Heavy Metal: Chapter 13 – Tactical Retreat. (Patreon)

‘What was up with that guy? Why was he so fast?’

Rusty asked himself while almost tumbling down the stairs to the lower floor of the dungeon. A hole remained from the arrow that had pierced through his arm, but its size didn't warrant spending his precious bronze resources on repairs just yet. One bar of bronze from his stash tab could mend a much bigger opening so it was better to save it until his injuries increased.

As a monster, he didn't experience pain and wouldn't suffer from conditions like bleeding but was instead reliant on external factors for his healing. If he ever found himself battered without enough bronze ingots around, he would be done for. Until finding or developing a passive method for repairs, he needed to be extremely watchful of his body's status.

The encounter had left him with more questions than answers. He hadn't anticipated such a powerful opponent appearing out of nowhere. Fortunately, his secret technique had proven effective and it confirmed his observation of his humanoid enemies. Their eyes were a weak point that he could exploit with bright lights, something that he was also immune against.

‘Well, I should be safe now… at least I got in some practice, so it wasn’t totally a waste, next time I’ll be victorious.’

He was not someone to dwell on past mistakes and even in this loss, he could see the value in the experience. It demonstrated that he had indeed become much stronger than before and showcased his capability to contend directly with adventurers. At least the ones that visited the first floor of the dungeon, without truly needing poison. It gave him a small confidence boost but also showed that he wasn’t quite there yet either.

‘My attacks lack a bit of weight to them though… is there something that I can do about that?’

After the confrontation, he realized that his hollow body was a serious weakness, and addressing this fact could enhance his all-around strength. While contemplating this important issue he encountered his old friend, the zombie with the slacked jaw that he caused. After observing this monster’s size he was surprised by its perfect dimensions that were just below his. Instantly a thought crossed his mind, what if he allowed himself to be worn by this zombie, would he be able to become a lot more robust?

This was quite an intriguing idea and he approached the slack-jawed zombie to test it out. Placing his helmet on top of its head was relatively easy, but it became increasingly challenging to position any of his other parts. He managed to dislodge his breastplate and strap it to the monster but anything after that became a puzzle he could not solve. The moment he removed one of his gauntlets it became impossible to affix anything else. Also, removing his sabatons or greaves just caused him to lose his balance instead.

‘Even though the zombie isn’t moving much…’

The main problem was that he had to split his perception between multiple parts, something that he was unable to do at least at that moment. Moving each part independently proved to be quite challenging for him, and without some external assistance, it seemed unlikely that he would be able to place himself onto the other monster.

Feeling a bit frustrated with the failed attempt to combine with the zombie, Rusty decided to focus more on his current concern. He was able to get away from the adventurers but he might not be lucky the next time. It seemed that he might have to abandon his more honorable approach of one-on-one fighting. Instead, he would need to revert to his old tactics or further develop his abilities to eliminate those fighters before they could seek help.

The lower floor was dimly lit by flickering torches, casting long shadows that danced across the stone walls. The faint echoes of distant water drips echoed through the distant passages but were interrupted by something. Rusty had not gone far from the stairs and suddenly heard some footsteps coming his way. Normally, he wouldn’t make much of it and just move to a location that the adventurers didn’t usually travel to. However, the voices that he heard sounded quite familiar.

“Let us hurry, my skill won’t last for long, that living armor could not have gone far.”

“Aye, right behind you!”

The first voice sounded similar to the archer that had pierced his body with a simple arrow and he was not alone. At the moment they were still far away but these sounds that the tunnels were producing were sometimes misleading. Rusty knew that he was unable to defeat that one adventurer, even more when he had more help.

‘There are others with him… I should probably hide…’

For the time being he didn’t think much of it. This second floor was bigger than the upper one and the many winding corridors made it harder for anyone to track anything down. After spending some time here, he knew of a few hiding places that were usable. After blending into the shadows as best as he could, he began to make his getaway.

‘... those footsteps, they just keep getting closer, how do they know where I am?’

The footsteps drew nearer and it didn’t seem that even ducking into other corridors was achieving the result he expected. Typically, adventurers would eventually choose the wrong path, allowing him to escape. However, for some reason, these individuals were able to track him down immediately. At this juncture, Rusty was not fully aware of tracking skills or how they functioned. He could only increase his pace and attempt to get away in a different fashion.

Eventually, he managed to reach the graveyard area where his undead allies were waiting. Swiftly, he grabbed a new bow and a few arrows from a nearby skeleton scout and made his way toward the poisonous leeches. Just after securing some ammunition, his pursuers finally emerged from the same corridor he had come from. They were quite vocal about their arrival and it became clear that he was their main target.

“There it is!”

“It looks slightly different than the rest…”

“That classification… A Twilight variant? Ever heard of something like it?”

“No, but I bet that its parts will sell for a lot if it’s a unique irregular variant! Let’s get it!”

If he had eyes they would be opening wide now. The people came all the way here just to get to him and it seemed that they were even aware that he was a Corroded Twilight Bronze Armor, different from the rest. He was not sure why this made him a better target than the other monsters as he was not aware of adventurers selling monster parts for money. However, he did not panic but instead aimed with his trusted bow and arrow.

‘They don’t have a cleric in their party, so I should have the advantage.’

Rusty held the environmental advantage in this area, as it had been a proven hunting ground for him. The only downside was that these adventurers weren't attempting to round up the undead skeletons and zombies beforehand. While the creatures were rising from their graves now, they would likely not be able to surround the adventurers as easily. Thus, he began employing the old poison tactic and soon a cloud of purple mist began to envelop the area.

“This thing… How intelligent is it? To actually use those poison bugs like this? Quite the crafty rust bucket.”

“Wouldn’t it be a corroded bucket?”

The archer turned to the party leader with the question while she was left without a retort.

“Huh?”

“You know that bronze doesn’t rust right? It corrodes. It’s iron and steel that does that, you didn’t know that?”

“... Just shut up.”

The lone woman from the adventurer party shouted back at the archer. Rusty looked from afar and was slowly starting to get irritated. There was a sense of leisure around the group as if they weren’t taking it seriously. It started becoming clear that these people didn’t consider him a tough opponent and he could tell it from their expressions. The other adventurers that he managed to hunt were different when he confronted them, but these people showed no fear, just contempt.

To show them that he meant business he finally aimed his arrow toward one of them and the designated target was the smallest one who wielded a strange large weapon. He appeared to be the slowest among the group and likely the easiest target. After piercing a leech with his arrow, Rusty swiftly shot it towards the man. Even if the arrow was deflected by the man’s weapon, the poison would still linger.

To his surprise, something strange occurred. The man who had previously shot him with an arrow aimed his bow upward. It flashed with a pale blue light for a second before he released the projectile. It traveled in a peculiar arch to collide with Rusty's arrow and suddenly diverted its path to the side.

“You’re not getting any of those past me.”

The archer snorted after executing the skillful ranged attack, but the situation was far from over. While Rusty couldn't directly poison them, the chamber was gradually filling up with the toxic mist. The area Rusty stood in was already covered in the poisonous haze, as he had stepped on a few of these worms beforehand. To approach him, they would need to wade through it and contend with the zombies heading their way.

“Put on your masks, and don’t get injured. As long as you don’t breathe in the poison or let it seep into your wounds, it's harmless.”

“Aye, we know.”

Before the purple cloud could envelop them, they donned strange-looking masks on their faces. The masks had large round shapes covering their eyes made of glass and a prolonged bottom part with another strange-looking circular addon. It was an unfamiliar sight to him, but soon he would comprehend their purpose. The group casually walked into the mist and to his surprise, effortlessly dispatched the zombies as if they were nothing.

‘They can resist poison like me?’

This was not what he had anticipated, and panic began to set in. His entire strategy hinged on the poison affecting the fleshy humanoid adventurers, but they didn't seem affected at all. He overheard them discussing something about wounds, and he was certain that, at most, he could injure one of them before the other two closed in. It dawned on him that the poison was now ineffective and that the best course of action was to flee.

Rusty retreated with haste and used his knowledge of the dungeon layout to navigate to another location. Now that he knew that escaping would be difficult and that poison didn’t work, there were other means he needed to implement. The adventurers efficiently dealt with the small zombie horde and relentlessly pursued him. While none of the creatures in the dungeon posed a match for them, not all hope was lost yet.

“Hey, wait this is…”

Next up was the Trap puzzle corridor where he had previously defeated his second adventurer party. Rusty waited on the other end as he was a few steps ahead of them. Once the party of three found itself inside of it, he threw a large boulder at one of the tiles to trigger the trap. He observed the door closing and trapping the adventurers within, giving him a chance to escape.

‘Will this be enough, or can they still find me?’

Having successfully trapped the group in the corridor, Rusty pressed on further. He wasn’t sure how they were able to track him but perhaps if he got far enough away, then eventually, he would elude their pursuit. His body wasn't particularly fast, but it never tired. Soon he arrived at the location where he had dispatched the third party. There a large gorge with flimsy bridges waited for him but he did not cross it. The bridge led to the third floor that he could not pass into and instead, he aimed to go into one of the other corridors.

To his surprise, before he could attempt this feat a strange sound appeared from behind. The lone entrance where he was trying to escape through was hit by a strange arrow that after embedding itself with the top part, created a strange white barrier that looked a bit similar to a spider’s web. He wasn’t sure what to make of it but it was created by his pursuers. Then when he attempted to push it to the side, his metallic hand had become stuck.

“You’re not going anywhere, just wait there you damn pile of rust!”

“What’s with this cowardly monster, it's just trying to lead us into traps and dead ends?”

“This is getting annoying, let's just kill it already!”

For a moment Rusty thought that he was actually in the clear but the three adventurers didn’t stop chasing him. Going by their tone he was aware that they were losing their temper and also getting tired of the chase. He assumed that eventually the stamina debuff would kick in place and they would have to at least postpone their chase but now he had no way of escaping.

His gauntlet was stuck in this spider web trap that had been created out of nowhere. Luckily, he could just relinquish his gauntlet as it was not something that he required to survive. Now he was left with only two options, either he could face the angered adventurers or cross through the short flimsy-looking bridge.

‘I don’t think I can take them in a fair fight… there is only one way for me to survive this, I need to get to the other side.’

Uncertain of his chances, Rusty forced himself to take the bridge. On the other end, other monsters could potentially aid him. However, that wasn't his plan as one of his hands was already missing, and battling was improbable. After quickly reaching the wobbly bridge, he started to cross it with the three people following after him from behind.

‘Once I get to the other side, I’ll just cut the rope!’

This seemed to be the only way he could envision escaping the situation. After crossing to the other end he would slice through the ropes holding this bridge together. This action would likely send his pursuers plunging into the seemingly bottomless pit below and let him live another day. While the plan seemed sound to Rusty, there were some factors he hadn't taken into account. One of them was, the other monsters on the other end that after he was about a quarter way through, started charging in his direction.

“Reistel, hey stop, do you want to die?”

“Eh? If we wait he is going to run away! What are ye waiting for?”

“Just stop stupid, think for once!”

It appeared that these individuals were not as oblivious as he had assumed. Only the shortest one attempted to cross the bridge, but the other two stopped him from going. Meanwhile, Rusty struggled to find his balance with his missing gauntlet. Around the halfway point, the entire bridge started to wobble violently as the other monsters were coming closer. Soon they were trying to push themselves through him to get to the other side, their intent was clearly to attack the adventurers that he wished to escape from.

“This isn’t worth it… Livi?”

“Yeah… just do it Keyon.”

The leader nodded, and the archer notched his arrow. Soon, it flew through the air and collided with Rusty's backplate. He was instantly pushed off balance but managed to prevent himself from falling. Giving up was not an option and he pushed himself forward to try and get to the other side of this bridge. In his mind, if he could get there and cut the ropes then the adventurers would have to eventually give up on their chase.

However, a second arrow found its way into his armor and collided with his foot. It was exactly at a moment when he was taking an important step and finally, he started falling. His only working hand attempted to grab onto something, but it was to no avail. Soon, Rusty found himself airborne, tumbling down into the darkness below without anything to hold on to.

“Damn thing gave us enough trouble… let’s just get that one part it left and get out of here.”

“Aye.”

The trio of adventurers didn't even care as they watched him plunge to his demise. The only thing on their minds was now profit, and staying here would be a waste of time. As Rusty descended toward his demise, they shifted their attention to the approaching monsters and the leftover gauntlet. Their minds had already moved on from this entire encounter, leaving Rusty with nothing but falling into the darkness and looking forward to the inevitable collision at the end.