I gained my feet and activated a Health Regen Spell Card, bringing my HP bar almost back to full as the pain receded and finally faded completely.

  It was time to take Nikoli down for good, and Jakob couldn’t do that alone. The Cendral was currently holding the line against Nikoli’s mech, but he wasn’t dealing any damage. Nikoli was busy wailing on Jakob’s twin shields, knocking him across the floor like an MMA training dummy. It was all Jakob could do to avoid being turned into meat paste and I wasn’t sure how much longer he would last.

  Jakob tried to retreat a step, but Nikoli raised a metallic hand and hastily scrawled a sigil in the air, his finger leaving a trail of arcane sparks in its wake. As he finished the runic pattern, it flared to life and a semi-translucent wall of light formed behind the retreating Cendral. Suddenly, Jakob was trapped, with nowhere else to go, while Nikoli advanced.

  “Could use some help here!” Jakob bellowed.

  Unfortunately, we now had another issue to handle.

  With the suppression field down, we had access to our magic again, but so did Nikoli’s army of enslaved thralls.

  The air was suddenly thick with spellfire and screaming. A storm of magic ripped through the forge—columns of flame, lances of ice, sizzling blobs of acid that splattered against tables and walls. Temp and Harper were doing an admiral job of ducking and dodging the fast-flying spells, but we needed to lock the thralls down or we were gonna drown in a sea of crossfire.

  Doing that without killing them was a headache all on its own.

  They weren’t particular fast or well armored. Most weren’t even all that high-leveled, and none were above 35. With one round of StainSlayer Maelstrom and a couple blasts of Hydro Fracking Blast, and I could’ve slaughtered the whole lot of ’em without breaking a sweat.

  But these were the people we’d come to save.

  “Shit,” I muttered, ducking behind a table as what appeared to be a colorful, paper maché lama pi?ata flew toward me. I managed to avoid it, but then it exploded against the wall in a powerful spray of candy, studded with razor blades. One of the razors nicked my cheek, just beneath the eye.

  God, but I fucking hated this place sometimes.

  Though, I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t interested in an exploding, razor-blade pi?ata.

  I glanced over the edge of the table and saw that Temp was trying to restrain the thralls with her Puritanical Chains. They were perfect for the job, but single target only. She needed something with more reach, and seeing the spectral chains in action gave me an idea—though I already felt guilty about it.

  “Harper!” I shouted, already pulling free two of the Relics I’d acquired from Krampus, Naughty List and Chains of Christmas Past. Much as it disgusted me, these were the best tools for the job. I didn’t relish the idea of forcing enslaved thralls to relive their worst, most horrifying experience, but it was that or dying.

  Somehow, this was the lesser of two evils.

  Problem was, the Relics required a fair degree of concentration, and if we were going to beat Nikoli I needed to be in the fight. Which meant someone else was going to have to do the dirty work.

  “Use these!” I hurled the two Relics at the winged healer, and she darted over, snatching them from the air with nimble hands.

  Harper didn’t hesitate. Didn’t even pause before swapping in the Relics and activating the aura. Naughty List pulsed outward like a ripple through water, coating the air with a shimmer that only those burdened by guilt could feel. The thralls shuddered in unison, their eyes going glassy. One by one, barely visible marks bloomed on their bodies—Sinful Marks—growing stronger with every moment the aura persisted.

  Harper thrust one hand out and writhing chains erupted across her body, hanging from her neck and shoulders, before blasting outward. Wrought iron, burning with a ghostly emerald glow, ensnared the thralls like constricting snakes, locking them in place.

  One by one, they collapsed to their knees, eyes wide and distant. Their spells fizzled. Their limbs slackened. Some sobbed. Others screamed.

  “God above,” Temperance whispered in horror. “What have you done, Dan…”

  “What I had to,” I growled, though I knew exactly how horrible the experience was. And so did Temp. “Now, let’s end this thing.”

  With the thralls temporarily subdued, Temp and Croc broke away and made a mad dash toward Nikoli. I was only a few steps behind.

  Nikoli, unnaturally fast given the mech’s sheer size, wheeled toward us and launched a volley of whirling saw blades, each etched with glowing symbols. Jakob bounded forward and batted one away with his shield, but the second struck Croc in the shoulder, detonating in a bloom of scorching orange light. The third ricocheted but still channeled a bolt of lighting through Temp before burying itself in the wall.

  The electrical charge drained two-thirds of Temp’s health in an instant, but Harper was already casting Field Surgeon to patch her up on the fly.

  Jakob surged forward with Bullrush Blitz. I flanked wide and activated Hydro Fracking Blast, while simultaneously sending the Bowling Ball of Rolling Momentum into orbit around me, so it could build up speed.

  A beam of water punched into Nikoli’s mech suit—though the bulky armor resisted my attack. Using Hydrokensis, I sent the spray of water coursing into the mech’s joints, before flash freezing them with a ripple of mana.

  Nikoli slowed, but didn’t stop. Not completely.

  Croc had recovered from the blast, though the mimic was badly burned and looked more than a little worse for wear. That didn’t stop Croc from charging forward, its hide now coated in a metallic sheen.

  Temp had also recovered and was back on her feet now.

  She leapt into the air and sprinted forward, activating her new Biblical Pestilence Relic. Enormous locust, each the size of my palm, enveloped the suit, and though they couldn’t find a way to burrow through the metal plating, they thoroughly obscured Nikoli’s line of sight.

  It didn’t last long, however.

  Nikoli raised a gauntlet into the air and sizzling blue electricity exploded in a dome, frying the scampering whirlwind. Bugs rained down, their carapaces still popping from the AoE attack.

  Temp launched herself toward Nikoli with her cleaver drawn, but Nikoli just raised a finger and hastily scrawled a sigil into the air.

  “It’s a statis trap!” Harper screamed, but too late.

  A glowing rune materialized beneath Temp, expanding in a five-foot bubble that froze her in time. She hovered mid-lunge, mid-scream, suspended in the air like a bug in amber.

  Croc had finally managed to get close and lashed out with a tentacle as thick as my arm, but the second it smacked against the steel plating, an arc of electricity surged out along the slick, fleshy limb. Croc convulsed, then slumped to the floor, alive but temporarily unconscious. I winced in sympathy. Croc’s metal body was great for tanking physical blows, but clearly not so great against a bolt of honest to God lightning.

  This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

  With Temp and Croc both momentarily out of commission—and Harper occupied with the thralls—it was down to me and Jakob.

  The Cendral activated Broken Car Alarm, the sound cutting through the forge like a tornado warning, and Nikoli turned on him like an angry bull.

  He leveled his arm and his gauntlet exploded forward like a missile, attached to a metallic cable that connected to the mech. The giant metallic hand latched onto Jakob’s shield with a thump and then the tether reversed—pulling Jakob toward Nikoli with implacable, impossible strength. Jakob dug his heels in, but he just wasn’t strong enough to stop the sheer force reeling him ever closer.

  But it did reveal something interesting.

  For the first time, I got a good look at the backside of the mech. Unlike the front, which was cold steel and hardened leather, the back had several cylindrical tanks attached, along with a series of pistons, gears, and snaking tubes that connected to the larger mechanical exoskeleton. I couldn’t punch through the armor itself, but those tubes looked awfully vulnerable.

  I saw a chance and I took it.

  Even though Neural Slipstream hadn’t worked out so well the last time I’d used it, I activated it anyway. Time slowed as cold power washed through me and my body phased out of sync with reality. I propelled myself forward, effortlessly passing through crafting tables, tools, and debris littering the ground, then phased through Nikoli—still locked in his battle with Jakob.

  I emerged behind him and killed the spell, time resuming its normal form as my body became corporeal once again. Nikoli didn’t even seem to notice as I raised my hand, activated Hyrdo Fracking Blast, and neatly sliced through one of the tubes. I pressed my palm against the exposed hole in the tube and activated Hydro Fracking Blast again, though this time I used Hydrokensis to slow the flow of water—not to a trickle, but not so fast that it could sandblast a hole in Mount Rushmore either.

  I felt the water course in and begin the fill the suit.

  Nikoli still hadn’t noticed. Which was great, because I was currently waterboarding his power armor from the inside out.

  The first warning sign came when his mech started hissing—not steam, not hydraulics—just a slow, ominous glub glub as water crept into places water was absolutely not supposed to be. A faint gurgling sound echoed from inside the mech suit.

  Nikoli turned his head, or at least, I think he did—it was hard to tell with the locust guts still smeared across his faceplate—and let out a garbled roar over the loudspeaker.

  “Stop that! You cannot do that!”

  “This is the 49th floor, dickweed,” I said, “might makes right, isn’t that the way it goes?”

  Nikoli roared and spun around, an arm blade extending with a pneumatic thump, but it was too late. The temporal statis trap holding Temp in place finally lapsed and she hit the ground in a three-point superhero landing, already channeling Puritanical Chains. Massive spectral links erupted from the ground like divine tentacles of judgement, slamming into Nikoli and wrapping around the mech’s arms, legs, and torso with punishing finality.

  Nikoli twitched. Bucked. Raged.

  But it didn’t matter. He was trapped.

  I pressed my palm against the sliced length of tubing and resumed the process, pumping more and more water inside with each passing second. Water squirted from the seams and joints, so I quickly flash froze the leaks, plugging the holes. Not exactly OSHA-approved plumbing, but it’d hold. The hiss became a slosh. The slosh became a gurgle. Inside the suit, Nikoli was gasping for air as I rapidly transformed his mech into a fish tank.

  “You did this to yourself,” I growled. “I tried to give you a way out, but you were too dumb to listen.”

  Jakob backed away, jaw slack. Harper stood frozen, watching the unholy baptism with something between awe and revulsion.

  Croc sat up with a wheeze, trails of steam still rising from its body.

  “Did we win?” the mimic croaked.

  “Working on it,” I said, sending a final burst of water into the suit, then sealing the hydraulic tube with a layer of frost.

  Nikoli screamed again—but this one was garbled. Bubbling.

  And then… silence. Terrible, deafening silence.

  A moment later, the mech shuddered once, twice, then slumped forward before toppling over in a clang of steel on stone. One last fart of arcane energy puffed out of the back like a defeated sigh. I gained 12,000 Experience for killing him, which pushed me up another level and earned me a new Researcher Achievement in the process.

  [Level Up! x 1]

  Research Achievement Unlocked!

  Waterboarding 3.0

  Congratulations! You drowned a man.

  Not in a river. Or a bathtub. Or even a shallow wooden bucket. No, somehow you drowned him in his own apocalypse-class mech suit, using nothing but high-pressure spellcasting and deeply inappropriate creativity.

  This wasn’t just a kill. This was a slow, bubbling lesson in hubris.

  You saw a hydraulic weak point, filled the armor like a demonic water balloon, sealed it shut with artisanal combat ice, and let physics do the rest. The enemy didn’t get blown up. He got moisturized to death. Honestly, I don’t know whether to applaud you or commit you, so you can get the psychiatric treatment you so obviously need.

  Reward: 9,500 Experience Points, 10 Copper Delver Loot Tokens, 1 Ruby Elementalist Loot Token

  Title Unlocked: Waterboarding 3.0 – Armored enemies take an additional 25% damage from all water-based attacks.

  I dismissed the notice and wiped the sweat from my brow, my hand trembling a little from the motion.

  “Holy shit, that was intense,” I said, my voice shaky. “Everyone okay?”

  Harper looked at the mech with wide eyes. “Us? You just drowned a man in his own armor, are you okay?”

  I stared at the armored tomb. “I’ve done worse,” I said after a moment. And it was true.

  I still had nightmares about Natasha Anno, the first Delver I’d ever killed. The first person I’d ever killed. At night I saw her pinned beneath me as I drove my hammer into the side of her head, over and over again, blood splattering across my face. This was nothing compared to that. And for some reason, I doubted Nikoli would be joining the nightmare roster. Maybe I should’ve felt some sense of remorse or guilt, but I didn’t.

  If anyone had deserved a fate like this, it was him.

  Apparently, the look on my face said something different, though, because Croc came over and sat beside me, nuzzling its head into my leg. “It’s okay if you’re not okay, Dan. And if you ever need to talk, I’m always here for you. You know that, right?”

  “Of course,” I said, ruffling the mimic’s head. “But I’m fine. And hopefully all these people will be too.” I turned away from the dead monster, who only looked human on the surface, and to the thralls curled up on the floor. Harper’s Chains of Christmas Past spell had lapsed, but none of them had gotten to their feet. The horror I saw in their eyes made me feel far worse than killing Nikoli.

  They were innocent, and I’d forced them to relive their most horrifying moments.

  If I could reunite them with their families, hopefully it would be worth it.

  “Come on,” I said, “let’s do what we can for them.”

  With Nikoli dead, the magic powering the collars had dissipated, though they were still clamped firmly in place. It didn’t take long to find the release mechanism and even less time for Harper to circulate through the group, casting a round of heals to patch them up from the battle with Temp.

  Soon there was a group of badly emaciated survivors huddled in the corner, staring at us with glassy eyes. They looked broken, terrified, and utterly defeated. All except one man, who was probably in his late fifties or early sixties—though the abuse he’d suffered made him appear much older.

  Like the others, he was skeletally thin, his skin an ashen gray. He was missing several fingers on his left hand, one on his right, and both ears. Despite that, though, there was a burning fire of defiance in his eyes. I could tell he was a fighter, even at a glance.

  “What do you aim to do with us?” the man growled, standing tall, one hand clenched into a white-knuckled fist. “Because it you intend to put us back in chains, you’d better just kill me now.”

  I approached slowly and raised my hands in a show of peace.

  “No,” I said, shaking my head. “We’re not with that sick fuck, Nikoli. There’s a reason he’s dead. Our only goal is to get you home safe. Whatever you do from there is up to you. I know it might be hard to believe, but your free now.”

  “Free.” He said the word slowly as though tasting it on his tongue for the first time. “You mean to tell me we can walk out that cursed door?” the man asked, waving toward the forge’s exit. “Leave right this moment and you won’t stop us?”

  “If you want,” I replied with a shrug. “Though you’ll freeze to death long before you ever make it back to Kringlegard. But if you’ll trust me—trust us,” I amended, waving to the others. “We can get you there a lot quicker. And make sure you get a hot meal and a warm shower to boot.”

  The other survivors muttered to themselves and for the first time I saw a spark of hope in their eyes. But not the man, standing before them. He just looked suspicious. A man who’s trust had burned out a long time ago.

  “And how exactly do you intend to do that, then?” he asked

  I smiled. “Just watch.” I expanded my minimap and selected the entirety of the forge. All twelve-thousand square feet of it. Although it was near the kiosk, the forge was its own separate structure, which meant it was mine for the taking.

  You’ve selected 12,000 square feet of eligible Progenerated Material Resource Space. Would you like to use Corvo’s Blanket Fort to convert the selected material into a Personal Superspace Dwelling? You will have 103,317 available square feet remaining at your current Variant Assimilation Level. Proceed Yes/No?

  I hit yes and the whole world began to tremble…