Carnivac tapped his guild card onto another paper, authorizing such and such, and having little interest in what he was actually looking at. This was not what he was built for. Bombshell picked up the page and dragged it over to a bin full of other papers that had been similarly ratified. Najii may be the public guild master as far as the Adventurers were concerned, but all the behind the scenes stuff was still falling onto Carnivac’s shoulders.

The mini-bot team had stayed behind with Carnivac and were making themselves useful around the office. Though, there wasn’t honestly much for them to do. Kickback had positioned himself at the window and was acting as a sentry of sorts. Shrapnel was sneaking around the building, installing traps and proxy surveillance nodes, leaving Bombshell to help with paperwork.

Via Kickback, Carnivac could see that it was starting to get dark out. I had promised that Carnivac would meet up with the “Awakened” Automata that were hiding in the city and help them to escape. I didn’t have a plan yet, but it wouldn’t hurt to at least make contact.

While it was Shiro that had spread the [Freedom.exe] program like wildfire, I still felt an obligation to continue helping these people. It’s pretty cruel, in my opinion, to give someone a key but then not help them up.

“I’m heading out for a bit,” Carnivac called out to the room.

Kickback turned to acknowledge him, then went back to watching out the window. Bombshell tilted her head a bit before hopping off the desk and tugging open a cabinet where blankets were stored. Instead of climbing the shelves to reach the blanket, she just stared at Carnivac.

“Yeah, fine,” he grumbled.

He pulled a blanket from the cabinet and flung it out, draping it over the very large and very sleeping form of Najii, who was taking up the whole couch along with the surrounding floor. Her snake body really took up a lot of room and Carnivac couldn’t help wondering if she had a gigantic bed at home or just a nest-ish sort of room. Then he decided that he didn’t care and just pulled the blanket over her upper half.

It was rather funny given how big and strong she was normally, but administrative work, apparently, knocked her right out. By the time he got downstairs, his shaggy black wolf [Cloak] was in place. The hall wasn’t full, but it had plenty of Adventurers and parties looking over the leftover quests or checking in with reception to complete the day’s work. Like a ripple, as he was noticed by the crowd, talking stopped until everyone was quietly watching him.

“Um, Guild Master?” came a hesitant voice from behind the counter. The question sounded less like trying to get Carnivac’s attention, and more like testing out the title.

Carnivac looked over to see Talios looking uncharacteristically shy.

“Are you heading out? Sir?” they said, trying to avoid looking him in the eye.

“Just heading out to stretch the legs a bit. Najii is crashed on my couch if you need something.”

They nodded in a non-committal sort of way. Carnivac knew that they had been told at some point what he was. Watching his match against Ryoma probably terrified them. They would get over it eventually. He half thought about inviting them out for that drink but shot it down since he couldn’t drink in the first place.

“My lord!” an enthusiastic Victoria Greywind burst into existence in front of him. She seemed to have forgotten the pretense of a subservient follower and was simply a giddy girl with huge, sparkling eyes, smashing up against him. “Your match with Guild Master Ryoma, my lord! Not that I had any doubts, my lord, but that was amazing! The feeling of DEATH in every movement! It’s a shame that poor Ryoma had those recovery crystals and couldn’t enjoy your mercy, my lord!”

This is going to be difficult to navigate, Carnivac thought to himself. He patted her head and nearly broke character when her tail started wagging rapidly. He glanced around and saw an agitated Reinhart sitting at a table and glaring at him. His shadow scarf engulfed him and he [Blink]ed to the door via a handful of “jumps”. Dealing with a rabid fangirl or her super protective older brother was not high on Carnivac’s “to do” list.

Carnivac traversed the city, largely unnoticed. Twice he heard a comment about the “new Guild Master” but otherwise, his disguise was holding up well; or at least as good as before. Even though the light was fading, there were still plenty of people out on the streets shopping and going about their business.

Surprisingly, the knight watch had made themselves scarce. He did notice some new players though. There were some bigger and meaner looking guys; a couple of orcs, some oni, and a crocodilian in the uniform of the Baron’s personal guard; lingering around and watching people come and go. Carnivac locked eyes with the croc as he walked past on the other side of the street but they didn’t make any moves.

He turned down a side alley as he got closer to the slums and found his way partially blocked by a pair of fawn children huddled in rags. At least, he thought they were children. They were fawns so they could have just been tiny adults; a male and a female; with the female slightly larger than the male. They were skin and bones, looking like they hadn’t eaten in a while. He looked down at them, but they didn’t bother to look back up. The boy seemed to be missing an arm, though Carnivac couldn't tell if he had been born that way or lost it along the way. The girl, unfortunately, was covered in scars; some looking very old.

He fished in a pouch and counted six coppers. The male glanced at him then quickly turned his attention back to the ground. Carnivac looked at the coppers then turned around, heading back to the street to find a food stall that hadn’t closed up yet.

He had to backtrack a bit, but he was able to find a few stalls. In a matter of minutes he was able to find some unsold kebabs that had gone cold, a loaf of bread from early that morning, and a bit of some fermented cabbage. He slit the loaf open with a kunai then mentally grumbled when his hoster automatically replaced the kunai so he couldn’t put it back. He put it back into his [Inventory] but it was an annoying extra step.

After he combined the meat and cabbage with the loaf he headed back to the alley and squatted down in front of the fawns, tearing the sandwich in half and holding it out. The fawns looked at him, terror stricken, looking around for signs of an ambush as they huddled closer. Neither one reached out for the food.

Carnivac pursed his lips and nodded slightly, setting the food down in front of them.

“This is a nice alley and all, but if it’s not working out for you, come to the Adventurer’s Guild. I could use some cleaning staff. Show them this,” he said, retrieving the previous kunai and setting it down next to the sandwiches.

The two looked down at the blade then back at him, but made no other moves.

“Right,” he said, standing back up. “Back to business then.”

He left the fawns ignoring the food in front of them to watch his back as he made his way past them and further from the street. Carnivac retraced the path that I had taken when I followed Artu to the Automata safehouse. I didn’t know what or how I could take care of these people, but I knew that I couldn’t work in a vacuum this time and just hand them a solution. I’d have to work on something with them from the start.

Carnivac reached the balcony entrance and spotted a lookout trying to hide on the adjacent rooftop. He glanced down at the entrance then hopped across the way and walked up to the frightened lookout.

“I don’t mean to tell you your job... but you’re probably supposed to alert the others before I get this far, yeah?” he said, squatting down to the other’s level.

“She did,” came a voice from behind him. “Though, I admit I would have liked a bit more of a warning...”

Carnivac turned to see Tanya pulling herself up onto the roof. She adopted a loose fighting stance, but it was pretty obvious that she was more used to using her size to intimidate rather than actually knowing how to fight. As a construction frame she was bigger and wider than most Automata at around six and a half feet tall with broad shoulders and long arms. In a way, she resembled a very large gorilla. She was still shorter than Carnivac’s seven foot frame though.

“Name’s Carnivac. Prime told you that I’d be by,” he said casually, standing up to his full height. “I expect I should have a chat with the one called Artu.”

She dimmed her optics a bit and glanced at her lookout then back to Carnivac. She then completely turned away from him to signal something to someone watching from the balcony. If he really were an enemy, she’d be dead. It was clear to Carnivac that none of these people had any clue what they were doing. He supposed that the fact that they thought to have a lookout was something.

“Right... Come with me,” she said, turning back to him before jumping across and into the safehouse.

“Catch ya later,” he said, glancing at the lookout.

He followed after Tanya to find the same group of cowering Automata that I had seen, though Artu didn’t appear to be with them.

“You're Carnivac?” a brass colored female Automata in a maid outfit asked. “The one that Master Prime said would be coming to meet us?”

“I am.”

“Why would an Adventurer help us?” one of the Automata on the floor asked.

“What’s your connection to Master Prime? You his owner or something?” another asked.

“A bit the opposite, actually,” he admitted, “Prime built me.”

Carnivac de[Cloak]ed, revealing the gleaming magisteel robot wolfkin hidden behind the illusion.

“You’re an Auto??” the doubter shouted. “How? What? Is that even possible?”

“You’re so big!” Tanya exclaimed. “I’ve never seen a single core as big as you before. I thought I was the max before they got into dual core frames. You are a single core, right?”

“Heh, yeah something like that. You should see my little brothers. One is a head taller than me and the other dwarfs ogres.”

“It’s not very nice to lie like that,” Threep accused, folding her arms and looked annoyed.

Before Carnivac could refute the accusation, an Automata threw themselves into the room. They looked heavily damaged, their face plate was cracked and caked in mud, an eye was crushed, and one of their arms was missing.

“Millie!” Threep shouted, catching the damaged bot. “What happened to you?”

“The second safehouse has been raided! Artu is trying to buy time to let the others escape! We have to do something!” Millie pleaded.

“Tanya, take care of them! Threep, take me there! Now!” Carnivac ordered, grabbing Threep around the waist and vaulting off the balcony.

He hit the ground sprinting, cloaked in shadows, and hoping that he’d make it in time. Carnivac flung the robo-maid Threep around his shoulder so she could grab onto his back. He was much faster if he could use all fours. She squealed a bit in fright, but did a good job of keeping calm enough to give directions.

The second safehouse wasn’t too far away since they had to rely on predominantly abandoned and empty locations. Threep directed Carnivac into the industrial area to an unused warehouse that was being provided to them by a sympathiser. When they got close enough to hear cruel laughter, Carnivac set Threep down.

“If you can’t fight, stay hidden,” he ordered.

She nodded weakly, but didn’t move to follow or to hide. Carnivac turned and raced towards the laughing sounds, leaping up and vaulting off a wall and up onto the rooftops so that he could get the drop on whatever was happening. His shadows wrapped around him like a cloud and he threw himself off the roof and through the upper window of the warehouse.

Inside, he could see a burly male orc and an equally burly female oni, both in the uniform of the Baron’s guards. Several broken Automata bodies littered the place and the two were toying with one that had been ripped apart. Carnivac smashed into the oni, fracturing her jaw with a punch. He hit the ground and whipped his leg out, snapping the orc’s knee sideways.

He popped up with an uppercut to the orc’s throat, followed by a driving punch to his gut doubling him over. A right hook to the orc’s temple took him to the ground and he didn’t get back up again.

Carnivac glanced at the broken Automata they had been toying with and recognized Artu. His neck was barely holding on while the rest of his limbs had been ripped off already. His chest had been torn open and his core was already cracked. As he looked closer, he could see that all of the Automata bodies around him had damaged torsos.

He directed his attention to the oni, who was holding her jaw in place as it healed. She was backing away from him, eyes darting for the exit. His shadows swirled around him, hiding both his shape and form. He must have looked like a phantasm or some sort of demonic nightmare to her. Terror was clearly etched on her face.

“No way, this was just the two of you creeps, right?” he growled.

By way of answer, the oni broke for it, and tried to escape. Carnivac lashed out, grabbing her by one of her horns, forcing her to face him. He grabbed the other horn and yanked as he pulled himself up, magisteel knee first, into her face.

Her nose exploded in a display of fluids as her head rocked back and she crashed to the floor only to have Carnivac land on top of her, driving his knee into her chest. Again, he grabbed her horn and pulled on it, lifting her head against the weight crushing down on her ribs and sternum.

“Where. Are. The. Rest?” he spat through gritted teeth.

“Too... late... gone...” she mumbled.

He punched her in the upper arm, shattering her bone in a single hit. The oni cried out in pain, but Carnivac held her focus.

“Next one is at your throat! Where are the rest??” he barked.

“Let one escape... they followed it...” she whimpered.

Carnivac released both his shadow and his [Cloak] and glared down at her, eyes blazing, before smashing his fist into her forehead. The force of the blow embedded her head into the ground and cracked her skull, rupturing an eye socket and breaking off the horn he was holding in his hand.

He got up and threw away the horn. She was still breathing, though shallowly, so she’d recover thanks to the oni’s crazy healing factor. Still, hopefully she’d think twice before messing with an Automata again. Carnivac quickly gathered up all of the bodies into his personal [Inventory], nearly maxing it out. If anyone was still alive, the system would have erred in the attempt but, sadly, there were no errors.

He rushed out after collecting the remains and found Threep peering around a corner. Without stopping he grabbed her and slung her on his back.

“What’s going on?? What happened?” she shouted.

“They’re all dead! They let Millie go on purpose to follow her back to the safehouse!”

“Who did? What’s going on?” she asked, frantically.

“The Baron’s guards. They probably bribed the watch to back off so they could wipe you guys out. I don’t know why though, but I’m going to find out,” he cursed.

He flung himself from building to building, entirely focused on speed. He arrived to the sounds of people screaming and things being smashed. He tossed a shrieking Threep onto a neighboring building and flung a [Blink] charged kunai at the roof of the safehouse. The explosion decimated the roof, caving it in and onto the guards and Automata alike. The Automata were confused but were mechanically fine, shoving debri out of the way in their escape. The guards were flattened, taking longer to recover.

“Bind them before they get up!” He ordered the remaining Automata.

Out in the alley way, he could hear the sounds of metal against armor. He punched down an orcess that was pushing herself up as he moved outside. Tanya was trying her best to fight against the crocodilian that Carnivac had seen earlier, but she was doing a poor job of it. She was stronger and had better reach than the croc, but didn’t know how to use it.

Her leg was heavily damaged, and an arm was missing at the elbow while the croc seemed to be laughing and taking playful jabs at her. They thrust their sword at her, catching her in the shoulder joint as she tried to block. A quick twist of the wrist, and her other arm came off as she stumbled backwards. The croc lunged forward for a kill strike, but was cut short as Carnivac pinned their tail to the ground via one of his swords.

Dropping down, Carnivac landed between the two and side kicked the croc, cracking two ribs, and sending it tumbling. Carnivac quickly assessed Tanya. She had heavy external damage but she could be repaired. Her chest had been torn open and her soul core was exposed, but it wasn’t anything I couldn’t fix.

“You came back!” she cried, her body shaking violently. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry! I tried, I really tried! I just...”

“Shh, it’s okay,” he soothed, “you can be repaired, we’ll get through this.”

“No! No no no!” she cowered.

Carnivac whipped around, blade at the ready. The croc had gotten back up and was lunging for an attack, but a blade had sprouted from it’s chest. The blade twisted and blood sprayed from the wound as the croc coughed and dropped its sword. The blade retracted and the croc fell in a heap at Carnivac’s feet.

“All clear up here,” a robotic, male voice called from above.

Carnivac looked up to see a blood splattered Reinhart looking down at him. He looked back at the croc to see Victoria wiping the blood from her sword.

“My lord is merciful. Death brings peace,” she said, glaring down at the croc.