Chapter 26: Destroyer.
It was incredible
Marcus tightened the grip he had on his gun while observing the scene in front of him... He probably didn't even need to fight… No, he almost couldn't fight. Everything died too quickly. Not that he wanted to engage the enemy… It was best to conserve ammo after all... He did manage to get a few shots off but he still couldn't help feeling a bit useless in the current situation….
Destroyed Protectron parts were scattered all around the large room. It was quite the sight, seeing Setherrog jumping from one bot to the next…. The way the small demon carried itself screamed amateur but the strength, speed, endurance, and perception of the tiny devil more than made up for it…. It was enough to rival 10 men. Maybe even more.
*Scrreeeeee*
Claws scraped against metal, Marcus couldn't stop himself from flinching at the noise…. It was a familiar feeling, something he felt when he was a child in school and someone scratched the chalkboard.…. It was a terrible sound that made him think his leathery ears would start bleeding.
Watching as Bal's claws tore through metal almost easily made him sure of his decision…. If they were going to follow Setherrog and his mother…. They Needed that power armor.
After Bert decided on joining these... Deathclaws…. As he called them. The group was split…. Jill and Tommy wanted to go with him, while Carly, Jacob, and bruce were hesitant….. He could see the glimmer of excitement that appeared in Carly's eyes. But he could also see the fear. The hesitation…. Carly was the last of their group to come to the farm… Or rather, the most recent person to still be alive. He wasn't sure what the smiley girl experienced in the waste... but it wasn't anything good. Arguably though, who's ever had a good experience in the wastes? Yet, Carly was an extrovert, he also knew the girl had ADHD… It probably wasn't too bad but it must have been hard for that type of person to stay cooped up for too long… So even though she was afraid of the outside… She also wanted to leave…. It was the reason she participated in their scavenging.… Nobody was forced to go out… They all had their own reasons for doing so... Everyone understood that…. However, it still came as a surprise when she told the others she wanted to join Bert as well.
That's when everyone else caved…. Jacob was an older man… older than himself. He was a police officer before the war… And although he wasn't perfect he had a very sensible personality. Well not that he couldn't lose his cool. But everybody had a breaking point….
Next was Bruce.
He was a punk through and through… Short temper, aggressive personality… The type to fight first and ask questions later… It sounded bad but in reality he really wasn't much more than just a punk kid when everything went down..… He has mellowed out through the years, but he still showed those tendencies when he grew annoyed or irritated…
Tommy on the other hand was the exact opposite. He was all smiles, a goofy kinda guy... The youngest of their group to… When the bombs fell he was barely 17…. But he's.. unlike Carly, that guy is really smart. Like a genius. Before the fallout, he was the son of the nearby town's mayor. The kid probably could've gotten into a vault… But for some reason he didn't…. He was actually the one who made him realize that Bal and Snow could help them acquire some things before they finally left this farm. Of course, even if Setherrog said no, They still would have joined him…. Most of their group would be following him after all…. They still wanted to try though… And thankfully, their request was granted.
*Shhhzzt*
Smoke could be seen rising from the Utility bot. This was probably the biggest room in the facility. The place must have had good business because there were many pre-war cars here… They were on the left side of the building. The shutters leading to the outside were half destroyed with the front side of a car sticking through the top of one… It was lodged there when the bombs went off. There was just enough room for the sunlight to pour through lighting the surroundings a little bit more.
There were 6 bots in the room. Setherrog ran around clawing at them one by one… Every now and then piercing them with his Harpoon-like tail. If a Protectron didn't go down in 1 hit, 2 would be enough to finish it off…. But when fighting 6 enemies at once? Setherrog had no way of killing them without taking damage… The ones closest to him raised their arms and smashed them down on his body while the ones further away used their mounted guns piercing his hide with nails. It looked painful, but the little Devil didn't seem fazed and just shrugged it off. Either he had a very high pain resistance or to him, the blows were truly as weak as he claimed them to be. Well weak for him… Marcus had already been shot a few times… And it was painful. He spent most of the battle in cover taking shots whenever he could…. But he knew that if he didn't empty at least one whole Magazine into them, they'd never go down…. So the most he could do is shoot them to take their attention off Bal for a short time.
Looking around he noticed that this place seemed familiar. They must be close to his power armor…. But why haven't they stumbled upon any of the ferals? They hadn't encountered even one yet. Could they have left?
*Ting*
Marcus jumped back as a spark appeared in front of his eyes. A nail struck the metal pillar he was behind… Missing his face by just a few inches.
He had to concentrate… Now wasn't the time to contemplate where the other mutants were….
Peeking out from the other side of the pillar he took aim and fired off a few shots. Every bullet landed, penetrating the exterior armor and lodging itself into the Protectron's inner body.
The Protectron fired back... Most of the shots missed Marcus but a few landed. The bot on the other hand after receiving the bullets shook for a moment before powering down. Nodding to himself he retreated behind the pillar again and reloaded his gun… It didn't seem he was so useless after all. Though he was injured during the exchange.
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Hearing the loud bangs, It took me a moment to realize what happened... A Utility bot fell… It was the first one Marcus destroyed…
'Unfortunately, the weapons he currently has access to are of an inferior quality… His Aim and reaction speed is very good… But it's not enough to bridge the gap.'
'...Then again, The situation is more or less stacked against him… His opponents are all metallic and nonliving… I suppose he'd be much more effective fighting a fleshed based creature. I Just wish he would stay back and hide… That way, not only would we save the ammunition, but I could take all of the exp as well, But he doesn't really seem like the type to do that…. Well, the help is still reassuring… Even if it isn't much…. The rat encounter is still fresh in my mind. So having someone to fight alongside me feels nice.'
Grappling onto a near-by machine, I activated Tear and with a bit of difficulty, I tore its left arm off. Electricity flowed through my body but I paid it no heed. On the contrary, I activated Pierce and stabbed my arm through the opening I created. The feeling of being electrocuted increased but almost immediately after shoving my arm inside, the Protectron powered down. It was destroyed and a notification appeared in my vision, Disregarding it and turning to the last Bot in the room I watched as it slowly walked over to me…. It had no guns attached so the only thing it could do was try and get closer.
[Attention. All violators will be removed.]
They all say the same thing over and over again….
It approached me, raising its arms into the air. But before it could bring them down I moved forward, put my arms on the center, and pushed. The robot fell to the ground…. I waited for it to get back up but watched as it struggled on the ground…. Occasionally swinging its arms, I was right… They can't get back up when they've fallen down…
Since this one didn't have any guns, I wanted to know whether just pushing them over was really effective or not…. After all, in the future, we can collect them undamaged. Still I couldn't help feeling like a bully. Moving over to the bot, I activated [Peirce] And watched as my hand tore through the metal, and like the rest, it powered down… Unfortunately, I don't currently have enough manpower to take these things with me. And even if I did. Without the proper skills they'd just be heaps of metal. It'd be a hassle. And the exp is more useful to me right now anyway..
-You have destroyed Utility Protectron. Lv20-
-You gain 300 exp-
-You gained a level.-
I read through the notifications I ignored while fighting… Hearing someone walking up behind me I felt my tail twitch before I forced myself to relax… Turning around, My eyes met Marcus, who was bleeding through his shoulder and thigh…
I looked at him for a bit before speaking…
"You're injured….. You were hit with their nails?"
He stared at me for a moment before nodding.
"Yeah, but I'm fine… They missed my vitals."
"Your wounds will slow you down… Take a Stimpak and rest for a few minutes, We'll continue on our way after that."
The ex-soldier seemed to pause for a moment before reaching for the nails embedded into his skin, and pulling them out. Releasing a few pain-filled grunts in the process as the bloodied metal pieces fell to the ground…. After that, he took out a Stimpack and stabbed it into his arm.
I just watched in morbid fascination as he healed…. Well, he still looked hurt but the damage seemed to be disappearing at a visible rate.
He looked at me for a bit in confusion then asked a question…
"Aren't you going to remove the ones that were shot at you?"
'Huh?'
Looking down, I saw the numerous nails embedded into my skin. I didn't even feel it….. Which was strange…. They definitely pierced my skin. There was even some blood. I reached towards them and pulled each one free, It barely even stung….
'Hmm…. Info page.'
I immediately looked towards my HP.
HP: 504/543
They dealt me 39 damage…. But I must have killed at least around 12 of them so far… Meaning they only did around 3.2 damage each. So the individual attacks were very weak, that must be why the Nails didn't really hurt. Maybe If in a short amount of time I kept getting shot in rapid succession, Or If I received 39 points of damage in one blow, then that'd probably be more painful.
Remembering the pain I felt while being swarmed by rats made me feel that this was the case.
Marcus who watched me tear the nails out of my skin without a care in the world actually felt a bit uncomfortable. He was probably wondering if bullets even had an effect on me.
End of chapter
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone