Kas stood numbly as Lazlo stilled, then shook himself out of his stupor. The recharge almost slipped from his fingers and he crushed it in response, feeding the mana still burning through his eyes. He lined up more as he ran back to the others, noting as he did that the enormous supply was two-thirds gone.
Before he made it, one of the mercenaries jolted backwards, thrown across the room. His head lolled against his chest, unmoving. Agneza swore and froze for an instant, before immediately doubling down, expending what looked like the last of her mana in time for Kas’ next recharge. Neither of them said anything, but it was clear she was fighting a losing battle.
If they didn’t change tactics, they wouldn’t be getting out until they were dead or Maesik came back for them. Which might as well be death - if not for their bodies then certainly their careers. But probably their bodies.
Another impact glanced off his arm, something sharp and unseen. A dull ache spread through the limb a moment later. He took a patch out of pocket storage and applied it to the area, though whether it was helping his real body remained to be seen.
Pocket storage. He might have been aeons behind the high-rankers in experience, but he had one thing they didn’t - heavy duty supply. In the end, the attacking constructs were just enchanted objects, like the AutoSlash. He could see no reason why they couldn’t be transferred into the storage grid’s larger compartments. All he had to do was touch one. And at the rate their team members were dropping, all he probably had to do was stand still.
He just needed to see it coming.
“Is there a way we can get a relay signal through?” he asked the safecracker.
“Don’t know. Maybe. Recharge.”
Kas passed her one. Less than a third remaining, now.
“Maybe it doesn’t need to get out. We’re in a mental effect. If I can aim an orb on myself, then when I get hit - ” He tapped the surface of the storage interface.
A look of understanding passed over Agneza’s face. “Blud.” She closed her eyes, and when they opened again, they blazed with mana. “It’s worth a shot.” She glanced at Lazlo lying motionless on the ground and her expression firmed. “I think it’s our only shot.”
She pulled out her relay orb and held it out to Kas. “Contact yourself,” she ordered tersely when he didn’t move to take it.
Kas nodded understanding and gripped the relay, tapping in his own relay code until the call connected. He quickly accepted the full sharing, feeds from both orbs warring for dominance in his head until they found a sort of equilibrium and merged into one consistent image. It seemed… confused. At first it seemed to display the empty stairwell from the delusion. But as he pushed mana into the connection, sending the relays surging with excess power, a layer of reality struggled to superimpose itself.
Kas had wandered aimlessly in an arc away from the actual centre of the trap and stood near the stairs, furthest from any of the attacking constructs. Agneza had gotten turned around and her placeholder illusion aimed futilely at the floor where nothing of import lay; she and the others were attacking the wrong spot. Kas felt a moment’s dread at how intelligent the trap had to be to shift their attention so subtly without anyone even noticing. Probably the same intelligence that had led them to wander in small circles while imagining they were climbing the stairs.
“It’s over here,” he called, pointing. He watched his real counterpart shadow the motion. But it was off, hesitant and confused like a sleepwalker, the elbow not reaching its full extension. “It moved your guide to trick you.”
He couldn’t get a perfect view of the area, being limited to the directions the orbs pointed in. He could physically direct them around a bit, but the priority now was focusing on the two of them. Even so, signs of struggle were all around them - flashes of darting bodies ducking and weaving under deadly limbs; grunts and cries of battle ringing through the air.
The view ended at the edge of the trap’s radius, a solid white dome that blocked the signal from coming in or going out. But within that sphere, Kas could see the reality as recorded by the relay orbs transmitted directly to his mind, partly blocking out the trap’s mental haze.
One construct stood within the circle, stalking toward Lazlo. In stark contrast to its sinuous, flowing upper movements, its actual gait moved with the unsteady balance of something unused to walking. Kas realised this must be the only reason any of them were still alive; if the things were capable of running or moving adeptly on their feet, they would have decimated the team long ago. Its upper body swivelled, bladed arm coming down in a smooth arc. Kas leapt for it, one hand outstretched and the other pressed firmly against his pocket storage interface.
With every ounce of will he had, he grabbed the construct and shoved it into the larger empty storage compartment. The mana expenditure left him dazed for a moment, and he crushed a recharge immediately, though he began to feel the giddy edginess indicating he’d used and replaced too much too quickly.
He almost didn’t notice the illusion overlaying itself atop his mental view from the paired relays.
Blud’s Delusion was supposed to be a theoretical exercise in complex spellcasting, the sort of puzzle everyone tried to solve but no one ever actually created. The sheer energy required would be unimaginable, its complexity absurd.
But this was the same research centre that had attached weapon enchantments to warrior-constructs, somehow successfully bypassing the law of contradictory movement.
Whoever had created this trap was a genius.
Moving while watching himself from a relay’s third-person feed instead of trusting his own senses was harder than he’d imagined. He really did look underequipped, ill-prepared, and so young compared to the true professionals around him. The untidiness of his pure white hair did him no favours. He really should--
Kas shook away the distraction, realising too late that the illusion could nudge more than just his perceptions. He had to get out.
The main purpose of the trap was confusion and disorientation. Kas closed his eyes and ran straight at the edge of the dome. Through the relay’s vision, he watched himself swerve unconsciously to the side, adjusting his course so he’d circle back around, and marvelled at how terrifyingly effective the trap was at keeping him contained.
He grabbed two recharges and pressed one to each of his and Agneza’s relays, hoping the boosted power would hold the image steady long enough to get out. From her position on the floor the wounded enchanter stared at him, no doubt wondering why he was wasting equipment on something so eccentric.
The trap was mental, not physical, which also explained why it blocked relay communication but not the constructs. If he could overcome the impulses to remain within its boundaries, he should be able to walk right out. He had to get out so he could take care of the other constructs before they hurt anyone else. Yet every time he neared the barrier, he found he’d gotten turned around.
By now, even his mental link with the twinned relays began to fuzz around the edges. He pressed another recharge into each, but his backups numbered in the tens now, no longer the hundreds. Time and resources were both running out. The relay image continued to decay as its signal weakened, the Blud’s Delusion trying to subvert it as it subverted everything within its influence.
Kas pushed down rising panic and ran at the barrier at a full sprint. He circled the inner edge of it twice before his momentum and frustration brought him to a stop, cursing vehemently. Perhaps he was approaching this wrong. He couldn’t brute force through it. Maybe he could escape with something less conventional.
He lay down and started to roll, as if he were a small child on a park ramp. He didn’t care how undignified he looked; there was only so much course correction he could do in this state. He rolled slowly, watching the relays, keeping himself oriented exactly parallel to the outer barrier.
He saw himself start to drift to the side, but too late. He was close to the edge, closer than he’d been yet. He reached out with one hand, and watched it pass through the white barrier.
Focusing all his attention on that one hand, orienting himself around it, he inched himself slowly through and into the chaos beyond.
