The Titan howled. Lightning flashed in his raised hand and immediately shot forward. The explosion threw Nika and Ronnie to the side, they flew like plush toys, and on landing, cooled fragments of glass crashed into their backs, causing multiple minor injuries. The ammo was running out. Ronnie asked Nika for her Anaconda Colt, put the PPSh on the ground, caught the revolver, aimed the aiming slot just below the Titan's torso, and fired. A bullet of caliber .45 colt hit the solar plexus and bounced to the side. Ronnie raised the gun a little higher and this time he aimed at the head. Taught by bitter experience, the opponent managed to stretch out his bent arm in front of his face. The bullet hit the forearm and ricocheted again.

"Our shots are like mosquito bites to it. Stop wasting my bullets!"

Ronnie did not say anything, threw the gun back, and ran, she covered with fire. The soldiers did not lag, the archers showered them with arrows. Nika dodged each one, and Ronnie was less mobile with a heavy load on his back. A message popped up in the HUD:

The kidney is punctured! Critical damage!

Nike noticed this and took out the last restoring syringe from her pocket and stuck the needle into the wound, pressed the plunger, and restored Ronnie's combat capability for a while. For the next couple of minutes, both ran without looking back, and explosions were heard from all sides now and then, after which shards of glass and sand rained down on them. The red glimmers on the clouds disappeared. Ronnie felt a terrible cold on himself and assumed magic does not come out of nothing. Most likely, the emperor takes the heat of the flaming atmosphere and releases it in the form of an attack.

Ahead, through a thick layer of clouds, several rays of sunlight broke through and reached the ground, illuminating the border between the forest and the desert. The final portion of this race was around 400 yards long. The arrows stopped reaching the two escapees. The soldiers fell behind. Ronnie ordered to stop, turned towards the enemy, and kneeled, bent his knee, and fired a dozen bullets, he asked Nika to get the last alchemical flask from his backpack from the outer pocket.

"Cheers!" she said and drank exactly half.

"Cheers!" he replied and drank the rest.

Stamina has recovered to the five-point mark. They reached the forest and felt a pleasant coniferous smell. From the desert side, where the emperor was standing, an earthquake began and a large piece of land, the size of a football field, rose 8 yards up and froze in the air. The Titans were the first to enter the ground, followed by soldiers, and the emperor was the last to disappear, closing the passage behind him.

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"Survived," Nike breathed out and sat down on the nearest stone. "What an adventure!"

Ronnie nodded and took out of his pocket a special tracker that would mark the appearance of a new dungeon on the general map and returned, stopping at a safe distance.

"The rest is up to you, AI."

"It shall be done."

He installed the last DNA scanner in the sand soldier's body, and then returned to Nika and noticed that her level had increased to 9. Only one and a half percent had been added to his experience strip. Both also received a reward of 76.300 CP for finding a dungeon and 40,000 for a Harpy and a Sand Soldier. Ronnie's legs gave way and he almost fell. The burning pain in the lumbar region shot out with renewed vigor. He dropped his backpack to the ground and the aluminum and titanium parts of the broken rifle rattled.

"What other weapons do you have in your backpack?"

"Barrett M107A1."

Nika fell silent.

"If you're looking for it in the arsenal of the Avant-Garde, you won't find it. I made it myself."

"By yourself?"

"My father taught me."

"So you are not only a sniper but also a Gunsmith."

Ronnie nodded. She smiled and asked what he intended to do next. He replied not known yet, but the further he went from the explored territory, the better.

"I can keep you company," she said.

"I'm sorry. I only walk alone."

"You won't survive alone."

"We'll see."

Nike turned her back to him and looked at the coniferous forest, tilted sideways from the strong wind. Even though the trees resemble Terrestrial ones, but there was still a difference: the trunks were completely overgrown with green moss, which emitted a faint emerald light day and night, and their height reached fifty yards, as if they were strict Gothic buttresses. Behind the dense crowns of black pines, you cannot even see a speck of the sky. And there were legends that in the darkness of the night – that one could hear the snuffling and heavy breathing of horses and the quiet ringing of swords.

Nika sighed and smiled, turned around, and saw how Ronnie pointed the muzzle of the PPSh in her face and said:

"Do you take me for an idiot?"

Before she could answer, he pulled the trigger. Nika did not blink an eye and tilted her head to the side barely noticeably. Nothing happened. The PPSh ran out of ammo. Ronnie ran at her without further ado and grabbed a hunting knife from a belt pouch. Nika pulled the Colt out of the holster with a speed any cowboy of the Wild West would envy, cocked the hammer and, pulled the trigger, blew Ronnie's head off. The system instantly disconnected him from the gaming network.

"As I warned: you won't survive," she said and giggled, she began to take all of his belongings to herself and saw a message in the HUD that her level had increased to ten.