Jayce stands before the robot as it malfunctions and smirks to himself.

Jayce: What’s wrong old fart? Ain’t got anymore of your good shit to say?

Jayce: Well...This thing of yours wasn’t just all bark I suppose. If I’d slipped up just once, I'd be all over the floor just like those poor fellas you killed here. You just got unlucky.

Jayce casually approaches the defective exosuit.

Jayce: Now it’s my turn to do the trash talk. Except I prefer to use my hands to do that for me. Let me go ahead and pull you out of that hunk of junk.

Suddenly, Archer comes crashing through, breaking the window of the cockpit where the adventurer had cracked and his foot implants against Heymlir’s face.

Jayce: WHAT?!

Next, Tatsuo comes over and his fists punches straight through into the robot’s arm.

Jayce: Hey! What are you shitheads doing!? I said I was gonna beat that old geezer myself! Wait your turn! Or else I’m gonna beat the shit out of you guys too! – He continues to exclaim in the background as the two ignore him.

Jayce (desperately cries): STOP! – As Tatsuo rips the arm off as he rears his arm back and flings the arm of the robot across the floor.

Off in the corner, Jayce catches San running towards the exosuit.

“Good job everyone!” - San says encouragingly.

Jayce (whimpers): No…!

San goes in for the final blow as he lets loose a triumphant battle cry.

“NOOOOOOOO!!!!” - Jayce shouts synonymously in terror.

San swings his blade, and the robot shatters into bits and pieces, and at the same time so did Jayce’s mind as he looks in anguish.

Pieces of the exosuit is flung into the air. After the situation has settled, the group surrounds Heymlir who is on the ground with the remains of the robot scattered everywhere.

Jayce: Pfft…For a guy who was raving on about continental domination in a giant mechanical suit, he couldn’t take out:

A backstreet thug,

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

An old man.

A musclehead.

And a lil’ kid.

Jayce: Seriously, where were you going with this?

Jayce: Course…

Jayce (smugly): Most of the work was done by me.

San looks at Heymlir in somber.

San: There’s still a chance for you Heymlir…Why…? How could you do this…?

Heymlir pauses…His mind just going through countless thoughts of what to say, or what to do from here.

Heymlir whispers ominously to himself, “He..He..He...A machine will fall apart as soon as you take away a part….Eh?”

Heymlir: In a sense, we humans are almost no different than a machine…I fell apart a long time ago…

Heymlir: Yeah...That’s right...Humans and machines aren’t so different…!

From within the rubble Heymlir brings out the core, immediately stealing Archer’s attention.

Archer (exclaims in head): The core…! What’s he–

It was in that quick moment, before anybody could make any decisive action, Heymlir swallows it.

Everybody looks in shock.

Heymlir slouches and groans in pain –“Uuu…! Uurrgh…!”

Archer takes immediate action and dashes towards Heymlir as fast as he could using a breakpoint accel. In a burst of speed, Archer zips towards the blindside of Heymlir in an angular direction where a high “ping” sound can be heard at the vertex of the angle in which Archer receives a second burst of speed and changes his trajectory.

Archer appears before Heymlir with his leg reared in for a kick.

Archer: Dammit…!

Archer swings his legs towards Heymlir - “Spit that out!!!”

Heymlir brings his head back, dodging Archer’s kick which surprises the both of them. From Heymlir’s perspective, everything seemed to have slowed down for him. His pupils carefully track the movement of Archer’s leg.

Heymlir then snatches Archer by his neck, choking him.

The group reacts in shock.

Jayce: Uuh...Did he somehow screw up…?

San : ...No…Heymlir knows how to fight a bit himself...But he shouldn’t be able to react like that…I don’t know if this is what’s happening, but something is going on with his body....

Jayce nonchalantly places his arms behind his head and begins to walk towards Heymlir - “Well you guys can continue to stand around here, I don’t care about any of the two, so I’m going to finish what I started.”

San immediately tries to stop Jayce - “Wait Jayce--!”

Heymlir lifts Archer closer to his face to get a better look at him as Archer struggles to break free from Heymlir’s grasp.

“Hmm...That’s strange…You look familiar…” - Heymlir says as he gazes at Archer's face with a blank, soulless stare.

“Didn’t I….Kill you?”