, twy power, twy might
To render my foes to smoldering piles of ashes!
Thunder C..." Magus was dragged off his feet by the robot's arm, having gotten over the pain... He noticed his mistake a bit too late, as Magus was totally upside down and looking straight at him...
Magus: "Thunder Clap!" An oval of electricity bolted out of his hands and collided straight with the Mecha Zombie's face, bursting into a tremendous lightning show. Electricity flared in every possible direction Snakes of lightnign ran arund the room, destroying every zombie that came in contact with it. The wall's zombies were retreating within the safety of the wall instead of trying their luck outside.
Alucard: Thanks... Where's Xelloss gone?
Magus: Probably to heal himself, he got quite a wound in the fight... Well, let's keep going! The room beyond was pendulumn filled. A close inspectin at what was over showed a green liquid emanating a smoke of the same color.
Magus: Uh Oh... Magus cast a light spell and sent it in the fog and it dissappeared.
Magus: Anti-magic fog... as long as we're in it, forget any type of magic, so we'll have to cross this room honestly... hope your timing's good because you do NOT want to fall... They swung from pendulumn to pendulumn for quite some time, meeting a few medusa heads ner the en d makign it hard to aim, destroy monsters, time jumps and hold the pendulumns at the same time. At the end of the hall was a large door much like the one Death was guarding. The ystarted to hear the soudn of a dragon sleeping nearby.
Alucard: Is that a good sound or not?
Magus: Well, it isn't awake, isn't it? Magus put his hand to the handle of the gate and froze...