Between the three of us, we were able to keep the construct from leaving, which it seemed to want to do – I presumed the witch was trying to call it into a retreat.  We blocked it every time it tried, however, and meanwhile I could tell Knox’s Hunter weapons and Ren’s dark magic were doing something to it – it seemed to be moving slower and not using one of its arms as readily, from what I could tell.  It was still hard to narrow down where it was and what it was doing.

That was, until Sophie returned and cast her counter-spell.  Now we could more easily see the indentation in the ground from where the construct stood, and while it was still silent, just being able to see where its feet were made a huge difference.  I continually cast ice at it, trying to force it to slow down and keep it from being able to move much so Ren could try to attack it with his dark magic.  I would have liked to encase the entire thing in a block of ice, but I wasn’t sure I had that much magic in me and preferred to keep smaller amounts for a longer period than try to send it all out in a rush, especially if it didn’t work.

Out of the corner of my eye, I spotted Ren pause and glance backwards, to where Riven was.  I was about to yell at him to pay attention when he turned back to the construct and, to my surprise, I realized his eyes were gray.

Ren’s eyes weren’t normally gray, they were a shade of blue.  Riven, however, had gray eyes, and he’d told me he’d wanted to try to figure out how to lend Ren his vision so he could use it during the fight.

I saw Ren’s eyes narrow in on the invisible construct.

“Hold it as still as possible!”  He shouted.  His eyes were fixed on a spot I couldn’t see – but with Riven’s vision, he could likely see its magical heart, the one thing keeping it “alive,” as it were.

I decided this was worth using a bigger burst of magic and formed a large block around the construct’s feet and knees, forcing it to hold still.  I was about to use more for its body when, on the other side of the construct, Knox managed to catch what was likely its arm with his whip and for a moment, it seemed like the construct was stuck, struggling to escape.

Ren took advantage of that moment, took a deep breath, and let out a surge of concentrated dark magic at the construct.

For a moment, there was just silence, then the sound of metal creaking as the construct flickered into sight, a massive hole in its shoulder where its heart no longer was.  With a loud thunk, it fell over – freed of my ice and Knox’s whip – and held still, an empty shell of a once dangerous weapon.

Sophie came running over to it while Ren headed in Riven’s direction, Knox trailing after him.

“Whoa!”  Sophie nudged the construct with her foot.  “Riven was right, it is kind of like a robot!  And…we beat it!  Well, you guys, mostly, but still!  It’s, uh, permanently dead, right?  It can’t get back up and attack us?”

I leaned over to look in the hole in its shoulder.  “No more heart,” I confirmed.  “It lost all its power.”

“We get to study it now, right?”  Sophie looked at me hopefully.  “I know it’s dangerous and all, and I’m not trying to make one, but we need to know how to defeat them if others appear and studying it might be helpful for that.”

“That sounds reasonable to me.”  There was already a possibility that there was another construct active – the naga one – so anything we could learn from this one about how to kill others would be useful.  Not to mention, we didn’t want the shell of this thing to fall into the wrong hands just in case someone could figure out how to make another magical heart and start it up again.  I doubted it would work, honestly – I was pretty sure whatever magic had been bound to it to turn it into a weapon against fairies had died along with the heart, so even if it was reactivated it would have no specific magic anymore, but still, I didn’t want to take that risk.

“We did it!”  Ren announced as the boys neared us, a smile on his face as his eyes were back to their normal color.

I glanced at the three of them and both Sophie and me, minimally injured, and felt their enthusiasm spread to me.  “We did.  I think we’re all entitled to go home and celebrate now.”

At least, I really hoped we were.  It would feel good to celebrate this win and putting an end to the threat against fairies.