The runic tank rocketed forward, much faster than one from Earth. As it sped forward, it unloaded its spell mortars and main gun, one after another. The spell mortars shot out fire, lightning, ice, and rock spells, while the cannon shot out a blazing projectile that looked like a comet.

  The Giant Chupacabra realized it had been seen and burst out of cover. It ran towards the tank, sliding around the spell rifle shots. Some of the shots hit, and the skin stretched and rippled like a stone in a pond. The spells slid off, not able to find purchase on the elastic skin.

  In response, the runic tank sped up its spell mortars, firing faster and faster. The chupacabra ducked and dodged, getting closer and closer to the tank. When it was almost upon the summoned war machine, its eyes widened. Avoiding the mortar shots had lined it up with the main cannon, which had been silent for a few seconds. A deep thump sounded as it fired.

  A blazing comet hit the monster directly in the chest.

  The stretchy skin attempted to contain the blast, but failed. It spread wide, a crater of skin in its chest, and then burst in a spray of blood. The monster cried out in pain and fell backwards. It scrambled up to its feet and dashed forward again. It was bleeding heavily, but it kept moving. The Giant Chupacabra jumped into the air, intending on dropping down on the tank from the air. Luke’s summons hovered to the side and raised its main cannon.

  While the chupacabra was still midair, the runic tank’s main gun fired again. A comet screamed out of the central barrel and hit the monster in the chest. Without the protection of its stretchy skin, the comet was able to pierce deep into the monster’s body. An instant later, it exploded in a spray of bloody gore.

  The Giant Chupacabra fell to the ground, dead. Its skin slumped, all elasticity lost. The monster had almost been bisected by the explosion. In the cavity where its chest once was, a large monster core formed, a tier six.

  Luke strode over and picked it up, giving Jinx a side eye as he did. He was saving these, not letting the cat eat the valuable mana cores.

  What is the next task?

  “Head down this canyon and kill any monsters you see. Prioritize speed and use as much ammunition as needed. When this tank is about to be destroyed, return to me. Keep a video feed active while you work.”

  Acknowledged.

  It sped away, floating a few feet above the canyon floor. A grayscale image appeared in front of Luke, not a video but a 3D hologram with the tank in the middle. The canyon walls stretched high to either side and its spell rifles tracked every alcove and cave it passed.

  “That thing is creepy,” Jinx said as she watched the hologram. Apparently it wasn’t something only he could see like with his previous skill.

  “It sure is. I would hate to be on the other end of that cannon,” Luke chuckled.

  He checked his mana. Already down to 28 points. Apex Machine was powerful, but it sure was a mana hog. He started jogging forward after it. Regardless of what happened next, he would need to go that way anyway.

  The next monster found the runic tank first. A large furry bird dropped down from above, claws outstretched. The tank spun on a dime and continued backwards. It fired off a fireball and a lightning bolt.

  The monster responded with a screech so loud that Luke and Jinx heard it and winced from the sound. The two spells were reduced from the sonic attack and small sparks were the only thing that made it to the monster's furry body.

  The tank fired again, this time with ice and rock spells. The Sonic Bird was surprised by the attack, having expected his target to be stunned by the powerful sonic blast. It twisted midair to avoid the ice shard, but was still hit by the spear of rock. It screeched in anger, flaring its wings to slow above the tank and readied another sonic blast. That was a mistake.

  The runic tank fired its main cannon and the comet blasted its head off in a spray of gore.

  Luke chuckled as he watched it happen in the grayscale hologram. The tank sped away, searching for its next victim. When he got to the bird corpse a short while later, he was surprised to see brightly colored feathers with razor sharp edges. It should have used those instead of a sonic attack on a machine without ears. He shook his head and pulled out a tier five core.

  The runic tank quickly ran into the next monster. It was a rocky crab big enough to block the entire canyon. Large spikes covered its shell, clustered around its front edge. It had been resting, but stood up as the tank came into view.

  It swung its right claw and a dozen spikes shot out and filled the air. The tank slid to the side and started firing. Blasts of fire, lightning, ice and rock were followed by one comet after another. The crab’s shell cracked, but didn’t break.

  Meanwhile, the crab kept swinging its claws, sending out a dozen spikes each time. The titan must have a reload ability. The runic tank could avoid the shots at first, but then the crab skittered closer and spikes started hitting. Cracks started opening up on its own armor. It would be a race to see who broke first.

  The machine soul piloting the tank never slowed, but the titan did. The tank dodged with precision every time and the crab started making mistakes. It was a large target and most dodges failed so it stopped trying. It focused on getting closer so it could smash the pesky gray thing. The tank gave ground and kept firing.

  When the crab titan roared in frustration, and the runic tank sent a comet down its throat. That was the beginning of the end. The titan weakened, the tank did not. Not long after, Luke and Jinx watched the titan fall with their own eyes. The runic tank unloaded on the hole in its shell to make sure it didn’t get back up. The spell rifles stopped.

  Ordinance expended, returning to master.

  A moment later, the connection he felt to the Greater Machine Soul strengthened. He could tell there were two machine souls in his core now. It would have been three, but he had lost one to that sniper orc.

  Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

  “Not a fan of being called master,” Luke mumbled to himself.

  Acknowledged.

  “Wait, you can hear me, even when you aren’t in a vehicle?”

  Yes. Although we are dormant most of the time. You will need to wake us with a tendril of intent before we are able to listen.

  That was different. Luke would have to change the way he thought about his machine soul resource. First off, they seemed like individuals now, not something new each time. That had a few interesting implications. He could give them instructions that they could remember for next time. In addition, he could wake them up and give them longer instructions so they would be ready the instant he threw them into a machine.

  The other implication was that he was now host to three unique beings now. He wasn’t sure if they were people yet, or just sophisticated magic programs. It was something he felt obligated to find out. Maybe sometime when he wasn’t in a canyon full of high level monsters. He checked his mana. Eighteen points. One skill use had taken more than half his total pool. At least it had killed three monsters while it was active.

  “I can finally understand you, but you talk to yourself more than me,” Jinx groused.

  Luke turned and said, “Sorry about that. I’ll talk to you from here on out. I actually had a question for you. Can you phase into the crab and pull out its core? I don’t want to be here all day carving it out.”

  “Do I get to eat it?”

  “No, it’s a titan core. Eating it would be a waste. I promise I’ll get you a white core after this.”

  “Three cores or I won't even try it.”

  “Skipping right to extortion, eh?” Luke said with a smile. “Sure thing. Three cores as a little treat. You are the most pampered pet on either world.”

  “It is only my due as your better. You should be thankful I came along at all.”

  Luke showed her where to dig and she climbed atop the titan’s shell. Then she phased out and slipped through the shell. A few moments later, she climbed out of the monster’s mouth, with its core in her mouth. She spat it out at his feet. She was absolutely drenched in blood from head to tail. She shivered and the blood fell off of her and splashed to the ground. She walked over to a dry spot and started cleaning her paws.

  “Thanks, Jinx. I really appreciate it. Come on, there’s more monsters we need to hunt. You can clean your paws later. They’re just going to get dirty again.”

  She gave him a long look and said, “I am not a savage hound. I will be clean, no matter what you say. Go on without me. I’ll catch up if I feel like it.”

  Luke was briefly tempted to get one of the animal bonds that made his pet do what he wanted. But the thought quickly passed. He wasn’t that kind of guy, he loved Jinx for who she was, not what she could do for him.

  “Alright, fine. Stay here. I’ll take care of the rest of the monsters myself. It wasn’t like you were really helping much anyway.”

  She huffed, but kept licking her paws.

  Luke climbed up and over the rocky crab. He kept an eye out as he continued down the canyon. Based on how long the canyon was, he didn’t expect many more monsters before he reached the end. Each one would be stronger than the last, this close to the glory trophy.

  He slowed when he saw scuff marks around an alcove to the right. It was definitely occupied by the next monster. Based on the disturbed dust, it wasn’t too big. Which meant its power came from its magic, not its size. He stopped fifty feet away and raised his gauntlet. He was planning on flushing it out of hiding, but it decided to come out and greet him.

  It looked like a mix of a troll and an orc, but uglier than both. It was fifteen feet tall, about the same size as Luke in his mech. Deep scars covered its purple body and it wore a dumb expression on its face. Luke could see it was anatomically correct because it was naked. It was dragging a long spear behind itself like it had forgotten it was holding something.

  To his surprise, the monster started talking.

  It took him a few moments to realize it was just gibberish. Like a toddler trying to imitate speech, it jabbered along with nonsense words as it drew closer. Luke took a step back and raised his other hand too. He didn’t pull the trigger yet, the monster’s blather was giving him a migraine. The sound was drilling into his brain, telling him that he wouldn’t survive if he fired.

  He did it anyway.

  Two trigger pulls shot a pair of fireballs, both aimed for the monster’s face. It shrugged off the magical attack without even flinching. It must be immune to fire. The Orc Troll’s blather increased in speed and volume.

  Luke stumbled back and cried out in pain. It was clearly a mental magic attack. He flexed his mental stats, pushing back against the brainworm. He was used to using Acuity to speed up his thinking, now he flexed Memory to ground himself and Perception to feel and push back against the mana trying to worm its way into his mind. The agony spiked as he fought back.

  All at once, the pressure eased as the attack shattered. It was a moment too late.

  While he was distracted by the mental attack, Orc Troll had walked into melee range. It swung its spear around and sliced down atop his helmet. The blade was dull, but the monster still punched it deep into the helmet.

  Luke collapsed to the ground in pain. He rolled away and put his hand up to his head to check for blood. His gauntlet clanged into the remains of his helmet. It had been sliced almost completely in half. If Luke’s head had been any higher up in the mech, he would be dead.

  Blood dripped into his eyes, but he was aware enough now to realize he wasn’t going to die. Not from that wound anyway. The Orc Troll continued to attack him, swinging its spear around like a club. He held up his left hand to block the blow. The spear crunched down and mangled that gauntlet. His hand was only bruised, but he lost both spell rifles on that side.

  Luke growled and finally counterattacked. He fired off his dissever beam, aiming it at the monster’s eyes. It roared and leaned forward, completely ignoring the magic attack. It might be immune to all types of magic. The Orc Troll punched him, stomped the ground, and fired off another mental attack.

  This time Luke didn’t let himself get bogged down by the mana drilling into his mind. He lunged forward and punched the monster in its grotesquely dangling balls. A squeak of agony escaped the monster’s lips and it dropped the spear to clutch itself. The mental attack immediately stopped.

  Luke jumped up and brought his entire mech’s weight down on the monster’s skull. It cracked loudly and the Orc Troll stumbled back. It was bleeding heavily, but quickly recovered with a shake of its head. The bleeding stopped a moment later. Luke tsked, of course it would have healing powers too.

  He didn’t leave it alone while it healed though. He grabbed his chainsword off his hip and swung it down one handed. The monster reached up and grabbed it with both hands. Its purple scarred skin wasn’t even bleeding.

  Then Luke pushed a tendril of mana into the sword’s runes. The blades whirred around in a high pitched whine and dug into its palms. The monster cried out and tried to back away, but still lost half of its right hand. The gout of blood quickly slowed, but its hand scarred over and didn’t regrow.

  “Looks like your healing isn’t as good as a real troll. That’s too bad for you,” Luke said and pushed mana into Armor Repair.

  The skill quickly stitched up his left gauntlet in exchange for most of the rest of his mana pool. It allowed him to grip his chainsword in both hands. He lowered himself into a combat stance and pointed his sword at the monster.

  The Orc Troll babbled in fear and held out his intact hand. The spear lifted up from the ground and flew into his hand.

  Luke narrowed his eyes. That was clearly an artifact. No wonder it was able to get through his armor. That answer created another question. How did this monster get ahold of an artifact? Did someone set him up?