The desert was a perfect battleground as far as Ray was concerned. Other than his

group and the Lighthouse, it was devoid of bystanders getting in the way. He didn’t

have to worry about missing a shot and hitting a building. And the only cover was

what he could create with his lamp.

The problem was the Lighthouse still had its force wall and that was blocking most

of his shots as well as Lightner’s punches.

“I should have thought of radios for everyone,” thought Ray.

Affirmative.

“Assessment,” thought Ray. His own was that he would run out of power at the rate

they were going unless the force wall was knocked down somehow.

Loss of battle in three minutes unless something changes.

That was better than his own thinking. He needed some other tactic to conserve

energy.

“Lamp, mount a restraining system,” thought Ray. “We want to tie this goon up long

enough for us to get to its boss.”

Affirmative. The armor extruded a missile launcher from its shoulder. Targeting

information filled the screen as the launcher locked on.

“Go for the legs,” thought Ray.

Affirmative. The targeting system locked on the stone legs, beeping when the

crosshairs moved on line. A thump rocked the robot as the missile flew away with a

roar and a smoky trail going with it.

The missile casing split apart to reveal a core. The core unraveled into a number of

smaller missiles that dragged lines behind them as they raced toward the animated

building. The projectiles wrapped around the legs of the building, tying them

together.

“Will it fall over?,” asked Ray. He took a shot at head level to see if he could knock

the giant down. The living blocks shrugged the giant bullet off as it reached down to

pull on the restraints.

Ray charged in and shoved the Lighthouse over. He couldn’t let it get its mobility

back now that he had it where he could try more massive measures.

Gold light wrapped around the fallen golem. It became a massive letter that shrank

to hover against one spot. A hole appeared in the shield at that spot.

Ray leveled his rifle at that opening and fired as fast as he could pull the trigger. He

paused for automated reloads between the shootings. His assault opened the torso of

the building.

That punched in section was enough for Lightner to fly into the building. Ray held

fire in case he hit his comrade. That was the last thing he wanted to do.

The wall went back up a second later while the flying brick was still inside. A stone

arm rocked Ray’s giant robot. The machine went down from the blow.

Red lights told Ray his conjured mechanism didn’t have long if he kept taking

punches like that.

At least it wasn’t the finger gun.

Ray frowned with the realization that he was buying Lightner time to find the cut off

switch. The word of the Librarian might keep that thing fighting for a while despite

their best efforts.

“Lamp, if the others knock the force wall down again, we need to drive a spike into

that thing to keep it from fixing itself,” thought Ray.

Affirmative.

The Lighthouse reached down to pull the restraints from its legs. Getting back on its

feet seemed to be the goal, then it could attack at will again. It could punch all day

long.

The golden letter attacked again. It hit the force wall where the light at the top of the

transformed tower turned and cast its light everywhere.

A long metal rod dropped into the robot’s hand. Ray stabbed the lamp with it instead

of a lower part of the body. That extinguished the light.

Ray drew his arm back and stabbed again. The point of the spike went into the

neckplate of the thing. He drove it inside the magic monster. That should be enough

to let Ishvar, or Buble, get in and wreck the thing from the inside like Lightner was

doing.

The finger pointed at Ray’s chestplate. The blast cut through the robot, knocking a

lot of the mechanisms off line. The machine collapsed on top of its killer.

“Damage control,” thought Ray.

Affirmative.

Before the lamp could affect repairs, another finger beam cut through the body of the

robot. The machine split in unequal halves. The upper body fell on one side of the

Lighthouse with the lower body falling on the other side.

“Can we still fight?,” asked Ray. He grimaced at the sea of red light he stood in.

Negative. Systems are offline until I can hook things back together.

Ray considered his options. He might have to abandon ship in the middle of this fight.

He had no way to assess how risky that was, but he considered it lower than staying

in the control room and getting cut to pieces. His machine couldn’t stop the finger

gun.

And gaming experience had taught him that once the opponent was down, the

monster would do a critical move and make sure of the job. He didn’t want to be

trapped like a rat when that happened.

He had been lucky that his robot’s head hadn’t been targeted. That would have ruined

his day.

“We’re going to bail,” said Ray. “Blow the robot up so we have a distraction and

maybe it’ll give us a chance to regroup.”

Affirmative.

The Lighthouse stopped moving as Ray went to the hatch to drop out of the head of

his machine. He paused. What was going on there?

“Don’t blow up the robot yet,” thought Ray. “Maybe the others killed the thing.”

Affirmative.

Ray opened the hatch. He looked out. He could see the desert sand far below. He

dropped down. Blue flame cushioned his landing.

Parts of the animated tower had crumbled into a pile that formed a roughly humanoid

shape. The lamp from the top lay by itself a small distance away. It was crumpled

from Ray’s blow.

“Lamp, do you see the Librarian in this?,” thought Ray. He needed to make sure the

threat no longer existed so he could give an all clear.

Blue light moved up and down the pile. Lightner popped out, lightning snapping

around him. He shook the dust off as he flew out of the stone carcass.

Negative.

Ray rubbed his face at the bad news. He had fallen for a decoy. It was the oldest trick

in the book. Now he was across the continent and his enemy was still thinking of

ways to kill the city.

The first thing he had to do was break the bad news. They had worked hard for this

victory, but it didn’t mean anything because they had been chasing the equivalent of

an out of control car.

Ishvar should be able to get them back to the city. He would have to start his search

over again. He missed something somewhere. He didn’t know what. There had to be

a clue.

“Hey, Ray,” said Johnny Mac. “That was some fighting going on. Sorry about your

robot.”

“She’s not here,” said Ray. “She’s still trying to execute her plan despite what we’ve

done.”

“She has to be back at the city,” said Johnny Mac. “How much time do we have?”

“The constellation will be present in a few hours,” said Buble.

“She has two more days to try after this,” said Ishvar. “The cycle is three days long.”

“We have to assume that she’ll keep trying until the time limit is up,” said Ray. “If

she can monitor her golem, she knows we’re not dead. She’ll be trying to ready her

spell while getting ready to try to stop us.”

“She has been using spell stones as an enhancement to her natural abilities,” said

Ishvar. “That was how she could animate the stone man and keep it running like it

did.”

“I guess the next step is to get us back to Barley so we can try to find this woman,”

said Ray. “Maybe I can find her if she hasn’t hidden herself. Do we have any other

ideas?”

“We can use the spellstones from the behemoth as enhancers for ourselves,” said

Ishvar. “That will be useful in conjunction with the right spells.”

“Can you detect spellstones?,” asked Ray.

“Only when they are active,” said Ishvar. “As long as they sit inactive, they are like

pebbles gathering moss.”

“All right,” said Ray. “Grab up what you can. I need to take a second to think about

what to do when we get back to Barley.”

“That was a big fight, Ray,” said Johnny Mac. “Are you okay?”

“I need some food,” said Ray. He walked to where his robot rested in two pieces. “I

might need a nap. This adventuring stuff keeps you on the run.”

“I can get Buble to get that for you after Ishvar is done,” said Johnny Mac.

“That would be okay,” said Ray. He examined the robot. “That was pretty close. I

thought I was going to die.”

“Buble stepped up and protected us while you and Lightner were doing your thing,”

said Johnny Mac. “Ishvar came up with the hole in the wall thing she did. I felt like

a fifth wheel for a second.”

“If I get killed, you’re in charge,” said Ray. “All you have to do is protect the city for

the next three nights. Then the deal is done.”

“This chick is tricky, Ray,” said Johnny Mac. “If she is outsmarting you, I don’t see

what I can do.”

“We’re at a point where brute force is going to be more important than thinking,” said

Ray. “I think you can handle that.”

“Thanks, Ray,” said Johnny Mac. “That means so little.”

“You can handle it,” said Ray.

“What about the Iron Giant?,” said Johnny Mac. He waved at the bisected robot.

“It’s too big to use in the city unless I’m fighting Godzilla,” said Ray. “Maybe I can

wear it like Iron Man’s armor for an extra push. I don’t know yet.”

“She’s still going to try to bring one of those critters across,” said Johnny Mac. “I

don’t think it’s a good plan myself.”

“That’s why we have to stop her,” said Ray. “She has been working on the

summoning part, but I don’t think she has the control that she needs. And once even

one of those things get loose in the city, it will keep eating until everything is gone,

or it’s destroyed by the locals.”

“How bad was the last thing she caused?,” asked Johnny Mac.

“Lamp, call up animation of demon wells,” thought Ray.

Affirmative. Blue flame showed them the increasing size of the actual doors and the

damage done postulated by what remained at the sites. The image flickered before the

flame dropped off.

“Looks like I am out of juice,” said Ray. “But as you saw, the opened doors kept

getting bigger, and then were expanded by the Abyss monsters chowing down on

everything in site until they were stopped.”

“I think she was only trying to call one,” said Johnny Mac.