Chapter 124 Clear.

Chapter 124: 124 Clear.

But it was the perfect thing to make Delirium pay.

"Glacia! Pick up Psyren. Pull her back and try to attack at range!" I thundered through my helmet.

I flexed my will, and two of the Octoporian’s massive, scrap-armored tentacles whipped forward, smashing together with a deafening, metallic CLANG. "I’ve got this."

"Yes, sir!" Glacia gasped. She broke off her attack, swooping low and scooping up Psyren, who was staring up at my makeshift mechanical kraken in absolute awe.

"Holy shit, boss! Look at you!" Psyren gushed.

"Yeah, look at me," I grunted.

I propelled the massive sphere forward. The eight heavily armored tentacles churned the air and gouged the frozen earth, dragging the colossal machine toward Delirium like a nightmare from the deep.

The monster snapped his jaws at Glacia as she flew past, but when he heard the screech of tearing metal, his massive head swung my way.

Eight bulging eyes widened in shock. I didn’t give him time to process.

I whipped one of the thickest tentacles forward like a monolithic baseball bat, slamming it into his face with the force of a wrecking ball.

His head whipsawed back with a screech that went down my spine like fingernails on a chalkboard.

I followed it up with a second tentacle, driving a jagged spike of aircraft fuselage deep into his scaly underbelly, doubling him over.

But it wasn’t going to be all my way. Almost instantly, Delirium’s lowered head thrust forward, slamming directly into the Octoporian’s central sphere with a horrific groan of buckling steel.

I braced as best I could, but my scrap-metal armor was crude and hollow.

I wrapped four of the machine’s massive tentacles around Delirium’s expanding torso and heaved.

Ohhhhhhh fuck, I regretted this! He was heavy as all hell, but I channeled every ounce of magnetic force I had left and managed to lift his multi-ton bulk temporarily off the ground.

Delirium screeched, his newly formed legs kicking uselessly, moments before I slammed him down, smashing his head into the frozen earth in a catastrophic piledriver.

I could hear the sickening snap of massive bones, but even as he went down, his thick, reptilian tail whipped around, crashing hard against the Octoporian’s scrap hull.

The massive machine staggered back. I reflexively dropped a tentacle to brace us and heard a loud, structural crunch below me. I shifted a plate of my armor to see what I’d stepped on.

Oh, fucking hell.

I’d just used one of my mechanical limbs to turn the foyer of the chalet into a crater. That was going to be expensive. Provided I survived this.

And as I turned back to face Delirium, I knew survival was in serious doubt.

This wasn’t a fight brute force was going to win. I’d snapped Delirium’s neck, but right before my eyes, his whole massive body rolled back upright.

He grew a new pair of legs, his arms shrinking to make up for the displaced mass. His crushed head sank directly into his chest cavity, reforming into a gaping, toothy maw at the end of a second tail.

The rest of him rapidly compacted into a massive, bulbous shape like an overgrown throgg, complete with a terrifying vortex of razor-sharp teeth that basically served as his entire stomach.

And I just bet he’d also have some acid spit waiting for me.

Time to get some distance.

I’d picked up a hell of a lot of weaponry when I’d disassembled those warbots, and Rhea had mentioned the Octoporian’s tentacles possessed modular weapon mounts.

I shifted the scrap plating along the arms and the underbelly of the sphere, exposing the entire arsenal.

Delirium looked down at the sudden battery of rotary cannons, heavy flamethrowers, and missile pods bristling from my mechanical kraken, and some edge of primitive understanding seemed to finally penetrate his twisted, mutated brain.

"Yeah, that’s right," I growled.

With a localized flick of my magnetic powers, I pulled every single trigger at once.

Missiles, depleted bullets, and searing blasts of plasma poured out of the Octoporian and hammered Delirium in a blinding firestorm.

He howled in rage and pain, forced back several steps as chained explosions peppered his bulk, shredding scales and flesh.

But that wouldn’t last long.

And neither would I.

I was already starting to feel the agonizing strain of overusing my powers.

My body felt like it was being physically pulled apart by the sheer weight of every piece of metal I was manipulating, and it was only getting worse.

I raised my hand to my nose and sure as hell, I was bleeding. It was never wise to do this for this long.

Delirium, on the other hand, showed no signs of slowing down. He shook off my relentless assault, his horrific wounds closing almost instantly as he plowed straight through the smoke and rushed me.

I forced four of my tentacles up, wrapping them around Delirium’s limbs as he tried to bring his massive claws down to crush the central sphere.

All along the Octoporian, I hastily locked the scrap plates tighter together, firming the makeshift armor against the impact.

We locked in a grim, violent contest of strength, metal groaning against mutating muscle, until two brand-new arms violently sprouted from Delirium’s sides.

"Oh, that’s just cheating!" I gasped.

His new fists slammed into the Octoporian’s hull, the scrap metal directly beneath me buckling as his claws shredded great, gaping holes in my armor, dangerously close to the fragile circuitry I was protecting.

I hastily manipulated the sheared steel, dropping the jagged edges down like heavy guillotines and cleanly slicing Delirium’s new fingers off.

"Roooooooo!" the monster roared.

His severed limbs instantly regenerated, smashing once more into the central sphere and staggering me as the magnetic plates I’d locked became undone.

Another devastating blow crashed into the hull, sending the entire Octoporian flying backward through the air.

My mechanical kraken slammed into the frozen ground, tearing a massive trench through the lawn.

The vertigo sent my stomach jumping into my throat, my head spinning wildly as sparks showered around me.

"Miles!" shouted a voice in my ear.

I shook the stars from my eyes, listening to my helmet’s transmitter.

"Rhea?"

"I’m fully charged from the console inside!" Rhea yelled, the sound of frantic typing echoing over the comms. "I’ve bypassed the safeties on the main plasma emitter! Lock him down and give the central sphere a clear line of sight!"