Confrontation

– "Shit."

Seeing the Frame almost completely without damage to it was a reminder that this foe was much more superior compared to those they've previously dealt with. They were for now alone, the people they told to leave would escort the remaining civilians through the longer route to the Tower.

The large Frame that was more like a suit was taking its time, it was doing something you should never do on a battlefield, it was underestimating its enemy.

– "Spread out! Don't cluster up, if it fires its cannon again we will be wiped out Miss Nellia shall deal with the Frame, we will be providing her with covering fire!"

The squad captain gave out commands and raised his rifle, prepared to make it rain on the Frame whenever necessary.

– "Understood!"

The soldiers hearing the commands began to spread out across the large street, avoiding the dissipating lanes that were on the road. They waited for movement from either Nellia or the Frame.

Even though Nellia no longer held a weapon in her hands they chose not to worry about it, they knew Transcendentals were stronger than the average Detrid, so they hoped there would be no problems.

Nellia took a moment to analyze the situation and the Frame's movement.

The sword she threw was stabbed into the road and the Frame was not moving an inch, as if it was waiting for them. Her hands clenched and unclenched while she thought this encounter through, she would have to do her best to deal with the Frame. Looking at the remaining two grenades that were given to her she looked up at the Nyanal giving it a nod, to which it reciprocated.

Tapping her feet on the ground she rushed forward, she was naturally faster than a normal person, she was also the closest to the Frane – so she got up close to it rather quickly.

Arriving at the front of the Frame Nellia had truly contemplated whether this was smart, she got a quick answer.

The Frame's fist started punching like a piston once more, as it moved surprisingly fast. It quickly pressed its fist up to her stomach, delivering several punches to her in quick succession. The blows would have blown the back out of her had she not been a Transcendental but a great amount of pain was probably felt.

The punches had launched Nellia into the air, at the same time the Frame raised its hand with the sword cannon and blue light could be seen forming in its barrel. Pulling her arms back quickly, Nellia's whole body was jerked over to the side, and a loud bang caused her ears to start ringing.

There was a slight stream of blue flame soaring up the sky following the cannon shot, which soon dissipated. The Frame just proved that it could fire such a dangerous weapon in quick succession, making its threat level rise once more.

This time, with her body in the air facing the Frame, Nellia pulled her right arm back – jerking her body, causing it to quickly propel toward the Frame. Covering her fist in Flauna, the space around it shifted and changed as she was soon right in front of it once again; not wanting to be punched again she gave the Frame a left hook that smashed into it – causing it the stumble backward as well putting a large hole in the road.

With her punch, Nellia had unfortunately not made contact with the glass dome instead, her fist made contact with its torso. The Frame's torso was indented and slightly broken, a result that had alarmed the person manning the Frame.

With that attack, it was shown that it could be damaged and that it wasn't invincible. Nellia was also made to move back as the piston punch came straight at her face.

– "mu, mu."

Coming from above her the Nyanal dropped the sword she had previously thrown, which she caught and inspected for a second. The blade was chipped and dulled on both of its edges but it was still usable.

Tossing up the remaining two grenades, she left the use of them up to the Nyanal who seemed smart enough to use them right.

Nellia though wasn't given enough time to think anymore as the Frame had decided to try and get rid of her as quickly as possible – It rushed at her, its fist pounding and its blade raised causing her to do the same, she quickly moved in, her blade closer to the ground.

She covered her blade in Flauna and similar to when she did it to her fist, the space around her sword shifted and changed – this time sharpening, sharpening enough that it made the soldiers that were watching think as if they felt it, and they felt it, even more, when she swung it upward.

The Frame also felt its sharpness, so when they were about to make contact it shifted its body and aimed its pounding fist towards her sword, hitting it and causing it to veer off course. The blade had cut off one of the blades of its sword instead of its chest area.

Her blade had also cut the air and it left a lasting effect on all of their minds. The air that the blade had cut was cut, no, it was more like the space was cut; the space that her sword had slit through was folding in on itself almost like it was collapsing and the same was happening to the blade she had cut. The remainder of the blade was collapsing and after a few seconds, the only thing remaining on the arm was the cannon.

Looking at its arm the Frame was unnerved, that attack would have destroyed it, if not then it would've left it open to another attack where it would then be destroyed. It looked at Nellia as it backed away once more, she was looking at what she did with a blank stare and she was shaking her wrist and hand to get rid of the numbing feeling.

Cracks were running down the blade of her sword, showing how that move put a load of strain on it, but she didn't bother with them, one strike would be good enough to end it; now she just had to make sure she hit it.

– "What are you guys doing!? Provide her with covering fire!"

Seeing the short encounter between the Nellia and the Frame the soldiers were shocked, to say the least. One punch from her left a large piece of damage and a single slash of her sword nearly destroyed it.

The difference between them and a Transcendental was like heaven and earth. They were able to bend nature to their will, and Nellia specifically seemed to be able to bend space. Even though they've seen a few Transcendentals, they've never seen any that could bend space, It was an astonishing sight.

Getting out of their star-struck gazes the soldiers immediately began firing in bursts, careful to not hit Nellia by accident. There were a few sharpshooters in the squad so they managed to get quite a good amount of shots into the damaged area on its chest area.

Once the shots started raining down on it the Frame had decided to quickly finish the rubbish off. Raising its cannon, it prepared to fire it once more – which it didn't get to do. The Nyanal which it had forgotten about stopped the grenade into the cannon barrel.

Spotting then Nyanal and the grenade Nellia immediately fell back, sliding behind some rubble, and before it could even fire the grenade blew the cannon to kingdom come.

Blue flame rained all around it as its shoulder peace and half of its body was covered in its blue flames – the cannon was thankfully no more.

The Frame was... upset? It started to glow red, and the glass dome that had been covered in the blue flames began to melt; forcing it to be popped off, revealing the Kritol soldier that was piloting it, the Kritol soldier was wearing a helmet and mask that covered its entire face — and the red light from the frame was reflecting onto the soldier's figure. The Kritol soldier was revealed for only a second as it was soon covered by a metal dome that blocked the bullets that were fired at the soldier's head.

The red glow of the Frame signified that it was now going into overdrive. Overdrive occurs when either a Frame has been dealt a major amount of damage or when a Frame deems its normal capabilities to not be enough for its opponent. The cause of Overdrive is when the mechanisms inside the Frame Force the Flauna core to be put under a ton of stress which then causes the Flauna to let loose more energy that is used to strengthen them.

Now that it had gone under Overdrive it had increased its strength, speed, and possibly even its defense. Nellia's danger sense was flaring as she looked at it, it lifted its leg and it stomped on the ground - cracking it. The stomp was only a short distraction as it moved forward, evidently faster than before – it made its way to Nellia, ignoring the many shots banging into it.

She prepared herself to intercept it, moving her sword out of the way not wanting it to break it before it'd be useful for ending the machine. The Frame's hand was pounding even faster as it approached her like a rampaging bull – its arm was stretched out almost like it was prepared to tackle and hug her.

It soon arrived in front of her and it positioned its arm above her quickly and slammed it down on her, and she wanted to dodge but the shout of someone behind her forced her to stand her grown – throwing her sword away, she could guess that the Nyanal caught it for her.

– "Move away."

Nellia's voice was still monotonous even while about to risk her body to save someone – her eyes focused and blank look relayed enough emotion for the soldier to know that she would see it through.

Hastily covering her arms in as much Flauna as possible, Nellia raised her arms above her head. Its piston-like arm pounded into them, forcing her to a knee — it raised its leg and threw a fast kick at her sides, sending her sliding across the street and crashing into a vehicle.

The soldier had promptly rushed even further back, grouping together with his captain – he was far too close to the Frame for his comfort, so following her commands was an evident choice.

The Frame did not chase after the soldier instead it turned towards the car that Nellia was slammed into; it began walking towards her as she was lifting her body from the wreckage. Her arms were bruised and they felt slightly numb, due to her quick use of Flauna she was able to avoid gaining a serious injury.

While she was rising from the wreckage she stretched out her hand and grabbed the hilt of the sword that had appeared in the space in front of her — the Nyanal had dropped the sword in front of her.

– "Thanks."

Slashing at the air she readied to confront the Frame once again, it seemed to still underestimate her, even if only a little. It started speeding up once more, its arm began pounding back and forth even more fervently while Nellia covered her sword in Flauna making the space around it even sharper than before.

Her blade was vibrating as if it was crying out in pain, a cry which she ignored. She swung her blade a couple of times prepping herself, after which she rushed at it as well, they would soon make a great contact with which the soldiers chose to no longer interfere in.

With no more shots being fired at it the Frame was no longer being annoyed. The Frame brought its fist forward and Nellia swung her blade downward — space contorted in the air as the sword moved through the air and lightning sparked from the Frame's broken parts, the confrontation created a picturesque scene.

Boom! — A loud and rumbling explosion rang out as a cloud of dust formed before disappearing, sucked into a slice in space; which was going through the Frame and the street behind it.

There was no blood and there were no screams, the Frame, its arm, and the Kritol pilot were cleanly split apart, along with the space between them. The split space was sucking the blood, the dead body in the Frame in as it was slowly closing — after the split space closed there was barely any of the Frame remaining with the soldier corpse now gone.

Clink clink — Nellia who was standing in front of the machine parts looked at the thing that roled in front of her as the blade of her sword crumbled onto the ground. Letting go of the pointless sword hilt she picked up the core that was blinking red, picking it up she observed it for a moment.

After a while, it stopped blinking and she waited to see if anything would happen to it, like crumbling — like what happened to the orb of the eye, but nothing happened; this meant that she could keep it, probably.

– "So, the eye and this large one have cores, but this one remains while the eye's core crumbles. Interesting..."

Nellia fell to her knees with the core still in her hands, it seemed that the exhaustion from the fight and all those before was getting to her. She closed her eyes and calmed her breathing before opening; upon opening, she saw the little Nyanal land in front of her, one grenade remaining in its grasp as came over to her hand and rubbed its head on her rested hand.

"... Good job little Nyanal, couldn't have done it without you."

Complimenting it she rubbed its head causing it to let out a few pleased mu's. Scooping it up in her free arm she rose back to her feet and walked to the approaching soldiers.

– "Well done Miss Nellia! We couldn't have gotten rid of this juggernaut without your assistance. Truly."

– "No need. The only reason that I was able to deal with it was due to it underestimating me."

– "A victory is a victory Miss, no need to be humble. You and the Nyanal are a fearsome duo and shall be awarded so once everything has calmed down."

– "Do as you see fit."

Nearly forgetting something as she turned around she spun back.

"Ah, take this, hold it for me."

– "Yes, Miss!"

With everything dealt with Nellia led the way through the now broken ship piece that had previously blocked the road; they could now take the fastest way back to Brigid Tower. The land boats that they sent away should have made it there by now — that is if there were no more Frames like the piloted one, you'd probably need at least one powerful Transcendental to deal with it.

Shaking that thought out of her head, Nellia strode forward, watching every corner to ensure that there would be no more added difficulties on their path to safety.