Luke slowly raised his arms at the elbows, so his spell rifles were pointing at the oncoming orcs without looking overtly threatening. The trio of young orcs had run across most of the valley and left the ents behind. From experience back on the estate, Luke knew that the grandson’s space warping abilities could reach them by now. Shepard and the others placed their hands on their sword hilts. The only one not ready for a fight was Jinx. She was investigating a weird smelling bush nearby.

  “Luke of Machines!” Cormac’s grandson, Eamon, yelled in orcish. He held out the metal rose and said, “This is all your fault. Pay us back with an escort.”

  That wasn’t how Luke expected this conversation to go. “What’s my fault? And why do you need an escort?”

  Eamon warped space and appeared directly in front of them. Luke flinched back, just barely stopping himself from firing a spell at the orc’s sudden appearance. Eamon held out the rose and said, “Here, take it.”

  “What is this?”

  “This is your artifact,” Eamon said and pulled Luke’s gauntlet forward and placed the rose in it. “Cormac sent me to collect it for you. Which was a waste of my time since you came here anyway. If he wasn’t the Seneschal and my grandfather, I would scrape his shins for this.”

  “Cormac sent you all the way out here to get this artifact for me?” Luke said, partially in amazement, partially so the others understood what was going on. They didn’t have the translation whispering in their ears.

  “Yes, the old fool is far too sentimental. Take the artifact.”

  “What does it do, exactly?” Luke asked.

  Eamon held up his bleeding hand, “You mean besides this? It increases your core flow and reduces your suppression abilities.”

  “What does that mean?”

  Eamon grumbled, “Talk to the Seer, it’s his job to know of these things. Come, the Voidsoul Turtles are still after us. Escort us back to Lord Edobar’s estate and we can consider this matter closed.”

  Luke took a better look at Eamon. He and his friends looked formidable with their carved skin, armor, and weapons. But they were still teenagers. This might be one of the few times they had left the safety of the estate village on their own. It must gall him to ask for protection.

  “We can head back with you. What are Voidsoul Turtles?”

  “Look for yourself,” Eamon said and pointed. “They have our scent and will not stop following us. They may be slow, but they do not tire.”

  Luke looked where he was pointing and saw vague shapes walking through the grass far behind them. He activated the camera on his magic drone and flew in for a closer look. They were vaguely turtle like, but ugly as sin. They were strangely proportioned and covered in dripping pus. They seemed like they were half ghosts, walking through trees, but the grass still bent with their passing. They were half translucent and didn’t let anything stop their inexorable march.

  “I’m assuming you don’t have any magics that can hurt them. We have a variety of runic weapons, do you think they might work? We have fire, ice, lightning, force blades, and acid.”

  “Don’t risk those swords, they are worth more than your lives,” Eamon said. He glanced back and said, “Come, we must go. We can’t afford to let them get close. You won’t see their attack, you will just fall dead.”

  Luke nodded and turned to the others, “We are heading back to the village with Cormac’s grandson and his friends. Keep an eye on those monsters. We can’t let the ghost turtles get close.”

  Eamon grumbled and started jogging again, heading directly away from the turtles. His friends and the humans joined him. Shepard jogged closer to Luke and whispered, “Do we trust them?”

  “Yeah, they are just kids. They want us to protect them on the way home.”

  Shepard nodded and split up his squad to either side of the jogging orcs. Eamon led the way, but any monster would be intercepted by the mechs first. Every so often, the young orc would warp space around him and his friends and they would appear a hundred feet ahead and everyone would have to hurry and catch up.

  Luke and Vanessa brought up the rear. They didn’t have to jog as fast as the others, their longer legs meant that this was a fast walk for them.

  “Is that pretty flower what we came here for?” Vanessa said.

  Luke held it up, “Yeah, it’s an artifact. Eamon said it increases flow and lowers suppression. No idea what that means though.”

  “Can I see?” Vanessa said tentatively.

  “Sure,” Luke said and handed over the argent flower.

  She happily took the metal rose and turned it over in her hands. “Is there a specific way to activate it?”

  “Probably blood activated.” Luke said. When he saw how closely she was looking at it he added, “But don’t test it out yourself. Apparently it’s the Seer’s job to identify stuff like this. I want him to check it out before we use it. The way Eamon’s hand was bleeding makes me think there are some serious downsides to using it.”

  Vanessa nodded absently but continued to examine the artifact.

  Luke used his magic drone to keep an eye on the Voidsoul Turtles following them. Their pus and coloring reminded him of that one ghost from Ghostbusters. Except these guys would kill you instead of just sliming you.

  He tapped his gauntlets. He still wondered if his magic would kill these monsters. The sawblade spell probably wouldn’t work against the ghost monsters, but he suspected that either lightning or ice would. They were just outside his longest range, otherwise he would try it out now. Too bad he hadn’t added spell rifles to his drone. That was definitely going in the Mark II Drone design.

  The journey back to the village was quiet. Two teams had just gone this way and cleared out monsters as they went. The Voidsoul Turtles started catching up, the young orcs were flagging and their pace slowed. The tip of the metal tree appeared in the distance and gave them a second wind.

  “I don’t know why they wanted an escort, this was dumb,” Barrow muttered to himself.

  The universe must have heard him.

  Shepard yelled, “Stop! There is something underground.” The grass twenty feet ahead rumbled and more than a dozen monsters burst out of the ground in a spray of dirt.

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  The monsters were four legged beasts with metal over their heads and along their back. They had a pointed muzzle and long mouths that took up a third of their bodies. The monsters had wide sharp claws that they used to launch themselves forward towards the humans and orcs.

  The failed ambush gave the rest of them time to prepare for the charge. Luke fired all three spells at once, killing two of them before they rocketed into melee range of the others. The orcs fought as one, using their hook swords and spear to flip and kill a monster. The three of them could only focus on one monster at a time. The mechs had to handle the rest of them.

  Fire was mostly useless against the heavily armored moles. Acid and ice worked, but was slow. Lightning was much more effective. Luke maneuvered around the battlefield, zapping monsters one after another so the others could finish them off. Bumblebee baited out a charge and used Evade when they came close.

  Shepard had taken point and was knocking back monster after monster. He kept the worst of the press off of them, but his Vengeance skill wasn’t deadly. They quickly recovered after being hit and raced back into melee. Jinx used the moment before recovery to stealthily attack, killing two of them. Their metal armor was no match for her phase claws.

  Bumblebee was firing his ice shots as fast as he could, but the short delay between shots was enough for him to get swarmed.

  Vanessa clenched the rose tight and drew her hammer. Then she roared and launched herself forward. She swung wildly, smashing down on the metal mole trying to sneak up on Bumblebee from behind. Her technique was terrible, but her enthusiasm was putting deep dents in the monster’s metal armor. The ice magic in the sledgehammer seeped in and froze the monster solid after a half dozen hits. She shattered the monster and moved on to the next.

  Luke saw all of that, but couldn’t move to help her. He was on the left flank, protecting Davis and Green. They had the only two fire swords in the bunch, and needed his help to kill the monsters. Luke would shock them into immobility, and they would slip their swords underneath the armor and cut some important bits.

  The fight didn’t last long, the combination of magic and martial prowess in the group was more than enough to handle this group. Vanessa seemed upset when there were no more targets for her hammer. Luke noticed she had been a little too enthusiastic and had scraped off the mana dust from her weapon. He would have to re-inscribe it before she could use it again.

  Barrow knelt down and got to work harvesting cores. Davis and Shepard joined him.

  Eamon yelled in heavily accented English, “No! We must go. The shell beasts come.” He pointed towards the Voidsoul Turtles in the distance.

  The insubstantial monsters sensed their chance was coming and sped up. They were still slow, but faster than before.

  “Ok, let’s go,” Luke said regretfully. He wanted those cores.

  “Sure, just one second,” Shepard said and dug into the corpse faster.

  “No! We go,” Eamon said. He led the other orcs into a jog directly away from the turtles.

  Luke said, “Everyone, go with him. I’ll bring up the rear.”

  The rest of them saw the ghost monsters and hurried to follow. Shepard was stubborn and kept fishing for the core. Luke stayed with him, half tempted to yell at him for being stupid, half tempted to see if he could kill the ghost turtles.

  Vanessa paused when she saw they weren’t coming with. “Come on, Shepard. Don’t get Luke killed.”

  Shepard ignored her and kept working. Luke said, “Take Jinx with you. I’ll drag this idiot along before they get too close.”

  Shepard swore at him, but kept working. He had collected one core and was already on to the next.

  Vanessa looked like she wanted to stay, but Jinx jumping to her shoulder changed her mind. “Promise me you’ll run even if Shephard doesn’t.”

  Luke promised and she sped off. Her long legs made catching up with the others easy.

  When the quintet of monsters was close enough, Luke fired his spells into the air. They arced through the air as far as the air rifle could fling the magnets. Almost two hundred feet away, they impacted the dirt with an explosion of magic. He was off by ten feet. He adjusted and fired again, one after another. By the fourth spell he had the range dialed in and he started impacting the Voidsoul Turtles. Shepard moved on to the next corpse and kept harvesting.

  The buzzsaw spell slipped right through the lead monster, leaving it entirely without damage. The lightning spell was just as ineffective. The ice spell seemed like it wasn’t going to do anything, but the lead monster slowed after it was hit.

  Luke smiled viciously. He kept firing ice bolts one after another, always hitting the lead monster. After the fourth hit, he realized they were going to get too close before the ice magic killed them. He mentally directed his magic drone to fly in and distract them.

  The drone swooped in from the sky, directly in their line of sight. When it was about twenty feet away, Luke caught the shimmer of mana in the air. His connection to the drone was severed and it immediately crashed to the ground. Luke was briefly confused and then he connected the dots.

  “Oh shit. Run, run, run,” Luke said and turned around.

  He aimed for Shepard and activated Frictionless Side twice in a row. His feet locked in place and he slid across the ground, up and over the monster bodies without pause. Less than two seconds later, he was pulling Shepard up.

  Shepard came along willingly, and it was only after they had caught up with the rest that he turned to Luke and said, “What was that about? I thought you had them.”

  “They are Voidsoul Turtles, it’s not just a name. As soon as my drone got close, it literally ripped the machine soul out of it. It’s not an attack you can dodge. Eamon is right, there is no fighting them.”

  Eamon looked back from the head of the pack and gave him a single nod. “Good that you realized that I am always right before you lost your soul.”

  Luke rolled his eyes and ignored the kid. He gave Vanessa a smile and made sure Jinx saw that he had caught up with the group.

  It didn’t take long for them to arrive at the northern edge of the estate village. Eamon kept running until after they passed the low wall surrounding the homes. Then he stopped and turned to watch the Voidsoul Turtle’s approach.

  The monsters had kept up with their prey, running at their maximum ponderous speed. As soon as the last member of the squad crossed the boundary of the village, the turtles slowed. They kept moving forward out of inertia, but seemed confused. They looked all around them, even behind themselves.

  “Hey, Eamon. Can we attack them if we don’t cross the wall?” Luke asked.

  “If you are quick, sure,” Eamon replied offhand.

  Luke grinned and focused on the closest monster. He started firing ice bolt after ice bolt at the insubstantial monster, with Bumblebee joining in moments later. Together they managed to take down one of the turtles.

  Before they could move on to the next monster, a bright light speared out from the top of the metal tree behind them. One of the monsters fell dead. A second later, three more lights speared out and killed the remaining Voidsoul Turtles.

  Eamon said, “You can go retrieve the core from the one you killed, but the other four are property of the lord. The Radiant Archer is one of his defenders. Do not touch those bodies.”

  Luke agreed and hopped over the low wall and walked up to the bodies. He made sure to walk up to the correct corpse and knelt to examine its mana. The body was fading away, becoming more and more insubstantial. That made it easy for him to plunge his hand into the goop and pull out the large monster core.

  It was tier five or six, probably the most valuable one he had ever had. If he remembered correctly, a tier six core was worth a hundred thousand dollars on Earth. His heart beat fast as he tucked it away. He tried and failed to walk nonchalantly back to the village. There was a blur in the distance that sped towards them and a young elf appeared in front of the group.

  “The lord’s protectors thank you for bringing a bounty to the walls, but request that you give them more advance warning in the future,” the elf wearing gold and silver said.

  Eamon brought his fists together and bowed. “We all work for his honor.”

  The elf turned to the humans and said, “Is Luke of Machines among your number?”

  Luke stepped forward and flipped up his visor. “I am.”

  “You are summoned to appear before your Lord Edobar Falodun this afternoon. He will hold court and you are to present yourself as his new chosen.”

  Before Luke could reply, the elf turned on his heels and sped away. He blurred across the streets and up the spiral staircase surrounding the skyscraper tree.

  Today’s chapter title comes from Blade Runner (1982)