[Other FULL] [M] Glaciate: An Arctic World (IC)

Senka narrated her process under her breath as she slid a small box of starters into a wand, confirming it was securely in place with an audible click. "Magazine in." Although it wasn't a standard revolver, it was close. It had a smaller form factor, with no cylinder for loading starters. Instead, it accepted a magazine that loaded into the grip; upwards of twelve ingredients with separable slots to fire multiple spells without reloading. The only real downside was that the initial loading process took longer, but Senka believed it made multi-spell combinations more reliable by preparing the starters in advance, and it was easier to carry a larger amount if they were already set to trigger. She pulled a broken model of it out of many in the Crystal Forest's ruins a short time ago, and spent the last week or so taking it apart and modifying the design for ease of use.

"Fire test: Flashbang, Gravity bomb, Petrify." Senka's finger pulled the trigger in. Three shifting noises in quick succession followed, and a single small cartridge fired from the barrel; a bright light flashed outside, joined by a greatly deafened, yet high-pitched shriek. Then she aimed it at her coffee table, a few books strewn over the wood. She pulled the trigger again, getting two more little shifts from inside the handle, and the books started rising from the table. Just as the magic was about to wear out, she fired once more, feeling only a single push before the last cartridge nailed one of the books, knocking it out of the air and coating it in a shell of stone.

The young experimentor allowed herself a pleased grin at her success, but she still had real world testing to work out. She would have to remember to bring it along when she restocked her ingredients later. She could take the original model's pieces to the church when she was done.

---

The sudden lurch of the convoy stopping nearly knocked Priam over, being unfortunately mid-step when the brakes fully engaged. Catching himself right before he barreled into some poor woman at a junk stall, he briefly wondered how he survived these stops all those years on the Victorie. It was only after he fully regained his balance that he realized he was clutching his fist, and putting a sizable hole in the flyer her was carrying as a consequence. Silently swearing to himself, he reconstructed the paper as best he could with his shoddy "Recovery" skills; casting it on other things was so difficult.


The page looked fine, and the address looked the same as he remembered it. Now he just had to hurry to the employer's house before the spell faded and the page went back to its ruined state. Picking up his pace through the rest of Market Town, he almost wanted to sprint to be the first. Sure, it was a little sketchy, but he was somewhat handy with a wand, and it beat fighting to claim a bounty first, accidentally activating a golem, or getting cut up by some beast. Ingredient gathering was simple work!

Rounding one of the many, many corners of the Residence Hall, Priam found himself in front of the door leading to the apartment mentioned in the advertisement. After a quick check that he was presentable, he lifted his fist and knocked on the door. What answered certainly wasn't what he expected. Admittedly, he didn't know what to expect, but this wasn't really on the list. A small raven-haired girl almost a head shorter than him, with an innocent look that suggested they would be more likely to pick Salamander Flowers than anything that required "support".

Well, I guess the wilds can get a little dangerous. Having someone around to watch your back is smart. She didn't have to do it in such a sketchy manner, though.

The lass's eyes scrolled up and down Priam's body, apparently paying a little extra attention to the wand on his hip. Then she told him, "You'll do," and invited him inside.

Uh, did I just get checked out by a little girl? he thought, making his way inside. And why the emphasis on his wand? It is a little eye-catching—he'd give it a second glance for sure—but for a simple gathering job it shouldn't matter too much if he had a custom wand or a discount junk shop one.

"Sorry about the mess, but we'll be leaving soon. Make yourself at home; there's something I want to show you." She didn't sound ready to leave. More like she was about to yawn with every breath. A few books scattered around the living room, maybe a dirty dish or two in the sink. There was some kind of wand on the coffee table that Priam noticed when he made his way in.

"So, what exactly are we going to be gathering out there?" He said, sinking into the couch. Truth be told, he was a little worried about how much he could make off this, judging by the general lack of organization and the girl's ill-fitting sweater. Maybe hand me downs? He didn't see any signs of a family member that would have passed it down in the house, however. Was it possible she was actually some rich, eccentric girl? Priam ran into a few entitled rich girls in the market from time to time. He wouldn't necessarily enjoy spending too much time with one, but for the right price he wouldn't complain.

She introduced herself as Senka, sitting down next to him... rather, uncomfortably close, and he kept his eye on the wand so to not be labeled a pervert. He was starting to think there was something up, but she picked up the strange-looking wand from the table as she explained her situation. She needed to restock her less common spell starters available in the Marshlands. "Otherwise I would've been able to go alone," she nonchalantly clarified. Senka fiddled with the wand, if it even was one, for a few moments, until some small piece of metal dropped from the bottom of the handle into her grasp.

"Uh... huh," he muttered noncommittedly, watching her work with the strange piece of wandcraft up until she put it back together.

"I have a request, if you don't mind," she started again, gesturing the wand toward his hands. "Would you be willing to use this while we're out? It's made to use multiple spells back to back, but the ones I use aren't sufficient for such a thing."

"Well, that does sound... interesting. But I have no idea how that thing even works, much less preparing it."

"You have your starters with you, right? I'll show you." Senka proceeded to give Priam a rundown of the wand's loading mechanism, accepting twelve cartridges that he just needed to separate for each spell. For the next few minutes, he thought of ones he'd most likely use one after the other, and slotted the starters into the magazine per her instruction. He was particularly attentive at following said instructions, as it kept his eyes from wandering too far. Spells that were better for booking it if things went south, or things he just wanted to do more quickly. All in all, he had three magazines, with one already loaded. "So now, each time you pull the trigger, it'll activate the spells in order from top to bottom."

"So, let's say I load this with two Phantom Bombards early, then a Gravity Mine..." he started mumbling, running the numbers and combinations in his head, "and then I can Flashbang, grab them with a Return Whip to pull them in, Grapple Whip myself away..." Suddenly feeling slightly giddy at the opportunities, he finished all the little simulations in his head. "This is amazing tech, I can fight an entire battle with one pull of a trigger! Where did you get this?"

"I designed it," Senka answered matter-of-factly.

"Uh..." Priam stumbled over his own words, "okay... just wow." Maybe the idea that it was a rich girl all along might not be too far off. The only people he knew who had time to actually sit down and design a wand would be a wandcrafter, rich person, or a Bygone; he had never seen the girl at a wand store when he went shopping around, and she didn't live at, or near, the church like other career Bygones. Still, he was excited to finally try out something as one-of-a-kind as this. The potential of being the first to use the unique wand was even overpowering the feeling of unease that came from an unfamiliar wand. "When did you want to head out, again?"

"If you feel like you're prepared, just let me grab a bag to carry the materials, and we can go. We'll need to head pretty far in the marsh, so it'll be easier if we leave sooner." Introductions and preparations taken care of, Priam slid the new wand into his coat pocket, and zipped it up for later. Maybe it's just because it was Baybrook, but his employer seemed to be travelling lighter than he was when they stepped off the convoy; she didn't even put on anything heavier than the sweater, and her own wand was dangling off the side of her bag—an old-looking piece of tech.

Of course they would head into the marsh, Priam thought a little bitterly as they departed. Still, it's not like there was anything else in Baybrook, and the weather wasn't so bad that a little water would lead to hypothermia immediately. That is, so long as he didn't fall. The mud seemed to mock him for his decision to take point, not noticing the deeper sections until it was too late. Still, letting a young girl get all muddy and risk something attacking her because he wanted to stay clean felt wrong. Cleaning this all off would be hell later, but for now he could feel pride.

Following Senka's instructions, Priam noticed they were quickly leaving the relatively safe parts of the Marshlands, and she was grabbing ingredients along the way. If he didn't know any better, he would think that she planned to lead him to one of the swampy patches. Maybe she doesn't know how dangerous they are? he reasoned, but couldn't hold the position to even himself for long. Every kid knew that Hydras nested in the swamps, even those who had never been to Baybrook. There were entire children's stories about these kind of things.

"Say," Priam started after seeing what looked suspiciously like a patch of swamp in the distance, "where are we headed anyways? We've been walking quite a while." He could've sworn he saw something resembling a large eggshell nearby before it sank into the water, too.

"It's just a little farther, and I can get what I need. And stay close." His little charge had been methodically bounding from fallen trees to oversized lily pads, and had little more than her boots dirtied by the muck.

"I'm getting a bad feeling about this; it's Hydra territory."

"They only come back in the evenings after hunting for food. That's why we need to hurry." How did she know about its habits? He wanted to ask, but she was getting ahead, and they were already too far out to go home anyways.

Soon enough, they'd made it into the deep marsh—the swamp, and home of the Hydra and its children, scaly little beasts with only two or three heads before adolescence. And catching back up to Senka, Priam found that they were standing smack dab in the middle of their nest. Priam then had a horrifying recollection, one that he managed to distance himself from pretty well: Hydra blood is a pretty damn uncommon ingredient.

The babies were sleeping, thank the breezeswoops, and Senka quietly clung to Priam's left arm with her right. She told him to stay quiet, which was good, because he probably would've said something embarrassing and loud otherwise. Then she raised her free hand with a few spell starters, and he couldn't help but spot a solid red scar run down part of her arm. The ingredients dissolved into a ball of energy, releasing a wide-range pulse. At first, he didn't notice anything different. It was still quiet. Nothing was awake, except for the two of them. Senka, on the other hand, immediately got to work singling out a pair of Hydralings, and extracted their blood into some number of vials. That spell must have kept them from waking up, but her wand was still strapped to her carrying bag.

"That should be enough," she told him as she stood straight again. "Let's get back before the paralysis wears off, or the mother comes home."

"Say, how did you do that anyways?" Priam started, beginning the trek back to the convoy, before being interrupted by the telltale rumble of something large walking awfully close to them. He turned to Senka and asked, almost pleadingly, "You said the mothers only return in the evening, right?"

Of course, by now he knew Senka wasn't going to respond with the same sort of panic. Instead, she still looked tired, but she answered nonetheless. "There's always a chance she found a food source closer to home."

"So you mean there is also a chance it can also be some other giant swamp monster?" He tried to reassure himself.

"Yes."

"Good, I was afraid that we might be fucked out here." Another stomp, much closer to the duo, splashed through the murky waters, and Priam sighed in defeat. "It's right behind us, isn't it?"

He craned his head around, looking back to be relieved at the sight of an exceptionally large horruch while Senka assured him, "No... It's in front of us." He swung his head back so quickly he nearly gave himself whiplash, a five-headed Hydra staring them down with a carcass in two of its mouths.

What was supposed to be a shouted swear ended up a meek squeak out of Priam as he reached into his pocket and pulled out the wand Senka gave him, training it on the beast with a shaking hand. "I think we're going to need a bigger wand..."

It seemed the two of them were blessed, though. As Priam shook, the Hydra leapt clean over their heads, brutalizing the poor herbivore behind them so her own babies could have sustenance. Breathing a sigh of relief, they mouthed, "Let's go," to each other, and very promptly moved to get the hell out of Dodge. Realizing he had his assault magazine loaded, Priam quickly ejected it and pulled out his "Nope" series of spells. Sliding it into place with a small click, he felt an eerie, sudden chill run down his spine as he heard the reptilian predator suddenly shift position behind him, like the soft click made acutely it aware the two little intruders were attempting to sneak by. Swallowing his fear for what felt like the thousandth time in the past twenty minutes, he peeked behind him and found himself in a staring contest with a curious and furious Hydra head.

"Let it be a coincidence, let it be a coincidence," he repeated under his breath as the Hydra continued to stare him down. Priam's dreams were promptly dashed against the wall when the other four heads slowly bent 'round to look in their direction. Deciding it was now or never to make their break, he pulled the wand's trigger as fast as he could and felt the magazine slide its way through the chamber, activating each spell in turn. In no time two caches of magical energy, waiting for something to walk by, appeared on the ground, and Priam felt more alive than he had in months dropping two of his mines in as many seconds. Using the final spell as his cue, he grabbed Senka in his arms and began to run as soon as the brightly lit arrow spell left the chamber.

And then he ran for his life, not even looking behind him as he heard the loud boom of his "Flashbang Arrow" connecting. Two additional explosions told him that the Hydra has begun the chase and promptly ran into his mines, but the loud footsteps proudly declared that they really didn't matter. His legs moving as fast as he could will them and the sound of his heartbeat nearly deafening him, he searched for something he could maneuver around to at least slow the creature down. A brief noise from below reminded him that he was carrying someone, and he looked down to see his passenger pointing out a small grove of trees to his right. Booking a hard turn, he nearly lost his footing in the mud as he scrambled for any kind of cover. Passing the first tree, he followed a serpentine path through the grove, hoping that just one of the gaps would be too small for the Hydra to squeeze through, and the trees would hold up.

A mighty crash gave Priam the idea that being so lucky was a childishly silly notion. The Hydra just plain didn't care about the trees. At least for the first forest's worth or so, but the many, many, many beatings to its heads and necks exhausted the creature, and finally Priam and this incredibly dangerous little girl were in the clear. Still Priam kept running until reaching the outer perimeter of the convoy; last thing he needed was to accidentally end up right next to the Hydra again. Seeing two Mediators rush over to find out what had the pair in such a hurry to go inside and have a nice cuppa joe, he finally set Senka down and collapsed into the murky water of the marsh. Hypothermia be damned, if he could outrun a Hydra, he could fight a little illness. The last thing he heard was the innocent voice of his diminutive employer saying, "Good work. This is what I hired you for, after all."

He woke up maybe an hour later, lying half-naked on a cot in one of the convoy's infirmaries. He didn't feel sick, so he had that going for him, but Senka was nowhere to be found. The only sign besides his memories that he'd even met her was an envelope sitting on the stand next to him, propped up against a vase with his name written across the front, and hanging nearby were his things, and even his jacket looked professionally cleaned of all the grime. Carefully opening the envelope, as if it could catch fire at any moment, he found his paycheck and a short note. He was immediately drawn to just how much he had made, feeling like his eyes were about to fall out of the sockets, and let loose a sigh of relief knowing his rent was taken care of for more than a fair amount of time. Next order of business...

This is the payment for your services. Thank you for doing so well. I think you'll find the wand more useful than I will, so please feel free to keep it.

P.S. I felt bad that your clothes were dirtied so much, so I asked to have them dry cleaned while you slept.​

Suddenly feeling exhausted, Priam collapsed and fell back into the sweet embrace of unconsciousness.

Great Cave Adventure I

Priam ducked into the cave system, taking extra care not to slip on some ice near the surface. Truth be told, he didn't even have to work right now if he didn't want to; the money he got from Senka was more than enough to make the trip to Baybrook worth it. Still, rumors of a massive vehicle graveyard intrigued him. He had long since sold the little speeder he stole from the Brotherhood to the convoy, afraid of running out of money before he got settled and wanting to avoid extra storage fees. Now firmly on his feet money-wise, he wished that he had kept it after all. It was a luxury, yes, but it sure as hell beat freezing his ass off in the cold.

The grotto was honestly beautiful. Dangerous as hell, but beautiful all the same. There was a certain elegance to something as undisturbed as it; especially with almost all the useful land being exploited by the settlements right now.

He carefully maneuvered around the underground lake, trying to avoid getting soaked twice in a row. Reaching a narrow path, he inched along the wall when the ground suddenly began crumbling under his foot. Pulling back just in time to avoid falling, the rocky ledge splashed into the water with a loud splash and awoke a small flock of Frostbiters. Smushing himself against the cave wall as much as possible, Priam slowed his breath, praying the little bat-like creatures didn't see him. And there he stood for a few minutes, long after the tiny wing flaps ended. Breathing a sigh of relief, a quick shot of self null-crystaling would help prevent a disaster like that from happening again.

Eventually the narrow walkway led to a small chamber, perfect for a small rest before continuing on. Set to take a load off his feet and have a quick meal, he began unpacking his gear when the sounds of a struggle sounded from the next chamber, proceeded by a very human scream. Picking up his wand, Priam peeked through the cavern entrance and noticed a woman partially covered by a Darkmantle, and several disturbed Stirges flying about.

"Shit," He shouted, praying the woman could hear him, "stand still for a moment. I'll hit it!"

Quickly loading one of his "Red" starters, he lifted the heavy wand and fired off a long slash of magic. The spell condensed into a sharp point and cut into the cephalopod's flesh, taking off one of the creature's hooked tentacles. Wincing in pain, the Darkmantle loosened it's grip on it's prey, and a bundle of curly, red hair emerged as the woman ripped the creature off her head and tossed it away.

"Toss me my lance," the newly freed prisoner shouted at Priam, "quickly!"

Suddenly noticing the steel weapon to his right, he rushed over and grabbed the handle, a feeling of magic connecting telling him the weapon also acted as a wand. Flipping it around, he tossed it to the stranger, hoping she would be able to grab it. A flash of pain in his back grabbed his attention as soon as the lance left his hand, one of the Stirges finding it's mark. Whipping his wand behind him, a quick Arrow took the insect's body off the proboscis, which Priam had the pleasure of having to pull out of his shoulder.

Meanwhile, the woman had managed to catch the lance successfully, and drove the point into the still slowed Darkmantle. The creature squirmed a little, until the lance suddenly poured fire from several holes in the body. The flames poured down the lance and roasted the droptopus, who soon quit moving under the assault.

Now the only enemies left were three Stirges, still flying about. Finally pulling the spear like mouthpiece from his flesh, Priam winced in pain as he loaded a "Purple" cartridge. As soon as he pulled the trigger, a thick strand of magic emerged from the barrel of his wand and wrapped around one of the mosquito like beasts. Whipping the wand sharply, the pull of the wand as well as the retraction of the strand caused the captured Stirge to hit the wall at a high speed. A loud crunch could be heard across the chamber, and the insect collapsed to the ground a crumpled mess.

Several arrow bolts lit up the chamber, emerging two at a time from the woman's lance. Wildly innacurate, most just broke against the wall. Quantity eventually won over, and a bolt hit one of the flying Stirges, leaving a clean hole in the fragile flier. Letting her guard down, the lancer didn't notice the last Stirge flying behind her, ready to begin her charge. The click of his trigger told Priam that he didn't have a spell loaded. Panicking slightly he looked down to grab another starter and saw a small wand lying at his feet.

Picking up what he presumed to be the stranger's spare wand, he fired off whatever spell was currently loaded. A large arrow shot forth from the barrel, speeding towards the Stirge. Right before it hit, it spread into a small bubble and hardened to Pseudoearth, dropping to the floor with the Stirge inside it. The crash attracted the woman's attention, who looked from the orb to Priam.

"Thanks," she said, clearly out of breath, "that your own spell?"

"Uh, no. Just whatever was in here."

The woman walked over to grab the wand, popping it open and looking at the started inside.

"Odd, I've never seen it do that before."

"What was in it?" Priam inquired. That could be useful in the future.

"Cannae, Ironbark, Pyrite, and Corvis. Supposed to be a shield that shoot forward a second later. At least, it is for me."

"Weird. Damn useful spell either way," Priam remarked before feeling the pain of his shoulder again, his adrenaline wearing off.

"Let me see that," The stranger demanded, pulling bits of cloth away from the wound. "That looks pretty bad. Let me get some Brightpod. Just take your shirt off."

"That'd be great," he replied through a grunt of pain. Taking the shirt off hurt quite a bit, but it was better than leaving a hole in his shoulder.

"Least I could do, you did save my ass there. Should also be able to save the clothing too… Mr?"

"Priam, just Priam. And thanks, I'm damn awful at using brightpod."

"Well then, it's a good thing you got hurt around me, just Priam. Name's Anna, and let's get you fixed up."

Anna pressed up against the cave wall, signalling Priam to keep quiet. After a moment of nothing aside from the soft splash of water droplets from the ceiling, she turned the corner with her lance drawn.

"We're good here," She said, motioning Priam forward. The two had decided sticking together was the best course of action. After Anna got trapped by the Darkmantle she was a lot less eager to explore the Grotto alone. Priam was realized the scale of the cave system and needed someone more adept at navigating them to find the scrapyard, which he thankfully found in Anna.

"Think we're getting close?" he asked, brushing wall moss from his jacket. "This shit doesn't stain, does it?"

"We gotta be close. See the scrape marks? Too deep to be an animal. And your jacket should survive, just don't let the moss dry."

The two continued to follow the deep gouges in the ground, keeping an eye out for anymore opportunistic wildlife. Before too long, they had stumbled upon an obviously man-made entryway,blocked by a massive sheet of scrap metal, leading into the next chamber. The metal was painted roughly the same color as the cave wall, and if they were further away they might have missed it entirely. As they inched closer to the door, a sudden shaking of the entire cave nearly caused Priam to fall over.

"Earthquake?!"

"No," Anna responded, helping him up. "Earthquakes would be a lot louder down here. Something made that sound."

Nodding towards the door, the two quickly moved to flank both sides of the entryway. Priam tossed over a starter with enough Hydra Blood for roughly a minute of effect. Both he and Anna pointed their wands at their own heads, and after counting down 3 second with his fingers, both fired. As soon as he felt the pleasant numbness of the blood flowing through him, he grabbed one side of the metal. Both slowly and silently moved the sheet away from the entrance. Peeking through the uncovered hole in the wall, Priam made two discoveries.

The good news: the expanse of vehicles told him they had found the graveyard.

The bad news: It was guarded by probably the largest golem he had ever seen. A poor Darkmantle lie splattered across the room, a likely victim of the machine's wands.

"Well, I think we found the source of that noise," Priam said.

"Unless you think there's an even bigger one, I think you're right. Got a plan?"

Priam took another peek through the hole. The golem was easily 15 feet tall, and armored to hell. The core of the golem was squarish, with six crystal optics to give it vision. The barrels of four wands pointed out of the ingredient storages on each side. Two massive legs gave it mobility. The thing was a juggernaut, and none of the spells they were packing would even begin to scratch the armor, much less penetrate to energy stores or "brain" of the machine. Just when all hope seemed lost, Anna smacked his shoulder to grab his attention.

"Look," she whispered, "there's crystals forming on the top of it." Sure enough, Priam saw the telltale rainbow glimmer of Mana Crystals forming around a small puncture on the top of the machine.

"Good catch. Looks like that leak goes straight to the power supply. If we can get a spell inside of that, we can roast the vitals."

"I can jam my lance inside if we can just knock it down. Think that pillar would fall on top of it?" Anna pointed out a stone pillar near the golem. It would certainly pin it down if they could maneuver it to fall towards the machine, but Priam was still unsure.

"I'm not sure, that's at least touching the ceiling. I don't want to blow up a support and have this entire cavern fall on us too." Looking around the cavern, he searched something that could work as a suitable replacement. "Hey, what about that tank right there?"

The tank itself was a solid, squarish hunk of steel. From here he could see that the generators were scrapped some time ago, but the entire machine was balanced somewhat precariously atop several other ruined vehicles. It would take a hell of a blast, but he might be able to flip it over and trap one of the golem's legs.

"Think you can actually launch that?" Anna asked, skeptically.

Quickly checking his stock of saltpeter and Draconic blood, he gave a steady nod. "I can't exactly launch it, but I have more than enough to flip it. I just need a good distraction so I can sneak over there."

Gripping her lance tightly, Anna sighed and nodded towards a solid looking chunk of scrap.

"I hope you're right. If you fuck this up, we're both dead. Be quick, I don't trust any of this cover for an extended barrage."

Suddenly she dashed into the room, making a break for the scrap. Pointing her lance in the direction of the massive walker, she blindly opened fire. Arrow spells flew from her lance, two at a time. Most hit, mostly due to the size of the golem more than intentional aim, but shattered helplessly against its thick steel.

Suddenly aware of the intruder, the golem pivoted in place to scan the room behind it. Spotting Anna just as she made a foot first slide into cover, it adjusted the angle of the wand barrels. The sound of whirring gears emerged from the ingredient storage box, and soon the cannons were armed. A small glow from within the barrels was faintly visible, just before a massive arrow spell emerged from all four barrels at once. The arrows stuck the scrap pile and left a massive crater in the side of one of the vehicles. Swallowing his anxiety, Priam started running across the room, sticking to cover in case the golem decided to turn around. He had to be quick, Anna's cover could only take a few shots.

A second impact sounded through the room as Priam reached the tank. Quickly observing the situation of the tank from the other side, he mentally marked a few locations that would provide the thrust he needed to flip the hunk of steel. He loaded his high-explosive rounds into the wand with shaking fingers, nearly dropping one. He applied the spell with both hands, afraid he would misplace one and not provide the lift he needed, and soon had three catches of explosive magic ready to go off in a few seconds. He quickly retreated once the last one was in place, vaulting himself behind a sturdy burnt out excavator.

"HEY, JUNK HEAP," he yelled out while firing a small arrow of his own towards the golem's back. His shot connected, and the golem quickly turned to fire at the new intruder.

As soon as the golem took its first step to confront Priam, the stasis on the spells ended, unleashing the explosions. Three explosions provided enough lift to flip the tank over, and the golem suddenly found a large object moving very quickly towards it. An earthshaking crash prompted Priam to peek over his makeshift cover, where he found the foe both on its back and unable to move its now trapped leg.

A blur of red rushed out of cover, approaching the struggling machine. Using the momentum of her run, Anna shoved her lance through the crystals and deep inside the machine. The sound of several delicate parts breaking could be heard as she pulled the trigger, launching a burning spell inside the "brain". The golem gave one last struggle before the light in the crystals faded.

"Holy shit, that worked," Priam said, exasperated.

"I don't like that you're surprised by that."

Meeting up in the middle of the room, both collapsed and let the adrenaline fade. A few minutes of "I can't believe I'm alive" giggles and breath catching later, they got up and dusted themselves off.

"Well, I don't think there's anything worth scavenging in this thing." Anna poked around the shell of the golem, peering inside the lance hole and running her fingers over the shattered optics.

"Not unless you want to lug a ton of steel, and I ain't in the mood for that."

"Someone must have reassembled this," she muttered while walking back towards Priam, "no way that thing has been running all this time."

"Who ever it is, I'll pass on meeting them." Priam chuckled while walking through the vehicles. "I've had enough golems for this month, thank you very much."

"C'mon, we did so well with this one. Sure you don't want to make a hobby of this?"

Anna took to filling her bag with various pieces she found, some low values but she knew she could flip within a day or two, and a few more valuable pieces that would need the right client.

"Found it!" Priam cried out, suddenly causing her to jump.

"The guy who made this?" she asked, moving towards him.

"No," Priam said, beaming while moving rubble away from a vehicle. "Got a snow quad! The treads are in good shape too! I just need some engine parts and to replace the living bay and it'll be just like the one I sold years ago!"

The vehicle was large enough for two people to ride, and largely intact, aside from several holes in the hood where someone broke it open to nab some parts, likely the mana condenser. The thing moved on four small treads for traction, and had a hookup on the back for a small "living bay" trailer, with a bed and cold suppression enchantments.

"So that's why you brought so much floatstone."

"Hell yeah, this thing is going to be awesome!"