The steel-frame doors bowed inward with a shudder, hinges screaming. Heat and pressure surged in, not fire but scalding steam. A hiss like a furnace igniting. The rest of the right door tore off completely and slammed into the opposite wall, producing a sharp metallic crack. It bounced, twisted, and skidded across the lobby floor, cutting a furrow through the tile.

  Something stepped into the breach. A large mechanical automation.

  The golem ducked under the warped frame, its broad shoulders scraping sparks from the metal. Eight feet tall and two wide, its rust-worn plating hissed and steamed where the rain hit. A pair of red optics burned beneath its armored helm, glowing with a dull, mechanical pulse. Its legs bent like a sprinter bracing to launch, and its left arm ended in a hydraulic claw that flexed open and shut with the rhythm of a ticking clock.

  [Analyze] Mechanical Destroyer | Level: 15 Elite | Status: Hostile | Class: Fighter

  Blake’s voice came from the hallway. "We’ve seen these before. Prairiehold lost fifteen men to one. We need to run!"

  "I don't think running is an option here," Ford said behind him.

  "We're going to have to take it out, or it's going to run us out of the area," Jo said.

  Xander moved. His spear leveled into a low guard, body angled, weight set to move. He felt Jo shift beside him, sword already half drawn. Her expression hadn’t changed, but her posture had.

  Kane stepped forward. "Get behind me. If it focuses on me, the two of you can get some vital strikes. This thing looks pretty beat up already."

  The golem took one step into the lobby. Its clawed feet gouged deep into the wet tile, throwing up shards of glass and tile with every step. They were quickly running out of room to move around.

  "Spread," he said. "We need space."

  It was a good plan. Flank it on both sides and take it down while it was focused on Kane.

  The arrival of the second destroyer caused the plan to be discarded. This was bad. If just one of these things had killed fifteen people in Priariehold, then two on six was just unfair.

  Another silhouette emerged through the ruined doorway. The plating was different and appeared several shades darker. Its left shoulder armor was blown completely open to reveal hissing pipework and twisted bundles of cabling. The head swiveled once, optics blinking like old halogen bulbs on a vehicle.

  "Out of the frying pan..." Zoey quipped.

  The second golem crossed the threshold, claws flexing, both machines now framed in gray daylight and the hiss of rain. They filled the front of the reception area like statues dragged from some ancient vault.

  "…into the fire," Zoey finished. "This room’s a deathtrap."

  She was right. The reception area had felt small before. Now it felt like a coffin. Broken chairs, loose tiles, soaked papers, the overturned desk, all of it crowded the floor between them and the constructs.

  Xander's tactical scene kicked in as he scanned the room. One door to the right. An office with no exit. Useless. Left? Storage closet. The hallway they’d just cleared was behind them. But to get there, they’d have to move immediately. No, they'd have to fight them here until they could get out into the parking lot.

  Xander called. "We need to make an opening and get this fight out into the parking lot as soon as possible."

  The first golem surged forward with a hiss of steam and the mechanical scream of grinding gears. It advanced with its claws raised, steam venting from its spine like a living boiler.

  Kane didn’t wait. He drove forward with a shout, shield up, the impact jarring loud enough to rattle windows again. Sparks flew as metal slammed against enchanted ironwood. The golem didn’t slow, but Kane held.

  Jo moved left, sword drawn, closing the distance toward the golem’s legs. Xander saw her lock onto the gap in the overlapping plates at the knees. It was the same weakness he had noticed.

  Xander stepped to the right beside Kane and drove his spear low, targeting the exposed vent under the golem’s arm. It wasn’t enough to break through, but it bit deep enough to spark.

  The second golem fully entered the room.

  "Now we’ve got a real problem," Zoey said, half-laughing, half-breathless. She launched herself up onto the reception counter, boots skidding on wet laminate. From the new vantage point , she drew her bow and nocked two arrows at once.

  "Clear shot," she said. "Calling the big one mine."

  The second golem’s claw snapped forward.

  Xander didn’t see where it struck. The drywall behind him exploded, and a spray of debris swept past his shoulder. The wind from the strike rushed by close enough to feel. A metal cabinet cartwheeled down the hall. Ford barely dodged.

  "We’ve got to get some more room to work these bastards," Xander said.

  The first golem surged forward again, all hiss and pressure and clawed momentum. Kane met it mid-charge with a guttural shout, bracing behind his shield just as the construct’s arm slammed down like a falling beam. The impact rippled through the room. Floor tiles fractured. The sound echoed like a war drum off the metal rafters.

  Xander pivoted off Kane’s flank and drove his spear into the exposed joint beneath the golem’s shoulder. The steel point bit shallowly, skipping off reinforced alloy without catching.

  Jo was already moving wide, blade low. Lightning rippled along the edge in jagged pulses, blue-white arcs coiling around the hilt and up her arm. She didn't call out what she was doing. She just cut left and disappeared behind the golem’s bulk.

  A second later, Zoey fired from the desk, her arrows singing across the lobby. She aimed for the hips and shoulders, where plating gave way to piston joints. The shafts struck true, but most of them bounced off or stuck without effect. A few slowed the second golem’s movements, but none disabled it .

  "Armor’s too thick," she said.

  "Then aim smaller," Xander called back. He tossed his spear behind him and drew the hammerpick as his spear wasn't working any better than Zoey's arrows were.

  Blake joined him at the front. The young guard's spear crackled faintly with a holy aura. It was less dramatic than Jo’s lightning, but it tipped his class off to Xander, who had recognized the ability. It wasn't relevant at the moment, but Blake was a Paladin.

  "Stick with me," Xander said.

  Blake didn’t answer, just nodded and followed as the two machines pressed deeper into the room like bulldozers.

  The reception desk exploded as the first golem swept its arm sideways in a clearing arc. Papers burst into the air like ash from a blast furnace. Filing cabinets groaned and split. The desk itself slammed against the far wall and crumpled in half.

  The second golem rotated to follow Zoey’s movement as she escaped the first golem's attack. Its hips twisted too far on old servos, and a full corner of the adjacent wall caved in under the torque. Plaster and wood snapped apart, revealing rusted rebar and open air behind. Cold rain poured through the hole, running down what was left of the drywall and pooling around the golem’s feet.

  The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

  A ceiling tile dropped near Ford, who stumbled aside with a half-shouted curse and caught himself on the hallway trim.

  "This building doesn’t last another five minutes if we keep fighting like this," Jo called out.

  Kane recovered from another blow and slammed his shield back into position, then barked toward the second golem. "I can hold this one if you can get the other into a position to give us an opening."

  Xander didn’t argue. They needed the split. Kane could anchor the first golem while they pushed the other out of position.

  Zoey fired again, now angling her shots for the optics. One struck near the left lens, cracking it. Another skipped off the side, leaving a thin score mark.

  Blake dropped into a lower stance and jabbed at the back of the golem’s knee, testing for soft points in the cabling. The spear slid between plates and hit something that hissed steam in response, but it didn’t drop the machine.

  Jo darted past them both, blade lashing in a rising arc. Lightning danced up her shoulder and surged into the point of impact as she struck low on the construct’s back. Sparks flew. The golem staggered one step, then resumed its forward push.

  Xander followed up. He brought the hammerpick down in two fast strikes. The first to the hip, then to the side of the torso where armor plates overlapped. The first hit skipped, but the second connected with a sharp, jarring crack. A sliver of metal sheared off and hit the floor spinning.

  He didn’t get excited yet. Not yet. They were still in deep trouble and not doing anywhere near enough damage to come out on top. He just adjusted his grip and struck again.

  Across the lobby, Kane roared and pushed forward. The first golem had driven him several feet from his starting point. Blackened tiles gouged with claw marks trailed behind his boots.

  Then the golem changed tactics. It surged with unnatural speed and wrapped both arms around Kane’s torso. Armor shrieked as pressure mounted. Kane managed half a word and then it hurled him.

  Kane hit the far wall hard enough to snap a wooden cubicle divider clean in half. The wall cracked behind him. He landed in a heap among shredded insulation and splintered laminate.

  The sound of Kane hitting the wall sounded wrong. It was armor against wood, but there was also the sound of bone breaking and pain.

  "Ford!" Xander started.

  "I got him," Ford said. He was already sprinting, robes hiked, staff trailing a faint halo of gold. He slid to his knees beside Kane, one hand already glowing as he pressed it to the fighter’s chest.

  The second golem lifted its claw and slammed downward in a short, brutal punch.

  Xander braced. The strike hit the ground near his feet, shattering tile and flinging debris outward like a wave. More shards cut through the air.

  He turned his shoulder into it, hammerpick raised to shield his face. The blow rattled his arm but didn’t drop him. Blake staggered under the same impact and nearly went to a knee, but stayed up.

  Jo struck again. Her blade lit with a surge of power, brighter than before, and when it hit the golem’s midsection, something inside gave. The machine froze mid-motion. Its limbs jerked once, twice, then sagged.

  "REROUTING INTERNAL POWER," came a mechanical voice from the machine.

  It was down, but not out. Still, this was the opening they needed to move the party outside.

  The first golem pivoted, tracking Kane again. Its claw arm ratcheted backward as it lunged, servos groaning with strain.

  Kane pivoted away, and the machine tore through what remained of the front wall. Steel and drywall folded like wet cardboard. The golem crashed into the open, its bulk staggering into the cold rain and landing hard on the concrete lot beyond.

  Kane rushed to follow the golem as he wiped rain and blood from his face. "Outside! Now! Before the ceiling comes down!"

  The second golem jerked forward again, systems recovering. It made for the doorway, but a piece of twisted rebar snagged the plating across its shoulder. The machine jammed, adjusted, then forced itself through like a battering ram.

  Xander didn’t give it a chance to position itself. He surged forward, hammerpick raised, and drove it into the exposed seam near the creature’s spine. The metal sparked, staggering the construct mid-push.

  Jo followed a heartbeat later. She came in high and swept downward with her blade, lightning trailing behind. The hit connected just beneath the arm joint, and a surge of force rippled through the construct’s side. It stumbled again, rebalanced, then lost its footing as the frame gave way.

  The golem tumbled forward through the destroyed entrance, crashing onto the cracked pavement outside.

  Rain met them immediately, as if stepping into a completely different fight. The open space was a blessing. Xander vaulted the splintered remains of the office wall and hit the ground running.

  The open space of the parking lot stretched in all directions. Abandoned cars sat in clusters like rusting barricades. A semi-cab leaned against a crumbling concrete divider. The distant silos stood like tombstones under the heavy gray sky.

  Having space would not be an overwhelming advantage, but it would certainly give everyone more flexibility to move and use abilities. It also spread everyone out, making it harder for the golems to hem them in.

  Kane intercepted the first golem near a tipped trailer. Their collision rang out like a car crash. Kane’s shield shuddered under the renewed assault, but he held the line, gritting his teeth and leveraging his shield to force the machine back toward the silos.

  The second golem was slower now, limping, gears whining with every step. It rose from the ground and reoriented just in time to meet the rest of the party.

  Xander pressed the advantage, circling right. The rain turned the ground beneath his boots to slick asphalt, but the hammerpick found another opening. Just above the thigh joint. It didn’t break the leg, but it dented something important.

  Blake stayed tight to his flank, spear jabbing precisely where Xander struck. Not random hits. He was waiting for the cracks to appear before exploiting them. The paladin’s timing was good.

  "Keep pressing it," Xander called. "Don’t let it reset!"

  Zoey took a position on the hood of a rusted SUV. From the high ground, her shots found more purchase. One arrow punched clean through the exposed piping under the golem’s armpit. Another stuck deep into a hip seal and stayed there, vibrating with each step the machine took.

  The construct shifted its stance, servos fighting waterlogged footing. That was when the first golem did something new.

  It stopped. Turned. Reached.

  Metal groaned as it grabbed a compact car by the frame, one claw through the window, the other beneath the chassis. Tires popped. Glass shattered. Rain hissed off the heated panels.

  "Kane…" Xander started.

  "Move!" Kane shouted.

  The car arced high as the golem hurled it like a shot put. It spun end over end, clipping a stop sign before slamming down a dozen meters to the left. It bounced, flipped once more, then crashed into the far edge of the lot and disintegrated against a retaining wall.

  Then Zoey’s voice cut through. "We are not letting these things throw another one of those."

  Jo stepped forward, sword trailing lightning like a live wire. Her strikes came fast, each one sparking along the golem’s spine. The overload was visible now as white arcs surged between panels, smoke venting from shoulder seams.

  Ford’s voice rose behind them. "Jo, you’re burning out its internals. Keep going!"

  Blake thrust again, just as Xander drove the hammerpick into the machine’s side. The twin impacts hit together, and something inside let go. A cable snapped loose, trailing sparks. The golem tried to pivot, but its entire left side dragged now.

  Zoey shifted her aim. Her next shot buried itself in a central hinge beneath the chest plate. The one after that hit the opposite side, and the whole upper torso stuttered.

  Kane grunted from the other side of the lot, still locked against the first golem. Its armor had split along the ribs, but it hadn’t fallen.

  Ford moved constantly, his hands glowing, spells weaving in short bursts as he patched wounds and shouted warnings.

  The golem facing Xander and Blake froze in place. One stuttering tremor ran through its frame, and then nothing.

  For half a second, Xander thought the damage Jo had done to it might actually be shutting it down.

  Then the head tilted, and a faint click echoed from behind its faceplate, followed by a sharp metallic whine. It was high-pitched, synthetic, and growing fast. The metal plating around the optics slid open, revealing a recessed chamber nested with tiny glowing coils. Arcane glyphs pulsed across the surface in sequence, flickering brighter with each pass.

  "Jo, Blake," Xander said. "Get clear."

  Jo didn’t ask questions. She disengaged, darting back and low.

  Blake’s eyes widened. "Oh, shit!"

  "It’s charging something," Ford said. "I don’t think this one’s going quietly."

  The hum pitched again. Xander felt the heat spike, not from the rain or the vents, but from inside the machine. The air shimmered around the construct’s head, light bending in short ripples.

  "Is that a self-destruct?" Zoey asked from the SUV hood.

  "No! No, it is not!" Xander said.

  A concussive pulse fired from the golem’s core, pushing rain outward in a perfect ring. Then a lance of magitech energy erupted from its optics. It wasn’t a sweeping laser, but more like an artificial version of a mage's bolt spell. Instead of being attuned to an element like a mage's would be, this bolt appeared to be raw magical energy.

  Xander threw himself left.

  The beam missed his center mass, but not by much. It clipped the edge of his raised arm. His Aegis Shield spell flared brightly as it absorbed and deflected some of the attack. The remainder of the beam cut across the parking lot and slammed through the rusted cab of the overturned semi-truck. A second later, the cab exploded in a flash of light and heat.

  Xander hit the ground hard and rolled. The shoulder of his coat smoked where the shield had absorbed the beam. He came up on one knee, balance off, ears ringing and stomach lurching from the magical distortion.

  Rain hammered down harder. The lot hissed with steam. The standoff shattered.

  Xander rose and found his footing. His coat was scorched, the Aegis spell still crackling across his frame. The team was scattered. The parking lot was a minefield. And now the constructs were escalating.

  He locked eyes with the golem just as the glow behind its optics flared again.