The hivemind is conquering for me? - Chapter 133

Chapter 133: Man vs Machine I
Alexios scanned the location in front of his Lords temple. Judging from his calculations, The Spartari forces should have entered his line of sight by now. He cursed that his audio receivers were damaged and his infrared was non operational.

How long had he been down here? Offline, waiting, defending his Lords weapon. He would have been able to know if all his machines had stopped working and now all he had was a basic power supply that could run another 50 years top and a small battalion of defective Deimos not functioning at even 20% peak efficiency.

As he looked out into the ruin of his lords temple, he would estimate at minimum, 60 thousand years had passed. ‘He should have been back to retrieve it by now.’ Alexios processed. His brain processor could not fathom the idea of Ares being deceased. To him it was actually impossible, especially considering what is inside the temple.

Alexios considered a moment that perhaps his small ambush squad had been successful in warding off the Spartari and they had left to get more reinforcements. This was best case as in another 20 minutes, the radiation field would be online and those fleshy lesser humans would succumb to violent, painful ends.

Unfortunately, Alexios’ wishful processing was for naught as to his right, an explosion rang out. One of the barricades was immediately destroyed. Alexios looked around for the source of the sabotage and found nothing. He ordered his Deimos to stay on guard, but then another explosion erupted to his front, the main barrier he had just witnessed blown up in multiple locations at once. There was no assailant among his forces which meant…

Alexios raised his right arm canon above him and fired. A large chunk of ceiling was blown off, but to his left more explosions went off. This time however, a large wall of smoke emitted from a series of cannisters beginning to block his view from the open courtyard in front of the temple.

“Sneaky Spartari rats.” He spoke as he realised the diversion tactic at play. He should have realised what was happening, clearly his processor was damaged with time. He could not let the Spartari touch his Lords temple. Considering his fortifications were blown to bits, he ordered his Deimos to push through the smoke and engage the lesser humans in open combat.

As Caleb pushed the men forward, he noticed silhouettes begin to emerge from the smoke screen Apollo had set up. “Open fire!” He yelled as the men charged forward to the closest piece of debris they could find while firing the whole time.

The Deimos waisted no time on their part either finding cover of their own while shooting their lasers with precision accuracy. Those with flimsy or thin debris screamed in pain as lasers caught their backs and sides and for every death cry, the mercenaries shredded a Deimos with ignited fury. After all the deimos had been drawn out from the temple stairs, The mercenaries who had been hiding above began to rain fire. Snipers took long breaths and calculated shots, while two brothers with miniguns began to.

“HHAHAHAHAHAHAA!!! DIE YOU FUCKERS!!!” Bertram yelled having the best time of his life. “SUCK ON MY FAT ONE, YOU METAL PUSSIES!!!” Ernie yelled with the same enthusiasm. No one could hear the yells of course as the sound of their miniguns drowned them out.

Alexios from his tactical position still behind a temple pillar, noticed the threat to his units as those miniguns had already claimed 4 of his warriors in such a short time. Alexios moved from his pillar and lined up his arm cannon to take out the threat.

I had been waiting for the Phobos to show himself again since the initial attack he let out. When he fired it the first time, I could sense that it could eat my armour and almost kill me in 1 shot and I would not allow it to fire again. I dropped down from my waiting position and had Zircon positioned to pierce straight through its neck as I landed.

As Alexios was about to fire, his personal radar detected a threat right above him. He attempted to move his cannon up, but it was too late to cancel his shot as it fired and narrowly missed its main target. Knowing he would not be able to fire again, he unsheathed his Xiphos from his waist in an instant and deflected the blow from above, while kicking the being in the strange armour away.

“Interesting. I cannot scan past your armour. That is definitely not Spartari made. Are you even Spartari lower life form?” Alexios wanted information for his processors. The thing it kicked recovered almost instantly meaning it could take a beating. It had hoped its opponent was talkative like many vain warriors of Spartari. Unfortunately, That did not seem to be the case.

Assessing the Phobos in front of me, I knew in an instant it was at least two pegs above the Deimos warriors. It was stronger, faster and packed a serious kick. ‘And its sword. My Zircon could not even cut through it.’

I felt my blood boil in excitement. A battle where I would have to give it my all. an opponent of my current equal, possibly even superior to me.

As we stared at each other, a duel realisation came to us. Our ranged weapons, we would not have enough time to aim or charge up with our close distance. This would be an all out duel.

I began to circle my target carefully. My Gyrokinesis would be useless against it as its metal hydraulics could easily withstand more weight than I could generate. My pyrokinesis was useless, no flesh was visible and I could not gather enough energy to melt his shell without exposing myself. I suppose I only have 2 things that will work and I should save-”

The Phobos grew impatient of my sizing up and decided to make the first move, its use of the Xiphos was fast and I immediately dodged out of the way. The being in front of me had no stamina as it immediately chased my dodge with another attack, This time I attempted to parry while attempting a counter attack, but a spear of metal extended from its chest and stabbed forward.

The unexpected attack was as such and pierced a hole into my chest plate. I had good enough reactions to pull back in time so that it did not pierce deep enough to cause injury. I was still on the back foot as the Phobos repletely chased my defence over and over. It read my faints, it read my deflections. It seemed to know what I was going to do before I did.

As the battle continued, I finally decided to apply my first tactic. while defending, I generated a small amount of energy with each block and on the fifth block, I dodged to make the smallest amount of space and fired a thin, yet powerful Psionic bullet.

Alexios was surprised when his opponent materialised a bullet from nowhere. It was too late for his processor to react as the bullet severed one of tubes that was connected to his skull. “AHHHH!” He screamed out as his synapses experienced an electrocution.

As my opponent screamed eerily human like, he accidentally flinched his left arm upwards allowing me to score a deep slash across his chest. Upon receiving damage, the Phobos regained its composure and defended the next attack, It was sent reeling backwards as I applied as much gravity as my arm could sustain in the downwards attack.

In a desperate attempt to remove the Pain he was feeling, Alexios in the short moment he had, manually ripped out the rest of the wires that connected him to the power supply. He would have to win this battle on his own and could no longer wait for the radiation field to come online.

Once the buzzing was removed from his brain, Alexios realised what sort of opponent he was facing. “Filthy Psionic wielder! Your power is an abomination to reality and should only be wielded by Gods who know better!”

The little nougat of information the Phobos had just yelled at me was pushed to the back of my mind to process later.

As I continued to press my advantage onto the Phobos, I found a rhythm. Removing the tubes from its head had slowed it down just a little, but it was enough for me keep my advantage for just a little while. However, the Phobos was an incredible tactician and fighter and its processor allowed it to learn my patterns, where I would strike. It took a considerable amount of damage on its dermal shell that was gifted to him by his Lord, causing quite the few unrepairable damages to its under circuits.

However the damage was worth it as It caught the sword of opponent in front of it with its cannon arm, making it trapped halfway through he then proceeded to kick the armoured man in front of his with all the force his hydraulics could muster, sending him flying.

“You fought well for a lesser being, But you will die on the steps of the great Ares’ temple this day.”