27

She would first need to take care of the radar. It was, at present, the most significant danger to her. She loads three tearblast arrows in her bow to take care of the radar. Taking a deep breath, she calms herself as she brings her target into focus.

She lets go, and three arrows fly true toward the radar mounted on the Thunderjaw.

The three arrows struck the radar on the thunderjaw. The arrows began to vibrate for a moment, with their sound even heard by Donna, present far away. Then, they released the compressed air within them. The radar was blasted off, and the thunderjaw with its eyes yellow turned red. Turning its head around, it began to look for the intruder responsible for attacking it.

Donna was wary. She lacked the blessings of the gods while she was playing the game. It was a new experience for her. Here, she was just an ordinary mortal. The beast searched for her, with its eyes turned red, and pointed at her location. She was confident that she had not yet been discovered, the grass providing the perfect cover for her. She nocked another arrow. And with careful precision aimed at the eyes of the Thunderjaw. If she could hit them, she would be able to blind it.

Believing herself to be safe, she took her time to line up her shot.

She was unaware of the full might of a thunderjaw or its weapon system.

Alex smiled at that. Any player had a lot of options, but he had also made the enemies stronger as well. The thunderjaw released two metal discs from his back. They floated into the sky above the patch of tall grass and began systematically laying down artillery fire. Moving through the plain grass.

"Shit," Donna muttered to herself. The explosions had thrown off her aim instead of impacting its eyes. She instead hit the thunderjaw's faceplate. All it managed to do was remove some of the plating on the face of the thunderjaw.

With the confirmation of her location, the thunderjaw roared and focused artillery on those locations. The laser on its face also came to life as they began to fire at Donna's position.

"Double shit," Donna cursed as she leaped out of the way. Don't blame her, Diana had shown her some movies from the outside world, and she learned a few things from them.

The thunderjaw, with confirmation of her location, now began to charge her down.

Donna whistled, and her strider came to her side. She leaped on top of it and began to flee while firing arrows at the thunderjaw. Using mainly fire arrows at it. She had a limited amount of ammunition. She would have to go to a town or find a crafting station to make more.

Soon, the thunderjaw was on fire, and she had turned her strider around. She circled around the thunderjaw, and her eyes found an elemental canister underneath its tail. She fired a shock arrow at it, having it go off and shocking the thunderjaw. It stood still for a moment until it fell onto the ground. Its body convulsing due to the electric current passing through it. Being at close range, she switched to her slingshot and used explosive ammunition against it. Slowly but surely damaging it and stripping off its armor in various places.

Still, the thunderjaw roars and gets up, looking at her balefully. It charges her down, firing lasers from the weapons mounted on its face. Donna seeing retreat as no longer an option as turning her steed around would waste precious time, charged as well. Firing arrows at the cannons mounted on its face while dodging the lasers fired at her.

One of the cannons was destroyed as the thunderjaw, and her were almost about to crash into each other. Seeing the mouth of the thunderjaw opened, with a variety of saw spinning in it. She leaped off her ride and onto the back of the thunderjaw as the underjaw grabbed her strider with its powerful jaws. With a sharp sound of grinding metal, her strider glowed for the final time. It threw away its carcass.

Donna, who was on the back of the thunderjaw, tried to pry off the artillery on its back with her spear. Soon, she managed to ply off one of the cannon. Feeling that the thunderjaw was moving to throw her off its back. She decisively took the last tearblast arrows she had. She struck them into the last artillery platform present in its back before she was thrown off.

The thunderjaw turned to her and stepped forward maliciously, intending to finish her once and for all. That was until the tearblast arrows on its back exploded, causing it to stagger. Donna, at the moment, prepared herself for death. She had run out of ammunition, and as soon as the thunderjaw recovered, it was going to finish her off. She would be too slow on her feat to run, feeling her impending doom. She began to look around for any solution. Her eyes fell on the weapon that had dropped from the Thunderjaw's back by her side. She got up and almost doubled down in pain. She had broken a few ribs from that fall. She limped and picked up the dropped weapon. Aiming it at the thunderjaw, she fired. A metal disc was launched, which hit the side of the thunderjaw and caused it to stagger. It roared and tried to charge her down, but a second metal disc stopped it in its back. Donna began to lay down the fire on the Thunderjaw.

And yet, it still did not fall. Instead, it roared and moved forward. Damaged but still functioning. Her focus told her that she had only one shot remaining. She had to make it count. The Thunderjaw charger at her as she rolled out of the way. She fell down to the side as she refused to abandon the weapon in her hand. Her eyes fell on its side, and saw that she had a direct shot into its internal structure.

She, without any hesitance, fired. It was do or die. There was an explosion as the thunderjaw froze briefly, and then it fell.

Donna threw the weapon to the side, one hand on her rib. She must get to a camp to heal and replenish her own ammunition. There was one near her, and she limped her way to it.

Soon, she healed and then logged off. This was enough for today.

There was still one thing playing in her mind. When she scanned the other Thunderjaws that she saw, it showed that it could be overwritten. She imagined the Scene of herself riding one in battle. She must look for more of these cauldrons to achieve such a fact. A giant war machine like that is on her side, raining down artillery as she fights on its back. Raining down arrows on her opponents. She needs to confirm this fact with her brother.

An excited smile broke on her face.

-------------------------------------------

(In the Tavern)

The Amazons are a warrior race. There is no doubt about that. They had watched the entire Scene of the battle with rapt attention. There had been complete silence within the Tavern. And when Donna had won, a cheer had gone up among the Amazonians.

They were a warrior race, and they did not have a worthy opponent for a long time. So seeing the Scene of the princesses besting a great beast of metal like this ignited their own blood. More interest was drawn in, and their blood sang to them. They desired a challenge, and this could prove to be one. The age of Heroes had long since passed when they could embark on slaying mythological beasts, but this can prove to be as much of a challenge.

"My Prince, how do we play this so-called game." One of the Amazonians present there had asked him.

Alex had been too happy to oblige. He explained the process to them as more Amazonians had gone to try the game.

Soon, he found Donna clasping his shoulder.

"Brother, tell me something." She said.

"Yes," Alex asked as he saw the solemn look in her eyes.

"Can I ride this great beast of metal? This thunderjaw."

All attention was once more focused on Alex as the entire Tavern went quiet again.

"You cannot ride the corrupted machines, but you can ride all other machines. Provided you can find the override codes." Alex answered.

For a moment, there was silence, and then an uproar went up. More of the Amazonians left to tell their sisters tales of a place where they could fight giant machines and test their mettle.

"One Krabby patty Meowth, quickly. I want to get back in the game." Donna had said with her eyes shining.