OLD-WORLD EXTRA

The Knight raised his shield and rushed forward, intending to crush her to the ground.

Another burst of fire burned around them as the Brawler assisted his mate's last stand, taking away her chance of escape again.

He was bigger, stronger, and his shield was impossible to penetrate with her gauntlets.

Lyra tried to back off, but his Aetheric Bulwark had materialized behind her, stopping her.

She had only one option left.

"Aetheric Blades!"

Lyra went forth, then hunkered her heels down and punched with both fists, stabbing the blades into the shield.

They got stuck in, digging into the shield, as she tried to stop his momentum.

Her feet dragged through the concrete, slowing him down, but in the next few moments, it was apparent that she wasn't strong enough.

He overpowered her and slammed his shield into her, knocking her back into the Bulwark, then smacked her again, sending her crashing to the ground.

[Lyra!]

The Knight dropped his shield and then raised his sword with both hands, ready to deliver the final blow.

"Fuck! LYRA!"

A desperately screaming Kiera was almost there, running as fast as she could, trying to reach her second boss.

However... it appeared that she didn't need to.

Just as he brought it down, shadows from the roof combined like pythons into one massive spike, striking from above like lightning.

It pierced the top of his head like a drill, squashing his body into the ground.

Everything above his shoulders was gone, splattered everywhere, yet his arms still moved, sword nearing her face.

She watched it fall in slow motion, and before it could end her life, she quickly moved her neck to the right.

The sword grazed her pale chin, anchoring in the ground.

Blood would've trickled down from the small cut if she had any, staining her cloak, but it only revealed the metal underneath the skin.

It stung almost—not the attack; she barely registered that--but the reminder of what she

was.

She seemed to have forgotten that.

But she quickly dismissed that thought, noticing that his body was about to fall on her as well, but the shadows had already returned by then.

Lyra melded into them, escaping one of her worst nightmares.

With his death, the Bulwarks disappeared, allowing Kiera the chance to finally attack.

Five bullets, and she killed the Brawler, who was a second away from turning Lyra into ash. He died without flair, dropping into the ground a charred mess.

That marked the end of their first small skirmish.

They were done with this section of the tunnel.

But still, there was no time to rest or even a chance to go to the next section.

The mutated drone, now free of its attackers, turned its full attention to the two women.

It let out a mechanical roar, its legs clanging against the ground as it prepared to strike.

Lyra and Kiera felt slight exhaustion, their Aether reserves lacking due to the fight, but to them, that didn't matter.

They couldn't afford to slow down.

They had to kill the monster.

Letting it live would only spell disaster, as it certainly would go outside to attack the students, deeming them as prey.

KKKKKRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!

The drone's limbs lashed out at them, its claws slicing through the air with terrifying speed.

Lyra stepped into another shadow, easily dodging the attack, while Kiera struggled a bit, jumping just before it could cut off her legs.

She then immediately fired at its already weakened joints, trying to cripple its movement.

But the drone's patchwork armor deflected most of the shots as it did with the previous group, allowing only a few to pierce it, barely doing any damage.

Kiera currently had only two types of God's Ammunition, and neither was suitable for this enemy, lessening the potential damage she could output.

She was forced to rely on normal bullets, but that didn't mean she was useless, her Flare Shots had the monster crying with each bullet that landed.

As that happened, Lyra waited in the shadows, below it, trying to find a weakness in its

underbelly.

While she could barely see when in the shadows, she was still able to identify things if they were large enough.

Thankfully, her target wasn't so easy to miss.

She materialized, stabbing both blades at the exposed organic matter.

Just as the construct felt her presence, it pushed itself up, countering with strong and wild

stomps with its legs, tearing the ground to bits and forcing her to retreat.

That was when Kiera fired her bullets once more, aiming at the limbs, which again wasn't that effective as its armor was of higher strength.

This scene had repeated multiple times, over and over, Lyra stabbing its underbelly and Kiera shooting its joints.

The construct didn't have any different type of attack, or so-called 'new phases.'

Its lasers were long dead, and whatever it had left as a means of attack was just a mutation that went wrong.

That didn't mean that it was easy, no, every attack from the construct was a close call, its claws leaving deep gouges in the walls and floor as it chased them, its movements growing

more frenzied.

Yet unlike their last fight, this ended anti-climatically.

They simply stopped it from moving until it died.

Kiera had finally destroyed its joints, and Lyra gutted it from below, which bled the drone to

death.

Its last moments were sad screeches and rough convulsions as it collapsed with twitching limbs before falling completely still.

Breathing heavily, Kiera approached the fallen drone, scanned it, then looked back at Lyra, who was already routing the path ahead.

Both were now more exhausted, but neither woman voiced it, they had to keep going.

The real battle was still ahead of them.

After all, they had to repeat what they had just done multiple times.

[Let's go.]

Kiera nodded at Lyra's words, and they began to move.

There was no time to spare... if they failed, a terror would awaken.