Chapter 66: Limit
Ember had her training to thank for this her extremely nimble and acrobatic body allowed her to weave her way away from the giant metallic arms aimed to crush her.
She flipped back on one hand as the huge downward thrust dug a hole into the asphalt road.
"We aren't minimizing the damage Em!" Stone screamed as he took over his partner and continued to distract the humanoid now his body may not be as fast but he had another trick up his sleeve.
The humanoid reset and raised its arms to strike again but Stone stood still as the hit was about come in he channeled his inner aura and crossed his arms blocking the hit completely.
The humanoid raised his head in confusion as its arm stopped midway and as it glanced at Stone whose body had started to envelop in blue flames.
"AHHHHHHH!" the Ranger yelled as he put all of his strength in one move as it pushed the humanoid off-balance as it crashed backward into the road.
Stone's breathing was completely messed up, having to use so much strength to just tilt the bot backward was something he hadn't expected not to mention the backlash his body experienced from activating his aura.
"Sucker's... he... heavy." he finished somehow as the bot was temporarily immobilized.
Ember didn't waste this opening as she rushed in with a leap from a nearby car and landed on top of the humanoid and began to plant the grenade belt around one of its limbs but before she could the humanoid grabbed her by her waist.
She tried struggling her way out of the grasp but the humanoid had already secured her firmly and began to stand back up, supports emerged from its back as like a car jack they lifted the heavy body back up, whoever had made it had clearly planned ahead.
Once back on its two feet it eyed Ember who was still trying to wriggle out.
Seeing the bot look at her struggle she yelled
"What! Never seen a chick with red hair before?"
The bot ignored her and prepared to do something unimaginable to both of the rangers.
It got in a throwing position and aimed in an arc toward the other end of the road.
[Dammit! What the FUCK] Ember cursed internally as she got flung about 3 stories up, this was going to hurt.
"EMBER!" Stone screamed and tried to move to attempt to break her fall but his body refused still recovering from his latest discharge of Auran energy.
As Ember reached the apex of the throw she tried to look for a way out but having been thrown in an arc from the middle of the streets straight ahead there was nothing for her to grab onto and as her arm extended fully but with no ledge to grab onto it was all in vain.
Until out of nowhere a hand caught her own and she got swept back into the air.
"Leader!" she screamed out of sheer joy seeing Frost on top of Noivern sweep her out of the air.
He helped her climb on Noivern's back as she tightened her arms around Frost's back as they began descending back to where Stone was recovering.
"So this is the second one." Frost began.
"Yes."
"Ember do we have another code grey?"
"No, this one hasn't done anything yet to imply that."
"What is up with the grenade belt?" he changed the conversation once he determined there was no other information leak.
"We only have this much to take out one of its limbs but when I tried to put this on it, I got caught and flung in the air... Leader, it is built like a tank, bullets do jack shit."
Frost eyed the humanoid as it saw him save Ember in mid-air.
"Blowing up just a Limb will not be enough it will only slow it down we need a way to shut it down for good." Frost took the lead.
"Then what?"
"Can you take out the armor plates on its chest?" Frost asked after a small pause.
"I could but only if you two can somehow make the thing stay still, I don't want to fly again right now especially without you not being to catch me."
"Good! then prep the grenades to do just that, me and Stone will keep it occupied for the time being, and hopefully, by then Rain and Cynthia come here." He told her as he left her with Noivern and ran in to support Stone.
Tossing the rifle to the side as it slowed him down Frost asked a now a recovered Stone.
"Are you alright?"
"Good catch." He told him as he accepted his extended hand to stand back up.
"Stone... Rain and Cynthia will be here soon till then save your strength we need to hold the bot down for Ember to plant the charges and blow the armor off the bloody thing's chest."
"Got it but can you keep it occupied alone?" he asked as he eyed Frost's condition.
Bleeding arms and an overall tired face Stone knew he had been fighting since the start but leaving all the work on Frost it didn't feel right.
Frost showed a faint smile at the concern Stone showed as he answered confidently.
"Don't worry I can keep it distracted it's not like I am gonna fight it one on one."
Stone tried to reply but before he could get a say Frost jumped ahead and stared the second humanoid head-on.
"Well I may have bitten off more than I can chew here..." Frost talked sarcastically as the humanoid launched towards him in an attempt to grab him with both its hands.
The humanoids attempted to grab thin air as Frost ducked under the arms and even avoided the follow-up strike by rolling on the asphalt road.
[That was close.]
Doing a kip-up to get back on his feet Frost had to keep moving since the humanoid was not giving him the same space he gave to Ember and Stone a few minutes ago.
[It's learning! Frost needs to change tactics.] Stone realized as he looked at Ember configuring the grenades to blow only the armor plate in the humanoid's chest.
Glancing around him he took out the collapsible staff from his bag and yelled...
"FROST! CATCH!"
Without even looking towards Stone he caught the staff and while skipping backward he also came to a similar conclusion as his Aura using teammate.
[I need to go on the offensive.] As gears in his mind turned as he assessed what he could do.
All the robot saw was Frost pull out three identical pellets from inside his coat each placed neatly between the gaps of his right hand's fingers because shortly after he threw them a wall of smoke erupted in front of it blocking its sight.
A sharp whistle was heard and the humanoid used its arms to create a small wind and cleared the smoke almost as soon as it was made but Frost was nowhere to be found.
The humanoid scanned around only to find Ember and Stone standing far away it took a long time for it to clock about the different possibilities of Frost's incoming attack.
The Sky.
Its head jerked upwards but it was too late as Frost who with the help of a very reliable Noivern had cleared the wall of smoke and jumped down to deliver a solid blow to the humanoid's head with the expandable staff provided to him by Stone.
It was Frost's only shot to deal some significant damage because the humanoid was not going to fall for the same trick twice so he put in all the strength he could muster at the moment and instead of aiming directly on the head, he aimed at the joint connecting the faceplate to the humanoid's helmet.
*CLANK!
A sharp noise was made when the metal staff collided with the metal faceplate of the humanoid.
The impact had strained the staff so much that it snapped in two almost immediately making contact but it was not in vain as the hinge holding the faceplate also broke revealing a small gap in the humanoid's armor big enough to slide a couple of explosives in between the armor plates.
That was the plan all along knowing it worked Frost smirked but this was all but a fleeting moment of comfort before the robot launched a quick sweeping attack.
With the broken staff, Frost guarded the best he could but soon his legs gave way and he was swept off the ground and launched into the car parked on the other side of the street.
Crashing into the door of the white hatchback he had his wind knocked out of him as he fell face-first into the ground below.
"FROST!" Stone yelled.
"LEADER!" Ember screamed in concern.
Frost was definitely knocked out but before they could rush in to help him both of them heard rain on the radio.
"I'll take him you two deal with humanoid!"
"Big sis!" Ember called out and was relieved to see her back.
Completely ignoring the blonde Champion that had jumped off of Garchomp mid-air to get to Frost a tad bit sooner than Rain, Ember and Stone took over in keeping the humanoid busy.
"Frost!." Cynthia cried out as she knelt to turn over Frost who was completely out of it.
Barely awake Frost muttered in a very soft voice Cynthia could have missed it if she wasn't paying attention.
"Champion... get Rain to..."
Rain cut him off as she told him
"Don't waste time talking just think..."
Frost who was dazed stopped his lips as Rain just stared at Frost's black eyes before nodding and turning away to face the humanoid.
"Keep him safe until he snaps out of it Champion," she told Cynthia casually as she left the Sinnoh champion staring in awe.
[She's a PSYCHIC!]
In Cynthia's head, everything made sense now, she had a recurring suspicion on Rain ever since they shared the elevator ride with Diantha's Gardevoir.
Her mind still processing the newly realized information, Cynthia didn't follow it up with questions as she allowed Rain to return to the battle at hand, and instead, she helped Frost back to his feet and slowly with Garchomp walked away from the giant humanoid trashing about, seriously what a day.
"Champion... I need to go... help them..." Frost kept on muttering as Cynthia basically dragged him away from the fight.
"Stop talking." Cynthia sternly shut his pleas as she placed him such that his back rested on the adjacent wall.
"But..." he tried to counter.
"No buts, idiot look at yourself, you are a mess, you can't even stand up on your own just stop please... just don't..."
Cynthia's passionate reply took Frost by surprise as he couldn't even force a reply, he just sat there quietly as he stared at the real fight that was going to begin.
The fight to put an end to the second humanoid.
Author's Notes:
Online classes and assignments are the banes of my existence XD. Anyways hope you guys enjoy this chapter and if you do please follow the story so you don't miss any updates. Until next time
PEACE