“FIGHT!” Yandil screamed.

Both Guardians moved at once. Hellbringer’s missile chambers opened all at once while Stormbreaker aimed her lightning rifle directly at the group.

“Criminal One shows unusual energy patterns!” Yandil shouted as Gale stepped forward. “Criminal Two appears to be directing their pitiful defense! Criminal Three activates combat equipment! Criminal Four readies projectile weapons! Criminals Five and Six demonstrate typical cowardice!”

The crowd roared and cheered hysterically for the two guardians. They could hear each one cursing at them for being terrorists.

A deagle materialized on Ollie’s hand. “Gale, take the blue one! Rachel, red! Lily, shields for backline! Kyle, support where needed!”

“What about me?” Clyde said, moving back to one of the pillars.

“Try not to die!” Ollie replied.

Gale locked eyes with Stormbreaker. The blue Guardian stood at 41 metres tall, its huge frame blocked the view behind it. He opened himself to the void energy he’d kept bottled up.

Lines of intricate patterns and complex shapes covered Gale’s face. The world inverted, reds turned and shadows became lit up. The world changed to the familiar insanity that Breath of the Void let him peer into.

Weber appeared in his right hand. Phase Touch ran along its edge, shimmering in a grayish blue light.

Stormbreaker fired a quick shot. Gale dodged left. The lightning exploded as sparks against the metal floor where he had just been as he rushed immediately. The best defence was having no defense. It was all offence.

Stormbreaker’s lightning rifle tracked him through the floor. Two more quick lightning bolts flew at him, all dodged as he vaulted vertically using the raised platforms.

This wasn’t a flat battlefield. Platforms all around could be used as leverage for Dainv Combat Arts.

Gale jumped up multiple times to vault on the walls to reach the top. Stormbreaker followed, only needing one casual jump to reach where he’d reach. At every step she took, she fired off lightning, grazing his clothes as he slowly but surely gained ground on her.

Stormbreaker paused just for a split second on the last dodge he did where he let the lightning graze Weber, allowing him to reach up higher on a different platform than he could have naturally.

That was enough time. Gale took the timing, pushing down on the platform with all his strength to launch himself to Stormbreaker. Phased Touched edge sliced through her thighs, causing sparks to explode outwards.

“Criminal One has damaged Stormbreaker!” Yandil shouted. “Unprecedented! The Azure Champion faces a worthy opponent!”

Across the arena, Rachel sprinted toward Hellbringer. The red Guardian launched missiles directly at Ollie, who dove behind a chunk of broken platform.

Rachel jumped upright to the path of the missiles. Her combat gauntlets superheated into white. She punched the air with a boom, creating an explosion in front of her. Missiles exploded one by one as they touched the superheated air, shockwaves pushing her back.

“Criminal Three sacrifices herself for Criminal Two!” Yandil shouted. “Futile heroics from these terrorists!”

Clyde managed to climb up one of the platforms, finding a high ground. Slowing down his breathing, he aimed through the scope of the SSG. Squeezed the trigger. The bullet flew through the barrel, leaving a trailing shockwave in its wake.

The bullet sparked against Hellbringer’s face, slightly nudging it backwards. The shot did nothing. Hellbringer’s armour took the impact without a scratch.

“Criminal Six’s pathetic attack fails to penetrate Guardian armour!” Yandil laughed. “As expected from these inferior beings!”

Hellbringer turned toward Ollie. Laser cannons charged along both arms.

“Plasma beam coming in hot!” Ollie shouted.

Lily stepped in front of him, both hands raised. A blue shield formed between her and the incoming attack, see-through energy spreading outward like a wall.

Hellbringer fired. The pillar of laser hit Lily’s shield; the force itself buried her halfway down as its weight dented the metal plating. The barrier held as Lily’s arms shook.

The moment the beam stopped, Lily drew one Deagle and fired back. A blue lance shot from the barrel, striking Hellbringer’s chest plate. The lance splash spread across the armour without effect.

“Useless!” Lily said.

“Criminal Four’s energy attack fails!” Yandil said. “Guardian armour remains unbreached!”

Electricity crackled around Stormbreaker’s back, arcing between her joints as if charging. Two barrels extended from its shoulder, aiming at Gale.

Alter extended Weber to look more like a shield. Lightning hit the flat of the blade, electricity arcing through the edges as he covered himself sideways, never relenting on the offence. Jumping forward, his form blurred as he disappeared from the ground, meeting Stormbreaker eye to eye.

Stormbreaker used its free hand to swat him away horizontally.

That was a mistake. Gale let the hand meet the tip of his Weber, allowing him to spin and launch himself off of the hand to its neck.

At the last second, Stormbreaker leapt backwards. Alter extended Weber, allowing it to slightly graze the front of its neck, but the reach wasn’t enough. Still, oil dripped from where it had cut.

“Criminal One has damaged Stormbreaker again!” Yandil shouted. “The Azure Champion bleeds!”

Tendrils warned him of the oncoming danger. Looking back, missiles from Hellbringer’s side flew across to the arena at his direction.

Multiple shots fired from one of the lower platforms, exploding the missiles coming at him one by one. Kyle picked off each missile mid air.

“Don’t worry about Hellbringer, rookie!” Kyle shouted at Gale. “Keep Stormbreaker busy! I’ll help with crossfire, but we need to take down one first instead of splitting focus!”

Kyle disappeared in a flash of blue, joining the others at Hellbringer’s side. His role focused on picking off any missile that strayed away from Rachel’s explosions.

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“Got it!” Gale gritted his teeth. That was too close.

Stormbreaker turned its lightning rifle to where he was about to land. In one smooth move, Weber ballista materialized and he shot it at Stormbreaker, the recoil caused him to veer off course from where he would’ve landed. The lightning hit where he would’ve landed, and he noticed the ballista shot was blocked by the same hexagonal shields the spider mechs used.

A foot mid motion came crashing down on Gale, sending him flying into one of the pillars. Blood splattered out of his mouth when his back hit the hard metal.

“Criminal One experiences Guardian firepower firsthand!” Yandil shouted. “A direct hit from Stormbreaker’s plasma cannon!”

The crowd roared, their death chants grew louder.

Meanwhile, Rachel ran toward Hellbringer. She ducked under missiles that exploded as they neared her. Debris flew everywhere.

“Rachel, fall back!” Ollie shouted. “Don’t get too close!”

But Rachel pushed forward, jumping over obstacles as she closed in. Flames engulfed her whole form, heat bending the air around her and super heating the metal plates on the floor. She jumped up, aiming an explosive punch at its head.

Hellbringer swung its arm down in a sudden jerky movement.

Rachel, mid air, couldn’t dodge. She punched early, exploding the air in front of her to knock herself off course.

Too late. She braced her hands upwards for impact. The arm sent her ragdolling down to the metal floor.

“Criminal Three learns why close combat with Guardians is suicide!” Yandil shouted. “A painful lesson!”

Clyde spotted a gap at the base of the Guardian’s thumb joint, where hydraulic lines connected to the weapons systems.

“Ollie! The thumb joint!” Clyde shouted. “Left hand, base of the thumb!”

Ollie fired off a full magazine to draw Hellbringer’s attention away.

It worked as Hellbringer turned its barrels towards him, giving Clyde a clean shot at the exposed joint.

Clyde took a breath, centred his crosshairs, and fired. The bullet hit exactly where multiple hydraulic lines connected. Fluid sprayed from the impact, the Guardian’s left hand twitching from the damage.

The massive gun Hellbringer carried slipped from its grip, falling directly toward Rachel’s still body.

“Criminal Six scores a lucky hit!” Yandil shouted. “But Criminal Three will pay the price for this small victory!”

Ollie thrust both hands forward, a blue outline enveloping him and the falling gun. Its descent slowed down until it hung just above Rachel.

Ollie saw the sword dropping. Without pause, he thrust both hands forward, focusing his telekinetic ability. A blue outline appeared around the falling weapon, its descent slowing as it hung above Rachel.

Veins popped out of Ollie’s forehead.

Lily dashed forward, covering the distance between where Ollie was and Rachel in a blink of an eye. She grabbed the unconscious Rachel to the backline. The gun immediately crashed as the blue outline disappeared.

“A narrow escape for Criminal Three!” Yandil shouted. “But how long can these terrorists avoid the inevitable?”

“This isn’t working! We’re barely scratching them!” Kyle shouted. “We got pea shooters for shit!”

Ollie reached into his jacket, pulling out a small vial filled with a bright blue liquid and gray grains.

“Whoa, whoa!” Kyle grabbed Ollie’s wrist. “What are you doing? This isn’t the time for that!”

“I need to do this!” Ollie shouted.

“We still have a chance,” Kyle said. “The fight isn’t going that badly!”

Ollie looked him in the eyes. “Do you see any real damage on them? Any at all?”

He pointed toward Hellbringer. The Guardian’s damaged thumb joint was already fixing itself, metal flowing back into place like liquid.

“That’s their tech,” Ollie said. “Self-repair. We can’t win by just wearing them down.”

“Are you crazy right now?!” Clyde shouted. “It hasn’t been even 10 minutes and you’re already reaching for dust?”

“This is a do or die situation. Everyone knows that!” Ollie yelled back.

“Always the easy way out, huh, Oliver?” Clyde said.

Ollie turned to glare at him.

“This isn’t the easy way out. It’s the hard way.” He looked at each of them and also at Gale fighting in the distance. “I’m not going to watch anyone here die. Not on my fucking watch.”

Ollie broke off the neck of the vial, then emptied it into his mouth. Gulping the liquid down in one go, he threw the vial on the floor, shattering it. For a grueling moment, nothing happened.

He gasped as dust spread through his veins, drool dripped down his curled up lips as the ecstasy spread through his whole body.

The debris on the ground rumbled as Ollie’s ether signature rose to another level. His eyes glowed faint purple. Soon, the rubble around him rose from the ground into the air.

Hellbringer launched another attack. Missiles streaked toward them, followed by a blast from its plasma cannon. The projectiles and energy beam flew toward Ollie’s position.

Then stopped.

Every missile, every bit of plasma hung in mid-air, caught in a telekinetic grip so strong it froze physics itself.

“What the hell?” Lily whispered, Deagles forgotten in her hands.

“This is Glory Industries’ most potent version,” Ollie smirked. “Called the Blue Pill. Allows a Resonant to compete at a late Harmonic stage.”

The floating missiles slowly turned in place, rotating to face back toward Hellbringer. The plasma energy squeezed into a pulsing tight ball as it headed back.

“Criminal Two displays unexpected abilities!” Yandil shouted, sounding genuinely surprised. “This is outside normal parameters!”

Ollie took a step forward, then another. At each step, more debris lifted from the metal floor of the arena, and plates flew off of their bolts. A cloud of metal debris floated in front of him like a shield, spinning like the gray marble.

Right hand thrust forward, aiming at Hellbringer. A blue outline enveloped it, groaning from the pressure.

“Holy shit,” Kyle breathed. “He’s actually doing it.”

The red Guardian dropped to one knee, its weapons fired erratically as it fought against the telekinetic control. All of the projectiles that came out of it froze in the air like someone clicked the pause button.

“Now!” Ollie shouted, sweat poured down his temples. “I can’t hold it forever! Hit it with everything!”

Rachel shook her head, regaining consciousness, standing up immediately. Her form ignited back into flames as she launched herself at Hellbringer.

“Joints and the head!” she sprinted toward the kneeling Guardian. “That’s our best shot!”

Kyle threw his dagger at Hellbringer’s shoulder, blinking and reappearing at where it landed. Clyde tore a shockwave round at its neck.

On the other side, Gale pulled himself up, rubbing his head. His eyes caught Stormbreaker’s form, jumping from platform to platform on her way to Hellbringer’s side.

Launching himself to the Stormbreaker’s back, he fired the Weber Ballista backwards multiple times to give him more velocity. One beam hit the forcefield that separated the arena from the spectators, causing it to flicker for two seconds before returning to normal.

When he reached her back, she saw him over her shoulder. Twisting her body to face him, she aimed the lightning rifle up at him. Lightning charged up, arcing all over the barrel.

Ballista fired to the side. Lightning missed him wide. Feet landed on the floor. Launched himself up into a spin towards its neck. But Stormbreaker jerked to dodge unsuccessfully.

Gale’s spin cut through multiple lightning rods on Stormbreaker’s back, causing electricity to shoot out wildly and making her movements even more jerky.

“Criminal One delivers a critical hit to Stormbreaker!” Yandil shouted. “Unprecedented damage to Guardian systems!”

Stormbreaker stumbled backwards, electricity arcing all over and onto the floor, which it hadn’t done before. Three rods fell onto the floor. As they crashed, plasma exploded in the vicinity.

Whatever that was, it was a critical hit and Stormbreaker was now on the losing end. It was its mistake, focusing on supporting Hellbringer instead of him. What was weird was that Stormbreaker’s experience he saw in the recording was no longer there. This one felt like a clunky version of the original pilot. It was the same with Hellbringer.

At the back of his head, Gale literally felt something was watching them as if this thing watching them was causing all of this. That could explain why these weren’t the same pilots they watched.

Ink bloomed across Stormbreaker’s veins, creating a venous pattern along the metals and its circuits. The sight interrupted Gale’s thoughts.

Phase 1, check. Phase 2 was where the trouble was.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep