When Salem, the girls, and their recruits arrived at the city, it was eerily quiet.
There was not a single person in sight, which was a red flag in Salem's opinion.
Salem had the girls gather their recruits close to him so that they could protect them if need be.
Above them, Salem saw what seemed to be a blimp.
"Above us." He said, pointing to the blimp. "Seems like it's transporting something."
As observed the suspicious flying object, it activated a search light.
"Seems they have electricity.'' Salem said, unfazed. "Should we break out some weapons?"
Alina held out her hand.
"Okay." Salem laughed heartily, making her a compound bow that looked like it had been carved from bones, along with arrows that looked like sharpened femurs of a human.
Salem then made a pure white sword that also looked like it was carved from bleached bone for Ruby.
Salem made an assault rifle that he modeled after Necrochasm from Destiny.
As soon as he finished, the floodlight reached them.
Salem had their cloaks and wings quickly transition to a brilliant white, abruptly illuminating a quarter of the city.
The blimp cut the ties to the load it was carrying. The box it was carrying hit the street next to them with so much force that it created a crater.
Looking into the crater, Salem saw a massive, humanoid hunk of metal that began moving as soon as it saw him.
It was three meters tall, clearly made of steel, had narrow slits that looked like eyes, and had some exposed machinery.
Every movement was accompanied by a mechanical whirring and steam from valves at its shoulders.
Salem pointed his gun at it and proceeded to empty a clip into it, aiming for the narrow slits that he assumed were eye holes.
Unfortunately, although he managed to hit the eye holes more than twice, they merely lodged themselves within the holes.
The mech moved with caution, as its sight was very limited and the person inside clearly didn't want to trip.
Alina nocked an arrow and released it into the eye slit of the mech, knocking the bullet aside and piercing whatever was inside.
The mech collapsed into a heap, not even attempting to move.
"They should have at least put glass to protect the head." Salem remarked, shaking his head in dissapointment.
As soon as the first mech was defeated, three more were dropped from the blimp.
"Okay, that doesn't make sense." Salem said, looking at all of the boxes hanging beneath the blimp. "How many mechs do they have?"
Salem started to get a bad feeling.
....
Inside the airship, Mon was happily observing the Shadows.
Sure, they had beaten one of his mechs, but that was just one mech.
"Send three mechs every ten seconds." Mons shouted at the airship operator.
The airship operator released three mechs by pressing three buttons on the massive one hundred by one hundred grid of buttons.
Now, four of the buttons were no longer glowing, signifying that they had successfully been deployed.
....
Salem watched from below as another wave of three mechs was deployed.
When these three mechs were deployed, he noticed something different about these mechs.
"These mechs have guns in their hands." Salem warned the others. "Make sure your cloak covers all of you, or you might get injured."
Abruptly, another three mechs touched down behind them.
"This could be bad." Alina said. "I want to try my new class. Can I?"
"Why are you asking for permission?" Salem asked.
"Fair." She shrugged. "I'm just used to looking to you for what to do next."
Salem tried to use his nanomachines to devour one of the mechs, but the metal they used was very resistant to his nanobots and was clearly not steel.
"I can't use my nanobots to dissolve their outside." Salem said.
"So use your nanobots and put them through the eye holes." Ruby said. "You're the smartest idiot I've ever met."
Salem smiled and started attacking through the eye holes.
The mechs dropped like puppets with their strings cut.
....
Mon, observing the battle, cursed aloud, seeing the mechs die one after the other.
"Use the most advanced mechs we have!" He yelled at the airship operator. "We can't waste lives like this!"
Mon had no qualms about sending men to their deaths, but he couldn't easily train new mech pilots; he needed to keep as many pilots as possible because it was very expensive to train them.
....
Salem observed the mechs fall from the blimp once more.
The ten mechs fell in the pattern of bowling pins, immediately facing the small group of Shadows.
These mechs were very different from the previous mechs that were thrown at them.
These mechs were two and a half meters tall, completely white, sleek in design, and had no eyeholes; just a completely smooth facemask.
Salem tried using his nanobots to search for openings in their armour, but to no avail. They seemed to be sealed off from the rest of the world.
The mechs raised their arms to fire, causing Salem to use his nanobots to raise a thick wall of metal.
The metal was dented from the sheer firepower of the munitions they fired.
Salem made a cylinder of metal around them while the mechs reloaded in concert.
"I think I'm going to need to class up here." Salem said. "I can't use my nanobots to dissolve their armour, and they're completely sealed from the rest of the world, so I can't target their bodies."
"We'll cover you." Ruby said determinedly.
Salem nodded, concerned that he may have bitten off more than he could chew.
"I'll entrust my body to you, then." He said, initiating his class up.
Immediately, shadows coalesced around him, entering his body and exploring it, as if it were trying to see if he was worthy.
Alina saw that he had initiated his class up and watched Ruby jump on top of the wall, wishing that she had learned how to use magic so she could use spells on her arrows.
Ruby began casting sword spells with wild abandon, scorching the metal of the mechs, barely giving pause.
Seeing this, Ruby jumped down and started directly slashing at the mechs, partially melting them in places, slowing them down and buying them time.
Alina cursed her inability to use spells and jumped out to fight with her scythe, along with the recruits.
Although they did very little damage, they were able to slow the advance of the mechs.
Behind them, a massive shadow coalesced, enshrouding the cylinder in an inky darkness.
The recruts struggled mightily against the mechs, but to no avail. All they could do was take hits and dish out paper cuts.
Alina did better, but she knew that if she got hit, she'd struggle to keep up her previous pace.
Ruby struggled to defend against the onslaught of fists and exploding bullets. She was able to melt some of the metal, but couldn't get them to slow down as much as she wanted.
Ruby was able to hold her own, until she got hit in the side by an explosive round, sending her flying into the metal cylinder, denting it slightly.
"Ruby!" Alina shouted, disengaging and running to her side. "Are you all right?"
The recruits, who were struggling to survive against these mechs, were hit by shells and thrown aside like unwanted toys.
The mechs started firing at the two girls, one of whom was incapacitated.
Alina picked up Ruby and moved at the fastest speed she could, avoiding the shells and saving Ruby's life.
"Thank you." Ruby said, coughing up blood.
"We're not in the clear yet." Alina said gravely.
"It looks like it's the end of the line for us if Salem doesn't complete his class up." Ruby said, continuing to cough.
"Don't say that!" Alina exclaimed. "We need to be able to hold our own if we want to walk across worlds with him."
"Alina?" Ruby asked.
"What?" Alina responded, avoiding another volley of explosive shots.
"In the beginning I didn't like you very much." Ruby said quietly. "At first I figured I would work with you for the betterment of those Salem had freed. I had viewed working with you as a necessity, nothing more."
"When I started making my advances on Salem, I viewed you as a threat." Ruby continued, coughing once more. "But after he accepted both of us, I've come to see you as more than a just a friend. You're more than an ally, and I've come to think of you as a sister."
Alina continued dodging, no longer able to prevent the mechs from advancing.
"If we are to die here...At least I will die protecting the man I love and the woman I had the fortune of calling my sister." Alina said, moving back towards the cylinder.
Alina grew more and more sluggish as she continued dodging, an unconscious Ruby still in her arms.
Alina's leg was struck by a shell, breaking it and rendering her immobile.
Alina lay splayed on the ground with Ruby across her stomach and wished she had gotten further with her relationship with both Ruby and Salem.
"If I am to die here, I will die in defiance." Alina said, trying to get up.
She crawled to her knees, and made as if to get up.
Before she could, one of the mechs punched her, sending her soaring into the air, before landing on the lip of the cylinder, snapping her spine, and collapsing onto the ground like a puppet with no puppeteer.