The monstrosity – named the Ravager – leapt forward, its heavy feet slamming on the lab floor. Two claws that stuck out from both sides of it punched forward. Robyn shot one of the claws with her loaded-up Clockwork Bow, dealing some damage to it and causing it to retract backward. Sid's Elemental Axe summons chopped and cleaved at the other one.
He ran to the side of the room, summoning his set of Flowers of Mortality. The flowers rotated quickly around him, their colourful petals shooting at the Ravager. He saw Meg was still pinned to the glass in front of the lava core, the portal still there in front of her, but as he tried to approach it the glass suddenly shattered.
Lava flowing out from behind her, Meg burst out from the ice. Sid saw she was now wearing dark red robes with gold trimming – just like the Calamitas clone that had given so much trouble in the past.
She was no longer recognisable as Meg.
"If you survive, you may try to reach the Nexus," the witch spoke. "But if you do, I will make you suffer greatly, before ending your life."
She thrust her hands, and suddenly the lava from the core began shooting out into the room, globules flinging themselves past Sid and into the walls and covering the floor. Then she dived into the portal, and it blinked closed behind her.
Sid grit his teeth but gave a sudden gasp as he realised the lava seemed to be pooling on the floor. He grappled to the ceiling, narrowly avoiding getting his feet broiled.
He saw Robyn had already backed out of the room with the Steampunker, the Ravager now blocking the entrance. Its claws began punching out the blocks around the entrance, making it wider so that it could fit through.
Sid realised he didn't actually need to worry about the lava – his Angel Treads, or rather Seraph Tracers as they had now been upgraded – allowed him to walk on both water and lava. He waited for the lava to pool fully in the room before dropping, then turned to follow the Ravager.
He spotted the back of its hulk down the corridor, but as it jumped ahead, still in pursuit of Robyn, a large wall of rock suddenly burst up from the floor, separating him from the Ravager. His summons began tearing into the rock as though it was an enemy, so he stood next to it and waited for them to carve their way through.
When the rock wall was finally blasted to pieces, Sid ran through the debris and to an intersection of corridors, but after glancing down each tunnel he realised he'd lost track of the fight.
For a massive creature of metal, it sure moves fast.
He chose the left direction at random and ran down it, coming to a chamber where a glowing blue hologram was set up.
"Sensors have detected a significant breach in the spacetime continuum," it spoke.
That was when a massive spinning black device was launched out from the hologram.
Renee, standing in her stealth, had thrown her Star of Destruction, a massive cosmic mine. Her intention wasn't to kill the summoner though, but like a complete idiot he walked right into it. Come on, the projectile was like the slowest thing ever and it was so huge!
The Star's huge explosion unleashed a large blast of smoke accompanied by sharp black bolts. Renee watched, her stealth cloaking her again, for any sign of a survivor.
Then the summoner stepped out from the smoke.
Flanked by five floating elemental women.
After obtaining the Eye of the Storm, Sid had been able to craft all of the elemental accessories he'd been obtaining together into a single one, named the Heart of the Elements.
And now, he had five very powerful beings under his command.
"Okay ladies. Get her!"
"You first," the fishy water elemental said. "You're the one who keeps trying to pick up women."
"Why did you cram us all into this one heart?" the fiery-haired elemental demanded. "Anahita keeps threatening to put my hair out!"
"Then you'd be a big baldy!" the cloudy elemental giggled.
"Any of you have any spare nail polish?" asked one of the sandy elementals in a ditsy voice.
"You don't even have nails, your fingers are literally sand!" the fire-haired elemental exclaimed.
Sid heard the rogue's voice. "You, sir, are the most incapable summoner I have ever met."
"Out of how many? One?"
The rogue didn't answer as Sid de-equipped his Heart of the Elements, the five elementals and their arguing all vanishing.
Then he lunged forward at the hologram, holding his pickaxe out, and felt it successfully impact against something in the air.
"Ow!" the rogue's voice shouted as she faded out from invisibility. She was dressed in a cosmic-black cloak and hood, making it hard to see her even when she was visible.
He held his pickaxe to her throat. His Elemental Axe summons all crowded around her, also wanting to hold themselves to her throat.
"Why are you here?" he asked.
"To kill Yharim," she said bluntly.
Sid lowered his pickaxe, though his axe summons still stayed around her.
"Well, you just missed him. He sent through a giant ravaging thing that's rampaging through the lab after my friend."
"Too bad for him then."
"Her," Sid corrected as one of his axes shot its edge to her neck. "No idea if you've realised this, but we're against Yharim too. One of my... closest friends turned out to be Calamitas all along."
"Meg?" the rogue asked.
Sid stared at her, but nodded. "And my other friend thought joining up with Yharim would be a good idea."
"That's why I don't make friends."
"Would you like to start now?"
"Heck no."
"You got a name? Or a face?"
The rogue was still, though with all the axes hovering around her she didn't have much of a choice.
"Renee."
He called back his axes. "Sid."
***
Robyn and Whitney kept on moving backward, the vengeful Ravager pursuing them through the lab's many corridors and chambers.
Robyn had already managed to disable both of the Ravager's claw-arms that it kept punching with, both limbs falling out and blood beginning to spurt from their sockets. But it still had a whole body's worth of attacks in its arsenal. Its 'head' kept on launching rusty missiles that travelled slowly but which homed in on her, exploding against the lab walls.
Her rage and her own vengeful feelings fuelling her, she made fairly short work on both of its legs, but it was still able to thrust its body weight forward, sparks emanating from its underside. She and the Steampunker soon found themselves on the platform leading out the side of the planetoid.
Behind them was nothing but a massive drop.
Robyn fired up her Seraph Tracers, her new boots thrusting her up and onto one of the nearby asteroids. But she realised too late she wasn't the only one who needed to get out of there.
"Whitney!"
The Ravager leapt towards her, its hulk slamming into her and knocking her off the edge. For a horrible moment Robyn was sure the Steampunker was going to just plummet to her doom, but she quickly strapped on a jetpack and blasted up into the sky.
Robyn breathed. She would be safe.
Once Whitney had landed next to her, Robyn switched to her Planetary Annihilation. This bow had been useless inside the lab since it magically summoned colourful arrows from the sky rather than firing them directly. But now, she could use it as she pleased.
She poured a rainbow of shots into the Ravager, aiming for its skull-encrusted head. The boss couldn't do anything from the platform besides launch more missiles and a few fireballs at them, and the head was soon dislodged.
Revealing a blinking blue eye beneath.
Robyn didn't pay it much mind at first, but the Steampunker's eyes widened. "Omicron!" She spun to the side. "Robyn! Stop!"
Robyn did, lowering her bow. "Why?"
"It's the Cyborg!"
She stared directly at the Ravager's eye and realised with a shock she was right.
The Cyborg had been pulled to pieces by the Calamitas clone's magic back in Firstworld. Robyn had been sure he'd died right then.
But somehow... impossibly... he'd been stitched into the Ravager.
What kind of person would string an innocent cyborg's parts into something as grotesque as this?
Yharim, that's who. Or maybe Draedon.
"Omicron!" Whitney shouted. "Can you hear me?"
To Robyn's astonishment, the Ravager seemed to stop.
"Whitney?" a voice spoke from somewhere.
"Yes! It's me!" Whitney seemed almost giddy. "I can't believe it! I mean... you're alive!"
"Error: I am not alive."
"Of course, you're a cyborg..."
"My directive: Slaughter all in my sight. Oh look, a harpy!"
A missile was launched from its top up into the air, where it obliterated the feathered creature that had flown too close.
"Omicron!" Whitney shouted. "Uhh... repeal all directives! New directive! Shut down until further instructions!"
"Error: My directives are hard-coded and cannot be changed." There were some clunking noises.
It launched itself upwards.
Somehow, impossibly, new claws sprouted from its body as it soared towards them in the low gravity of the sky, and it used those to grab onto the spikes protruding from the asteroid. From there it hefted itself upwards, flinging itself high and over Robyn and Whitney.
"Come on!" Robyn shouted, grabbing Whitney's arm and taking off from the asteroid, the Ravager narrowly missing them as it slammed down.
They landed back on the lab's metal platform and spun around just in time to see the Ravager jumping back towards them, sparks shooting out from its underside.
That was when the spinning black bomb soared over Robyn's head.
It exploded against the Ravager, knocking it backwards.
Its new claws extended out to try to grab on to the edge of the platform, but they weren't able to reach far enough.
"Robyn!"
She glanced back to see Sid, standing with someone dressed in a black cloak, but her mind didn't register that.
She ran to the edge of the platform and knelt down, her hands grasping the corner of the blocks as she stared down.
At the Ravager.
At Omicron.
Slowly falling down to his doom.
If there's any consolation, maybe he'll land on the vote button.