Transparent blue boxes of light materialized around three mannequins 5 feet to her right, she figured it was the system’s way of notifying her. A small blue window appeared at a corner of her vision showing the message.

Visual artifacts detected, signs of optical camouflage

The previously limbless mannequins materialized legs and arms along with large firearms.

She simply stood there like a deer in headlights. Her widened eyes stared at the shiny object flying at her.

Applying force to left side to enhance jump

She felt as if someone pushed her from her side, hard.

A silky net grazed her shoulder and left arm. She tried to stand up but still failed while slipping helplessly before slamming into a shelf. Dizziness overtook her, she shrieked as another net surrounded her before she could stand up. Like a trapped prey, she struggled hopelessly against the elastic webbing.

Force Blade activated, using default position: above right hand

A thin handle appeared within her palm, she immediately grabbed and swing it across the net, slicing it cleanly in half.

The three mannequins were running and firing more nets as they aimed their oversize rifles at her. But she was already on her feet, trying to walk faster in a zigzag towards the entrance. She tried to break into a run, before returning to a fast walk as the system warned her. She saw the guards busy fending off a group of four-legged canine creatures wearing body armor.

“Fuck!” She cursed, dropping again on the floor as part of a net caught and pulled her ankles. She tried to cut herself free before a large shadow appeared above her. She used her feeble strength to push herself rolling to the right as another canine landed at her previous spot.

It growled at her, preparing to leap, only to yelp after she kicked an already shaking shelve, dropping it on the canine.

It struggled, trying to free itself from the fallen shelf and buying her precious seconds to cut her net. She started to stand after breaking free, only to be tackled again by a different canine, knocking the blade out of her hands.

It held her down while growling on her face.

She was glad those things were given a capture alive command, one bite from those sharp canine teeth and she was a dead rabbit. She closed her eyes for a split second, steeling her nerves.

Here goes nothing, again! Before her blade can rematerialize in her hand, she poked its eyes, rolling to its left while it was yelping in pain. She threw the just reacquired blade to the creature’s right.

The blade made a crashing sound before it disintegrated into a shelf. The canine took the bait, slamming its head into that shelf, the shelf fell over, trapping it.

There was no time to rejoice, the first canine had freed itself and was running at full speed towards her, she felt relief as in the corner of her eyes, one of the guards broke away from the surrounding canines and was running while aiming his gun.

To her horror, it wasn’t the canine he was aiming at. Give me a boost!.

Applying force

It was her turn to yelp in pain as the system kicked her underside, sending her flying towards the other side of the place before crashing into a shelf. She rubbed her bruised behind in agony shortly before the shelf fell on top of her. Pinned down, she watched helplessly as the previous guard started running towards her.

He made various gestures towards the mannequins and canines, instructions for capturing me, no doubt.

The man and his little army stopped, she saw him scowling briefly before the rest of her guards stood between her and him. The canines and mannequins charged in front, prepared to fight to their last while the man fled towards the back of the store.

“Sam, John, and Bruce will pursuit Liam, the rest will protect and recover Ellowyn”. The leader commanded.

Three of them ran towards the charging army, they shot grappling hooks at the ceiling support beams, propelling themselves above the canines, one of the canines jumped and succeeded in tackling one of the men, the other two continued their chase.

She grimaced, the monsters now outnumbered the guards two to one. Numerous flares shot out from the canines back armor, they splashed harmlessly against the guard's shields, blinding them temporarily.

The leader raised his gun sword to block a canine’s claw slash but was pushed back as another dog slammed into his shield. The mannequins adjusted their weapons and were then shooting more deadly, glowing projectiles, but they were deflected and absorbed harmlessly on the guard's shields.

The guards returned fire with their gunblades, she gasped as those shots too had been deflected by the canine’s shields. The battle only progressed when one of the guard’s blade glowed, penetrating one of the canine shields, he then opened fire within it, finishing off the canine as the contents of its skull splattered everywhere.

She scowled, while she was not one of the weak at heart who would drop at the sight of blood, the goriness of the battle reminded her of how grim her situation had been, one slip up could bring her back to eternal sleep.

From then onward, the monsters lost the momentum of the battle and was slowly pushed back, eventually wiped out after two minutes.

She scanned the surroundings, each of the guards had a bloody injury somewhere on his body, whether it be an injured arm and leg or gashes on their faces.

“Are you alright?” She lightly nodded at the leader’s question.

“Ouch!” She complained after trying to stand when the shelf was lifted, her ankle was twisted by a low flying net. A guard quickly came and assisted her.

Boom! A flying drone blasted a giant part of the back wall. Its head was rectangular with two lights representing eyes, it's triangular wings had three engines on the left, right and back center allowing it to levitate. Liam jumped and grabbed two handles under the wing.

“It's a Reaper!” One of the guards yelled before taking cover.

The drone charged towards the front while releasing volleys of missiles, forcing everyone to jump aside. The guard who was supporting Ellowyn threw her aside and jump to the opposite direction before their previous location was blown to pieces.

Applying force to cushion fall

Cancel! She had no intention to reveal the system to anyone. She screamed as her twisted ankle hit the ground. “Ellowyn!” She can hear the leader’s panic stricken voice. His face then paled when he realized who it was that Liam was flying toward.

Here goes nothing. She chuckled thinking about the many times she had used the phrase. Force knife readied. She laid on the ground with her eyes closed, calmly waiting for his approach while estimating his distance from the system using basic velocity calculation.

ETA: 3, 2, 1

She sprang to life just before Liam reached grabbing distance, he flinched but did not recall his outstretched arm, planning to seize her. Of all her life, Ellowyn had wanted to be many things, a damsel in distress, however, was not one of them. She raised her knife and made a deep gash in his arm.

He cursed in pain. Unable to stop the drone, he slammed into her, knocking her back.

Warning! insufficient energy to deploy shield, applying cushion force

She slowed down, crashed into the right wall and fell down. In her shaken vision, she saw Liam making another hole in the front of the store and flying outside before she fell into unconsciousness.