Ch 5 - Ryder

Ch 5 - Ryder

"Uh... This isn't good," she said. I could catch a trace of fear in the tone of her voice.

Different than her, I was calm.

"Stay back. I will take care of them," I ordered, stepping to the front casually. My eyes swept around me.

The cyborgs were humanoid in shape. They were wearing powered armor like the one I wore earlier. Unlike K-2SO, their armor was dull and black. The armor covered their whole bodies from head to toe. On their head, they had a helmet like mine. Their arms were connected to their torso via tubes. Their legs were also connected to the torso via tubes.

Behind them, a ship was on the ground. The vessel was huge. It was made of metal, making it shine in the sunlight. A few windows were also present on the sides of the ship. The windows were too small to fit anyone inside. But it was obvious that the ship was carrying some kind of equipment.

A forest was near us. But we were in the middle of a barren field so I could use my fire skill.

The cyborgs were surrounding us. They raised their arms. They were prepared to fire if we made a move.

Without a word, I simply extended my arm forward and snapped my fingers.

'Hell Inferno!'

An enormous sphere of flames enveloped the cyborgs and ship. Flames shot out from my finger and the entire area was engulfed by hellfire.

"Gyaaaahhhhh!" screeched one of the cyborgs. The others were running around as the flame ate their body. Some of them jumped away. Others lost control of their limbs and fell to the ground.

I turned my head towards the ship that was burning in the distance. The ship was slowly tilting toward the ground. Sparks flew off the ship as it crashed down. Pieces of the destroyed ship flew in the air.

Other cyborgs tried to run away. They were trying to get closer to the building. I just kept my finger pointed at them as they ran toward the building. One of them suddenly stopped in front of me. He seemed to be a leader of the cyborgs. His helmet had a red mark on it.

"-gh!" he screamed in pain as I blasted him with another skill.

'Explosion!'

He shattered into pieces as a blast of fire exploded all around him. The explosion lifted the nearby cyborgs. I just kept blasting them with skills until they stopped moving.

I scanned the surroundings and checked in case there were more of them. Then I turned my head towards the ship that was completely destroyed.

"I think that's all of them," I said, turning to Shea.

But she didn't answer me. She only stood there, stunned by what she saw.

"Are you okay?" I asked her since she didn't respond to me.

"Y-Yeah." she stammered. "You know they are elite soldiers yet you destroyed them like nothing," she said in amazement.

"It doesn't matter," I answered. "We need to go now," I added.

She nodded and together we ran towards the forest. As we ran, the trees blocked our view of the destroyed ship. We didn't want to take a look at it.

As we ran, I looked around the forest. It was a beautiful sight. Blue colored trees surrounded us. All the plants in the forest had the same shade of blue.

I wondered why these plants were blue. Maybe because of the light, maybe because of the soil? I couldn't be sure.

In fact, everything in the forest was blue. And it wasn't just the color. The grass itself was blue too! That made it even more bizarre.

I looked at the sky and saw a few birds flying above us. I didn't see any animals. Perhaps this place was devoid of wildlife. Or perhaps they were hiding from the cyborgs?

I glanced at Shea who was running beside me.

"What is it?" she asked.

"Nothing," I answered. "Just thinking how strange this place is," I added.

"Well, it's quite peaceful compared to the city," she commented.

"Really?" I asked in disbelief.

She nodded her head.

"The city is more crowded than here. You will see."

"But what's with the blue color?" I asked. I never saw anything like that before.

"Oh, it's because the plants absorb the toxic waste of the cyborgs and convert it into a blue color," she said.

"Wow..." I said. I never knew plants could do such a thing.

It made me more curious about this place. Especially since Shea mentioned the medieval era when she saw my armor.

Soon, she slowed her pace and stopped. I followed suit and stopped beside her.

"Ryder!" She called out.

A few seconds later, the robot burst out from a pile of dry leaves. It was floating a few feet above us and resembled the size of a large dog. Its body was mostly metallic. But it had a humanoid form. It had two legs that were connected to its torso. An arm was attached to each leg. Both arms ended in a hand. The hands were equipped with five fingers and a thumb. Two circular devices were embedded in both of its palms.

I couldn't tell if those were sensors or just decorations. If the latter, it was probably meant to look cool.

Unlike other robots I've seen before, Ryder was much smaller. It was still big enough for me to ride it. But it was definitely smaller than the ones in the movies.

Once again, my jaw dropped in surprise. My eyes widened.

"What's that?" I asked.

"That's Ryder," Shea answered. "You can say it's some kind of my horse," she said proudly.

Ryder was levitating in front of us.

"You mean, it's some kind of motorcycle?" I corrected her.

"Yes. I don't know, you know about motorcycles. That thing is kinda old tho," she replied cheerfully.

Meanwhile, I shifted my gaze to that robot again.

'That thing is a vehicle?'