The Stargazing Witch & The Dungeon Planet-Chapter 166: This Then That
Chapter 166: This Then That
It was the first time I had worked in a proper team in a long time, especially with people that could at least be considered strong as well.
Nina was in charge of the protection of her and Craftalot. Her shields, when used on me, slowly deteriorated by her own power, which was a little funny. Her bubble shields were attached to the person, which had benefits and consequences, and one of those consequences happened to be a really rare situation that happened to me.
Craftalot was apparently the weapons expert, as his army of drones could seemingly do anything. Not exactly how I expected him to fight. I figured he would be using some sort of tech. The multi-purpose drones, which were doing a lot… they weren't on the top of my list. I also didn’t expect him to be using a surfboard to fly.
I, on the other hand, was exclusively using my energy for the moment. I had created claws that shouldn’t break but I was still trying to recharge.
I flew underneath its arm swing; the numerous small turrets that layered the arms pelted bullets down like raindrops. I spun around the shells in a flaming path and dug a deep cut into the surface of the arm as I moved along its underside.
Not deep enough.
I couldn’t see any signs of normal technology, like wires, etc., meaning it was military grade and used more mana for direct communication between the components. More expensive but a lot tougher and better in many ways, but it also meant I would need to do a lot more damage.
“Craftyboy, do you know a good spot for me to smash first? The legs?”
I asked. I decided, why not ask the professional builder about breaking things.
“Craftyboy..?”
He seemed deeply shaken by what I called him. He coughed, “Erm, the legs could be good, but there are six, and you would likely need to destroy three if you want to make it tumble over, that is, if it doesn't have the functionality to move the legs around.”
“How about the connection between the body and legs?”
“Valid, but it looks heavily armoured. If you wish to try, I will support you, but even if we take down its movement, it will seem to be a stationary war machine."
“Ups and downs, got it.”
“Besides that,”
said Nina.
"Celestia, are you fine?”
“Perfect.”
Nina’s moon project had reappeared and brightened over the area. Its light was damaging the shields that covered the mech and also causing the smaller drones that were still around to explode. Still, it hadn’t been affecting me yet. I could feel a little sizzle, but the fact my body was basically made of light and the nature of the attack was almost changing the properties of what it touched, but only what was within its grasp, so what was a part of Existence. That meant I could feel some issues with my armour and equipment which I was protecting but my body was fine in that regard.
I replied,
“Turn up the beam if you need to.”
Then I laughed.
“It could be interesting.”
“I see you are having fun.”
Nina held back a sigh.
“But there is no turn-up; that is as powerful as it goes.”
“Hmmm…”
I danced around a turret as I ripped it from its base and swung it into the turret next to me. Every second, I could feel a force trying to launch me off the mech, but I had stabbed myself into it with over a dozen long spike chains that stretched from my back and limbs. It was easier to do it that way. However, the waves of mana that exploded into me when the shields tried to reform with me on the body hurt.
A massive concussive force crunched my body, but I was fine, but it was damaging my armour. It was mostly used for the disguise part of this whole mission but I didn’t want to break every single piece of armour I have ever touched.
“Fuck why is this thing's armour so damn thick!” Honestly, it was really hard to resist the urge to try and bombard it with a [Starlight Annihilation], but that might be a waste of resources. A part of me was still worried about what else they had hidden. I know I had been extremely overconfident, but as my energy reached towards the lower end, it was a nice little wakeup call. I wasn’t perfectly strong and was still facing the restrictions placed on me by Existence, not only that, there were the changes of other Spiritual Beings appearing who, while they also had such restrictions, would be way stronger than I.
One large bullet of mana curved mid-flight and went towards my back. I jumped away at the last second and allowed it to kiss the mech's arse.
Attacking the leg connections is working the best.
Boom!
The mech shot another bullet towards the fleet with Nina and Craftalot doing their best to support.
I jumped higher along the mech, swung off the metal spike–that had been created thanks to my smash and run–and the turrets and I carved art into its metal body. Once I had reached the shoulder of the arm, I tunnelled in like a vicious beast, my Starlight claws stretched out and my chains morphed into longer blades.
“Let’s see how tough you are!” I growled. I could feel some of my more wild urges that were amplified when I was using Espr’s abilities in the past and awakened more as I leaned into my physical skill set. Though my desire to just tear this apart was also very, very strong. Digging down like some sort of wombat, I tunnelled through the thick plating as the bullets shot towards the hole, which I dodged so it could help me with the digging.
“Celestia?!”
Nina cried out, deeply worried.
“Are you okay?!”
“Perfect!” I said aloud and over the mind connection. The metal scraps flung from the hole, as this stupidly deep thing was made of nearly solid chunks of the stuff. Whoever made it or designed it certainly knew what they were doing; it wasn’t on the level of what I had seen from Craftalot, but the scale was impressive in its own right.
I could feel the mana within the arm go haywire as a large stream funnelled towards me.
Oh crap.
With an explosion of fire, I launched myself out as a massive shockwave of energy shocked the area my beautiful hole was at and then I watched as the arm fell from the mech.
Well, good to know that was successful–
I was interpreted as the cannons that were on that arm began shooting from the ground.
“Haa… seriously? The point of that was to test if that would disable the whole limb.” I had only dug about halfway through the area below the shoulder before it got dropped like a sack of rotten potatoes. The issue was that it took me a good minute–likely more, I wasn’t exactly counting–to do that, and the arms were thin compared to everything else. Then the fact that the arm was working as a massive turret bay meant the threat hadn’t decreased by all too much; if anything, having bullets fly from another angle made it more dangerous.
A few of the now-ground-turret bullets were reaching into space. Well, only when the mech’s top shields were down, which happened more often, as it sporadically recovered. The ships were trying to shoot back as massive explosions landed around and sometimes on the mech.
Nina was yelling in my head when a shell was coming close due to my close proximity to the body. Each time I managed to stay on the opposite side when the shell hit, thanks to my light vision, but the shockwaves were causing my body to rattle a little more each time.
Looks like I am learning this body has some limits.
My body was regenerating as small cracks emerged and disappeared. This felt like some form of exhaustion and this had been the first time I was stress testing myself since beginning a
Stellar
. I haven't had a chance to push my limits but all the energy that I have released and some of the damage I had been taking had slowly caught up.
…Hmmm…
Jumped back away from the explosion caused by the mech and me, and allowed my body to breathe.
It doesn’t seem too bad.
It really felt like my body just needed a moment to breathe rather than having taken extreme damage. The exhaustion was quickly disappearing once I focused on purely evasive action.
The mech swung its arms to knock the flies and mosquitoes out of the sky, the latter of which had mostly been completely destroyed, but there were still two starlight prisms that were cutting against the turrets. I was controlling them by having them deal mostly with the guns on the ground.
Nina’s melting effort had been progressing well. Due to her ability, she was mostly regulated to defensive but I got to learn by watching that some of her shields could reflect attacks.
Boom!
Craftalot drones launched a chaotic connection towards the cannon as it fired towards the fleet. The shield around the cannon weakened only for a moment. The top was heavily defended and even when it was damaged, it was automatically repairing itself.
Fuck, maybe I should’ve focused on that first.
I was regretting my order of targeting.
The mech was beginning to pick up pace as it moved towards…somewhere. Wasn’t sure where it was going; clearly there had to be a reason for it to begin moving north of the current position.
It is going in the opposite direction to where the entrance is… Is it trying to pull us away or does it need to be in a different position?
From the opposite side of the machine, I called out to my coworkers.
“Do we have a better plan to defeat this machine before it does more damage?”
The truth of the matter was that it had already been doing harm… A few ships had been shot at and one had been destroyed. I didn’t know how much life was lost there, but it had also been shooting towards our mech fleets, which caused a reduction in our forces and destroyed our defensive positions that had been created.
Craftalot said.
“Well, if you want to defeat it, the easiest way would be to eat up mana reservoirs."
Nina went.
“Oh?”
She was really looking forward to an actual solution, as she felt her ability was nearly as effective as it needed to be.
And I more sarcastically replied,
“That could apply to anything.”
Craftalot coughed,
“Well, this machine… is using more mana than anything reasonable should, but that doesn’t mean it necessarily has a larger tank. If anything, while its storage is massive, it is burning through it fast, which is likely why that top cannon has been firing upwards at every chance it gets.”
The head cannon had been firing at our fleet about every thirty seconds. Craftalot and Nina had worked together to form some barriers to help divert the cannon's shots as that was much cheaper and more effective than blocking them outright, but a few of its shells still made it way to the fleet. Mostly when it did something to break the shields first then fire the shot.
“So we can wait it out?”
I didn’t like that idea at all.
“We can, but I have a feeling that won’t be the best solution for you two.”
Nina responded first,
“If this is the only solution, then I will accept it.”
“If it is the only solution, then we just need to break it apart to find a better one,”
I said.
“I have a few options if you can figure out where the best spot would be to break it and disrupt its power source. Otherwise, you certainly have a few ticks up those stupid-looking sleeves.”
“You are being very rude.”
“You like it.”
“Do I have to add emotion detection to your list of powers?”
“People don’t even need a skill to do that.”
I snapped back,
“So do you have a method to take this scrap box down?”
Craftalot clicked his fingers, and a massive blade appeared in his hand. “Want to swing a sword?”
“Fuck it, sure.”
Chapter 166: This Then That
Comments