This would be Barry’s first time flying so high up into the air, holding onto the automaton construct for dear life. His teammates had also hitched a ride the same way with the other robots that were being recalled back to the aircarrier.

  Throughout his flight, as the gap between the lovely ground and him parted, Barry was expecting a red carpet with ranks of automatons waiting for their arrival, to which they would have to fight their way through.

  ‘This is crazy, Barry. You’re so determined to get back the prism that you’d be willing to take the risk of fighting an army of…of…mechanical beings head on!’ Thalia commented in his head, she was curious herself who constructed these metal enemies.

  ‘I didn’t get this far to submit to failure! I found that damn rock, and it’s coming with me! No way am I backing down to some tin cans that just came in after all we’ve done!’ There was not an ounce of fear or hesitation in Barry’s thoughts when he made his choice.

  Thalia was both appalled and inspired by his reckless decision, she couldn’t help but grin. ‘Of course not, when have you ever turned tail from hesitation. That’s what I like about you, Barry. And hey, you have your comrades following along with you.’

  ‘What?’ Barry was confused by what she had meant about his group following him and looked down below at the ground. He was surprised to see that Thalia was right, his personal group had made the same choice and latched on to their own robots to fly up to the aircarrier. ‘No! They can’t go with me, they need to stay behind in case something bad happens!’

  ‘You can’t always control a person’s decision.’ Thalia spoke. ‘You can only influence their actions so much, but in the end, they are the ones to make their final choice. Have faith in your comrades, rather than worrying about what might happen. They clearly don’t want you to face this all on your own.’

  And as Barry drew closer to the aircarrier, he could see two sealed metal walls split apart, possibly the entrance for the robots to enter inside. ‘Tch, fine! There’s no turning back from this anyways.’

  The robot that he was holding on to had entered through, introducing Barry to a room that resembled something similar to a large hanger, with tons of robots that were performing the tasks they were designed to do. There were a bunch of other combat droids that were unactivated, waiting to be rebooted for deployment. Rock n Roll music was still playing through the speakers of the aircarrier, Barry still found it obnoxious.

  And as his ride slowly descended on to a landing pad, Barry spotted the same drone that had snagged the blue prism, watching it zoom through the air towards an open hatch big enough for its size. ‘Where is it off now?’ He wondered.

  But that would be the least of his problems for now, because once his droid had landed, all the other robots, who seemed to be non-combative, took notice of his presence and began studying him. ‘Crap, it seems like these haven’t been informed of what they were fighting against. I need to get out of here, but I can ‘t abandon the others who are coming.’

  He quickly shoved the bot that he used to get to the aircarrier, off the landing pad for it to crash back to the ground, and did the same to the rest of the robots close by. Some of the robots tried to retaliate against him, but with his warhammer, he was able to clear out a decent zone for the others.

  The rest of his group came flying in with their droids, witnessing Barry push off a couple more bots out of the hangar. They followed his lead and disposed of their rides and every other bot in their vicinity.

  What they weren’t aware of, was that there were cameras placed in different sections of the hanger, some of which were closely focused on the disarray that they were causing. Barry and the others saw a dramatic change in lighting, turning dim and blaring red lights, with the music now switching into a catchy and suspensive type of music for the background. Suddenly, every robot in the aircarrier would soon begin hunting them down.

  “What’s with this music!? Why is it something that would be played during a ‘Mission Implausible’ movie?” Luna questioned, Kat and Anna couldn’t help but be curious as well.

  “Screw the fucking music! We’re splitting up! Me and Puck are going to search for the prism, while the rest of you find out a way to drop this aircarrier from the skies and plan our escape! I didn’t want either of you to join me up here, but to hell with it, we’re here now!” Barry wanted them out of the way while he went and searched for the prism, he also hoped there would be some way to sabotage the aircarrier so it couldn’t chase them after.

  The group knew that Barry would have wanted them to remain back in the castle with the rest, but couldn’t allow him to shoulder all the responsibility of reclaiming the prism. Regardless, they went along with what he asked.

  Just before more robots showed up on the scene, his group wished him and Puck good luck in finding the prism. They would search for a way to bring the aircarrier down, having faith in the two to retrieve what had been taken.

  “Just us again, Puck.” Barry said, as he looked down at his little buddy, who had been with him since his first arrival in Scion. “Ready for some more action?”

  Puck hopped with joy and latched on to his back, pumped once again. “Oh, yeah! Puck excited to melt more metal bad guys!”

  Channeling his inner pyromancy, Puck bestowed upon Barry’s weapon a bit of his draconic fire affinity, igniting it ablaze with his golden flames. “Hang on!” Barry shouted, kicking back against the hard floor and taking off into the swarm of bots.

  He smashed and bashed his way in the direction of where he saw an entrance with an illuminated green light to serve as a marker. Barry planned on following the path that the drone with the prism had taken, this whole place was unknown to him, but he knew he had to make a start somewhere.

  With his flaming hammer, he bounced all over the place while swatting at gatling drones, disabling their ability to fly. Puck launched fireballs at enemies who were further away to clear a path with the explosions he created. Together, they were able to make it past the army of automatons and make it through the green-lit door.

  Behind it was a hall connecting to other ones and different rooms, he used his pulse scanner to locate the most reasonable routes as they rushed through. He also spotted security cameras along their way, smashing each one he saw. There were some droids that were patrolling the halls, and so they had to dispatch them as well with almost every turn they made.

  Suddenly, four droids stepped out of a room and noticed the two approaching. Puck impacted them with one of his fireballs to knock them off their feet, giving Barry enough time to wail on them each till they no longer functioned.

  “I’m so lost, where could that hatch have taken the drone too?” Barry had lost his starting origin and didn’t have a clue where the drone could have gone. “How else are we supposed to find them?”

  “Barry, look! What are those?” Puck asked, as he pointed through the doorway, that the robots had come out of.

  Inside was a room that seemed to be designed mainly for the status and regulation of the aircarrier, as well as security management of the cameras that were placed around the aircarrier. There were holograms of the giant aircraft’s layout and schematics, inside were a couple more droids that were non-combat, simply reporting and checking on the aircraft’s status and such.

  “Maybe we’ll find answers inside here, come on!” Barry said, and the two went inside the room.

  One of the droids observed them for a moment before its lightly armored head was knocked off its spine by Barry, he would continue to do the rest to every other droid that tried looking at them funny until eventually it was just him and Puck. Barry observed and started messing around with the technology around him, he found out that the holograms were actually able to be interacted with and continued doing his thing.

  Puck messed around with a control unit of his own, unsure at first of what each button, level, and switch did. However, being the crafty Kobold that he was despite his child-like behavior, he was able to understand and navigate what each one did. His meddling with the control unit would bring up a span of security cameras that wowed him. “Wow! That’s so cool! Barry, look, it’s our friends.”

  Taking a look at the security cameras that were brought up, Barry saw the rest of their group battling their way through robots, they were inside an inventory room based on the labelling of the camera screen. He interacted with his control unit and layout of the aircraft some more until he spotted exactly where the group was at.

  ‘So they're here, this aircraft has to be powered by something in order to fly…’ His eyes shifted around the different sections of the airship until he found what he thought was the main power source of the aircraft. ‘This has to be it! The engine room! It even has its own label, like every other section of this place.’

  He started calling Ron via the system, hoping that he would pick up. After a moment, Barry heard Ron’s voice. “Barry, what’s going on? Luna thought of trying to locate this giant airship’s power source, saying that it reminded her of something from a…movie?”

  “Yeah, I was about to suggest the same thing. Listen, I know exactly where you and others are exactly right now. So, pay attention while I give you directions to the engine room. That’s the place where you and everyone else are going to target.” Barry informed.

  “Um, alright. I’ll try to hang back and relay the information.” Ron said, he hoped that Barry would be able to give accurate guidance.

  Barry observed the cameras and the layout of the ship, giving the best description that he could give to the others as they made their way. “Down there, make a left, and you’ll see two double- what the hell, Ron! I said left!”

  “My left or your left! How am I supposed to know which one you’re talking about! You grumbling goblin!” Ron ranted at him.

  “My left obviously! You fucking bookworm! Now go back!” Barry shot back. From the other end, Ron’s group couldn’t help but find their bickering to be somewhat funny despite the serious mission they were tasked with.

  Even though they were frustrated with each other, Ron still listened to the information that was being fed to them. Suddenly, Puck noticed the doors to the room open, revealing to be more patrol units that came for security inspection since the ones they destroyed were no longer online.

  The two noticed and Barry was about to hang up to deal with the robots, but Puck stopped him. “No, Puck handle metal bad guys. You keep talking to friends!”

  Barry agreed to his suggestion with a nod, resuming to give directions. Puck went on to deal with the droids, he climbed on top of a couple of shelves to launch an ambush on their visitors.

  There were 4 knight droids that entered, they were aware of the fallen units and searched for the reason behind it. Puck picked one knight and jumped on it from above, holding onto its back and unleashing his scorching hot flames upon it, melting away the first layer of armor.

  The knight was confused about what was going on, attempting to reach whatever it was that was holding onto its back. One of the other knights called out for the rest before taking a chance to strike at the fiery creature with its sword. Puck saw this and climbed up to avoid getting hit, causing the attack to miss and plunge deep inside the robot's mana core.

  “You stupid metal thingies, Puck will melt all of you!” Puck took cover once more, planning to surprise his enemies once again. The other automatons were now facing a small, elusive creature capable of melting through their armor. Becoming hunted by the adorable, yet fearsome Kobold.

  As Barry was being bought time thanks to Puck, while also giving out directions, he still wondered where the prism could have gone to. His eyes wandered to the upper deck of the aircraft, it was the bridge section of the aircraft, a place Barry could only assume was where a captain oversaw everything. ‘Now that I think about it…someone had to have made this entire aircraft and robots…right?’

  Ron called out to Barry, trying to get more directions from him, breaking his train of thought and continuing where he left off. He could see that the group was close to reaching the engine room, when he noticed energy blasts zipping nearby.

  Puck had destroyed the knights that entered, but was now fighting against more reinforcements. “No! No more stupid heads!” Puck shouted out, producing smoke to conceal himself.

  Barry wasn’t sure how long Puck was going to last by himself and started rushing out directions for Ron’s group to remember. “It’s getting hectic where we are, so keeping going down that way and-”

  The power specifically to the room Barry and Puck were in had been turned off, the lights remained on, but everything else was not. “Damn it!” Barry cursed, slamming his fist down.

  “What’s going on!? Barry, where do we go next?” Ron asked again from their call.

  “I can’t see where everyone's at anymore, everything's been shut down suddenly, and we’re getting attacked with more droids.” Barry rubbed between his eyes and tried to recall what he had last seen from the layout. “Listen, you all are close to the engine room. I’m sorry, but I can’t give you any more information. I’ll be going to the top of the airship, that’s where I think the prism will be at.”

  There was a pause before Ron replied. “Alright, we’ll figure out the rest. Good luck on your end…goblin grumbler.”

  His comment made Barry a bit irritated, but also amused. “Tch, whatever. Good luck, bookworm.” Those were Barry’s last words before ending the call.

  Barry’s focus then shifted back to the current situation at hand, a bunch of blasters kept firing through the smokescreen. ‘I have to get to that bridge on top. It’s no coincidence that this room’s technology just shuts down for no reason. Someone had to have cut off power here, and I’m betting that they’re right there with the prism.’

  Puck emerged out of the smoke with a worried expression on his face. “Barry! There’s too many, what do we do?”

  They could fight their way out, but who knows how many actually showed up to stop them. The entrance they came from was the only way out so it really looked like they didn’t have much of a choice. Unless…

  His eyes looked up at a wall and saw a ventilation shaft that looked just big enough for them to crawl through. “There.” Barry then picked Puck up and leaped, smashing the vent a few times to break it open so they could climb in.

  The smoke cleared out, revealing a swarm of automatons entering the room. They found nothing inside except for the fallen panel of the vent that the two had entered through.

  Barry was ahead, the vent was cramped for someone his size, but not for someone like Puck. “We need to get to the top of the airship, Puck. I’m confident there’s someone who is in control of this place and the robots, they probably have the prism in their possession right now.”

  Puck nodded, understanding their current mission. “So there’s a big bad guy who made all of this? They must be really smart; but not smart enough to mess with Barry and Puck.” The Kobold laughed at his own comment.

  “Hehe, you got that right. I’m too stubborn to be put down, we’re taking back that prism and sending this damn ship crashing.” Barry said, he couldn’t wait to clobber whoever was behind this attack.

  They travelled through the vents for 5-10 minutes until Barry felt that the air current breezing passed his ears. He chose to ignore it and continued on, but as they kept going, the current got stronger with each passing minute. Barry would begin to feel some resistance moving up, but not enough to slow him down.

  ‘Luckily I’m up front, otherwise, Puck might have had trouble leading the way. But why is there a strong wind all of a sudden?’ Barry thought.

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  Eventually, the current would become so strong that Barry had trouble pressing forward. ‘Why is the wind becoming unbearable? I don’t underst- wait! Are we getting flushed out of the vents!?’

  The realization hit Barry, their way of travel had to have been exposed and the person controlling the ship was simply trying to get them out of the vents. But not only that, something unexpected would occur soon after Barry realized the reason.

  Something struck the ventilation shaft they were currently in, dinging up the metal structure. “Woah! What was that?” Puck wondered, the same thing happened again. This time puncturing a hole big enough to peek through. “Wha- They know we here!”

  It was confirmed, there were bots firing at the shaft they were in. “Let’s hurry!” Barry told Puck, as he gave it his all, to push on against the wind so they could hopefully lose the hostile bots.

  They were able to escape the attack and enter another shaft that had no air flow, there was a grate on the other end leading to what appeared to be an elevator shaft. Barry bashed against it until the grate fell down, allowing them a way out. He leaped and grabbed onto one of the cables and climbed upwards, with Puck doing the same thing.

  “We should be nearing the top of this place. Don’t look down if you’re scared, Puck.” Barry advised.

  “Ha! Puck no scared of heights, this is fun.” The little Kobold replied with a cheery smile.

  Up they went for some time until they heard something that sounded like banging down below. And when they looked down to see what it could be, they spotted multiple drones entering and flying out of different vents to chase them down. “Ah! More flying metal things!” Puck said out loud.

  “Get on my back, I’ll get us up there, while you shoot them down!” Barry instructed, Puck did as told and functioned as one. Puck timed his shots with his fireballs, as Barry rushed to reach the top.

  With every impact of these fireballs, it would also shove the other drones flying up to collide against the walls and get in the way of the others. Barry was getting frustrated with the amount of progress he was making by just simply using the cable lines to climb, and began bouncing off the walls while swinging off the cables.

  Both of them were doing a great job until Barry noticed that the cables were moving on their own. ‘The elevator is operating right now!? Does that mean…’ He looked down and zoomed in past the swarm of drones to see that the elevator was coming up at high speed. ‘It’s gonna crush us!’

  Noticing that the cables operated like a pulley system, he grabbed onto one of the lines going upwards and flinched somewhat at the pain of friction it gave him, but he didn’t care. They were able to close the gap between them, and the drones were able to reach the ceiling of the shaft.

  Barry and Puck were face to face with an elevator door then. “Puck! Melt that door, quick!” He asked his buddy.

  Puck got to work, unleashing the most intense flames he could produce before they got crushed against the elevator below. Barry looked down to see how far the elevator was. The drones that were chasing them were already getting destroyed in the way of the machine, he could see their scrapped bodies piling on top of the elevator. ‘Will I be able to endure the full force of a high speed elevator? I don’t want to find out.’

  The little firecracker, that was Puck, managed to create a sizable hole for Barry to scrunch up and enter through. Even though the outer lines of the hole were scorching hot, Barry did not care and went on in, ignoring the sizzling pain.

  It was only moments after that, Barry and Puck heard the clash that was the elevator slamming against the hard surface of the elevator ceiling. They both got up, relieved that they had avoided something that could have been fatal. “I don’t even want to tell you how close we were from being crushed.” Barry commented, flexing his burning hands.

  “Good thing you have Puck!” The Kobold said, happy to be of use. Barry thanked him with a rub on his head before observing the room they were in now.

  ‘What the…what is this room?’ Barry’s surprised to see what was displayed all around them. Puck had similar thoughts, wondering what everything was supposed to be.

  To Barry, it looked as if they were inside some sort of exhibit filled with all sorts of machines that were put on display. They roamed around, observing each design with interest. There were informational pedestals next to these inventions that described what they were designed for and what purpose they served.

  “Created by: McGuinness, Brilliant, Most Amazing, Awesome, Intellectual, Intuitive, and Extraordinary Inventor of All Time!” That was usually the wording Barry would always see on each palette of these inventions, sometimes an extra few words would be added in other palettes.

  What Barry learned, after reading some of the palettes, was that apparently every one of McGuinness’s inventions were a total bust. Despite being prototypes, he experienced quite a bit of problems that usually resulted in failures. Some of his inventions exploded after a few minutes of use, others went on a rampage until they short-circuited, and others simply dismantled themselves personally. Barry wondered how bad of an inventor you had to be for your own creation to intentionally dismantle themselves piece by piece.

  ‘McGuinness…so this guy is the one who makes these damn robots. Seems like he’s experienced a lot of issues along the way when making these things. But overall, he sounds like a complete airhead. I can’t wait to break his teeth when we meet.’ Barry looked over to Puck, who was observing some sort of miniature volcano that looked like a high school project.

  “Look Barry! This thing spits out delicious stuff!” Puck pressed a button on the palette, making the volcano flow a stream of what he could describe as liquid chocolate. The Kobold swiped his finger to get a lick of chocolate, admiring the taste.

  Barry read the palette on display, genuinely curious about the story behind this invention. It read as followed:

  After reading the palette, Barry couldn’t help but chuckle to himself. “What’s so funny?” Puck wondered, he tried reading what the palette said but couldn’t understand a word that was written.

  “Haha, this guy has a total inferior complex. His name is McGenius and is the one responsible for causing us trouble. This volcano isn’t something he made himself, it's from someone else that he stole from. What a child!” Barry explained, still laughing at how immature this guy seemed to be.

  His laughter would soon come to an end when the speakers turned on and a mysterious voice sounded off. “Who are you calling a child! STOP LAUGHING!”

  Barry immediately took up a defensive stance with his hammer drawn out, Puck stood behind Barry’s back in preparation of what was to come. They glanced around the room, surprised that they were being eavesdropped. “There’s nothing to laugh at! I should have been the one to get first-place, not that uncreative person, Timmy Gunther!” The tone of the voice was slightly high-pitch, sounding almost comical.

  It came to his mind that this had to be the person who created these machines of destruction because of how defensive they sounded. And as serious as Barry was about taking down this clown, he didn’t mind having a bit of fun. “Really now? Then how do you explain losing to a volcano if your inventions are as grand as you describe them?”

  “Grrr! Because those idiot teachers wouldn’t know greatness unless it hit them! But luckily for them, I gave them a personal showing with the new toys I made. Now I won’t have to listen to their poor critique any longer now that I’ve shut them up! Haha! And you will too!” The maniac laughed hysterically through his mic.

  “Pretty bold of you to assume that I’ll fall to your wack-ass inventions, I’ve clashed with them a bunch of times on my way up here. Maybe you should reconsider some improvements, McGenny.” Barry countered.

  The inventor started getting even more frustrated. “It’s McGuinness, not McGenny!? And for the record, you’ve just gotten lucky. Especially since you have that little rat with you! I’ve never seen fire like his, the material I use has a high-melting point that is incredibly difficult for even pyromancy to reach. It doesn’t make sense to me how easily he can melt my precious designs!”

  “Rat? Where’s the rat, Puck will eat it.” Puck started searching the area around for the supposed rat, not realizing that McGuinness was referring to him.

  Ignoring his comments and Puck’s silliness, Barry went ahead and asked something that he was curious about. “What’s the deal with these prisms? They’re supposed to lead to something extraordinarily powerful, right? Like a power to give someone total control over the world?”

  “Of course!” McGuinness admitted. “With them in our possession, I will be able to obtain what I’ve always wanted! MAGICAL POWERS! AHAHAHA!”

  Barry found his laughter to be very annoying, but also noticed something odd in his speech. ‘Us? So there ARE others like him that are seeking these prisms for personal gain, could they have a different quest compared to people like me? Maybe…a main quest for villains?’

  He had to try and get more answers out of the airhead. “Is that so, what else will happen once all these prisms have been gathered? Surely the moderators gave you a different main quest compared to a contestant like me.”

  After getting his chuckles in, McGuinness gloated some more. “Damn straight! Me and the others have something called a ‘Villain’s Quest’ that has a different goal compared to you measly contestants. But I don’t care what the other three do with the power we are promised. We’re not sure what exactly it is, but I guarantee that it will-”

  The inventor stopped talking mid-speech, realizing what he was doing. Barry did his best not to grin, he was learning something that he probably shouldn't from McGuinness due to his vast ego. “It will what? You didn’t finish.” Barry pestered.

  “N-No! I know what you are doing! You think you can make a fool out of me, by making me reveal our secrets!? I can see through you very well!” McGuinness sounded flustered, having said too much.

  Barry thought of a clever way to get him to talk some more. “So when you mention others, are you perhaps the weakest compared to these other three villains or…”

  The sound of fists slamming down on a table could be heard through the speakers, Barry assumed his question made him frustrated. “ME!? The weakest!? How dare you insult me! My creations overshadow the likes of that savage Eviscerator leader, that frail, but pretty, looking plant woman, and that…that…I don't what the heck the other guy is, but I DON'T CARE! Everyone will fear under the iron thumb of the Whirling Inventor, McGuinness! With the moderators funding my resources, all will bow before me!”

  ‘So…an Eviscerator leader, some plant looking woman that looks pretty, and one unknown person. All villains with the same agenda, and the moderators are providing him and possibly the rest of them with anything they need. I got all that by just rage baiting this guy. Wonderful.’ Barry was pleased with the info he had gotten.

  McGuinness once again realized he was leaking out more information about himself and the so called ‘villains’, and got angry. “Gah, nuts and bolts! You tricked me again! I’ve had it! I will demolish you and the rest of your pathetic band of vermin infesting my lovely aircraft. Mark my words, you’re all getting eliminated.”

  “Pretty cocky aren’t yah?” Barry taunted. “Well I’ve been itching to fight you since you’ve taken the prism from me. So what do you say we get down to it and dance, you crybaby.”

  “It will bring me delight to smash you into paste, step outside and I’ll introduce you to one of my most recent creations. I can’t wait to see your frightful expression. Mwahaha- Oh springs, I dropped my banana pudding.” The speakers then shut off, leaving Barry and Puck in silence.

  At the end of the exhibit were two double doors, they heard an audible click from them which could mean they were unlocked. The two looked at each and back at the doors, wondering what sort of danger awaited them behind them.

  ‘Our main objectives are retrieving the prism and sabotaging this ship into oblivion. It's been some time since I’ve last talked to the others, so I have to hope they’ve found the engine room and are attempting to destroy it.’ Barry then thought about Puck, he was expecting this new invention from McGuinness to be incredibly deadly and didn’t want Puck to be in the fight.

  Puck then walked up to the double doors, ready to face whatever McGuinness had prepared for them. “Come on, Barry. McGenius said he’s waiting for us!”

  Suddenly, Barry experienced a slight headache and tunnel vision. The image of the True Barry from his random memories appeared like a phantom walking side by side with Puck for a moment and disappeared, his condition returning back to normal.

  ‘Puck…’ Barry balled his fists, he knew that if he asked Puck to stay out of the fight, Puck would decline. ‘Maybe if I strongly emphasize stealing the prism, I can convince him to make that his task.’

  He caught up to him and the two opened the doors, leading to the upper deck of the airship. Up ahead, from the spacious zone that would be their battleground, was the ship’s bridge tower that oversaw everything. In the center of the zone was a painted marking of gear and cogs, the light breeze of wind flowed past their ears with the sunlight shining down on them.

  Barry looked up at the bridge, spotting a silhouette of a person through a tinted glass, looking down at them before disappearing from view. ‘As I thought, you are there…’

  “Puck.” Barry called out to Puck in a low voice, the Kobold stopped to face him with a curious look. He knelt down to try and reason with him with his plan. “Listen, before we go in and fight, I need you to understand why we’re here. Our mission was to retrieve the prism and take down this ship, was it not?”

  “Uh, yeah. That was the plan.” Puck agreed.

  “Right, so please, go along with what I’m about to ask. It's very important that you do, I need your full agreement. This is a serious matter, okay?” Barry was firm with his words.

  Puck had an idea of what he was going to tell him and was bothered. “Barry, Puck knows what you're going to say and the answers no! Puck is going to help-”

  “Puck! I’m serious.” Barry interrupted him, Puck could see the seriousness in his eyes and listened. “It’s crucial that we get this prism, otherwise coming here would be pointless. I need you to go inside that tower and retrieve it, I have a hunch that this McGenny guy has it there to look at. So please, Puck, I am asking you as your best friend, to steal it while I distract this guy.”

  The Kobold didn’t like this idea at all, he was worried that something bad would happen to Barry if he wasn’t by his side. Puck thought about what he said, why they came to this place and looked back at Barry with concern. “Okay…Puck will try and sneak away…but you have to be careful. Okay, Barry?”

  Barry gave a sigh of relief and grinned, rubbing the little guy’s head for reassurance. “Of course, pal. You’ve seen how resilient I can be, you focus on doing your job, and I’ll keep the crybaby busy.”

  Having finally come to an agreement, the two continued to approach the center of their stage, until eventually they sighted something going on above the bridge tower. Appearing on top of it was the very person responsible for invading the island with his legion of automatons. Barry and Puck gazed upon what they thought couldn’t be any more hilarious given his ego.

  ‘Wow, with the way this guy sounded before, I was right in assuming this guy would turn out looking like a complete goofball.’ Barry thought, laughing on the inside.

  McGuinness was a short, round and chunky, dwarf with dark-brown facial hair. He had a V-mustache, along with a burly beard that looked like it needed some trimming. The dwarf seemed to be wearing some type of steampunk magic-tech suit with mana-circuits covering all around his body, as well as having some inventor looking goggles on his forehead. He wore a top head decorated with cogs and bolts to help with the style of them he was going for.

  “I feel like I should welcome you both to my beautiful airship! The first of my one of my many designs, funded and supported by this game’s most generous moderators! Do be honored to take in the scenery before I pulverize you and your friends.” McGuinness flaunted, grinning ear to ear.

  “That’s not shocking at all, here I was expecting someone more…I don’t know…impressive?” Barry joked, making fun of his appearance.

  McGuinness was irritated by his response, grinding his teeth. “WHAT!? Are you making fun of my height!? Or how you think I’m chubby?”

  Barry grinned, crossing his arms. “Hmm, both. My first impression of you was someone who matched their ego. And frankly, your size doesn’t compare to how much of an airhead you seem to be. Maybe grow a couple more feet and you’ll meet my expectations, McGerbal.”

  Fuming with rage at his insult, McGuinness stomped on the floor a few times before talking back. “It’s not the size that matters! Why does everyone keep making fun of the way I look! GAH! And it’s McGuinness, MCGUINNESS!”

  Barry rolled his eyes. “Whatever you say, McG. Where’s your new toy that you’ve been wanting to try? Can’t wait to break it and watch you cry.”

  The dwarf smiled, rubbing his hands together like a giddy child. “Oh-hoo, yeeeess! I’ve been dying to have some fun with it, so let’s skip the bantering and move on to the exciting event we’ve both been waiting for.” He then snapped his fingers with his magic-tech gloves.

  An energy dome surrounded the dwarf immediately and the floor that Barry and Puck stood on began to rumble as they witnessed the center split open, revealing a large hatch. ‘Here it comes…’ Barry steeled himself, as did Puck.

  Emerging out from the hatch was a large red and black metallic construct resembling a sinister knight armed with a heavy dual-bladed glaive and round-shield with glyphs. There were lines of neon-red light covering around the body of the construct. Attached to its back was something that appeared to be a metallic backpack of some sort, Barry wasn’t quite sure what its purpose was for. Overall, this thing seemed really hardcore and must have had some other unique gizmos built inside it.

  Puck was intimidated by the way this thing seemed, afraid of how Barry was going to handle this machinized monstrosity alone. But when he looked at Barry to see his expression, he was shocked to see that he still had that look of determination in his eyes.

  “Puck, don’t worry about me.” Barry said in a calm tone despite the danger presented. “Just remember what I told you, and I promise I’ll be fine.” Barry then drew his warhammer, getting into his battle stance.

  The Kobold looked at the scary robot and back at Barry, as nerve racking as it was to let Barry face this thing alone when the time came, he got ready as well. “Okay, Puck will believe in you.”

  McGuinness chuckled one last time, happy to test out his invention. “Oh! Of course, how could I forget the most essential thing…music!” The dwarf then tapped a few buttons on his wrist, cuing a theme song of his choosing for their grand battle. It just so happened to be some form of heavy metal genre which made Barry cringe.

  The inventor hopped on his tippy-toes, feeling pumped. To Barry and Puck’s surprise, the robot mimicked his exact movements, shaking the ground before momentarily stopping. Their battle would inevitably begin soon after.