"Eyes on the target," Victor said into his intercom. He hid at a vantage point overlooking the target.
From there, several meters ahead, a menacing-looking version of the Mammoth was stationed with a large crystal deposit behind it. It was the size of a large hill.
That was the Crawler, the Machine's equivalent of the Mammoth. Around it was a bunch of plasma cannons erected atop pedestals. They were a total of twelve.
Apart from the tower cannons, there were also a bunch of mobile vehicles patrolling the periphery. They had a structure similar to how a tank would look if it was designed like a scorpion with pincers and an upright tail with a crystallized tip.
"Security is not as tight as we had expected. Tanya, how's it going with the calculation?" "The Crawler had taken a little over one-third of the crystal deposit."
Tanya was similarly positioned at a vantage point, but her view focused on the crystal hill instead of enemy forces. "Reyes, begin fire." Elena's voice came through the speaker.
Reyes dug out a little hole for himself, aiming his gun squarely at the Crawler. He loaded a bullet the size of his index finger into the sniper and corked it.
"Taking the shot now."
***Pew***
It shot out like a straight beam of light, moving towards its target at an incredible speed. He had made use of the Caliber.96 sniper round that had the potential to be extremely lethal.
With his low cultivation, it was a good bullet to make use of. Of course, making use of just one of such lethal strike rounds was draining to his core. Just one bullet took a whopping twenty percent of his core base.
A Guardian could never allow his tachyon core gauge to get below twenty percent. That was the unwritten rule that they followed.
The bullet streaked past the air and just as it got close to the tower cannons, it slammed into a formless shield and introduced a small crack in it. "Just as Elena predicted."
He hadn't taken the shot to destroy the Crawler. After all, that would be impossible. No matter how strong he was, he couldn't take down the Mammoth in a single shot, talk more of a much troublesome Crawler.
Elena had anticipated more defensive measures put in place. This attack was only to test that theory. Of course, it came with risks of its own.
[Intruder alert.] It was sent out as a signal to all the Scorpion units patrolling the periphery. Without wasting a second, they turned in the direction Reyes had shot from and made a beeline for him.
"Shit, they are coming." He quickly packed up his stuff and began to retreat. Alas, he was a step too late as they caught up to him within a few breaths. "Somebody help me!!" Reyes was shameless enough to cry out.
He was a Sniper, there was no way he would engage in close combat. That was the exact reason he chose the class, to avoid close combat.
***Whir***
His eyes widened as he watched the first Scorpion charge up its crystal tail. It would seem they made use of the tail to discharge lasers. One shot and he would be sent out of the game and regarded as dead.
"F*CK!!" He cursed as he prepared to shoot down the Scorpion. "Lightning spear: Thor's might." A revolving spear moved past his head and slammed into what one would assume to be the Machine's head.
***Boom***
"Ugh." Reyes groaned as he was blasted back by the shockwave of the explosion. "Hey, watch were you throw that thing." Jeremiah showed up, dropping at the position his spear had stabbed at. He pulled it out and threw a glance at Reyes.
"You should run now. Cowards such as yourself would only hold me back." He attempted to look like the hero but his stuck-up attitude was just not helping his cause.
"Let me assist you." "No need." He dashed forth with his spear. It almost looked as though he was planning on taking on all thirty Scorpion units heading their way.
[Threat detected. Eliminate.] They all attacked at the same time, their tails charging as they aimed for Jeremiah. "…" He was unable to leap away in time.
***Pew*** ×30
They all shot at him with such precision that if it were to hit, a hole would surely form in all his vital points. Within a second, the area where he stood was blown up.
***Boom***
"Don't make me do that again," Victor said sternly, a frown on his face. Jeremiah felt the need to bury his face in the dirt at that moment.
Victor had activated [Racers wheel.] This was an exclusive skill for the Spy class, making extreme use of their need for speed. It manifested as two plate-like wheels that attached to the side of their feet and granted them lightning-fast movement.
It ignored the law of friction and allowed them to achieve the fastest speed possible. Of course, this relied heavily on the amount of tachyon that could be poured into it.
Of course, since they were not making use of their Guardian suit, this manifested instead as flaming wheels rotating below Victor's feet. Just a single use was enough to drain his core by almost thirty percent, he was not happy.
[Multiple targets discovered. Requesting assistance to eliminate.] "Eh." Reyes gulped saliva as he heard this.
"You guys need to fall back now!!" Tanya's voice came through the intercom. "The Crawler is producing more of those Scorpion units."
"Ah." They had realized something from the little exchange they had just experienced with the Scorpion unit.
One was that they were extremely fast. Their sleek design and light armor allowed them to cross long distances in the blink of an eye.
The second was that they were more precise in the elimination of targets judging by how they had acted.
They aimed directly for Jeremiah's vital spot to end the exchange in one move while also making use of their numbers to reduce his chances of escaping to less than possible.
Of course, they had their flaws, one being the amount of time they took to shoot out each laser beam but that was beside the point. They still hadn't seen them use their pincers after all.
"Remain in position, backup is heading your way," Elena ordered. "This is such a drag," Reyes said but ultimately still moved back to get into position.
"Let me down." Victor took one look at Jeremiah before abruptly freeing him from his hold, causing him to land rather awkwardly. "I said gently!!"
Victor did not bother with a response as he reached down into his pants and inserted his hands into something before he pulled them out.
On both hands was what looked like a metal stick with a protrusion in the middle which he held onto. The front end of the stick was facing downwards with his fist.
The back end rested on his arm, pointing up to his elbows. He let out a breath as he gripped the stick tightly.
With a thought, the stick suddenly turned blue after which two blade-shaped tachyon beams erupted from both ends of the stuck.
They glowed a light shade of blue and looked strangely menacing in his grasp. He promptly deactivated the flaming wheels and dug his feet into the Earth.
Jeremiah watched him, completely speechless. For a moment, he was astounded by the way Victor handled himself. It looked pretty cool, but he did not want to admit it.
Thus, he rose to his feet and walked over to his side. He spun his spear and aimed it at the Scorpion units, assuming a rather showy stance. Victor only took one glance at him, revealing a smirk after which he dashed forward.
At that moment, the fight officially started.
The Scorpions seemed to have switched their settings as they began to rapid-fire, their shots digging deep into the Earth. Victor ran around them, well aware he could not approach them carelessly.
He was waiting for the right opportunity. And it promptly came.
***Pew***
A blue streak of light went past him and struck the Scorpion at the forefront of the group. The force with which it hit was so much that it caused it to buckle back and break up the formation the Machines had taken.
***Boom***
The Scorpion exploded, causing further disturbance to the formation. Victor took this opportunity to close in on them, Jeremiah following after.
He slashed a Scorpion and stabbed it again, blowing it up. Even if their armor was light, it would take more than a casual strike to destroy them.
Reyes had used yet another Caliber.96, bringing his core quantity to sixty percent. That was a dangerous number, considering the battle had only just begun.
He wasn't too worried though, backup was on its way and all he had to do was wait for a little while. So he switched to rapid-fire and aided Jeremiah and Victor as they made quick work of the Scorpions.
"Incoming, a hundred Scorpions are headed your way right now." Tanya's warning through the intercom was enough to dampen their hope by just a little. A hundred was indeed an extreme number to face in a head-on assault.