-----E-----

„Did I hear shooting back at the vehicle artifact?“

„There must be more of these humans around. You four! Go back to the artifact! The rest will deal with this one.“

six against two huh?

„Ivona! Shoot the runners!“ I called.

I saw arrows flying to the four lizards, one already fell, but the others took cover.

The rest of the lizards ran to me with weapons in hand. I had my Expanded Shield turned on, so I couldn‘t attack.

A few started attacking my barrier but barely did anything to it. Ivona started firing at the ones on me, but their armor barriers were tough. They did though take cover from Ivona.

Thankfully, they aren‘t all around me. I changed the barrier to only be in front now, so I could save up some of the shield‘s energy.

One of the lizards started aiming for me and fired. Does he really think he can shoot through the barrier?

Oh, wait, shit. It wasn‘t a normal shot. It was one of those energy stealing programs.

I did not like that, I pulled out the anti-artifact grenade and charged it. I think this is a good time to use it, they were all close to each other.

I threw it towards them, then began charging up a normal grenade.

The anti-artifact made a strange sound, then an energy bubble quickly rose around it. Then I saw all of their barriers break. They had a look of confusion.

„Here, take this!“ I threw the grenade towards them, and it exploded on impact. Only half of them fell, three remained. And those three all had melee weapons. I should be able to deal with them.

„Ivona! Take care of the ones going towards Vincent and Nia!“

She responded by starting firing towards the runners.

-----V-----

Shot after shot, they didn‘t want to go down. It was because of those damned artifact armors. I should use the program that can shatter their armor. But my blaster consumes a lot of energy when I use that.

I once tried it back at Mount Kamlin on the wolfs. But it wasn‘t really necessary, because they all died with one good hit from a normal shot. When I tried it back then, my blaster ran out of energy. So I needed to charge it back up quickly.

I had a few of the zettra stones right now, so I should be good.

„Program! Armor shot!“

When I call out these programs, I feel like an idiot. I don‘t exactly know why it is just so weird. But it is faster instead of looking down at the screen.

I started firing at the lizards, their barrier were now breaking much easily. They shot back and I hid behind the tank.

I glanced behind me and saw the people around were all in cover. Likely don‘t want to get shot. It would be nice if they would try and help us, but they all just hid.

„There are a lot of lizards around! Could you maybe hurry up!“ I yelled to Nia.

„I can‘t magically make this work instantly. Just hold on few minutes more.“

I fired a few more rounds, and then noticed that two of them were running towards me with swords. I focused my fire on them. I didn‘t want them to get close, then I would probably be done for.

My rounds hit their chest, and both of them started to fall. Man, their armor and tactics are not that great.

I started firing again at the lizards who had ranged weapons, but then noticed that my blaster ran out of energy.

„Shit!“ I muttered.

I quickly hid and started to charge up the blaster. That program really did a lot to it.

„Come on you Nanos!“ The stone was getting harvested really slowly.

One lizard came up to me with his blade. I pulled out my own sword and was able to block it. I dropped my blaster and stone.

The lizard had an artifact sword. That is not good.

We slashed at each other a few times. Ducking and dashing away from his blade. Then when my sword collided with his again, it broke in half.

I stared at my broken sword with surprise, and then I kept on dodging his attack. A normal sword against an artifact sword, the artifact would always win.

„Nia!“ I called.

„Yeah yeah, just a little more!“

„No, I mean help!“

„Huh?“

Nia poked her head out of the tank and saw that I was in trouble. She took out the rifle and shot a few times at the lizard and it fell.

„Thanks!“

„No pro . . .“ Nia‘s rifle then suddenly broke into small pieces. „oh crap.“

She went back and continued her progress. She now only had a knife and grenades. She is kinda defenseless without a better weapon.

-----E-----

The last lizard fell by Ivona‘s arrow. I was panting, They did managed to hit me a few times, but they were nothing to worry about.

Ivona came down the cliff by rope and met up with me.

„Let‘s go towards my people, we should try and get them away from here.“

„There are only two ways out of this area, those two inclines over there,“ I pointed to the other side.

The excavation site was surrounded by a cliff, so the only options we had were those two inclines on the other site that had dynami around, or we could slowly go back up the cliff with ropes, but then the villagers would not have any protection against ranged weapons.

We saw that the villagers were hiding on the site they were digging. No dynami were around them, they were all attacking Vincent and Nia.

„We could have them wait around in cover until the dynami run away. It would be dangerous to try and get them out.“

„I don‘t really like to have them here in the battle, but I do understand, Let‘s go to them and tell them to stay still until this is all over, then we go and help out Vincent and Nia.“

„Got it,“ I said and started heading towards the villagers.“

-----V-----

„Are you done yet? There are quite a lot of them now.“

„I am almost done, just wait for . . .“ All of a sudden the engine of the tank started. „Nevermind.“

„Awesome! Do you need a co-pilot or something? To reload the cannon?“ I asked. I thought that the tank would need more men to operate.

„No need, there is only room for one. And the cannon uses energy power, like your blaster.“

I started to hear the tank gun rotate towards the dynami, then the sound of it charging up its gun. I saw that the dynami were in shock, then some hid behind cover while others started shooting at it.

Nia shot the first round, and some dynami started to fly.

„Hell yeah!“ I yelled out. „Is this your first time using a vehicle?“

„Yup, it‘s really easy actually, I just use my gauntlets to move and fire the gun.“

I feel like she is a kid that goes on a joy ride with her parent‘s spaceship without permission. I actually did that once, and somehow managed to only scratch a little bit of the spaceship.

Nia shot a few more rounds, then I noticed that two lizards ran towards the tents. They had only normal weapons. Then after about a minute, they came back out with artifact weapons. But they were no ordinary guns, swords or bows. They were much worse.

„Nia! Shoot those two before they fire at you!“

Nia poked her head out and saw where I was pointing, she went back down and started to rotate. But it was too late.

The two lizards fired their weapons, which were god damn rocket launchers, and their rockets started to fly towards her.

I tried shooting at the rockets, but I didn‘t hit. I quickly fell on the ground to take some cover.

The tank was hit, but I noticed that around the tank was a barrier, that now was broken. The tank would not survive the next volley.

The lizards started reloading their rocket launchers, but I did not like that so I started to shoot rounds at them. But they hid in cover.

„Shit!“

I activated my explosive program and fired. Their cover was blown to bits, but when I was about to fire a second round towards the lizards the damn blaster decided it didn‘t have enough energy and shut itself down. Crap, I didn‘t give it enough of the zettra stone.

Nia aimed the tank barrel towards the lizards and fired. But her shot went behind them, and only one fell down.

One rocket lizard remained, I had no time to recharge my blaster, Nia needed to charge as well to fire a second round.

The lizard was done reloading and aimed.

„Nia! Get out of the tank!“

The lizard fired, and Nia was still in the tank. What was she doing? She would not survive that. That idiot!

The rocket flew towards the tank. I couldn‘t shoot at it, I was still giving my blaster a zettra stone.

Nia is going to die in the tank. I would have felt sorry for her, but it was her plan to do this daredevil stunt. I honestly thought this plan would work, but of course, there are artifacts that are rocket launchers. Why are there weapons that should not exist in this primitive era? I have seen weapons around here that are modernized, but they are all only these strange artifact weapons that can only be found in ruins. All of this makes no sense at all.

The rocket was about to impact, I hid behind cover, then the sound of the explosion.

A few seconds later I looked back but was surprised to see the tank still intact. Then I saw why. An energy barrier blocked the rocket, and it was not from the tank.

The energy was purple, so I immediately knew who made that barrier. I turned my head to where the energy was coming from, and I saw Ethan with his shield arm stretched out. This much energy to stop a rocket far away would likely consume the shield‘s power source.

The lizard panicked, it tried to get a rocket in the rocket launcher, but an arrow hit him and it fell.

There were not many lizards left, and they were all starting to look frightened. They stopped their attack and started to run away.

We actually won this. What the hell. I was only planning to try and sneak in to get the best artifact here. And that was not really possible when it was a tank. I thought about taking something else around here, but of course, Ivona showed up to tell us to help her save the villagers, which would mean to try and defeat all the dynami. But it all turned out well surprisingly. I thought Nia was about to die a really dramatic death, but was saved by Ethan‘s perfect timing to come over to us right at the moment the rocket was about to hit. All too convenient.

Nia hopped out of the tank and came over to us.

„Woohoo! We did it!“ She was hopping around happily.

„I am going to talk to my people, thanks for everything you guys.“

„Yeah, no problem,“ Ethan said.

I finished a zettra stone and put my blaster back in my holster. Then immediately pulling it back out again, because I had a thought about if the lizards decide to come back with a surprise attack with a lot more men. I need to be ready at all times when we are in the Dynami Empire‘s territory.

„We should start heading back to Dunwich. We need to be extra careful when we take the tank with us.“

„We are likely going to get attacked when we have that around. I think we should destroy it instead.“

I did not like that. If I wanted information about the mystery sniper, then we needed to bring something with us. I guess something from the tents should be fine, like that rocket launcher.

I glanced towards the tents and was shocked to see what happened to them.

„Hey, Nia, you did try and aim for the lizards, right?“

„Of course! But the accuracy of the gun was pretty bad. Why do you ask?“

„I am asking because I want to know why that every single tent is completely blown away.“

She glanced at them.

All the tents were either on fire or just nonexistent.

„Hehe, um. That‘s just a bit of fire, but we still have the tank!“ She said all joyful and motioned her hands towards the tank.

But then the tank decided that that was the perfect moment to do a great show for us. It first showed us cracks against its hull, then the sound of it falling apart and becoming only ruble.

Ethan and I stood there open mouthed, completely dumbfounded. Nia was still there with her hands towards the tank with her smile, then I saw sweat coming from her forehead.

It felt like an eternity, everything was completely silent.

Then I sighed and took a deep breath. Then I released the anger that was growing inside me.

„NIA!!!“