Blood for Power: A LitRPG Apocalypse

As we backed away, a chair stood in the mannequin robot’s path. Much like with the armor robot, it cut through the chair rather than go around it. Fragments of wood exploded and sprayed towards us. A harmless attack, but it was enough to receive an identification message.

*Beast Identified* [Crude Fashion Mannequin Automaton (Rare)] Level 110 – Retrieved from a dumpster behind a dressmaker and given new life as a security guard. This robot has some interesting quirks. Sadly, you already know about its unstable power core, so that surprise is out. Still, be careful fighting this one. One wrong move and it’s ka-boom!

“For the record, setting off this trap is on Roan,” I said.

Hugo nodded. “Agreed.”

Hugo and I retreated until we reached the metal bars in front of the shop window. The mannequin was slow. We still had time to escape.

With my sword, I used an Air Slash attack on the window bars. The glass shattered, but the bars remained intact.

“Hurry, it’s getting closer!” Hugo cried.

“I can’t cut through the metal!”

“What about the walls? You said you destroyed the mausoleum before.”

I glanced at the wooden beams supporting the roof and frowned.

“I don’t know if the building could take it. Blowing through a wall could collapse part of the roof and hit the robots.”

“So what do we do?”

Lucas: Roan, can we restrain it?

I was thinking about summoning some chains from my domain to hold it in place until we came up with a better idea. Thankfully, the armor robot remained in the workshop. Maybe because it wasn’t programmed to leave that area?

Roan: That’s risky. It might injure itself while trying to resist the chains.

Hugo: Well, we have to do something!

Roan: I’m looking for answers. Just avoid it for the time being.

That was easier said than done when the robot was almost upon us. I was about to try and dodge under one of its arm blades when Hugo summoned his giant bug spirit. The creature coiled around us and solidified to give us some cover.

If the robot was smart, it would’ve realized that the bug wasn’t attacking and would simply climb over it. But instead, the robot stabbed at the creature repeatedly. The bug spirit held for now, but it wouldn’t last forever.

“Hugo, you can squeeze through the bars and get to safety out on the street.”

“What? I’m not leaving you!”

I grabbed him and shoved him through the bars. This was not the time to argue.

“Help me from out there,” I said.

Hugo brought Archer back out. She appeared behind the mannequin and tried to distract him, all to no avail. It seemed the mannequin was only interested in living targets.

It continued attacking the bug spirit and Hugo was growing concerned.

“It can’t hold for much longer,” he said.

I figured now was the time to check in with Roan for answers.

Lucas: How’s that research coming?

Roan: Slow, and slower still when you keep interrupting me.

What was this, some kind of stalling tactic? Roan should’ve known right away what this thing was. If this was a test, then we were going to have words once this thing was dealt with.

“It’s almost out of health!” Hugo warned.

I put my sword away and prepared to move.

The bug started to turn into dissipate. As it did, I rolled through its smoky echo and got behind the mannequin. The robot spun its arm blades back blindly and one of them caught my arm with a shallow cut. I winced and kept moving while taking care not to re-enter the workshop, which had even less space and a bigger robot inside.

As another test, I tried blinding the robot. First with Heart of Darkness over its eyes, and then by concealing myself in my cloak. Neither seemed to impact its senses as it pursued me.

With its long arm blades, it was easy for it to herd me into another corner. I tried to dash past it, only to receive another cut, this time on my side.

“Oof” Hugo said.

One thing I noticed was that there seemed to be a mismatch with the robot’s body. Its legs were much slower than its arms and upper body.

Roan: Okay, I think I’ve got it. Are you close to a body of water?

Hugo: What?! No, of course not.

Roan. Right. Then we’ll have to short circuit it with electricity. First get to a lightbulb.

The mannequin’s upper body started spinning, its arm blades whirling.

Lucas: There are no lightbulbs! He doesn’t use any. There were just some lit candles in the workshop.

Roan: Machines like this would need recharging. There must be an electricity source close by. Think!

I looked around the shop but saw nothing except empty broken shelves. If there was going to be a hidden power source, then it must be in the workshop. I thought about the hidden button I’d pressed that had a cable connected to it. That had to have used electricity.

I ran back into the workshop while praying that the mannequin didn’t follow me. The armor robot stood inert in between the smashed table, like it had powered down as soon as I was out of its sight. Magical awareness showed me the truth. It didn’t have a field of view cone like the mannequin one did. Instead, an orange haze pulsed out three hundred and sixty degrees around the robot every two seconds. If you were outside of the pulse, then it stopped moving.

“Hugo, use whatever you can to block the doorway.”

I couldn’t trust that the mannequin was restricted only to the front shop and it following me into the cramped workshop space would mean disaster.

Archer shifted like smoke and appeared to stand in front of the doorway. A pulse from the armor robot hit me as I approached the hidden button. I froze and watched as the armor robot straightened. It took several steps and then sent out another pulse.

The pulse hit me, but this time it didn’t react.

I took a step towards the cabinet with the hidden button and stopped just before another pulse was sent out. As long as I moved between the pulses, I could avoid its detection.

“Hurry, I don’t know how much more Archer can take,” Hugo yelled.

Lucas: I’m going as fast as I can.

After the next pulse, I made it to the cabinet and bent down before freezing.

Lucas: Okay, I’ve found a cable that I think has power running through it.

Roan: Great, rip the end of it out.

Lucas: Won’t that electrocute me?

Roan: Is there rubber insulation on the cable?

I checked and saw that there was.

Lucas: Yes?

Roan: Great, then only touch that part and you should be fine.

After the next pulse, I grabbed the cable and ripped it away from the button. Sure enough, there were some copper wires that created sparks when they touched.

Lucas: Okay, I’ve got some electricity. Now what?

Roan: Open the outer protective panel to expose its power source.

Lucas: How do I do that without damaging it?

Roan: There should be a release button somewhere.

It was at that moment that Archer ran out of health and dissipated. The mannequin stepped into the workshop.

Lucas: I don’t see a button on either of them!

Roan: It would be subtle. Check the back of it.

Oh sure, easy for you to say.

The mannequin set its sights on me. I tried to move away and pull the cable with me, but it was stuck. I stood there holding the cable as an arm blade tried to stab me. I side-stepped it, but the pulse caught me and the armor robot moved closer.

As soon as the mannequin got within range, I shoved the cable into its chest. Sparks flew off of it, but it remained unharmed. An arm blade swung up high, ready to strike me down. My free hand shot out to grab it before it could cave my skull in.

So much for not restraining these things. I could feel its arm trying to resist me, but that wasn’t the problem. The problem was that I’d grabbed it with my only free hand while the other held the electric cable. Its other arm blade stabbed me in the gut. I gasped and felt my legs shake. They were like jelly and wanted to buckle, but I remained in place.

Lucas: The electric cable didn’t work.

Roan snorted.

Roan: Of course it didn’t. What part of protective panel was lost on you?

Oh god, I was going to die while someone snarkily critiques all of my mistakes.

The mannequin pulled the arm blade out of me, and I cried out.

Why do blades always feel worse when they’re being taken out of me?

The mannequin pulled its arm back, ready for another stab.

I wanted to retreat, but my legs wouldn’t respond. I didn’t know what to do. In that moment, I could only stare at the blade.

This is it.

Suddenly, Hugo and several crow spirits flew into the workshop. They danced madly in front of the robot’s faces.

“What are you waiting for?” Hugo cried. “Move!”

I dropped the cable and hobbled past the robots. The armor robot’s pulse was picking up all of the spirit crows and it didn’t know which way to turn. The thing kept turning left and right in confusion. Meanwhile, the mannequin focused solely on Hugo, who danced in the air to avoid its attacks.

Bart had designed one robot for living targets and one robot to repel non-living targets.

This was further proven when the armor robot’s clamps hit one of the spirit crows. Enchantment symbols appeared on the clamps for a brief second and the crow it hit vanished into smoke.

Bart was trying to cover his bases with these robots, but who were they for? I doubted he could’ve made them so quickly after our visit and the armor one wouldn’t have been for us or Enzo’s people. Who was he afraid of?

The mannequin whipped an arm blade at my head, which brought me back to my senses. I ducked and stayed behind to check the back of it. That was when I noticed a small disc shape carved into the back of its right leg. A button that was almost invisible unless the light hit it just right.

I fell to my knees and pressed the button. There was a hiss of air and the front panel of the mannequin fell to the floor with a clang.

I stood up and tried to make a move for the fallen electric cable, but my gut wound was worse than I thought. Hugo saw I wasn’t going to make it. He summoned a spectral hand and thrust the cable into the mannequin’s exposed chest.

More sparks flew, the robot juddered and its arms grinded to a stop.

*DING!* You have slain [Crude Fashion Mannequin Automaton (Rare)] Level 110 – Experience Points and Currency Acquired

Hugo and I let out a sigh of relief, but it wasn’t over just yet.

I shuffled over to the armor robot and found a similar button in the same place. Hugo lured it closer to the cable and then shocked it until we received a message telling us it was dead.

I grabbed a blood source from my inventory to heal myself. It took multiple bodies to do so. That wouldn’t do. My stock of high-quality blood was running low. I would need to start thinking about how to collect more soon. Perhaps by seeking out more of those desert bugs?

Hugo flew to the armor robot and grabbed some fist sized tube. I didn’t get a good look before it disappeared into his inventory, so I turned over the mannequin.

The front of was a mixture of gears and wires that reminded me a little of the what the spirit killer cubes looked like on the inside. At the center was a large tube with two smaller tubes inside of it. One containing an orange liquid and the other containing a blue one.

I pulled on it, and the thing detached from the robot with an easy click.

*Item Identified!* [Crude Automaton Power Core (Rare)] – A small portable power source that can be recharged with the right amount of power. Use the wrong amount and this thing will blow a big crater into whatever it’s near.

I put it in my inventory. It might be useful in the future and, if nothing else, it was further proof to show Enzo of Bart’s involvement in all of this.

Roan: You did it. Congratulations.

He’d been evasive and vague about where he’d disappeared to. When he does finally return, he struggled to offer advice on how to deal with an enemy. We needed to know what was going on, if only for our own safety.

Lucas: Once we’re out of this shop, we need to have a talk.