Drifting Pollen

Mage against the machine! (Drifting Pollen vs Kagebaka)

Thomas had put up a decent fight, but events had already spun out of his control. Perhaps it was the pain from being shot in his midsection, or maybe exhaustion was starting to set in, but the mage was forgetting things. Several very important things, in fact.

The first was that he had yet to free his throat.

He'd successfully sliced off the drone's left hand, and a human hand thus cut off would have quickly gone limp, allowing the mage to breathe and cast again. The hand currently encircling his throat, however, was not human, nor was it ever alive. With its connection to the main body severed, Johannes could no longer control it, but instead of suddenly releasing their hold, the mechanisms in the drone's fingers simply stopped, locking in place and freezing the hand in its current position, with a tight grip on Thomas's neck. The hold wasn't going to grow any tighter, but it wasn't going to release either, not unless the mage managed to destroy or remove the hand directly. Until then, spellcasting would be just as difficult as it had a moment ago.

@Drifting Pollen

Thomas had done absolutely nothing to address this threat, and the machine's severed hand would remain exactly where it was, clamped around the young man's throat. He would not be able to cast all those verbal spells he so desperately needed for his escape, nor would he be able to breathe properly. At this point, the lack of air would be bringing him close to unconsciousness.

This major oversight alone might have been enough to end Thomas's chances, but this was only one of the factors now aligned against him.

Sukukaja-Spell of Speed, lasts for about 5 posts.

@Kagebaka

He had also assumed that he would be fast enough to jump back into the trees before Johannes could catch him again. Perhaps, had the altercation occurred a little earlier, he would have been able to use his formidable speed to do so. He had cast his Sukukaja at the very start of the fight, however, and around now it would be wearing off, leaving him without the necessary swiftness to escape, especially while weighed down by the metal arm still gripping him. The drone could have chased him on foot and still caught him quickly, and it certainly wasn't going to stand around while he fled and tried to recover.

Even if this had not been the case, however, even if Thomas hadn't had metal fingers squeezing his throat and the time limit of his speed spell running out, it still wouldn't have been enough, for when he jumped into the trees, he had forgotten something possibly even more critical, the very reason he had stopped jumping around in the branches in the first place.

The trees, or at least a great many of them, were holograms.

Johannes's projector had been able to create multiple images of trees at once, and adding another image to its network (the glimpse of the sun that had blinded Thomas) had not stopped it from keeping up its earlier illusions. A few of them would have vanished, as Johannes moved around and the angle of projection became impossible to maintain, but the majority of the holograms were still there, waiting among the ordinary trees. So, in the unlikely event that Thomas were able to even make it into the trees, he would soon find himself in freefall as he found that half the surfaces he sought to jump on were nothing but empty air and a clever trick of the light.

All in all, the drone could probably have stood back at this point and let the multiple factors arrayed against the mage bring him down on their own. However, Johannes didn't leave these things to chance. Even though the probability of the mage getting away and healing was already quite low, the engineer was still planning one step ahead. Even after his successful shot, he had another countermeasure ready to deploy.

That was the final thing Thomas had forgotten to take into account: the other function of the drone's cannon.

Just after firing, the drone had stepped leftwards instead of moving forwards to grab its target again. This was because Johannes had not forgotten Thomas's earlier actions in the fight. It had just seen him fire a bullet at the ground to produce a Phasic Spike, and remembered that the mage had fired two shots early on in the fight that had not been aimed at the drone. Johannes knew now that every bullet was a potential threat, and had moved to the side rather than recklessly charging forwards, seeing to avoid getting too close to where Thomas had fired earlier in the fight, and thus stay away from any potential traps. Not rushing forwards meant that it would be more difficult for him to catch the mage on foot- but Johannes had no intention of simply running after his target.

He'd just fired his cannon, and now his right arm was once again blazing hot in the wake of the superheated shot. As he had done before, he pointed it behind him, and leaped, propelling himself into the air and letting the discharge of steam shoot him forwards at high speeds. Once again, he streaked forth like a fearsome metal meteorite- only this time, he aimed not for a tree, but for Thomas himself.

With all the other issues slowing Thomas down, it was highly unlikely he would be fast enough to evade the steam-propelled drone, which was rocketing forth far faster than it would have traveled on foot. On top of this, Johannes could adjust the angle of his arm mid-flight, allowing him to control his course somewhat and home in on his target like a guided missile.

This was an attack that had smacked down a tree like a toy, and its consequences on a human would be disastrous. Even by itself impact of the machine slamming into Thomas would be enough to shatter bones and possibly knock him out, but that wasn't even the worst of it. Though he'd lost part of his left arm, Johannes still had a stump, filled with whirring gears and exposed wires, and as he struck he would jam this into the mage's chest, flooding the stump with power and electrocuting Thomas upon contact, flooding his body with enough current to knock him out, and potentially kill him.

With the situation weighted so thoroughly against him, Thomas's plan to run away and heal himself was no longer even a faint hope. Rather, it veered on sheer impossibility.

Mage against the machine! (Drifting Pollen vs Kagebaka)

Just popped in to say that if this fight were named 'Mage Against the Machine', it would have been one of the coolest puns ever >_>

@Divinity

DAMN IT! Why did I not think of that?!

Edit: renamed the thread. Thanks for the idea!

Mage against the machine! (Drifting Pollen vs Kagebaka)

Caught! Using both cunning and brutality, Johannes had finally gotten a hold of his tricky opponent, and hindered both his airway and his ability to cast. His opponent was still alive, but the mage would be losing consciousness soon, once he ran out of air. The drone's hand kept up its powerful squeezing, even as the cold lenses of its eyes watched Thomas struggle in vain. Its voice finally came once again, emerging through tinny speakers. "I warned you-"

It cut off, as Johannes noticed something. In spite of having his throat constricted, the mage's lips were still moving, and he pointed his gun not at the drone but at the ground! The engineer was highly observant, and immediately knew that Thomas was trying to pull something.

To keep fighting and try to make an escape from such a situation showed admirable tenacity, and indeed, the attempt was partially successful. Although he was sharp enough to tell that something was coming, Johannes didn't know what, and couldn't move fast enough to counter the razor-sharp crystal that shot up out of the ground, slicing clean through the drone's left arm. Circuits sparked and exposed gears churned as the limb was bisected, the machine's hold broken from an unexpected angle.

However, Thomas had made two mistakes.

The first had been his assumption as to the workings of his opponent. He'd successfully sliced off the drone's left hand, and a human hand thus cut off would have quickly gone limp, allowing the mage to breathe and cast again. The hand currently encircling his throat, however, was not human, nor was it ever alive. With its connection to the main body severed, Johannes could no longer control it, but instead of suddenly releasing their hold, the mechanisms in the drone's fingers simply stopped, locking in place and freezing the hand in its current position, with a tight grip on Thomas's neck. The hold wasn't going to grow any tighter, but it wasn't going to release either, not unless the mage managed to destroy or remove the hand directly. Until then, spellcasting would be just as difficult as it had a moment ago. A significant obstacle to Thomas's attempts at escape... but not insurmountable.

The second mistake, however, was far more grave.

Without knowing about the 'Phasic Spike' spell, Johannes hadn't been able to realize what was happening quickly enough to avoid it. He had, however, known that the mage would have some unseen spells, even if he didn't know what they were, and had been ready for a potential escape. The grab had been an attempt at choking the mage into unconsciousness, thus capturing him without any major injury, but the drone had already prepared a far more dangerous attack in case that option hadn't worked. As soon as things went wrong, the engineer immediately deployed this attack.

Earlier in the fight, it had discharged its cannon at Thomas, making a ranged attack to test his defenses. It had quickly become clear that this opponent was more than capable of fending off ranged attacks, and the plasma cannon wasn't something that could be just constantly fired until it finally made a hit. Since its first shot, however, the weapon had been cooled via release of hot steam, and recharged as Johannes moved in for his grab. And now, it fired again.

Last time, the shot had come from far enough away that Thomas had time to hear the sound and prepare an instant defense before it hit. Now, however, the drone was firing at point-blank range, unleashing the shot as soon as its other arm was sliced by the crystal. Even if the mage had been able to cast normally, by the time his brain was able to register the flash and the BOOM of the weapon, the projectile would already be penetrating his midsection. At this range, the chances of a miss were virtually zero.

Johannes was still reluctant to straight-up kill his target, and had avoided aiming for any vital organs. Nevertheless, he wasn't leaving much to chance. He'd aimed a little ways below the center of Thomas's chest, seeking to smash through his spine with the projectile. Even if he was a little off, however, there were plenty of important organs in that area, and anyone with a smoking hole in their chest, expert mage or not, was going to have a bad time.

The drone was already moving again, stepping leftwards and off the trunk, re-positioning in case it needed to renew its assault. Johannes's mind was already figuring out counters to possible problems, if his enemy somehow managed to keep fighting through this. The cannon shot, brutal though it was, could be survived, and with proper medical attention the young mage might even be saved. If Thomas kept on fighting thought this, however, the engineer might well have to resort to more irreversibly lethal methods.

Mage against the machine! (Drifting Pollen vs Kagebaka)

Here plans fell into place. Johannes had been expecting resistance, which was precisely why he'd had his drone stay on top of the trunk. It gave him a high vantage point, a spot from which he could strike no matter which way Thomas moved, without sacrificing his own mobility. The tree, large and devastating though it was, was only step one of his current attack.

And unlike the last, he would not be giving his opponent the time to act as he wished.

Johannes was already watching for the mage's next move, and the moment the sword came slicing through the trunk near its upper end, he charged, stepping down the length of the fallen tree with surprising deftness. Thomas had jumped or leaped up to land above the trunk, but it was at the moment he did this that the machine struck again.

Just before it had thrown itself at the tree, it had looked at the sky, and recorded. Now, just as it had done with the false trees, it projected a hologram. An image of what it had glimpsed as it looked up.

The sun.

Even the drone's powerful projector could not capture its full blazing glory, but it made a good effort, emitting a blindingly bright light aimed at replicating the captured image directly in front of Thomas's eyes. This sudden, focused projection would remain trained on the mage, rendering him effectively blind for the next few moments. Even after that, it would likely have consequences for his vision, but at this stage, it was doubtful that the mage would last that long.

Using the last of the steam in his right arm to help propel himself forwards, Johannes rushed at his target, ducking low to avoid a series of gunshots. With his opponent blinded (and not being that great of a marksman in the first place), it was unlikely that so much as a single shot would hit him- but even if one or two did, his raised left arm and torso were heavily armored enough to simply take the hits, suffering no more than a minor dent or two.

And with that, he'd close the distance. His charge at the tree had already brought him close to his target, and with the drone's powerful legs, it would only take him a few steps until he was within reach.

Fast as he was, Thomas's attempt at a flip was evidence of his lack of combat training. As an evasive maneuver, it certainly looked fancy, but it was an inefficient means of gaining distance, and it also left the user in midair, unable to dodge. Assuming the blinded mage could even manage such a maneuver, it wasn't going to gain him much distance against the machine, which had momentum on its side now. With sight momentarily taken out by having the light of the sun projected directly into his eyeballs, it would be all but impossible for Thomas to avoid or block the subsequent attack in time.

Johannes's left arm reached out, and grabbed his throat.

It wasn't the most lethal move the engineer could have made, but he wasn't aiming to kill the mage, not if he could help it. This did not mean, however, that it was merciful. The machine's grip was literally iron, its immense strength working to squeeze Thomas's neck hard enough that the man would barely be able to breathe. The mage certainly wouldn't be able to chant any spells, with his windpipe thus constricted, and once the drone had its fingers in place, it wasn't letting go.

The drone was already recharging its right arm, in case of an unexpected evasion. At this point, however, the mage was rapidly running out of options.

Mage against the machine! (Drifting Pollen vs Kagebaka)

It was quite impressive, that Thomas was able to cast a spell in between the sound of a cannon shot and the arrival of a projectile traveling at over a hundred meters per second. Simply being able to cast quickly, however, would not keep him safe for long.

The mage soon retaliated, in the form of a brilliant beam of light that pierced through the greenery, aimed roughly where Johannes had fired from. However, the attack would meet only empty air. Moving away from where it had fired had been literally the first thing the drone had done, and the fact that Thomas had spent time moving and casting spells before counterattacking had only given the machine more time to re-position itself. It was no longer even close to where it had made its initial attack.

While his target was busy using magic to avoid getting killed, Johannes had been circling, keeping his distance and carefully examining the terrain, picking out a certain choice tree that looked like it might fit his purposes. Thomas was no longer bothering to conceal his location, chanting out several spells and unleashing powerful but easily spotted effects. Johannes took the opportunity to formulate a plan of attack. He knew where his enemy was, and he now had some idea of the capabilities the mage possessed. As more information was revealed, he adapted his plan, cutting out parts that might fail and focusing on weaknesses he could exploit.

Thomas had just cast four spells in a row- and Johannes knew that mages could get tired, could lose their focus, or simply run out of magical energies if they cast too much too quickly. He didn't know if his opponent had similar limitations, but it seemed like a reasonable bet, which made this a good time to attack. He would be coming out, in a sense, but the angle and manner of his emergence would be far from a simple advance.

He paused for a moment, looking at the sky, recording what he saw.

Then took a single step forwards, and bent his legs, thrusting his right arm out behind him. Focusing on his target, he leaped into the air.

The drone already had immensely powerful limbs, and even with its heavy body, a simple leap could propel it a good distance. That, however, was not all it was doing. Firing the plasma cannon had built up a large amount of heat in the drone's right arm, and now it unleashed its cooling mechanism, a surge of extremely hot and highly pressurized steam that sent the drone rocketing forwards at high speeds, straight towards the tree Johannes had picked out earlier. As his metal body streaked forwards, the engineer brought its legs up, to kick out at the trunk at the precise moment of impact.

The drone would hit the tree like a wrecking ball, the sheer force of its arrival knocking it clean over. This was no randomly chosen plant, however. Johannes had moved into position such that this tree was directly between him and Thomas, and not particularly far away from the latter. Now, as he crashed into it, it would slam down on the mage's position, like a massive fly swatter smacking its target against the earth.

If the mage found himself beneath the trunk, he would likely be crushed entirely. Even if he managed to evade, however, there was still the far-reaching array of branches to contend with, covering a much wider area. Getting caught under these was less likely to smash bones, but they still carried force sufficient to knock the man down and trap him beneath them.

The drone itself, meanwhile, would come down atop the trunk, arms up and ready to deal with any opposition it might encounter.

Mage against the machine! (Drifting Pollen vs Kagebaka)

The machine was already precisely where it wanted to be.

Johannes could be reckless when the situation demanded it, a bonus of working with a body that wasn't his, but as things stood his opponent wasn't posing enough of a threat to force decisive action on Johannes' part. He knew the mage couldn't simply run away- if he did, he would eventually become tired, allowing the virtually inexhaustible drone to catch up -which meant the only options remaining for his opponent were to destroy or disable Johannes' mechanical body. Therefore, all the engineer needed to do was catch his target before he got the chance.

Of course, that was easier said than done. Thomas was fast and coordinated, apparently capable of moving about in the canopy with ease, and while the machine was hardly slow, it was too bulky and heavy to climb about like that. To directly chase after its target would be suicide.

However, even if it could have, it needn't bother. Why waste energy on a difficult pursuit, when it could simply strike the mage down from a distance?

It stayed where it was, watching and listening, feet planted as it raised its right arm.

Johannes had already been able to hear his opponent's rapid, undisguised movements, which was what had led to him setting up the holograms. The problem was, Thomas had been too fast to get an easy lock on. It was tricky to pinpoint someone through sound alone, and if Johannes had tried to carefully aim an attack, Thomas would likely have moved to a different location before he could fire. The holograms, however, were a calculated solution to this problem. If Thomas didn't notice them on time, he likely would have accidentally jumped into one and fallen, making him a sitting duck. If he did notice them, however, which Johannes had obviously suspected he might, the natural response would be to stop- giving the machine enough time to aim.

And it had been charging its right arm, the one with the heavy plasma cannon, beforehand. Just waiting for the right moment to make a shot.

The moment Thomas leaped to a tree and then stopped, with neither sound nor sign of movement following, the drone focused, its right hand splitting in half to reveal the barrel of its weapon. This alone might have been enough to give it somewhere to target, but then Thomas chose to fire his gun as well. Guns, whether or not they fired spells, tended to be loud, and this additional action was just making it even easier for Johannes to figure out his target's location.

He knew more or less where the mage was, now- but it waited. An approximate location was not so good as an exact one, and for all it knew that gunshot could have been a diversion.

A moment later, however, there would be another noise, another shaking of leaves, as Thomas made another of those big leaps, and fired off another shot-

At the same moment Thomas fired as second time, the machine fired once.

Within its arm, a superconductive gel was overloaded with thermal energy, explosively expanding and propelling a superheated bullet out the barrel of the cannon. The firing would produce a thunderous BOOM, but by the time Thomas heard this, it would already be too late: the projectile wasn't so much slower than the sound, and even with enhanced speed, the mage could only react so fast. Johannes hadn't had a direct sight of his target, and hadn't been charging his cannon for very long, so he was unlikely to actually kill his target with this shot. Nevertheless, the drone had excellent aim, and the projectile still carried more than enough power to punch through flesh and bone and deliver a serious injury.

And if the mage were somehow able to avoid being taken out with a single shot, his problems would only be beginning.

Given the fairly high amount of vegetation in the area, the projectile's path would take it through and near a great deal of vines, leaves, and branches. Its heat was such that a good deal of what it touched would be set on fire, a flame that would quickly spread if not contained. Thomas would find his ability to move hindered, as a fair number of the real trees he could still jump to would begin to burn.

And as if the projectile and the fire weren't danger enough, fire produced smoke. The machine had no respiratory system, and would not be troubled by this development, but Thomas would quickly find it difficult to breathe and see, as burnt particles filled the air, threatening his vulnerable human nose and eyes.

Johannes, meanwhile, was already moving. Immediately after firing, the drone would carefully take a few steps to its right, keeping its movements as quiet as possible. The shot it made might have revealed its location, so it wasn't going to stick around. At the same time, however, it wasn't advancing any further towards its target. Its right arm was now filled with built-up heat from its shot, and Johannes was already diverting energy to the left arm, which had its own weapons just waiting to be deployed.

Would this first attack be enough to take down the mage? Possibly not. But Johannes was already preparing his next moves.

Dark god Darko welcomes challangers

Surely it had been long enough, now?

With a quiet ticking, Eleanor realigned her optical wires, reconnecting her eyes and restoring her vision. She was pleased to note that it was once again showing her what was directly before her, just as it was supposed to.

From her high vantage point, she took a few moments to gaze down at the smouldering forest below, taking stock of the situation. It seemed that Satori had gone and dealt with the slimy beast, although Eubeal seemed to have vanished somewhere in the process. Had he been eaten? The thought produced a slight sigh. It'd be hard to take down a god if their party could be thinned so by a mere monster. She should have stepped in herself, or just killed it earlier when she was still close by, but it was too late now. She couldn't easily travel that far back in time, not in a situation like this.

Still, it wasn't a total loss! She'd gotten some useful information from the spiders. It could prove helpful if she ever ran into such a creature again- although she'd need to be careful to keep the data out of Sebastian's hands. She didn't even want to think about what he could build from such a vile blueprint.

Not lingering on such unsavory thoughts, Eleanor turned her attention to the APC, that was gradually growing more distant. She hadn't felt the dark god's influence for the last couple of minutes, and was wondering if he had fled, afraid of the powerful warriors coming for his life. Perhaps. But nevertheless, it had been an enjoyable ride so far, and she may as well stay on a little longer.

Flipping herself around again, Eleanor fell downwards at a shallow angle, rocketing towards the APC like a human meteor. As she approached, she gradually decelerated, until at last she alighted upon it once again, stretching her arms as she did.

"Well, that's the diversions out of the way... How long until we find something that can actually challenge us?"

Mage against the machine! (Drifting Pollen vs Kagebaka)

So, he wasn't going to come quietly? Irksome, but not so unusual for powerful individuals such as this. Johannes fell silent, offering no immediate response to his target's challenge. He would no longer waste time trying to negotiate. From here onwards, things would be decided in a simpler, more brutal manner.

He strode forwards, moving roughly towards where Thomas had shot his spell up into the air. Mechanisms shifted within the drone body, as he diverted power to its right arm, charging some of the more dangerous systems concealed within.

His opponent had gone and showed off his location by firing that shot in the air, obviously attempting to draw notice. But was he so overconfident as to lead the drone directly to him? Johannes doubted it. That meant the shot was a diversion, and attempt to attract the drone precisely where Thomas wanted it and expose it to an attack. The mage himself would be moving, likely prepared for a direct assault.

The engineer, however, had other plans. The drone body was certainly powerful enough to resolve matters through brute force, but its master preferred to work with a hint of subtlety.

As he drew nearer where the spell had been fired off, he changed course. Instead of directly approaching its location, he moved leftwards, slowly and carefully altering his route. At the same time, he was watching at listening, and quickly found the hint he was looking for. Jumping from tree to tree certainly made one hard to keep track of, but unlike Johannes' cautious plodding, it was not a quiet means of travel. Though there was no way for Johannes to immediately pinpoint the location of one who was moving so fast, the shifting of leaves and the thud of feet against bark were clear signs of what his opponent was doing.

Time for him to set a trap, then.

The drone had been recording all that it saw on its march through the jungle, and storing that information for later use. Now, the time for that use had come. On its chest, a powerful projection device whirred to life, accessing images stored in its databanks to create holograms, three-dimensional projections almost indistinguishable from the real thing.

Thomas would soon notice that the treeline was growing denser. Were his eyes sharp enough, he might even catch new trunks and branches appearing out of nowhere. None of these were real, mere illusions being generated by Johannes' powerful projection mechanisms- and yet to an outward observer, they looked the same, down to the tiniest detail.

Not only were these additional trees providing thick cover for Johannes, making his drone body far more difficult to spy, they also posed an indirect threat to Thomas himself. With false trees now being projected around the area, it was only a matter of time until he tried to jump to one, only to find it was not real, likely resulting in a loud and painful crash.

Mage against the machine! (Drifting Pollen vs Kagebaka)

@Kagebaka

Made a thread! Post whenever you're ready.

Mage against the machine! (Drifting Pollen vs Kagebaka)

The jungle was a living thing, all that lay within it constantly churning and changing, growing and evolving. Trees extended their reach ever higher, massive leaves grasping for the sun, even as vines crept up their sides, forming parasitic networks of life. Small animals scurried to and fro in both the undergrowth and the canopy, shrieking and chirping and hooting at each other as they went about their frenzied business of survival and reproduction, ensuring that their cells and genes lived and prospered for as long as possible.

The ground? Covered, with hundreds of different species. The air? Warm and humid, ideal conditions for the sustenance of such dense and varied creatures. It was a strange jungle indeed, being situated on an alien world far beyond the borders of explored space, but the sights and sounds were still recognizable to any who had trekked through similar ecosystems in more familiar lands. It was a classic, storybook landscape, a place where everything was alive...

My Hider

...except one thing.

Animals of every shape and size scattered and fled before the sound of the heavy, measured footsteps. A shadow moved through the strange trees, quiet and implacable, striding over tangled roots and thick vegetation without so much as faltering. Its movements were fluid, almost graceful, but unnaturally so. Every kind of animal had its quirks and inconsistencies, those tiny little tics when muscles didn't do quite what they were supposed to, but this newcomer had no such margin of error. Its every step was precise, moving the exact same distance with the exact same timing, making only minute adjustments to compensate for terrain.

Though it dressed in elegant silks, as though it were some high-society gentleman, it was neither human nor alive. A vessel, shaped roughly like a man, its skin a dull grey metal and its insides a tangle of wires and gears, pistons and capacitors, and all manner of complex and intricate mechanisms. A dead, soulless construct.

The mind behind the machine was a vast distance away, and yet he saw what it saw, felt what it felt, and commanded its every movement. Johannes was perfectly in sync with this body, this hand of metal that worked to spread his influence in distant lands. It provided the raw strength and firepower, and his mind supplied the knowledge and cunning to use these.

A deadly combination indeed.

At present, the drone was hunting, trekking miles through the wilderness to track down a mysterious and elusive target. A young gunslinger-mage who his informants had told him might be dangerous.

Johannes didn't like that kind of danger. It represented a risk, even if it was a small one, to his plans for this place. Such unknown factors could not be left alone, lest they spring up at an inopportune moment and cause undue disturbance. Better to deal with them quickly, and move them somewhere they could be controlled, turning the risks into potential assets. Or, if it became necessary, simply eliminate them.

The drone's blank eyes swept back and forth over its surroundings, methodically taking in every minuscule detail it could find. All that it saw was recorded, information stored in dense databanks for later use. The shape and size of leaves, the texture and thickness of what passed for bark around here... Johannes was no specialist in biology, having devoted his life to the ways of MicroClockwork, but he could still appreciate the little intricacies of life from time to time.

Something caught his attention. A tiny glimpse from a clearing ahead, a sign of movement slightly out of the ordinary. Was it his target? It was hard to tell. Johannes wasn't going to attack immediately, however- if the mage was here, he would confront him openly, and offer him a chance to surrender.

"Thomas Minlors."

The voice was calm, the tone of someone speaking rather than shouting, and yet the drone projected it as such a volume that it the sound boomed outwards, alerting anything nearby. Insects and animals took flight or hid themselves away, alarmed by the sudden noise.

The machine, meanwhile, was striding slowly forth, making its presence clear. "I know you're there, Thomas. The Engine will no longer permit your presence here, and as its highest authority, I am now enforcing this. You will surrender yourself, and abandon whatever business you have here. Cooperation shall not be punished. Resistance... will be met with as much force as necessary." Though distorted by the speakers through which it sounded, there was no missing the hardness in that voice, more unyielding than even the steel skin that carried it.

"You have five seconds to comply. Five..."