The enormous proto-drake screamed as the cable snapped tight, the force of the grounding dragging her out of the air and slamming her massive body toward the stone.
The impact shook the chamber. Leylin was already moving. The dark rune guardians answered the grounding almost immediately.
They erupted from the corrupted defensive network, one after another, black metal and glowing runes tearing themselves free from the machinery around the chamber. There were more than before. The corrupted system had learned from their tactics and was responding accordingly.
"Six" Tyr'ganal called. Leylin barely glanced toward him.
"Arcturis takes two." The great spirit bear was already moving. He crashed into the first guardian with enough force to send the construct skidding sideways across the floor.
The second barely had time to raise its weapon before Arcturis hit it from behind, claws raking across its rune-covered armor.
The guardians turned on him. Lightning came down.
Thrall raised one hand, and the storm answered. The bolts were not the great, sweeping strikes he might have unleashed beneath an open sky.
Ulduar's distorted channels made that impossible. Instead, the lightning came in short, brutal bursts, each strike hammering into a guardian's frame and forcing its limbs to lock.
"Now!" Tyr'ganal shouted. Vereesa's bowstring snapped. Two arrows struck the same guardian almost simultaneously.
One pierced the glowing rune beneath its shoulder; the second drove into the joint at its neck. The construct staggered.
Vereesa loosed again, its head came away. The remaining guardians were already closing in. Arcturis roared and tore one apart. Thrall's lightning brought down another.
The Ninjakhan swarmed the final two, blades flashing as they attacked from different angles. The constructs swung wildly, smashing stone where the Ninjakhan had been only moments before.
Then the last guardian collapsed. Supposedly until four mole machines appeared within the area. Dark Rune Guardians, Dark Rune Watchers and Dark Rune Sentinels poured out from the machine in waves.
Leylin manipulated earth spikes and aimed it at Razorscale's wings. Then efficiently summoned ice at the same time freezing the proto-drake. Razorscale continued to breathe fire unto Leylin, the harpoons keeping her pinned while the Ninjakhan dealt with the remaining threats.
The battle continued on with Thrall and Tyr'ganal helping Leylin quickly defeat the proto-drake, while Vereesa multi-tasked with operating the harpoon turrets and assisted the Shadowkhans in engaging the endless Dark Rune adds.
Meanwhile on the other side, the forge chamber had nearly killed them. Ignis had survived the first cooling. Then the second. Then the third.
By the fourth attempt, even Muradin knew they were approaching the point where something had to give. The fifth cooling did it.
The massive fire giant stood in the center of the forge, its body glowing red beneath layers of blackened armor. Then one of the great internal mechanisms behind its chest gave a grinding shriek.
Muradin looked up. "There." Another mechanism failed, then another. The enormous furnace behind Ignis sputtered. The fire inside it collapsed inward.
The giant took one heavy step, its weapon slipped from its hand. No final burst of flame.
Just the slow, almost unsettling death of something that had been built to function forever.
The fire dimmed. The enormous fire giant collapsed. Muradin stood before it, hammer hanging loosely at his side.
He stared for several seconds. Then he gave a small nod. "You were better than you should've been."
Liadrin lowered the Light she had been maintaining around the group. Her shoulders sagged slightly as the strain left her.
Alleria was already looking toward the passage ahead. "The corridor is clear."
Muradin glanced once more at Ignis. "Then let's move." He took several steps before stopping. "And Brann is going to lose his mind when he hears about this."
Alleria gave him a tired look. "That's what you're worried about?"
Muradin grinned. "Have you ever seen him around Titan machinery?"
"No."
"Exactly."
The two groups met at the junction, there was no grand greeting. They simply stopped, looked at one another, and immediately began taking stock.
Everyone was standing, that was what mattered. They were tired, bruised, and carrying injuries that would have dropped lesser fighters, but no one was down.
Leylin looked over Muradin's group, Muradin did the same. Neither needed a report they had all seen the evidence.
"XT-002," Leylin said. Muradin's expression changed.
"The Deconstructor." There was something different in his voice when he said the name.
Leylin noticed. "You know something?"
"I know enough." Muradin tightened his grip around his hammer. "Based on the inscriptions we've passed by, Mimiron's repair systems were some of the finest ever built. If that thing has been corrupted..."
He didn't finish, he didn't have to. Leylin looked toward the corridor. "Together."
Muradin nodded. "Full group?"
"Full group." Nobody argued, they moved. They heard XT-002 before they saw it. The sound rolled through the corridor in deep mechanical pulses.
Something enormous was moving beyond the walls, not walking, working. Grinding gears, moving pistons, rearranging machinery.
The sound of thousands of smaller mechanisms operating together filled the air. Then the corridor opened, the chamber beyond was enormous.
And in the middle of it stood XT-002 Deconstructor. The construct was massive even by Titan standards, but unlike the other guardians they had encountered, it did not look like a weapon.
It looked like a machine built to fix other machines. Its arms were thick enough to crush stone. Its body was packed with moving parts, rotating mechanisms, and layered armor.
Every section of it seemed designed to open, disassemble, repair, and rebuild whatever stood before it.
The moment the group crossed the threshold, the Deconstructor's head snapped toward them.
A high mechanical voice echoed through the chamber. "New toys? For me? I promise I won't break them this time!"
Everyone froze for half a heartbeat. The construct's arms spread. "NEW TOYS FOR XT!"
The first attack came before anyone could react. A massive blast tore across the chamber.
"Move!" Leylin's command came just in time. The group quickly scattered. The blast ripped through the place where they had been standing a second earlier, throwing chunks of stone and metal into the air.
"Reorganize!" They moved with practiced speed. Alleria climbed toward the left side of the chamber, finding higher ground. Sylvanas took the right.
Muradin charged straight ahead. Liadrin planted herself near the center, ready to reinforce whichever side needed her.
Tyr'ganal and Aminel moved toward the rear, the monitoring relay between them. Thrall took the left flank. Vereesa covered the right.
Arcturis settled between Muradin and the Deconstructor. The spirit bear lowered his head then charged.
XT-002 swung. Arcturis ducked beneath the enormous arm. Muradin came in from the side and smashed his hammer against the construct's leg. The impact rang through the chamber. XT-002 stumbled.
"Now!"
Arrows flew. Lightning struck. Arcane energy exploded against the Deconstructor's armor.
Leylin thrust one hand forward fire wrapped around his arm before surging across the chamber.
The Deconstructor staggered then its chest opened.
"Heart!" Aminel shouted. The inner mechanism was exposed. Leylin saw the opening, so did everyone else.
"Everyone!"
The chamber erupted, Alleria fired first. Sylvanas followed, Vereesa's arrows joined them. Tyr'ganal and Aminel unleashed arcane energy directly into the exposed mechanism.
Thrall's lightning crashed down from above, Leylin's fire struck last. It hit the heart dead center.
The Deconstructor screamed, the sound was not human. It was a shriek of metal, gears, and tortured machinery.
The monitoring relay spiked. "Damage confirmed!"
The heart slammed shut then the chamber came alive. Panels opened along the walls, small constructs poured out. Scrapbots. Dozens of them. They skittered across the floor toward XT-002.
"Don't let them reach it!" Leylin shouted and quickly summoned Ninjakhans and had them intercepted the first wave. Blades flashed and the crapbots exploded. Another wave came, then another.
"More!" Vereesa called out, "I see them!"
She jumped down from her elevated position and fired into the swarm. Tyr'ganal redirected his magic, arcane bolts ripped through three scrapbots at once.
Still more came, the repair machines were relentless. One reached the Deconstructor.
It vanished beneath the construct's enormous body.
"Kill it!"
Muradin smashed the ground with his hammer. The shockwave threw several scrapbots backward. Arcturis tore another apart. The Ninjakhan closed ranks.
For several seconds, the chamber became chaos. Metal screamed, arrows flashed, lightning cracked. The floor shook beneath the Deconstructor's movements.
Then Aminel shouted. "Void zones!" Three dark patches appeared across the floor.
At first they were nothing more than black stains. Then the air around them twisted, the stone began to crack.
"Move!"
Everyone shifted. Muradin changed his angle without slowing. Thrall sidestepped just as the nearest zone expanded.
A blast of void energy erupted where he had been standing. He glanced at it. "That was close."
"Closer than I'd like," Liadrin said. The Deconstructor's heart opened again.
"Second exposure!" Leylin raised his hand. "Now!"
The group struck. This time, there was no hesitation. Every attack landed almost simultaneously.
The heart glowed white-hot beneath the combined assault. XT-002 screamed. The sound was louder than before. Its chest slammed shut. More scrapbots poured from the walls.
"Again!"
The Ninjakhan threw themselves into the swarm.
Vereesa fired until her fingers blurred. Alleria shifted between targets, every arrow finding something vital. Sylvanas fought from the opposite side, shooting one scrapbot, then another, never wasting a movement.
Thrall's lightning leapt from construct to construct. Liadrin remained in the center, the Light pouring from her hands as she kept the wounded standing while contributing in killing the bots.
The fight dragged on. The Deconstructor's repair systems kept trying to undo everything they were doing. And the group kept breaking it faster than it could repair itself.
Aminel stared at the relay. "Third exposure."
Leylin nodded. Everyone was ready, they had learned the rhythm. They had learned when the heart opened. They had learned how long the window lasted.
They had learned how quickly everything could go wrong. The chest opened.
"Go!"
Every weapon fired, every spell struck, every arrow found its mark. Leylin unleashed everything he had been holding back.
The fire hit the exposed heart. The mechanism cracked, asharp metallic sound echoed through the chamber. Then another, the heart fractured.
Aminel stared at the relay. "That's it."
Leylin knew what she meant, the fracture wasn't simply damage anymore. The Deconstructor's own repair system was failing.
The machine had crossed a threshold from which it could not recover. The construct shuddered. Its arms twitched, its enormous head tilted then its voice came. "I'm tired of these toys."
Everyone stopped for half a second. Even Muradin looked confused, then the construct shook violently. "I don't want to play anymore!"
The Deconstructor thrashed. A massive arm smashed into the floor, stone exploded. Everyone ducked. Another arm swung wildly. Muradin rolled beneath it.
"Move!"
Arcturis slammed into the construct's leg, knocking it off balance. The Deconstructor stumbled, its movements had lost all coordination.
It was still powerful. That was the dangerous part. A dying machine did not know how to be careful. XT-002 swung again.
Muradin ducked, the hammer in his hands came around in a brutal arc. He struck the damaged section of the chest.
The impact drove the weapon deep into the already-fractured mechanism. The construct shuddered.
Leylin saw the opening. "Again!"
Arcturis charged, the spirit bear slammed into the Deconstructor from the side. The construct lurched. Muradin ripped his hammer free and struck again.
The heart cracked, the entire machine froze.
Silence. The Deconstructor's head slowly lowered. "You are bad... Toys... Very... Baaaaad."
Its voice faded, the lights across its body went dark. The enormous construct collapsed into stillness.
Nobody moved for several seconds then Muradin slowly lowered his hammer.
"Well." He stared at the fallen machine. "Mimiron."
The name carried a strange mixture of respect and disbelief. Leylin looked around, everyone was still standing though barely.
The Ninjakhan had been reduced from seventeen to nine functioning members, but the survivors were already regrouping.
Arcturis came to Leylin's side, the spirit bear leaned against him, warm and solid despite the exhaustion running through the bond.
Leylin rested a hand against his fur. He looked at the chamber. One zone. That was all they had cleared.
One section of Ulduar and already they had fought things that could have destroyed an army.
"First zone," he said. Everyone understood.
Aminel checked the relay. "Two more days until Jaina's force arrives."
"Two days," Leylin repeated. He looked toward the passages leading deeper into Ulduar.
"We mark everything. Every route. Every guardian. Every weakness we've found. When Jaina's force arrives, they shouldn't have to learn any of this the hard way."
Aminel nodded. "We'll have it ready."
Muradin looked around the ruined chamber. "Brann's going to want the engineering report."
"He'll get it."
Muradin snorted. "He'll want everything."
Tyr'ganal allowed himself a small smile. "He will especially want to know why Mimiron built a machine capable of feeling sadness."
Muradin looked at him. "Don't remind me."
"I believe the inscriptions provide an answer."
"Do they?"
Tyr'ganal considered that. "Yes."
Muradin waited. "And?"
Tyr'ganal shrugged. "Either Mimiron was a genius..." He glanced at the fallen Deconstructor. "...or he had spent far too much time working alone."
Muradin laughed. "Aye. That's exactly what I'm telling Brann."
They began moving, the monitoring relay continued recording everything. Every damaged mechanism, every guardian, every route, every weakness. Nothing would be wasted.
The first zone was behind them. Two days remained, two days to recover, two days to prepare. Two days to make sure that when the larger force arrived, they would not be walking blindly into the darkness.
Leylin looked once toward the ancient halls ahead then he turned and followed the others. They disappeared into Ulduar's darkness, the faint ward-light of their camp waiting in the distance.