72
Miles crouched behind a small pile of rubble and rested his mana rifle on top so he could steady his aim. He adjusted his scope. Peering through, he looked past Selma’s shoulder as she wrestled with an ape almost twice her size.
On her belly beside him, Mila smoothly squeezed the trigger and sent a blast of explosive mana into an ape trying to rampage up behind Tania who was dancing among the troupe of enraged beasts.
The ape exploded in a shower of gore.
“Down,” Mila said, shucking her clip. She dumped the spent clip into her pouch.
It would be recharged later.
Unlike cores, the gems storing mana for the mana rifles could easily be recharged by handing them into Mistress Vizzingbelle who would arrange for one of the Academy staff to refill it with mana by channeling it into the gem.
These were a human invention. A poorly copied version of a core.
And, Milo had come to learn, they were severely limited by runes which ensured the shooter was a mage. This was to prevent any non-mages from being able to use the weapons against mages.
Something Milo thought was there to quell potentially violent rebellions.
Also, the little clips limited how much power they would release. This was to make students believe that their magic was stronger than a mana rifle. So they wouldn’t rely on the rifle?
Or so they’d learn the arrogance which mages seemed to cultivate as they got older.
Either way, Milo wasn’t impressed and had immediately made his own clips which didn’t have such limitations.
He’d also worked out ways to create modifications on normal mana rifles which would get around the hard limitations set into the mana rifles themselves.
The former clocker had felt unusually smug about that.
“Left,” Milo said, shifting his aim to take out a beast to their left. The ape’s upper body was vaporized by the shot which hit it square in the back.
It’d taken a bit of work between himself and Mila to coordinate their shots.
At first, he’d felt obsolete with her in the team.
She could shoot better than he could in some situations. And she was capable of close combat fighting if necessary. While Tania said that made the golem perfect to be at his side all the time so she could defend him when needed, it had made him feel insecure.
Like he didn’t know what his role was anymore.
But it quickly became apparent that it was more efficient to have two shooters than one, and if they coordinated well, they could mow through enemies fairly quickly.
And go through a lot of ammunition.
“Milo!” Selma screamed, lifting her broadsword high and bringing it down in a flashy arc. “Look at me, Milo!”
“What’s he wanna look at you for, ya ditzy tramp?” Tania called, cutting through the belly of an ape howling in her ear.
“Why not?” Selma paused after splitting her ape in two. She wiggled her bottom in his direction. “Aren’t I pretty enough to look at?”
“Can you two keep your mind on your work?” Milo yelled at them. “Look out behind you!”
A bunch of apes had dropped down out of the jungle trees above.
They hadn’t made a sound. Their mouths were open, though, showing long tusklike fangs which looked like they could chew holes even through the resilient golemskin.
“I saw ‘em,” Tania shot back. She flicked her wrist, and a handful of poison darts shot from a hole in her forearm to thud into one of the apes. They formed a small pattern in his chest.
He dropped immediately, the poison slamming into his brain.
His corpse foamed at the ears.
The rest went down almost as quickly as Selma and Tania worked like butchers. Mila blew another hole through one, which painted the ferns beyond with blood.
It was messy work.
Milo grunted as he got to his feet and collected the few dungeon stones.
Afterwards, Mila would trade them for gold. Right now, he needed gold more than anything.
Lingerie, he’d discovered, wasn’t cheap.
He looked around. “Where’s their leader?”
“Over there,” Selma pointed at a corpse. It had been split from shoulder down to groin.
He grabbed its stone, and they moved on quickly.
Although Fergus was no longer part of the reason, Tania still wanted to rush through the dungeon. It was just a game to her. The other two golems seemed to feel the same. They didn’t treat it like an exercise.
Or a test of skill.
It was simply a fun way to pass time.
Tania swiveled to glance over her shoulder at him. “Hey, Milo?”
“Hmm?”
She shot him a string of dwarven language. Then she smiled. “You know what I said?”
He furrowed his brow. Then he guessed; “Something about looking at your butt?”
“That’s right!” She gave herself a shake, letting her little skirt flutter. “Do ya like it?”
Selma slapped Tania’s butt hard enough to force a yelp. “Put it away, ya old maid. Milo likes younger cans like mine.”
“Younger?” Tania scowled at her. “I keep telling ya, ya ditzy dame, ya were only a few weeks younger than me!”
“Yeah, but it shows.” She gave her own bottom a jiggle. “See? I’m firmer.”
Milo shook his head.
It was the same argument they always had.
“What about this, Milo?” Mila asked suddenly, then tentatively threw him a few dwarven words.
“What?” He frowned. “You want to see my drill?”
“Wow, sister.” Tania blinked at her as Milo shot the shy golem a surprised look. She shook her head at him. “Think about the tense, Milo. And it’s a verb. Ain’t a noun.”
“She wants to be drilled?” He looked confused. “By me?”
Which only made Selma yowl with laughter as Mila’s face turned red.
He sighed. “Why do you people have so many terms for that sort of thing?”
“What sort of thing, Milo?” Tania asked, giving him an innocent flap of her eyelashes. “I don’t think we know what you’re talking about. Do we, gals?”
“Nope,” Selma said, still chortling. “Is it my turn?”
“Go ahead,” Tania said. “Give it your best.”
Milo hefted his rifle as they pushed deeper into the jungle. They’d been doing this since they’d come into the dungeon. Spending most of their time throwing dwarven language at him so he could tell them what he thought they were saying.
It was all mostly simple.
And also lewd.
He’d have thought they were teasing him, but it felt more like they were trying to compete with each other to see who could come up with the most crude thing imaginable.
Already Mila was falling behind.
She’d given her best, though. But she wasn’t as forward as Tania and Selma.
Selma had no shame, Milo was learning.
Also, he’d learned most of the crudest things involved their cores. They could be completely unashamed about the basics of sex, but then all fall into shy little giggles if their cores were mentioned.
At one stage, Milo had thought Selma had asked him to kiss her core.
She’d meant him to kiss something else, but as soon as he’d said what he had, they all turned red. Even Tania. Mila had even swooned.
“Ah, Milo,” Tania had sighed. “Who’d have thought ya were a randy goat?”
He tried not to mention their cores again.
The final boss of the dungeon was another ape. This one was the patriarch. He thumped his chest, emitting a booming shockwave that sent them all sprawling. Even Selma couldn’t stand while the beast was pounding on his chest.
Milo had shot it in the head, but the ape had managed to bat the projectile aside.
Which had been a bit of a shock.
He didn’t think raw mana could be knocked away.
But the creature had done it.
“Grenade,” he grunted, taking one out and depressing the switch as Mila did the same.
Together, they tossed their explosives at the boss.
Who stood in the middle of the explosion and howled. But the boss seemed mostly unharmed.
“This could be tricky,” Milo said.
Tania and Selma charged in. Selma’s blade hit the ape’s knuckles with a heavy twang as the metal refused to do more than give it a papercut.
“I got an idea,” Mila rasped.
She darted forward, leaving her rifle behind.
“Mila!” Milo lifted himself a little, then ducked back down again with a grunt.
She knew what she was doing, he told himself. And she was more durable than she looked. He had to keep telling himself.
Not human!
Not human!
Frustrated, he lifted the mana rifle’s sight and plugged in one of his more powerful clips. It was big enough to take down most things. He doubted it would do much to the ape, though.
It looked like he needed to try something else to squeeze more power out of the guns.
Mila arced into the fray, flicking her right wrist so the long blade came out with a metallic snick. Tania glanced at her and nodded.
Her own blades were already out. In dungeons, she preferred those to the daggers at her hips.
The two 11-B golems dropped into camouflage mode for a second, causing the giant ape to whirl as he searched for them. That gave Selma time to sweep her blade across the tendons behind its ankle.
She didn’t cut deep enough to sever them, but he swung his arm at her.
Tania appeared in front of him at that moment. And drove both blades up between his legs.
Milo winced.
The ape squealed.
Then it brought both fists down like massive hammers.
Tania rolled, her blades trailing bright red blood.
Screaming in pain, the ape staggered after her. Blindly flailing, it managed to clip Selma, who was sent flying. The tall golem smashed through one tree, then the next, before coming to a dazed crash against a third.
She shook her head.
Her confused gaze landed on Milo.
Then she smiled. She looked goofy, he thought.
He took aim as the ape cornered Tania. Pulled the trigger.
The blast of mana hit it exactly where Tania had just finished stabbing.
It howled as the explosive round completely blew one testicle off.
And then Mila appeared. She was wrapped around the beast’s neck. He bucked, trying to throw her off while also reaching unconsciously to grip its wounded crotch.
Mila lifted her hand.
Brought it down.
And jumped.
Just as its head exploded with a bright burst of light and gore.
Rolling along the ground, the little golem showed a wide grin as she was swept to her feet by Tania and then clapped on the back. “Nice job, sister. You’re the big banana when it comes to boom.”
Milo nodded, getting to his feet and pulling the spent clip.
“Grenade in the gob,” Selma slurred, her legs twitching as she tried to get to her feet. “Classic.”
“Hey, Milo?” Tania called out.
“Yeah?”
She flung some more dwarven at him.
He stared back at her, trying not to let his ears turn red.
“I don’t think that’s physically possible,” he told her.
“Ya never know until ya try.”
Selma shook her head. He could hear a rattle from inside her. Something he’d need to fix. She stumbled a step towards them. “I’m willing to give it a go.”
Tania skipped over to her and put herself under the tall golem’s shaking arm. “Sister, you ain’t doing no button shining any time soon, I think.”
“Aww.” Selma blinked as she tried to focus her eyes again. “What if I go on the bottom?”
Tania grinned. She shot Milo a mischievous look. “What do ya think, Milo?”
He sighed. “Just get the dungeon stone.” He was more concerned about the way Selma was walking. It looked like something was very broken in her hip. “And let’s get back to the Workshop.”
Selma shook herself again. “Aww.”
“I need to fix you up.”
“Oh.” Selma glanced down sadly, then back up as she realized he’d have to touch her to fix her. A crooked grin slipped onto her face. “Yay!”
“What about me, Milo?” Tania put in.
“What about you? You look fine.”
“I’m really not.” Tania twisted her face as though she was in agony. She reached down. “My coochie got really hurt. Can you fix it for me?”