Adapting
They jiggled the pouch tauntingly as they walked off, laughing to each other.
"How dare they think they can walk all over us! Who do they think they are?" Luciano said, watching them walk off.
However, they had to quickly rush to Michael's aid once again. He didn't look to be breathing through his vice, and his eyes were closed.
"Injury Message: Host Michael Mayordomo is unconscious with irreparable injury. Injury Message: Host Michael Mayordomo is unconscious with irreparable injury."
When one had been injured so badly that the capabilities of their mech couldn't revive them, special injury messages would play out.
They played vital roles in finding missing casualties and locating fallen soldiers on the battlefield. Sometimes, they would be audibly stated loudly but they could even be sent wirelessly over long ranges to be replayed in other mechs.
"We have to get him back to the station!" Luciano said, lifting Michael up.
Running at high speed, they crossed a mile a minute to arrive at the military station once again in just under 15 minutes. Michael was still unconscious, being kept alive through the powers of his mech.
The nano-bots of his mech had flooded his circulatory system, providing as much aid as possible.
They concentrated into his heart and were capable of releasing electrical signals to act as an internal defibrillator. His bodily systems were being continuously measured but it was going to require more advanced healing for him to be totally revived.
Luckily for them, soldiers saw the body of Michael and rushed to their aid swiftly.
"Is he gonna be okay?" Luciano asked.
There was a female, with tied up blonde hair that crouched beside the young boy.
A lime green healing module detached off her earthy green mech to then attach to Michael's.
The fragmentation of her mech was quick but elegant as she slowly extended her arms.
"He will, don't worry." She said, lifting his head slightly.
Condensation could be seen across the vice of his helmet as his mech poured high-oxygen air in front of his face.
He gained consciousness once again, and began coughing intensely for a few seconds before it eventually calmed. His senses were returning to him, and the other two students gave out sighs of relief.
"What even happened here?" She asked, standing up with Michael.
The three students fell silent, before Luciano decided to reply first.
"We just got attacked by a minotaur. We managed to get out of the area in the nick of time." He explained.
There was no use in trying to report Bernando's actions. If he was to be punished by the school for what he did; he could easily get his spiteful family to do something terrible to their own families.
He had power physically but also societally and, so, to save themselves from anything that could end up happening, they kept the situation under wraps.
"Okay. It really is dangerous out there, be more careful next time." She said, before waving the students goodbye.
The group felt unsatisfied with their performance and still had a few hours left before they would be forced to stop collecting crystals.
They decided to head to a nearby corner store, to buy another container that could house crystals. In minutes, they were out in the desert once again, ready to face more foes.
The military station was surrounded by mainly dunes, so they were aware of what could be lurking beneath them.
"I really hate Bernando! He just gets to take out his petty anger and temper tantrums on people like us that don't even deserve it without any repercussions." Michael said, watching the view with his friends.
They remained silent but resonated with his words.
It ground their gears, but there was nothing they could do.
Genetic talent allowed things like this to happen, and society pretty much reaffirmed to them that their position in the world was fixed.
Unchangeable.
Immutable.
'Surely not, right? If I work hard enough, with this system of mine, I can flip this whole pyramid around can't I?' Alonso wondered, watching the dunes and swaying dust ahead of him.
His system was unique but also powerful too. Its perks were evident – as he still had various crystals that he had hidden away from Bernando completely.
Even though they had seen the views of Kernei various time, they still felt the strong desire to take it in once again. Now, with the parent star of Kernei approaching the horizon, the sky was starting to darken, and the horizon was illuminated with a reddish glow.
Rumble!
The students became alert once again and surveyed the surrounding area for the source of the vibration. A few metres from them, they could see three beasts burrowing their way toward them through the sand.
Fwoosh! Fwoosh! Whoosh!
They blasted out of the dune beneath them, causing sand to erupt in an explosive fashion.
Ahead of them stood three dune weresharks, with psychopathic glares. They had used a considerable amount of effort to take down one wereshark. How were they going to take down three together?
Alonso forced himself not to fret. Fear was not going to shroud his judgement, and his nanotechnology mech revved up as he exploded forward.
Clash!
He clashed with one wereshark and since they were on an uneven dune, he sent the beast down in a tumble.
One wereshark charged at Michael, who managed to momentarily stop it with the use of his muon blasts. However, he stood there with his arms still extended, frozen.
Luciano then clashed with another wereshark, pushing against it with all his might.
"We've got this, Michael. Don't worry about it!" Luciano claimed, before landing a punch right to his adversary's face.
Alonso, now at the base of the dune, lifted to face his opponent. He had clearly riled it up, and it raced forward with a snarl.
Revealing his energy shield, he was surprised to see the wereshark burrow into the ground ahead of him, completely disappearing.
Fwoosh!
It suddenly appeared from under the sand and landed a hefty punch to Alonso's face, before diving into the ground once again.
He scanned the ground beneath him, but it was moving too fast for him to track. The only way he could track its movements was through the slight vibrations and rumbles in the golden sand. Thus, he could barely predict its next move, then it latched right onto his right ankle.
It felt like he was going to totally sink into the ground, but the wereshark used his weight to lift from underground and slam him into the floor.
'Darn it!' Alonso thought, quickly revealing his shield to block a downwards punch from his adversary.
Luciano had traded blows with his enemy but was clearly having the upper hand. He had several inches on the wereshark and his bruiser type mech made up for his slim physique by granting him pure power.
"GRRAAAH!!" The wereshark growled in its advance.
However, its attacks were too predictable. Luciano landed two devastating punches to its head, causing dark green blood to go flying out from its flat nose.
The beast decided to storm forward again, receiving a perfect uppercut to the chin with insane amounts of force. The strike even caused light vibrations to reverberate through the sand dune.
Aiming lower, he landed another two punches that were slow but incredibly damaging. The final strike nearly knocked the wereshark off its feet, but he took a split-second to stop and aim before walloping the wereshark in its face.
Its body flopped to the floor, as it fell unconscious.
"Good riddance." Luciano said,
'This thing is just a beast. It can't play my game, can it?' Alonso surmised, now on his feet.
The wereshark dashed forward and threw a punch at Alonso's face. Instead of falling back and lifting his shield in reaction, he just smirked under his black vice.
Thwip!
He slipped past the punch, causing air to whip past his head.
Coming under its extended arm, he drove his fist up with a punch to its chin.
BAM!
He then rained down with various attacks that the wereshark wasn't smart enough to block.
It wasn't like the minotaur that had evaded his slashes but fought more like the minotaurs of legend. Only caring about attacks thrown and not injuries incurred.
Therefore, this made the job much easier for the students.