Match 7:

#45 Nimia Altamirano

vs

#44 Theka-G3

#43 Bente-B2

and #42 Ena-A1

Inventory:

1 Katana - "Darling"

2 .44 Semi-Automatic Magnums - "Sonya and Cleon"

1 9mm Semi-Automatic Pistol

67.6 million dollars; Note: "Got some prize money"

There were plenty of abandoned places in the world. Some were just more abandoned than others, and this particular district in the urban ruins of Ukria was really damn abandoned. Not radioactive, thankfully, but pretty abandoned.

Cold as nine though. Seriously, Nimia felt like her fucking tits were icicles and had been since she got off her bike. The heavy, fluffy snow-camo jacket she got helped a little, but still. Probably should’ve sprung for the self-heating fibers, but hindsight was a bitch and foresight was blind.

Granted, she’d wanted something flexible that she could actually move in, and if that type jacket got shot, she’d be on fire. So pros and cons and half-blind foresight..

Keeping her hood up was sorta helping, and the thick scarf and gloves she had on were handy too. She’d even got heavier jeans and thicker boots for the cold, though she’d honestly expected it to be snowier when she got to the ruined North-Eastern city.

Instead, the sky was completely clear. Sunny, even. There was just a bad wind blowing, the kind that cut straight through layers of clothes and could freeze bare skin in seconds, especially if said skin was connected to metal cybernetic prosthetics. It wasn’t even a strong wind, just a cold one.

Still, complaining didn’t help for shit. Made her feel better though. So onwards she walked, looking around the abandoned warehouses lining the main road when a noise caught her attention; the low thumps and clangs of metallic footsteps against the asphalt.

She paused, then stopped, standing straight in the center of the road. Three sets of steps sounded out from ahead of her, and dimly, she heard the roar of engines coming from somewhere in the town, at past the storefront on her right side. Some old place that was so cleared out, she couldn’t tell what it used to sell. Even the windows and front doors were gone.

An empty warehouse paralleled it on her left side, and that was where the footsteps were coming from.

The first one around the corner was a bright crimson, almost immediately reminding her of Jourmari, though where the racer had matched gold with his red, the clearly cybernetic humanoid was highlighted with white. White lines tracing up a mostly red body, though their rounded head was mostly white instead, lending a look to the mechanoid like they were a bald, muscular man in a red bodysuit.

That impression was pretty quickly ruined though by the largely featureless face they had; no nose, three red dots in a line for the mouth, and two round, entirely green eyes. They also noticeably lacked definition; whatever muscles they had looked too smooth, too constructed. They were more like a slender bodybuilder than a buff warrior, and even then, they lacked any creases or veins that a “natural” human would.

There was also the fact that the mechanoid had crab-like claws at the ends of their arms instead of hands. That was definitely an attention grabber.

Said claws weren’t chitinous though; they were definitely mechanical, just made out of a smooth, red metal to match whatever style this bot had going on.

A style that their siblings seemed to match. The one right behind them looked identical, but was an emerald green in every place Reddy was red and the one behind them was pitch-black instead. Other than that, they both looked the same, color-wise, though Greeny had red eyes.

Hm. They also had different hands going on. They both had normal, human-ish hands, though the green one’s were black, like they were wearing gloves, and the black one’s white hands seemed clawed.

“Good morning, Nimia Altamirano, Rank Forty-Five of The Immortal Ranks, Age: Unknown, Nationality: Unknown, presumed of Latino descent, Blood type: AB+, Gender: Female,” Greenie said in a high, electronic voice as the trio stood in the center of the road, opposite Nimia, with Greenie taking the lead and their siblings flanking them.

“Huh. You did your research. Kinda ruins my intro though,” she replied, shrugging in her fluffy jacket.

“Apologies. Did you have something particular in mind.”

“Nope! Mostly was just gonna walk around until I ran into you guys. Gals? People.”

“All could be applicable.” Greenie copied her shrug, holding their hands behind their back. Their siblings were holding totally still though. It was always interesting seeing what a synthetic did ‘at rest’, and the ones that just kinda froze were honestly pretty cool in Nimia’s pro opinion. The lack of tics and tells made things fun. “I hope you will allow my own introduction then.”

“Heh. You don’t need my permission, Greenie.”

They just nodded, not commenting on the “Greenie” nickname. “I am Ena Ay-One, Rank Forty-Two of the Immortal Ranks, Gender: Female, Blood Type: C+.”

“Nothing for nationality and age?”

“That information is classified.”

Nimia snorted. “You could just say you don’t want to say. Or something like ‘you shouldn’t ask a lady her age’.”

“Noted.”

“I am Bente Bee-Two,” Ena’s black and white sibling spoke up next in a noticeably deeper tone, tilting their head slightly in what might’ve been amusement, “I am the Forty-Third ranked, my gender is male and my blood type is C positive as well. I look forward to killing you.”

“Likewise! And Reddy over there is…?”

“Theka Gee-Three,” Reddy answered, their tone more even and almost monotone, “Forty-Four. Non-binary. C negative.”

“Oh hey, a difference!” Nimia grinned. “So that’s all three of you then. Kinda disappointed you all didn’t shoot for one higher. You could’ve had your numbers match.”

“Entering Rankings: Error.”

“Come again?”

“My sibling refers to my entrance,” Ena explained, “I chose to fight and kill an opponent they feel I should not have. Despite that, both they and Bente have entered alongside me with the intent to act as my ‘guards’.”

Nimia blinked. “Oh. Huh. That’s...weirdly noble.”

“No it’s not,” Bente contradicted with obvious amusement, “We consider it only right that our eldest sibling hold the position of First, and our intent is to secure the Third and Second positions as well. We are meant to fight and kill. We were built for that purpose. Becoming the greatest killers in the world is only logical.”

“Now see, that’s more what I was expecting. Thank you, Benny, for your helpful insight.”

He emitted a harsh crackle of what might’ve been laughter as Ena stepped forward again. “Regardless of intention, that is the situation here. My siblings hold titles below mine. You will have to kill them to reach me.” Her eyes didn’t narrow, but they did start to glow. “I intend to protect my siblings. I will kill you if you attempt to harm them.”

“Okay, wow, actually feeling a little bad here. This is the first time I’ve had to kill a whole family.” She paused, then shrugged. “Oh well. First time for everything.”

Benny crackled again, actually leaning his head back as he laughed. “Wrong again.” Eh?–Wait, there was that truck again. Was it getting louder–?

Nimia glanced behind her as a huge black semi pulled up in the gaps between the buildings, blocking off the street. And huh. There was another mechanoid–white and blue this time–up on top of the trailer.

Their arms were slightly bulkier; in particular, their shoulders and forearms seemed more armored–more like thick, blocky plates than the humanoid arms the others had–probably to support the buzzsaws they had in place of hands. Which matched up with the orange one climbing out of the front of the truck and dropping to the ground, though their hands were drills instead of saws...Wait, how were they driving–

“Ekadon Dee-Four,” introduced Blue, who then gestured to Orange, who raised a drill in greeting, “Chilio Ee-Five.”

“Huh. Your younger siblings?” Nimia asked, glancing back at Ena.

“Correct. They are unranked. However, they will be fighting alongside myself and my ranked siblings.” She tilted her head. “You stated you do not mind ‘killing a whole family’, correct.”

“Correct,” Nimia copied, smirking as she acted on a little hunch, “And the two on the roofs?”

Ah, there was a flicker of what had to be surprise in Ena’s eyes. And sure enough, two more mechanoids quickly made themselves known. The one on the warehouse roof was white and purple–kind of a deep, violet shade–while the one on the abandoned store was white and yellow–kinda reminded her of daisies, actually. And both were ridiculously heavily armed.

Both of the rooftop robots noticeably had one altered eye each–both their right eyes, specifically–with an odd white lens over them. Some type of scope, probably, which would fit considering Violet had miniguns for forearms while Daisy seemed to be equipped with some type of chemical thrower, based on the tubes extending down from their shoulders to the pointed nozzles in place of their hands.

“...They are Myrio Zee-Six and Koppa Eitch-Seven.” So A1, B2, G3, D4, E5, Z6, and H7. Interesting numbering conventions...

“So seven on one...those are some pretty extreme odds.” Nimia smirked, taking the time to glance over every last one of the mechanoids she was about to fight. “I hope you’ll live up to the hype.”

And she paused on Myrio, grinning at the violet bot, before snapping her arm out behind her and forming her new gold magnum–nicknamed Cleon in his honor–in her hand. The shot went wide though as Koppa jerked out of the way and then both ranged bots opened fire. Literally for Koppa; turned out the things on their arms were flamethrowers, specifically.

Nimia was already moving, deciding in a second to dive straight through one of the empty warehouse windows–more space meant more maneuverability, there could be things she could use inside, and jumping into the place with the pyro on top sounded like a shit idea–just in time to avoid a rain of bullets and fire. She rolled to her feet and turned, glancing around the large shelves around her–the spaced kind where they were mostly metal rods with flat pallets of plastic or wood, all still up for some reason–then jumped back again as Chilio smashed straight through the wall in a whirr of spinning drills.

They immediately rushed at her, not pausing in the slightest once they saw her. Fun bit of being a robot, Nimia guessed, before twisting around the thrusted drill and aiming straight–And then she had to roll back as Benny nearly clawed her face off.

A quick flick of her wrist brought her second magnum–which she decided to call Sonya to keep to a theme–to her free hand, but both bots were already moving before she even fired, ducking down and darting past each other as they ran to opposite ends of the warehouse.

Hm. The shelves created cover. Enough that they could actually disappear into them and she couldn’t even see them...The whir of drills was still audible though, so if she was smart about it...no, everything she’d seen so far painted the picture that these guys could dodge bullets, and giving away her means of positioning one this early on wasn’t smart…

Her eyes flicked around the shelves, listening for the noise–Ah, shit. The drills actually covered whatever noise Benny was making. She’d need to focus more to drown it out, and that was just dealing with two of them...Well, most of them were short range anyway, so…

Nimia flicked her hands out, dismissing both guns, then swung her left arm out and formed her katana in her hand, using the momentum to cleave straight through one shelf’s post. After a second, it split and collapsed by her side. Good to confirm that her darling could cut through iron. Vicente didn’t cheap out on the metal, nor on the enhancements whirring inside its hilt and steel.

So with that tested, she switch to two hands on the hilt and waited, closing her eyes and focusing on the sounds around her. The sound of drills was easy, but the noise of metal footfalls were far harder to pinpoint. Still there though, darting around the room, around the shelves...why the hell were they just m–

This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

It was a split-second instinct, but Nimia dove straight out of the way right before a torrent of bullets rained straight through the ceiling and at the point she’d been only a second ago and before she even rolled to her feet the whir of buzzsaws suddenly entered the fray and she was leaping back and back, each swing coming closer and closer to carving open her face or chest–

She barely ducked the drill, turning the motion into another roll to barely move from the next swipe. Whirs and squeals of machinery echoed as the orange and blue blurs pursued her through the wide space, nearly nicking her way more times than she was comfortable with and getting closer by the second until she could hear the thin *SHRIP* of fabric echoing out as they caught on her jacket and suddenly she was very glad she had short hair because if that shit caught in a drill she was fucked.

As it was though, she was doing a shitload of dodging and not a lot of attacking and it just suddenly clicked that they were probably driving her into position again because their older brother was still around and she’d be fucked if he suddenly attacked her from the back so against all fucking conventional wisdom in the world, she suddenly swung her sword right for a moving saw blade as it tried to carve down through her chest.

And the saw blade lost. It was almost comical how her eyes widened at the same time both of theirs went brighter, all of their surprise obvious the instant they saw the buzzsaw split and shattered, but hesitation meant death, so Nimia immediately twisted around the unhesitating thrust of a whirring drill and cut Chilio’s head clean off.

There was a spray of black blood and a harsh, electronic scream before Nimia suddenly felt a fist slam into her face and welp, there she went flying again. She was better at landing this time though and rolled to her feet right as Ena went surging right for her, the gynoid’s fist raised and cocked and crackling with electricity.

But Nimia wasn’t going on the defensive again and she immediately swung for the green gynoid, forcing her to reverse course and jump back while Ekadon wrapped a busted arm around their sibling’s head and ran for it–And that’s when Myrio burst straight though the roof, firing at her as they fell.

Well, fuck it, time to see if she could cut through bullets.

Turns out she could, but split bullets were still pretty dangerous so running straight for Myrio wasn’t in the cards just yet. So more dodging and running while bullets flew through the air, trying to figure out how the–And in came Bente, claws extending from between his fingers as he lunged right for her.

She twisted just right so he went between her and Myrio, keeping the violet bot from firing before Benny swung a clawed fist for her head. She had to lean a lot and swing to deflect as he went wild, trying to claw her to pieces and of fucking course his claws just so happened to be solid enough that she couldn’t cut them apart.

Still, keeping him there meant Myr–Only the briefest noise caught her attention and she managed to duck right as a heavy claw nearly smashed right into the back of her head. She kicked up, slamming into Benny’s chin and snapping his head back as she pushed herself up on her hands, getting a glimpse of a red body right before she abruptly had to drop again and roll as a crabby claw nearly snapped her shin in half.

She got to her feet right as the siblings whirled on her, both of them suddenly lurching forward in a rush of coordinated motion just like their younger siblings but far quicker and far more vicious than Eka and Chilly had been. And of course their claws–both the crabby type and the stabby type–weren’t sliceable. But they couldn’t break her sword either so she was either blocking or dodging every single strike even as they got way too fucking close for her own comfort.

Duck, dodge, block, swing, it was a rhythm by that point and she didn’t need a psychic to know the bots were all reading from the same playbook, so she kept her ears open and managed to hear the whir of spinning barrels right before gunfire lit up the space she’d just been in. Benny and Theka had already jumped out of the line of fire, but Nimia wasn’t interested in dodging.

No, that time she went straight for Myrio, catching the surprised brightening of their eyes as she ducked and dove under machine gun fire faster than the android could react. It helped that Myrio’s siblings had been forcing her in their direction the whole time; hell, their plan had a decent enough chance of working if they’d actually used one of their short-range fighters instead.

Instead, she split the violet bot straight in half at the waist, their guns still firing as their upper half flipped up into the air. At least until a second swing split the arms from their body entirely–

And then she jumped up and kicked off the torso, sending it crashing into Benny’s head as she flipped over a plume of flame that rushed right where she’d been. Now that would be a whole lot trickier to dodge, so off she went again as the flames swung out after her, trying their damndest to roast her alive.

She’d gotten plenty good at running though, so avoiding the flames wasn’t too tricky. On the other hand, fire spread, and the cool warehouse was rapidly getting hotter. And it didn’t help that Koppa had two hands.

When the second wall of flames abruptly sprung up in front of her, Nimia considered that she might actually have a problem on her hands. But hey, there were still plenty of shelves standing, so up she went. Kind of a shit idea in normal circumstances, considering that was where the smoke would be going, but hey, it was that or get burnt directly.

So up it was, as she tried to run across the shelves and get out of the damn furnace the warehouse was becoming. The heavy jacket really seemed like a shit idea in the current situation, but fuck it–And back to dodging she was because that lobster fuck just jumped straight out of the flames like a devil outta Jersey. And narrow shelves, already starting to warp from the heat, were a shit place to fight on top of.

“Persistent fucker, huh?”

“Correction: You pursued us. You harmed us.” Their claws snapped menacingly. She had to bite back a laugh. “You will die.”

And that laughter immediately vanished as Theka lunged for her, using their claws as bludgeons as they tried to smack her off the shelves. This time though, she swung right back, aiming to split the lobster bot in half before getting out. “You sound crabby! A little sour that I split your pals apart?”

“Very. Die now,” they replied as both of them exchanged blows, sharp steel clashing against probably also steel but more blunt.

“Nah, sorry, can’t. I’m aiming to reach the top, and that means I can’t die before then.” She smirked, joking, “You lose your rank if you die, and I’m not interested in working my way back up.”

“Arrogant. Downfall imminent.”

Nimia blinked at the sudden roar of flames, saw Koppa using their own flamethrowers to propel them up onto the shelves and land with–And then Theka abruptly changed tactics, charging again but with his arms spread wide, his guard right open and she instinctively stabbed forward, but that was a damn mistake.

Her blade pierced straight through their chest, sure, but Theka’s arms wrapped around her, pulling her close and pinning her left arm to her side. It clicked the instant she saw Koppa raising their flamethrowers towards her and their fireproof sibling, but Theka hadn’t trapped both her arms.

In an instant, a magnum materialized in her free right hand and she fired twice in rapid succession, the first bullet smashing through Koppa’s left eye while the second caught them close to the forehead as they stumbled back. For a brief moment, their remaining eye flickered, before their arms dropped to their sides and they sank to their knees, their body rapidly diverting everything they had in an attempt to preserve the primary systems and shutting down every non-essential function.

Nimia didn’t have time to deal with that though, since the enraged Theka–with a harsh, electronic growl sounding out from their “mouth”–was trying to outright crush her spine right before her metal palm smashed into the side of their equally metal head, her fingers clutching tight as she twisted the blade piercing their sternum and swung it out.

The growl that time sounded more like a gasp, but there was still more rage than anything else in it as Nimia severed their collarbone. One arm dropped and that was all she needed to push back and swing again and again and again, splitting through metal “flesh” and metal “bone” before she lifted her blade high and swung straight down, cutting right down the middle of the 44th ranked.

Nimia couldn’t admire how they finally crumpled into chunks though, their green eyes flickering out entirely as their pieces fell into the flames below. She was too busy running the opposite way over all the shelves and jumping straight out busted hole in the wall, rolling to her feet in the street outside and whirling around to stare down the remaining three mechanoids as her neck burned.

45 -> 44

Ena, Bente, and Ekadon stared back at her as her mark twisted from 45 to 44. The blue bot was crouched down by the truck, the head of Chilio and the torso of Myrio lying on the ground in front of them as they looked back at her. Bente and Ena, meanwhile, were just standing in the road, staring.

Then there was a harsh crackle of what she recognized as laughter as Bente stepped forward, flexing his hands as the blades popped from between his fingers again. “You’re a lot more impressive than any of us expected.”

“Bente-”

“Ena. Sis.” He turned back to her, raising one arm to point his blades at Nimia. “You can’t tell me ‘no’ here. This woman has harmed our family. She’s likely killed two of our siblings. And she’s easily the best killer we’ve faced in a long time.” He crackled again. “I want this. I want her blood on my claws. You can hear the blades here, can’t you? They’re singing for blood.”

“You’d know a lot about blood, wouldn’t you, big guy?” Nimia grinned back at him as he turned towards her. “You and Ena there, out of all your siblings, have that going on the most. Now, don’t get me wrong. I could feel it with Theka back there. They’ve got my respect. But they didn’t have that bloodlust like you do. They were driven by a protective rage.” She couldn’t help the genuine smile on her face. “I can respect that. Honestly, I respect all of you.

She pointed her darling right at Bente. “All of you have that protective instinct, but you two in particular have a bloodlust, and an ambition. So come on. One on one, or two on one. Your choice.”

They both stared at her, then Bente crackled one more time. His blades suddenly popped back into his hands, and he stepped forward, walking towards her.

“Wait.” And despite his stated intentions, Bente did stop in his tracks when Ena spoke again, turning to look at her. “Two on one. We fight together, never alone.”

“Gladly.”

Ena suddenly turned and went back to the truck. She climbed into the back, and returned about half a minute later with two sheathed swords in her hands. Simple sabers with straight blades, a lot like the katana Nimia carried. Pretty damn different though in many regards, considering Bente’s shone a solid crimson and burned with an obvious heat while Ena’s glowed an electric blue.

“Hm. Any reason you two didn’t bring those out earlier?” Nimia asked, raising an eyebrow.

“It’s pretty tricky to use my claws and a sword at the same time,” Bente replied, tossing the sheathe to the side and casually spinning the sword in his hand, before pointing its tip straight at her.

“We expected to kill you quickly. That was a miscalculation.” Ena placed both hands on her hilt, staring straight at Nimia with those vibrant red eyes. “We shall not repeat it.”

Nimia just smirked back. “Sorry, but you might be wrong there, again. This is gonna go real quick.”

And she immediately dashed straight forward, stabbing straight at Ena without any hesitation.

Equally immediately, Bente leapt in front of the blow, swinging his own blade up to block her feint, but she was already twisting around him right as Ena tried to do the same, darting past her brother and aiming to split Nimia’s head from her shoulders.

Their swords met in a clash of steel and song of lightning, sending Nimia’s left arm seizing, her sword dropping from twitching fingers even as her right fist rocketed forward, smashing straight into Ena’s face and knocking her back hard enough that she dented the truck’s cabin.

In an instant, Nimia ducked a slash from Bente as he swung for her head, grabbed her sword before it hit the ground, and swung it straight to the side, splitting through the android’s abdomen. No letting up this time though, and she spun with the swing, raising up and splitting Bente’s head in half, right through the dots forming his mouth.

44 -> 43

Still, better safe than sorry, and one more swing split the severed half of his head horizontally, the lights of his eyes flickering out in the instant that Ena charged right at Nimia, a scream of pure rage erupting from the gynoid as she swung hard and fast.

And Nimia had to admit, while it was obvious that Ena wasn’t a master swordswoman by any means, she sure did put a lot of force into her swings. Wild, reckless force, the type seeking to overwhelm her at all costs, and Nimia could actually feel herself being forced back even as her neck burnt again, giving more and more ground as Ena tried her damndest to smash her sword and cut straight through her.

And she couldn't exactly say it wasn’t working. The heat, the cold, the constant blows; they were all taking a toll on Nimia’s muscles, her guard finally starting to sink under the onslaught, unable to be ignored any longer, which just encouraged the tireless gynoid to swing even harder.

“Die.” Nimia almost blinked at the sudden word, the sudden order coming from Ena, but that was only the first droplet in an oncoming deluge, every word punctuating a harder and faster cut coming quicker and quicker until she was on one knee, her teeth grit as she tried her damnedest not to- “-die die die die die die die die die die die die die die die die die die die die die die die die die die die die die die die die die die die die die die die die die die DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE–”

And suddenly, Nimia was falling back, on the ground, and her hand dropped from her sword right as Ena lifted her own blade for one last cut when the magnum formed in Nimia’s left hand and she fired rapidly up, spending every last bullet in the magazine into Ena’s chest.

The gynoid froze, twitching as black blood leaked from the eight holes spreading from the center of her chest, her red eyes flickering for a moment as she stared down at Nimia. “...Yhh...You cheated.”

Nimia, meanwhile, tried to control her breathing, slowly shaking her head in lieu of a real response. “It...I-It’s a...d-death match...notta duel…” She pushed herself up on her steel arm, staring up at Ena. “You...brought your brother in...I brought my gun in...Though...if it makes you feel any better...I feel like an ass right now…” She chuckled, grimacing at herself as her sweat soaked her clothes, adding an extra bite to the cold around her. “I couldn’t win with just a blade. You were better than me there.”

“...Huh. Odd.” Ena’s eyes brightened for a moment. “Strangely, that does make me feel better.” And then her eyes dimmed and she slowly dropped backward, crashing to the ground.

It took Nimia five minutes to actually climb back to her feet. Even then, her legs were shaking bad.

She paused, waiting, then let out a slightly relieved breath as her neck burned again, the recently gained 43–

43 -> 42

–shifting into a 42. She really didn’t want to have to shoot a helpless opponent.

Then Nimia glanced up from Ena’s ventilated body and saw Ekadon staring right at her, the blue mechanoid’s green eyes focused right on hers.

“You gonna try anything?” she asked, standing straight and trying to look ready, despite how it felt like her muscles were outright burning.

“No.” they replied, short and simple.

“...okay, good. I didn’t want to waste any bullets.” Nimia let out a low breath, letting herself relax, if only slightly. “...so that’s that?”

“Indeed. I cannot fight. My siblings are similarly incapacitated.” They glanced at Chilio’s head. “Some more than others.”

“Yeah, I noticed. Just feeling sorta weird here. I don’t usually talk with an opponent after a battle.” She shrugged, her hands on her hips. “So are you gonna be a problem for me later?”

“Perhaps. Primarily: Repairs will be required. Vengeance: Tertiary concern.”

“...Kay.” Nimia was a little curious what their secondary concerns would be, but whatever, so she turned and started walking. “See you around then.”

“Wait.”

She paused, glancing at Ekadon again. “What?”

“You won.” They inclined their head towards Ena’s corpse. “You have the right to my sister’s sword.”

“Really? Is that how that works?”

“It is.” Okay, so they really didn’t get sarcasm. “It is how she gained it. You should too.”

“Nope. I couldn’t beat her with my sword, so I don’t have any right to hers.”

“Then what of my brother’s?”

She shrugged. “Nah. No disrespect, but I like my darling just fine for now. Sure, I wouldn’t mind upgrading her, but it doesn’t feel right taking either of their blades. Consider it a weird sense of honor. But hey, if you get fixed up and want to come at me with them…”

Ekadon abruptly crackled, laughing just like their brother. “Potentially. Goodbye, Miss Altamirano.”

“Same to you.” Nimia gave them a casual salute, then walked off, more than ready to rest up after a rough, but fun, fight.

And then she doubled back because she left her bike the other way.

At least Ekadon didn’t say shit, though she swore the little pissant found it funny. Well, whatever. Hopefully her next fight would take place somewhere nicer.