CHAPTER ONE-HUNDRED-FIVE
There was a loud WHUMPH and then a mind-shattering explosion that cleared Abe’s vision for more than ten seconds. Flame roiled through the air, and the shockwaves of the explosion threw him flat on his back, not unlike the concussion blasts from the old RuptureFarms grenades. He had to throw one hand over his face to keep the stinging rain of particles out of his face.
When he could finally open his eyes, he gaped. The Keuja was –
* * *
Stranger slapped the DEACTIVATE button and the Snoozers stopped firing.
The Steef finally let out the breath he’d been holding. He was battered and burned and wanted to go to sleep or die, but he had managed to come through the storm of Snoozer lazers with his life intact…well, mostly so.
“Now, where’s the reprogramming control…” he murmured, as he bent over the armchair.
He had dealt with creatures like the Keuja before – none so big or deadly as this one, but creatures with thick armor plating. The best weapon to deal with them was electricity, and the closest store of electricity he knew of was the Snoozers.
If only he could reroute their processors to –
“There,” he said, and tapped a button. A small keypad unfolded out of the armrest, and he punched in Obey the Steef.
Then he reactivated the Snoozers.
Dozens of the mechanical monsters, terrorizing to the Glukkon slaves, powered back on again, their optical receptors focusing on him.
Stranger grinned. This was exactly what they needed to win the fight – a hundred machines with enormous electric guns! He pointed at the doors to the throne room.
“There’s a huge monster…outside the front gates,” he said. “Destroy it and leave everything else alone.”
The Snoozers did not reply, nor could they. Instead, they turned toward the door and began to clack their way across the throne room floor –
Then the air rumbled with the sound of an explosion, and the ground shook slightly under the palace.
“What was—!” Stranger bellowed.
* * *
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