Chương 7: Ch. 6 - Third Floor Encounter

"What was that?!" I yelled. Fear took over at seeing their level, forcing me dive into the water as the bullets began to fly from the fighter squad. One shot. One singular shot hit the armored portion of my mech and the hull integrity bar was a third of the way down. I pushed the thrusters forward, sinking further down as the bullets kept pounding overhead.

"Talk to me kid, you still alive?" asked Phil. There was nothing in his voice. An absence from how he talked before. Like it was more reflex to ask.

"I'm good. I'm staying underneath the water. I can't with them."

"Well, I can't take them by myself. I can draw them too me, but you need to take out at least one of them."

"How?!" I yelled.

"They are level 29 and I'm in a level zero!"

"Then get to the settlement kid. Just keep going. I'll try to keep them away from you." He stopped talking. My fist slammed against my thighs. What did he want me to do? I didn't even have a weapon. My teeth hurt from clenching down so hard. Jacob and Eric ran through my mind and the excuse I made.

"If I was in a better mech. If I was in a dungeon mech." Damn it, I was in one and I was acting helpless. No, there had to be something.

"Bot," I said.

"Can I use the pea shooters?"

"It's ill-advised," it responded.

"Can I?!"

"You can connect it to the index finger and make finger guns..." He paused, like he made a joke.

"I'm not kidding." It's all I had. I pulled back on the throttle and he jumped out, expanding in size for me to reach into the inventory system. On the HUD in front of me, I pressed on the pea shooters and they appeared like magic. A quick snap into my Frame's index finger and it connected. [LEVEL 1: *FINGER GUNS] [LEVEL CAP: 2] [LIMITED DURABILITY] I pressed the second one into the left index finger and the same message repeated... with the asterisk.

"Did you change the name?" I found myself asking.

"Yes!" said the bot.

"An apt name if there ever was one." I was about to die and I had literal finger guns. I sighed. I switched to the mech screen just to see the level on my mech. Level 2 with an asterisk. This didn't mean it was edited, it meant that it was temporary from the pea shooters. This wasn't a permanent upgrade, simply a single use equipment almost. Once the durability hit zero, that was it. Back to level 0 until I could find... if I could find a permanent attachment.

"I'm coming," I said to Phil.

"Distract them for me. Just hang on." I accelerated upward and the surface tension broke in an explosion. Phil was getting hounded, encircled by what resembled prop planes. They pestered his mech and he kept shooting in response. One of his thrusters was shot and his mech was slowly descending. I centered the screen and pulled a cross hair raising both hands and pointing the thumb to the sky. I pulled the trigger at the first one that crossed. Two quick bursts zapped from my fingers and towards the fighter.

It didn't do anything. Then again. I was pulling both triggers at the same time as the arms recoiled. Zap. Zap. Zap. Zap. I pushed the triggers as fast as my fingers could move. The mana bar was empty and all I had done was piss them off. I pulled back on the throttle and cratered back underneath the ocean as bullets from the fighters zoomed past me. I needed to get away, to have them follow. The cover of the water was the only way Phil could line up a shot. It was my hope. Crash.

My heart practically stopped as I swiped to the mech status menu to see where the damage was. But it was still showing the damage on the chest plate from earlier as the only source of structural integrity. I twisted in the water, thankful that the denizens of the deep weren't here right now. Parts sunk underneath the ocean but they weren't mech parts. This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

"Phil?" I asked.

"You distracted them. Good. I'll let you know when to resurface. There is one hovering the waterline so don't come up yet. I'll try to get him. It's a little rocky here right now, though."

"Stefano," said the bot.

"That was some impressive piloting. I will confer to see if this merits another achievement."

"What? Confer? With whom? Ah, forget it. No time." I pushed the throttle forward to make some space. A large round hit and it almost hit me. Then a mostly intact plane crashed onto the surface. Phil didn't get on the radio before I was out of the water and pushing upward shooting as fast as I could. Two more units hounded him as I annoyed them with low level laser blasts. One broke off and barreled towards me. The mana bar had refilled to about half before I blasted away, eating at the ammo bar.

I flipped away, heading back down but it zeroed in on me. I twisted in the air, pushing parallel to avoid the barrage of gunfire. It banked upwards, missing the wave and began locking onto my mech. I pulled back on the throttle to close the distance. I shot it with the laser guns and a bullet grazed the armor plating. The bar was in the red, having sheared it off. It wasn't slowing down, so I charged at it.

"It's locking on, Stefano. I recommend evasive action."

"Too late!" I yelled, somersaulting towards it. I placed the foot of the mech and used it as a stepping stone, pushing upward. It forced the fighter into the drink as I went towards the sputtering Tank. I shot at the last fighter who seemingly hadn't noticed me. The laser guns stopped shooting and it wasn't the mana. [*FINGER GUNS EXPENDED] I barreled towards the last fighter and punched it. More damage to my frame as the bar dipped closer to zero. The arm unit on the mech read"Needs Repair."

The fighter was still intact, but in a death spiral. My mech grappled Phil's Tank to alleviate the force the thruster needed to exert. The energy bar was dipping now, faster.

"Thanks kid," he said.

"Hold it steady for just a second." His arm mount trained on the fighter in a death spiral before aiming at the water. The fighter pulled back at the last second, only to find a round explode into it's wing. I couldn't stop panting.

"Good news, Stefano! It has been approved. Congratulations." Confetti rolled down my screen. I wanted to ask the bot who it had to "confer" with, but with Phil's mech barely holding on and my mech having only one good arm. It had to wait... he wasn't going anywhere after all. He was my companion. For better or worse.

"How much farther?" I asked. Phil and the bot talked over each other.

"Just a bit-" said Phil drowned out by the bot.

"Ten nautical-" said the bot drowned out by Phil. Great. This won't get old. I was still coming down from that fight and was replaying how I could've done better. The fact that I was still alive against an enemy that high level had to be luck. It just had to be. Being arrogant had gotten better pilots killed. I wouldn't let that be me. I made a promise it wasn't arrogance that would kill me. The energy bar was about halfway and it just kept chipping downward.

"How much energy do you have left?" I asked.

"We'll make it." Just as he said that, the horizon had a small island in a sea of nothing. A small settlement that was par for the course on the third floor. You were more likely to find a village than a large settlement. Still, it had what every safe zone had. A repair center and a place to buy the exfil portal. Phil's thruster turned off and my energy bar usage doubled.

"I'm out," was all he said. His unit really couldn't handle this floor. But he knew that... Why did he not wait until his energy reserves were full?

"We're almost there," I said. The settlement came closer and closer until my energy reserves alerted me that it was in the red. We crashed onto the beach that luckily didn't have anyone on it. It was a weird island, there were maybe twelve wooden huts with palms trees everywhere. The sand itself was shiny and the sunlight bounced off to a blinding radiance.

"Why is the sand so shiny?"

"The sand itself is made of super compressed carbon over centuries and reatmoized into fine particulates." The confused look on my face was all the bot had to see to paraphrase.

"It's diamond sand."

"Isn't that... sharp?"

"Yes. Do not stand on it. I recommend you go further inland where real sand is layered atop the diamond foundation." Phil and I waited for the energy reserves to rise before we stepped into the island proper. A few notifications came up on the screen. [CARDAMAS ISLAND] [NOTE: FRAME WILL LOCK SHORTLY FOR NPC SAFETY] [THIS SETTLEMENT DOES NOT HAVE A REPAIR BAY] [YOU ARE IN A SAFE ZONE]"How did you know about this place?" I asked Phil. His mech locked at the same time as mine and he was already getting out.

I hurried after him. As soon as I stepped out, the bot reshaped itself into a stud earing and smacked into me. It didn't hurt this time as it clasped itself into my ear. The descent was easy as gravity did most of the work, all I had to do was put my foot on the step and go down. I stepped into the sand that wasn't shining like a beacon taking a deep breath. The ocean and the water had a scent I had never experienced before. Salty and humid yet cool and refreshing.

The recycled air from home made this trip almost worth it. If Earth was like this, I don't know why they ever left. When I opened my eyes, Phil was already several steps away, forcing me to run. It was harder than I thought. Each step activated my calves and muscles in my legs I never knew I had. Halfway to him, I was panting each breath.

"You seem out of breath," said the bot.

"Are you considered out of shape? I will notate this and create a workout plan for you."

"I am not out of shape," I huffed.

"It's just really hard to run on sand. I have never done it before."

"I will also notate your clear refusal of empirical data. Math never lies, Stefano."

"Shut it," I said, finally having caught up to Phil.