The horror of her father's demise is still fresh in the girl's eyes, having watched his head explode from the telekinetic magic of a mage from the Ortodith kingdom while they hid in the basement.
The girl can barely keep her composure gripping the cylindrical containers her father gave to her before she and her mother hide as the soldier rummages through she's fathers library.
Even though it is still evident on their face of their sorrows the mother quickly grabs another cylindrical container and spear.
The mother opens a door that leads to a passage in their backyard.
As the mother gently strokes her daughter's hair to console her, she keeps a watchful eye on the Ortodith soldiers.
"I know your pain, Yuri, but for your father's sake, we need to get through this,"
She whispers to her daughter, who cries in silence, unable to release her anguish.
Seeing their home gets burned and illuminates its surroundings in the night a mother and daughter are shivering in fear while hiding in their backyard bushes.
Seeing her like this makes the mother feel helpless, but she puts up a front to keep Yuri from breaking down.
Sensing the soldiers are still after them, the mother helps Yuri stand, urging her to quickly run towards the outskirts of their village, covered by trees.
From afar the mother saw bodies of the villagers impaled on mounted pike from their mouth down to their bottom and hears the distant screams of her fellow villagers.
She quickly covers Yuri's eyes as they continue their escape, heading deeper into the forest.
The acrid smell of burning wood filled the air, mingling with the distant screams of villagers. The cylindrical container felt cool and heavy in Yuri's trembling hands
'At this rate we will be able to reach it by midnight'
Her husband discovered while digging in a cave for a source of coal.
A ginormous ancient weapon said once fought off the Echthrois to free them to their tyranny and to drive them out of earth well according to its description of records relics of the past.
Able to free its upper torso and its right arm through years of excavating and able to collected various mediums of records that can contain information about the weapon in purpose to repair it to its former glory.
he's pure will to be able to protect he's village and family when the inevitable future confrontation of his people and the ventus, he ventured to the Ortodith kingdom where there said to have what he needed a relics that is shaped cylindrically said to have an almost impenetrable container and containing poisonous metal.
Her husband seems able to secure it but is unable to see that he has become prey that has already eaten the bait of the Ortodith soldiers.
His way of securing his family's safety now becomes its downfall.
As the mother contemplates the decisions that led to their current predicament, she hears a familiar sound: a howl from a Draken wolf, an animal capable of growing up to four meters in length. She looks in the direction of the howl and sees an illuminated part of the forest.
"Yuri we have to run"
Yuri clung to her mother, her voice a trembling whisper. "Will we be safe, Mom?"
The mother forced a smile, brushing a tear from Yuri's cheek. "We will Yuri. We just have to keep moving."
The mother's heart ached, torn between grief for her husband and the fierce need to protect her daughter.
She had to stay strong, even as fear clawed at her insides.
The acrid smell of burning wood filled the air, mingling with the distant screams of villagers.
The cylindrical container felt cold and heavy in Yuri's trembling hands, a stark reminder of her father's final, desperate act to save them.
With determination, the mother and daughter pressed on, their steps quickening as the forest grew denser around them. Every rustle and shadow seemed to carry the threat of discovery, but the mother held onto the hope that they would find sanctuary before dawn.
The situation now became worse to the pair unable to rest Yuri's became more sluggish that the mother has no choice but to carry her while she herself is now starting to breakdown as she knows what faith awaits them if they were to be caught.
With her carrying both Yuri and the containers their pursuers are now very close to, still hoping to get through them the mother eventually reaches the cave.
Ignoring her bruised up feet caused by carelessly running through an uncleared path.
She uses a lighting relic to navigate the caves without a problem as she already travelled the caves with her husband.
She settled Yuri and the containers while she dispelled the magic tool that covers the weapon to hide it to potential scavengers.
The magic is dispelled revealing a gigantic torso of the relic adorned with angular thick armor plating its fist is in the size of two people standing on each shoulder. Even with its corroded appearance it still has an imposing presence that exudes strength and agility.
'I remember that there is a hidden lever in the gap on its plating chest'
She quickly finds it and the lever opens the weapons right chest plating exposing its inside.
Columns of similar cylindrical containers are inside.
She quickly removed the containers inside and replaced them with the one that they had.
She then pulls the lever again to hopefully start the weapon.
As she waited a minute the weapon still didn't have a sign that it would become operational.
She starts to lose composure as their last glimmer of hope may have been a waste of time.
'What am I supposed to do?'
The moment that their village is discovered there is little they can do to escape.
The Ortodith soldiers composed of mages that can set fire to the entire village and a draken wolf capable of tracking every single one of them.
She can't help but to feel anger and now starts to kick the weapons.
"WORK YOU PIECE OF JUNK!!"
Tears starting to form from her eyes unable to hold her feelings any longer.
She fell to her knee trying to hide her face at her daughter whose tears were still flowing.
She tries to calm down as she hug her daughter for comfort
But not even an hour passed
The echoes of gnarling draken wolf and the commands of its master alerted the mother as she quickly stood up to get Yuri.
"Mom what are we going to do?"
The mother quickly set the magic device to activate it once more to hide her and Yuri.
Even with the magic tool if the draken wolf already picked up their scent it will only be a little time for it to find them.
"Yuri cover yourself with dirt"
Yuri with her mother's instruction covered herself with dirt in order to possibly cover her scent.
The mother followed suit and assisted Yuri to properly cover herself.
She then hid Yuri to a pile of used cylinder containers.
Before she noticed 3 draken wolves and their masters are already in the same space as them
She readied her spear even if she knows that it will not be able to do anything.
"Hey what's wrong boy"
With their wolf snarling on a wall confuses their owners.
"Well they all track the scent here there's probably something here"
The wolves are still growling and looking at the wall brings suspicion to it
"Hey bring the mage here"
Instructed by one that looks like a higher standing officer with its armor decorated by medals and gaudy accessories.
The mother trembles as the mage is sensible of magic and will quickly find them.
"What's the problem Sir?"
"Can you detect if there's something in there"
The mage raises he's hand to the direction of the captain directions and casts a magic fireball to it.
Dust covered the caves as the fireball hit its target.
"Ho, what do we have here?"
"I detected a magic source and fire in It but It seems to have been a camouflage magic tool"
As the dust settles they see a woman with Burnett hair and frightened expression pointing a spear at them.
"Will you look at that, I told you all something is able to escape in that house"
"Hey, wait what's that huge statue on her back"
Terrified as she knows what will happen to her now.
She will be mauled by the wolves while screaming in pain until finally succumbing to death as the wolves will dig through her bowel.
She knows this as her parents succumbed to the same fate but clinging to a hope that the wolves still didn't detect her daughter she screamed as she charged with her spear towards the mage.
"AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!"
Mage quickly starts to raise its hand but is interrupted by the higher ranking individual.
"HEY! Don't you incinerate that we don't have something to feed to the wolves"
The brow of the mage slanted as he started to use different magic.
"AUGH!"
The mother is hit in the stomach by an unseen force and blown the spear away and her to the artifact weapon.
Her head and back hit its plating.
*Thud*
Her body laid limp unable to even move a finger.
Her fading consciousness is only able to pick up yuri's faint screaming voice and the wolves barking.
She desperately opens her eyes only to see that her eyes are obscured by her own blood.
"Yu-ri----r-un"
She keeps reaching her hand to the direction she believes
Where Yuri is but she still opened eyes saw a pair of light
"Huh?"
_____________________________________________________
*Minimal power output restored*
*Start optimized power distribution*
*Initial reboot commence*
The moment I recover from my sleep the only thing I can hear is the voice of my assistant bot implants.
*Reporting full body scan:
Corroded external and internal plating
Side frame Circuits damages
Low fusion reactor fuel
Low fusion cell energy outputs
.....
...
..
*
The bot assistant gave an endless barrage of reports of my body's condition that even with my advanced self replicating mechanical cell will have a hard time to regenerate
"What the hell happened?"
I am now able to assess my situation now that I regained consciousness but with the reactor cell still not able to provide enough energy to power up my whole body I can only try and recall my last memory.
"Does the Echthroi really have that kind of armament?"
I recalled a sudden flash of light that was able to engulf the whole world within five minutes. It still lingered in my digital retina the danger alert sent by every country's communication channel the moment it happened.
"To even incapacitate Dreadnought mechs like me"
Even with our technology today I don't think we can generate enough energy to create such burst of emp wave across the world but now that I have read through the bot assistant report it can be said that it is not only the emp burst that the sudden light attack delivers.
"*Sigh*, with things still running on optimized function, I should really help the bot with the checkups"
There is barely I can do for now anyways.
"Huh? The ammunition containers isn't opening"
Even the ballistics chambers, was it stuck or something?
*Alert hostile movement detected*
"God dammit, Bot emergency halt of full body restoration focus on powering up the sensory functions"
I need to see what the bot detected.
The first thing I saw as my eyesight returned, is a little girl with brunette hair crying as she throws a reactor fuel container to a bunch of huge wolves.
"GET AWAY FROM US YOU MONSTER!!!"
The wolves hesitated for a bit but inevitably charged at the girl as they knew even if they were hit it would barely hurt them.
"Oh shit"
The bot instantly read my intention as it powered down the sensory system quickly and focused the main power flow to my right arm.
From my quick look it seems that my entire body is buried except my right arm and torso.
I quickly swat my arm in the direction I think the position of the wolves is to cover the girl in my front.
"Bot! Quick, made a balanced power output for the sensory system and my arm"
My vision is restored again but this time the scanner functions are limited and are only limited to 2 Dimensional footage which is enough to confirm if my sudden action is executed properly.
"Holy shit that was close"
I saw the wolves splattered on the walls and my arm is only a hair's breadth away from the girl to beings swat away like them.
"******* ***** ****** *******!!!"
"*** ****** ***** *****!!"
"******* ***** ****** ****!!!"
The people on the other side started to scream a language that even my bot assistant can't translate.
Now that I've got a second look there are people other than the girl in my vicinity.
Below my chest plating is a woman that seems to be suffering from blunt force trauma and has an open wound on her head and a bunch of guys in armor with a singular guy wearing a hood.
"********* **** *** ****** ****** ******!!"
*Alert detected an Echthrois linguistics speech, high caution is advised*
"Yeah I figured as much"
But still I commended them this much facing me with just a bunch of dogs and wearing only medieval level armor.
"****** ****** ******!!!"
I immediately retracted my commendation as they started to run even leaving their drawn swords behind.
"Hey don't run away now"
This is bad even with my right arm I can't reach them from here.
But then I saw a bunch of boulder on the edge of my view. I immediately grab it and throw it at the Echthrois.
It only reaches a short distance before it hits the ground because of lack of force behind it but it rolled and was able to splatter the Echthrois but it immediately hit the wall blocking the exit and causing it to create a crack on to the wall.
"I forgot that we are in some kind of cave formation"
The fractures on the wall are starting to spread even collapsing the ceiling of the entrance completely blocking the entrance.
"Dammit, bot report on power output!"
*Report still in 50% optimized option*
At this rate the cave will collapse before I can do something.
I grabbed the unconscious woman and opened the Proximity speaker to be able to communicate with the girl.
""Girl, please help me move your mother""
I simply assumed their relationship because of the desperate attempt of the girl protecting the women.
With how my fingers are almost as big as them I cannot possibly handle them delicately let alone an injured person.
The girl was gently able to position the unconscious woman to my fingers.
With the fracture worsening I moved the women to the sturdy looking side of the cave as the girl followed.
I start to dig through my waist gently as possible as to not further accelerate the spreading of the fracture.
My objective is to get through my ammunition container in my hip.
As seconds passed, I was able to get my ammunition container.
I don't have confidence that my arm is enough to cover them both but with my ammunition container it is enough to fit them both.
I ejected the bullets and took out the ejector last.
""Girl, hurry and grab your mother""
It will be hard to move the women to the container with my fingers so I only tried to help and push the woman with the girl to the container.
The fracture creeping in to the top of their head
""Girl, remember to cover your ears and to breathe as steadily as possible""
She seems to understand me as she nodded her head down and up.
I instructed the girl so that she will not panic when the cave collapses.
As soon as I crumpled the entrance of the container the ceiling starts to crumble and is producing a lot of dust.
"I hope it cannot penetrate the container"
The ceiling cannot hold the rocks and dirt and now completely collapsed I put the container close to my torso and covered it with my arm to completely encase it.
Now that we are completely caved in the thing I still need to worry about is the time needed to increase the power output.
"bot, calculate the time before the reactor will be able to supply my entire body."
*Approximately 2 hours and 15 minutes*
"How much time before the citizen inside the container suffocates?"
*Approximately 3 hours and 50 minutes however my calculations variables are purely on the space of the container and the respiration of two individuals, the estimation time can be decreased or increase if another variable is introduced*
Even with almost 2 hours of margin of time, I am not comfortable with it but it will be useless to force myself to dig out as the power output is still negligible that it can only move my limbs and cannot really put strength behind it.
I have to think of a way to shave the time as quickly as possible.
"Wait a second, bot! Are your calculations in the power restoration involved the energy based weaponries?"
*Protocols dictates that S class weaponry will always be a priority to be properly restored as the pilots in article 104 quote as the moment the pilot weapon-*
"Ok I know, you can just bypass the protocol with our situation now right? This is an emergency situation, ignore the energy based weapon and also detach my ballistic chamber in my back"
Those damn corporates will make sure that they will get their pricey weapon even if I die.
Well I cannot really blame them as these weapons really are much more valuable compared to my life.
As for my ballistic chamber I can just dig them out later but now it will only get in my way of digging out of here.
*Updated calculated restoration time 30 Minutes*
There is a huge cut on time on the last estimation of the bot.
Time to speak to the girl to confirm their safety.
""Girl, if you can hear me slam the wall two times""
Immediately as I said, I was able to feel two consecutive vibrations on the container.
I was able to release a bit of my worries because of her response.
""*Phew*, listen now in approximately about 28 minutes from now I will be able to dig us out of here """
""It will be a rough ride for you two so better secure yourself and your mother before I start. ""
28 minutes passed and I can feel my mechanized limps coming to life.
I wiggled my body to make space for the container and my arm.
I've punched through the rocks above me with all my strength
The force of my punch sent shockwaves through the stones, disintegrating it into a cloud of dust and debris that rained down around the mech, clearing a path through the rubble above.
"Wow I almost forgot how powerful this prototype mech is"
I've rarely used the dreadnought mech in melee, but watching the rocks disintegrate under its full strength punch was both terrifying and exhilarating.
I climbed the opening and settled the container and uncrumpled the opening of it.
The girl came out supporting her mother as she was already conscious but could still barely stand.
They are both staring at me they have seen something other worldly being.
I am already accustomed to the stares but the sight of a mother and child watching me with wide, fearful eyes gave me an uncomfortable sense of unease.
I knelt down to bring myself lower to have a proper conversation.
""I am glad that your condition is getting better citizen""
The mother seemed surprised by my voice and responded
"Well... I-I am more... more grateful to you for... saving us both,"
I observed that the mother still struggles to even speak as she stammered her words.
"Just settle down for now citizens and recover your strength"
She seems to want to say something but chooses to just comply with my suggestion.
The girl still staring at me with a blank face starts to sting my nerves.
The sun starts to rise and its light hits my body.
I start to have a proper look to my condition
"It's corroded as hell"
Every nook and cranny seems to be degrading and crumbling up.
My situation is becoming more bizarre as I observed.
Why are there citizens still on the battlefield?
Why does my body look like a crumbling old building?
Why am I buried underground when the last battleground I was in was in quagmire?
"I hate where this question is heading"