The three constructs landed with a precision that felt rehearsed rather than sudden—legs unfolding, weight distributing, metal points biting into soil without a sound. They arranged themselves in a shallow arc across the path, each at an equal distance from the others, their polished hemispherical bodies catching fragments of sunlight through the leaves. Too clean. Too deliberate.

  A translucent interface flickered into existence at the edge of Elanil’s vision.

  Quest: Rogue Constructs

  Status: Acquired

  Description: Slaughter 3 constructs ASAP.

  Additional Information:

  Small Steel Spider x 3

  Type: Construct

  Threat Level: Moderate

  Notable Traits: Reinforced armor, Enhanced agility, [Spinning blades], [Artillery Barrage]

  Reward:

  – XP (Conditional)

  – Loot (Conditional)

  The short notification followed.

  [Party Update: Nura joined Party]

  Elanil registered it without focus. The window tried to expand stats, equipment, role designation but she shoved it aside. Now was not the time.

  “Smart bastards, I see,” Nura muttered, already shifting her stance. “And they’re used to working together.”

  The constructs moved sideways, regrouped. Two of them skittered outward in mirrored arcs, legs a blur of jointed motion, while the third held position, coiled and ready for strike. They didn’t break formation. They adjusted it, tightening angles, closing escape routes without advancing.

  Elanil felt a prickle crawl up her spine. “They’re like a shoal.”

  “Yeah,” Nura replied grimly. “I bet they’re not here to get fished.”

  “Wha—” Elanil turned to her but was cut short—the first attack came from above. The leftmost construct snapped open mid-motion, its hemispheres splitting with a ringing metallic crack. Blades unfolded from within and the entire body began to spin, faster and faster, until it launched itself upward like a whirling top.

  “Elanil!” Nura yelled.

  Elanil moved on instinct. The spinning construct crashed through the space she’d occupied a heartbeat earlier. Its blades got stuck as they carved through bark and leaves. The impact gouged a shallow trench in the ground before the thing rebounded, landing upright with impossible balance. Nura rolled beneath its return arc, came up slashing and her axe glanced off the curved shell in a shower of sparks.

  “Harder than the beetle!” she hissed.

  The central construct opened next. Panels parted along its body, revealing a ring of small gun tubes. Elanil didn’t need a tooltip for this one.

  “Down!” she shouted.

  Jets of incandescent energy blasted outward in a spinning pattern, scorching earth, shredding ferns, and setting bark smoldering where it struck. Elanil sprinted, leaping over a fallen log as heat washed past her back. She felt the edge of it lick her shoulder—pain flared, sharp and immediate, but faded as she rolled into shadow. Nura vaulted sideways, axes digging into the ground to anchor her as a blast scorched the air where she’d been standing. The barrage ended as abruptly as it began. The construct sealed itself again, armor locking into place with a precise click.

  “Artillery,” Nura growled. “That’s unfair.”

  “Did you expect the height of politeness from them?” Elanil chuckled. “Did you see it, when they open to attack—”

  “—they’re vulnerable. Yep!” Nura finished.

  [Boomerangs]

  She launched both axes at the construct that had just fired. The two spinning weapons would have whistled home if only they had been there even a moment sooner.

  “Crap!” she swore.

  The constructs didn’t pause for a moment. While the artillery unit vented heat and closed, the third one surged forward, low and fast, legs pumping in tight rhythm. It struck at Nura’s flank, blades flashing, and this time she caught it, axes crossing to deflect the blow. The force numbed her arms.

  “Let’s see how you like the orcish shouts,” she snapped, and roared.

  [Intimidation]

  Her battle cry swept through the forest like a blast wave. Yet it caused no reaction from the constructs. They didn’t hesitate, didn’t flinch, didn’t slow for a moment. Nothing.

  Nura’s eyes widened. “They don’t care!”

  “They’re not alive,” Elanil said, already nocking an arrow. “High resistance for control effects. Maybe even immunity.”

  “Shit. Why didn’t I think about it?”

  The spinning unit launched again. Elanil loosed, the arrow striking dead center and skidding off the curved metal with a ricochet that sent it spinning uselessly into the brush.

  Elanil and Nura moved back-to-back, without speaking. It was spontaneous, out of necessity rather than a planned formation. Every second demanded motion: dodge, parry, reposition. The constructs pressed from different angles, never overcommitting, always leaving one free to strike while the others forced reactions. A blade whistling past Elanil’s shoulder. Nura cursed as fire grazed her side.

  Then it almost went wrong.

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

  Two constructs surged at Nura at once—one low, one aerial—forcing her to commit fully forward. She ducked the spin, deflected the ground strike. The third suddenly emerged behind her. Blades extended in a merciless arc aimed straight at the back of the orc’s neck. Elanil’s reaction was swift. One of Nura’s thrown axes was already returning, spinning back toward its owner. Elanil caught the haft mid-air, twisted, and hurled it sideways. The axe struck the construct’s open seam, knocking it off course just enough. Metal screamed. The blades carved air instead of flesh.

  Nura staggered forward, alive, breathing deeply. “You—” She didn’t finish, just nodded.

  They had no time for sentimentalities—the constructs reset again, their armor not yet penetrated, while movements even more precise. They had adjusted. So had Elanil and Nura.

  “Timing,” Elanil breathed, not taking her eyes off the trio as they resumed their predatory orbit. “Let’s exploit their vulnerabilities when they open to attack.”

  “Too small a window,” Nura grunted, flexing her grip on her remaining axe. The other was already on its way to her, summoned back from its thrown state.

  “Then we make it bigger.”

  The constructs’ coordination was impressive yet terrifying. The slightly damaged one hung back, hemispheres sealed tight. The other two advanced, one scuttling low, the other’s body beginning to whirr, blades extending.

  “Left, aerial!” Elanil called.

  Nura didn’t dodge. She planted her feet, watching the whirling metal top launch toward her. At the last possible second, she dropped into a crouch and thrust her axe upward, rather to alter its trajectory than to block. The spinning construct screeched as the axe deflected off the angled metal, rebounding wildly with a sound like a gong and sticking into a thick tree trunk. It fell, blades tangled in splintered wood for a precious second.

  “Now, Elf,” Nura yelled, surging toward the low-coming construct. Elanil’s bow was already drawn.

  [Knockback Arrow]

  The arrow, crackling with electric charge, streaked across the clearing. It shot straight into the gap of the low construct as its panels began to part for its own attack. The impact wasn’t spectacular—a muffled thump and a shower of blue-white sparks. The construct started vibrating vigorously, its mechanisms jolted by the shocking energy. Its hemispheres froze, stuck half-open, blades only partially extended. A light electrical haze danced across its metal skin. Nura was already in motion. She didn’t charge the stunned construct directly. Instead, she pivoted, putting the vulnerable machine between her and the other two. Then she threw.

  [Boomerangs]

  Both axes flew from her hands in a wide and whirling arc. They whistled through the air, homing in on the shocked construct. The first struck the exposed interior with a brutal clang, shearing through a delicate-looking array of rods and gears. It rebounded, its path altering seamlessly to circle around. The second axe hit from the opposite side before the first even finished its pass, carving another deep wound. Then the first axe completed its circuit, striking again on the return. Three hits in the span of two heartbeats, each a solid, resonating blow to the construct’s unprotected guts.

  The construct emitted a high-pitched clang. It tried to close its hemispheres, but the damaged mechanisms jammed. It staggered, listing to one side, its movements becoming jerky and uncoordinated.

  “It works!” Nura grinned as her axes slapped back into her palms.

  Victory was yet to be achieved. The aerial construct had wrenched itself free from the tree. The third, the wounded one, had finally managed to fully close its shell, presenting a perfect, unblemished armor. And they were learning. They didn’t attack simultaneously now. They harried. The spinning one feinted toward Elanil, forcing her to dive and roll, before zipping away. The sealed one charged Nura, using its immense weight and durability to knock her off balance. They were bleeding the duo’s stamina, tightening the noose.

  Elanil’s shoulder burned where the fire had grazed it. Her breath came in gasps. Nura was sweating heavily. Every dodge was a fraction slower, every parry shook her arms a bit more. On top of everything else, Elanil also needed to keep in mind her ability’s cooldown timing. As soon as one of the constructs opened up for an attack again, Nura glanced quickly at her.

  “Too early.” She shook her head decisively.

  They moved with unyielding purpose. Elanil ignored the spinning construct buzzing past her ear, the heat of a near-miss, the artillery barrage from the central unit that set the hem of her cloak smoldering. She focused on the third, the one with the gash in its shell. It was keeping its distance, a soft clicking sound emanating from within as it tried to self-seal. Nura drew its aggression, throwing a taunting axe strike that sparked harmlessly off its front. It retaliated on instinct, hemispheres snapping open to reveal its cannons for a riposte.

  “Now!”

  [Knockback Arrow]

  Elanil’s arrow was a streak of lightning. It hammered into the opening, the shock effect cascading over its internal systems. The construct trembled, its barrage fizzling into a few pathetic spurts of flame.

  Nura’s [Boomerangs] crossed the clearing. This time, the construct, already damaged, couldn’t withstand the punishment. The whirling axes found the existing wound and widened it catastrophically. With a final, plaintive clank, the construct’s light flickered and died. It collapsed into a lifeless heap of scrap.

  Two left.

  But the cost was showing. Elanil’s arms trembled with fatigue. Nura was panting, her movements losing their razor’s edge. The remaining constructs seemed to sense it. They abandoned all caution, attacking in a furious, synchronized frenzy. Blades and fire filled the air. Elanil took a shallow cut across her thigh. Nura’s side was grazed by another searing blast.

  It was a desperate, brutal dance. They were reacting, not controlling. Until Nura, roaring in frustration, deflected a spinning blade with such force that her axe lodged in the construct’s joint. It wrenched free, but the machine wobbled, its spin uneven.

  “Elanil, the flyer! It’s unstable!”

  It was all the opening she had and luckily the timing was perfect. As the wobbly construct tried to right itself and reopen its blades, Elanil fired her [Explosive Arrow]. It hit true, the blast wave disrupting the gyroscopic balance entirely. The construct spun out of control, crashing to the ground in a tangled mess of limbs and blades, hemispheres gaping wide.

  Nura didn’t have the time for a clean [Boomerangs] throw. She staggered forward and, with a guttural cry, brought both axes down in a double overhead smash directly into the exposed core. Metal screamed and shattered.

  One left.

  The final construct, the artillery unit, sealed itself utterly. A fortress. Deprived of support from the flanks, the construct did not know what tactics to choose and therefore fidgeted forward and back.

  “Okay, I’m tired of this,” Nura grumbled, looked around, then picked up a heavy boulder and threw it right at the target. “[Smashing boulder]! How do you like them apples?”

  The construct split cleanly in half from the impact. Nura and Elanil exchanged glances and immediately burst into laughter. They couldn’t figure out whether such a simple victory over the last remaining construct was due to it already being damaged, or whether the boulder had been the solution to the problem of those malevolent mechanisms all along.

  Finally, silence reigned over the clearing. Leaning against a tree trunk, Elanil allowed herself to close her eyes for a moment. However, the pain from the injuries she had sustained during the battle immediately washed over her. Nura leaned on her axes, her breath coming in ragged, sobbing pulls. Sweat and soot streaked her face, and a fine tremor ran through her powerful frame. They stood there, in the wreckage. Bent, scarred metal. Scorched leaves. The air stinky with the smells of ozone, burnt lichen, and hot metal.

  “That was… awesome,” Nura finally exhaled and smiled to her comrade in arms.