While the rubber soles of my boots did absorb some of the electricity, my body still seized up before the robot’s body started to shimmy side to side. Though it wasn't much, in my seized up state, the rocking sent me tumbling from the body of the beast as my health dropped nearly 30% downward. I was left with a brief Shocked debuff that left me unable to move for five seconds.
The robot was luckily every bit as slow as I thought it was, its massive body turning while one of its legs tried to find its way over to crush me. I rolled over just as the debuff disappeared from my Status bar and the Spider’s metal leg crunched into the concrete.
“Holy shit!” I practically yelled in my head as I scrambled to my feet and out from under the spider. I activated Phase Step, not even caring if it dropped me in the wrong spot as I teleported to the far side of my local area. My momentum carried me through the teleportation and I skidded on my heel, turning to do what I should have done in the first place and get a better look at it.
“Clockwork Spider. Level 15 Mechanical Golem. Well here’s the good news. Your initial drop in did at least leave a bit of a mark on its shell and it took a bit of damage. The bad news is that this thing’s got a shield and that’s what you damaged… Whoever built it really wanted it to last. And when I say whoever… yeah that’s right, the signals being broadcasted from it are 100% Miscreant in origin. This golem has the Heavy feature and requires twice the normal required Strength for any knockback effects.”
“Now would be a real good time to have some sort of book on how radio waves and all that bullshit works!” I growled as I slowly backed away.
"Sounds like a trip to the bookstore is in your future," Angie giggled and I rolled my eyes, even knowing she probably wasn't wrong.
Calling the mechanical creation a spider wasn’t even a stretch. While the thing was every bit of 15 feet wide and made of some sort of metal, it had eight massive legs stretched out around it and a body that looked quite literally just like an overgrown spider. While the main carapace of the Clockwork spider looked complete smooth, the legs were layered with stacked metal plates, only growing lighter around the obvious joints on the limbs, giving the legs more mobility even with the robots slower speed. While I expected to see weapons or something of the sort attached to the outer shell, the outer carapace was completely smooth and left me convinced I was missing something. There always could be some sort of hidden door, but the longer I tried to scan its appearance for some secret, the closer it was getting.
If it did have a weapon, I would have had to assume it would have deployed it by now or it would be just as the electrical shock on its back had been and it would be reactionary in nature. I was about to jump into action when a thought occurred to me. Angie had said the machine was Miscreant in origin.
“You know, isn’t making a giant robot spider just a little bit of a cliche for a bad guy?” I called out, starting to walk in a circle around the spider and watching it closely. It slowly turned and shifted its large body in place, keeping its obvious head facing me. “Come on, you know you wanna monologue.”
The spider started to walk toward me and I found myself frowning. While this wasn’t Hell’s Kitchen, the fact that something had come striking down right near me couldn’t be a coincidence. When the Miscreant on the other end didn’t respond for a few moments, I just shook my head.
“Guess I’ll have to do this the hard way,” I said, bouncing back and forth on my toes and shaking my arms out. It was a move that oddly reminded me of Pinky, one of the other Augments in the Tenth Wave that had a habit of bouncing around between rounds of attacks.
In a move that was nowhere near as fast as one of her powered charges, I rushed forward toward the Clockwork Spider. One of its lumbering legs was already moving to put itself in front of me and I skipped to the side, first activating Float Like a Butterfly as the leg came down in an attempt to step on me. I spun on my heel again, finding the less protected joint of the leg and activating Sting Like a Bee before throwing a 10% Gravity Punch toward what I hoped was a weak spot. I followed it up with two more regular punches, watching as a quickly decaying debuff titled Target (15%) attached to a health bar that was actually dedicated to the leg I had been attacking. While I still hadn’t decided on my pendant's stats and hadn’t equipped it, I had equipped SnakeBite’s Legacy, and while it sucked that the leg counted as a target on its own, it was nice knowing that I had a feasible way to, hopefully, quickly pile on some damage.
While I had hoped to see a good bit of progress from my first volley of attacks, the bar had only dropped about 15% and after dodging the spider leg as it slowly turned to try to smack me with the limb, I rushed back in and quickly threw three more rapid jabs on the joint, watching as small dents started to form in the plated armor that was barely protecting the hinge. The Target debuff refreshed and rose to 30% before I threw the last 20% of my Stamina into a Gravity Punch that both brought the debuff up to 35% and did considerably more damage than the last one thrown at 10% power, but it still wasn't quite enough.
The fact that the leg was only halfway damaged while I was drained on stamina did not feel like a good sign. The only saving grace was just how cumbersome the machine seemed to be. I stared at the spider’s mostly blank face as I materialized one of my Superior Stamina Injectors from my B.E.L.T. and quickly jammed it into my side. My Stamina immediately refilled by 75% and I held my ground, watching as the Target (30%) debuff faded from the slightly damaged leg.
“Seriously, what’s the point of this thing?” I called out, once again hoping to provoke whoever had sent it out. “Shouldn’t a giant spider have weapons or something? Not that I’m complaining, but at least give us some sort of demands that we can rightfully ignore.”
Yet again, nothing happened and the spider began trudging toward me,
“Okay Angie, what the hell?” I asked.
“I’m sorry Loophole, I can’t give you any information past the description of the golem. Since this is a Miscreant created minion, the motives or purpose for it are beyond my grasp and my ability to provide you assistance,” Angie replied and I just shook my head. I didn’t have much of a choice so I rushed back in toward the already damaged leg, mimicking my earlier attack but this time holding off on any abilities.
I couldn’t risk trying to blow all of my stamina on a single leg when the robot had eight of them, but I didn't think I could risk backing off either. Although it was clumsy and didn’t seem to really have any offensive capabilities, the robot had seemingly become laser focused on me, only going as far as damaging the ground directly below it as it moved to try to intercept me with its snail like pace. I stayed light on my feet as I got back in close, delivering rapid blows and watching as the Target debuff rapidly stacked on the leg up to 50%. There seemed to be a shift that happened the moment the debuff hit that level and as I smashed my fist into the joint three more times past that moment, the last 20% of the leg’s health bar vanished and I heard a metallic crunch as the leg buckled backwards.
There was a single moment where I was about to celebrate taking one of them down when I heard a hiss and had to rapidly move as the destroyed leg fell toward me, having been freed from the Clockwork Spider in some sort of defense mechanism. At that same moment the spider completely stopped moving and I heard a whirring sound before a click briefly echoed off the ground.
I was still partially under the spider, giving me a perfect vantage point to see as the belly of the spider split, opening up rapidly as at least a dozen football sized miniature versions of the spider. They landed on the ground, orienting themselves far faster than their larger counterpart to face toward me.
Unlike the bigger version, these small ones had electricity arcing near the front of their heads and they rushed toward me at a practically frightening pace.
“Oh shit!” I said and reacted just in time as I jumped backwards, taking flight with Personal Gravity Laws just before one of the mini-spiders could hit me with their electrified pincers.
As terrifying as it was to see a dozen of the mechanical creatures rushing toward me, I still felt myself smiling as they clustered together, trying to actually stack on top of each other to reach me as I floated upward. The electric mini-spiders were definitely something that would probably find their way into my nightmares, but the fact that they were all right next to each other meant I had a very easy way to handle the entire group. At least that's what I hoped as I put myself above the stack by just a few feet, deactivating the skill and dropping downward toward the cluster. In rapid succession I activated Quantum Echostrike and threw a 10% Gravity Punch at the closest of the mini-spiders.
If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.
The comboed attack rippled outward through the group thanks to the Echostrike and much to my surprise the entire lot of spiders were crushed as I landed atop the heap of parts and debris. I was happy that it worked, but I had once again used nearly 20% of my stamina just to take out a group when I still had the larger spider to take care of. Although I had managed to take out a leg, It really didn’t feel like I was making any progress.
The large spider had started to move again, the cavity on its stomach closed up as it marched toward me just a bit quicker than it should have been after losing a leg. At least, that’s what I had been thinking until I realized the spider had eight legs once again.
“Oh come the fuck on!” I said aloud, unable to stop myself as I stayed ready to move in case the spider got too close.
“You look like you’re having some trouble, need a little help?”
There was a musical chime of a voice that called out to me and forced my attention off of the spider as I searched for the source. The spider seemed to be doing the same, its body rotating in place as my eyes fell on a woman wearing a practically skin tight white and gold outfit that covered pretty much everything from her neck down. She had a long white cape that split in two, each side flapping on its own as she floated in the air on the far side of the spider with a focus expression covering her freckled face, even with the thin white mask that covered parts of her upper face. Her strawberry blonde hair fluttered in the wind as her body seemed to move up and down as she stayed afloat.
“You should say something before the staring gets creepy,” Angie whispered theatrically.
“Some help would be a hell of a nice thing,” I called back and in response a window popped into my vision.
“Swansong has invited you to a Temporary Team-Up. Accept: Y/N.”
I was just about to ask if she had any ideas on how to help when she tilted her head back and began to hum an oddly energetic feeling melody. Just a moment later I saw a new buff appear on my bar, Song of Doubling.
“Song of Doubling. All sources you utilize that apply a debuff to a target will apply that debuff twice. This buff lasts for as long as the Song is being sung. When the song ends, the buff will last for 5 seconds before fading.”
“Oh that’s perfect!” I shouted before rushing in. I got up to the closest leg and began pummeling it just as it set itself down. This time, the Target debuff jumped by 10% with each strike, quickly ramping up before I threw a single 5% Gravity Punch. With the Target debuff sitting at 150%, the strike practically sheered the lower part of the leg clean off.
I was just about to move on to the next leg when the spider began the exact same cycle. First there was a hiss before the damaged leg was ejected from the main body and down to the growing mess. Instead of waiting for the mini-spiders to drop, I rushed toward the next leg and threw the first strike to begin taking it out.
I only managed to get three strikes on the leg before I felt a sharp jolt hit the back of my knee, nearly causing my leg to buckle as I jumped to the side and tried to recollect myself. The mini-spiders had rushed toward me with their electrified pincers once more, though I was positive the group weren’t staying nearly as close to each other this time. I didn’t hesitate as I comboed my Quantum Echostrike, but this time I pulled back and only threw a 5% Gravity Punch, hoping to conserve just a bit of my stamina. Luck was with me and the damage was enough to once again crush the mini-spiders in the single attack, their proximity still close enough that my Echostrike reverberated out to each of them.
The underside of the main spider was closing up much slower than it had opened up, only starting after the mini-spiders had been destroyed and I felt the smallest start of an idea starting to form. I quickly darted away from the spider, having to be extra careful with the extensive array of metallic shards and destroyed robots that were now littering the ground. Once I had put at least 15 feet between myself and the large spider, I looked around for Swansong and found her still floating up in the air, though now noticeably closer to me. She had stopped singing and looked in my direction with her brow furrowed.
“Where the hell is it storing those extra legs!?” She asked and I just shrugged.
“Not my robot and it didn’t come with a manual!” I said and I could have sworn I saw her actually laugh. I was about to ask a question out loud when I decided to open a chat with her. I hadn’t actually opened that part of my interface in a few days and briefly noticed I had several missed messages from both Pinky and Hydramental that I mentally told myself to check later.
Swansong stared at me for just a few seconds before she nodded and we broke eye contact as I turned my attention back to the large robotic spider and swallowed. As the Clockwork Spider began to take its lumbering steps toward me, I rushed back in. I repeated my process, hammering down one of the legs, but this time as I brought its bar down to 20%, instead of throwing a Gravity Punch, I kept going, pummeling the limb until it only had 5% health left before I backed off.
I turned and rushed to another leg, jumping over one of the previously destroyed legs and starting all over again. The legs were just going to keep growing back and I was pretty sure the cycle was probably going to just repeat over and over until anyone fighting it had run out of stamina. Maybe there was a limit, but I couldn’t count on that either. I had an idea on a quick way to take the Clockwork Spider down, but without my Acceptance Matrix on, I couldn’t just fling myself quite as easily into what could have been a longshot of a plan. I went through the legs one by one while Swansong sung, slowly dropping each of them down to 5% but holding off on destroying any of them.
The last of the legs dropped in health just as quickly as the first, but this time I smashed my fist through the joint, letting the debris fall to join the rest of the mess littering the park. The mini-spider process started and I rushed forward jumping in the air just as the first of the spiders dropped from its belly. I activated my Echostrike and Gravity Punch combo, but this time threw a 25% punch, triggering Gravity Punch’s knockback feature and sending the light mini-spiders that had all dropped from the Clockwork Spider hurtling back up into the undercarriage of the robot, peppering it with a rapid slurry of small attacks in its exposed innards.
The stomach rapidly closed back up and I rushed backwards. I hadn’t been paying too close attention, but my buff bar briefly showed the Song of Doubling just as the last few seconds of its decay timer ticked away alongside a Song of Hercules.
“Song of Hercules. Your strikes and abilities deal twice their intended damage.”
I looked at the Clockwork Spider and noticed that while it did still have its shield mostly intact, its health bar had lowered by just about 20%, confirming my suspicion. I then turned my attention to the first of the legs I had attacked and left at 5% finding that the leg hadn’t regenerated like the one I had destroyed. I went one by one and confirmed that all but one of the legs were sitting still at that same 5%.
“Okay, got enough stamina in there for one more good strike?” I asked as I came to a stop by the still floating Swansong and she shot me a curious look.
“Wait what? You might have hurt it a bit on that last attack, but that thing’s still got a bunch of health and your stamina is pretty much empty, what do you mean one more good strike?” She asked, her words still sounding almost musical even as I heard the doubt in her tone.
“Let me worry about that, just do the exact same thing. Change songs the moment the minis appear,” I said and didn’t wait for confirmation as I turned, focusing on the undamaged leg and Phase Stepping over to it.
I went through the process of pummeling it until the joint broke, sending the leg down to join its similarly destroyed counterparts. I didn’t stop to admire my work and rushed to position myself right under the Clockwork Spider. I activated Schr?dinger’s Surge and then immediately toggled on Center of the Universe. I utilized its Burst Mode feature to instantly ramp the power up on my gravitational pull just as the spider’s hatch opened. I focused on the joints of the spider’s various damaged legs, meaning that all of the debris and items were being affected by my gravitational pull started to rush toward me, pulling against my legs and sides as I listened to the growing creaking sound around me. A second later, the exact outcome I was looking for happened and the various broken joints on the spider all snapped inward and began flying toward me. With the hatch above me open, mini-spiders raining down toward me, and the large, now legless Clockwork Spider falling toward me as well, I activated Launchpad.
Now, while one of my main uses for the ability had been to combo it with Earthbound Impact, that wasn’t the only skill I had that the ability could combo with. As I rocketed up into the open hatch, I punched upward with an 80% Gravity Punch using every bit of my temporarily refilled stamina.
The sound of the strike must have been equivalent to a sonic boom as I heard ringing in my ears following the blow, quickly accompanied by the sound of a wide array of metal peppering the ground.
While I had expected the Clockwork Spider to get thrown into the air from my powered up strike which I had planned to give me time to clear the area, I hadn’t been expecting that my punch would quite literally rip the top part of the spider’s carapace clean off, sending it up and into a wide arc that must have peaked 100 feet in the air before it crashed into the ground about 50 feet to the north of our fight.
Luckily that was still far enough away from the civilians that had for some reason stupidly decided to stay close enough to watch. The remains of the robot spider went crashing to the ground around me as I landed. I looked around, my eyes meeting Swansong’s as she quickly closed her mouth, seemingly embarrassed that I had caught her slightly slack jawed.
Although I didn’t have the Acceptance Matrix activated, the thrill of winning the fight as a new stack of notifications appeared on my screen left me feeling giddy and I couldn’t help but smile at her.
“So uh… does that count as blowing the roof off of something?”
Happy Wednesday and Happy New Year! If you're enjoying the story make sure you Comment, Rate, or Review!
Come on over to my Discord to talk about the story, see advanced news, and just talk nonsense!