Angela’s first opponent was not getting up, but it took the second Reaper pulling her off the machine before she ended her beating. Her yellow mech was thrust into the grips of the third Reaper, and she was shoved headfirst into the mountain. It crushed the yellow head flat, knocking out her primary sensors.

She pushed the opponent away and freed her machine from the mountainside. Turning the yellow Reaper, Angela eyed each opponent from the hole in her chest. Both were red, but the one that had shoved her into the mountainside had a prominent horn on its head. She didn’t know, or care, what it denoted, and screamed an unintelligible curse as she would have at any opponent.

Taking care to see where Bandana was, so as not to step on him, Angela lunged at her opponents. The Horned mech took a step forward to answer her challenge.

She jabbed a fist into the opponent’s side, and the horned Reaper responded with a punch to her machine’s gut—just under the hole in her machine. Likely a miss, she knew the Worms always went for the hole in the chest. Grunting, she grabbed the back of her opponent's head, but a sudden tackle from the second Reaper shoved her to the ground before any damage could be done.

The horned Reaper stepped on the yellow back and tore the left arm off. It was tossed to the side, and Angela screamed. She spun on the ground like her machine was break dancing and knocked her opponent on its back. Before it could recover, she dove low across the ground onto it and held it down. The second Reaper tried to respond with a kick, but Angela expected as much. She twisted her horned opponent’s body, so the kick took off the horned head and flung it like a football.

The ally stumbled back; likely, the pilot was shocked at having damaged the commander as far as Angela could guess. She sprung from the ground and struck the second opponent. Their large metal hands danced across each other as each tried to break the other’s machine first.

Angela did not see her formally horned opponent stand back up or cross the ground until it tore the roof off an average-looking house. The headless machine lifted a giant cannon from the home and aimed it at the duo. Their machines had begun to spin like they were doing a ballroom dance as the metal of their armor scratched under the strikes of the others.

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Angela’s red eyes grew wide. She shoved her current opponent and tried to back up. A blast of fiery energy tore through the chest of its ally and took off the right forearm of her machine.

Angela cursed as the headless opponent slowly marched forward; the giant cannon was dropped, as smoke and steam poured from the sides. It clearly planned to finish the brawl before the weapon cooled down.

The now armless yellow machine pressed its foot into the rocky mountainside as the headless opponent charged in. With a shove of the mechanical leg, Angela’s machine went into the air, dropping her left knee down between her opponent's shoulders. The yellow leg tore apart as it crushed the enemy's chest, and both machines hit the ground and threw a cloud of dust into the air.

With what limbs were left on her machine, a single leg and half an arm, Angela wriggled away from the wreckage to a boulder and pressed the metal back against the surface.

“What am I doing?” she spat as she saw a crowd of Worms slowly moving around the wreckage, and to her—they would finish the job. The invaders climbed up the side, and soon a wriggling head popped into Angela’s view. She shuddered at the sight, but it didn’t last too long. A distance boom of a rifle suddenly knocked the Worm off her machine.

Angela tried to turn, but her machine had frozen to enter power saving mode. Gunshots below indicated a bit of spray and pray, and soon after, Bandana climbed into the machine.

“Good, you’re not dead; that would be something to dread.”

“You should leave me. This machine will take some time before it moves again, and even after that, it only has one leg.”

Bandana walked close and looked at Angela closely. Her brow furrowed. “Is there something on my face?”

“Nope, not even a wound. You’re doing much better than I assumed. I have run low on ammo, and I fear…there’s not much time till they play us like a piano.”

He set the gun on Angela’s lap and pulled the bandana off his head.

“What are you doing?” the girl asked as he wrapped the bandana securely around her head. Bandana produced a magazine with three remaining bullets and slid it into her gun.

“Three shots, in case you need them. They blew the base up, so we need to stall for them.”

Bandana pulled out a combat knife and waved goodbye before jumping out of the cockpit.

“Wait!” Angela shouted, her voice trembling, but she did not know for what reason.