Combustion Squared

"Meh! My smoke's almost gone!" Esarin shouted, preparing his rocket launcher.

The group prepared their weapons. They could see Dosigma and the royalmechs line-up on the other side of the smoke, ready to attack.

"Ampyria," Mivangeline turned to the android girl. "I… um… I want to say-"

"Save it," Ampyria interrupted. "I'm not totally over the fact of all the droids we lost, especially Chloridium."

Mivangeline looked down with guilt.

"You better not screw this up," Ampyria coldly said as she flew up with Naivern and the last police droids.

"Mivange," Shien stood next to her. "Don't worry about her."

"I hope… this plan works," She mumbled. "I... don't want to fail."

"You won't. You know why? Because you can't fail now. You're our commander, Mivange. We look up to you, and we will do all we can to help you succeed. Okay? Have confidence in yourself!"

She looked at Shien's smile, making a tiny nod. Soon, Esarin's smoke barrier faded.

"Aerial team!" Mivangeline yelled. "Hit them now!"

Ampyria and the police droids bombarded the royalmechs with everything they had. The walkers jumped up to fly at the aerial team with their jet-powered feet. The androids flew about cautiously as the royalmechs blasted grenades about the ceiling.

Meanwhile, Naivern flew above the back team, actively playing a song to counter Dosigma's ruthless traits.

"Front team, we keep Dosigma occupied!" Mivangeline instructed. "Back team, stay at a safe distance, and concentrate your fire only on Dosigma!"

"Alrighty!" Ruddigus fired his defense ignoring cards at Dosigma.

"Ritom, get started!" Shien told his friend before he, Mivangeline, Phoenicia, and Elysia ran underneath the aerial fight to attack Dosigma.

"Okay then," Ritom activated his goggles.

Dosigma opened his mouth, releasing a fire breath at Ampyria. The boss choked on his fire when Phoenicia jetted at his chin with a crackling knuckle. The four members of the front group surrounded the enormous boss, attacking him in all directions.

The plan was that Ampyria and the droids distract the royalmechs in the air while everyone else concentrated on damaging the boss since the walkers' weakness was unknown. Phoenicia suggested that since the royalmechs had a very specific weak point, Ritom could analyze the walkers with his mechanic genius as he protects the back team. If he found the weakness, he would instruct Enshiron to snipe them.

"My good mechanic boi," Enshiron fired a salvo of wind arrows at Dosigma. "Did you happen to find anything yet?"

Ritom didn't reply. In deep focus, his goggles zoomed in on every detail of the royalmechs' anatomy as he observed the exploding dogfight full of walker grenades and moonbeams with the aerial team's dice and rockets. Ritom scanned all parts of the armor that covered the rectangular head, trunk, arm weapons, and jet-powered legs. He scanned every section and intricate features like small lumps and curves of the armor for any possible crevices.

"Hmm," Ritom grumbled. "I said before, their armor is completely sealed. There are no holes in the armor at all."

Ritom scratched his head as he deflected a grenade away from the back team.

"What if I am missing something?" Ritom thought out loud. "What if the weakness isn't a hole in the armor? Maybe it's a power source, needing high power to operate. If so, they would need an exhaust to vent off the heat. Then, a source of heat release is a possible weakness. But where?"

"Hurry up, you idiot!" Ampyria shouted before getting kicked by a flying walker.

"Shut up! Not helping!" Ritom yelled back until his goggles beeped. "Huh, wait a minute. What's that?"

Ritom analyzed the royalmech blasting a moonbeam at Ampyria. While she darted away from the destructive laser, Ritom's goggled picked up a nearly undetectable blur drifting from the pincer cannon. Ritom zoomed in to examine the armament. Behind the pink energized weapon, a small rectangular flap opened to release heat. As the huge laser faded, the panel sealed tight, blending in perfectly with the rest of the armor.

"Aha!" Ritom elbowed Enshiron. "I got it!"

"I say, music to my ears!" Enshiron wagged his Vulpi tail. "Enlighten me, my dear mechanic!"

"You see those pincer arms, right?"

"Yes, I do," Enshiron faced his violin bow in the air.

"When they shoot the pink laser, that cannon will release heat through a panel behind it. That's your target!"

"My, that is quite a sophisticated weakness that requires timing. I would then need to wait until those walkers fire their notorious-"

"That one at 2 o'clock! Quickly, before the laser stops!"

Enshiron aimed for the hovering royalmech as it fired a moonbeam to destroy a few police droids. He held up his bow, narrowing his right eye at the small exhaust panel behind the cannon that released steam. He took a deep breath, breathing halfway as he let go of the arrow. The back team watched the wind arrow dart into the exploding dogfight, passing through the agile police droids and finally hitting the steamy panel. The royalmech's cannon sputtered with pink plasma energy. Everyone gasped as the royalmech exploded into blue hexagons with its one HP dropping to zero.

Cubic Royalmech

Level 150

HP: [0/1]

"He figured it out," Mivangeline smiled.

"Yes!" Shien jumped. "I knew he would- Waah!"

Dosigma interrupted Shien's joy by slapping him onto Elysia.

"Yeowch!" Elysia kicked him off. "One dumb walker goes boom. Yay, whatever. Keep focused, runt!"

"You did not just call me that!" Shien shook his fist at her.

"Who else would I call a runt? Once a pipsqueak, always a pipsqueak!" Elysia dragged Shien away from Dosigma's flaming fist before running on top of the boss's arms to attack the neck with Phoenicia and Mivangeline. "Why don't you make yourself useful, you peewee?"

"You're gonna regret all that!" Shien hopped onto Dosigma's arm with her.

"This would not be the most optimal time for such frivolous banter, you two," Phoenicia punched Dosigma's neck.

"There's the next one!" Ritom pointed at a royalmech making Ampyria frantically fly away from its moonbeam.

Enshiron turned his bow away from Dosigma, resetting himself to concentrate his right eye on the moving royalmech's exhaust panel. He aimed a few feet in front of the walker's flight path towards Ampyria, releasing his arrow. Enshiron timed the shot perfectly, for the royalmech moved where he predicted. The wind arrow collided with the steamy opening, making the royalmech squirm with pink explosions before disintegrating into blue hexagons.

"Another one!" Ritom swung his index finger at another royalmech firing its pink laser at the droids. "Quickly!"

Enshiron jerked his bow towards the next walker, firing another arrow at its moonbeam exhaust. But the royalmech finished its attack, closing its exhaust flap. The arrow bounced off its armor.

"Argh! You almost had it!" Ritom shook his head.

The two royalmechs stopped fighting Ampyria's droids, turning to the back team.

"Oh, dear," Enshiron's Vulpi ears drooped. "They don't seem very happy."

The walkers jetted away from the droids. One darted for Enshiron while the other darted for Naivern.

"Uh oh. I think those things figured out our plan," Ruddigus fired Mirror Force cards at them to knock them back.

"Dude! I'm so not getting knocked out cold again!" Naivern shouted.

"Shoot! I'm out of cards! Watch out!"

The walker charged, firing grenades at the back team. Ritom did his best to deflect the attacks with his flamethrower.

"Meh! Stay away, you blockheads!" Esarin fired rockets at the incoming walkers.

A royalmech trampled through Ritom's fire, slashing him with its pincer.

"No!" Mivangeline saw the back team being attacked as she helped the front team damage Dosigma's neck. "We need to-"

Dosigma swung his huge body around to shake the front team off. He then created a fire orb with his hands, smashing it onto the ground. Mivangeline opened her eyes to find the front team paralyzed.

She looked at the back team to find Ampyria and the droids trying to take Ritom's place in protecting Naivern and the others. Droids were being destroyed. Ruddigus and Esarin were unconscious. Ritom was too injured to fight. Enshiron wailed in pain as a royalmech cut his Vulpi tail off with its pincer. Naivern, Ampyria, and ten droids were left to protect the group.

Dosigma slammed a flaming fist on Elysia, forcing her deeper into the cracked floor. He then held his fists up high, ready to finish the Vulpi girl off with a killing blow.

"What to do… what to do?" Mivangeline frantically turned her head to the front and back team. "Unless…"

She swiped her tab to find her Paladin's Aegis available to use. Mivangeline wanted to press the button to activate her trait, but her finger trembled. She knew that she only had about a sixth of health remaining.

"No… I won't last long against the royalmechs and Dosigma alone…" Mivangeline shook her head. "But… there's no other way… I just can't… I can't fail… them all…"

Mivangeline forced her finger onto the button to activate her trait. As her stats spiked, the royalmechs immediately stopped attacking the back team while Dosigma paused his fists midair from crushing Elysia. The three slowly turned towards Mivangeline, staring at her.

"Dear Lord," Mivangeline prayed, clutching onto her knives. "Please help me…"

"What's happening?" Ritom lay on the floor.

The rest of the back group found the boss and the walkers charging at Mivangeline altogether. She clashed her knives with the royalmech pincers.

"Her Paladin's Aegis trait," Ampyria landed beside the back team.

"She…" Enshiron struggled to stand, wincing in pain to his severed tail. "She's… protecting us…"

"But alone?" Naivern picked up to help everyone recover their stats from Dosigma. "We gotta help!"

"Ugh, how?" Ritom crawled up. "Our health is almost zero!"

They watched royalmechs launch grenades at Mivangeline. She jumped away, leading them and the boss far from the rest of the group. Dosigma rampaged towards her, swiping his head at Mivangeline to jab her with his horns. She backflipped away from the swinging horns, then rolled away before a royalmech could stomp on her.

"Hmm..." Enshiron picked up his violin, taking an arrow from his back quiver. "Ouch… the last arrow… I can help us all..."

"His Vampiric Zephyr trait finished its cooldown time," Ampyria looked at Enshiron's profile. "He could heal us all if he can hit Dosigma."

"Wait…" Ritom sat up. "Enshiron, your tail… Can you do it? "

"Ah, my good mechanic… ow, it hurts... " Enshiron forced himself to stand upright with his knees bent, drawing his bow. "I say… It will take far more to vanquish… the one and only… Enshiron Kiiros…"

"Dude, if that's your last arrow, you gotta make it count!" Naivern said. "If you miss, we can't help Mivangeline!"

Enshiron shut his left eye, forcing his shaking hands to aim his bow for Dosigma. His right eye waited with intense concentration to make a clear shot at the boss without hitting Mivangeline or the royalmechs. Enshiron wanted to close his right eye and rest, but he knew if he did, the rest of the team wouldn't have enough health to keep on fighting.

"Miv… Mivange?" Shien woke up, seeing her fight off the three enemies alone. "I gotta help her! Where's my clarinet? Huh, Phoenicia? Elysia?"

He looked around to see that Dosigma stomped his clarinet staff into pieces. Shien checked on Phoenicia and Elysia. They were unconscious with little health left, but Shien still had less than a quarter of his HP.

"Well, I still got Kung-Fu," Shien clenched his fist, dashing for Mivangeline. "Don't have the best odds, but she needs help to fight them!"

Mivangeline clashed her knives with the royalmech pincers. She jumped away from Dosigma's fire breath. Mivangeline dashed for Dosigma, doing her best to continue to dwindle the boss's health little by little.

Macrocube Dosigma

Level 200

HP: [43,513/200,000]

She ran around Dosigma in a circle, slashing at his legs while the royalmechs chased her with their grenade launchers firing ablaze. Mivangeline's health was slowly decreasing with every shockwave from Dosigma's punches and the grenade explosions. She breathed heavily with the taste of hot lactic acid in her throat. Her weary face and her body were full of ash and pincer cuts. Mivangeline wished she could stop, but she kept on attacking.

I just can't fail them! Mivangeline thought as she hopped away from a moonbeam behind her.

However, she tripped, feeling her head on the hard floor. Mivangeline looked up with her dizzy head to the sight of Dosigma launching his fist at her. She closed her eyes and covered her face, knowing that she wouldn't survive the blow.

Mivangeline Shuruuko

Level 96

HP: [2,101/89,850]

However, she didn't feel anything. Mivangeline looked up to see Shien repel Dosigma's fiery fist with a rapid volley of punches. Shien and Dosigma shook their hands into the air, hurt by each other's attack.

"Ow…" Shien massaged his fists. "Can't believe I still take damage…"

"Sh… Shien?" Mivangeline struggled.

"Watch out!" Shien rolled onto Mivangeline.

The two rolled away from two roaring royalmech moonbeams. Dosigma chased them, head and antlers down to finish the two off. Shien carried a tired Mivangeline in his arms, running as fast as he could from Dosigma's antlers. He panted, turning his tired face back to see the boss behind him, swinging his head to prick the two with his horns like a mad bull. Shien wasn't going to be fast enough to outrun Dosigma.

Shien knelt, holding Mivangeline tightly with his body covering her. He saw a bright, blood-red flash zoom past his eyes. A blood-red typhoon arrow from Enshiron exploded onto Dosigma, making him trample on the floor.

"Our health…" Shien helped Mivangeline stand on her feet.

The two found their health rising about halfway towards the end of their HP bars with Enshiron's trait combo.

"Enshiron?" Shien saw his Vulpi friend holding his bow.

"I… say…." Enshiron's body trembled. "All… I can… muster…"

Enshiron used up the last of his consciousness and fainted, dropping his violin.

"Good job, buddy," Naivern caught Enshiron's body, laying him gently on the floor with Esarin. "Take it easy."

"This is it!" Ampyria hastily said, flying towards Dosigma with the last ten droids. "We finish this now!"

"I'll stay here to keep everyone's stats up," Naivern continued playing a melody on her guitar as Ritom scrambled for his blade.

"Shien…" Mivangeline looked at him. "Um… thanks… for saving me…"

"No problem!" Shien grinned at her.

Mivangeline blushed heavily, turning her eyes to the floor.

"They're attacking the walkers!" Shien saw Ampyria, Ritom, and the last droids fighting the royalmechs. "Let's go for the boss!"

Mivangeline nodded, picking up her daggers, running with Shien to attack Dosigma.

"Let's keep Dosigma away from them," Mivangeline said.

Dosigma charged at Ritom only to get interrupted by Shien's punches on his right leg and Mivangeline's knives on his left. He stomped about angrily, trying to land a fiery punch on one of them.

"Ampyria!" Ritom pointed at a royalmech firing its moonbeam at the droids. "Hit your dice at that exhaust vent!"

The android girl flew behind the walker, commanding her dice to hit the back end of the pincer cannon. Most of her dice exploded around the walker and on its armor until one of them hit the steamy panel. The walker exploded with pink plasma energy, fading into blue particles as its health dropped from one to zero.

"Your aim sucks!" Ritom rolled his eyes as he slid his fire blade against the last royalmech's pincer.

"Insulting me is a code violation 26951!" Ampyria spat out.

Ritom and the last walker stared at each other as their weapons collided. The walker took a glance behind them to see Shien and Mivangeline attacking Dosigma. It jetted away from Ritom towards Mivangeline.

"Mivange! Behind you!" Shien shouted from Dosigma's shoulder, punching his neck before getting snapped off.

Mivangeline stopped slicing the boss's feet, looking back to see a giant pink laser rushing towards her from above. She dashed away from the blast that shook the ground. The royalmech chased Mivangeline with its active laser.

"Shoot it!" Ritom told Ampyria. "Please don't miss!"

Ampyria tried to attack the aerial walker. Her dice kept on hitting the royalmech's head and pincer instead. Some of her dice flew past, hitting Shien and Dosigma.

"Waah! Is Ampyria trying to kill me?" Shien yelled angrily.

"Oh my gosh. I tried to tell her. Just because having dice that spin on their own is cool doesn't mean they're accurate!" Ritom jumped in front of the police droids with a vein popping out of his forehead. "Can one of you please hit the target?"

A droid walked towards the royalmech, aiming its rocket at the moonbeam exhaust. The rocket was launched right at the target. Pink smoke oozed out of the pincer arm. The last royalmech was finally destroyed, fading into blue hexagon particles.

"Ey! That was awesome!" Naivern cheerfully jammed on her guitar. "Keep it up!"

"Thank you! Thank you so much!" Ritom hugged the police droid that made the successful shot. "Wow, Ampyria. The droid shoots better than you!"

"Whatever, you dope," Ampyria rolled her eyes before attacking Dosigma with her dice.

Mivangeline dragged Shien away from getting squished by Dosigma's fire punch.

"Good job, everyone! We're almost there," Mivangeline said. "Let's finish the boss. Ampyria, you and the droids attack from a distance. Ritom, you're with me and Shien!"

Macrocube Dosigma

Level 200

HP: [29,927/200,000]

Ritom jumped to Shien and Mivangeline. Together the three surrounded the boss, attacking Dosigma's feet in all directions as they dodged his series of fire breaths and punches. Ampyria and the last droids supported the three from afar, firing at the boss with their dice and rockets.

"We can try to finish the boss off quickly if we attack its eye!" Mivangeline dodged Dosigma's kick.

"Okie!" Shien jumped to land a hard kick on Dosigma's knee. "We just need to climb onto Dosigma!"

The group saw Dosigma creating another orb of fire in his hands. He held the fireball up, about to smash it onto Shien, Mivangeline, and Ritom.

"That attack will kill us!" Shien yelled.

"Hey, brat!" Ritom spat at Ampyria. "Please hit that big ball of fire. You can't possibly miss!"

Ampyria rolled her eyes, commanding her dice to attack Dosigma's orb of flames. The flying dice first slammed onto Dosigma's head, then his neck, arms, and finally, the flaming orb. When the fireball collided with Ampyria's dice, it unleashed a huge explosion into the air that made Dosigma dizzy and trample onto his back.

"Quickly, this is our only chance!" Mivangeline jumped onto Dosigma's foot, running for his head.

Shien and Ritom scurried on top of Dosigma's huge body. Mivangeline pounced on Dosigma's head, slashing the boss's red-eye with her knives. Dosigma roared, releasing a breath of fire into the air.

"Ritom! Switch!" Mivangeline was swatted away by Dosigma's hand.

"Alright!" Ritom jumped from Dosigma's neck onto his head, avoiding the fire breath.

Ritom sliced his blade into Dosigma's eye, dealing massive damage as the eye sputtered with flames. Dosigma slammed his hands on the ground, slowly lifting his body. The boss shook his head to send Ritom flying across the room.

"Shien!" Ritom fell onto the ground. "Finish him off! Quick, before he gets up!"

"Got it!" Shien dashed up on Dosigma's rising body.

Shien jumped just in time to dodge Dosigma's hands. He landed on Dosigma's chin, forcing his body to make another quick jump to avoid Dosigma's bite. He darted his foot onto the boss's eye, followed by a ruthless chain of punches.

11,756… 9,293… 7,841… 5,099…

Dosigma's health plummeted as Shien continued to slam his knuckles at the red-eye.

3,462… 1,041… 38...

The boss roared in fury as Shien threw one last hard knuckle onto the hard eye. Shien's fist collided with Dosigma's eye, making a crack that sounded across the stadium. The enormous cubic entity lay on the ground, disintegrating into blue hexagons as its HP finally reached zero. A tab declaring the group's victory and rewards appeared.

Macrocube Dosigma

Level 200

HP: [0/200,000]

---

🎆!Congratulations!🎆

The Cubic Regime has been Destroyed!

Netium Reward: 2,000,000

EXP: 2,000,000

"We… we did it…" Shien fell through the Dosigma's fading body.

"Great… great job… everyone…" Mivangeline closed her eyes, letting her weary body drop onto the floor.

Ritom, Ampyria, Naivern, and the last droids shut their eyes with relief. The gang lay quietly asleep in the empty room, for it was a tiring battle. But it was won. For it was the first time in Syanic Earth that players defeated one of the three factions. One step closer to beating the game. One step closer to freedom.