The pair of kojans navigated through the dark forest, carefully blending into their backgrounds. They scanned the horizon every few steps as if they were expecting someone… or something.

“There’s no more humans?” one of the kojans spoke, to which the other kojan nodded in reply.

The kojans relaxed and sheathed their weapons, though their attention was still thrown towards the horizons. “It’s clear that they came here with intent. They were led here.”

Holding up the map taken from the dead humans, the kojans studied it in detail. “This looks like it’s made by the machines.”

“Humans and warmachines working together? That’s nonsensical.”

“Life is unpredictable, and we-” the kojan raised his head and sensed the air. “There’s something-”

A long spear flew towards the pair at lightning speed but the reaction of the kojans was faster. It barely grazed the targeted kojan’s head before burying itself into a tree. The spear didn’t let itself be forgotten so easily as it drilled rapidly into the tree while retracting several spikes. The tree was torn apart as if a mad lumberjack decided to use a sledgehammer instead of an axe to cut it.

Four metallic humanoids appeared from the forest foliage. Their two pairs of arms carried an axe each, and their split heads revealed a bright red ‘eye’. The air surrounding the dull gray figures was clearly filled with energy.

“Warmachines!” one of the kojans shouted.

“But… they seem different from the ones we know!”

Three of the drones launched their spears at the kojans, missing their targets just barely, before charging in a straight line towards one of the kojans.

Like a wheel of axes, once the drone at the front had swung all four of its axes at the target kojan, it would run to the side, and the one behind it would follow-up with four more axes. The targeted kojan attempted to widen the gap between the carousel of automated death, but the drone squadron relentlessly followed closely. It didn’t help that the arcs of lightning would shoot out from the drones’ bodies and hit the kojan.

The other kojan attempted to retaliate, swinging his blade at the drones. But as its blade was about to hit one, eight axes from every direction soaked up the force.

By the fifth rotation, the targeted kojan’s blade broke, and its owner was chopped and shocked into pieces. With a threat dead, the four drones broke formation and surrounded the last kojan. They simultaneously attacked at the same time, but with the twirl of his blade, the kojan repelled every attack.

They tried to attack once more, but they couldn’t even get a single hit in. When they figured that this wasn’t working, they returned to formation and attempted to pull off another rotating circle. Obviously the kojan wasn’t going to stand there as a new circle of death formed, he immediately swung his blade towards one of the drones, then feinted it into a thrust towards another drone.

The blade smashed through the head cleanly, but the drone’s body kept moving as if losing its head was only a mild inconvenience. As the drones finished forming up, they charged in a straight line and attacked.

The kojan tried to think fast. Every time he tried to attack, he would leave himself to be vulnerable to not just one attack, but four. Defending himself was also not an option as his weapon was deteriorating fast.

Out of nowhere, the kojan slammed his root-like legs into the grounds and shouted, “MOTHER!”

The ground violently tossed the four drones into the air, giving the kojan a chance to cut down one or even two of them. Before he could get close though, the drones activated their static field, forming a wall of lightning around themselves.

The four drones landed onto the ground safely and formed up, but their foe had already fled. They stood in formation for a while until the ‘All Clear’ sign went up.

‘Magic! Those walking bags of materials also have magic! Nothing else can explain how the ground suddenly shook!’ Custodian exclaimed in hivespeak. ‘At least the experiment was a semi-success.’

It took a lot of materials to make these top-of-the-line warrior drones, and it took more resources to upgrade them. Custodian felt a sting in its personality matrix when one of its drones’ heads got torn apart, but luckily the kojan didn’t hit the drone’s core.

‘I still have to experiment with combat tactics when dealing with those organics…’

Custodian had learned that it was impractical to just bury the kojans to death in metal, because it would sooner cause the A.I. to dismantle its own base just to sustain a war of attrition against the kojans. So, it decided to try a ‘quality-over-quantity’ approach.

‘All my stockpile gone… yet these drones can only take on one kojan…’ Custodian sighed. ‘Kojan Exterminator Units, take the dead kojan. I need to process it to get my fifth token.’

The new warrior drones, with the help of nearby spider drones, gathered the dead kojan and started to haul it back to base.

‘Right. Next experiment, let’s try using the best ranged weapons we have to deal with them. Ah but then they have a higher chance of escaping…’ Custodian pondered.

As the A.I. calculated its projected losses from fighting the kojans, Niner suddenly interrupted, ‘Master Custodian. What will we do if we find the main kojan base, if there is any? We’re still woefully unprepared to fight a large host of kojans, at least not without losing our entire supply of drones.’

‘Right…’

Fighting two or three kojans so far wasn’t too problematic. But how many kojans were lurking in Varangia? Ten? Hundred? Thousand? Ten thousand?

It would be much more profitable to launch a full war against Rhankia and Vyssium than face ten thousand kojans at the same time!

‘Then again, I’m pretty sure the kojans already know where we are. A massive mountain with a rail system towards North Vyssium isn’t really inconspicuous. Yet, why aren’t they launching a full assault on us?’ Niner asked.

‘Hmmm.’ Custodian’s processors were running at full speed. ‘I don’t know, but what I do know is we need to get rid of them before they become a bigger threat. We’ve already got reports of missing patrols around the railroads.’

‘They’re planning on attacking the rails?’

‘By my calculations, there’s a high probability they will. We must prepare. If it comes down to it, there are alternative ways to deal with the kojans,’ Custodian remarked as it looked at the live map tracking the humans spread across Varangia.

Right at one of the spots, Dyvona found a clearing in the forest and sat down to take a rest. She removed her pack, and took out a metal cylinder. She twisted the lid off and peeked into it. “This thing is supposed to last years?”

Several dark brown bars were stacked neatly into the cylinder. She reached out for one and inspected it. The bar was brown, hard, and very smooth. Dyvona shook the bar, yet not a single crumb fell. The woman took three sniffs before she figured that the bars didn’t have a smell at all.

Though hesitant, she bit into it and chewed it carefully. It tasted like absolute nothing, and it felt like eating a handful of bread crumbs. Though she only ate a bit of the bar, she already felt thirsty. Thankfully, the Varangians sold her some fancy metal bottles.

Before she could take a sip from her flask, the nearby woodland shrubs shook, prompting her to pull out her crossbow.

“Eh? There’s someone here,” a person said as he came out of the shrub.

Four other people emerged, armed with swords, javelins, and bows. The leader of the group waved at Dyvona as a greeting. “You hired?”

“By the Varangians? Aye.” Dyvona nodded.

“Same. Mind if we rest here as well?”

“I don’t own the lands, lad.”

The five hunters made camp, dropping off carasses of dead critters. They quickly erected tents and formed a perimeter around the forest clearing within an hour. They even started a camp fire to roast their hunted prey.

It was clear the hunters had no hostile intentions so Dyvona went back to struggling with the northman cuisine. After finishing a bar, she moved on to another cylinder filled with packets. She took out a packet and noticed.

‘Oh, how cute. There’s drawings,’ the woman commented in her mind. The small picture on the packets showed a figure ripping the packet, placing the contents and some water into the cylinder’s lid, closing it, and shaking it. Sure enough, the lid was actually a small bowl.

Dyvona followed the instruction after struggling to open the packet and was surprised to find that the bowl was slowly heating up. She dropped it out of wariness, but picked it up after finding out that all it did was heat the contents.

“It’s like hot soup!” Dyvona exclaimed after opening the bowl’s lid. The soup tasted somewhat like a vegetable soup, though a bit bland.

“What’s that?” one of the hunters, a woman, asked.

“The northmen sold this to me and asked for my input.”

“Northmen food? I’ve never seen such a thing. Do they also eat? I heard rumors that they eat rocks.”

“I don’t know. What I do know is that once I go back, I’ll show them a piece of my mind! Where’s the salt?! Their food is so bland!” Dyvona complained. With great reluctance, she downed the soup. At the very least, the northmen food didn’t taste foul so she was able to bear with it.

“Did the northmen sell you that weapon, too?” the woman asked as she pointed at Dyvona’s crossbow.

“Aye. Simply because I did a favor for them. I doubt they’ll sell any more of these.” Dyvona unstrung her crossbow and wrapped it in a bag before stashing it with the rest of her gear.

The woman nodded and went back to her group. She went straight for the leader and whispered, “Boss, the woman has the Greatian weapon.”

“The weapon the captain brought back? Well, we aren’t the only one employed by ‘em.”

“Nah, you see, I think it’s modified to be usable by her.”

“What?”

The pair of hunters took a quick glance at Dyvona’s stash. The leader asked, “Are you sure?”

“Probably. It seems she has special connections to the northmen. Probably a Sea’axfeared elite.”

The leader scratched his neck then whispered, “If she leaves, follow her. Don’t kill her, though.”

“Alright.”