Page 22 of Only Rogue Actions
I whirled around and sprinted back in the direction I’d come from.Roderick might have ordered Jeffrey to disable the traps, but I didn’t trust him.Right now, the safest, quickest path was the one I’d already explored, if only because I’d already seen the dangers on it.
Behind me, a bark of delighted laughter rang out, along with Roderick’s loud, thumping footsteps.He might have called it a choice, but really, he had just given me a head start to prolong his twisted hunt.Roderick had snapped the jaws of his trap shut, and now he wanted to see how long and how violently I would thrash around.
I quickened my pace.Let him laugh and chase after me.
All that mattered was finding Vesper before it was too late.
CHAPTER TEN
VESPER
TheBlackScarabsprintedtoward me and lowered its shoulder like it wanted to ram into me like a player in a sports game.If that happened, I wouldn’t be getting back up again anytime soon.
I dove to the side.My left shoulder slammed into a flagstone, and pain exploded in the joint.I grunted at the hard, bruising impact, but I forced myself to scramble back up and onto my feet.
The Black Scarab raced past me and plowed into one of the topiary trees.Branches snapped, and leaves twirled through the air like gray-green snowflakes.The machine jerked back, but it had plunged into the very center of the tree, and it was caught like a butterfly in a net.Hope sparked in my heart, but the Scarab jerked back again, and several branches cracked away.I had a minute, maybe less, before the machine freed itself.
I could leave the Temperate garden biodome and sprint down a path, but I couldn’t outrun the Scarab.I also didn’t know what traps I might trip along the way or how many more Scarabs might be lurking in the maze.
Once again, I was stuck in the middle of an OBO—a situation where I had only bad options.
My chest tightened with worry, but running away wasn’t a viable plan, and I needed to take the Scarab down here and now.Then I could deal with whatever—or whoever—else might be targeting me.
But how could I defeat an armored machine?My stormsword was still in the locker room, and the chunk of rock I’d used to disable the camera had shattered to shards when it hit the ground.
My gaze flicked from one thing to another, even as my mind churned, searching for something, anything, I could use as a weapon.The topiary trees and hedges were no help.Neither were the marble statues ...
My seer magic surged, and a flare of silver caught my eye.I spun in that direction, and my gaze landed on the mermaid statue in the center of the biodome.Why would my magic point out the statue?I could sense Kyrion’s telekinesis much more easily than before, but the psionic dampeners were still active, and the white fog hadn’t completely dissipated from my mind.I might have been able to toss the rock to take down the camera, but I couldn’t access enough of Kyrion’s power to throw the large, heavy mermaid statue at the Scarab.
Wait.Maybe I didn’t have to use the whole statue.My eyes narrowed, and I focused on the trident the mermaid was clutching.Unlike the rest of the smooth white marble statue, the trident was made of metal and featured three long, pointed ends that reminded me of the tines on a fork.
My heart rose with hope, but it quickly sank right back down again.The mermaid was gripping the trident, and there was no way I could pry her stone fingers off the hilt with my own strength.I might have been able to do it with Kyrion’s telekinesis, but it would have taken an enormous amount of magic, and I didn’t want to risk draining off too much of his power, especially since I didn’t know what enemies he might be battling.
More branches cracked, and the Scarab finally extricated itself from the topiary tree.The machine crashed around, splintering the heavy branches underfoot.My eyes narrowed again, and my mind whirred, calculating distances and angles.I couldn’t wrest the trident out of the mermaid’s stone grip, but maybe the Scarab could.
“Hey, you!”I yelled.“Circuits for brains!Come and get me!”
I waved my hand and moved to the right, putting myself between the Scarab and the mermaid statue.The Scarab spun around, and its green eyes brightened, as though whoever was controlling the machine was determined to finally latch onto me.
“Hey!”I yelled again.“You want me?Then come and get me!”
The Scarab’s eyes brightened even more, and the machine rushed forward.I braced myself and waited for the Scarab to come closer.
At the last instant, right before the machine would have slammed into me, I lunged to the side.The Scarab crashed directly into the mermaid, and the statue shattered on impact.Chunks of white marble sailed through the air like misshapen snowballs, as did the trident, which chimed against the ground like a tuning fork.
While the Scarab careened to a halt, I darted forward and snatched up the trident.It was made of solid silver and even heavier and sturdier than I’d expected.Even better, each of the three large prongs ended in a razor-sharp point.
Clank.Clank-clank.Clank.
The Scarab whirled around and charged in my direction.My eyes narrowed, and I once again calculated distances and angles.The Scarab rushed forward and stretched its arm out toward me ...
I spun to the side and stabbed out with the trident.My aim was true, and I drove the three prongs deep into the machine’s left knee before ripping them right back out.The Scarab tripped and went down in a heap, tumbling end over end, cracking flagstones and sending up sprays of stone shrapnel in its wake.
The second the machine slid to a halt, I darted forward and raised the trident again.First, I stabbed the prongs into the machine’s right knee, tearing through its armor, along with the wires underneath.The Scarab tried to stand, but its crippled knees wouldn’t support the rest of its heavy weight, and it toppled down and landed on its back.
The Scarab swiped a hand at me, but I ignored the awkward lurch and rammed the trident into the machine’s right elbow, then its left elbow.With four quick strikes, I’d essentially turned the deadly machine into a black bug lying on its shell, fruitlessly kicking its ruined arms and legs in the air.
Once I was certain the Scarab couldn’t get back up, I leaned over the machine, raised the trident high, and stabbed it into the center of the Scarab’s breastplate.The prongs didn’t penetrate as deeply as I’d hoped, so I wrenched the trident back and forth in short, violent motions.Several satisfyingsnaps,cracks, andpop-pop-popsrang out as the prongs tore through the machine’s innards.
