Bzzzzzzzzzzzzz!

The sun sat directly above the group, but the air was cold and the ankle-deep water was frigid. Both of BA-Zeta’s arms currently ended in whirling blades of serrated death as it took point on cutting a path forward. A Level 55 Greater Werewolf slammed into the gurgling streambed ahead of it, sending up a splash of the freezing water. While the beast was twisting around to strike, BA-Zeta made some precise calculations and leaned to the left. One of its arms hummed forward.

The wickedly sharp implement spun until the edges blurred.

The Greater Werewolf roared and lashed out with its claws, but the lean was effective; its strike barely skittered across BA-Zeta’s exoskeleton. Then the automaton’s return attack landed, shearing through the monster’s thick grey fur and then its ribs. The rotational velocity sprayed blood and bits of organs sideways, painting some larger stones and a portion of the cliff walls red.

The Werewolf swayed and BA-Zeta already spun and leapt, slamming a back-heel kick against the beast and knocking it to the side. The winding ravine was about five meters across, but the automaton’s kick had more than enough force to crumble the beast against the stone wall. The servos in Zeta’s joints buzzed as the automaton landed back in the shallow water and began accelerating again.

Congratulations! Your Skill Butchery Proficiency has grown to Level 98!

Congratulations! Your Skill Servo Overclock (Un) has grown to Level 120!

Congratulations! Your Skill Automaton Attunement (A) has grown to Level 149!

Truly, the speed of Skill improvement has increased by 736% since I have left Kharon. No wonder the Ghosthound arranged all those years ago for the city to be mobile. Novel experiences are vital to sustained martial attainment. BA-Zeta’s visual lenses adjusted as scanned the twisting walls of the ravine for any further threats. It made minute adjustments as it searched for secure footing in its advance. But… despite improvements in Skill Levels, I do not feel any closer to obtaining a true name...

BA-Zeta’s visual apertures flicked upward. Behind it, twelve humans hurried to keep up as they fled along the creekbed. Most people sloshed forward, their feet numbed by the constant flow of water. At the back of the group, a teenage girl picked up her sniffling younger brother and staggered forward with the kid pressed to her chest. All knew that they did not have much time. Now that they had reached this point, there was no option but to advance forward as quickly as possible.

High stone cliffs stretched up on either side of the creekbed, hemming in the options for escape. Zeta might be able to scale the seven-meter walls, but the rest of the humans could not follow. So Zeta ignored the distant sounds of howls and concentrated on moving forward.

Zack Krum had suggested this route to avoid the thick waves of werewolves that filled the surrounding hills; they needed to pass through this mountain range to reach Davieau, the border city of Zone 50. None of them possessed enough power to survive against these werewolf packs in a direct confrontation. But now that the monsters had discovered their presence-

Hoooooowwwwwwl!

Two more heavy Greater Werewolves whooshed through the air and smashed in the middle of their column. Several of the humans screamed and fell backward. BA- Zeta paused for a small instant, its training to protect humans urging it to turn around and fight against these new arrivals. The Greater Werewolves had landed in a crouch to absorb the force of their fall, but now they straightened and howled, drawing more monsters to their location.

However, BA-Zeta continued forward without assisting with these two. After all, it was not fighting alone.

“Fucking dogs,” Zack Krum grimaced and moved forward to meet the first opponent, showing no fear despite the fact that the bristling grey monster was twice his size. His hands glided forward through the air in smooth, perfect circles. The Greater Werewolf regarded him with its yellow eyes as it weighed his threat, then decided to pounce forward with its dangerous arms raised.

Those circles accelerated and met the muscular limbs of the werewolf. BA-Zeta could feel the wrenching pop as Zack Krum tore the monster's shoulder joint out of the socket by redirecting its force. Then, before the Greater Werewolf could respond, Zack swept out its legs. Spinning like a whirlwind, Zack slammed the monster’s snout into the shallow water. His elbow flashed up and then cut downward, shattering the beast’s skull.

By the time that blood began to seep down through the clear water, the other people had already hurried past it.

As for the other new threat, Todd had utilized one of the logs he had Scrawled earlier to physically spear the body of the Greater Werewolf. It knocked the monster back and accelerated, crunching its chest cavity against the stone walls of the ravine. Small pebbles rained down from the walls as the monster crumpled. Most of the humans, Todd included, were gasping and struggling at this point, having forced their bodies to sprint for almost ten minutes to stay ahead of their pursuit.

Zeta calculated whether some of the stronger individuals could carry the weaker ones to increase their speed, but the result was not satisfactory.

Three more werewolves impacted the creekbed, but they were some distance behind the group. BA-Zeta glanced back and calculated the distance. Those monsters, assuming the human’s speed remained constant, would catch up to them in forty-six seconds: Greater Werewolves possessed significant straight-line speed.

“This cannot continue,” BA-Zeta announced. Sometimes, it was difficult for the metal man to understand whether humans were cognizant of threats. For better or worse, they were a species that relied heavily on obliviousness to advance. So it could find no away around blunt pronouncements like this one to sound out the human’s outlook.

The way Zack Krum’s face crumpled, even as the man loped past the forerunners of their refugee group to join the brass automaton, informed Zeta that Krum was aware of their dire circumstances. In addition, Krum glanced back at the young woman carrying her brother at the back, trailing behind even Todd.

Most of the other humans were too exhausted to comment on Zeta’s words. But Henrik Vaas, one of the two fighting men from the small village from which the trio had saved these people, seemed to be physically struck by BA-Zeta’s statement. The human male stumbled over a stone and collapsed to his hands and knees. He stared at his own reflection in the shallow water, even as the others hurried past him. “We… we are going to die here…”

BA-Zeta and Krum paused at the head of the column and exchanged a glance. Not that BA-Zeta blamed the man for his mental wounds; that man had been in the village’s defense force, which meant he had contended directly against the growing waves of monsters for weeks. He had watched as his fellow defenders, almost all one hundred and five of them, were exhausted and killed.

If the trio hadn’t arrived and Todd hadn’t been able to carry away the few survivors on his Scrawled logs, all evidence of this small village would have been wiped out. A community of Expira would have been silently pruned.

Zack Krum hopped back to the man’s side right as the teenage girl and her brother were shuffling past. Behind them, the three Greater Werewolves were rapidly closing the distance, leaving sprays of water in their wake. Krum slapped his shoulder. “Get up Henrik. We can’t stop here.”

Todd puffed up his cheeks and gestured. One of his logs shot above the column of people like a javelin, heading toward the pursuing Greater Werewolves. At the same time, the sound of a splash drew BA-Zeta’s gaze back forward. A smaller, tan furred Greater Werewolf straightened from where it had just landed and looked at the Brass Automaton with emerald eyes. Even though it did not possess skin, Zeta felt a tingle as he looked at this one.

Calamity Tainted Greater Werewolf Level 70

Zeta lengthened his stride and accelerated forward to meet this new foe. Theoretically, its body should possess the requisite capability to handle a foe of this caliber, although Zeta hadn’t yet had the chance to test its theories in this regard. The saws at the ends of its arms revved dangerously.

Congratulations! Your Skill Servo Overclock (Un) has grown to Level 121!

Zeta had been prepared for a monster that had crossed the Level 70 threshold to be powerful, however, even its mechanized psyche was taken by surprise when the Calamity Tainted creature finally moved. Its visual lenses hurriedly adjusted to the speed, but Zeta couldn’t prevent the beast’s claw from casually knocking it to the side.

Congratulations! Your Skill Automaton Attunement (A) has grown to Level 150!

Congratulations! Your Skill Automaton Attunement (A) has grown to Level 151!

However, Zeta was blessed with an efficiency of response that was pressing up against the limits of his Reaction Stat. The strike staggered him, but he was not significantly damaged. The Calamity Tainted Greater Werewolf ignored Zeta and examined the humans with interest, but Zeta spun mind air and landed on its feet against the wall. Its joints extended and rocketed his body sideways.

The tan werewolf saw movement out of the corner of its eye and sliced its claws through the air in response, but Zeta hadn’t tried to attack it directly. Instead, it whizzed past the werewolf and slammed into the far wall, then bounced down to impact the ground halfway between the stone wall and the monster. Water splashed upward to screen its vision, but Level 70 wasn’t just for show. The monster had perfectly tracked Zeta’s movements and snarled at him. It swung its claws and Zeta brought a sizzling saw up to meet it.

Zeta had been revving its weapons for so long that friction was starting to superheat its extremities to dangerous levels. At the moment, the brass automaton was hyper-aware of many extraneous details in the surroundings.

Back amongst the humans, Zeta heard a shout from Henrik. “This is all your fault! If that fucking kid hadn’t revealed us-”

Angry roars from behind the group meant that Todd was dealing with the pursuit. The tan arm in front of Zeta blurred and cut at his shoulder joint. Perhaps because it had encountered this speed once, but it was no longer quite so overwhelming… but simply quite very difficult to handle. Zeta made minute adjustments and shifted its weight forward, but this Level 70 monster instantly adjusted the arc of its claw.

Congratulations! Your Skill Servo Overclock (Un) has grown to Level 122!

Congratulations! Your Skill Butchery Proficiency has grown to Level 99!

With all its mechanisms spinning at full blast, Zeta released an ambient humming voice. Its calculations determined this would not go well for it. As expected, the Level 60 barrier remains difficult to accurately judge…

Zeta sheered off a thick clump of hair from the monster’s chest and drew a beading line of blood across its exposed skin. Meanwhile, the automaton’s chassis was heavily scratched by the monster. Even Zeta didn’t have time to react before the rest of its frame was slammed against the stone wall. The interior gears of its body rattled.

“He’s just a child! He didn’t know!” The teenage girl yelled back. “The chill of the water surprised him!”

Todd’s voice was high and he appeared not to engage in the other conversation. Zeta marveled again at the obliviousness of humans. “Shit, shit, shit…”

“What’s that?” A small voice asked.

All these noises were distant. Closer to the spot where Zeta attempted to recover its bearings, there were several more impacts; more Greater Werewolves were coming. The situation worsened every moment they did not advance.

Zeta was still buzzing, rapidly trying to ascertain its own state as the Level 70 Calamity Tainted monster closed the distance to finish its job. Currently, Zeta had not sustained any serious damage. But its rapid calculations could not figure out how to overcome this enemy’s superior offensive capabilities-

Then Zack Krum was there, physically tackling the monster and wrapping his arms around its waist. The young man earned a deep gash on his shoulder, but once the two were on the ground and rolling through the shallow water, there was a pulse of Krum’s image. Ripples of dark green energy spread outward, thickening the air and creating an environment where Krum excelled.

By the time Zeta finished its diagnostic and regained its feet, the first sickening pop informed it that Krum had gained the advantage. So Zeta twisted and threw itself toward the two recent arrivals to the streambed. Its saws were beginning to glow dangerously from the heat, but they were more than capable of ripping through the backs of the two Level 55 Greater Werewolves.

Congratulations! Your Skill Butchery Proficiency has grown to Level 100!

Congratulations! Your Skill Butchery Proficiency has grown to Level 101!

The two monsters collapsed with soft whimpers. But as their blood began to seep out of their wounds, five more werewolves crashed down from the cliffs above. They landed over by Todd, who immediately began slowing them down as best as they could. BA-Zeta hummed uncertainly.

The humans had stopped and clustered. More and more Greater Werewolves were throwing themselves down around them every moment. They had been trapped in the streambed.

BA-Zeta finally allowed its keening saws to slow for a few moments. Perhaps in the moments before oblivion… I shall realize my own name?

That would be a cause worth celebrating.