Alonso vs Minotaur

Many buildings were one or two floors and made of sandstone, but others towered into the sky. There was a mix of desert-like structures and modern structures that towered above the others. The place was given a golden gleam under the blistering sun, and looked enchanting.

Alonso's team didn't have much money to go around buying anything that they laid their eyes upon, but they also had nothing else on their mind.

Michael decided to buy simple souvenirs to remember coming to this pocket realm, while Alonso was searching through the market stalls displaying mech parts and modules.

They were usually broken in some way and the prices were outrageous compared to what he could find on the MechMod Market.

Pocket realms mostly didn't possess the delivery pipeline that ran underground, so deliveries were much more of a hassle. This still gave people at these small stalls chances of selling their parts.

Disgusted by the pricing, he went further into the city and simply looked around the place. He hadn't an objective, and the sun soon came to set as the hours passed.

The temperature started to drop rapidly, and the streets still looked quite wild and lively.

They were bustling with people, with little children weaving their ways through the gaps between the people's legs.

The area started to become illuminated by golden lanterns and lights, that gave the city a whole different appearance.

"Are you staying in the city? I'm gonna head back to the station to get dinner." Michael said to Alonso after he found him.

"Yeah, I'll just stay here for now. You guys can head back without me." Alonso said back to the two.

They nodded and said their goodbyes before they were off.

Alonso was hungry after skipping a meal the previous day and decided to head to a nearby restaurant. With over a thousand credits to dispose of, he decided to head to a rather classy-looking restaurant.

It had glass walls for an entrance and was protected by two bruiser-type mech users.

They stood at two metres and had golden-brown skin with dark black hair.

They nodded at the student once he was let through, and the area was illuminated by golden chandeliers. The ground was made of black tiles, and he was allocated to a small table of dark oak wood.

Now that it was steadily getting dark, people were beginning to deactivate their mechs. It was warmer in the restaurant than it was outside, and only minutes remained before it would drop below freezing outside.

In the centre of this extensive room, was a bar where people could go up to get drinks and the like.

Instead of being attended to by a waiter, Alonso could use his mech to scan the code that was displayed on his table. An entire menu appeared through his vice, and he was intrigued by the meals that were on display.

Upon searching through the menu further, it was almost impossible to choose. He wanted to try every meal that was displayed to him, but he settled on the enormous Acnei style shawarma, with two starters worth of Falafel on the side.

The energy he was expending using his mech meant that his energy expenditure was sky high. This was a large issue with combat including mechs. People would not just burn calories from being active but also from using their mechs, which would require volumes of food to be supplied to combatants.

This made wars of attrition a key aspect of warfare and conflict.

As he took his bite into his shawarma, he was hit with a chaotic blend of foodstuffs. Thick and creamy sauces, succulent chicken, crispy vegetables.

'This is brilliant! How come we don't have anything like this back in Sago City?'

He couldn't stop himself from devouring his entire meal, and he felt stuffed after having two very large meals.

Following this, Alonso found himself in a large mech upgrade and repair facility. It had large robotic tentacles with hands of various shapes and sizes, working on the mech combatant's suits in rows.

Alonso swiftly slotted himself in place and was only looking to re-fill his batteries. Usually, it would refill from his own fat stores when it was inactive, or simply from him changing it through the wall.

However, this facility could charge the entire battery up to maximum capacity in mere minutes. Tentacles latched onto his mech and it started to vibrate as energy was being flooded into it. Soon enough, he was ready to go.

He returned to the main dormitory, only to exit in the dead of the night.

Once again, nobody suspected him as he concealed his face, and he entered the surrounding dunes.

The midnight black sky had returned, and he zoomed forward to find new targets. It didn't take long for him to find golden poison wolves and other low-level beasts, and he ended up racking up crystals quite quickly.

He utilised his turbo boosters to get from place to place much more quickly and ended up acquiring 3,000 credits off the MechMod Market in just an hour.

Soaring over a dune with a massive leap, he landed and faced the Giant Scorpion. It slammed its pincers together then raced toward Alonso. It jabbed forward its right pincer, but Alonso evaded the attack with the use of his turbo booster.

He zoomed to the side of the beast and landed a forceful strike to its face, nearly knocking it off its feet. In that same movement, he span in an anticlockwise fashion to clock the beast in its face once again, this time with his heel.

Both attacks had stunned the beast, then he charged forward with the use of his turbo boosters to deliver two punches to its torso.

He cracked the strong shell of the beast with each hit and finished off by using his dagger alongside his turbo boosters. He didn't have to heat it but instead, charged forward with his arm extended.

The dagger pierced right through the scorpions entire body, killing it.

He swiftly cut through the beast's body to acquire the crystal in its abdomen. Walking away, he lifted the crystal up then it vanished as he sold it on the market for 100 credits once again.

His hunt continued, and he rushed from target to target to acquire as many crystals as possible. Nothing was going to stand in his way, and his account balance was skyrocketing.

Fwoosh!

Rushing over a dune, he rushed to a stop once he saw a minotaur at its base. It turned with its golden fur and red eyes.

'Oh no!' He thought to himself.

His loud, rash movements had given himself away, and he wasn't sure if he had the power to face a minotaur.

'I can't even run now! I have to fight this thing!' He realised, watching it charge in his direction.

Using his turbo boosters, he rushed down the remaining part of the dune and evaded its incoming attack.

He shot past it but it then chased after him with superior pace to himself.

The minotaur came rushing forward with a punch but he leaped into the air to dodge it. he managed to reach more than 10 metres in the air before sliding across the sand to come to a halt.

"GRRAAAHH!!" The minotaur roared, charging at him again.

Voom!

His turbo boosters shot out a short burst of energy as he dodged the first punch, but he was then hit with a second strike straight to his face. The attack stunned him but then, he received another punch, this time to his gut.

The force dropped him onto one knee, but he jumped back and flipped away from the incoming punch to his face.

The beast continued its wild advance but Alonso managed to pick his shot and wallop it in its head. Compared to the impact that he had on the first minotaur he had faced, he could tell that he had done something.

He then whipped his body around and landed a kick to the minotaur's rock-hard abdomen but noticed that little damage had been done.

It growled and shot forward its hoof in anger. Its attack was easy to read and so, Alonso jumped over it and in this same motion, kicked it in the side of its head to stop it right in its tracks.

However, his blows seemed to have angered it more than injured it.

The minotaur rushed in with pure fury, relentlessly attacking him. However, he relied on the raw speed of his turbo boosters to remain untouched by the strikes. He ran around as fast as he possibly could, anticipating every attack that was thrown at him.

Despite this, he was draining his power and was sure his mech was already beginning to tap into his fat stores.

'I can't keep doing this forever. I need to attack it somehow, but it's so darn fast!' Alonso thought, leaping back to evade a slam.

BAM!

The ground rumbled as its forearms impacted the ground, but it then looked up and shot out air from its nose.

"RMPH!"

It dashed forward with explosive speed, covering more than 20 metres in a split-second.

Vrm!

Alonso curved around the beast, leaving semi-circular trails of blue energy. He now faced its back, and had the perfect opportunity to attack it.

Throwing a punch to the back of its head, the beast swerved around and grabbed onto his extended fist.

Then latching onto his wrist, it lifted him into the air and whipped him around before throwing him into the floor.

Bam!