The assembly drone responded first, from its missile pods, it unleashed its payload. Three projectiles were released in sequence, their trails glowing white hot, each aimed at the creature.
The creature shrieked, the veins on the stone on its back growing a bright blue. The figure blurred completely, evading the first two missiles; a large explosion occurred from where they had impacted, lighting up the night. The third missile landed on its back and exploded, causing chunks of rock to fall down.
The creature hissed but otherwise remained unharmed. The stones on its back had absorbed most of the impact. Its eyes began glowing as it stared up at the assembly drone. It coiled its serpentine body, ready to spring up and attack the drone, but it was interrupted.
The miner drone's rotary cannon roared to life. A hail of bullets tore through the air with fury, piercing the beast's torso. Thick purple blood sprayed out in an arc as the beast roared in pain.
It's weakness, Horizon thought. He instructed the drones to target its underside as its back was to armored.
The creature hissed again, its mana surging towards its wounds. The holes in it instantly sealing up, flesh knitting together in seconds, new scales immediately growing.
Horizon's processors flared.
A problem, he thought.
The creature got down on its limbs, protecting its vulnerable underbelly. It raised it's most forward limbs, circulating mana towards the scythe-like talons. They glowed a deep blue, and with a roar, it rushed the miner drone with astonishing speed.
It arrived upon the Miner drone. Its talons raised upwards, and with force it brought them down. Instantly severing one of the miner drones' hydraulic legs. The drone staggered back, its systems screaming damage reports. The beast readied its talons again to deliver another attack.
Horizon moved. He couldn't allow the miner drone to go down, he didn't have the resources to make another one.
His silver tendrils unfurled, sharpening, he moved in front of the miner drone. The creatures talon scythe meet his sharpened tendrils. Sparks flew as the two struggled for dominance. The creature roared again, unhinging it's mouth as purple ooze suddenly began pouring from its mouth.
Horizon's right hand reconfigured with a smooth, mechanical hiss, elongating into a sleek, silver energy blaster that pulsed with faint red light along its seams. He aimed it at the creature wide, gaping maw. Red energy gathered at the tip.
Horizon fired, the shot landed in directly into the creature's mouth. A large explosion occurred, launching both parties back, but the creature had suffered much more damage. Half of its face was turned into charred gore, purple blood spilling everywhere as it thrashed around everywhere in pain.
Horizon recovered, prepping his plasma blaster once again, aiming it at the creature chest. The creature in too much pain to notice continued to thrash about. Red energy once again accumulated at the tip and he fired again.
The shot traveled faster than the eyes could see, hitting the creature right in the thorax. A large hole was formed as the creature slumped down, dead. Purple blood is leaking.
Horizons' arm shifted once again, returning to its former state. He turned towards the drones inspecting their state, the miner drone had suffered quite some damage, but not function-threatening, while the assembly had received no damage whatsoever.
The last battle had drained him. Especially after using the plasma cannon. He wasn't built for combat so using such energy-consuming attacks had taken too much out of him.
Horizon shelved this thought, walking over to the corpse of the now-dead creature. He tried sifting through the memories of the dead adventurers, only to find no information of this creature it seemed they had never encountered or learned of this creature.
He scanned its body looking for any signs of a mana core only to be disappointed it seemed his last attack had completely obliterated it. HIs next focus was on the creature's back. Large rock spikes with blue veins were embedded there, forming a sort of amour. He had notices that the rocks would glow a soft blue light whenever the creature was going to attack so it seemed to use it as a sort of power source.
He ripped out one of the rocks with his tendrils, bringing in another tendril. A crimson beam covered the rock.
< Beginning analysis of foreign material.>
Horizon's processors hummed as the crimson beam swept over the strange rock, peeling back layers of data in rapid succession. The blue veins pulsed faintly, even after being separated from the creature's body, as if still reacting to some unseen energy source.
A stream of information about the rock flooded his nerual network.
The rock seemed to seemed to be some type of foreign metal, heavily infused with mana. Its function was to act as a sort of battery and processor for mana itself. The veins on it seemed to filter mana directly from the air and supplied it to the creature.
Horizon retracted his tendrils, considering the implications. If refined correctly, it could act as a power source for future drones, reducing the reliance of future machinery on his own personal energy reserves. Whatever this material was, it was extremely valuable to the current him.
His thought process was interrupted as the miner drone limped forward, its damaged leg sparking. A repair protocol was issued by Horizon for the assembly drone. It rushed swiftly as it removed a repair module and began welding the severed hydraulics.
Good enough, Horizon thought, now onto the next issue.