"Lets... Go!”

Toes digging into the bone floor, turning it into powder, Valkus launched off with his forces following at his sides. Silver aura flowed off his body as Valkus clashed against the mecha head on, spear smashing against spear.

Despite the monster Valkus was, the weight of the mecha was too much for him to bear. Soon he was sent flying into a building, causing the bone structure to shatter.

Gatao chuckled as he eyed the rest of Valkus’ forces, “Heh, the puny insect thinks he can stand the might of my mecha. The rest of you will be slaughtered just like he was!”

As he moved to wipe out the dwarfs and their allies, the building Valkus had smashed into rubble exploded.

Valkus stood there, still clad in silver. But the usually stoic Dwarf had a small grin on his lips. His leather chest plate had been shredded from the impact, revealing his incredible muscles and the minor cuts upon them.

“More.”

How could that insect survive my blow?! He should’ve been splattered!

Gatao suppressed the shock he felt, preventing it from leaking into his voice.

“Oh? So you're a little sturdy. Guess I can’t just smash you away. Then… I’LL JUST CUT YOU DOWN!”

“You can… Try.”

Valkus pushed himself forth, turning the bones under his feet into dust, as Gatao turned his thrusters on, moving forward to slash the oversized dwarf in half.

The moment they entered each other's range Gatao slashed down with lightning speed as Valkus dodged a foot away, kicking up bones shards in the process. Gatao grinned, kicking off the ground and turning on his thrusters, pressing his spear to attack Valkus as he moved. Caught off guard, Valkus hurriedly blocked with his spear only to end up having his weapon dented and being blasted away once more.

Thankfully Valkus’ arms only felt slightly numb, allowing him to ignore the feeling and concentrate on the fight. He flipped about a dozen times to negate the mecha’s force and launched himself back into the fray the moment his feet touched the ground. He didn’t go for a head on charge this time but rather moved to run around the mecha and aim for its back.

Yet no matter where he moved Gatao used his thrusters to easily reposition and face him. This cat and mouse game went on for some time as Valkus tried to gain the advantage of position and Gatao tried to cut the large dwarf down to the size of a normal dwarf. But the dwarf had learned his lesson and darted about like an agile monkey.

“You think that kind of trick will work on me? Think again! I’m not some dumb brute that would fall for that. Now stand still and di—”

Valkus smashed his foot into the ground, causing a large piece of cracked bone floor half the size of the mecha to rise up, before roundhouse kicking said piece straight at the mecha.

Gatao naturally responded by smashing the chunk with one of hand, sending bone fragments and dust flying.

“Was that your big plan? Sending the ground at me? Truly, you think just like an insect.”

He wanted to berate Valkus more but the dwarf paid him no heed, continuing to kick up large pieces of the floor and sending them at him. Gatao easily destroyed the chunks, causing more bone dust to float in the air as he kept berating the dwarf.

It was only after a while that Gatao realized what the dwarf was planning.

Does the little bastard want to set up a smokescreen? Heh, he doesn’t know that this mecha has a special ability to see heat. The moment he thinks I’m unaware and attacks me is the time I’ll crush him!

Chuckling to himself, Gatao decided to keep up the act and to allow Valkus to dig his own grave. Soon the battlefield was shrouded in a thick fog of dust.

“Tsk, how deplorable, hiding behind fog. Have you no shame, insect! Come! Die with honor, you dishonorable rat!”

He moved his mecha erratically, trying to bait Valkus to attack, but the dwarf just kept throwing out chunks of the floor. Gatao thought that it would be strange if he didn’t take any damage with the dust blocking his sight so to keep up the act he took some hits here and there in order to bait out that hateful dwarf.

When is he going to charge in? I’ve shown so many openings and yet he just keeps throwing things and moving around in strange ways. I almost can’t make up his weird movements. If that hateful little insect doesn’t charge soon I’m gonna ru—

*Crack crack crack*

What is that noise?

Gatao moved his mecha’s head to look towards the sound only to see the cloud of dust around him part as a large bone boulder shot towards him.

“You gotta be fucking kidding me.”

Not having enough time to dodge out of the way, Gatao thrust his spear out with a roar in hopes of cutting his way through the massive building. As he stabbed out another chunk of bone flew at him from the side, smashing into his spear hand and messing up his stance.

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“HOW HATEFU—”

Gatao wasn’t able to finish his sentence before the enormous boulder crashed into him.

“Tsk. Not enough.”

Valkus spat and began sprinting at Gatao, who soon smashed through the boulder with moderate damage around his mecha’s arms and head. The remaining bones on the ground worked overtime to heal Gatao’s mecha.

“IF YOU THINK THAT’S ENOUGH TO KILL ME YOU’RE DEAD WRONG!”

“Die.”

Valkus thrust his spear with all his strength, intent on driving the weapon through a crack of the mecha’s armor into the cockpit.

Smiling wildly, Gatao turned his mecha’s palm to face Valkus and smashed a button in his cockpit.

“NO YOU!”

The mecha’s hand shot out like a cannon, smashing into Valkus like a truck. The dwarf spat out blood as he slammed through another building.

After digging himself out of the rubble that fell on his mecha, Gatao clicked his tongue.

“I really do need to cut you in half to kill you. You muscle demon.”

Valkus merely ripped the mecha's hand off of his bloody body and cracked his neck.

“Trickster. Gonna kill you.”

“You can try,” Gatao mocked as bones moved to remake his hand.

As the two prepared to charge at each other once more, Gatao noticed something within Valkus' silver shroud.

Why is there a bronze light on his forehead? Whatever. This freak will die all the same.

...

“Ya know Boss, why did we get the short end of the stick?” One of the hunters asked as they took shelter under an earth wall being pelted by spells.

“Shit just happens Rookie. You just have to deal with it the best you can. Fuck, I could use a smoke.”

Joy rested against a wall, looking agitated at seeing the men and women serving under her injured and limbless. Anyone under tier three that were hit directly by that mecha’s lasers had their limbs cut off at best and at worst... at worst they died the moment that beam touched them. They had lost eight people and gained half a dozen wounded before they fell into hit and run tactics, trying to find any weakness in the mecha’s shield.

They had tried attacking the skeleton mages but they just placed a shield over themselves while keeping the barrier over the mecha in the sky going strong. They tried smashing the shield but couldn’t manage to get close enough and only ended up sustaining injuries in the process. Thankfully Ubel had sent them two earth mages and they were able to rescue the wounded by dragging them into the ground.

With the power of three earth mages working together they were finally able to stop the barrage of spells from turning the area into a crater.

“So what are we going to do? If we keep going like this we’re going to all get killed. I might like a good fight but this is utter bullshit.” Zen the Brawler spat, filled with disgust.

“I have to agree with you, little friend. We’re getting slaughtered here. If we cannot find a way to get past that shield I highly suggest we retreat.” The large fox-kin and best hunter of their clan, Thatch Blacktail, responded as he helped bandage the wounded.

Joy ignored her men's complaints and turned her attention to Gale, her unit's wind mage.

“Hey, when is the commander stepping in? We can’t hold out much longer without support.”

Gale listened to the wind with her eyes closed and slowly responded.

“M2 is in position. We just need to lead the target a bit more and we’ll get our payback.”

“How much more?”

“Sixty meters to the east.”

“Fuck. Whose turn is it to play bait?” Zen asked as he placed a salve over his charred ribs.

“It’s mine. I’ll take the bitch the rest of the way.”

Zen and the rest of the unit turned towards the voice only to see Quake the Champion stretching a bit to limber up his body.

“Ya sure? We’ve been changing every fifteen meters and that bitch has fucking aim. They even managed to tag the boss.”

Everyone turned to Joy, who had taken a laser over her left arm and shoulder, and was covered in a deep charred burn that enveloped over 30% of her body.

“The fuck you staring at?! I’ve had worse!” Joy yelled before staring at Quake, who was making his way out of their shelter. “Can you really do it or are you just throwing your life away?”

Quake looked back and cracked a smile, “You’ve all put your necks on the line to get us this far. This’ll be my best show yet, don’t worry.”

“Oh fuck, he’s an attention grabber.” Run the Hunter rolled his eyes.

“I prefer the term entertainer, young man. Now let me show you the spirit of a champion that has lived in the underworld! You might learn a thing or two. If you would so kindly, Thair.”

“Gook luck.” Thair hummed as he waved his hand, opening a hole for Quake to exit thirty meters away.

Once Quake left the tunnel he let out a roar.

“HEY BITCH, YOUR GRANDPA IS HERE TO TEACH YOU A LESSON!”

“Oh? Another insect popped up. Please stay longer than a few seconds this time! I wanna play!”

…

“Report.”

“Team M1 and M2 are in position. Joy’s requested package will be in position very quickly, five seconds at most. The only problem is with Valkus.”

“What’s the holdup? He die?”

Ubel sat in his chair, idly looking over the map and halfway done with his tea.

“No, he’s… He's not leading the target to the designated spot and is just fighting the mecha head-on despite being given the signal multiple times. And that's not all… there seems to be a bronze coloring around his forehead in his aura.”

Ubel instantly shot up, hyper-focusing on Kist.

“What? Say that again.”

“He’s not lead—”

“Not that, the last part.”

“A bronze coloring has appeared on his forehead within his aura.”

Ubel frowned, “I knew he wasn’t a normal dwarf. He was too large to just be a dwarf.”

Ubel muttered under his breath for a moment then returned his focus back to Kist.

“Change of plans. Tell M1 to support Valkus if he needs it. Let’s see what our local giant is trying to do. M2 and the package are to keep with the plan unchanged.”

“Understood. Relaying.”

Ubel drank the rest of his tea and leaned back into his chair.

Valkus, what really are you?

He held out his empty cup and gave it a shake, “I need a refill on my tea.”

“Y-yes! Right away!”