The howls in the dark never stopped.

  Each dying shriek of the twisted creatures only seemed to summon more from the ravine's inky depths. They came in endless waves - gangly-limbed horrors with too many joints, their matted fur slick with unnatural oils that reflected the moonlight in rainbow hues. Borin's hammer rose and fell with metronomic precision, each crushing impact spraying black ichor across his beard. His stocky arms trembled with exhaustion, the runes along his hammer's haft glowing faintly as they struggled to channel his waning strength.

  Aelin's arrows had run dry hours ago. Now her twin daggers - slender elven steel etched with moonlight runes - flashed like silver fangs as she danced between the monsters. Her breathing remained steady even as sweat plastered her white braid to her back, her movements flowing with the lethal grace of a winter wind.

  S-01 stood immovable between the creatures and the fortress, its piston-driven fists reducing monsters to pulp with brutal efficiency. But with each crushing blow, the golden scars across his core pulsed brighter - visible proof of Victor's straining consciousness. The glow had become erratic now, flickering like a dying candle in the dark.

  Pip scrambled across the fortress's shuddering hull, her small hands flying across manual access panels. "Come on, you rustbucket," she muttered through gritted teeth as she jammed a spanner into a seized turret housing. With a shriek of protesting metal, the twin-barreled autoloader spun to life, its targeting array flickering weakly.

  "Got one!" she crowed as the turret barked to life, spraying a concentrated burst of alchemical rounds into the advancing horde. Fanged maws exploded in showers of black ichor as the high-velocity mana projectiles found their marks.

  She didn't pause to celebrate. The gnome engineer was already moving, her oil-stained overalls flapping as she swung down a maintenance ladder to the secondary battery. Each step was a calculated risk - the fortress shuddered under repeated impacts, threatening to send her tumbling into the sea of gears and pistons below.

  The starboard flamethrower array was jammed, its ignition runes dark. Pip didn't hesitate. She tore open the access panel with her bare hands, ignoring the burn of scorched metal, and crossed two wires with her teeth gritted. The system screamed in protest before belching a torrent of burning promethium across the ravine wall, turning three climbing horrors into shrieking fireballs.

  "Victor, I need targeting on the left flank!" she shouted over the din of battle.

  Static crackled in response before Victor's voice emerged, strained but clear: "Manual... override... junction B7..."

  Pip was moving before he finished speaking. She ducked a flying chunk of shrapnel and slid feet-first into the targeting control hub. Her fingers danced across the mechanical keyboard, inputting firing solutions with one hand while the other wrestled with a stuck altitude adjuster. With a final, brutal kick, the entire fortress shook as the dorsal cannon discharged, its payload of fragmenting shrapnel tearing through the densest part of the horde.

  From his chains, Hale chuckled. "Adorable. The gnome thinks she's a real soldier."

  Pip didn't even look up as she slid down a maintenance ladder. "Keep talking, traitor. See what happens."

  Hale yawned dramatically. "Are we done yet? I'm bored of watching you—"

  THUNK.

  Pip's wrench connected with Hale's temple in a perfect arc. His eyes rolled back as he slumped against his restraints, unconscious.

  "Told you," Pip muttered, already moving to the next weapon station.

  Then the earth shook.

  A deep, resonant boom echoed through the ravine as the very stones seemed to recoil. The remaining creatures scattered, their howls turning to whimpers as something massive stirred in the depths. The ground split open, vomiting forth a hulking, spined abomination that towered over even S-01.

  Pip's blood ran cold as her targeting array struggled to get a reading on the nightmare. "Oh scrap," she whispered, her hands already moving to overcharge the forward facing turrets. "Someone keep that thing still!"

  The creature shimmered - one moment there, the next half-transparent - before it charged with earth-shaking steps, its crystalline claws tearing great furrows in the stone.

  And the true battle began.

  The crystalline abomination's charge sent tremors through the ravine, its massive claws carving trenches in solid stone. Pip's hands flew across the turret control panel, her voice shrill with urgency as she bypassed safety protocols.

  "Five seconds! I just need five damn seconds of that thing holding still!"

  Borin spat blood and hefted his hammer. "I'll give you three!" The dwarf launched himself forward with a roar, his warhammer glowing with dormant runic power. He brought it down in a crushing arc against the creature's foreleg—just as it phased out of existence.

  The hammer struck empty air, Borin's momentum sending him stumbling forward. The abomination reappeared behind him, its jagged maw gaping wide—

  —only to meet Aelin's twin daggers as the elf vaulted onto its face. Her blades found purchase in two of its glowing violet eyes, dark ichor spraying as she twisted the weapons viciously. The creature shrieked, its claws swiping at her, but she'd already flipped away, landing lightly beside Borin.

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  "Four seconds," she panted.

  S-01 chose that moment to slam into the beast's side with the force of a battering ram. Metal fists pounded into crystalline flesh, each impact sending cracks spiderwebbing across its hide. The golden scars along Victor's core blazed like molten metal, Victor's voice crackling through the din:

  "Pip—now!"

  The overcharged turret whined to life, its barrels glowing red-hot as Pip yanked the firing lever. A continuous stream of superheated rounds tore across the ravine—

  —and the abomination phased again.

  The bullets carved through empty air, striking the far cliffside in an explosion of shattered rock. Pip's stomach dropped. "No no no—"

  The creature reappeared directly in front of the fortress, its remaining eyes burning with malice. One massive claw rose, poised to cleave the turret in two.

  Then Hale's voice cut through the chaos, dripping with sarcasm even as blood trickled from his temple where Pip had clocked him earlier:

  "You know, for a genius, you're really bad at—"

  THWACK.

  Pip's wrench struck true again, silencing him mid-quip. She didn't even look as he slumped back into unconsciousness.

  The distraction cost her. The abomination's claw descended—

  —only to be intercepted by S-01's massive forearm. The impact sent the sentinel skidding backward, its metal feet digging trenches in the earth. The golden scars flared dangerously bright.

  "Pip... again..." Victor's voice was barely audible.

  Borin and Aelin didn't hesitate. The dwarf charged low, his hammer shattering one of the creature's knees with a sound like breaking glass. Aelin's daggers found its remaining eyes in a flurry of silver.

  The abomination staggered—just for a moment.

  A moment was all Pip needed.

  She slammed the turret's firing mechanism again, holding the lever down as the weapon screamed in protest. This time, the barrage struck true, punching through the creature's chest in a storm of molten metal. Its shriek split the air as cracks of glowing energy raced across its body—

  —before it exploded in a shower of crystalline shards.

  Silence fell, broken only by the hiss of the turret's cooling barrels and heavy breathing.

  Then, from the smoking crater where the abomination had stood, a single object pulsed with soft violet light—a perfectly spherical mana crystal, its surface swirling with captive energy.

  Pip's grin was fierce as she scooped it up, the crystal warm in her hands. "Victor... I have an idea.."

  The golden scars on Victor's core flickered in response—a weak but hopeful glow.

  The first pale streaks of sunlight crept over the ravine’s edge as silence settled over the battlefield. Pip slumped against the ruined turret mount, her arms trembling from exhaustion. The once-proud weapon now sat twisted and blackened, its barrels warped beyond repair from the sustained overcharge.

  Borin prodded a still-smoking piece of the creature with his boot. "Well," he grunted, "that’s the last time we use that tactic."

  Aelin wiped her daggers clean, her keen elven eyes scanning the wreckage. "Three turrets destroyed. Hull plating compromised on the starboard side. And we’ve got maybe two hours of steam pressure left before—"

  "I know, I know," Pip interrupted, rubbing her grease-streaked face. She turned the mana crystal over in her hands, watching the violet light pulse in time with Victor’s flickering scars. Then her eyes widened. "This might help make you whole again."

  S-01’s optics dimmed. "Are you sure it will work?"

  "Not realy, last time we used a mana core to keep you alive," Pip finished, already moving toward the access panel. “There's a chance another mana core can help you regain some of your funtions.”

  Pip's hands trembled as she pressed the abomination's violet core against Victor's fractured heart. The moment the crystals touched, the air itself hummed with energy.

  "Come on..." she whispered.

  The violet core liquefied, its shimmering essence flowing into Victor's golden scars like water into cracks in parched earth. The glowing fractures changed color as the energy merged—shifting from gold to a luminous amethyst wherever the new energy spread.

  For three glorious seconds, the entire fortress shuddered to life.

  Clang! The Clockwork Falcons twitched in their nests.

  Hiss! Steam vents spat to life along the perimeter.

  Whirr! Dead consoles flickered with ghostly light.

  Then—silence.

  The violet glow in Victor's scars dimmed. The systems died again.

  Pip's stomach dropped. "No...no, it should have worked!" She slammed her fist against a consol. "The resonance was perfect!"

  Victor's voice, stronger now but still strained, rumbled through the stillness:

  "It did work, Pip."

  Amethyst light pulsed gently through his scars.

  "We just need...more cores. This one was enough to prove the concept—to give me minutes of full control where I had none before. With three, perhaps four more...the repairs could become permanent."

  Borin scratched his beard. "So we're back to monster hunting, then?"

  Aelin's blades found their sheaths with twin snicks. "Seems simpler than our last plan."

  Pip stared at the fading violet light in Victor's scars—now permanently threaded through the gold. A slow grin spread across her face.

  "Then it's settled." She wiped grease on her overalls. "We get Victor his cores...right after we deliver Hale to Blackridge."

  The amethyst-gold scars pulsed once in agreement.