Chapter 503, Section 502: Ancient War Puppet
The underground ruins, silent for countless years, have become lively again.
Torin and Glenn dragged the lizardman into a relatively intact domed building, while the Frost Spirits chasing after them multiplied from one to a group.
The two dwarfs struggled to hold back the rusty bronze door, using their shoulders to push the door panels shut slowly.
The door hinges emitted a piercing groan, and several broken metal parts crumbled in the process.
Glenn looked at the dilapidated base of the door hinge, where most of the parts were missing.
"This door probably won't hold for much longer." He then turned to the lizardman, "Baroque, are you alright?"
The lizardman was dragged along the way, looking extremely miserable, with a lot of scales falling off half of his body.
He grinned and said, "I knew it! Was it possible that I just lost my tail and could still run on my own...?"
"..."
“Ha…haha,” Grlum awkwardly patted the lizardman’s uninjured shoulder and helped him up. “It was an emergency, don’t worry about the details…”
A heavy thud suddenly came from outside the door, and the bronze door trembled as green rust fell from it.
Tolin looked around: "It seems like there's no other way out."
Glenn pointed to the spiraling stone steps leading deeper into the hall: "Then we'll have to go deeper in to see."
The interior space is more spacious than expected.
Towering furnaces are scattered throughout the hall, rusted conveyor chains hang from the dome, and some walls even retain dark marks from smoke and fire.
“I never knew there were dwarven cities beneath the North!” Baroque exclaimed in surprise, enduring the pain.
"Don't tell me you don't know, even I, a dwarf, don't know!" Torin excitedly wandered among the furnaces, feeling as if he were discovering history.
Glenn kicked away a piece of metal at his feet: "This looks like a forging workshop, but it doesn't seem to be forging weapons or armor..."
Knock knock—
The banging on the door continued.
"Torin, stop thinking about those antiques!" Glenn shouted to the crouching figure in the distance. "We need to find a sturdy room to hide in and wait for Fungus Castle's rescue!"
"Come and see, look what I found!" Tolin's excited voice came from behind a blast furnace.
“Everyone says we need to hurry…” Glenn wanted to scold his companion for not being able to distinguish between what was important and what was urgent, but when he walked around the furnace and saw the scene in front of him, all the words got stuck in his throat.
On the broken base, the remains of a metal object lay silently.
The humanoid upper body was covered in dark rust, and the ends of its arms were vicious claws and rotating serrations.
Despite its incomplete state, one can still imagine its destructive power when it was intact.
Most importantly, a magic crystal is embedded in the chest of this metal puppet. Although its luster is dim, it still maintains a complete prism shape.
"A metal doll, what's so special about that?" Baroque asked, puzzled.
“This is a battle puppet?” Grum leaned forward in disbelief. “But it’s completely different from the ones I’ve seen with the Deepforge clan…”
“Magic crystal driven, what else could it be but a battle puppet! This is an ancient battle puppet forging workshop!” Torin excitedly stroked the patterns on the metal shell, his voice trembling.
The art of war puppetry is almost lost.
The Deepforge clan still has a number of war puppets, but these are all as trump cards; once they're destroyed, they're gone forever.
Although the profession of "Puppet Master" is still preserved in the Dwarven Heritage Hall, the current craftsmen can only create low-level puppets for moving stones at most.
The one Torin found, judging from its intricate joint structure and menacing weaponry, was clearly a true war machine.
Grumman snapped out of his shock: "It is indeed an amazing discovery, but escaping is the priority now!"
The loud crash of the gate being smashed echoed from where they came from, and Torin could only reluctantly follow it deeper into the interior.
They traveled through several areas, but found no suitable place to hide.
Finally, they entered a huge warehouse filled with hundreds of identical metal war puppets, like a sleeping steel legion.
However, these once mighty war machines are now rusted and corroded.
Worst of all, the massive gate at the warehouse entrance had long since collapsed and was no longer a viable barrier against the pursuing Han Ling.
"It's all over..." Baroque collapsed to the ground, utterly helpless.
Grimes then broke off a rusty, serrated arm from a war puppet, preparing for a desperate last stand.
Torin then rushed into the pile of war puppets and disappeared.
Thump thump thump—
An ice crystal puppet, carrying a chilling aura, stepped into the warehouse and quickly locked onto the living creature inside that was radiating heat.
"Damn it, I should have brought a shield and weapons to work!" Grlum cursed under his breath, but he patiently waited for Hanling to make the first move before he retaliated.
Just before the battle was about to begin, a relatively intact battle puppet suddenly burst out from the wreckage!
The magic crystal on its chest was emitting an unstable light; it was a magic crystal that Torin carried with him as a spare part for his staff.
"Go!" Torin shouted from the ruins.
Under the astonished gazes of the crowd, the war puppet swung its right arm, its serrated edge still not rotating, towards Han Ling.
Click—
Ice crystals scattered everywhere, and the Frost Spirit was cut in half at the waist, with shattered ice fragments littering the ground.
"Wow! Amazing!" Grlum and Baroque were also excited, seeing a glimmer of hope for survival.
However, they were too quick to celebrate.
The shattered Frost Spirit was rapidly regenerating its icy form, and more Frost Spirits were approaching from afar.
Worse still, the puppet's arm, which had just performed a miracle, swayed in the air a few times before the rusted joint at the connection point finally broke completely, and the entire arm crashed to the ground with a "bang," raising a cloud of dust.
The war puppet, having lost its main weapon, was quickly surrounded and attacked by two Frost Spirits that followed closely behind, and was eventually completely destroyed.
"Glenm! Torin! I'm so glad I was assigned to the same dorm as you. You're my best friends for life. I hope we can be fungus people together in our next life!"
After reciting his last words in one breath, Baroque curled up into a ball and waited to die.
"Ooooooo, fight to the death!" Glenn roared as he charged toward Hanling, swinging the saw he had broken off from the wreckage of the war puppet.
boom--!
The metal ceiling shattered, and a deafening explosion reverberated throughout the warehouse. The massive magical blast instantly obliterated the nearest few Frost Spirits.
The shockwave sent Grum flying back, slamming into the lizardman.
Amidst the smoke and dust, Norris piloted the Gida as it slowly descended through the large hole blasted open by the Resonance Cannon.
The jets on Jida's back provided what seemed to be a rather unstable buoyancy with a "puff puff" sound.
The resonance cannon on the shoulder is recharging, and the radiance generated by the gathering magic flows around the muzzle.
"The three staff members have been found, and they are all still alive!"
The second resonance cannon shot roared out, and several Frost Spirits that surged in from behind were reduced to ashes in the magical bombardment.
The only spirit that escaped was easily crushed by Norris as he swung the drill in his right hand.
Through the broken dome, Glenn and the others could hear continuous explosions outside, clearly the Jida forces were clearing out the surrounding Frost Spirits.
Norris frowned as he looked at the Frost Spirits whose icy crystal bodies were reforming: "We can't kill these, this seems troublesome... You lot, can you still move? If you can, follow me and retreat!"
The lizardman was knocked unconscious, but it's okay.
Grimes and Torin each grabbed one of his ankles and the other his arm, saying, "Yes, yes, yes, Commander, please clear the way, we promise to follow!"
(End of this chapter)
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