The Path Guardian's sudden awakening startles Leslie as it moves with speeds comparable to Graham's slashes. She's in the middle of forming her crystal gauntlets when its fist is coming towards her head. It's a lucky break when a pink barrier forms to block the attack. Alloy saved her from a massive blow. "Thanks! This thing is faster than it looks."
"No problem, I will support you two from here." Alloy says, forming two orbs of pink lights that float by her. She sends out these orbs towards the guardian and restrains it by forming bindings made of those pink force fields like the barriers. It struggles to break out but the bindings hold strong against its raw strength.
Caelan hesitates for a moment seeing a path guardian being active. It's a historical artifact of their people but it's a threat if it attacks random people. They have to rush forward with their twin swords and slashes into its tough armored body. This thing has a tougher body than the forest master, No It's way more tougher!
"How tough is this thing!?" Leslie yells out loud before throwing a series of punches into its armor. Each one causes her crystals to fracture and chip, A whole other level than those monsters! The metal doesn't really feel aged or worn at all. She's shocked that the moss isn't even that deep inside this armor. "What the hell is this thing made of!?"
"Keep it distracted, I'm going to hack into the guardian!" Alloy forms a hologram screen to attempt getting into the machine's systems. It's a familiar android programming to her own body, so she's able to tap in fairly easily to its control signal. The binds become looser from her focus being on getting through the firewall.
The path guardian's eye glows a brighter yellower and it struggles against the binds even harder with sparks coming from the joints. A humming sound comes out of it before the bindings break and its arms swing towards Leslie. She couldn't avoid it on time from a massive pain in her stomach coming at a horrible time. Its forearm sends her flying through a distant tree.
"What's wrong with me...." Leslie's pain worsens sitting up and a foul fluid leaks out of a worrying crack in her torso. She's absolutely stumped at seeing this but turns to see Caelan fending off that guardian without her help. She braces while standing up before dashing towards this guardian and uses her momentum for a stronger blow- She backs up from the pain of hitting it that hard.
The Guardian suddenly spins which sends both Leslie and Caelan flying a few meters away from it. She was surprised to find it weakening. In fact, smoke is coming out of those thin cracks at the joints. She grins realizing that breaking out of Alloy's binds caused the joints to break down.
Alloy is slowly breaking through the security system. It's more complex than she assumed since she knows this type of code. The guardian starts charging towards her but Caelan jumps on its back to unleash a surge of electricity through its body. This stuns the massive machine for Leslie to knock it over with a powerful punch from the side
"Damn! I think that almost shattered my goddamn arm!" Leslie clutches her arm which is just covered in cracks from punching that hard on such a tough machine. She's lucky to have strangely durable bones since becoming a superhuman. She probably couldn't have knocked it over without Caelan's attack.
"I almost have it! Its fire wall is ver-" Alloy couldn't finish the sentence a quick beeping sound is heard before the guardian explodes into a fireball. She has little time but manages to form a barrier for her and the other two. It would've been life threatening if she was any slower. "That thing triggered its self destruct soon as I got in..."
"So, someone knew you would try hacking in?" Leslie is a bit relieved at knowing that the fight was over. Every fight with stronger things brings up how alien her new body is and hopes no one notices the foul stain on her side. A quick slap of mud helps hide it from being strange. She turns to Alloy who gets a yellow alert on that hologram screen. "Is something going on with that?"
"I think whoever controls the path guardians patched my way in..." Alloy seemingly cringes in pain from the blocker. It's impressive but alarming how fast that patch was made or... Did she want them to try it? Her eyes widened, noticing something happened with the ship's database. "Why would... That's strange..."
The ground rumbles beneath them as tree's off in the distance get knocked down. Something even more giant than that path guardian with its humanoid shape shocking Caelan alongside the other two. It rivals those towers which rise from the ground, a terrifying titan of machinery and unknown alloys. The single yellow eye turns to them with the light beaming down on them.
"T--the Mountain Guardians are waking up!?" Caelan has a realization that this yellow color connects them to that spirit. A shocked expression turns to some form of anger. A few towers burst out from the earthen ground in the distance with faint figures of more Mountain Guardians. The one that loomed over them walks forwards and over them.
"Why is it just walking past us?" Leslie balls up her hands into fists as it passes by the group. She turns to Alloy who's confused at her screen since something got into the ship's data. That whole thing... Was it a trap!? Did they just play into something when Alloy hacked into that machine? A knot forms in her gut alongside that pain. "Damn it... What's going on this planet..."
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"Huh, I assumed those golem-type androids would keep their strength at that level of shields." A yellow A.I says in a dark room with old monitors and control panels. Her face widens its grin at the events which played out on that screen. She turns around towards what seems to be a man in a chair. "Doctor, my sister luckily visited! She has all kinds of map and ship data which will be very useful."
She floats closer to the so-called doctor and her golden yellow light reveals only bones in rotting clothes. It's been aged by hundreds of years and she rests her small fairy-like projection on the arm of his chair looking at the monitor showing information on those titian-type androids moving into place. "Oh, Jewels... Don't hide in the shadows, It's creepy~"
"Hehehe, I really can't hide from your sensors, Ms Gold." An insectoid with a human-like shape with a smooth exoskeleton. It shines like a jeweled beetle once the monitor's light hits his body. This monster's face appears as glossy white porcelain with a heavy semblance to human faces and wears a worn lab coat. "Your machines and beasts have done well to curb the rebellious monsters, For that you have my thanks."
"Oh~ It's nothing! I have to focus my remaining forces on find that calamity, so could you help me?" Gold turns towards Jewels with a grin as that screen changes to a live camera feed of Caelan's village. She was completely aware of that monster attack last night but something stopped it. "My rebellious little pawns aren't following my commands like they should... So, treat them like those rebel monsters."
"Oh, is that one of those villages where my underlings got repelled?" Jewels says walking up to the monitor and studies the view. A wick grin stretches across his face as an ominous aura fills this room. A twisted idea forms in his mind before turning back towards Gold. "With pleasure~"
Jewels laughs as he walks towards the darkness of the room and a tremor happens around this lab room. Gold looks up at the doctor's remains before softening her smile as words from him echoes in her memory. "Gold... Remember... My.... Now-" A series of glitches and corruptions dilutes his words, even his face. "Don't worry, I remember how they abandoned us and left you to rot."