Stefan notices what seems to be like a government institution. Surprisingly enough, it has a fancy fence that's small enough for Stefan to leap over. He hides within the bushes of the garden. The swarm of robots appear, and they run straight towards him. Some of the robots kneel down and charge their rifles.
"Heh, there's no way they know I'm here-"
But his words are cut short, as several railgun blasts are fired at him.
"Dodge right." said the combat assistant.
But he didn't have enough time to ever hear it, because the shots barely touched him, bruising his skin and chipping one armor plate off his arm. The robots continue to swarm towards the fence. Stefan quickly gets up with pure fear. The robots ram into the fence, destroying it like nothing. Stefan lets out a battle cry and shoots a blood energy blast. Stefan doesn't look back, he rushes into the government building. He shoulder bashes into the building, and is greeted with a majestic interior. A beautiful chandelier with hundreds of crystals hanging from the ceiling. He quickly snaps out of the beautiful sight and closes the doors, pushing himself against them. It doesn't take long until the robots bust into the door, however, Stefan grunts as he is able to keep the doors closed. Railgun shots pierce the hinges of the doors. One by one, weakening the doors, eventually allowing the robots to swarm within the building. Stefan dashes back, hundreds of robots await to engage in combat. Dozens attack Stefan immediately. Stefan is able to dodge the first punches, but is hit in the head with a straight jab. He launches an electric shockwave, destroying a few robots and knocking back some more. But that doesn't change anything, because new ones come to take their place. Stefan starts running further in the building, going to the 1st floor. Once he reaches the top of the stairs, he realizes that there's a big long-drawn-out carpet on it. He pulls the carpet suddenly, but it rips in his grasp.
"I didn't take that into consideration…" said Stefan, before running once more.
He reaches a congress room, where there can be seen a 50 meters long table with many chairs. Stefan looks at the ceiling, which was quite tall.
"Assistant, calculate the height of the room!"
"Result: 40 meters."
Stefan rushes to the table and puts his hands on it.
"Tell me the material it's made out of!"
"Results: 80% titanium, 17% stainless steel, 2% silver, 1% other metals alike."
Stefan looks at the door of the room, he hears the robots approsching. He clenches his teeth, then chops off around 10% of the table in length. The robots enter the room. Stefan takes the small chunk of the table and runs into the wall, breaking it. Stefan then throws the table at the robots, stunning them for a bit. Stefan runs and grabs the larger table, he struggles as slowly lifts up the table. The table was too long and as a consequence, it hit the ceiling. Stefan falls on his back and drops it. He quickly gets up and chops off 20% of the table. He picks the long part of the table again, lifts it up, it doesn't hit the ceiling this time. With no more stalling, he slams the table into about 12 robots, crushing them easily. A new set of robots enter the room. Stefan slams the table again, but this time they push against it. Stefan is staggered for a few seconds and drops it. He picks the smaller table, rushes the robots and swipes them into the hole he just made, successfully knocking them out. He keeps on doing that, it's efficient. Robots suddenly slowly retreat. Stefan drops the table and catches his breath. He scans the scraps of the robots and finds a few cores. He quickly grabs them and recharges his energy.
Suddenly, from the left wall, a new robot busts through.
"Roll forward." said the assistant.
Stefan quickly quickly rolls forward, the robot has a sword, with which it planned to slam into Stefan. Stefan manages to dodge the sudden strike. Upon greater sight, it was a swordsman. With a fancy medieval helmet, having a giant majestic feather stick out from the top. The armor shining in a powerful shade of gray. It didn't look too bulky, but that was due to its speedy capabilities. Armed with a regular sword, it was ready to duel. Stefan breaks a sweat trying to figure out what to do. He cannot outrun it, and doesn't have any weapon to combat it either. Stefan decides to tear apart the door of the room and throw it at him. The swordsman quickly dashes and slices the door in half, going past it easily. Holding the sword in both of its hands, it lunges at Stefan. Stefan manages to barely spin and dodge it, but he takes the opportunity and punches the knight in the face with an electric shockwave, knocking him back a very long distance, giving him enough time to find a weapon. Stefan rushes to the third floor. The doors are locked but he has no time for this, he kicks down the door and rushes inside. He finds several cyborg prototypes.
"All this fancy tech and not a sword around here, I swear." said Stefan to himself.
After a few seconds of searching, Stefan finds the only weapon out there. The handle was enough to hold both of his hands, but the blade was… unique, to say the least. It had a rather average blade, but around the fourth end of the blade, it was bent. Kinda like a sickle. Stefan grabs the weird sword with both of his hands.
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
"Item analysis."
"Results: Falx. The falx was a weapon with a curved blade that was sharp on the inside edge used by the Thracians and Dacians. The name was later applied to a siege hook used by the Romans."
"I understood nothing from that" said Stefan to himself as he looked at his new weapon. The swordsman quickly rushes into the room, sliding on the carpet, ready to lunge at Stefan. He ruthlessly dashes at Stefan. Stefan blocks his attack with his sword. Sparks jumps around the room from their crash and a devilish iron sound bursts from their blades. Stefan struggles to push him away. The robot quickly dashes back then goes for a slash, swinging his sword from the bottom left to upwards. Stefan swipes the blade as well, from up to down. The blades clash once more and they're both pushed back. The robot swipes the sword horizontally from the left. Stefan swipes his sword horizontally from the right, another clash and they're both knocked back again. Stefan notices an electricity generator right next to him on the wall. Stefan quickly grabs it with his left arm then plucks it out. His body is instantly charged with electricity. He throws the generator at the robot, who swiftly dodges and goes for another attack, swinging his blade downwards. Stefan blocks and they both push against each other.
"Assistant. Scan!"
Stefan proceeds to scan its body. He can't see its vital spots.
"Assistant, is the scanner broken?!" said Stefan out loud.
"Scanner status: perfect."
"What the fuck is up with this thing… it seems special." said Stefan in his mind.
Stefan charges up his legs with electricity and pushes back the swordsman then proceeds to jump and kicks him quickly in the head, knocking him back. Stefan lands on his feet then quickly rushes and tries to decapitate the robot. The swordsman quickly lifts itself up and flips back as soon as it notices Stefan trying to slash him. The robot lands on his knee, Stefan proceeds to slash it again, the robot tries to block but it's pushed back once more. Once it gets up this time it throws its sword at Stefan. Stefan parries the sword, then with anger overflowing in his veins he spins and slashes downwards. The robot hardly catches the blade between his palms right before it would hit its head. Sparks jump left and right from the steel which grinds against steel. Stefan changes the course of the slash and forces his sword downwards in the left, successfully slashing its wrist slightly, followed by a spin and a kick from his left leg. The robot bangs against the wall. Stefan goes for another slash, but the robot has had enough and punches him in the head. Stefan is knocked back a great distance. He slowly gets up but the robot grabs his head then headbutts him. Stefan lets out a grunt of pain, followed by the robot kicking him down the stairs. Stefan rolls down the stairs, he slowly gets up, panting, with visible damage marks. For no reason, Stefan feels way heavier than before, despite him being sure that his electricity storage is full. He looks at his blood energy storage, and it's full as well! He sees his circuits' shine start to fade out.
"No no no, what's happening? Impossible! I can't die yet! Did the cat fail me? What did I do to deserve this?!" panicked Stefan in his mind.
The swordsman stopped moving. He looks down at Stefan, scared of him after scanning his body. Stefan looks up at him, confused due to why it stopped attacking. The robot goes and grabs both his sword and the falx then rushes and jumps Stefan. Stefan blocks with his cyborg arm as the swordsman slams the swords onto his arm. Right at that moment, blue flames burst out of the circuits of his cyborg body. His cyborg eye turns deep blue and his blood energy storage light blue a very light blue as it made a loud revving up noise. Stefan felt insanely empowered. He dashes back then forward and punches the robot in the head and releases a shockwave, knocking him back right into the staircase, breaking it at once and falling through it. Stefan doesn't stop and rushes the robot. The swordsman takes out his emergency knife and strikes a fighting stance. Stefan starts engaging in close quarters combat, delivering a right jab at its head. The robot tries to dash back but it is too slow. It tries to stab Stefan with his emergency blade using its right arm. Stefan perfectly dodges the strike, he turns around, grabs its arm and slams him into the ground. His blood energy storage starts beeping, Stefan realizes his time is over. He rushes upstairs and grabs his falx. The blue flames fade out, his blood storage makes a beeping sound for a clear second then shuts down. He feels normal once more. The robot's sword is recalled back to him. Its body is greatly damaged but it still stands tall. With its left arm greatly damaged, it holds its sword in its right arm, slowly walking over to Stefan, with menacing blue light flashing from its eye.
"How… How is that thing still alive? Assistant! Scan it!" screamed Stefan in despair.
The assistant scans the robot, it shows that its entire body is the weak point.
"Impossible, impossible! You're kidding me, it said nothing before!"
Stefan's breath accelerates as he cannot believe his eyes.
"There's no way… maybe I can feint past him."
Stefan gets up slowly, panting. He doesn't know if he's able to take his enemy down now. But then, he realizes that he's on the first floor, the one with the congress room where he made a hole in. He smiles widely.
"Lucky me, I carved my own escape route!" said Stefan, before sprinting into the congress room. The robot sees this and sprints as well. He catches up to Stefan and choke slams him into the floor right in front of the hole he created.
"So… close… come on… come on!" said Stefan in his mind as he tried to reach out for the opening.
The robot stands on him and holds him down as he raises his sword, ready to deliver the final blow.
Suddenly, a loud explosion shakes the building. It was Rares. The robot looks around him and scans the area and notices Rares being at the base floor, carrying a big sack. He sees Rares drop the sack and looks up. The robot rushes to execute Stefan, it lifts the sword, but right before it would be able to finish Stefan, Rares blows up the floor and they pass through it. Rares punches the robot and sends him flying with a flame fist. Rares quickly grabs Stefan and the sack then runs outside.
The robot gets out of the rubble, with its armor extremely damaged. Its armor suddenly falls off, revealing his undamaged body and 2 blazing blue eyes. Letting out a wild demonic cry, he rushes right at Stefan and Rares. Rares grabs a small bottle of juice from the big sack and smashes it into the ground then shoots a fireball at it. A portal opens from the juice and he enters in it together with Stefan the robot almost reaches them, and grabs Rares by the hair. Rares lets out a scream of surprise, but the robot's arm is cut by the closing portal.
"Did you get the good stuff?" asked the cat.
"Yeah, yeah, they're safe." said Rares.
"I don't want any more of this…" said Stefan quietly.