Trans-Migration

“I’ve got the one on the right!” Bria shouted, rushing to intercept the machine.

Boris cursed, but moved alongside Nikolai, shouldering past Neth as they rushed down a machine that had more than ten levels on them. Bria hated doing it, but she couldn’t see any other way to make it through the current mess alive. She could keep this one machine busy while the others dealt with the last one. It was their best shot at surviving the encounter.

Her shield met the first blade, stopping it cold. [Enhance] helped Bria hit above her level, and that extended to holding her ground against something that by all means should have bowled her over.

It didn’t. Bria skidded back as her boots bit into stone, but she managed to stay upright as the attack’s energy bled out. Then, the second blade came down. She lacked an immediate answer for that one, opting to pivot out of the way instead. It skirted past her face, taking a few strands of hair with it, and her own blade was brought to bear against the exposed steel of the automaton warrior. Her new blade wasn’t enough to shear through the armored plating, but it did score a deep rent. At least they weren’t invulnerable to her current capabilities, that would have been problematic.

“I can cut them!” Bria shouted, dancing around follow-up strikes that nearly cleaved through her.

“The boys can’t!” Neth answered. “My magic is effective though! Hold out, we should be able to bring it down!”

Great, they were all on the same page, which wasn’t the boon it sounded like. Bria deflected and dodged, countering where she could, but the shallow cuts weren’t doing much damage. Still, each scratch was a vulnerability for when the fight came to her opponent and it became four on one rather than the current bad odds.

Until then, she just had to hold out. She had [Bulwark] and [Enhance] alongside [Pray], [Endure], and [Second Wind]. By all accounts, Bria was next to invulnerable. For a single exchange. Once she burned through all of those, she would be just as squishy as anyone else, and they lacked the mana to truly risk it. Those skills were already applied, and they couldn’t just cast them again. Not without a restoration of mana.

Which meant she did have to play it safe, all because Mister Ruiz refused to. Bria made a mental note to tell the man off for getting them into this mess, but it would have to wait until she wasn’t about to be carved up by a machine hellbent on ending her. An armblade scratched against her cheek as she cut a dodge too close, [Bulwark] flaring much to her consternation.

Such a near miss could be ignored normally, just a touch of pain to be repaired following a casting of [Heal]. Thanks to her own shield spell, it just absorbed the full damage that blow might have done instead. It was a weakness of the spell she hadn’t considered, one which she would need to consider in the future.

Cost and risk. It was something she had to weigh in business math class, not in a life and death struggle against a giant murder machine!

Bria tried to dodge with more room to spare, but that only served to keep her from striking back. The whole while, she was forced to ignore the shouts and cries coming from the other group.

She failed when it was Neth’s voice that shouted out in panic.

Their machine had plowed through the Russians and was almost on top of Mister Ruiz before Neth had managed to do more than throw radiant light at the automaton. The man’s eyes widened, and he leapt aside. The blade cut through the air where he had been standing, and shattered the ground beneath.

Mister Ruiz scrambled away faster than she had ever seen him move, and then Bria caught a blade to her side that shattered [Bulwark], launching her through the air. Twisting, Bria managed to land on her feet as she grit her teeth and came to a stop. The machine she had been fighting was largely operational, but the one that the others had battled was sparking, with many panels of armor stripped away or outright melted.

“Switch!” Bria yelled.

It took barely a second for the others to catch her intention. Boris and Nikolai charged after her former foe, not giving it a chance to continue dividing them up. Bria moved quickly, rushing towards the damaged unit, putting herself between it and Mister Ruiz before it could strike a second time. The chipped blade scraped against her shield, but Bria pushed it aside. When she struck back, her blade sunk into the exposed internals of the automaton.

Oil sprayed and sparks danced, but Bria held firm despite her muscles protesting the strain. She twisted the sword and wrenched it free in the most destructive way she could manage. The machine hitched for a moment, then its assault continued with slightly less mobility. Without [Bulwark], Bria took those risks. She took a small cut to score a deeper one, she used [Heal] when a blow turned worse than she planned. Unfortunately, it had also cost her [Endure] and [Second Wind], leaving her far too vulnerable for her liking. Neth needed to keep her mana available for her own [Heal], which meant restoring [Pray] wasn’t an option.

Mister Ruiz had retreated further, hopefully having learned his lesson about putting them in danger by his mere presence. Bria’s mana continued to tick down, especially when she had to reapply [Bulwark] to Neth after their machine managed to land a blow on her. The spell took time and focus to cast, but Bria’s machine was practically downed, and she had the time to spare.

Barely.

The cast went off, dropping her mana to zero, and she barely ducked the blow that would have taken her head clean off her shoulders. That lit a flame within her, and Bria took the opening for all it was worth, carving out a chunk of gears and wires that had to be important. The machine lurched, smoke pouring out of every joint as it sparked and shuddered.

Then it tipped over, a resounding ding filling her mind.

Your group has defeated a [Security Automaton] 599 EXP Granted.

“Level!” Boris shouted and Nikolai replied with, “same!”

Good, that meant they recovered some of their mana not to mention their wounds will be mending, even partially. There wasn’t enough mana in the air to let it work as effectively as it did on the other side. Yet, despite that, they immediately reapplied their abilities on everyone, their mana must have been high enough to manage it, but she had a feeling that also took them back down to near zero.

“Not close,” Neth added, which hurt.

“Won’t level from the next one either,” Bria said, hurrying to Neth’s side. “Which means we need to avoid too many injuries.”

“Unfortunately,” the Shrine Maiden agreed. “I’ve got enough in me for another [Heal]. That’s why I asked them to restore their own abilities on all of us.”

Cold logic, and also put them on a timer.

Bria squared her shoulders and rushed back into the fray. She caught a blade on her shield, pivoting with the block to deflect another with her sword. A grin crept across her lips as her hair whipped around her, knowing she had to look pretty awesome at the moment.

“Ready to finish this?” Bria asked.

“Da,” Nikolai huffed. “Tired of fighting clankers. They don’t even scream.”

Boris laughed, even as Bria continued to battle the machine. “They do if you stick them right. The kitten made hers scream when she clawed it.”

“True,” Nikolai said, finally having caught his breath, and he jumped in to help. “Then let us make this one scream too!”

“Phrasing much?” Bria whispered, then deflected another blow, wincing as a piece of shrapnel hit her forehead. She retaliated with another swipe that the machine deftly absorbed with barely a scratch.

Was it just her, or had the machine somehow gotten better? Another three clashes followed and Bria couldn’t deny it. The machine wasn’t any faster, but it was fighting smarter. Something had changed, but she couldn’t concern herself with that, not when—

Boris screamed as his arm went flying off, with his own blade still in hand. [Endure] and [Second Wind] triggered, stopping the bleeding almost immediately as he fell into a tumbling roll. Neth was at his side in an instant, expending what little mana she had on restoring his missing arm. She had more mana and regeneration than even Gil, but it was heavily constrained when on Earth, even with a mana source so close at hand.

Pushing herself to the limit, Bria shoved Nikolai aside, catching the blade with her shield, only for it to be knocked from her arms and sent tumbling. She wasn’t about to let this hunk of scrap beat her, no matter how powerful it might be! She gripped her sword with both hands and swung. Their blades clashed in a shower of sparks as she danced with death itself.

Nobody she cared about was going to die. Not if she had anything to say about it!

Ancient steel chipped and splintered as Bria pushed herself to keep up with the machine. The others weren’t idle, and pressed their own attack. Neth stood firm, staff at the ready as she watched on. Bria suspected that she was waiting for an opening to dump the rest of her mana, but couldn’t be certain. That didn’t matter. Bria was the only one among them they could even come close to keeping up with the automaton. If she were to fall, they were done.

Blood spilled from cuts small and large, and Bria’s Hit Points trickled down with it, falling into the teens. Yet, the machine wasn’t any better off. Exposed internals were left vulnerable to Nikolai and Boris, and at one point she could have sworn Bumble was in there chewing at a wire.

That was when something within the machine shifted. The glowing eyes flashed from blue to red, and Bria’s stomach dropped. Metal screamed as the machine over-stressed its own joints, burned out servos, and pushed itself in one final act. Those bladed limbs blurred, hitting Bria so hard that every buff left triggered at once, bringing her health back up into the thirties even as the blade finished carving through her chest in a wide arc. Blood sprayed, Neth cried out, and a blazing light pierced the machine’s head.

The red eyes flickered, then fell black.

Bria let out a breath, the tension bleeding out of her, and that was when the arm slammed into her head. A vicious backhand delivered by a broken shield arm of the machine. Bria’s health dropped like a stone in a lake, right to zero.

Instantly, all her strength fled even as she hit the ground, bouncing once, then twice.

The machine was still moving, but Boris and Nikolai both jumped atop it before it could do anything further, their blades stabbing repeatedly into it with little care given for their own safety. Her vision swam and failed to focus, but she didn’t black out, even as they brought it low. Her health had hit zero, but she wasn’t dead? How did that work? Just what was happening to her?

Your group has defeated a [Security Automaton] 599 EXP Granted.

Bria grinned, huffing out a laugh. They had done it! They managed to survive! It might not have been enough for her to reach level ten, but literally anything tougher than a Slime should push her over that threshold. She flashed the guys a quick thumbs up, grinning wide at their accomplishment. They’d leveled up during the battle, and the final foe hadn’t quite pushed them over the edge again.

Status: [Downed]

Name: Bria Ortega

Level: 09

Experience: 2045/2048

Class: NONE

Hit Points: 0/83

Mana: 1/74

Strength: 78—1

Defense: 67—1

Agility: 64—1

Magic Might: 72—1

Magic Defense: 69—1

“Three experience away,” she said, the words spoken with difficulty.

The [Downed] status was one she hadn’t quite encountered before, but Neth had explained it once. She wouldn’t have access to her stats or skills, but could still get experience she had technically earned before being downed. A level up would restore her stats sooner, but all she needed was to be healed up and she would be fine right then, or wait about an hour without taking a lethal blow.

“I need about five minutes before I can heal you,” Neth said, smiling as Bumble buzzed around her. “My mana is drained.”

“Ours too, not that we can heal you with it,” Nikolai said.

Boris laughed. “Ah, I’ve never felt so alive. I see why you like it over there, little kitten. This is fun.”

“Yeah, it is,” Bria agreed with a pained huff. “Dangers and all.”

A choking gasp had Bria turning her head, her eyes widening as she watched blood spray from Neth’s throat. The Shrine Priestess dropped to her knees, clutching at her neck as she fell aside, crimson staining her robes. Behind her, Ruiz stood, holding an achingly familiar bloodied blade while wielding a knife-edged grin.

“I have been wanting to do that since I met the bitch,” he said with a smile.

Nikolai roared in anger, rushing his boss without hesitation over the senseless attack. Ruiz raised his hand, and lightning ripped free from his fingertips. The man’s protections flared, but he went flying, crashing into Boris before he could help. Both men landed in a tumble, and Bria knew their health was low.

Bria tried to push herself up, but she lacked the strength to do so. The [Downed] status mocked her even as Neth’s eyes shimmered and blood gurgled from her slit throat. Added stats could only do so much for a person, and Bria knew her girlfriend had only seconds left at best.

“I must say I’m disappointed,” Ruiz said with a sigh. “I had hoped that gaining the power of ages might show you the light, but it seems I made a mistake in hiring both of you. Consider this your termination, effective immediately.”

Another blast of magic followed, and both men writhed with clenched jaws before falling still. Ruiz brushed his fingertips along his pants, then blew on them like he’d just painted his nails. He then walked over to the pedestal and retrieved the Keystone, admiring it for a moment before it slipped into his pocket.

“How?” Bria rasped out, pushing one arm under herself with everything she had. Unfortunately, her mana remained sitting at a single point, and she needed two to cast the most basic of healing spells. It wouldn’t be enough to get her back into the fight, let alone save Neth. “You didn’t…”

“Have a level?” the man asked, chuckling. He held up his hand and pulled a ring off his finger. “A handy artifact that was gifted to me when I made a very convenient ally.”

[Sorcerer Lv. 12]

Bria’s eyes widened as Mister Ruiz pulled a familiar mask from a pouch, turning him from once trusted mentor into the masked figure that had stood beside Ri-durak back on the other side. That shouldn’t have been possible, he never found a second amulet, she had made certain of it!

“You should have searched the room better before picking something to abscond with,” Mister Ruiz said, kicking away her weapons before pulling her up by the hair. “I was disappointed that my men let you leave with a book, but forgave it when I found an amulet of my own.”

Bria snarled at the man, but he took a firmer grip on her scalp and plunged the stolen knife into her chest. He let her drop, her stats doing nothing to soften the ground as she landed hard, blood rushing from around the blade he’d thankfully left there. She landed at just the right angle to see how the light had left Neth’s eyes even as Bumble tried to rouse her.

“Your usefulness is at an end, I’m afraid. Goodbye, Bria.”