14

Chapter Thirty-Six

Sweating, the hot, fetid air almost oppressive, I dodged the spike, attached to a long, fleshy appendage, a flick of my blade severing the limb as its owner croaked in pain, drops of green blood spraying everywhere, falling into the murky water below.

"You wanted lizard people, Vi," I called out, sighting on another foe, the tiger-sized monster deceptively fast, but, when it landed, I pulled the trigger, my round passing through its eye, and killing it instantly.

"These aren't lizards, Jayce!" my partner called back, leaping up and sinking an armored fist into the side of an amphibious attacker. "Or people!"

The hundred-pound frog deformed under the blow, flying off, as another spat a spike-tipped tongue at the girl, who turned, not able to dodge it, but deflected the attack off her metal gloves, reaching out to grip the flesh behind it. Reflexively, the ambush-frog tried to pull its appendage back, toes digging into the muck it stood on, and succeeded, but also reeled in a very annoyed pugilist, who caved its skull in.

"How is there even a swamp underground?" she demanded, as I turned, sighting on another ambush-frog that tried to sneak around the corner. Its bulbus eye met mine, the bar-shaped pupil widening slightly before it exploded into a shower of ichor, my shot passing through it. As I'd thought, while Wild Defense protected me from animal attacks, my partner had no such protections, and the second I'd stepped in to defend her my protections had dropped, forcing us both to fight.

"Not sure," I shrugged, looking around the wide hallway, pools of off-color dirty water everywhere, with faintly glowing swirls running through it, embankments of silt here and there. It was the proper path to get out here, and one I could take Vi on without her dying, according to what Wild Talent told me, which was of questionable veracity.

It was better than nothing, but Talents and Defenses were only guaranteed to work for their possessors, and, though it was in the finest of fine print, only up to a certain point. Given that I was staying the hell away from Exalted-level bullshit, I should be fine, but using it to try and create a predictive model based on factors it was not meant to handle meant my path through this wilderness of pipes and poison was 'safe'... for given values of safe.

At the white-haired girl's skeptical look, I took a tentative sniff, the smell abhorrent, but underneath that was a hint of... salt?

Reaching down, and sticking a gloved finger into the surely poisonous fluid filled with god knows what, I licked it, repressing my own gag reflex at the taste and... yep.

Salt.

Grabbing my canteen and washing my mouth out, only having done so because of my hard immunity to diseases, poisons, and mutagenic effects, at least one of those having pinged my Defences when I'd taken a taste, I got a better idea of what was going on here, and, looking around, there was a subtle flow, from one pool to another, coming from a side hallway that branched off of our path. It seemed safe, and I felt like we were making good time, so why not?

"I've got an idea, but I'm not sure," I replied, walking that way, hefting my pistol. I had four more shots left in this clip, but, if we hit heavy resistance, I might need every bullet. I still had a full clip in my pocket, but the other two were empty, so, sheathing my blade, I summoned my phone and opened a portal Home, leaning through and handing the spent magazines to Piper, whose face screwed up as she looked up from her book.

"Ew! what stinks?" she asked, taking them both.

"Found a swamp."

"Underground?" she questioned, echoing her sister.

Shrugging, I accepted two filled ones, and replied, "Apparently. Figuring it out now. See you later."

Piper nodded, and I leaned back out, closing the Gate, and continuing my walk, going down one hallway that turned to the side. Motioning for Vi to wait, I unsheathed my sword, and poked it around the corner, wondering if my Wild Defense protections extended to a different group of-

Clang!

A bone-tipped spile slammed into my blade, knocking it to the side, telling me the answer was no, so I leapt out, pistol up, spotting three ambush-toads, two more getting ready to 'fire', and sent a hail of bullets their way.

I only killed one, but the other flinched the moment it launched its attack, the spiked tongue going wide, and Vi followed after me, charging forward, running along the banks of silt as the first AT rechambered its weapon and speared out at her, but the girl had landed and set her feet, deflecting the attack with her fists, charging as the last one pulled its appendage back like a measuring tape retracting, but, with a moment to aim, it'd just pulled it back when my shot took it through the eye, ending its life.

It toppled, as Vi killed the last one, the way she did most things, by punching it until it stopped moving. Switching out magazines in my pistol, I jogged forward, trying to stay out of the water as much as I could, mostly because, especially having tasted it, I didn't want to faceplant directly into it by tripping on something I couldn't see.

Moving forward, past the dead creatures, I could hear more ambush-toads hopping around in the next room, but, waving a sword around the corner, I had no takers.

Well, we literally killed all the ones before so they couldn't've learned, I thought, quickly popping my head around the corner, but, wonder of wonders, the monsters seemed to have been leaving. Wild Talent pointed out a few near the back that were mostly submerged, waiting to, well, ambush us, but as long as I didn't approach the back wall, where clusters of eggs sat, they'd stay their... tongues?

"Stay with me," I ordered, looking around, seeing more ambush-toads lurking in doorways, but with the same 'don't go after our eggs, we won't go after you' mentality. If I was coming back here, I would've started picking them off, since these things were assholes, but I could get my answer without having to expend the ammo.

"Found the source," I stated, stepping over to my partner, close enough she could easily follow my arm, and pointing at the wall to the right. "See? It's the metal pipes. I thought they were carrying chemfluid, but that one's sprung a leak there and there, in the tops and bottoms, which flows out there, and-"

"It's. . . seawater?" the brawler asked, glancing over, and up, at me. "Is that why you tasted it?"

I nodded, "Yep, and it's toxic enough it'd possibly kill you, or mess you up, but it's very salty. The silt was kind of a clue too," I added, lightly stomping on the bit of ground we were standing on.

"I, uh, thought it was weird dirt," she said, looking down, and, trawling Jayce's memories, with the toxicity of the waters, and with how Zaun was constructed, there was a good chance the girl had never seen a riverbank, let alone its delta.

"Understandable," I gave, "and, given our elevation, we're well below sea level, which just leaves me with one question."

I waited for a moment, and Violetta got that I was prompting her, the girl's brow furrowing in thought. With an annoyed sigh, she stepped away from me, admitting, "Pow-Piper's better at this stuff."

"Yes," I nodded blandly, not reacting to the slightly hurt look that flashed across the girl's features, "But that doesn't make you incapable, that just means you have to work a little harder for it. You're not scared of a little hard work, are you Vi?"

With the metaphorical gauntlet thrown, she turned, staring at the damaged sections of pipe, leaking filthy water, thick with churned muck, into a pool atop a mountain of silt, which slowly ran down a series of tiny waterfalls before spreading out throughout the chamber. "The question is... 'How long did it break, to leave all this around'?" she put forward, glancing my way.

"That is a good question, but one I could probably figure out if I did some research at the Academy," I replied. "Keep going."

Vi frowned, looking back, demanding, "Aren't we in a rush?"

Putting on my best Heimerdinger voice, I replied, "There's always time for learning!"

"... what."

"It's funnier if you've met the Dean," I shrugged. "But we can burn another ten minutes or so. Consider it a break, since they won't attack unless we go deeper."

She rolled her eyes, then looked back at the damaged pipe, one of several, all a couple feet across, running along the wall. "It's carrying water. Water from the bay," Violetta said to herself. "Where?" she questioned, but shook her head before I could respond. "No. How? No..." She stiffened, and turned to face me. "Why is it carrying water from the bay!"

I smiled, "Exactly. If they just needed water, there's underground rivers they could pull from. A couple run under Piltover, and they're fairly clean. With this level of technology, tapping them would be easy, as would filtering it at its intake, so why are they pulling it, dirt and all, and is it the water they want, or what's in the water. Trace elements? Mud? Microscopic life? But, more than that, what are they doing with it? And, also, who are they, because no one around today could've built this, yet it's very evidently here. Isn't it all just fascinating?"

Vi stared at me, with a somewhat confused yet amused look on her face.

"What?" I asked, looking around. Had I said something odd?

"Nothing, just..." she trailed off, walking past me, tapping me on the chest with a single huffing laugh. "Come on, science-guy. We need to get going."

"O-kay?" I replied, getting another laugh from her, sending one last look around the room before following her out, moving up next to her when we started to get to the edge of the 'swamp', as I was technically our guide out of here, and would be the one who would know how not to lead us into a trap.

Probably.

​

I might not be wanting to walk us into a trap, but my Talent, apparently, had other ideas.

"I'm not liking this," Vi commented tightly, as another creature scuttered across our path, metallic carapace glinting in the chemtech lights, the hallways having given way to a series of chambers, and, personally, I'd rather be back in the hallways.

Yes, they were rather tight, and our way could be blocked, but it was a lot easier to keep track of two directions than all of them. And I did mean all, as one metal millipede shot out of a hole in the floor a couple dozen feet away, stopped long enough to stare at us with dark eyes, then took off to run through the doorway we'd entered this room from.

Which meant they could go were we were, they just were choosing not to.

"Not the biggest fan of it myself, but the other option was worse," I muttered, tracking two on the ceiling that were slowly following us, silently, but my Talent was at least pulling its weight in telling me where everything was. "Are you sure you don't want me to drop you off back Home for a few minutes?"

The brawler, walking with balanced steps next to me, taut as a bowstring, visibly considered that, before shaking her head. "No. They look like they might be smart."

As much as I didn't want to agree with her, these things did seem to be acting with far more than insectile purpose, which meant my Defense was merely an advantage, not a protection. "Yeah, I can see that." And it didn't help that my Talent was telling me not to try and talk with them, but just to continue onwards.

The chambers themselves were... interesting, and the kind of thing I'd like to poke around, given the opportunity, a runic array inscribed on one chamber's ceilings, a number of mechanical arms contained within its circle, and, from the shape of the room and what I assumed were drainage pipes, it was used to do something, but the occasional stump of wood or other material, long since rotted and degraded, only gave the barest hint of its original purpose, a bit like how the Colosseum of Rome wasn't the ruins you could see.

I'd fought in a faithful recreation of it as part of a seminar that Caeser had given on tactics, 'dying' in the process, as had almost everyone else in that class, the magics on the place keeping all damage nonlethal, and I'd understood about one thing in three that he'd talked about, but I'd picked up a good bit, though the man's overreliance on his own, admittedly impressive, charisma had been a lesson of its own, when one kept in mind how he'd died.

So, this place had obviously done something, before it'd been infested, but now?

Not a clue.

I'd recognized some of the runes, one for strength/integrity/wholeness, one for cut/sever/division, and one for bind/merge/whole, with 'wholeness' being completely different than 'whole', but some of them seemed downright contradictory, confusing the heck out of me.

I really was fingerpainting, when it came to this magic stuff, and was now coming across half destroyed murals, with not even a clue of how they'd been achieved.

And it didn't help that, paradoxically, the air had suddenly started to feel heavier as we rose in the last few minutes.

It was something I wish I could focus on, but, hey, look, more metal millipedes!

"Jayce?" Vi called, clearly worried, glancing my way, crimson gauntlets opening and closing nervously.

Putting question after question to my Talent, in case I'd missed something, every permutation said the same thing. Keep walking. Look but don't engage. And, surprisingly, Keep you companion in view.

"This is what we're supposed to do," I told her, my sword and gun out, which, weirdly, was exactly what I was being directed to do, down to subtly flexing my hand on the blade, clearly displaying it as a weapon.

Ruined chamber after ruined chamber was passed through, the number of metal millipedes growing, until there were dozens hanging around us, watching, waiting, and then, as one, they charged.

I had to lunge to grab Vi, as she got ready to leap forward at them, the girl sending a wide eyed look of betrayal my way, adrenaline pumping, and I knew I likely couldn't stop her completely, but, after a moment, she stopped pulling away, as the snake-like insects scuttered forward, faster than we could run, before stopping a mere two-dozen feet away, a single second's travel for them, and... circled?

Yes, they spun about us, counterclockwise, more and more until it was a solid ring of shiny carapaces, then two, the creatures clicking in an almost musical pattern, until they stopped, and rose, all of them staring at us, compound insectile eyes all regarding us coldly.

Two of the closest metal millipedes, one on either side of us, moved forward, only a few feet, and, with my Talent feeding me instructions, I understood.

"Vi? We're being challenged. Lethal force is perfectly fine," I snapped off. "But if they escape out of the circle, don't pursue, or they'll try and rip you to pieces."

"I, what?" the girl asked, as our two anthropoidal foes buzzed, starting to get, well, antsy.

"Warrior culture strength check. Like a fistfight in The Lanes, but worse. Go," I ordered, stepping forward, facing off against my foe. It... bowed?

I returned the gesture, and then, with a hiss, it charged me, and I brought my pistol up, snapping off two shots, but, of course, the 9mm bullets bounced right off the creature's curved carapace. How the hell am I gonna make this work? I wondered, but my Talent said I could, so I focused, watching as it closed the distance, then leapt forward, bringing my blade up, not trying to meet the creature's momentum, but using it to catch and deflect its charge, metallic mandibles scraping the steel, gun pressed up to a joint in its back, with just enough clearance for the bullet, as I fired again.

And I cut the creature in half.

what.

Both halves turned and jumped at me, even as Vi cried out, "Jayce!?" and I saw her struggling with two separate millipedes, only one was a fourth the size of the original, while the other was two-thirds. Though they differed in size, however, they both had mouths full of wiggling, slicing, mandibles and glittering eyes that stared balefully at my partner.

In my distraction, both of my opponents latched onto my legs, but, while they tried to bite something fierce, the inserts in my pants distributed the force, and the spidersilk held up against their probing teeth, which were thankfully not the insane amount of sharp that was needed to cut the weave.

"Hold the little one up!" I ordered, sighting, hoping this would go better, and pulled the trigger, the gun bucking in my hand, but my aim was true, well true enough, and while I missed the eye I was aiming for, I hit the next one over, the creature shrieking as it stopped trying to pull itself down Vi's arm, the outside of her jacket cut up, again, and instead reversed course.

Violetta, surprised, let it go, as it skittered past the circle of watching metal millipedes, which let her refocus on the larger foe. Or, as I was realizing, the three bugs, with a hundred legs each, stuck together, but their digits weren't the same setup that centipedes had legs, each of their individual limbs stumpy in a way that would've almost been cute if they weren't trying to fucking kill me.

Giving up on my shins, both of my attackers started to climb up my legs, my face exposed, with surprisingly secure holds, as I was forced to use my sword to crowbar one off, while the other I just shoved my gun at, shooting it in its buggy face.

The second one didn't die, but still reared back, falling away, coming apart only for the two halves to just switch places, the uninjured one taking 'point'.

Thankfully, while this was going on I wasn't waiting around, and fully removed my other attacker, which skuttled about, before outright jumping for me, like some kind of demented spider, which I dodged, only in time to realize that it was heading for Vi.

"HIT HERE HEAD HARD!!!" I commanded, throat straining with the force of my Voice, and she jolted, turning and punching without thinking, putting her all into the hit, and striking with a crunch that not only struck true, but sent the creature flying through the air past my head, as I charged, her obeyance opening herself for attack by the three-part millipede.

Slamming my gun into its holster, I ordered, "FORWARD!" as I stepped into the space she vacated, thrusting my blade with both hands into the creature's gullet, the weight slamming into me as its length flopped, and, taking the blow as the rest of its body hit me, I kicked out, pushing it away and tried to flick it off my blade, but, with a loud snap, my sword broke, leaving me just the handle and a sliver of sharp metal.

The front section of my opponent broke off, skittering away drunkenly, but I didn't stop my attack, very glad my boots had reinforced toes as I slammed the hardest kick I could muster into the combined two, flipping it and dropping myself down on it with the sharpened fragment, stabbing into the front-one's leg joints, black blood spurting out.

Before I could stab again, the creature shrieking, the back one let go, flipped over, then grabbed its compatriot and pushed it forward, both of them disappearing beyond the circle, which tightened up around it.

Turning, I saw that Vi was wailing on the last combined creature, the shell cracking as it twitched, before it, too was pulled away. She started to follow it, but caught herself before I could say a word, and looked my way, eyes dipping to my stained, broken blade, then back to my face as I stood and retreated to the middle of the circle.

Pinging my Talent, it just said to wait, before, as one, the metal millipedes dipped their foremost sections, turned, and left, only the spattering of dark ichor on my hilt, and on the ground, showing they'd been here at all.

There was a clicking to the side, and one of the creatures popped out of a wall, pulled a lever, then disappeared, a hidden doorway opening and revealing... stairs?

Go! my Talent ordered, so I started to walk, Vi falling in step with me a moment later. "You hurt?" I asked the girl, wincing, my throat a little raw.

"Not really. Just a scratch. You?" she asked back.

"Same. And my throat. Sorry," I apologized, each word stinging. "It was coming for you, and-"

"It's fine," she interrupted, with a shake of her head. "I, that was messed, Jayce, but... you could always do that?"

Wiggling my sword in a maybe gesture as we reached the stairs, which went up, and up, and up, I replied. "Backlash sucks. Could train it up. Don't want to."

Violetta considered that, then nodded. "I, yeah. I get it. Heh, speaking of messed, what were those things?"

Grimacing I tried to respond, which caused her to wince. "Right, sorry," she apologized. "Don't talk. But were those things made of metal?"

I shrugged, and held up a hesitant thumb up as we both climbed the stairs. Miming reaching down in their direction, I made a grasping motion, then cut the imaginary sample, narrowing my eyes as I held up the theoretical piece.

"Ya think so, but you'd have to have one to see?" she checked, and I nodded. "Right. Well, go up a bit more then take a break?"

I nodded emphatically, and she laughed, giving me a light punch as she commented, "Ya know, you're a lot easier to deal with when you're quiet."

At my flat look, she just laughed harder.

​

After a quick break, grabbing another copy of my 'rib-sword' from the armory, and some soothing tea, I was good to go once more, the same supernatural method that tore it up responsible for putting it back together, but stronger. If I was really a masochist, and wanted to pull a Purple Man, I'd work it like I was working the rest of my body, but, while I liked having the capability, if only for situations like I'd just needed it for, actively seeking to improve my ability to supernaturally influence the minds of others was a bridge too far for me.

With full stocks of bullets, and a single 'grenade', wrapped in saran wrap to avoid accidental detonation, we were ready to go, giving Piper a wave as we stepped back into Under-Zaun, and climbed the staircase again.

Up and up we went, having gone up two dozen flights before taking our break, which seemed like a lot, but was really just the height of the trashtapus' chamber, not including the similarly sized 'funnel' chamber above it. We passed door after door, and opened one that Wild Talent okayed just to see what was on the other side. It revealed a ruined workshop, long corroded pieces of metal that looked like tools everywhere, and a broken chemfluid pipe in the back, streaming glowing green fluid into a large pool on the floor, which ran out into the next chamber and had gathered into a small lake, but was slowly flowing away.

Everything was fine until something splashed in the lake of poison, and my instincts told me the time to sight-see was over if I had a guest, so we quickly retreated and closed the door back up, continuing upwards.

Another forty stories later, we had to take another break, as, while we could press on, we needed to be ready fight at any moment. Taking a few minutes to sit on the stairs, we both relaxed, somewhat, listening, and watching, but this stairway seemed unused, the doors we passed covered in a thin layer of dust.

"So, Violetta," I said, gesturing to the far wall, which had some kind of writing layered over it. "You know what that says?"

The brawler scoffed, "I thought you were the one that went to the fancy school, Jayce Talis."

"Well, Ms. Vandottir," I replied with fake primness, "I thought, with you being a native to this area, you might know. Because I have no fucking clue."

"... Really?" she asked, skeptical.

"Really," I agreed, looking at the oddly shaped squiggles. We were, strangely enough, speaking English, but the writing system I got, courtesy of Jayce's memories, was almost Coptic, the middle stage between hieroglyphs and Arabic, though a bit more 'loopy' and circular than that. Meanwhile ancient Shuriman was actual hieroglyphs, while the modern version was closer to Arabic, and then there was Noxus, where you had both Ur-Nox and Va-Nox, the old and new version of both, which had their own writing systems, which looked almost malignant, and then there was Damacia that had its own two versions, old and new, which were all 'runes but not really', and...

Shit was complicated, to say the least, but 'Piltovan' was the trade language, so it worked everywhere, and... well, I knew a number of languages, as did a lot of people, and my brain pretty much just auto-translated it all to English, except for the actually magical languages, like Sylvan and Necril, which required me to consciously shift gears.

"I know over a dozen languages, and two of them are literally magical, but I have no idea what that says," I finally remarked, waving to the squiggly sigils. "I'm guessing the stuff on the left is a number, as it's been shifting as we go up, but it might be base thirteen instead of base ten, which is just... why?"

"Wait, you know magic languages?" Vi checked.

Giving her a confused look, I replied, "You saw me speak Necril to the Banshee. I also speak Sylvan, or Yordle, depending on who you ask. Honestly, I should probably look into picking up a few more. With my vast amounts of free time," I sighed, shaking my head, "But there's significant bleedover with the locals, so for all I know the Void speaks Aklo, or maybe Abyssal, and someone probably speaks Celestial, which should be a good 'get out of awkward free' card if I find myself anywhere near Mt. Targon."

"You... you can learn magical languages? Just like that?" she questioned, and I stared at her flatly. "Right. Right. Spirit. But," she mulled it over. "Can I learn?"

"Didn't take you for one of those 'academic' types," I remarked, with a small smile.

That got me a glare. "It's not like you making us learn math and stuff. I just want to know what people are saying. There's nothing academic-y about that," she replied, more than a little defensively, waving a hand dismissively.

"There's entire fields of academic study based on language," I pointed out, "But sure. To be honest, I was planning on teaching you both Necril, at least, in case I have to deal with another co-worker, but the language primers are freely available to all Company Agents, and so you can get them too. Just be a little careful with using them, as they've got... weight."

Waving at the sigils in front of us, I returned to my original topic, "But this? Not a fucking clue. It's some regional bullshit, possibly lost, like, well, to follow the local naming scheme I'd call it Ur-Piltovan, except for the fact that there was no 'old Piltover', and if I say 'Zaunian' that's just Plitovan with a different writing system, while, this seems like something entirely different, so 'Ur-Zaunian', or maybe it's not, and you could talk it like we are now, and it's just the writing system that's different, and... I've got nothing."

Vi stared at me. "That's a whole lotta words for 'I don't know'."

"it's a very specific kind of 'I don't know'," I defended, "But yeah, I don't know. And was hoping that you would."

"Nope," she smirked, shaking her head, and getting up. "But we should get moving. Who knows, maybe these stairs go all the way to the surface?"

Standing up, I sighed, "Well, now that you've jinxed us, it certainly won't."

Pausing for a moment, she bluffed, "You don't know that!"

"Nope, but I can guess," I chuckled, moving to the next flight. "Now let's see how much higher we can go before we have to deal with more of this place's craziness."

Chapter Thirty-Seven

We climbed another dozen floors before, despite the way up being clear, my Talent directing me to leave, and, despite my very natural curiosity for what else could be higher, I stomped on it and carefully levered open the door, then pushed it out slowly, peering around it to see what was on the other side.

And it seemed fine.

Seemed.

Hesitantly moving forward, shooting Vi an uneasy glance, which she returned in kind, we entered the space, thick pipes lining the walls, a heavy, earthy scent in the air, and the corridor mostly dark, except for a few green tubes that carried Chemfluid, illuminating the space with an almost poisonous seeming light.

Closing the door behind us, its edge was so flush with the wall it practically disappeared, a nearby lever swinging on its own, likely the mechanism that'd open it back up again. Moving through the hall, distant clanking could be heard, but there was a constant susurrus of noise that laid in the air like a heavy blanket, the sound of a lot of something moving through the tubes all around us muffling whatever was working in the distance.

Once more, I was guided by my Talent, as we navigated through several rooms where... something was supposed to happen, or may even be currently happening, the spaces mostly dark, though that meant little, knowing I would've been hopeless lost otherwise. Looking about, though, keeping an eye out for potential issues that would probably go after Violetta first, everything seemed... newer?

No, I thought, catching bits of rusted, broken metal in awkward corners, this place has been cared for. That was... worrying.

Ahead of us, as we moved quietly down a large, boulevard-like hallway, multicolored lights spilled in from a side-room, and, glancing to my partner, she seemed as curious, and as wary, as I was. Creeping up on it, Wild Talent wanted me to keep going, but, running hypotheticals, it was fine to look inside.

Unsheathing my sword and extending it into the room, nothing happened, so I leaned over the threshold, and stared.

The room was large, and the tubes around us ran into it, emptying their contents, showing them to be full of dark silt, which was dumped into large glass vats, robotic arms clearly powered by Chemtech stirring and doing... something to it. All throughout the chamber, various Chemtech devices were at work, red Chemtech heating elements sizzling as they lifted in and out of the mud, sending plumes of steam up, which didn't collect along the ceiling but were sucked away into still-functioning vents, blue Chemtech electrified elements shocked the mix for reasons I couldn't really understand, while one long cylinder containing purple Chemtech fluid in each vat did... something.

Glancing about, the room seemed empty of life, and I cautiously entered it, examining the space, and the devices contained within. Vi followed me, nervous, not that I could blame her. Approaching the vats, there were controls in front of each one, with dials and gauges, the latter of which broke a long time ago, each console covered with the same writing I'd been seeing elsewhere, engraved into the metal itself, worn down and scratched in places, but still visible.

Too bad I didn't understand a fuckin' word of it.

More than that, though, the base of the vat was an array, one covered with Runes that glowed with faint green light, washed out by the other sources in the room, only visible when I accidentally blocked the glow cast by all the other pieces of Chemtech present as I got close.

Making sure I was recording it all with my Company Phone, I slowly circled the array, taking it all in, catching runes for separation/division/removal, concentration/distillation/deepening, and gather/fuse/bind among others. They were doing... something to the mud mixture, something that was enhancing, modifying, or possibly even transmuting the substance within.

But I had no idea how, or why.

My first thought was 'Oh, hey, let me copy this for my own Hextech research', right until I realized that I was essentially trying to copy the inner workings of a cellphone by looking at the circuit-board inside. Well, not that bad, but it was more like trying to figure out a clockwork industrial device just by looking at the gears I could glimpse through the gaps in its construction, magical devices like this one existing in far more dimensions than the standard four.

But that didn't mean that, eventually, I couldn't get something out of it, starting with how the fuck was it being powered in the first place. Because, for the life of me, I couldn't figure out where the mana was coming from.

"Jayce?" Vi questioned, as I was finishing up the loop.

"Gimme a sec," I replied, getting all of it, only then glancing up to her, asking, "Yeah?"

Without saying a word, she pointed to the doorway, which was empty, but, over the sound of the crackling, buzzing, flowing, mixing, and more, there was an odd rhythmic pounding. I started to walk towards it, only for Wild Talent to tell me to Not Do That, the pull in my head directing me towards a different doorway, with increasing urgency.

"I think it's time for us to leave, but that way," I told the teen, backpedaling past her, keeping my eyes on the dangerous entrance as the rhythmic pounding increased, until, as we both neared the far doorway, a large metallic shape, made of burnished brass came into sight.

It was a very large automaton, twice as big as a person, and almost literally barrel chested, with lines of green chemtech circulating inside it, seen through the joints, its cylindrical chest slowly rotating around to face us as it moved on stumpy legs, coming into the room, the machine stopping as it saw us both. Its large, goggle-like glowing green eyes, Chemfluid swirling behind them, turned red, which spread throughout the creature, as it barked out some kind of order, in a language I did not know, but seemed to maybe sound a little like Ur-Shuriman was supposed to, Jayce having never met a living speaker.

As the automaton started to shimmer with heat, body parts clunkily extending to make it bigger, I told it courteously, "So sorry, just visiting, leaving now, Run, Vi!"

My partner, however, didn't need my urging, and had already turned, and was starting to flee. I sprinted after her, hazarding a look back to see the creature lifting a fist to point at me, and I mentally queued Wild Defense for what to do, only to get a frantic shrug and a wordless feeling that roughly translated to ~I don't fuckin' know! Take a right? Run, Forrest, Run!~

"Right!" I called out as Violetta reached the doorway, the girl not hesitating to go what I directed, throwing a hand out to grasp the edge of the not-so-oversized-anymore doorway to use it to swing to the side, a motion I copied, barely getting out of the room when I heard a retort like a canon firing, and something large passed me by, inches away, slamming into the far wall with an ear-splitting KLANG!

Looking back, I saw the creature's hand had slammed into the far wall, fingers splayed out, grasping, and closing on nothing as, with a loud whirr audible over everything else, the large cable sticking out of the back of its detached limb reeled back, retrieving the pseudo-grapnel, the sound of its footsteps, now faster, and far louder, echoing as it started to pursue us.

"What was that, Jayce!?" Vi called back to me, slowing just a little for me to catch up.

"I don't know, the janitor?" I shot back in return, the automaton calling out something, only for the cry to reverberate from several other directions, more stomping starting to ring down the corridors. "Or the support staff?" I amended, focusing inwards, getting directions from my Talent. "Either way, I've got our way out. Fourth right, third left, straight for four rooms, immediately right, left, right, and then forward-left, because I apparently have fucking echolocation, because why the fuck not!?"

Vi blinked at that, then nodded. "Well, okay then. They didn't give you a spirit lesson in spirit school about this stuff?"

"Not on this!" I shot back, the single-day long Seminar on this Talent woefully incomplete, pushing myself as hard as I could, as the sounds of the oncoming automatons were getting louder, and, spotting the doorway we needed, I pointed it out, even as another one of the constructs exited further along the hall and lifted its right hand, sighting down it at us.

With another boom it fired, but it was over fifty feet away, and we both ducked out of its path, the enormous metal hand passing between us, Vi shifting to slide under the still-extending cable to get to the doorway, as we both turned right into another 'mud-treatment' chamber, just the same as the first, booking it across the glowing space, and into the hallway beyond. Then we ran across it into another room, this one dark, and then a third, this one was also dark, but the red light of another automaton spilled into the unlit chamber as it arrived.

"Left!" I yelled, as Vi, who was going to head straight, leapt up, landing feet-first on a tube, using it to ground her momentum before springing off, joining me as the construct started to sight in on us, but then we were gone, the machinery in the next room allowing us to break sight lines.

"Hallways aren't rooms!" the teen chastised, the girl easily vaulting over pieces of machinery that I had to run around, though I could feel Martial Talent copying how she did so, my own movements starting to smooth out as I tried to keep up.

Unable to help myself, I quipped back, "They are, just really long ones!"

The girl shot me an annoyed look, her eyes widening as she yelled, "Jump!"

I did so without hesitation, pulling my legs up, a metallic hand shooting under me to crash into the floor I'd been running across, another automaton having tried to grab us, though, given how hard it was hitting, I wasn't sure how much there'd be much left of us for it to 'catch'.

Thankfully, we were gone, into the next chamber, the automata not willing to break the machinery we were running around, over, and through to get to us, the next few rooms full of functioning devices, these ones hard at work doing something, dirty water swirling through transparent structures, double-helixes of fluid spinning downwards, tightening, more runes inscribed on the bases of the tubes, but, as much as I wanted to take it all in, we couldn't stop.

Trying to split the difference, I moved to the left of one, then the right of the other, spinning about just for a moment to make sure my camera got a good shot at the back of a third, almost tripping, as another automata entered the chamber, lifting it arm, but then we were gone before it could fire, my heart beating loudly in my chest, so glad I'd forced myself to endure Vi's training.

"Here!" I called, as I entered a large, square, empty room, Vi having slowed, two automatons coming in, one through the opposite doorway, the other through the left one, both sighting on us, as we scrabbled to the side, the two chemtech robots firing at us, but their hands impacted each other mid-air, fingers snapping shut with the sound like a pair of bear traps springing, metal screeching against metal as they, technically, held hands.

How lewd!

Vi, already ahead of me, glanced back, worried, the girl outpacing me easily, but, despite the imminent danger, she stayed behind just enough to keep me in sight. Breathing hard, I nodded to her, shooting the teen what I hoped was a confident smile, as we hit the next room, and turned, as another construct was waiting, the sound of the rest of them growing louder, as they tried to hem us in.

Thankfully, they telegraphed their attacks like nuts if you had eyes on them, and the hand it sent flying towards the brawler was one she slid under, and I leapt over the cable it trailed as the hand hit the far wall, the line going taut, my foot catching on it, but, stumbling, I managed to keep my momentum as we headed to the left, where another construct had stomped in, and I threw myself into a forward roll, this machine's hand slamming into the previous one, as it gripped and started to pull automatically, yanking the last construct off its feet with a deafening crash.

Heading to the right, that doorway opened up into a long hallway, and we both bolted down it, seeing it fork in the distance, as yet another freaking automaton stumped into the intersection, lifting a hand and firing it at us, as we both dodged out of the way, charging towards it, only, as its left hand pulled back, it lifted the other one, pointing it at Vi, who wasn't expecting the attack, as I pulled my pistol, sighted the best I could, and let fly with the full clip, aiming for its large, circular eyes.

My shots were wild, sparking as they deflected off its bulbous, circular head, but several struck true, cracking both lenses, sending streamers of red fluid shooting out, and causing the construct to stumble, it's shot going wide. Its second metal hand slammed into the wall, latching onto a pipe that it pulled free, sending mud spewing into the hall between us in great dark gouts.

Vi, reaching the growing hazard, didn't miss a beat, leaping forward to come down on it, sliding forward, chambering a fist back for some kind of punch, while I just tried not to slip, almost succeeding, falling forward and sliding face-first through the muck, pushing off of it and getting my feet back under me as I desperately struggled, hearing more of the constructs coming from behind us. Glancing back, I saw one aiming for me, and threw myself the side, almost succeeding once more.

One of the thing's fingers slammed into the reinforced metal 'rib' of my coat, the armor working as intended: as one giant harness to distribute the force of any blows I took. Thus, the damage was taken from a single point of bone-breaking force down to widespread bruising as I was shot forward, skating on the incredibly slick mud, managing to get to my feet as I saw Vi reach the forward automaton and, with a leap, slam her fist into its head, stopping herself cold, denting the metal a little, and nothing else.

One of its enormous hands came up and tried to catch the girl, hanging mid-air, who parried the blow just enough to be pushed to the side, its grasping fingers sliding over her jacket without finding purchase, and she landed on the ground, the heat coming off the automaton baking the mud that got close, though more and more was spreading out, as, without hesitation, it turned and levelled its second, now returned hand, point blank, at the girl.

Because of course its eyes were fucking decorational!

But I came blazing in at the same moment, yelling, "Vi!"

The brawler saw me, already starting to dodge the incoming blow, but far too slowly, as the construct tracked her, and she started to throw out a hand for me to grab, but, covered with slick mud as I was, that wasn't an option, and she only had time to slightly widen her arms when I tackled her, body-checking the teen as the fist was fired.

I knocked her free, and was clipped, again, but that just spun me about like a top as I bounced into the correct hallway, feeling hands grip the back of my jacket and haul me to my feet, Violetta shoving me forward as I slipped, the mud on my boots rubbing off after a few frantic moments, and I found my footing. Grabbing my grenade, priming it, I tossed it backwards, not that I really expected it to do anything, but we needed every distraction we could get, and, after it boomed, the smoke cloud it left behind obscured things long enough for us to turn the corner, and, muscles burning, adrenaline pumping, we continued running as if our lives depended on it, because they did.

It was only several minutes later, a dozen turns put between us and the constructs, that I finally saw something that made me slow.

Rust.

The area the automata inhabited had been maintained and cleaned, while, with the layer of grime around us, we'd clearly left their territory. And, queueing Wild Talent, we seemed to be in a safe zone.

"Okay!" I wheezed, coming to a stumbling halt, leaning on a wall as I tried not to collapse, and, again, almost succeeded, sliding halfway down it. "We're good."

Violetta paused, also breathing hard, eyes searching my expression, before she nodded, then promptly dropped to her knees, leaning back to take a seat opposite of me, back against the hallway wall.

"Jayce, what the fuck?" she questioned seriously, after taking several moments to catch her breath.

Giving up and taking a seat myself, I leaned my head against the wall, feeling like the room was spinning a little, and shrugged, waving a hand the way we came. "Apparently, we just met some of the original residents of this place. Language seemed Ur-Shuriman derivative, probably, so, ya know, old as fuck. Also, my Talent with wilderness kinda works on automated devices, but also kinda doesn't. Also also, they were doing something with the mud."

Rubbing my hand together, I was able to get the muck mostly off my palms, and while it didn't look like anything special I didn't know enough about geology to really make that call. Then, glancing down at the substance that stained my clothing, I saw that parts of it were baked solid, and realized that, as I'd come in to get the white-haired teen out of danger, I'd been splattered with the red chemtech fluid, which had been superheated.

I looked to Vi, asking, concerned, "You okay? That last part was hot."

"No prob," she waved away with forced bravado. "I had it right where I wanted it."

Unable to help myself, I chuckled, shaking my head. "No, I mean it was literally hot. I can go swim in lava, but you're still human. Did you get scorched?"

Violetta blinked, then checked herself, grimacing as she saw a number of small holes had been burned in her jacket, before shaking her head. "Nah, I'm fine. Stupid thing screwed up my jacket, though."

"Did you craft it at Home?" I questioned, and, confused, she nodded. "Then it'll have copied the template, and you can just get another one."

Sighing, and fighting against myself, I struggled to my feet, legs still unsteady, and called my Phone to me, opening a portal. "Speaking of, let's go Home, change, grab a drink, and keep going. Deal?"

The white-haired teen blinked, then laughed, shaking her head, and, accepting my outstretched hand, used me to leverage herself back up to her feet. "Deal."

​

Walking up a set of stairs, an hour later, Vi and I both stopped, and stared out over the fungal forest that had taken over this portion of the under-undercity, and which Wild Talent was telling me was totally safe guys.

"Nope," I said, turning around, and heading back down, queueing the Company guide for a different path, which, after a bit of sulking, it provided. "Not doing that."

​

Vi and I stared out across the enormous chamber, easily two hundred feet up, as I wondered just how far we'd fallen. It was even larger across, maybe a mile, maybe even more, and, cutting it in half, was a fucking river of bright green Chemfluid, which a single, rickety looking metal bridge stretched across.

On the other end, to the right, was our destination, a very large tunnel entrance, lit by glowing blue Chemlights.

On the other end, to the left, was a fucking scrap castle, manned by, yeah, the Ratlings.

Pressing Wild Talent, it told me that, short of spending a full day backtracking, these were the only ways we could go. Turning to my travel companion, I stated, "It's this, the fungus route, or we're gonna be late enough there's gonna be a search party."

Violetta stared at the vista before us, before glancing my way. "And this is doable?"

"At least as doable as the section with the metal guys was," I shrugged.

The brawler mulled that over, working her jaw, before with a forceful exhale, nodded.

"Let's do it."

Chapter Thirty-Eight

Stopping for a moment, we stepped back home, as I stocked up on ammo and grenades, allowing Piper out for a moment to see what we were going to be crossing, the small girl excitedly oohing and aahing over the vista, the glowing canyon, and even the distant Ratling castle. I considered possibly busting out the rifles, given the extreme range of possible threats, but, while my long-guns were good, the Ratling battlements were well over a mile away, and, short of the kind of expertise that Caitlyn would have as a Champion, I wasn't going to be able to make that shot, assuming my rifles even had that kind of range in the first place.

Part of me still wanted to put off our crossing, this entire thing screaming Danger!, but it was already three in the afternoon, and I had no idea how much further we had to go. It wasn't an issue of capability, just nerves, I knew that, as we were running into things we were in no way prepared for, but I had to trust Wild Talent wouldn't get us killed, and so pressed forward, leading Piper back Home as Violetta and I finished our final checks, and started picking our way down the rusted, junk-covered stairs towards the canyon filled with chemfluid, the smell of it thick in the air, but not heavy enough that it started to nudge my Defenses.

Looking up, there the ceiling was a rusted mess of shapes, glowing bits of chemfluid that'd collected, possibly through condensation, forming a green constellation, while small, dark shapes flitted about, likely bats, or something that bore a passing resemblance to bats, given everything else here. Regardless, we got down without incident, the bridge a good twenty feet across, but heavily rusted, and covered with gouges that all pointed to the castle off to left.

Peering over the edge, about a hundred feet below us raged the glowing green river, with, yes, some kind of fish in it, because, sure, why not? They were long and thin, like barracudas, but with a dozen eyes in two clusters on each side, and covered in long spines, one occasionally leaping a good twenty feet up out of the river as they slowly made their way upstream, like the world's worst salmon, giving us even more of a reason to not fall into the incredibly toxic 'waters', as if we needed one.

Leaning back, and nodding to my partner, I told her, "Let's get going, Vi."

"Sure thing, Jayce," she agreed, suppressing her own nervousness, as we both moved to the center of the bridge and started to carefully make our way across, the sounds from below muffling our footsteps, the light from the river casting us both in unnatural shadows.

Stirrings from my Talent guided my steps, as, while there were holes from which light poured up, the metal completely eaten away, there were other, weakened sections that, under my probing foot, started to give way, green illumination shining through the slight crack in the broken metal I'd left behind.

"Vi!" I warned, the girl stopping, her gaze dropping to my foot as I pulled it away. "Make sure to follow me," I directed, feeling out with senses that told me that most of the bridge was fine, but, scattered about, were bits that would either swallow my leg at best, or dump me into the river at worst. At her nod, we shifted position, no longer moving side-by-side, the metal occasionally creaking but otherwise fine.

"Jayce," Violetta called, her tone odd, and seeming to come from my left, something about the bridge's acoustics clearly messing up the sound, but, glancing back at her, she'd paled.

"That wasn't me," she said, glancing off to the left herself, but there was nothing there.

Ghosts? I wondered, but there was no unnatural coldness to the air, nor any other indicator, other than that which could be attributed to my own nerves, my Defenses quiet, nothing pressing on my mind or soul.

I shrugged, and motioned for her to continue following, but we'd only made it another dozen steps when another voice, my voice, called out, "Vi!" from behind us both, causing us to turn, but, again, there was nothing there.

"Okay, time to double time it," I told her worriedly, the white-haired girl nodding, as we both broke out into a jog, drifting back and forth, until, again, a voice that sounded like me but was not, called, "Vi!" from the right, even as Wild Talent directed me 'Left!'

Turning the opposite way the teen did, I caught a flash of movement that arrowed in for the girl, a volleyball sized mass of wings and teeth, that I reflexively stepped towards, copying Vi's technique as, with a grunt, I sunk a punch into it, causing the creature to squeal as something in it cracked and it was sent flying down into the ravine, a chemacuda leaping up to snatch it out of the air.

"What?" Violetta asked, head snapping my way, even as a voice behind me called, "Jayce!" and my Talent warned 'Right!'

Turning, I tried to punch again, a bat thing silently swooping down, the creature's body fifty-percent mouth by volume, packed with fangs like a lamprey's, which it opened to bite down on my gauntleted hand, digging into the fabric and trying to find purchase.

Thankfully, whatever this was didn't have monomolecular teeth, or something similar, and the metal weave in my work gloves stopped it dead, its dark red skin, the color of rust, stretching and warping as it fruitlessly tried to draw blood, the thing's four eyes, moving independently, all twisting about to focus on me as it gnawed on my hand some more, to no avail.

"Vi!" my own voice sounded to the left, and I ignored it, only for my Talent to direct me that direction anyways, so I turned, punching, using the... voice-bat like a boxing glove as I hit the next one, the impact dislodging my passenger, sending both bodies bouncing along the bridge, one falling through a hole and into the chem-river below.

And then, above us, they swarmed, cries of "V-Vi!" and "Jay-ay-ayce!" echoing madly, and I didn't need my Talent to tell me what to do.

"Run!" I commanded, taking off at a sprint, Violetta on my heels, our only saving grace that, despite their numbers, these creatures worked as solitary predators, coming at us one at a time, as I pulled my revolver in one hand, a grenade in another, and primed it, as Vi darted to the left, taking out another voice-bat.

More swooped down, and I was able to tag three of them, having to pistol whip a fourth, Violetta a whirl of blows as she broke half a dozen on her metal-clad knuckles. Using my thumb to flick the timer down to a single second, I hurled my explosive, into the mass of dark red above us, sprinting forward, Violetta right behind me, as it went off, temporarily dispersing the mass, dozens of bodies splattering the metal we'd just passed over and giving us a moment to breath, as we continued to run, only a third of the way across the bridge.

"Jayce, wait!" I heard Vi's voice call, my Talent not offering any advice, and for half a second I almost ignored the statement, not sure if it was her or more of the voice-bats, slowing enough in my indecision for Violetta to grab the back of my coat and yank me backwards.

Saving my life.

The space I was about to run into was filled with a log-sized, crudely wrought scrap metal bolt, which bounced off the floor of the bridge, gouging the metal in the process, before rebounding off and into the ravine below us, dropping into the chem-river.

Looking the way it'd came, I saw the Ratlings on the battlements of their castle, tiny in the distance, but even as I watched a half dozen of them worked a cobbled together ballista, sending another bolt flying out towards us, so much noise surrounding us that the sound of its firing was lost, a third already in the air, its path clear to anyone who understood ballistics, and knew it was coming.

"Thanks," I smiled tightly to the teen, honestly grateful but also only not rattled by my brush with a violent death because of Mind Defense keeping me on point. Seeing that Vi wasn't tracking the incoming bolts, but looking at me in concern, I reached back and grabbing her shoulder, pulling her closer to me as I stepped to the side, taking her out of the path of the next attack, which caused her to jump, glance back towards the Ratlings, then drag us both out of the path of the third, which struck a weak-point on the bridge, punching clean through it, the rusted metal under our feet shuddering from the force.

"We should go," she advised, trying to be cavalier about it, and I nodded, grabbing and priming another grenade, throwing it into the reforming voice-bat swarm, not taking out nearly as many, as the creatures were smart enough to recognize it as dangerous, but I still killed a few, several more swooping down for us, Vi letting go of me to punch two, while I shot another out of the sky, my other three shots going wide.

"We should," I agreed, turning and running, trusting Violetta to follow, keeping an eye on the ratlings, who started another three-bolt barrage, the fact that I had to move around a rusted section changing our timing, so the bolts all scoured the bridge in front of us, the several second flight time giving us room to dodge as long as we weren't distracted.

And the voice-bats were very distracting.

It was a balancing act, and one both Vi and I couldn't maintain. We prioritized the ballista bolts, because ballista bolts, but that meant we both got tagged by voice-bats, their teeth pinching painfully, but unable to get through our armor, thankfully latching onto the first thing that touched their fangs, allowing us to catch them on arms before they hit our unarmored heads.

Removing them was a pain, but, after the third, we worked out a bit of a system, proffering up the gnawing creatures to the other, who'd, with a shot or sharp punch, kill the offending monster, though both of us knew that we were one unlucky hit from going down, the one that caught my shoulder and tried to work its way up to my neck causing me no small amount of panic as I flicked my gun up and shot it off, burning through more ammo, and very glad I'd stocked up before we started this.

Worse, while one passenger was manageable, they weren't light, and slowed us down, throwing off our balance, the one time I got three on me making me stumble and almost fall, another half-dozen swooping in on me, sensing the opportunity, Vi getting in close, ripping them off me, while I had to aim past her body, unloading a full clip, reining in the desperation, feeling more like I had during my Final Exam then I ever had before on Runeterra, the sheer numbers wearing us down, the creatures working off some sort of stupid sunk-cost fallacy, not giving up even after we'd killed damn near a hundred of them, the trade in mortality risk vs. food gain not worth it. Worse, we were barely getting out of the way of the bolts the Ratlings sent our way now, their aim improving, one blowing right through a voice-bat that tried to follow us, splattering us both with its blood as it burst under the force of the attack.

"We're almost there," I urged Violetta, who was starting to flag for entirely different reasons than I was, the girl physically fine but getting mentally rung out. She nodded, even as the bats above us tried to copy my words, only for a couple of them to outright explode, spraying blood as mangled shrieks that warped the air around them twisted out in bursts of golden light, which, what?

Not the time, Jayce, I thought, grabbing my partner's jacket and urging her forward, taking her away from a weak-section of bridge she was about to try and run across, the edge still giving way under her, but the force of my pull carried her the extra foot onto safer ground, another bolt crashing past us, the lead-times getting shorter and shorter as we neared the Ratling castle, even incidentally, but they still couldn't draw a bead on us, which was our only saving grace.

Pushing Wild Talent, demanding a route instead of step by step instructions, it pushed right back, demanding more specific criteria, and defining that as just a way along the bridge, my brain seemed to lurch for a moment, before I could almost see the path forward, lit up in non-colors that made my head hurt, but I'd take it.

Digging deep, I bolted forward, with long, loping steps, jumping from strong point to strong point, using up my last grenade on the diminished voice-bat swarm, Violetta hot on my heels, as I didn't think, just acted, gun up and firing without me meaning to, as the other end of the chasm closed, fifty feet, then thirty, then ten, and then we were over, but the danger didn't stop there, as I turned and sprinted to the right, glancing back to see the bolts already in the air, dismissing them as they weren't an issue, the Ratlings aiming for where we'd be if we'd gone left, and tried to charge their defenses.

However, while the initial impacts weren't a danger, the ricochets were.

Two of them bounced off, but one skipped forward, narrowly missing Vi but hitting me square in the back.

For a second, the pain shocked me, like I'd gotten hit by a truck, the force alone sending me sprawling forward, into the rusted metal all around us, barely getting a hand up so I didn't go face first into god knows what.

"Jayce!" Vi called, as she reached me, stopping, unsure, as I tried to stagger to my feet. She quickly reached down, supporting me, as she tried to head for the exit, the voice-bats, which had started to pull away, coming back with a vengeance.

Fuck! This!

Fumbling, I called my phone to me, then opened the portal in front of us, and, as Violetta tried to move around it, I, with a grunt that sent shooting pains down my legs, dragged us both forward instead, back Home, Piper looking up, paling as she saw us, and started to run towards our way to help.

"SIDE!" I ordered, pulling Vi away, as two ballista-bolts came screaming through the gate, along with a half-dozen voice-bats at the edges, all of them already in motion when I'd opened the portal, bypassing the perception filters.

I closed the gateway, looking for my gun, but I'd lost it, as the creatures re-oriented on us, three going for me, but another three going for Piper, and I shoved Vi towards her sister, grimacing as I stood with my full weight, the brawler not hesitating, as I drew my sword, slicing one of the creatures, punching the second, while the third slammed into my chest, forcing me back-first into a table as I bit out a gasp of pain, Piper crying out, "No!"

Pitching forward, I hit the ground, the thing gnawing uselessly on the front of my coat, the other three already dead at Vi's fists, as, awkwardly, I brought my blade about and shoved it into the creature's side, killing it, and prying it off my body.

Leveraging the skewered monster away, I laid on the ground, telling them both, "I'm okay. Just sore. Also, ow."

That didn't stop Piper from rushing to my side to make sure, while Vi glared at the now closed gate. "I thought you said stuff couldn't come through this?" she demanded.

"Couldn't consciously come through," I sighed, making no move to get up. "The swarm probably pulled away, but those couldn't pull away fast enough. And the bolts were just bolts. You've seen me toss stuff through that before."

"But that's you and..." she trailed off, glancing my way. "Shit, Jayce, you're hurt!"

"Just a little," I replied, gritting my teeth, sitting up, feeling the kind of ache that suggested minor nerve damage, which, normally, would be very very bad, but, for a proto-champion Runeterran, meant I just needed to take a short break.

Probably.

Hopefully.

Turning back and forth, my coat seemed to stab into me a little with each motion, and I had a feeling about what had happened. "If you don't mind, Vi, could you help me to the medbay and with my coat? Piper, if you could grab the spray analgesic and wound-wash? Thanks."

The smaller girl hesitated, before nodding and running off, as Vi helped me to my feet again. After her sister was gone, the white-haired teen quietly asked, "Are you really okay? When I saw you take that hit to the back..."

"No, I can walk, it just hurts a bit," I reassured her. "And half of that is my probably own armor. I'll explain as I take care of it."

After giving me a searching look, Violetta nodded. "Fine, but maybe we should've taken the other route inst-"

"Nope," I disagreed cutting her off. "Trust me, as bad as this was, given my Talent's blindspots, the other way could've been way, way worse, and I would've had to do it alone. You do not mess with fungal biomes without full protections. Trust me."

​

After an hour to tend to my wounds, extracting shards from my flesh,and grab a snack, it was time to go back out, even as both sisters were hesitant to let me. My armored coat had done its job, distributing the spine-strike out down the full length of my back, the 'ribs' of the garment further spreading out the kinetic force, to the point that it was more like I'd gotten hit by a car then speared through the spine on a metal spike. It'd still hurt, and the armored plates had deformed, digging painfully into my flesh, but, once I'd removed them, mostly with the girls' help, and applied the proper medications, the shooting pains had disappeared, the pressure on my nerves relieved. Some extra bandages to provide both protections for the wound and some very needed padding later and I was good.

Damn it feels good to be Runeterran, I couldn't help but internally remark, as anything that wasn't a completely disabling wound could be brushed off, and even wounds that should've been quickly lethal, like Sevika impaling Vi through the stomach in a future that wouldn't happen, had seen the girl hanging on for at least an hour before she'd gotten a shimmer-based healing potion, and then she'd been good to go fifteen minutes later.

I would be feeling this in the morning, but I could keep going, having done more while in far worse condition, partially drained of life, with a broken arm, having to capture an enraged Youma, who, thanks to my squadmates' constant screwups and big mouths, knew we were coming.

Just because a person was going to work for literal Devils or Xianxia assholes was no excuse to monologue like a bad movie villain. At least, not before the job was done.

Compared to that clusterfuck, this wasn't really that bad.

"But, won't they be waiting for us?" Violetta questioned, concerned. I'd boxed up the voice-bat remains and put them in cold storage to go over when I knew what the hell I was looking at, and she'd dumped the shattered remains of the scrap-bolts into a lab, so the Gateroom looked good as new.

Checking my pistol, having retrieved an extra from the armory, as well as a new coat, I shook my head. "Depending on how good a view they had on us. We either look like we went down in a swarm of those creatures, or we vanished into thin air. Either way, the chance of us coming back, an hour later, is slim compared to the other possibilities, like us having just outright teleported out. I know it's a thing mages can do, and, hell, it's a thing I'm trying to figure out how to do industrially, so the chances of them waiting around for us are slim, and the chances of us instantly stumbling across them when we leave are little better."

Using our official 'gate poking stick', it came back clean, so I leaned out, and saw the coast was clear, even the dead voice-bats gone. Motioning for Vi to follow me, I stepped out fully, moving as quietly as I could, and looking around, strained to hear anything out of place.

But there was nothing.

Looking up, I could see the voice-bat colony having returned to their original state, and the Ratlings manning the walls were similarly lethargic, though I knew it was only a matter of time until they spotted us.

"This way," I quietly directed, Vi nodding as she padded silently through the metal detritus beside me. We both were in spitting distance of the tunnel entrance when the Ratlings finally mobilized, firing a volley of ballista bolts, but we were so far away that not only did we have ample time to move, half the shots missed us completely, and we left that chamber long behind.