Story of Kusanagi-Sama
War of the Gods

Chapter 8:
Battle with the Bodyguards

The Warbots standing before them looked a little like Warbot Captains, but had vast differences. Instead of one hand replaced with a shield, they had two hands. All of these Captain variants were wearing capes. Three Warbots were green with green capes; three more were blue with blue capes; and the last three were silver with silver capes. They all held a metallic quarterstaff with a rubber-coated handgrip, blades on either end.
"Who are you?" asked Kumo, the only Tenshi to voice what he was thinking.
"We are the Warbot Bodyguards of the Three Generals," said one of the green Warbots.
"We were constructed to protect the 'Project: Tenshi's Bane' during construction," said one of the blue Bodyguards.
"And we shall protect our Generals from you," said one of the silver Bodyguards.
At once, 45 of the Tenshi in the room lifted off the ground. Kumo stared at them in terror, and realized something he should have noticed earlier; there was an anti-gravity projector mounted on the ceiling. Among the 45 was Gii-Sha, who was squealing in horror, "Commander Kitsune, please help us!"
"Let them down, now!" shouted Kumo, pointing up at them. "Certainly," said a green Bodyguard, and the anti-gravity projector cut out, letting the Tenshi free-fall.
"NO!" shouted Kumo, and the anti-gravity projector was reactivated. "No?" asked another green Bodyguard. "You don't want them down?" said a blue Bodyguard. "Yes, I do!" yelled Kumo. These robots were clearly being wise-crackers. "But I don't want them to drop!"
"Very well!" said another blue Bodyguard. "In order to get your friends down..." "And to gain safe passage to our Three Generals..." said one of the silver Bodyguards. "...you must get past us first!" said another silver Bodyguard.
The door to the next room slid open, and for a wild moment Kumo thought the Three Generals would come in, but saw that it was more Bodyguards! One, two, three, four, five, SIX more Bodyguards came in, increasing their numbers to fifteen. Fifteen Warbots versus five Tenshi, one of whom was just starting.
The five green Bodyguards struck various dramatic poses, then shouted, "We are the Bodyguards of the General of the Ground!"
The five blue Bodyguards performed several aerodynamic maneuvers, then landed and yelled, "We are the Bodyguards of the General of the Sky!"
The five silver Bodyguards spun their staves around several times, held them straight out, and said, "We are the Bodyguards of the General of the Sea!" All fifteen Bodyguards then clenched their quarterstaves tightly. And the battle began.
Since the Tenshi were outnumbered three to one, each Tenshi had to fight three Bodyguards. Each Tenshi, while adept at swordplay, was struggling to avoid getting struck by the Bodyguards, who were surprisingly quick and agile.
Kumo found out very early in the battle that the staves wielded by the Bodyguards could block the strikes of a Tenshi sword. How they could, Kumo didn't know, as the material that formed the blade of a Tenshi sword was one of the toughest materials in the Galaxy.
Even Mha (who was possibly the most skilled swordsman in the room, remember) was having difficulties fighting the Bodyguards. Every time he blocked a swing from one of the Bodyguards, he had to quickly spin around and block another swing. Mha never faced a more difficult opponent, or opponents, before in his life.
Shiitsu never felt so terrified before. She was fighting three berzerker Warbots, who were adept at wielding melee weapons, all the while trying to get to three even tougher Warbots. It was madness. She could no longer use a passive method in her swordplay, as she was already hard- pressed trying to defend herself.
Kykoko was using every ounce of her strength to parry the Bodyguards' blows. The Bodyguards were attacking her relentlessly, apparently never giving her a chance to recover. Kykoko was facing much the same predicament as her old master, Shiitsu, where she couldn't try to get the Bodyguards to be overaggressive, so that she could slip in and do an attack. So the battle continued.
Ga'an, however, was having an easier time. Although he was without a doubt the oldest person in the room, he was still quite agile. Ga'an also used his years of experience to his advantage, using incredible leaps to get over the action. Ga'an's infrared vision allowed him to see where the Bodyguards' joints were overheating. Ga'an saw that one Bodyguard had quite a bit of stress in the upper arm, and memorized when it became stressed. The next time the stress occured in the arm, Ga'an quickly severed it.
All movement in the room ceased at the sound of a metal arm hitting the floor. While everyone watched, stunned, Ga'an cut in half across the chest the Bodyguard whose arm he cut off.
At this occurance, the courage of the Tenshi took a leap, and the Bodyguards were quite discouraged. Because it was only two-on-one now, Ga'an quickly finished the other two Bodyguards. It became clear to him that the Bodyguards worked best when they triple-teamed their opponents. Ga'an took a moment to catch his breath.
"MASTER D'ZURO, HELP!"
It was Shiitsu. The Bodyguards knocked away her sword and were moving in for the kill. Ga'an quickly slinked around behind them, and quickly severed all three of their heads. "Thanks," said Shiitsu, and the two moved on to help the other three.
With five Tenshi against nine Bodyguards, the odds began to even out a little. Shiitsu went to help her old apprentice Kykoko. Now that two Tenshi were fighting three Bodyguards, it was easy to defeat the Bodyguards they were fighting. Ga'an went to help his old apprentice Kumo, and they quickly defeated the three Bodyguards.
Then the four liberated Tenshi turned to help Mha fight the three Bodyguards. Because it was now five Tenshi against three Bodyguards, the Bodyguards were easily disposed of. But before they could destroy the final Bodyguard, he said, "Victory is yours. You may proceed to our Three Generals and release your friends..." and shut down.
Kumo pressed a button on the wall, and the 45 Tenshi who were held captive by the anti-gravity projector hovered slowly to the ground. Miraculously, all fifty Tenshi in Task Force 2 survived everything they encountered in the bunker. All fifty of them turned to the door leading to the next room, and filed through it...

Next Time...
In Chapter 9:
Revelations...

...literally thousands of Warbots had shown up, and not just humanoid Warbots. They also brought with them Legged Tanks and Flying Donuts, the Warbot assault transports...

Stay Tuned...