The feeling of heaviness that tried to smash Robert under its weight was intensified by the absolute darkness that enveloped the limited space. Squeezed from the sides, he focused on his ability. Moving the steel back, he had to stop a few seconds later when his ears caught an odd sound. However, it disappeared without a trace, leaving him in the silence. Only his breath was heard. Calm, but deep, it clearly showed the lack of available oxygen.
Rob knew that his mana-fueled body didn’t need much. Still, less didn’t mean a zero. Therefore, he began to work on his way out. It was only around half an hour after his thunderous escape. Luckily, nobody was busy searching for him, more likely focused on the treatment of the wounded and checking the dead. And there had to be a lot of the latter. Obviously, he didn’t have the opportunity to count, but Rob would easily bet on four dozen at a bare minimum. Maybe even more – the tight space of several blindages appeared to be a dangerous place to meet an ignited grenade. And he threw a pair into each. Up until his retreat there was no sign of movement in those shelters.
Such a devasting blow to a company’s numbers from a single soldier might lead to a rushed decision from a commanding officer. Or the loud commotion would cause an interest from the Kingdom’s troops. Or… There were many possibilities and Robert patiently waited for one. It was his only plausible idea how he could turn the beastmen’s attention away from his persona and create so desired opportunity to get himself across the battlefield, preferably in one piece and without additional holes. However, there was nothing. Rob couldn’t even hear any attempts to dig out the corpses.
Do I need to wait till the night again? Maybe they will not expect… Nope, they will. After such a loss, they definitely will. I guess, a lot of soldiers will not sleep this night, too scared to close their eyes only to never open them again. I can’t repeat the same trick twice. Or can I? If they stay for the whole night, then by the morning most of the enemies will be exhausted from a nervous pressure. It may be my best shot – to cut a few sentinels and silently crawl my way back.
Placing his body comfortably, he conjured a long ride that slowly went upwards. Piercing the ground and pausing after reaching the needed height, it momentarily expanded to the sides after mental command, creating an empty space inside and turning into a tube and finally giving him access to the air. Connecting the other end of the tube with his lips, he leaned back and closed his eyes. The wait was going to be long. Or not, as the very same odd sound had appeared again, instantly throwing him out of a mediative state.
What was that?
Concentrating on the hearing, Robert patiently waited in silence. His slow breathing and beating heart immediately began to sound louder as if trying to avert his attention, but he kept all his focus on the outer world. And after a full minute, he caught a barely audible noise, which attempted to flash again past him.
Artillery? Seems like it, but something is off…
His cogitation came to an abrupt end when Rob felt a small impulse from the ground. Then the next one. From this point they repeatedly appeared one after another, constantly intensifying their strength. Soon, they turned into bigger ones, sending tremors across the ground. The earth around his cover started to move, shaking from the powerful pushes. This fact instantly put Robert into action.
Turning around and keeping the steel plate behind him, he conjured a small shovel before starting to dig above himself. Throwing clods of the soil to the side, he stomped it a few times to decrease a need in space, before doing it again. Working at a fast speed, he tried to be careful not to lead a collapse of the ground above him. However, the shakes began to interfere with the process. His legs were already half-buried when his metal instrument hit the wooden logs that made a ceiling. Creating a crowbar, Robert forcefully pushed it between the two of them before using all his strength to make a gap. The earth immediately started to fall downwards, but he continued, not seeing any other choice.
Luckily, his inhuman strength had helped a lot. Even being covered in loose soil from all sides, he had enough power to move. It took him only a few minutes to get out of the underground cage, but the source of odd sounds and strong tremors was already visible on the horizon. Robert was not surprised to see the walking mech in the slightest – it was quite obvious to expect it. However, he still was startled after a single glance. Rob was not alone in this reaction as most beastmen in the trench had a similar reaction, eyeing the scene with a wide-open mouth.
There were two identical mechs, fighting between themselves. Still, they had enough visual differences not to get confused. One of them had a short stump instead of a mechanical limb. The melted black metal was a clear sign that it was blown away by a powerful explosion. Its armor had dozens of marks from direct hits, wearing traces of intensive battles. Three gunports on the palms were all crumpled, leaving a formidable war weapon without any long-reach solutions. On the other hand, his opponent and simultaneously the metal brother was not any better. However, the reason was different.
It looked like half-built. Lacking armored plates to cover some parts of its enormous body, it simply didn’t have any weaponry installed. This led to the strangest confrontation Robert had ever seen. They both brawled. Hitting each other with giant arms, they simply tried to crush each other in the most straightforward way possible. Moving on their spider’s legs across the battlefield and not paying attention to the surroundings, they continued to set in motion a huge complex mechanism, made from multiple metal pieces by skillful engineers, only to smash it a moment later into its own analogue.
The impacts from the hits created the very same strange sound that was heard by Robert. Lacking in sound-breaking speed, each swing felt like the work of a giant press, the power of which came from its sheer weight. Pausing between each of them, they lunged their improvised fists a few seconds later. Having several arms, they literally bombarded one another like drunken amateur boxers, who tried to compensate for the skill with a huge number of swings, failing to properly aim most of them.
There was no tactic at all. Just power versus power. The metal bent, twisting from the hits and sending deafening sound waves in the surroundings. Rarely the loud grinding sound was heard, when a giant limb missed a direct hit, sliding across the surface. The most damage came from lower limbs with jackhammers, which shuddered the whole figure with a loud bang. The half-built mech had an advantage in quantity by having both arms intact but was barely able to use it, lacking in a timed response. It still managed to deliver a direct hit into the head, shattering the armored plate on the commanding post, but in return almost lost one of the legs, which got hammered in a bend point.
The scene was both mesmerizing and stupid. It could be compared to a demolition derby between tanks, when both participants were too tough to go down easily while not having enough to destroy the opponent with just a few hits. It fitted this description even better when Rob noticed how the unfinished mech was slowly trying to escape from the battered one, steadily moving in the direction of the front lines.
This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.
No way! Can it be…? Did they manage to do it? It has been six days already… No, not the time. I am still not alone!
Glancing one more time at the fighting mechs, which were exchanging strong hits, he turned around. The place, where he got out from the underground trap, was to the side of a trench. His digging and log moving were completely muffled by a grand battle. Moreover, after crawling out from the hole, he stayed down and avoided detection. Still, it couldn’t last long so he had to use this opportunity to fullness. If he was correct in his assumption, soon the mech’s fight would rage over his position as it was the nearest point to breach the defensive line.
Therefore, leaning to the ground, he hastily moved towards the trench, throwing a quick look down. The beastmen were all focused on the epic scenery while talking between themselves. There was not a single soldier, who wasn’t watching the fight – nobody could be indifferent in the situation, where the reality for them appeared to be more grandeur than any fantasy. It was simply unforgivable to miss such an event. And that led to surprised shouts when Robert’s body had landed between their ranks.
The conjured two-handed saber was already in motion, making a wild circular swing. Pushed by Rob’s strength, it beheaded the first soldier, cut through the chest of the second and finally got struck in the arm of the last one. The wounded beastman only started to scream, while looking at his almost severed limb, when the weapon had vanished, reappearing in the form of a dagger in Robert’s other palm. Moving upwards, it made a hole under the enemy’s chin, going through the throat up to the brain and instantly muting all cries.
Robert, on the other hand, continued to move. Pushing the dead body back, he swiftly turned around with a newly summoned saber. This time the strike left a deep maim over the face of the nearest soldier before breaking the rifle, which was put in a defensive motion by the next one. Following the inertia of the blade, Rob dispersed the weapon and threw his body forward. His shoulder had hit the chest of the blinded. The moment of contact was enough for him to push a short spike from his skin, basically impaling the soldier. Sending the corpse in flight, he summoned two small axes before turning himself into a whirlwind.
Squeezing between dense ranks of the beastmen so as not to give them the ability to use their rifles, Robert hit with lightning speed, almost making his own arms blur. He wasn’t an ambidexter, using his weapons one by one and not simultaneously. His left clearly lacked the precision of the right. However, that didn’t matter as his strength was enough to compensate for everything. The axe blade was breaking the knees in one motion, severing the limbs with another. Adding powerful kicks, which could raise the enemies into the air, it was clear how devastating was his initial attack.
Still, as always, the stupor of beastmen came to an end and they started to react. The gunfire from the back made Rob redirect his conjuring into protection, creating a huge shield on his back that covered his body from the butt to the head. That left him only with a volume, enough to make a short knife. Using it, he deflected the clumsy thrust of a bayonet, before shoving his fist in the face of the enemy. Feeling the shattered bone, he elbowed another beastman, when his eye caught the grenade. Hanging on the belt of the soldier in front of him, it was immediately grabbed by Rob only to be thrown a breath later.
The look of horror appeared on the faces of enemies around him when the fear gripped their hearts from possible consequences. Instinctively backing off, they tried to run away from the explosion… that never happened. On the other hand, Rob was already running through the panicked ranks of the beastmen, scattering them to the sides. The flying bullets from the back only added chaos, constantly hitting someone near him. Quite a few attempted to put him down, but the thick steel defense was able to hold the impacts at first, while later the bodies of enemies played the same role.
A densely packed trench created a huge obstacle for beastmen to stop him in melee, but it was just a matter of time. That was the reason why Robert jumped into the blindage the moment he saw boxes of ammunition. His huge rolling body had crashed into the soldier, creating a cracking sound. Turning around and adding a few hits that broke the jaw and the nose of the lying soldier, which effectively sent him into an unconscious state, Rob rushed to the pile of grenades. A few seconds later he sent a pair right out of the underground shelter. The following explosion had stopped his pursuers, but not for long.
Knowing that, Robert waited five seconds, before throwing two more grenades. This time the commotion was louder after the fragments stopped flying around. Conjuring a steel plate on a handle, he shoved it out of the cover only to be met with multiple gunshots. Nodding to himself, Rob instantly sent another pair of grenades into both sides of the trench. Making a pause for a dozen seconds, he repeated the process, getting the very same result. However, this time before he managed to prepare the explosive, a similar object flew inside from above. Bouncing from the ground, it raised above the ground for a single moment. Acting on instinct, Robert clumsily kicked the unwanted gift, throwing it to the side, while dropping it on his back.
The shockwave sent pieces of earth, wooden chips, and metal fragments flying right in front of his face. Fortunately, the corner of the blindage took the most damage, leaving him with just a sound blast. And the latter in the form of ringing bells inside his head was the least problem in his current situation. Hastily turning around, Robert grabbed the unconscious body of the soldier, before pushing it outside together with another grenade. The other one was put behind his belt in case of emergency. The explosion coincided in time with a huge tremble, turning the result of his deed into a tiny local apocalypse.
The yells from the enemies were barely audible when the earth shattered. Rob was already in motion, lunging himself out of the danger only to find himself under the huge shadow. Covering the sky, the gigantic mech almost plunged the surrounding into the darkness. But Robert didn’t have an opportunity to observe the scene as the moment he realized that figure was falling, he pushed himself forward in a high jump.
Ignoring shouts and gunshots, Rob pulled his body upwards from the trench in a single motion. No matter how big and heavy he was, his strength was much bigger. Rolling over his shoulder, he quickly stood up and jumped over the barbered fence. This time he wasn’t so lucky, as his pants got stuck, halting his action in the worst moment. Planting his face against the ground, Robert grabbed the ground and sent himself forward, tearing his clothes. He managed to do only a few more steps when the giant unfinished landed on the ground not far from him.
Sending a thunderous rumble across the battlefield, the fall created a thick mass of dust, enveloping the surroundings. Obstructing the vision for everyone for a dozen seconds, it was soon cut by the motion of the metal limbs. Scattering the self-made cloud, the mech was already pushing himself upwards, clearly refusing to go down from a blow. Its rise was stopped by a following attack of the battered giant. Still, the unfinished machine appeared to be ready as its lower arm had blocked the swing, leading to a loud bang. Pressing each other with all available mechanical strength, they competed for several seconds before the fallen mech made a feint motion, leading the opponent to almost lose balance. Not wasting any time, it went for its own counterattack.
Oh, fuck! Was it another brilliant idea to showcase my own dumbness?
Robert’s thought was interrupted by a swift motion of the mech, when the latter had sent his three-fingered palm directly into the enemy’s head, using the impulse of the raise from the ground to strengthen the hit. The main problem for Rob was that he was currently right on the same limb. Running through the dusty mist, he didn’t think any better than to jump on the giant in an attempt to climb up to the cabin and check his primary assumption. That led to the current situation, where he currently was gripping the gaps in the metal, while simultaneously creating additional steel anchors to keep him on the same spot – everything to prevent him from falling from the height after the upcoming impact.
Why the fuck did you decide to use exactly this arm?! You had five to choose from!
The short and quick acceleration had created a feeling of emptiness in his stomach. A moment later the metal crashed into each other, cutting off Robert’s horrified scream.