The Frostwyrms' bioluminescent segments pulsed erratically—like signal lamps short-circuiting in a thunderstorm—as Johnathan deployed his sanding gear in a reckless fishtail turn. The silica grit crystallized midair into razor-edged projectiles, shearing through larval carapaces with the satisfying *crunch* of a timetable being forcibly revised. Kengo's boots screeched across his running board—the sound a brake van makes when its handbrake fails—as she pivoted mid-swing, her blade tracing silver parabolas through the frozen mist.
"Engineer-san!" Her voice cut through the steam-whistle's dissonance. "Why does your train *whistle* like a haunted railway station?!"
Johnathan's SYSTEM pinged—[WHISTLE PITCH LV. 1 SYNCHRONIZED WITH TEMPORARY TERRAIN DEFORMATION: SWARM CONFUSION +37%]—as phantom tracks rippled outward with each off-key blast. The Frostwyrms recoiled, their segmented bodies twitching like poorly greased valve gear, ichor leaking from ruptured hydraulic glands. Dansei's mana-depleted fingers spasmed against his injector valves, sketching glyphs that flickered like dying signal lamps.
Inuka chose that moment to sneeze violently inside the sandbox—a sound like a pressure release valve failing catastrophically—sending a cloud of superheated silica bursting from Johnathan's vents. The grit crystallized midair into jagged shards that *pinged* off Frostwyrm plating like a thousand angry rivet guns. Kengo's blade found the gaps, plunging deep into chitinous weak points with the precision of a dining car waiter's corkscrew.
Johnathan's SYSTEM cheerfully announced: [LAUG RESERVES: 29.8%... SUGGESTED COURSE OF ACTION: IMMEDIATE WATER INJECTION OR TACTICAL RETREAT].
Again.
He never did like retreating.
He pushed forward noticing the damage he was starting to accumulate. The Frostwyrms recoiled in disarray—their bioluminescent segments flickering like faulty signal lamps—as Johnathan's sanding gear spat plasma-charged grit in fractal patterns. Each silica particle carved jagged rail-shaped trenches through the cavern floor, pulsing with residual energy that made the Frostwyrms' coordination sputter like a poorly-maintained timetable. Kengo's boots screeched against his running board—the sound a brake van makes when its handbrake fails—as she pivoted mid-swing, her blade tracing silver parabolas through the freezing mist.
"Engineer-san!" Her voice cut through the dissonant steam-whistle's shriek. "Why do your *tracks* keep appearing mid-battle?!"
Johnathan's SYSTEM pinged—[TEMPORARY TERRAIN DEFORMATION (RAIL-SHAPED) ACTIVE: FROSTWYRM SWARM MOBILITY PENALTY +15%]—as his steam-formed response twisted into the Great Western Railway's coat of arms mid-sentence: "Tactical infrastructure!"
Dansei wasn't convinced. His mana-depleted fingers trembled against the injector valves, sketching glyphs that sputtered out like a dying firebox. "G-Gresley," he wheezed, his breath fogging against the superheater elements, "your 'tactical infrastructure' is—"
A Frostwyrm's mandible clanged against Johnathan's coupler, interrupting him mid-sentence. The creature's bioluminescent segments pulsed erratically—like signal lamps short-circuiting in a thunderstorm—as it struggled against the phantom tracks. Johnathan seized the moment, deploying his sanding gear in a reckless fishtail turn. The silica grit crystallized midair into razor-edged shards, shearing through larval carapaces with the satisfying crunch of a timetable being forcibly revised.
Kengo's blade found the gap, plunging deep into the Frostwyrm's chitinous weak spot with the precision of a stationmaster's pocket watch. The creature spasmed—its ichor spraying in crystalline arcs that refracted Johnathan's steam-cutters into prismatic death-rays—before collapsing.
[LAUG RESERVES: 28.7%... SUGGESTED COURSE OF ACTION: IMMEDIATE WATER INJECTION OR TACTICAL RETREAT].
Johnathan ignored it.
It was no help even if it was basically repeating itself.
Inuka sneezed violently inside the sandbox—a sound like a pressure release valve failing catastrophically—sending a cloud of superheated silica bursting from Johnathan's vents. The airborne grit crystallized midair into jagged shards that carved fractal rail-patterns through the Frostwyrms' formations, their segmented bodies recoiling like signal arms jammed mid-swing. Kengo's blade flashed silver through the steam-screen, her movements synchronized to the dissonant pulses of Johnathan's spectral tracks as she carved through larval carapaces with the precision of a dining car waiter's corkscrew.
Dansei's fingers spasmed against the injector valves, sketching glyphs that fizzled like damp gunpowder in a firebox. "G-Gresley-san!" The mage's wheeze carried the desperation of a stranded passenger watching the last train depart. "Your sandpipe's mana-channeling is—" A Frostwyrm's freezing ichor splattered across his words, flash-crystallizing them into something resembling Midland Railway timetable typos.
Johnathan's SYSTEM cheerfully announced: [SELF REPAIR LV. 1 AND SPEED LV. 1 HAVE BEEN UPGRADED INTO SELF REPAIR LV. 2 AND SPEED LV. 2 THROUGH FROSTWYRM DEFEAT]—just as Inuka sneezed again inside the sandbox, this time with enough force to dislodge a frozen glyph from Dansei's sleeve that *plinked* against his running board like a misplaced rivet. The glyph pulsed once—British Rail blue—before etching itself into his chassis with the permanence of poorly planned railway nationalization.
"Engineer-san!" Kengo's blade *skreeed* against a Frostwyrm's chitin, her boots leaving steam-scorched imprints on his buffer beam. "Your *train* just absorbed Dansei's spellwork like some kind of... mana-hungry dining car!"
Johnathan's steam-formed reply twisted into the unmistakable shape of a Southern Railway "Sunshine" crest mid-hiss—just before he violently ejected a plume of superheated vapor to disguise his SYSTEM check. The holographic kill counter flickered in his vision like a stationmaster's hastily updated chalkboard: [FROSTWYRM LARVAE ELIMINATED: 143].
*Not fast enough.* The digits bled crimson across his HUD, each number vibrating with the frantic energy of an express train's speedometer needle. He caught Dansei's exhausted reflection in his polished brass whistle—the mage's fingers twitching against his sandpipe like a fireman desperately stoking a dying flame.
"Engineer-san!" Kengo's blade *screeed* against a Frostwyrm's chitinous plating, her boots skidding across Johnathan's buffer beam as he executed a steam-powered drift that would've derailed any conventional locomotive. "Your driving is—"
"Brilliant?" Johnathan interrupted with a whistle blast that formed the LNER's arrowhead logo midair, just as Dansei's last functional glyph detonated in a corona of cerulean sparks. The explosion illuminated the cavern's exit—a jagged fissure barely wider than his wheelbase—as Frostwyrm ichor rained down in crystallized shards that *plinked* against his Brunswick green plating like hailstones on a station roof.
Inuka's muffled squeak from inside the sandbox coincided with Johnathan kicking his steam pressure into the red zone. Pistons screaming, he charged the fissure at a velocity that made his coupling rods blur—only to violently fishtail at the last second, using his entire chassis as a centrifugal flail. Kengo's sword carved silver crescents through the frozen mist while Dansei's unconscious form slid precariously toward his exposed drive wheels.
The Frostwyrm swarm's bioluminescent pulses stuttered into a death-rattle rhythm as Johnathan's spectral tracks warped the cavern into a surreal railway battleground. Dansei's unconscious form slid perilously close to his spinning drive wheels—until Kengo's sword *skreeed* across his buffer beam in a desperate parry, her blade catching the mage's frozen sleeve with the precision of a stationmaster's luggage hook. "Engineer-san!" Her shout carried over the steam-whistle's atonal shriek as Johnathan's sanding gear spat one final plasma-charged salvo, crystallizing the remaining larvae into grotesque ice sculptures resembling delayed commuter trains.
With a piston-straining heave, Johnathan fishtailed through the fissure—his Brunswick green plating shearing off stalactites in a shower of limestone sparks—just as the cavern ceiling collapsed behind them in a thunderous roar of grinding ice and stone. The abrupt sunlight hit his smokebox like a sudden ticket inspection, revealing an undulating tundra where the snowdrifts shimmered with embedded mana-crystals. His SYSTEM pinged three times in rapid succession: [TERRAIN DEFORMATION SKILL DEACTIVATED], [LAUG RESERVES STABILIZED AT 27.3%], and most ominously—[HUMANOID FORM UNLOCK PROGRESS: 89.4%].
Inuka tumbled from the sandbox in a puff of superheated silica, her fox ears twitching at the distant screech of still-trapped Frostwyrms. "T-that," she wheezed, pawing ice from her tail, "was the worst train ride *ever*." Kengo's boot crunched through a frozen puddle as she hauled Dansei's limp form onto a relatively flat coupler plate, her swordtip tracing suspicious circles near Johnathan's whistle valve.
Johnathan ejected a nonchalant steam plume shaped like an LMS coronation crest—the perfect distraction while his SYSTEM quietly pinged: [NO MORE DAMAGE ACCUMULATING; BEGINNING SELF REPAIR] [QUEST PROGRESS: ESCAPE FROSTWYRMS—COMPLETE] [HUMANOID FORM UNLOCK PROGRESS: 91.7%] [NEW QUEST: REACH NEAREST SETTLEMENT—ESTIMATED DISTANCE: 120 MILES TO MAASUITIA TIDOFIRU]
Thank.
Fucking.
God.
The Frostwyrms' dying screeches faded into the tundra's howling winds—their final cries harmonizing eerily with the distant *clack-clack* of Johnathan's cooling drive wheels. Kengo's blade hovered near his whistle valve, her narrowed eyes tracking the suspicious steam plume still dissipating into the shape of British royalty's favorite locomotive crest. Dansei stirred groggily on the coupler plate, his frostbitten fingers twitching in time with the rhythmic *hiss-tick-hiss* of Johnathan's pressure relief valves.
"Next time," Inuka mumbled through a mouthful of thawing tail fur, "we hitchhike." Her tiny paws scraped ice from Johnathan's sandbox hatch—a sound uncannily like a station attendant lazily chipping platform ice in midwinter.
Johnathan didn't mind really, he managed bot to sustain too severe damage and they didn't know he was a train. He was slowly repairing himself and they would hopefully reach the settlement soon. He enjoyed their company, they were nice people, but he had his own paths to go on towards.
The Frostwyrm's dying screeches echoed across the tundra, their final notes harmonizing eerily with the rhythmic clatter of Johnathan's cooling drive wheels. The trio jad gotten into the first of the five carriages in the train he was still pulling—their breaths fogged against the windows as they slumped in exhaustion.
"Engineer-san," Kengo muttered, flicking crystallized ichor off her blade with the precision of a stationmaster removing lint from his uniform, "despite everything, we are sll still thankful to you, if you ever need anything," she pulled out a diamond cut gemstone, "just say the word." The jewel pulsed faintly in sync with Johnathan's remaining Laug reserves—27.1% and dropping slower now that SYSTEM repairs had initiated.
Dansei groaned against the leather seat and window, his frostbitten fingers twitching in unconscious mimicry of a fireman stoking imaginary coal. "Your tactics," he slurred, eyelashes crusted with ice, "are... chaotic yet somehow effective." His head lolled sideways, revealing a glyph burned into his cheek—a perfect replica of British Rail's 1955 timetable error, now pulsing faintly with residual mana.
"I'll keep that in mind." Johnathan's whistle-valve hissed steam in the shape of a perfect BR arrowhead—his equivalent of a poker face—as Kengo's jewel pulsed against his coupler plate. The gemstone's resonance sent phantom timetables flickering across his HUD, superimposing departure schedules over Dansei's unconscious wheezing.
Outside, the tundra soon started to end and cross of into taiga, where rails that weren't being created and destroyed by him finally began (or would it be ended?). Johnathan decided to maneuver over onto the other rail line so as to give his skill a break.