Five frost-traps and five explosive-traps under her arms, Flora used the turrets as a springboard and jumped.
She landed in the middle of the attackers. With a quick turn, she spread the traps around her.
"Don't!"
Brandishing her plasma-sword, she attacked the leg of the grey batticle next to her. It had a similar loadout than Mia's, a sword, a shield, and a laser on its cockpit, missing only the gun-suit.
"Hurt!"
A jet of fire engulfed Flora. A blue batticle with two flamethrowers instead of arms had attacked.
Flora regretted that she hadn't lowered the pain settings after the Pyramid-Scenario. Even fifty percent of the pain of getting burned was not pleasant.
"My!"
She rolled to the side and came up after a sweeping kick on the legs of the mech-suit user.
"Aitoshuri!" Repressing the pain, she shouted the last word. She was on a mission! Those bastards should focus on her and not Aito!
Flora recognized the model of the mech-suit in front of her and the user. It was the sleek assassin, the same base model she was using, donned by the female spotter. Of course, she knew its weak points as well as buttered toast. Grinning, Flora slashed at her arm.
"We will destroy everybody we want, bitch!" screeched the mech-girl.
A sword hit Flora's side, emptying her lungs of air and pushing her away from the woman. She gasped and dove away.
"We are the owners of this ring!" the mech-girl continued.
Flora had trained herself to stay moving, but implementing it in a real fight raised the challenge. Her somersault had no aim, and she needed a second to orient herself.
"You are nothing but cowards. How do you fare when the shields are up?" Something clicked in Flora's mind. "So you destroyed the shields! Otherwise, trash like you wouldn't have a chance."
The crowd murmured, and somebody yelled: "Last week, the shields broke down, too, and Chooper won the Melee!"
Flora agreed with the audience. Those punks misbehaved and earned their ass beating.
Right next to her, she found the blue flame thrower. Frost sprinkled its hull. An ice-trap had slowed down his movements.
She stepped behind it, using it as cover. With a flurry of strikes, she hit its knees where she could see wires.
'Building joints is an art-form your creator wasn't familiar with.'
A blastwave lanced by electric sparks originated from Flora and damaged the hostile machines.
The Mech-Suit user rounded the batticle and slashed Flora with a katana while sprouting more nonsense.
From the other side, the second batticle was approaching. The Badmoves surrounded Flora, and her health-bar was close to bottoming out.
"Time to get out of here."
Flora ported to her turrets. Immediately, she channeled Cluster Maintenance, repairing them, her mech-suit, and the octopus.
The blue machine was still chilled, and the mech-girl occupied with the manual, but the grey batticle followed her. However, it stepped on an explosive trap and veered backward.
"Beep!" Aitoshuri marked Chooper. He glowed in the same color as Flora.
"He is repairing his friends!" Flora exclaimed.
"Beep..." answered Aito, which Flora translated into, "You are stating the obvious. Why do you think I'm shooting at him the whole time?"
"Aidan, focus the turrets on Chooper."
Flora threw mini lightning bolts from her plasma sword into the group and activated the Rapid Fire skill of her tower.
Poisoned darts joint the attack from InsertMeme's porcupine. Finally, her teammate had acted. Not only had he targeted the healer, but also the mech-girl faceplanted because a steel net wrapped around her legs.
When Chooper despawned, Flora concentrated the attacks on her. But then she remembered Aito's superior battle instincts.
"From now on, it's your job to select the next target, Aito."
This time, the AI agreed with her assessment and marked the mech-girl with a skull above her head.
The two batticles sprinted to Flora, breaking the line of sight to the skull. But Flora wouldn't let them.
This skill was another gem from the driver's collection. It enabled cars to drive over everything. Applied to Flora's mech-suit, it allowed her to trample over the batticle, shattering the protective glass of its cockpit.
After reaching the top of the vehicle, she jumped down, directly on the mech-girls stomach.
"I'm too nice," murmured Flora as the girl vanished. "I should have aimed for her head."
"Beep," agreed Aito. She had targeted the driver's head after the windshield broke and took him out.
The blue batticle was fleeing, but InsertMeme's spider shot another net at his feet.
A request to assist the Blade-Roller came from Aidan.
While Flora answered Aidan's pings, her other robots destroyed the last enemy.
The crowd cheered. With everyone dead, they dared to curse the Badmoves.
Smiling, InsertMeme Here appeared behind his cover.
"That went well!"
"Yes, thank you for your help." Flora took out a paper a copied the blueprint for him.
Before the ink had dried, Insert snatched the document out of Flora's hand and scanned it.
"Haha! If you need a hand again, hit me up. I'm always looking for interesting blueprints." He sent Flora a friend request.
"Sure. My robot is still in the melee. See you." Flora cut it short. She was eager to go back to the melee. Aidan wouldn't disturb her fight if the situation wasn't dire.
Engrossed in the diagrams, Inny mumbled a reply.
Flora returned on top of the turrets.
Not only had Flora's health dropped down to twenty percent, but her mech-suit was also dented, the octopussy and the turrets stood on the junkyard's door, while a jousting drone broke her Blade-Roller's saw blades.
But she was in high spirits.
"I believe I'm getting used to all this violence, sweeties."
Skeptically, Aito beeped while Aidan pinged he needed healing.
The robot fought two opponents at once, a black jousting drone and a book with spider legs and a worm on top.
The rest of the arena was a mess; broken drones littered the area. Apart from the three machines, only smoke was moving on the floor.
Flora watched the fight with growing concern.
One of the Blade-Rollers sawblades stuck in the worm's mouth, the other between the jaws of the book. Both weren't able to move.
As the Bookworm pinned Aidan down, the jousting drone harassed him, jabbing the core.
"Aito, suggestions, please."
The AI answered with a data stream to Aidan and pinged Flora for a skill.
A yellow flame lunged out of the Blade-Roller, scorching the Bookworm. Maybe because the fire had damaged the drone's teeth and, therefore, their grip loosened, the Blade-Roller was able to spin its saws again.
"Go for it, Aidan!" Flora cheered.
What once was a disadvantaged position, had turned into a boon. The Blade-Roller sliced off the head of the worm and shredded the innards of the book.
Another opponent down, one more to go.
Broken blades and bent arms gave the Blade-Roller a pitiful appearance. It needed not only a simple repair but a complete overhaul and restoration.
Because the healing command was still on cooldown, Flora activated Hurry Up, followed by Human-Machine-Connection.
"Play for time, Aidan."
The jousting drone was faster, but Aidan was agile. He took sharp turns around the wreckage or even hopped over it, while the chasing drone had to make a detour.
The audience booed at Flora's cowardly behavior, but she didn't care. She had earned the respite.
At last, the cooldown for Grease with Life's blood ran out, and she recast it while drinking another health potion. Her level 100+ stamina regen had filled her up to 30 percent, and the medicine added another 50 points, raising her bar to half full.
When Flora's mana ran dry, the Blade-Roller was up to 60% health. Chugging a mana potion, Flora gave the command to attack.
Aidan jumped at the top of the drone and started sawing. The lance sprang up, but Aidan was the class representative of Aitoshuri's Supreme School of kicking, and he always paid attention to the lessons.
Emulating Aito's maneuver against Mia, he clamped down on the lance with multiple saws. The blades bit deep into the bar.
The drone buckled, but Aidan's grip didn't falter until he cut the lance off. The upper part of the spear and the Blade-Roller tumbled down.
Now, the drone had lost its primary weapons. It tried to ram the Blade-Roller, but Aidan danced around it.
Slice for slice, he dismantled the drone until it yielded to the Blade-Roller's advances.
"And the winner of the weekly Battle Royal is the Blade-Roller-Extreme created by Flowing Flowers!"
At the medal ceremony, Oreo Kobenhavn, an albino guy dressed in black, and Rabid Reader, an older female with glasses, got small trophies.
Flora obtained a hip-high monster, a goblet held up by a pile of drones.
"Haha, week of the grannies, ey?" Tamara, the commentator, said. Flora just rolled her eyes and pocket the trophy, while the bookish woman berated Tamara about ageism.
Flora had no time to waste. She wanted to link all her classes at last, and she only had today to accomplish it. For this, she needed to obtain the class Technomancer.
The first step had been winning the Robot-Melee. For the next step, she had to hand in the quest in the Garage.
Before she could teleport away, an official caught up with her. His skin shone in a metallic red, and he wore the same uniform as the guy who injected Aidan into the Blade-Roller.
"I have been notified you accused members of the clan Badmove of tampering with the shields. Do you have any proof?"
"No, sir. I'll send you the video's of them targeting the player they fought inside the arena on the outside. Their approach was planned and systematical. Coupled with the claims of superiority of their leader, I deduced they were behind the malfunction."
"We have them captive and sent for a paladin to interrogate them. Can you join the trial as a witness?"
"Urgh. Only if I have to, I'm busy for the next few days. If I stay away, does it affect the probability of them getting convicted?"
The official surveyed Flora's videos before he answered. "I think the footage is sufficient."
"Great. By the way, what are the consequences if they are guilty?"
"Their permission to occupy the premise will be revoked and a massive reputation loss with all the Arenas on Panem Et Ludis."
"Not bad."
Porting over to the Garage, she looked for the foreman Snoralga in his office.
"You're back, and how did the Melee go for you?"
Flora showed him the trophy.
"Nice work, lady. Finally, we have a candidate those MI guys can't complain about. And lady, don't let them put you down. Those nerds think they're all high and mighty, but they build their stuff out of the same metal we all do."
Flora nodded. She loved to brag but preferred to do it after she succeeded. It was a question of style, not of lack of confidence.
Quest: The Quality of Education (The Garage)
Description: Convince the Magetech Institute of the quality of work of the representatives of the Garage. That means you.
Restriction: You can only attempt this quest once.
Possible Rewards: Reputation gains with the MI and the Garage
Possible Penalties: Reputation loss with the MI and the Garage
Difficulty: A
Snoralga transferred a recommendation letter to her batch and wished her good luck.
"Do you have any advice?"
His eyes darted to the octopussy.
"Yeah, if you have more helpers like this one, take them with you."
Flora returned to her lair.
More helpers? No problem!
She printed two more forklift robots and three more octopussies. The squids didn't incorporate refined materials for their hull, but she had enough for the skeletons.
After she refilled her potions and traps and repaired the rest of her equipment, she took a deep breath.
Her experiences in the Cetviwos had taught her not to underestimate A-rated quests, but she felt ready, even excited.