Everyone scrambled out of the car and got as far away as they could just before it exploded behind them.
A large number of robots closed in and surrounded them. Everyone saw that there was no escape from confronting them. They would face an entire army alone.
The robots approached, their iron feet shaking the ground. The city trembled with the strange, electronic, metallic sounds they made as they chanted strange phrases in their language. All that could be understood from it was the word "Gaia."
Noor stood firm, anxiety gripping his heart. He felt that they were in a deep and inescapable predicament, now completely alone in the face of this overwhelming army of highly advanced and heavily armed robots. Noor said, urging his companions to stand firm, "Get ready for impact. If we’re going to die here tonight, then let’s take as many of them with us as possible." New ɴᴏᴠᴇʟ ᴄhapters are published on 𝗻𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗹·𝑓𝑖𝑟𝑒·𝗇𝗲𝘁
"You can fall alone," Sairi said with a confidence tinged with sarcasm. "I’m not dying here."
Ivanov let out a booming laugh and looked at Sairi. "The mystery surrounding all these strange events has kept us from enjoying ourselves. But now that we know what’s happening here, or at least some of what’s happening, it’s time to have some fun again, just like in the race before."
Sairi gave a half-smile and drew his sword. "We’re going to have fun against an army of robots? How ironic. And now, let’s see who can destroy the most of them. I feel like I’m destroying modern civilization and its downsides by destroying them."
Then he looked at Keno with a challenging gaze. "You took first place from me in the death race, and that’s not happening again. Now let’s see who’s better. And don’t forget, you’re going to tell us the truth you’re hiding after we’re done here."
Keno didn’t say a word, content to count the number of robots with his mechanical eyes.
Noor stood bewildered by their excessive confidence. He shrugged his shoulders dismissively. "Hello? There’s an army of robots heading our way! Don’t you see the trouble we’re in? The fate of all humanity is at stake here, and you’re competing with each other? What is this nonsense?"
"Alright," Ivanov said with great passion. "Let’s begin."
"Before we start," Sairi interrupted, "I need to ask you for a favor."
Sairi asked Ivanov to throw him high into the air so he could eliminate the robotic bees that were attacking them from above. Ivanov covered his body with iron, extended his hand for Sairi to stand on, then gathered all his strength and threw him high into the sky. Sairi shot upward, cutting through the air, but he found that he wouldn’t reach them and soon began to fall back down. But then he found Keno flying beside him, fire blasting from his back and feet. He grabbed him by his hands and threw him with even greater force upward. Sairi shot up against gravity, his hair flying in the wind.
The robotic bees saw him heading toward them and quickly opened fire. Sairi deflected their shots with his sword, reflected them with his power, and dodged them until he reached the first bee. He split it in half with his sword, then continued upward and began to descend again. He pulled a bee toward him with his power, stood on top of it, and then began to control it as if it were his slave. He drove it, cutting a path through the other bees and slicing them with his sword while avoiding their fire.
Keno landed on the ground next to Ivanov, then gave him a look that Ivanov understood.
Ivanov left his bag of weapons and told Noor to use it if he wanted, then left him and charged with Keno toward the robot army, which Keno had counted to be ten thousand. Of course, this was just a small part of the army, because most of them were crossing the golden bridge with Gaia.
They ran toward the robots, who opened fire to stop them. Ivanov extended his hand forward and easily blocked the shots, while Keno placed an energy shield around his body.
Noor was stunned by their abilities and felt a little jealous, but he didn’t let this amazement make him forget his role. He created a wall of iron, hid behind it, grabbed the sniper rifle that Ivanov had been carrying, and began to aim and hit the robots in the jewel around their heads and hearts.
"This is the most I can do in my current state," Noor said to himself.
And in the sky, Sairi cut his way through, destroying the bees one after another. When his bee was destroyed, he jumped onto another one and took control of it. But he saw on the horizon a huge, seven-meter-tall silver robot approaching them, with a swarm of bees around him. He looked down and saw Keno and Ivanov taking down the robots one after another with great strength and immense determination.
The robots had surrounded them from all sides, but they were punching and blowing them up with ease. Sairi saw that this huge robot could cause them a big problem and decided to eliminate it himself to show them that he was the strongest here.
Sairi put his sword in the head of the bee he was standing on and jumped onto the next bee, and the one after that. He continued to jump on them gracefully as if they were a bridge leading him to the huge robot. At the same time, whenever he jumped on a bee, he put his sword in its head and jumped to the next one, so it exploded behind him and fell.
Sairi continued to jump from bee to bee, cutting through everyone who stood in his way with his sword, and sometimes he used his power to move them closer to him so he could jump on them or make them collide with each other. He continued to jump and destroy until he had taken down half the swarm of bees and was very close to the huge robot. Ivanov looked up, then to the horizon, and saw what Sairi was planning. He smiled. "You wretch," he said. "You want to have all the fun for yourself. But I won’t let you this time."
Ivanov pushed the robots around him with force and charged with his right shoulder, cutting his way through the huge robot army, while Keno continued to blow up and destroy the robots around him.
Sairi jumped with acrobatic movements from one bee to another. He pulled a bee to him, split it with his sword, and moved its body with his power to collide with the bees in front of him and take them down. He looked down and saw Ivanov cutting his way fiercely toward the giant robot.
"I won’t let you get to it," he said with firmness and determination.