Rose had seen many strange things after joining Tyler’s Team. Even Tyler himself was strange. Sotis she suspected he had so secret inheritance hidden sowhere because every ti she thought she understood him, he would pull out sothing new.
However, this was the first ti she had seen soone treat chs like disposable toys.
The Golden Palace fired. A ch disappeared.
A few monts later, another identical ch appeared.
Then another.
Then another.
Rose had already lost count.
Building a normal ch wasn’t cheap. Even large organizations would think twice before losing one. Yet Tyler kept sending them out as if they were made from scrap tal.
"How rich is this guy? Where does he gets these materials? Is he a crown prince from Captial?" Rose muttered.
She had wanted to ask these question for a long ti.
Unfortunately, Tyler would probably give one of his nonsense answers and pretend it was normal.
If Tyler knew what she was thinking, he would probably start explaining production costs, research investnt, and manufacturing efficiency. He might even spend half an hour talking about assembly lines.
Of course, all of that would be nonsense.
The real reason was much simpler.
Copper Pot. Storage Cubes.
As long as those two things existed, Tyler could continue pulling out new toys.
Eventually the Golden Palace stopped attacking.
The golden beams no longer appeared.
Nobody knew the reason.
Perhaps the weapon needed ti to recharge. Perhaps the King felt destroying Tyler’s disposable chs wasn’t worth the effort. Or perhaps sothing else inside the palace demanded his attention.
Whatever the reason, the attacks stopped.
Rose glanced toward the distant palace. It remained floating high above the Capital exactly where it had been before. If soone didn’t know what happened earlier, they would probably think it was just a beautiful landmark.
Unfortunately, everyone had already seen what it could do.
Since the palace was no longer interfering, Rose returned her attention to her mission.
Destroy the tower.
Unfortunately, she quickly realized she was too late.
The transformation had already completed.
The giant machine stood in the middle of the district like a walking skyscraper. Compared to normal chs, the size difference was ridiculous. Buildings barely reached its waist. Roads looked like thin lines beneath its feet.
Rose sighed.
"I am late."
The giant machine slowly turned its head. Several sensors scanned the surrounding area before passing over Rose’s position.
Rose imdiately beca alert.
However, after finishing the scan, the giant machine simply ignored her.
Then it continued walking.
Boom.
Boom.
Boom.
Each step shook the nearby streets. Roads cracked beneath its feet and smaller buildings collapsed as it passed through the district. It wasn’t even attacking anything. The machine simply didn’t care what was in its way.
Anything standing before it was crushed.
Rose beca annoyed almost imdiately.
"Hey."
The giant machine ignored her.
"Hey!"
Still no response.
Rose raised one arm. Several miniature missiles launched from hidden compartnts and struck the giant machine’s back.
Small explosions appeared across its armor.
The damage wasn’t impressive.
That wasn’t the point.
She only wanted its attention.
This ti it worked.
The giant machine finally stopped moving.
Then it slowly turned around.
Its sensors locked onto Rose.
At the sa ti, several reinforcent chs arrived from another direction. Missiles, machine guns, and cannons imdiately opened fire. Explosions covered the giant machine from every direction.
Unfortunately, the results weren’t particularly good.
Most of the attacks only left scratches.
The giant machine stood there and endured everything.
Then its eyes suddenly glowed red.
A warning appeared across several battlefield feeds.
Target locked.
Eliminate.
Before anyone could react, one of its arms began changing shape. Armor plates shifted aside while internal components rearranged themselves. Within seconds, the entire arm transford into a giant hamr.
Then it swung.
Boom!
Several reinforcent chs vanished instantly.
The impact was so powerful that very little remained afterward.
Rose blinked.
"That’s unfair."
Tyler’s voice appeared through the communication network.
"It turned its arm into a giant hamr?"
"Yes."
"Interesting."
Rose looked at the destroyed chs.
"These things don’t use normal weapons?"
"So far, it looks that way."
Tyler was already reviewing combat recordings while speaking.
"Looks like this one specializes in close combat."
Rose nodded.
"Only this one?"
"Probably. The towers were disguised as buildings for who knows how many years. It wouldn’t surprise if every single one has a different design."
As if proving Tyler correct, alarms suddenly appeared throughout the battlefield.
Several video feeds opened at the sa ti.
The remaining towers had completed their transformations.
Everyone imdiately looked at the screens.
One of the giant machines resembled a massive tarantula. Large cannons erged from its back while dozens of smaller openings appeared across its body. Monts later, chanical spiders began crawling out.
At first there were only a few.
Then dozens.
Then hundreds.
The smaller spiders imdiately spread throughout the streets and began attacking everything they detected.
Another giant machine resembled an enormous octopus.
Or maybe a kraken.
Its tentacles stretched across entire city blocks. Buildings were pierced apart with almost no resistance. Several Capital military vehicles were accidentally destroyed simply because they happened to be standing nearby.
The final machine was even stranger.
Its body separated into two enormous tallic spheres. Every surface was covered with weapons.
Missiles.
Cannons.
Beam emitters.
There were so many weapons that several engineers inside headquarters stopped trying to count.
The two giant spheres rolled through the city while continuously firing in every direction. Whenever they collided, a powerful shockwave spread outward.
Several nearby buildings imdiately collapsed.
Inside headquarters, the atmosphere beca noticeably quieter.
Engineers stared at the screens.
Soldiers stared at the screens.
Even Ariel was staring at the screens.
After several seconds, Tansy’s voice finally broke the silence.
"Who designed these things?"
Nobody answered.
Honestly, everyone wanted to know.
The designs looked completely unrelated to each other. It was as if different engineers had competed to create the strangest war machine possible.
Tyler studied the battlefield footage for a while before letting out a sigh.
"Now I’m curious."
Ariel asked, "About what?"
"The two towers we destroyed earlier."
"What about them?"
Tyler pointed toward the screens, "If these are the ones that survived, I want to know what the other two would’ve transford into."
Ariel stared at him through the screen.
The city was currently under attack by giant chanical monsters.
Tyler was wondering about the monsters they never got to see.
Tansy rolled her eyes.
"Can you focus?"
"I am focusing."
"No. You’re being curious."
"Those are not mutually exclusive."
Several people nearby couldn’t help laughing.
Tyler ignored them and opened a tactical map. The battlefield imdiately appeared before everyone.
Several targets were highlighted.
"Alright. We split up."
The joking imdiately stopped.
The situation wasn’t out of control yet, but allowing those giant machines to continue rampaging would only create more problems.
"Tansy."
"Here."
"Take care of the octopus."
"Understood."
Tyler marked another target.
"The rolling spheres are too dangerous in crowded districts. The nearest squads can go play with those balls."
Several team leaders acknowledged the order.
A few of them felt the wording was a little strange, but nobody bothered pointing it out.
Then Tyler looked toward Rose’s location.
"Rose."
"What?"
"Switch targets with ."
Rose blinked.
"You want the hamr guy?"
"Yes."
"What do I get?"
"The spider."
Rose imdiately beca unhappy.
"I hate spiders."
"You’ll survive."
"I don’t want to fight those spiders."
"Your shield is perfect for that fight."
Tyler completely ignored her complaints.
"Another squad will engage the spider first. You’ll reinforce them after you arrive."
The acknowledgents quickly arrived.
Throughout the battlefield, chs began changing direction. Squads were reassigned and new routes appeared across tactical maps.
The brief period of calm ended almost as quickly as it began.
Across the Capital, giant chanical monsters continued moving through the city while Ember forces rushed toward their assigned targets.
The battle everyone thought was nearing its conclusion suddenly beca busy again.
---
A few minutes later, Tyler was still fighting the Giant Humanoid cha while keeping part of his attention on the Golden Palace floating in the distance. The strange thing was that the palace hadn’t moved at all. Since it stopped firing those golden beams, it had simply remained there as if it was watching the battlefield. Tyler didn’t believe the King would do sothing pointless. There had to be a reason behind it, but right now he didn’t have ti to think about it.
A massive hamr suddenly smashed toward him.
Tyler’s ch imdiately boosted sideways. The attack struck the road and shattered it apart. Chunks of concrete and tal flew everywhere. Before the giant could pull its arm back, Tyler jumped onto the hamr itself and started running up the giant arm.
The giant humanoid reacted quickly. Its other hand moved toward Tyler, trying to squash him like a bug. However, Tyler’s ch was far more agile than its enormous opponent. He jumped again and landed on the giant’s shoulder. The giant’s hand missed completely and struck its own body instead.
"Too slow."
Tyler didn’t stop moving. Fighting sothing this large was troubleso, but it also had disadvantages. Every attack required a large movent, making it easier to predict. As long as he remained mobile, the giant would have a difficult ti landing a direct hit.
anwhile, on the other side of the battlefield, the giant spider continued releasing smaller chanical spiders from its body. The streets below had beco chaotic as dozens of Ember soldiers rode hoverboards between buildings while shooting them down. Missiles and energy blasts constantly exploded throughout the area. Whenever a group of spiders gathered together, concentrated fire quickly wiped them out.
Rose glanced at the battlefield feed while moving toward her target. Tyler was already fighting. Tansy was already fighting. Even the ordinary squads were fighting. Yet she still felt like she was travelling across half the Capital.
"Why am I the only one running across the battlefield?" Rose muttered.
Her ch entered another vertical section of the city and continued moving without slowing down. The strange gravity no longer bothered her. As she rushed past a construction district, her eyes landed on a giant crane standing between several unfinished buildings.
Rose slowed down slightly.
She looked at the crane.
Then she looked at the giant spider in the distance.
Then back at the crane again.
A grin slowly appeared on her face.
A rather crazy idea began forming in her mind.
At the sa ti, Tansy finally arrived before the giant octopus. The enormous machine stood near a giant statue of the King. Several tentacles moved around the surrounding area, destroying roads and buildings as they searched for targets.
Without wasting ti, Tansy took out an arrow and pulled back the bowstring. Electricity gathered around the arrowhead as her ch supplied power to it. The mont she released the string, the arrow shot forward like a streak of lightning.
The giant octopus reacted imdiately.
One of its tentacles shot forward and caught the arrow in midair.
Many people watching the battlefield feed couldn’t help flinching.
The octopus then crushed the arrow as if it were nothing.
"This one is going to be tough."
Tansy imdiately jumped away as several tentacles smashed into the ground where she had been standing monts earlier. The attacks continued one after another, forcing her ch to fly between buildings while constantly dodging.
As she avoided another strike, Tansy suddenly noticed sothing strange.
The tentacles were moving around the King’s statue.
Not once had they touched it.
Even when attacking her, they would suddenly change direction rather than risk hitting the statue.
Tansy glanced at the giant statue again before looking back at the octopus.
A grin began to form.
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