“Please don’t scream in my-”

  “IT’S A ROBOT PTERODACTYL, LOOPHOLE!!!” Jon screamed and I could hear him bouncing in his chair. “AND THERE’S LITTLE ONES TOO!!!”

  Swansong and I had barely lifted ourselves up and over the treeline before we spotted the metallic creatures in the distance. The Clockwork Pterodactyl was the size of a fighter jet and it might have been easy to mistake it for one, if it hadn’t been for the giant flapping wings. There were smaller, drone sized versions of it that followed behind it like children following their mother and the flock of them slowly circled around the Central Park Zoo.

  “Go low, there’s still a crowd in the park, we need to evacuate them now… too many people don’t look up,” I said, looking over at Swansong. She gave me a sharp, quick nod before she pointed herself toward the zoo and darted toward it. With her gone, I looked back toward the large pterodactyl, grateful they hadn’t taken notice of me just yet, and then accelerated up and into the air above them. “Guess these guys don’t look up either.”

  “I’m really starting to wonder if there’s an argument for animal abuse in here…” Angie murmured and I rolled my eyes as I tried to focus on the pterodactyl. It wasn’t holding still, making it hard to keep a perfect bead on, but I knew just from its size that I was going to need to hit it hard.

  Swansong had wondered if I was able to fight while flying and while I was pretty sure I could, the constant Stamina drain from my flight along with the larger cost to some of my abilities simply meant that even if I could, it wouldn’t be a very long fight. But, that only mattered if I was still flying. The pterodactyls hadn’t started moving in toward the zoo, but their presence, thanks to Swansong, had been noticed and I could hear as the crowd below us started to rush for cover.

  A simple, soft melody was barely reaching my ears, but as the crowd stopped its sudden panicked run in favor of an orderly jogging formation, I assumed she must have started singing her Song of the Peaceful Mind. I continued to drift, keeping myself over the robots until they were over a spot that had been thankfully cleared of civilians.

  “Please work,” I found myself muttering as I pointed myself just a bit ahead of the giant pterodactyl’s circular path and activated Earthbound Impact.

  The ability’s biggest drawback was the fact that once I activated it, I would start to plummet toward the ground, speeding up the longer I dropped. If my target managed to get out of the way and escape from my zone before I either hit them or hit the ground, then the attack might as well have never happened in the first place. I was trying to mitigate that by aiming ahead of my flying target, but if I wanted to maximize the damage, I had to make sure I was dropping from high enough.

  I was only about fifteen feet above the pterodactyl, dropping at nearly 150 miles per hour, when the pterodactyl sped up. It wasn’t a “slight” increase that I was just assuming had happened either, instead having a noticeable burst of energy emit from the rear of the robot before it jolted way ahead of my planned path.

  On instinct, as I dropped past the Clockwork Pterodactyl, I activated Center of The Universe and forced the ability to yank my enemies at its maximum power. While it was risky to throw more of my draining stamina at an ability that I couldn’t guarantee was going to work, my luck worked in my favor and my gamble paid off as all of the smaller Pterodactyl drones were yanked from their flight path. They followed me all the way down to the ground, even as their wings beat in protest before they crashed against the pavement when I made impact.

  “Heads up, the momma bird is letting out more of them, wait… why is the big one level 62?!” Swansong called out.

  “Wait what?!” I said, looking up just in time to see as the belly of the dinosaur opened and half a dozen more drones came pouring out. The pterodactyl was luckily in range this time and my vision quickly pulled up its description box.

  “Clockwork Pterodactyl! Level 62 Mechanical Golem.”

  “Angie!? Didn’t you say these things were supposed to be regulated to the lowest level required for the region?”

  “I… Yes Loophole, that’s what I said,” Angie said, slightly defensively, “Perhaps you warrant a bigger target on your back after all.”

  “Heads up!” Jon called out just as the small drone sizes robots came dive-bombing toward me. I looked at the closest of the plummeting machines and highlighted it as I heard Swansong begin singing her Song of Hercules.

  “Clockwork Falcon! Level 13 Mechanical Golem.”

  I wasn’t quite sure what to make of the discrepancy in levels, but as long as the big one was going to stay airborne, I was going to thank my luck that the smaller ones didn’t follow the same pattern. Since we hadn’t had to travel that far for the fight, I hadn’t managed to drain my Stamina by too much just from flying, but the rapid combo of attacks to bring just the drones down had managed to bring me down to just over 60% of my remaining bar. I activated Float Like A Butterfly, getting out of the way just in time before one of the drones crashed into the ground… and promptly exploded.

  The explosion was even larger than the ones that the Clockwork Monkeys had produced and I was tossed backward, slamming against the wall of an enclosure for some sort of exotic birds that began squawking in fear. There was a slight ringing in my ear and I felt a slight bit of disorientation, only barely snapping out of it before another one of the drones could crash into me.

  This time I didn’t just dodge out of the way, instead moving as fast as I could to escape the explosion that accompanied the drone’s impact. My increased Dexterity and newly acquired parkour skills were paying off and I quickly put a good amount of distance between myself and the blast. The squawking grew louder as a hole was ripped into the side of the enclosure and at least a dozen colorful birds escaped out of the newly formed door.

  The drones weren’t giving me time to rest as more came rushing my direction. There were at least three of them that I could see and before they could reach me, I activated Launchpad and went rocketing up and into the air. Like homing missiles, the three drones turned sharply up and into the air to follow me. While I could have absolutely reactivated Earthbound Impact and repeated my opening attack, I took advantage of my burst of speed and took flight, turning my attention toward the Clockwork Pterodactyl.

  “There’s five of them following you Loophole, I’m not seeing any others but be careful Swansong,” Jon's voice was faint in the back of my head as I put on the speed. I wasn’t going to risk missing it this time and I flew in a tight spiral around the legs of the pterodactyl before getting as close to its back as I could.

  I took in a deep breath, counted to three, and then activated Phase Step. I didn’t have a place in mind that I wanted to teleport to, just away and I found myself falling through the air underneath the pterodactyl just as the Clockwork Falcons went crashing into its back. There was a quick series of explosions that almost made me cheer, until I noticed that the pterodactyl not only had a shield bar just like the Clockwork Spider had had, but that it had barely even budged.

  I quickly retreated for the ground, landing in a bit of a jog before coming to a stop under where Swansong had been floating.

  “Okay, what the hell are we actually supposed to do about-”

  “Two on your left!” Jon shouted. Before either Swansong or I could react, two explosions happened in rapid succession right in midair, leaving what looked like two large curved spikes dropping to the ground in the remains of the broken drones.

  “Umm…” I started to say before I heard a handful of heavy footfalls and a man wearing a baggy looking outfit made of brown and green fabrics. He wore a mask that almost looked like it belonged on someone playing paintball and I almost would have suspected it had been someone who had just managed to get lost… if it hadn’t been for the large curved spikes protruding from the man’s back.

  “Pinneedle. Level 64 Porcupine Tank. Squad: Four Corners.”

  “Phew, that was a close one!” Pinneedle said with a laugh before he clearly turned his attention toward me. “You got some balls on you attacking that thing without knowing where the backup was.”

  “Wait are you the reas-”

  “One sec, there’s cameras everywhere. It’s better to internalize this,” Pinneedle said, holding up a hand before a window opened in my display.

  “Pinneedle has invited your squad, Fortune’s Cadence, to a Squad Raid Group. Four Corner’s is the hosting squad. Accept: Y/N.”

  I looked over at Swansong briefly who just shrugged and I just shook my head before accepting the request. I had seen the Squad Raid Group option after we had first established our Squad but I hadn’t quite cared enough to dig into what exactly it was, mostly because it seemed at least somewhat self explanatory. A new section appeared on the side of my interface with a small portrait of Pinneedle sitting at the top of it with a star on it. There were two other portraits greyed out directly underneath him, that I assumed must have been the other members of his squad.

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  “The big guy’s my fault, I was nearby and scanned it when it appeared, so it equalized to my level,” Pinneedle explained over the newly formed internal chat, turning his attention up to the pterodactyl that was still circling above us. Its belly had opened up yet again and more falcons emerged, but unlike the last batch, these ones didn’t immediately kamikaze us. I wasn’t sure if this was because of the sudden appearance of Pinneedle, but it seemed as good of an explanation as any that I had.

  “Okay cool, so you’re gonna take care of it?” I asked. I didn’t necessarily want to give up the potential rewards from the Crime Alert, but if we were in some sort of team, I had to hope we’d still get the boons.

  “If I could get up to it maybe… It’s just outside of my max range, almost infuriatingly so,” Pinneedle said with a shake of his head.

  “Could we maybe carry you up there?” Swansong asked and Pinneedle shook his head again.

  “Not unless you can carry a few tons, I’m… kinda heavy,” he explained. “Sorry, it’s been like this for the last few days, every time I think we’re getting a handle on these golems, something new pops up. If flyers are in the equation now, I think Grand Strike and I are going to need to start patrolling together.”

  “That doesn’t exactly help us now though,” I said and he shook his head. “Can he get over here?”

  “Nope. He’s down in Staten Island handling some burrowers,” Pinneedle replied, reaching up and scratching underneath his hardened mask. “I’m open to suggestions though, you two both can fly, right?”

  “Any chance you know if its level would update to ours if you just got out of here?” I asked hopefully and he shook his head once more.

  “Guess you guys haven’t had to deal with Level Lock-In yet. Once any Augment scans an NPC, game or Augment made it doesn’t matter, the level for it and similar mobs nearby is set,” Pinneedle explained. “The pterodactyl went flying past me which is how I ended up scanning it.”

  “That’s… good to know,” Swansong said.

  I looked up toward the pterodactyl, watching as it continued circling the zoo like a vulture. It never dipped and periodically another drone would drop from a briefly opened compartment in its stomach. The wings flapped in an almost perfect rhythm. The Clockwork Pterodactyl noticeably didn’t have any fans or jets keeping it aloft, meaning it was quite literally the force of the wings beating keeping its massive form aloft.

  Something about that felt wrong to me and I realized that it had been my most recent book acquisition that was providing that thought. Even with just the basic understanding of Mechanical Engineering I had gotten, I knew that a robot with that many moving parts was bound to have at least a few structural weak spots.

  “I’ve got an idea…”

  “Oh this is gonna be good,” Jon said with a laugh and Pinneedle noticeably jumped as he looked around as if to see where the extra voice had come from.

  “So if I can knock that thing out of the air, you can finish it pretty easily, right?” I asked and Pinneedle nodded as he dropped his search for the phantom voice.

  “Yeah, but you guys will need to clear the area quickly, if this big one explodes like the little ones, that’s a lot of collateral damage and I don’t have a way to contain that,” Pinneedle said.

  “How far is your maximum range? I’m assuming you shoot those spikes out of your back or something?”

  “Or something?! Come on Loophole, I know I’ve shown you footage of his fights before,” Jon complained, causing Pinneedle to look around again.

  “Not the time Codex!”

  “Codex? How am I hearing your P.A.I.?” Pinneedle asked and this time I shook my head.

  “I’ll explain later, I can’t imagine those falcons are going to just linger that much longer, shit, I don’t know why they are doing it now. Your range, how far is it?” I asked and he looked back toward the sky, crossing his arms over his chest.

  “Maybe fifteen or twenty feet below where they are now? I could probably launch a spike with enough force to trigger the Falcon’s self-destruct. The pterodactyl will need to be lower before I can do enough damage to get through its shield.”

  “And how much damage can you take?” I asked, drawing both his and Swansong’s attention back toward me.

  “I’m a tank, taking damage is what I do,” he said and there was an edge to his voice that made it clear I had struck a bit of a nerve.

  “What are you going to do here?” Swansong asked, floating down and a bit closer to us.

  “I’m going to punch him,” I explained, eyeing the remaining stamina in my bar. “If I get you thrown up into the air, can you clear a path to the big guy for me?”

  “I’m starting to feel like I need to get better with the press if you don’t know what I can do…” Pinneedle said, crossing his arms over his chest.

  “No, that’s just Loophole,” Jon said with a laugh. “Yeah, he has a burst attack. I know exactly what you’re thinking and it’s viable. Pinneedle, let Loophole punch you in the chest, once you can, do your Spike Spray attack.”

  Pinneedle looked from me and then up to the large flock of falcons that had slowly been spawned. “So you can punch me up but can’t carry me up? Are you sure about that?”

  “I guess my media coverage ain’t that great either if you didn’t see me knock the top of one of those giant Clockwork Spiders way into the air,” I said as I walked over toward him, stopping just in front of him. “My punch doesn’t take weight into consideration… luckily for me. I just need to be punching upward.”

  “And how’s that going to help with the big guy that I won’t be able to stay up long enough to hit?”

  “That’s why I need you to clear me a path, I think I can ground it,” I said and looked around. “I don’t know if I’ll be able to keep it from landing here, but maybe luck will be on my side and I can make it crash outside of the zoo. It’s a longshot, but if we can’t get you up there and Grand Strike is busy, it’s the only shot we got.”

  Pinneedle nodded, looking up toward the growing flock and planting his feet before patting his chest with a large hand. Luckily, he was at least half a foot taller than I was, which itself was impressive given that I was six foot tall myself. I still started to crouch, making sure I’d be able to send him in the proper direction. Luckily, the flock of falcons had grown to the point that they were starting to cast a noticeable shadow.

  “Give me your best shot,” he said and I could see a smile that reached his eyes behind the mostly clear panel that showed them.

  I let out a breath before I punched, throwing a 30% Gravity Punch that sent the heavy guardian 25 feet into the air. I immediately pulled out a Superior Stamina Syringe and slammed it into my arm before I took off behind him.

  At the peak of his toss, Pinneedle pulled himself into a ball and a sudden rapid fire barrage of spikes went streaming out of his back in a wide spray. Many of the spikes missed, but for every one that missed, two found purchase and with the falcon in close proximity, a domino effect of explosions started to spread.

  I zipped past the explosions, quickly arching over and back onto the back of the pterodactyl. The golem’s back wasn’t completely smooth and I found I could wedge my hands underneath a few of the panels to pull myself close to its back, allowing me to deactivate Personal Gravity Laws. It took a bit of strength, but I managed to hold still.

  My Area Sense, which required me to be holding completely still, started to reach out and I could feel the internal components of the pterodactyl peppering my sixth sense. Unfortunately for me, everything simply felt like blobs of mass within my zone, but I had anticipated this. I concentrated on what I needed, focusing on the method for creating new abilities that Jon and I had been working to perfect. When the new window opened, I didn’t think twice before replacing my Pocket Climate passive

  “New Ability! Area Sense: Mechanical Specialty. Now that’s one way to put your Mechanical Engineering knowledge to work! Using your advanced knowledge, you can now perfectly identify any base mechanical components within your local area while your Area Sense is activated. Bolts, gears, bands, if it goes into something mechanical, you can identify it in your zone. This is a Passive ability.”

  A wave of new information accompanied the sudden bite of chilly air as the passive took effect. I could feel the gears moving within the pterodactyl and a smile spread over my face. There were a ton of moving parts, most noticeably, and almost predictably along the hinges that connected the golems wings to its main body.

  “Swansong, give me a boost. Hercules now!” I said as I let go of the pterodactyl and took flight once more. I was able to quickly move myself over the hinge of one of the wings, moving myself up toward where I had noticed a rather large set of gears acting almost as a shoulder bone.

  The moment I saw the buff get added to my bar, I lunged toward the shielded part. I knew that even with the robot’s shielding and high level that I probably wouldn’t be doing any damage to it externally, but as I had told Pinneedle, the knockback effect of my strike didn’t care about weight. While I might have preferred to save it for loot boxes, I knew I was going to need luck on my side and I activated Luck Bomb.

  I threw a 70% Gravity Punch at the exact spot on the pterodactyls back that I had felt protecting the bundle of gears. While the shield bar of the pterodactyl only dropped by maybe 10%, a sudden sound of screeching made it clear my plan had worked as the left side of the pterodactyl lurched downward and forced it into a barrel roll.

  Mechanical constructs, even augment built ones, relied on their parts staying exactly where they were placed, especially when the parts were responsible with making a part of the construct move. While my attack might not have destroyed or even really hurt the pterodactyl, I had managed to knock the gears that controlled the wing on the beasts left side out of place, or maybe I had jammed them. Without being able to hold still to reactivate my Area Sense I wouldn't be able to know for sure. All that mattered was the fact that the wing seized up, creaking as it stopped flapping, forcing the pterodactyl to quickly plummet down toward the ground.

  Small explosions were left in its wake as it crashed through the few remaining released Clockwork Falcons. I found myself clenching as I went lowering toward the ground, only releasing my breath as the pterodactyl barely cleared the outer wall of the zoo.

  “She’s all yours Pinneedle,” I called out.

  Happy Wednesday! If you're enjoying the story make sure you Comment, Rate, or Review!

  A reader pointed out that I had not provided an updated Character Sheet on chapter 13 when Nate last input his updated stat ponts. I have added that to Chapter 13 but I am also including it here as well. (If you are binging and just read chapter 13, the following table is exactly the same:

  Loophole - Level 14 Perfect Planner

  Current General Stats

  (denotes score increase from Pendant of Paramount Ascension)

  Current Equipment

  Features:

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