Prime flew to the Grunt that still had his left fist stuck in the torso's glass layer that covered the pilot chamber, preparing to strike it. Before he could reach the enemy Mecha, a stray bullet struck him.
The sheer force of the massive bullet was enough to send Prime flying backwards until he crashed into a metal crate all the way on the other side of the rig. Prime stood back up while Jamie was shocked at the power of a single bullet.
"Shit! His chest is dented!"
Sure enough, there was a large dent on the left side of Prime's chest. Seeing something roll next to Prime from a distance, Jamie made him pick it up, which turned out to be steel construction poles.
"How's this for bullets?"
Aiming at one uninjured Grunt, Prime threw the pole like a spear, which cracked the glass layer but not breaking it. Fortunately, Prime threw three more immediately after, the first two cracking and breaking the glass, and the last one nailing the cop piloting it square in the chest, pinning her corpse to the pilot's chair.
[You have killed a Level 17 Dynamos Cop]
Dodging the gunfire from the three remaining Grunts, Prime ended up near some injured but alive officers, immediately getting blasted with laser fire.
"Let's test out that Cloak Projector."
As the remaining Grunts also turned their attention to Prime, what looked like screws all over his body began to light up, before suddenly he disappeared from view. The cops around him showed confused faces, warily looking around for the Mecha.
Suddenly, one of them was attacked, an invisible force sending him flying across the rig and crashing into a large cylinder, breaking the glass. The blood that pooled around the cop's head indicated he wasn't getting up anytime soon.
Inside the cylinder, the inky black substance slowly moved out of the crack and attached itself to the corpse that set it free. With the current chaos, this action went unnoticed.
The rest were alerted by the unseen attack, but a wave of fire appeared out of nowhere, roasting them all. Ignoring the kill notifications, Prime reappeared near the Grunts, Jamie having deactivated the Cloak Projector.
This time, Prime was coated in yellow electricity, the currents constantly shifting around him. Next to him, a large drill made of wind spun, roaring loudly and blowing away nearby corpses and debris. It was a combination of the Electric Armor and newly evolved Wind Drill spells!
The Wind Drill flew towards one Grunt while Prime dashed towards the one with his left fist in it. The third Grunt tried to shoot, but Prime interrupted it with a Water Wave, disorienting the pilot.
As he reached the Grunt with his fist in the glass, he started punching near the cracks. As for the Wind Drill, it faced resistance against the glass for around 2 seconds before penetrating it and piercing the pilot cop. The cop released a scream, the sound of a blender becoming audible as the drill expanded, painting the inside of the Grunt red before it expanded further and tore chunks out of the Mecha itself.
[You have destroyed a Level 76 DG-287]
[You have killed a Level 19 Dynamos Cop]
[Mecha Core has leveled up!]
[You have gained Attribute Points.]
Meanwhile, Jamie disabled the Electric Armor as it was needlessly draining his mana, losing 3 mana after just six seconds. He thought it would help break the glass, but it seemed to be ineffective.
Recovering, the Grunt that was hit with the Water Wave quickly opened fire at Prime, ignoring the presence of his fellow Grunt behind him. Jamie snorted as Prime flew in the air casually to dodge. The Grunt that was left alone was pitifully destroyed by his fellow Grunt's gunfire, the heavy shots quickly punching holes in the glass layer and metal frame, along with the pilot cop inside it.
"Damn, that doesn't count as my kill." Jamie smacked his forehead.
In the air, Prime looked down at the final Grunt remaining. Through the transparent glass, he saw the anger on the face of the cop inside the pilot chamber. Deciding to finish this, Prime raised his arm.
"Bubble Trap."
From the Water Wave earlier, the Grunt was soaking wet and standing in a large puddle. The moment the spell was cast, that water rose into the air alongside the Grunt before forming a giant bubble with the Mecha trapped inside. The Grunt tried to shoot the bubble, but to no avail. The pilot inside waved his arms in anger, but his fate was sealed.
Snapping his metal fingers, Prime made the bubble compress to the size of a baseball, immediately crushing the Grunt and the pilot inside it before the bubble popped, leaving behind a small, metal ball.
[You have destroyed a Level 71 DG-298]
[You have killed a Level 15 Dynamos Cop]
"Huh, why are the Grunts named like that? With the letters and numbers?"
With everyone dead and mana to spare, Jamie stepped out of the booth and approached the corner where Prime just landed, picking up the metal ball that was once a large Mecha. Surprisingly, the notification expanded.
[DG-298 follows the Mecha naming convention, where the letters signify the manufacturer and the series of the Mecha and the numbers indicate the order in which it was made.]
[In this case, DG stands for the Dynamos Grunt series, and the numbers 298 mean it was the 298th Grunt created.]
"Huh. If that's the case, what's Prime's name when going by the naming convention?" Tossing the ball in the air, Jamie asked the text, or status, or whatever this thing was in Prime.
He wasn't too bothered by the sudden conversation. He assumed it was similar to how his Pilot Link sends him knowledge related to mechas or magic whenever he encounters something new.
[Prime's name is G***** Prime Unit.]
[G***** Prime Unit is yet to be acknowledged.]
On that note, the screen closed, leaving Jamie confused again. "Well, so that appears to be your name. Really looks like we just gotta level up, buddy."
Walking off to check for survivors, Jamie failed to notice the sudden turn of Prime's head towards him, one that he didn't make the Mecha do.
After looking around for a few minutes, he saw nothing but corpses. Yawning, Jamie just walked around while waiting for Beck to arrive, watching the ocean and using the Attribute Points he gained from the fight.
"I leveled up twice, so let's just put it into Durability. If there are more Grunts in the middle class sector, I need to be able to tank those bullets."
Distributing the points, Jamie decided to check out some empty cylinder on one side of the rig. He scratched his neck, wondering what was in the cylinder, not paying attention to the corpse next to it. At least, not until the corpse suddenly yelled.
"ARGH!"
"Aah!"
Jamie yelled and stepped back in surprise as the corpse started convulsing, almost like a seizure. Slowly, the entire left side of the corpse began to turn black, stopping right down the middle. As the corpse's convulsions subsided, the body opened its eyes, the right side being a normal human brown while the left was a bright yellow dot in the middle of darkness.
"Augh…" The body released a groan that was morphed, like two voices stacked on top of each other as it rose to his feet. Spotting Jamie, the half-black man put his hands up in alarm. "WAIT! Don't kill me!"
"I-I, w-what? How?" Jamie sputtered dumbfounded. "You were dead!"
"This guy is dead, I'm just using his body." The man quickly gestured to himself. "I-I'm not a threat, by the way."
"You're not some secret Dynamos weapon or Wizard to kill me?" Jamie asked, quickly pulling out his pistol and aiming at him.
The man stepped back in fear upon seeing the pistol, making a big X with his arms. "Nooo sir, I am not. Look, I was just chilling, man! Then some people came and killed my body, grabbed me, and shoved me in some cylinder!"
"So you're not with Dynamos?" Jamie frowned.
"No! I don't even know what that is! I'm just trying to get out of here!"
Jamie stared at him for a few seconds, seeing the man get nervous. Suddenly, he shrugged and put away his pistol.
"I got no trouble with you, then. I'm just trying to get out of here, too." Jamie chuckled. The man relaxed upon hearing those words. He stepped forward and offered Jamie a handshake.
"Well, my name's Kayde."
"Jamie." He shook his hand. "By the way, what level are you? And what affinity do you have?"
"H-Huh?" Kayde stepped back upon seeing a weird glint in Jamie's eye. Fortunately, it disappeared as he blinked.
"I'm just kidding. So, if you don't mind me asking, what exactly are you?" Jamie walked around Kayde, looking at his left side, which was pure darkness. "Some kind of shadow man?"
"Pfft, you could say that." Kayde suppressed a laugh. "I'm from a species called the Shadekin. If you haven't heard of us, that's because we're primarily in the Dekos Galaxy."
"I see." Jamie nodded on the outside, but inwardly, he was freaking out.
'Holy shit! I'm talking to an alien, aren't I? Shadekin… forget about having heard of their species, this is the first non-human non-animal species I've heard of! And he's from a different galaxy? Man, the world is big…' Keeping his thoughts to himself, Jamie decided to ask a question.
"So, do you guys always attach to corpses? Or, do you just have to possess things?"
Kayde cleared his throat. "We have our own forms, even human ones. I just have to resort to corpse stealing because I'm still recovering from that ambush that got me captured. By the way, where am I? I know this isn't my galaxy, at least…"
"We're in a space colony called Old Orion, in the Milky Way."
"Milky Way, huh?" Kayde went into deep thinking for a bit, before shaking his head. "I gotta leave."
He glanced at something past Jamie before turning to him. "Jamie, right? You don't mind if I take two of those corpses behind you?"
"Uh, be my guest."
"Thanks."
Jamie watched as Kayde approached two corpses. The Shadekin suddenly bit into his left arm, tearing it open. He shook it, letting black liquid drip out of the open wound and onto the corpses. Before long, the corpses convulsed just like Kayde did, their sides also turning pitch black before rising back to life. One's left side was black like Kayde while the other's black side was on the right.
Not knowing to react, Jamie just left his mouth open.
"So, what direction leads to escape?"
"Uh…" Snapping out of it, Jamie thought about how Shell escaped Old Orion before giving directions. "Well, northwest from here is the middle sector, but if you want to leave Old Orion itself, I guess just fly up?"
"Hmm, ok." Nodding, Kayde suddenly turned to the two Shadekin he created, gesturing something to them.
Suddenly, a singular dark wing sprouted from their dark sides. Kayde stepped in between them, and they each picked up one of his arms before flapping their wings, taking to the sky.
"Hey Jamie! I owe you one for freeing me!" Kayde called down to him. "If you're ever in the Dekos Galaxy, I'll find you! Till we meet again!"
Jamie dumbfoundedly waved at the flying trio until they were out of sight. Once they were gone, Jamie released a deep breath while running his hands through his hair, forgetting to turn on his ghost hand from how he was still processing Kayde's arrival and sudden departure.
"What the hell just happened?"