The Blast Doors didn't fail all at once. They died screaming.
The massive iron slab, welded together from the scrap of a hundred failed adventures, groaned under the assault. The center bulged inward like a crushed soda can.
THOOM.
A rivet the size of a fist popped loose and shot across the cavern, ricocheting off the catwalk.
"Integrity at fifteen percent!" Grika shrieked, her hands flying across the control console. "The hinges are melting! They're using acid! My beautiful welds are dissolving!"
Reed stood on the raised platform overlooking the kill box. The heat was stifling, sweat stinging his eyes.
"Terra!" Reed shouted over the mechanical roar. "Brace the door!"
"AFFIRMATIVE."
From the steam-filled center of the room, Terra strode forward. The Magma Golem was fully active, her stone plating glowing red-hot from the forge.
But she wasn't empty-handed. She reached behind her back and unslung The Peacekeeper—the massive, rocket-assisted iron maul Grika had welded for her.
"DOOR IS… RUDE," Terra rumbled.
She slammed the head of the hammer against the buckling metal of the blast doors, using it as a strut. She dug her stone heels into the obsidian floor.
"HOLDING."
She was physically fighting the pressure of an entire army.
Kaelen stood behind the conveyor belt, her sword drawn. She watched the Golem with a mix of awe and unease. "That construct… it is taking the full weight of a Siegebreaker! How?"
"She's built different!" Reed yelled back. "Grika, get the grinder ready! Terra can't hold it forever!"
CRACK.
The metal tore. A skeletal hand the size of a shovel punched through the wall next to Terra's head.
"BREACH IMMINENT," Terra warned. "HAMMER IS… ITCHY."
"Fall back!" Reed ordered. "Lure them into the belt!"
Terra stepped back, revving the thruster engine welded to the back of her hammer. VROOOM.
As she moved, the doors exploded inward. A Siegebreaker smashed through the ruin, followed immediately by a tide of armored skeletons.
"NOW!" Reed screamed.
Grika slammed the button.
[TRAP ACTIVATED: THE INDUSTRIALIZER]
The floor roared. The conveyor belt lurched into motion, dragging the stumbling army backward into the machinery.
WHAM. The first hydraulic piston smashed down, flattening a cluster of skeletons.
WHAM. The second piston hit the Siegebreaker. The giant construct roared, trying to stand, but the belt dragged it down the line.
But the sheer volume of bodies was too much. The gears began to grind. Bones jammed the intake.
"It's clogging!" Grika yelled. "The torque is dropping! I need more power to the main drive!"
"I'm out of range!" Reed cursed. He checked his mana.
[MANA RESERVE: 38.5 / 150]
He couldn't channel it from here. The air was too thick with necrotic interference. He needed physical contact.
"Cover me!" Reed vaulted over the railing.
"Reed!" Kaelen shouted, but he was already moving.
He slid down the ladder and sprinted across the vibrating floorplates toward Grika's console. He didn't stop. He grabbed Grika by the back of her overalls.
"We need to unclog it manually!" Reed shouted. "Go to Terra! Initiate the Combo!"
Grika's eyes lit up. "Fastball Special? Or the Spin Cycle?"
"Spin Cycle!"
Reed shoved her toward the golem. Then, he grabbed the mana-conduit feeding the trap. He didn't have a spell for this. He just had [Dungeon Touch].
He slammed his hand onto the hot brass pipe. "RECHARGE!"
He dumped 10 Mana directly into the machine. The gears screamed, spinning faster, chewing through the bone jam with a wet crunch.
Meanwhile, Grika scrambled up Terra's back like a squirrel climbing a tree. She latched onto the roll-cage Grika had welded onto Terra's shoulders.
"Overclocking!" Grika screamed, jamming a screwdriver into Terra's neck port. "Safety limiters off! Let's dance, big girl!"
Terra's eyes flared from orange to blinding white.
"PROTOCOL: SMASH," Terra boomed.
She revved the Peacekeeper. The rocket on the back of the hammer ignited with a trail of blue fire.
Terra didn't just swing. She spun.
With Grika cackling on her back, adjusting the trajectory mid-swing, Terra became a tornado of iron and stone.
BOOM.
The rocket-hammer hit the lead Siegebreaker in the chest. It didn't just break the monster; it punted it. The twenty-foot undead giant flew backward, crashing into the skeletons behind it like a bowling ball striking pins.
"Strike!" Grika cheered, hanging on for dear life. "Adjusting for windage! Left flank!"
Terra pivoted, the hammer whistling through the air. She smashed a Death Knight into the wall, flattening his armor into foil.
"I AM THE FACTORY," Terra roared. "I AM THE HAZARD."
But more were coming. They spilled over the sides of the conveyor belt, bypassing the trap.
"They're swarming!" Kaelen yelled, cutting down a ghoul. "Reed! Behind you!"
Reed turned. A skeletal assassin was lunging for him.
Before he could move, a flash of gold and emerald intercepted it.
SHINK.
Seraphine's spear impaled the skeleton against the wall. The Lamia was panting, her magma armor glowing dim. She was exhausted from holding the left flank alone.
"My Lord," she wheezed, her tail trembling as she held the line. "I… I am fading. The cold… it saps me."
Reed saw the frost creeping onto her scales. The Necromancer's aura was leaking in.
"Not on my watch," Reed growled.
He didn't cast a spell. He stepped in.
He grabbed Seraphine's waist, pulling her flush against him. He ignored the battle raging inches away. He pressed his forehead against hers.
"Transfer," he whispered.
He pushed 5 Mana—pure, raw emotional mana—directly into her core.
It wasn't just energy. It was heat. It was the memory of the sauna, the feeling of the Cuddle Pile, the absolute refusal to let her freeze.
Seraphine gasped. Her eyes blew wide. The gold plating on her chest flared bright orange. The frost on her scales evaporated in a hiss of steam.
"Oh," she moaned, a sound that had no place on a battlefield. "That is… potent."
She shuddered, her strength returning instantly. She spun around, her tail whipping out with renewed, crushing force, shattering three skeletons at once.
"I am revitalized!" she shrieked, laughing. "Come and break against me!"
For a moment, it looked like they might win.
Terra and Grika were a wrecking ball of physics.
Seraphine was a wall of superheated violence.
The traps were grinding.
Then, the temperature dropped.
From the darkness of the tunnel, the Lich floated in. It saw Terra decimating its army. It saw the magma fueling her core.
The Lich raised its staff. "Extinguish."
A beam of absolute zero cold struck the main magma channel feeding the room and feeding Terra.
HISSSSSSS.
The molten rock flash-froze into black ice. The heat in the room vanished.
Terra froze mid-swing. The rocket on her hammer sputtered and died.
"SYSTEM… FAILURE…" Terra rumbled, her voice slowing down like a dying record. "CORE… TEMP… CRITICAL…"
She locked up. She became a statue in the middle of the battlefield, Grika trapped on her back, frantically hitting buttons that no longer worked.
"Terra!" Reed screamed.
"She's frozen!" Grika wailed. "Her power source is solid rock!"
The light in the Foundry died. The steam traps failed.
The Foundry plunged into darkness, lit only by the faint, dying glow of Kaelen's sword and the cold blue eyes of the Lich.
The wall had fallen. The tank was down. And the army was still coming.