Second Ambush

Sand shot up as he impacted the ground, and he was rebounded nearly a metre upward from the strike's impact.

The minotaur whuffed in its stroll then attempted to stomp on him to finish the job. As it walked forward and lifted its right hoof, though, Alonso rolled as fast as he could and dashed back to evade.

One of his turbo boosters had been gravely damaged and had to be reformed from scratch.

"Mech Damage: Minor."

His mech wasn't particularly skilled at handling the blunt trauma caused by this powerhouse, and he certainly wasn't either. He held the side of his body and was bleeding out his mouth and nose.

'Open Mech details!'

[Type: N/A]

[Strength: 3]

[Speed: 2]

[Amorphousness: 2]

[Durability: 3]

[Power: 29%]

[Efficiency: 28%]

[Damage Status: None]

[Temperature: 41°C]

[Modules] [expand]

He had eaten into his power source and wasn't far from receiving a notification from his system alerting him of such.

'Darn it, these damn boosters use up too much power!' He said with annoyance, holding the side of his body.

There was no way to run from this hulking beast and his power was fading fast.

'Me, Michael, and Luciano could barely take down one of these things. Why did I think I could take one down myself! Darn it!' Alonso cursed himself, gritting his teeth in pain.

His basic repair system was slow acting, and it would take minutes to hours for his wounds to fade. On top of that, it wasn't like this minotaur wasn't going to stop trying to pulverise him.

The minotaur shot forward and as he was in his thoughts, he was caught off guard.

POW!

It landed a punch to his gut then landed two hook-like punches to his face. The third punch dropped him to his hands and knees, gasping for air.

"Mech Damage: Moderate."

Another punch came his way, and he lifted his energy shield at just the right time to block the blow. It slammed him into the floor with such high force that he still felt immense pain from the collision.

Sliding across the sand, he watched in fear as the minotaur walked him down.

He even opened his vice, letting in the biting cold air to spit out blood into the sand.

The vice came falling down, and he turned his body with one knee left on the floor, and one foot aimed toward the minotaur. He took a second to think about the situation, and couldn't see himself coming out as the victor in this fight.

His power was still at 29% but that power would surely drop if he was to continue fighting.

The minotaur's stroll turned into a jog, which then turned into an explosive advance.

However, Alonso dashed right toward his adversary. The two fighters charged at one another but -less than a metre from his target- he whipped around it and dashed forward as fast as his legs could take him.

Seeing this, the minotaur turned to chase right after him but Alonso remained firm in his sprint.

The speed he gained was mainly from his mech, which allowed him to run at this speed for much longer distances than usual. The pain from his quads were almost non-existent, as it was overpowered by volumes of adrenaline.

The minotaur had been running faster than him at first, but simply couldn't maintain those speeds.

It grunted and came to a stop, panting as Alonso sped away from it.

Alonso rushed into the military base and once again, speedily entered his dormitory. He stumbled toward his room, fatigued, and injured. His mech hummed as it healed his body, but the process was painfully slow.

He simply sat on his bed, looking at the floor of his room in agony.

However, ahead of him, was a panel that displayed his account balance of over 10,000 credits once again. He continued heavily breathing for a few seconds, before he smiled.

It didn't take long before he was back on the MechMod Market, searching for his next module. He had already been granted exceptional speed and now, was looking for something to enhance his strength.

[Blackmetal Mecha Arm]

[A device that forms a large arm made of pocket realm A36's Blackmetal. Possesses advanced piston technology that provides exceptional power. Power usage is high and heat emission is also substantial.]

This item costed 9902 credits, which was another large price, but he decided to purchase it. After losing that money, he thought back to the situation that his parents were in. 10000 credits would totally change their lives and his.

They were getting by, but they certainly weren't doing so with ease.

'I should save some money the next time I do this.' He thought.

However, he gritted his teeth once he realised that he would raise everyone's suspicions if he started giving them thousands of earthish credits out of no where.

It would look even worse if he just kept this money in his account from unknown sources. It was best if he got rid of his earned credits as quickly as possible for now.

Buying the module, a cylindrical black module appeared in his hands then fused into his own mech.

[Max Modules Activated for Current Mech Level]

It seemed to be darker than his own mech somehow, and barely even had shadows. The module manifested, forming an arm that was longer and larger than his legs.

'Woah. This is insane.' Alonso said, standing in surprise.

The mech was incredibly large but held its own weight so well that he couldn't even feel it. Clenching the large fist, he was surprised to see it followed his command as if it was his own hand. However, his hand was deeper in the arm, just past its elbow.

Fwoosh!

Throwing a punch, it seemed to be faster than one of his usual strikes but shot out a large volume of air. The arm whistled as he thrusted it forward.

"Oh yeah! This could crush skulls! It's only a matter of time until I'm at your levels, Kai, Bernando. Your reigns won't last much longer!" Alonso whispered, clenching his new fist.

He decided to get some sleep shortly after, and awoke to the same filling breakfast as before. He ate even more than he did the day before after exhausting his mech the night prior.

"Does your mech have no batteries or something?" Michael asked him, watching him eat with laughter.

"Pretty much." Alonso fibbed, chowing down on a sandwich of sausages he had made.

In the late hours of the morning, the trio entered the desert once again, reaching far to find beasts.

The area surrounding the military beast had lost many of its beasts since the students had already killed them and harvested their crystals. Therefore, they had to venture a few miles before finding more targets.

Alonso decided to keep his Blackmetal Arm deactivated because it would make his friends very confused. Any module that looked like the one he had would certainly cost a fortune, and he wasn't supposed to have fortunes to spend.

However, he decided to show off the power of his turbo booster.

The trio faced a giant scorpion, and Alonso took the initiative by charging at it with his turbo boosters.

He released a gust of wind that hit his friends from his advance, and he blocked the incoming pincer strike with his energy shield.

BAM!

Hitting it first with his shield, he followed up with a punch to its head then aimed lower, at its abdomen.

His punch, enhanced by his turbo boosters, broke through its shell and his fist ended up getting coated by its green blood.

"Move!" Michael shouted out, releasing two muon beams at the beast.

Hitting into its chest, it stumbled to the floor and Alonso finished off the job by driving his blade right into its head.

"Since when could you move so fast like that?" Michael asked, walking up to the beast with Luciano.

"It's a module. I don't use it often because it's power usage is so damn high and my mech doesn't have a good power supply." Alonso explained, using his dagger to break through its shell.

"Wow, you're faster than both of us. I'm sure you could deck me now." Luciano said, retrieving the crystal from the beast's body.

"Hello there, weaklings!" An arrogant voice said from behind them.

'Who is that?' Alonso wondered, looking up with a glare of anger.

He despised that tone of voice, but the annoying part of it was that the voice was usually warranted.

Just as he expected, it was a student above any of them. His name was Maximillian Di Vidal.

"I'm gonna need all of your crystals! Make it quick!" He said, giving off a smile.

He had a skinhead -a popular hairstyle in Sago- of a dark brown colour. He was just as fat as Buster, with a belly that could fit 3 of his heads in. However, he had amazing power.