"WARNING! WARNING! FACILITY BREACH DETECTED! FACILITY BREACH DETECTED!"

That damn alarm kept ringing loudly as Del and Cole continued running through the hallway while keeping an eye on the ceiling in case another turret popped up and caught them off guard. So far, it had not been so good. Too many unexpected things were there. Fortunately, Del had encountered no security robots yet.

"Shut up!" Del shot at the speaker.

"Damn, man, let's move as fast as possible," Cole said as he noticed another turret popped up from above.

Judging by how the helmet stopped the round, Del concluded that the bullet that the turret fired wasn't exactly a rifle round. Maybe the turret was shooting a handgun caliber round, so it didn't penetrate, or it could be just luck from his side.

Suddenly, Del heard a heavy footstep right from behind him. Del shuddered as he peeked his back. There was the thing that he feared, a security robot. It was a humanoid, looking similar to a human being, however, its whole body was made from metal. To make matters worse, the security robot. It also held some sort of futuristic rifle.

"Holy… mother of… shit," Del lay himself down on the ground.

He gripped his machine gun and started shooting at that security bot. The security robot ran in his direction. It was so fast that Del knew the robot could run as fast as a car. To make matters worse, the robot was also shooting his rifle in Del's direction.

"Why won't this thing die!!!" Del shouted as he kept shooting at the running security robot.

He then felt something on his head, he didn't care about it until blood was dripping from his chin. After he realized it, he felt a very strong concussion on his head. The robot got him. The bullet wasn't exactly penetrating, but a part of his helmet was definitely stuck to his head.

"Mate, are you ok?" Cole asked as he provided suppressing fire against that security robot.

"Mostly, yeah," Del said as he didn't exactly lose his consciousness yet, "Cole, distract the bot for a while, I have a plan."

"Alright."

Del hid behind a wall, and he grabbed a slab of C4 from his pocket. He attached the remote detonator to the C4 and threw it in the direction of the security robot. The C4 stuck to the leg of the security robot and Del blew the C4.

Fragments were flying in multiple directions as a half kilogram of C4 exploded right below its feet, killing it and sent pieces of its body away. Del stood up and he continued moving towards the security room.

However, the condition with his head worried him. He could take his helmet off and fix the bleeding, but there was also a chance that he could make the bleeding way worse than it already was. Still, if not stopped, the bleeding could be risky.

"Cole, did you see something weird with my helmet?" Del asked.

Cole looked at his helmet and noticed it. A part of his helmet was stuck on his head. It was also the source of bleeding, luckily, it didn't go through his skull, maybe because of his improved vitality. Well, who knew?

Del looked at his status plate.

▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬

[Del Moore] [Level: 34]

Strength: 98

Agility: 86

Vitality: 94

Aptitude: 22

Perception: 84

Skills: Language Understanding | Firearm Comprehension LVL.27 | Marksmanship LVL.30 | Flame Manipulation LVL.1 | Field Manipulation LVL.1

Magical Energy: 2992/2992

Health Point: 29876/31960

▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬

He was fine mostly, but he noticed that his health point went down by eight as a second passed. Calculating it with basic math, his hp point would be drained out in under one hour, which was not good at all. The wound needed to be treated.

The thing was, Del wasn't sure whether he would make his wound better or worse if he took off his helmet. He could accidentally rip something off and made an even more serious injury. Still, bleeding out was worse.

"If we found a room, let's stop," Del said as he wiped the blood from his eye.

"Sure," Cole nodded.

If a bullet penetrated his helmet, it would be the end for him. Why? Even if a basic 7.92 Mauser could turn Cassandra's inside into mashed potato, Del knew a bullet could turn his brain into brain soup. He knew he had some bullet resistance, but not to an overpowered extent.

Suddenly, a turret popped up from the ceiling. This time, it was different. The turret was big, it might cover the entire ceiling. Del then noticed how large the barrel of the turret was, there was belt ammunition attached to the side of it.

"SHIT, THAT'S AN HMG TURRET!!!" Del jumped behind a wall.

The turret didn't start firing at him, but Del knew it would certainly kill him if he got shot by the turret. Cole also took cover behind one of the thick walls. "Man, what the hell is that thing?"

"That's a heavy machine gun turret, fuck your magic, this thing will shred us in half with no problem," Del commented.

"Do you have any solution?" Cole asked.

"Let me think," Del said.

The barrel of the heavy machine gun turret definitely made him remember the barrel of an M2 Browning. The thing fired .50 BMG, but this was an unknown civilization site that turned to be very advanced. That thing could fire something that Del didn't have any counter to.

He thought about throwing the C4 in the turret's direction. However, the turret was on the ceiling. He hoped that he could have an EMP grenade to disable the turret, but it was simply impossible since the EMP grenade wasn't exactly 60s tech.

Thinking about it, Cole could make a material barrier to resist the bullet, however, it also seemed to be bleak. He remembered that the strength of a material field or an energy field depended on the amount of energy stored inside of the shield itself.

"Cole, can you make an energy shield, at the very least, seventy thousand in strength?" Del asked.

"You must be nuts, I might be more powerful than you, but I'm not that strong either," Cole said.

"Look, either that or we will never leave this hallway," Del said.

"Well, I trust you. [Magical Program: Disable Magical Limitation] [Magical Program: Energy Field +70,000]." A very yellow field appeared in Cole's body, but he also coughed blood.

"What's the plan? Hurry," Cole coughed blood again.

"Together, we will run to that heavy machine gun turret, you'll be protecting me from the turret while I'd throw C4 at the turret itself, if we succeed, we can progress to the security office," Del said.

"And if we aren't?" Cole asked.

"Well, it has been good meeting you, my friend," Del said.

"Feeling is mutual, Del, so, shall we do it, now?" Cole coughed blood again.

"Wait," Del pulled two slabs of C4, attached it together, and put a blasting cap on it, "NOW!" Del shouted.

Cole ran forward while shooting the heavy machine gun turret with his Uzi. Del followed from behind as the targeting system of the heavy machine gun aimed itself at Cole's head. Del wasn't sure if the amount of shield was enough.

A burst of heavy caliber bullet hit Cole's body. Cole didn't flinch, thanks to his shield, but the color of the shield faded into a less bright one. Del readied himself to throw the C4 to the heavy machine gun turret.

"EAT THIS!" Del threw the slab of C4 to the ceiling and it stuck to the heavy machine gun turret itself.

Cole and Del ran backward. The machine gun fired its rounds again, and it disabled Cole's shield. With no hesitation, Del pushed the detonator of the C4. The C4 blew the machine gun turret off and the blast could be felt from his direction. It also threw Cole's body from his position and it landed right behind Del's back.

"Ouch, bro, get up," Del tried to move Cole.

"Damn, what kind of thing that you used?" Cole stood up and he coughed blood again.

"What happened with you?" Del asked.

"Must be some sort of internal bleeding, heck, I don't know, still, we survived," Cole shrugged.

"From what?" Del asked.

"I think I told you about magical sickness, well, I think I must have used some of my life energy to supplement my lack of magical energy for that spell," Cole said.

"Damn, I feel bad, sorry man," Del said.

"That's alright, we had to do what he had to do, right?" Cole smiled.

"Yeah, let's go to the security office," Del continued to run to the security office.

Both of them were wounded, but they were also getting closer and closer to the security office. Del felt it should be the solution for lifting the security lockdown.. With some luck, they might help themselves with the current situation.