The last test chamber in this track, Chamber 8, showcased befitting grandeur.
It was the largest chamber in the track, and could easily fit a few houses inside. It was also more circular in design with all metal walls and ceiling, while a few observation rooms provided the main sources of light in the chamber. Once more, turrets were presented as the main obstacle with a predictable way of disposing of them utilising the Xen Relay Grenades.
However, this chamber involved a rather excentric addition: a catapult positioned on a high point in the chamber. Looking at the illustrative instructions―when I eventually got to them―I saw that they laid out a straightforward strategy: launch the primed grenade over the chamber. This test appeared focused on how strong the pull of the singularity would be on objects if it were to occur at a certain point above ground. Being that I had essentially nailed this procedure to a tee, I was confident I would be seeing the lobby at the end of the track in only a few minutes.
The setup was identical to the few previous chambers: run past the turrets' line of fire to reach the chamber's main diagnostic centrepiece. This chamber upped the difficulty considerably by including twenty turrets in total and a longer opening between me and the destination, but I was able to cheat a little bit with some sneaky shield magic that protected me from the bullet spray. I gambled that the chamber wouldn't take much notice if it truly were somehow gauging my assets like Rod suggested some time back.
After evading the turrets with little issue, I climbed to the peak of the raised area of the chamber where I found the cache of xen grenades and the adjacent catapult. The catapult itself was rather simple in design and appeared very easy to operate; the activation of the firing mechanism consisted of a big red button. I tested its functionality first by loading a piece of small debris in its basket before pushing the button, and it managed to hurdle the object high up towards the ceiling in the middle of the chamber before landing harmlessly at the other end.
Having confidence that this device was functional, I wasted no more time and initiated the experiment. Popping off the xen grenade, I hurriedly placed it in the basket as its ticker was going off and quickly pressed the button, launching the little bugger high up into the air at the ceiling above the middle of the chamber. I grabbed hold of the catapult pre-emptively before the grenade detonated, creating a massive green vortex that began to reel up all the turrets placed around the main chamber floor.
The whole test chamber was quickly emptied of all bullet-firing obstacles in a couple of seconds and the cross-dimensional vortex collapsed in on itself just a few seconds after, and the sucking wind died away along with it. The exit door on the far end of the chamber dinged a particularly enthusiastic tune as it opened up, and even hidden confetti cannons by the door fired colourful streamers all over the ascending platform the door was on. While quirky in its presentation, it felt quite disingenuous after having to face all of those life-threatening obstacles in addition to playing around with dangerous experimental housecleaning products that opened portals to another dimension.
"And that's a wrap!" Rod declared triumphantly from his cover down below, mirroring my satisfaction with my results. We were able to see each other from our positions in the chamber, so Rod was able to look up at me standing by the catapult. "Fantastic science work, kid! If we were doing a course like this down at the Enrichment Centre, you'd win a whole cake for your troubles."
"Smashing," I replied, admittingly finding the taste of cake rather appealing at the moment. Along with a hot cup of tea. That would have been lovely.
While I should have felt celebratory about finishing the last test, the green vapoury residual energy from the vortex had not faded away yet as it continued to swirl around the room. If anything, it almost looked like it was getting brighter and more intense. I had seen something similar happen in the previous test chambers; moments before Xen flora or other fragments would cross through in exchange. Something about it felt different this time, and Rod himself appeared to pick up on this as well.
"Huh. Aurora Borealis isn't starting to localise in here, is it? 'Cause let me tell you, I don't think some idiot left their oven on," Rod said, shooting me an inquisitive look around twenty feet away from where he was.
The fur on my face began to feel tingly again as the air suddenly felt electrifying, which was indicative of another cross-rip brewing like it did whenever those Xen specimens came through. This felt different, though. It felt distinctly heavy.
"I'm not sure, Rod," I said, seconds before the drifting particles began to coalesce towards the centre of the chamber like cosmic gasses forming an infant star. In an instance of pure intuition, my internal danger metre began to spike frantically as a new singularity opened up―much bigger than the previous ones containing flora among other things.
"Somethings―!"
That was all I had time to say before something crossed through to this dimension―something loud and frighteningly huge. An enormous beast twice the size of an average EarthWalker appeared out of thin air, roaring with disorientation as it crashed through the chamber floor mid-fall. The whole floor gave weight to the creature's mass and weight.
The raised platform I was on trembled violently, making me nearly lose my footing. Rod on the other hand was less than lucky. I had set him down near where the giant beast appeared, and the floor beneath him also gave way as he too rolled down into the abyss, following in the creature's wake. "London bridges faaaaalllliiiiingg!" he screamed in turmoil, breaking the max volume level on his audio output as he vanished amidst the dust and debris.
"Rod!" I exclaimed, quite literally leaping into action after him down into the dark newly made gorge. I was smart enough not to jump into the chaos without making sure there was nothing to grab onto, and the plethora of smashed pipework provided what I needed to keep myself from falling face-first into the ground―wherever it might have come up.
My staff also aided in slowing my descent by firing modest bursts of air, which allowed me to grab onto the fractured and ruined pipes and other frames destroyed by the creature's fall. And speaking of the gigantic unwitting interloper, it thankfully did not have far to fall before it landed on solid ground; about four stories. The dust was dense and suffocating, which forced me to get down to the crash site quicker to find Rod, if not to get out of the horrible dust cloud.
I was able to land on the massive rubble pile without a hitch, providing me with the opportunity to briefly glance at my new surroundings. I was once more back in the dingy bowels of the facility, but it was distinctly warmer down here than before. Internal heating must have been kept somewhere on this level if the abundance of pipework in this long but open passageway alluded to anything, lit by familiar orange ambient lighting.
"Rod!" I called out fretfully, coughing a bit from all the dust as I slid down the debris mountain. "Rod! Where are you?!"
"H… Hey! Back…here!" a familiar synthetic voice cried out amidst the rubble behind me. My ears acutely helped me locate exactly where Rod was buried underneath all that debris, so I ran over and set to work. I used my staff's confiscation beam to quickly clear chunks of metal, concrete and other crumbled wreckage before I eventually uncovered my personality core companion wedged beneath a large slab. He was very dusted and had several dents in his case and the upper part of his main core, but still quite functional as his optic spun around dizzily.
"Oh, thank goodness," I smiled, quickly kneeling before him. "Are you all right?"
"As fresh as a manure spreader," he winked assuredly (at least that's how I interpreted it with him having only one eye). Rod began to look around at the destructive mess he was lying in, spinning his spherical body around as far as he could to try and get a better look. "Holy moly, what came bringing the house down?" he shuttered in disbelief. "Boy, I haven't seen this many chunks since Bush's last banquet in Japan."
"It looks like your company's prototypes inadvertently brought back something your chambers couldn't withstand," I observed, clipping my now-retracted staff back onto my belt. "With any luck, that―"
The mountain of rubble suddenly began to convulse with tremendous force as a monstrous groan billowed somewhere underneath it. I zipped my lips and quickly snatched Rod out of the rubble and made way just in time as the rubble mountain burst from the top, sending massive chunks of debris all over as something terrible arose from underneath it. I froze where I was in horror as I caught my first clear shot of the giant―and so did Rod, whose servos fell dreadfully silent as well.
Sitting upright as rubble cascaded around its body was a beast of truly gargantuan proportions. It had a large, round upper body and sturdy trunk-like arms with massive pincers that made the air tremble as the creature swung them around in disorientation. Its squat face appeared to be towards the middle of its body with no visible neck, but it was still able to turn and look around decently, revealing huge protruding sharp teeth and a massive single yellow eye that scowled aggressively.
I backed up even further as the giant rose from the rubble pile, making the ground quake profusely as it staggered to a stand. From here I was able to see its epidermic features clearly; thick blue carapace armoured layers made up its surface area along with giant feet and legs to boot, revealing this giant to be approximately twenty feet tall, where it was also revealed to have two vestigial limbs around its crotch area. This new sewer-like section of the underground ended up being just barely high enough for it to stand―though its armoured head did cause some structural damage to the ceiling as it liberally scraped it around while trying to get its bearings, wetly snarling so loudly it made my bones rattle.
"Oooooh my…" Rod gawked in bemusement, almost like the sight of this thing was overloading his circuitry―which wouldn't have been surprising. Being in the presence of something that could easily squash you like an ant could easily take someone's breath away. It sure did so with me rather effortlessly.
The giant moaned drowsily as it became more perceived with its surroundings, gaining a steady footing that made everything around shudder with its massive volume. Its yellow eye was so bright it was actually casting faint light along the walls as it looked around. It didn't take long at all before this big boy laid his eye on me and Rod just standing there like fools.
The giant fixated on me in particular. While it didn't know what I was, I could see it didn't like me, even without my telepathy. It began to rumble coarsely as its dislike for my presence grew, making this undergrown passage system into a resounding soundstage that amplified its guttural displeasure as it fully turned around to face me.
"Say, kid, you wouldn't happen to have a stone and a shepherd's sling on hand, would you?" Rod asked, nervous but stubbornly quippy in his synthetic tone.
"Why…?" I muttered, stressing out a bit as I tentatively began stepping back, sensing rising aggression coming from this giant beast.
"I'm just saying it could be particularly useful in this situation, especially if old gooch-arms up there is a Philistine. Heh, heh…"
I began blocking Rod out as I funnelled all of my mental stamina into my telepathy, projecting a message to the giant to stay back and that we posed no threat to it. Unfortunately, either its armoured body was somehow too thick for my mind to penetrate, or it had a very unreceptive brain. Regardless, my mind tricks proved ineffective very quickly as the giant took an aggressive stomp towards me, making the whole passageway tremor as its yellow eye gradually faded into a menacing orange shade.
"O-Or…better yet," Rod stammered. "Perchance you have a―"
Rod was silenced when the giant unleashed a deafening roar as its orange eye turned a bold red, not leaving room for doubt that it intended to turn me into a skid mark on the concrete. I turned and ran down the passageway as fast as my feet could carry me while Rod literally shut himself up by clamping his shudders tightly. Aside from the few loose oil drums or the occasional smashed pallet or crate, the passageway lined with large pipes along the ceiling and walls was mostly a clear shot. A clear shot for the giant to catch me.
I didn't dare look back, but I could hear the titanic sounds of smashing and snarling as the giant pursued me, smashing its way through pipes and stomping over abandoned equipment. Right away, I began recalling vivid flashbacks of when I first encountered Klanadack: King of the RedEye tribe on Sauria. I was on a campaign alongside the EarthWalkers when I first confronted him. He settled disputes much like this chap: trying to crush me beneath its heel like a savage.
The giant created quite the destructive ruckus as it rampaged after me, hot on my tail. I found myself severely hindered as I held Rod; not necessarily in speed, but in formidability. I couldn't use my staff at all, putting me at a severe disadvantage.
As much as I didn't want to, I had to stash Rod somewhere so that I would have a greater chance at contending with this monster, and I was trying my hardest to find one amidst my sprint. Fortunately, even though the giant bore smashed through everything in its way like it was made of paper, producing gusts of sparks and flying debris all the while, the pipework along the walls and ceiling did manage to slow it down some. It must not have been able to crouch, creating the only advantage I currently had―but it wasn't going to be enough to save us.
While the giant roared in frustration over the limited clearance prohibiting its full range of motion, I finally turned the corner, where it was revealed that a loading area of some sort was within sight a good thirty yards away. A few lorries could be seen parked around that area as well. While definitely an enticing location to flee to, I knew I had to deposit Rod somewhere safe before I could properly deal with this monster, and my chance to do just that looked to have arrived much sooner than I expected.
There was a series of crawlspaces along the left wall, all of which were grated off aside from a couple. A toolbox and a blowtorch of some sort could be spotted close to the removed grate; a maintenance worker must have been in the midst of working on that space before Arbeit was abruptly vacated. Their inability to finish their project looked like it would be the break I needed at the moment.
The giant monster reared itself around the corner the moment I spotted that open shaft, though it thankfully appeared to be too encumbered by its height issues to watch me make a mad dash for the opening in the wall. I turned and fell on my bum so that I could slide right through the tight space and into a spacious vent of some sort, barely big enough to fit me and Rod, where a dim yellow service light provided generous illumination.
When I stopped sliding, I scooted back a little further before flipping myself over and covering my mouth as I watched the giant outside, where I was still able to get a relatively clear view of it. The giant apparently took notice that I vanished from its sight, and that made it roar violently in outrage. It continued stomping forward and making a mess of everything, destroying more pipes and creating more pits in the floor and walls.
It then did something I was very much not expecting to deal with. During its raging fit, its bulky pincer appendages opened up, and horrible jets of lethal blue flames spewed out from each arm, instantaneously heating the surrounding pipework to near melting point. My jaw hung open in total disbelief; this went from incredibly dangerous to abysmally unfair. I spontaneously began to miss the RedEye King now as the light caused by the jets made grated shadows dance across my muzzle.
Soon, its pincers closed up again, cancelling the flames as it continued down towards the loading area. Its aggressive stomps jostled the tools lying before my cover entrance as it trudged on past it, not suspecting a trace of our hidden presence. I still had my mouth shut as I kept a protective arm around my mechanical friend, who was now reluctantly beginning to open his shudders. He blinked them a few times as his yellow optic looked around observantly.
"Gee…by the way that guy's rocking the joint, you'd think somebody stole his singing harp," he joked before looking at me pleadingly. "We gonna get outta here before that thing sees us? Or are we going to live in here forever? Sure beats a bin full of robot parts."
"We're not getting out of here until that beast is dealt with," I declared, scooting up a little farther to where I could barely stick my head outside―making my ears as flat as possible. The giant was entering that wider loading area, continuing to be a horrific nuisance as it angrily smashed at whatever it could see. It was too much of a danger to leave unattended.
"Woah there, missy, don't tell me you're thinking about taking it on yourself," Rod reasoned, sounding genuinely concerned for an AI. "This is a classic fox hunt right here. A pyromaniac giant's fox hunt. He'll torch you up and pelt your barbecued blue hide for a hat!"
"In case you haven't noticed, I am a very different sort of fox," I reminded. "I know how and when to usurp a predator of its role. And quickly."
Turning my head back to look at Rod, I scooted him further into the vent. "You just hang tight right there, all right? I'll come back for you when the danger's clear."
Rod nodded his spherical body up and down obediently in his clamping case with a little flutter of his handlebars. "Yes ma'am. Cockroaches are always an easy crowd. One time I told them about the time a cockroach ran into my house when a snake was chasing me. He was screaming at me for help. After a moment I said, Sure, I'll help you, just let me put on my shoes first."
That wasn't a particularly clever joke, nor was it truly appropriate given the situation, but it made me smile and laugh a little in the midst of it all. It truly was the little things that often gave you the most strength when you needed it. Rod was a little thing; I had to make sure this precious little ball of bolts didn't get stepped on by that horrid beast.
"Fancy that. I too have my shoes on," I said, tapping the toe of my boot on the vent before looking out towards the loading area, where the giant was still brooding monstrously. Crawling back out into the open, I muttered to myself, "Let's see if my stomping power is up to par…"
Once out of my hidey hole, I stood and faced the loading depot. During this brief moment of a lack of total duress, I was able to see a whole slew of loading cables, chains, and other things necessary for moving cargo around dangling from the ceiling, mostly out of the giant's height. It occurred to me that an exit to the surface must have been close by if all of these lorries were down here. All the more reason to put this beast down should it escape the facility and cause chaos elsewhere.
I began to march forward towards the future battlements, equipping my staff from my belt and deploying it to full size as the gargantuan beast tried flipping over a lorry like a fitful toddler, grunting and growling like it didn't know how to do anything else. Its back was turned to me as it continued to make a mess of the place. When I entered the mouth of the main loading area, I let out a sharp whistle that I learned to mimic when watching CloudRunner commandos signal to each other when I went on sky missions with them.
It cut through the air like a fine blade, making the dense form of the giant halt abruptly. It turned its lumbering body to find me facing him off at a distance. It began to growl hatefully as its narrow yellow eye began to shine a befitting red again, trying to intimidate me by clamping its pincers. My staff's spearhead opened up, ready and willing for a little magic play as if our desires were one. I twirled my staff in my hand for a couple of seconds before crouching in a readying stance, holding my staff in both hands, pointing it directly at the giant as my tail swished in agitation.
"Cout ed, sesbheusx…" I goaded out loud in Saurian.
The giant appeared to read my verbal instigation perfectly. It roared like it just stubbed a toe before taking two grand strides forward to try and step on me, but I darted off in the other direction moments before it could make contact. What was handy about big enemies like this was that they were often slow due to all of that mass. Being a light and nimble figure like myself certainly had its benefits.
I rolled to my knees as I spewed a few precise fireballs directly at the giant's tiny face before it could even register that I moved out of the way. It grunted in annoyance, stumbling backwards into an idling trailer as it tried covering its face with its clubby arm. In a frantic act of retaliation, the giant unleashed a jet of scorching blue flames from its other arm in my direction.
I managed to leap out of the way, but the radiating heat was still quite shocking. I tumbled and rolled onto my stomach as a result, but I quickly got back up and took the assault again. The giant brushed itself off too, and was able to spot me running towards it. It snarled and was seconds away from bathing me in another jet of blue flames, but I acted quicker and gave its arm a good healthy blast of freezing magic.
The giant was utterly bewildered to see a huge wad of ice now fully encasing his arm, and it was also made heavier thanks to the added enchanted weight. While it was confused, I froze the other arm in the same way for good measure. Now left with two useless deadweights for arms, the giant could do nothing but stumble around in total confusion while I ran backwards to prep for my next tactic.
Having noted all those chains and cables hanging from the ceiling, I skipped over to the other end of the room and lassoed a conjured confiscation beam around one of the chains hanging between me and the giant. I quickly began manually reeling in my beam, though I propped my feet up against a smashed lorry, quickly intensifying the tension in my beam like stretching a tightly wound bowstring. There was a strange pseudo elasticity to the properties of this particle beam that I had discovered some time ago, and this was the first time I thought it could come in handy use.
I had to time this just right, as the monster was still trying to figure out what exactly just happened to its arms while it was staggering around obliviously. Taking the chance when it soon swayed in front of me, I jumped up, and my hastily made slingshot sent me flying fifteen miles an hour at my target seconds before I cancelled it. In that brief time, I twirled myself around, putting my feet forward and delivered a strategically devastating kick to the giant eye of this beast. The giant wailed in tremendous pain as the blow sent it stumbling backwards, and its top-heavy body inevitably came crashing down over a few parked trailers with the Arbeit Communications logo on them.
Before I could crash, I grabbed onto a loose cable after landing my kick and dangled there while I watched it fall on its back in a cloud of dust and busted metal debris. I was left a little astonished by what I just did, but I hardly had time to hang around and admire my work. I let go and delicately landed on my fours.
I was anticipating a fierce counterattack to come given this monster's sheer strength, but I didn't expect it to come in the form of kicking one of the adjacent lorries with his humongous foot with the comparable speed of a G-Z speeder. The crumbled heap tumbled straight towards me, and it would have mowed me into red and blue paste if I had not impulsively deployed a shield just half a second in time.
I got pushed and forced straight into the wall with the wreck sandwiching me in between. The shield saved my life, but it barely softened the blow. My body ached with tremendous pain, and I could hardly breathe―which was not good at all if one was panicking like I was.
Harnessing this panic for good use, I channelled it straight into my staff and used it to force the lorry off and away from me. It slid several feet away as I fell to the floor, heaving desperately for air that was now filling my lungs again. The giant appeared to be in a higher state of recovery than me because it was soon up on its stumpy feet and on its way over to mince me up.
The ground quaked tremendously as it came up to the crumpled lorry and swatted it aside with a fierce swing, which was enough to shatter the ice around its right pincer. The giant noticed this and opened it back up. It roared with a bloodcurdling vengeance, which only served to spike my panic as I saw a terrible light igniting in its arm.
In sheer desperation, I closed my eyes and held up my staff to fire back anything that I thought would help me repel what was coming―and the blast was evidently a powerful one. A sharp shriek and hefty thump followed suit, and when I opened my eyes, I saw that the giant's whole right harm had been sliced off like a wad of deli meat, and was now lying motionlessly on the ground. The giant bellowed with confusion and agony as it stumbled backwards again, looking incredibly bleary in the wounded eye like the pain made it lightheaded.
Surprisingly, I was more focused on my staff, which was now crackling with streams of familiar-looking particles―not unlike the kind of particles the emancipation grill upstairs had before I acquired it for myself. I wasn't exactly sure how these particles would work on my weapon, but the severed arm in the middle of the depot floor gave me all the assurance I needed to know how to vanquish this monster for good.
My strength seemed to rekindle at a record pace upon this discovery, which enabled me to kick off into a resounding charge at the beast. Channelling the same energy again, I managed to fire a high-intensity bolt of power straight through its left leg, slicing it off completely. The giant, missing half of its total limbs, came crashing down on its back―its once resounding roars now strained gasps as it endured pain unfathomable to it.
My motivations then radically changed as this developed. I ran right up to its side and quickly wedged my staff's spearhead straight into one of the chinks of its platted body while it was writhing convulsively on the ground. I already had a sense of how powerful my staff's newly acquired ability was capable of, and I intended to use it at its absolute max if I wanted to quickly put this beast out of its misery.
"HOKIHD KE KXO UCC-AD-EDO!" I shouted in Saurian, closing my eyes as I funnelled every last ounce of reserved strength into bathing this creature in emancipating particles from the inside out. It was now out of mercy over my survival.
I had my eyes shut and my jaws gritting so hard they hurt, but the highly lethal output I could feel was even greater. The giant screamed some more; loud and profoundly, before all of a sudden…silence. Pure, uninterrupted, deafening silence.
I breathed unsteadily as I opened my eyes, my staff still extended outward. Aside from the few loose particles flying around, there was no trace of the giant left aside from the two limbs I cleanly severed. My arms trembled as I held my staff, still breathing shakily.
Needing to settle down now that the danger was over, I closed up my staff's spearhead and trudged backwards, eventually landing my back against the wall before sliding down to where I was now sitting on the depot floor. I just laid my head back as I tried to catch my breath, letting my staff roll to my side. I sat there for a lengthy time, holding my head in exhaustion. I even ignored Rod's occasional distant cry for reassurance that I was all right.
I would return to him soon. I was just tired. Tired of all the fighting. Always returning to a fight for survival. I just wanted it all to stop.