Rafael learned a little bit from the deaths of his minions. They were doing the three second bursts so that their weapons didn't overheat. He didn't know if it was just a functional thing or if the gun would actually explode in their grasp. But he figured it'd just make it so it wouldn't be serviceable anymore. It seemed the robed woman was being a decoy to draw enemy fire. Which wasn't a bad idea if she knew that the group could take out the robots before she ran out of energy. Well assuming she did, he had no clue what she was capable of really. One of the bots from the back abandoned firing and started hammering on the shield with its hands. That was one less gun firing.

The spider girl gave up information about the bots. How if one was destroyed then the rest got stronger. "Then just rip off their limbs before destroying them!" He called back, it didn't take much thought to come to that particular conclusion. His eye crept out of his face and looked around the corner, moving erratically up and down to avoid plasma fire. The one from the far back was gone and it hadn't gone to the left. I've been alive longer than you were even thought of... He grumped before turning while his eye sucked back into his face.

His arm that hadn't gone all whip-like flattened and expanded, turning into a crude looking shield as he went around the corner to his little hiding spot. As he moved up the narrow passage he kept to the left of it as much as the barrels there would allow. Who the hell used wooden barrels when you had friggin robots? Ah well, they could be storage or something. He got to see the 'captain' bot just as soon as it saw him. His whip-arm surged forward in an attempt to rip the gun from its hands while his shield arm was aimed to deflect plasma bolts sent his way. It wasn't his first, nor would it be his last, time dealing with plasma. He hated the stuff since it burned like a bastard.

The clockwork human Sieve was trading ranged attacks with instantly lost interest and began to bolt away, leaving the proud doctor to feel a little down. He had managed to celebrate his heritage by burning things that he didn't like, and even developed a firm grasp on wind magicks! Still, it felt odd being around such competent teammates. His old squadmates would wrap their used teabags in his ribcage and would blindly send him to scout ahead, so having the robots imply that he wasn't the most eye-catching or expendable member of the team felt bizarre. The only option available was to adapt to the situation at hand, or in other words, chase the creature down.

The gliding skeleton made his way to the machine's whereabouts, his spectral movements halted by the spiderwoman's warning about defeating their foes. He quickly gazed around and was surprised at what he saw. The marked ones around him were shielding eachother, stealing weapons and fighting viciously. Sieve knew that they were to be a team from now on, but it was at this moment that the idea finally settled in his skull. The gray machina called out the sensible strategy of incapacitating their enemies, which would be difficult for a magician.

His target lay on the floor like a cockroach before dragging itself back up, after having been struck by one of its allies own weapons. As the struggling machine tried to click back into place, Sieve began to make grappling motions with his left hand, like crushing a ball of paper. The force in his fist began to fight back at being pressed so tightly, and the skeleton responded by only inhaling more air. This ball of wind would have to be as accurate as possible. Sieve carefully stretched his bones and launched the orb in a straight line at his opponent's left arm, hoping to amputate it. After this the skeleton glided in a half-circle around the robot, preparing an identical attack at his other limb.

---

Aleksander made no movement for the scrolls as several others did. He feared not what secrets some scrap of paper would reveal. His generally grumpy mood, however, perked up a bit when they headed back into the cavern. Any encounter in there would be better than standing around when he is so eager to leave. The next room held another field similar to the first, but lined with several walls and structures. Out of an interior room came several inorganic entities, hostile as told by the recording. Aleksander was happy to find another fight so soon, for what is a soldier without an enemy to kill?

Stepping back for a moment behind cover to consider his tactical options, he saw some of the others charge headfirst into combat foolishly but at least seemed capable of staying alive. The mage appeared to be capable of taking the brunt of the attacks with some kind of barrier, but Aleksander reasoned the strength of it would soon wane so he opted to take care of the two attempting to bash the barrier down.

Deciding on an angle that looked good, he briefly fired a burst of flames that arched over his cover, over the barrier and wrapped around the machines. While titanium has a far higher melting point than flesh, not even it could withstand the intense heat generated by Aleksander’s Liquid-Tiberium flamethrower. The machines would need to choose whether to continue their assault and perish or retreat and douse the flames.

Evfimiia Serdiatnitskiia

---

Having had no real ability to actually fight anything, much less these things throwing deadly bolts everywhere, Miia scrambled to the small building Rafael cleared. There was no way she was about to jump in whatever was happening right now; all she could do was give them information on things.

Several sharp snaps of those bolts came again, causing her to flinch, even if she was relatively safe inside the building.With the flow of battle being solely decided by those combat experienced people, she started to rummage around the boxes in the room. With neat precision, she pulled out a few unknown items, arranging them neatly on the ground before realizing they would be better off in the box if they win.

She pulled out an object that had the shape of a fehu rune. From its semblance to the rune, she surmised that it might be a charm for wealth or fortune. It had a strange shape for a rune, with a sort of a ring and a protuberance poking out inside the ring. Its body was a steely black, with a strange hole in one end of it's branch. As her hand glowed again, popping out another scroll from thin air, she held it gingerly in one hand before pulling on the small stick inside the ring.

The stripped robot saw It's target attempt to grab it's weapon, and unlike the first robot that had been too slow, they were just fast enough now to barely avoid such attacks. It leaped upwards nearly hitting the ceiling and fired a a ball of green plasma, aiming to hit past Rafael's shield. As it came coming down it attempted to send an axe kick to his head as well.

The MKIII that had been shot by Mable could do nothing to stop it's arm from being severed by Sieve. In a split second the robot decided that it was more of a burden than an asset and in a swift motion it drove it's remaining hand into it's face, destroying it's self. Once again the remaining robots had a jolt go through their glass faces.

Meanwhile the robot bashing on Illia's barrier was joined by another, apparently finding her ability particularly troubling. It was then that Aleksander sent a wave of smoldering fire over them. At first they did not react, believing that the fire could not reach a high enough temperature to damage them. However their sensors quickly told them they were in danger, and they decided to move. But right as they were about to jump back the left side of the shack tore open. In less than a blink of an eye and with the crack of the sound barrier being broken they were torn in half. Past them a wall had a hole torn through it, and pass that a smoking hole was formed in the wall, which somehow sealed it's self shut.

The object Miia had found was a handheld weapon, a railgun to be exact. It's trigger had locked into place as a red light blinked on the tip of it's barrel, rending it unable to be fired at the moment.

At the same time, the robot besides the one attacking Rafael seemed to vanish only to then appear right in front on Mable. The Valiant was far too awestruck by what had just happened to react to the now ridiculous speeds it was moving at. A metallic kick was sent into her gut, sending her smashing into the wall by the entrance. Nothing was broken, but she was dazed and clearly no longer in any condition to move on her own.

Rafael hadn't expected to just wipe the floor with the robots like they had the linebackers. But when the robot went airborne he couldn't help but laugh. It shot at him, which was blocked by a shift of the shield arm the hissed and popped under the heat. When it tried to strike him however he leaned away and grabbed its foot with his whip-like hand. When one was in the air, without thrusters, you couldn't dodge or go anywhere. You're at your opponents mercy at that point.

Unluckily for the robot, Rafael had no mercy. With the vice-like grip on its leg Rafael started slamming the robot repeatedly into the ground. Actually making the stone floor to crack with each blow as the armored plating of the robot dented and cracked. Shifting a bit he drove the robots back against the corner of the 'shed' he had first went into. Making the metallic beings back bend in the wrong direction. The shield arm reverted to normal briefly during all this pummeling before turning into a wicked looking blade.

A flip of his wrist his transformed arm lashed out and cleaved the robots legs off. When it landed the blade was there cutting off one of the arms, leaving the robot with a single arm. Even with the boosts from the other dead bots it probably wouldn't have the speed to avoid that last limb being removed. A kick and the wiggling torso and head were moved out of sight as the mutant turned his attention to the group. He got to see Mable fly into the wall from a kick of the last functional robot. "Ah hell..." He muttered before moving in to help with the final one.

---

As Illia stood inside her barrier, weathering the attacks the robots were firing at her, she heard the shouting of Evfimilia, saying that the robots would get stronger if their brethrens were taken on.

Great, as if they weren't troublesome enough already. She supposed the most efficient way would be to defeat them all at the same time, but that plan flew out of the window when Rafael defeated one of them. He did have the idea of ripping off their limbs first however, which Steve immediately did with his wind powers. However, the robot decided to commit suicide afterwards, rendering the whole thing moot.

Clever automatons, they are...

Illia then was rescued by the arrival of Aleksander, who burned the robots firing at her. At first, she thought his fire wouldn't be hot enough, but apparently, that wasn't the case as the robots decided to retreat. But before they could, something suddenly hit them so hard that they were torn in half by the impact. Illia looked to where the attack came from and saw Mila holding some sort of weapon in her hand. She must have been the one to do that, she thought.

That attack... I don't think I could stop it with my barrier... that weapon was dangerous indeed...

Soon after however, Mila was attacked by another robot who suddenly appeared before her, knocking her down to the ground. Illia could tell that it had gained considerable boost in power and speed. She looked at the weapon Mila was holding, now free on the ground as well. She had to use that.

Quickly, she used her power to snatch the weapon away from the robot. The gun now floated in front of her. She aimed it at where the robot was. However, she couldn't pull the trigger. Forcing it seemed like a bad idea as it might break the weapon. She wondered if it needed to recover from the previous attack, seeing the red light on the tip of its barrel.

For now, she would keep it safe with her, inside her barrier.

@Piercing Light

Evfimiia Serdiatnitskiia

---

She just about jumped out of her skin when the machine fired off a slug, melting a large hole in the building as well as tearing two of the automatons into pieces. Some sort of weapon, with a red light that now appeared on it. Reading through the scroll that materialized told her it was a rail gun, small enough that it was about twice the span of her hand, but with enough power to tear that hole open.

Not understanding how some railings came into play with the weapon, she decided to leave such thoughts for the wizards and sorcerers, leaving the building quickly in case any of them was angry enough to burst in there and attack her for killing their comrades. Shoving the gun into a pocket, she exited the building just in time to see Mable being knocked away. With no idea of how many of the automatons still remained, she did the only thing a non combatant like her could do in this sort of situation.

Evfimiia pounced on Mable with a powerful jump, scooping her up onto her arms, before jumping back into safety, where she promptly cocooned Mable in silk before realizing she was about to try and eat her out of sheer instincts. Miia froze there for a moment, unsure of what to say in this sort of situation. Could she say sorry she tried to eat her?

Outwardly however, she remained as composed as ever, as fitting for a librarion of a great and legendary library.

"It's for safety."

---

While the group went back to the new expansion of that unnatural cave, Jackal remained fixated on the dirt hut. Approximately 10 meters away from the hut he started to dig out a shallow trench and a wall of dirt from the dig, connected to the cold waters of the running stream. He had only just started when he heard the action from the distance. The primitive reptile considered his options. He certainly has experience in combat, was it reasonable to risk his own hide? He had already obtained a meal that could last him a few moons, and most of those strange creatures have yet to proof his trust.

Besides, he had figured they were likely almost done with their expedition anyhow, his assistance would likely be unnecessary at this point, so the primitive alien continued to dig away at the trench, slowly building up a wall on the inner side of the hand-crafted forming moat. He'd dig as deep as the barrier let him, five feet, before only indestructible stone stood below him. He thought to himself perhaps he could finish the moat by the time the rest return, and he continued to make sure there was at least a 50 meter distance between the moat and the dirt hut to allow room for other constructions. The moat dug out 6 feet in width.

Sieve's magic dissipated like a fart when his opponent committed suicide. Part of him was completely caught off guard, and another part put up a facade as a knee jerk reaction. It was no different from a government official playing it cool to avoid widespread panic, except in this case Sieve was the widespread panic. He rattled his bones a bit and regained composure.

The magician flapped his robes and moved his body towards safety, all while whining to himself. "Really? They can do that?", Trying to ignore the fact that he had attempted suicide himself prior to arriving at this world.

Even though the doctor was no stranger to fighting, a battlefield full of energy beams, organic weapons, railguns, forcefields and public nudity presented a significant challenge to someone who was used to muskets and big sticks.

The final machine had it's powers magnified by the scraps that were once it's allies. The grey marmalade man moved in to finish it off while the others protected their fallen teammate. Sieve contemplated taking on a support role but instantly discarded the idea. He couldn't carry much, wasn't used to working with others and was terrible at giving advice beyond "burn everything and empty the waste bucket outside of your house."

The skeleton positioned himself away from both the final machine and his pliable companion. He raised an arm and began to prepare a wind sphere, waiting on his party members to make the robot slow down so as to not miss.

Mable looked on with blurry vision as someone came up to her and picked her up. "Ah... yes I'll have the usual, thanks..." She muttered, seemingly believing that Miia was her masseuse from back home. She was rather confused. "Hah... is this some new technique? I like it..." She said as Miia spun her body around and covered it in silk. Miia apologized, but Mable had fallen asleep, finding the cocoon quite comfortable.

Meanwhile, the last robot able to move sprinted from behind a wall in the far back, ignoring it's targets and quickly snatching up it's remaining immobile comrade. With a swipe of it's hand it cleaved off it's head, then launching the head and torso at Rafael and Sieve. A jolt of electricity ran through the MKIII, and it's entire body began to vibrate before it suddenly took off at nearly incomprehensible speeds. It moved like a blur across the room, picking up four of the HPRs. It then began firing them at targets at random, juggling them in order to fire them as quickly as possible without overheating them.

If Rafael's face was capable of scowling he would have. "How the hell could it tell one section of wall from the other?!" He exclaimed, clearly agitated as it took out the damaged bot. The thing got a jolt and now it was vibrating. It moved, gathering up guns, before moving away. The only reason he had been able to follow it was because he was used to looking for invisible enemies so his eye was in constant motion.

The mutated being let the robot head strike his chest ineffectually. The cracks that appeared in his chitin simply melded back together as he started towards the final robot. It was juggling the guns and firing but the projectiles moved far slower than the robot itself. So Rafael simply ducked, leaned, and weaved through the projectiles. He was making good progress and once he got within a certain distance he raised his arms. A pair of eggs fired from his palms in the path of the plasma bolts. The orbs exploded, sending a wash of acidic blood out in an attempt to coat the damned droid.