Warsinger by James Baldwin (most important books of all time txt) 📕

Lotus again, snaring it and pulling it to the ground beside me. As soon as the second limb tore free, the Tomb Guardian uncrossed the arms guarding its core and I saw my chance. It lifted all of its remaining arms, preparing to ginsu me into little chunks. I rolled up and rushed in, lightning-fast, and levelled all three stages of the Blood Sprint combo right on the shuddering, vulnerable heart.

[You deal 1464 reduced Damage! HP: 23,536/25,000]

The Tomb Guardian made no sounds of pain, no cry of protest. Instead, it angled the stump of its arms toward the fallen limbs on the ground. Spoiled mana arced down, latching onto the forelimbs, and pulled them back toward the body of the machine as it kept me busy with the limbs that still worked. It crossed its lowest pair of arms again - and its attacks became fiercer and faster. Gasping for breath, I hit another Stamina potion. The meter surged up, but I stumbled forward one step too close and caught one of the swords right across my chest. Metal screeched on metal, and it spun me around and threw me down.

[You take 390 damage!]

[Your Raven Suit is Badly Damaged! -50% armor]

“Dammit, shadows! Go away!” Karalti screeched wordlessly in rage as her barrier dropped, and the wraiths pressed closer. As I flipped up to my feet, she fired the pistol and hit one. It screamed and vaporized, and the others scattered back. A chill passed through me - if they broke past her while I was fighting this thing, it would kill me and she would be left here, alone, in an environment where she couldn't shift back into dragon form to defend herself.

“Keep holding them!” I shook my head and dashed back in. As the Tomb Guardian swiped and slashed, I dodged, weaved, and then looped Black Lotus around its arm and pulled. The limb came off and went flying, while another sword ploughed into the broken ground and sent a cloud of pulverized dust into the air. I Danced sideward, then Jumped up and pulled another arm off. As before, it revealed its core to compensate for the lost arms. I roared, gathering my pain and fear into the Spear of Nine Spheres, and rained death down on the construct's torso.

[You land a critical hit! You deal 4473 damage! Tomb Guardian HP: 19,063/25,000]

The machine slumped as ichor burst from its heart. It clutched at its chest, shuddering, then reared up as dark smoke poured through the slits in its helmet. While I tried to find another opening, it planted two of its remaining limbs on the ground, hunched forward, and extruded a fourth pair of arms from its back. Arms that ended in what looked disturbingly like anti-tank rifles.

“Why!? What did I do to deserve this shit?!” I snarled as the gun barrels tracked me and began to fire, shattering pavers. It swiped rhythmically with its sword arms - all six of them, because it had picked the ones I'd pulled up off the ground already. As I circled back around to the front of the Tomb Guardian, my heart sunk. It wasn't hiding its core anymore, because the core was now covered by a big chunk of congealed sewer clay it had crammed in and over it like a plaster bandage. “Is it because I swore at my mom? Is it because I didn't donate enough to the homeless shelter? Why does it have guns? WHY DOES IT HAVE GUNS!?”

The gun arms weren't as mobile as the sword arms, but they were designed the same way - there was only pulsing violet light where the joints should have been, making them vulnerable to Black Lotus. I tried to land Shattering Darkness on the barrier protecting the core, but was knocked aside by the blunt edge of one of the swords. The Guardian swept them in a wide, serpentine pattern that made it almost impossible to get near it, firing at me in bursts over its shoulders. Karalti cringed back, sweating pale blue as she strove to keep the Circle of Protection up against the shades howling at the door.

“Fuck you! Fuck me! Fuck!” The only thing I could think to do was disable the fucking Howitzers. I chugged my last Stamina potion and rushed in, Shadow Dancing through the fan of swords and soaking the damage so I could get behind it. My AP recharged just enough that I could spam Black Lotus. The lasso lashed forward, snapping around the golem's elbow. I yanked it back with a snarl, and the fire from that limb cut as it tumbled and clanged across the floor... and dislodged the massive rifle from its 'hand'. Inspiration struck me then: I ran forward, ducking beneath a sword that struck the very edge of my helmet and knocked it flying off my head, and scooped the rifle off the ground. It was far too large for me: I braced it as well as I could, sighted down at the core, and fired.

The rifle kicked so hard that it jerked me in a half-twist to the side and nearly pushed my arm out of its socket, but I had been a good shot in life and I was still pretty fucking good, because the whale-sized round took the thing right in its stupid fucking chest. It blew the chunk of mud and rock right out of the core socket and caused the machine to convulse and spasm, its arms jittering wildly. The core was wide open. I threw the gun aside, burned some AP on Mantle of Night to jack my speed to max, then charged in slashing. Jump, then the Blood Storm chain. Something thumped against my back and took off nearly 500 HP – putting me into red, but recharging enough AP that I could get off one more big combo… and then the core cracked and burst, spewing a stream of spoiled mana into the guts of the machine. I got