Page 2652 -- CCXLI.

~~((National Do Something Nice Day Special -- Page 22 of 24))~~
Chapter Two Hundred Forty-One: 'The Calamity at Uego...'
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As the machines began to appear, the mechanical tendrils that were keeping Asad in place started to move and shake with violent force. They were not just tendrils, he learned. They were connected to hulking figures beneath the sand--figures with so many different and moving parts that he scarcely knew what he was looking at.

And there were so many of them. Dozens, at least. Just one of them was holding onto him and the two scouts, while still having more tendrils and body parts to spare.

The noise they made was particularly unsettling. Given their size and shapes, they seemed like they should have been incredibly loud, making all sorts of clanking and whirring sounds.

But they weren't. They were quiet. Asad could only make out muted puffs and hisses, faint sliding noises, the light tapping of many small footsteps on sand, and the swiping sound through open air whenever their tentacles moved quickly.

These things hadn't been slapped together haphazardly. They were thoughtfully crafted--and deadly efficient, most probably.

Only two of them moved to engage Parson Miles, while the one holding Asad skittered closer to Morgunov, who was just watching with a big smile on his face.

Miles zoomed up into the air, leaving a sand-whipping twister beneath him for the approaching machines. They both got yanked off the ground and sent flying, and for a second, Asad thought that was it for them.

But it wasn't. Not at all.

Their appendages all retracted into their bodies, and they both became balls. Large jets appeared in place of their missing limbs, adjusting their trajectory to stay with the tornado and ride it up toward Miles.

And Miles must have noticed, because the tornado burst apart just as they were getting close to him, and they were both sent careening away.

Until their jets adjusted and they caught themselves, growing wings and propellers.