121: Injection

The clanking of robots filled the room as everyone got swarmed by the horde. Each robot, sleek, plated with armor, and outfitted with weapons, shone with a light blue underglow from the cracks between its parts.

After hitting her butt on the floor and watching a splash of red appear on the wall—all over the course of just a couple of seconds—Nyssa felt her stomach drop. Her fingers pricked her with icy needles as she felt her brain short-circuit.

A robot jumped on top of her, pinning her to the ground before opening its mouth to reveal a forest of spinning saw blades. Her eyes widened and her hands shot out, grabbing the head of the automaton, transforming to have more strength, and pushing it to the side as the head slammed downward and drilled into the floor.

From her position, Nyssa watched as a flash of green emanated from inside Roxanne, bursting outward with an explosive force. It tore through the wall, propelling Roxanne out of the room as all twelve of her summons appeared.

A dragon carried her outward. A tiger leapt at one of the mech-suited assassins, an ox at another. Not even a second passed though, before one of the assassins lunged outward, piercing the rat summon against Roxanne’s spray of blood, causing it to dissipate into faint green particles.

Exhaust fumes filled the room as, one-by-one, the assassins jetted out of the hole in the wall Roxanne made, chasing her to the outside.

Nyssa spared one more look towards the machine before her body began moving without her input. She grit her teeth, threw the machine off of herself, and transformed into a snake. Slithering out from under the machine, she turned into a phoenix equipped with jets on its wings, bursting through the air and giving chase.

Rain had started to fall.

With raindrops and wind ripping across her cheeks, she expanded her transformation into a half-dragon, half-phoenix fusion as fire covered her body from head to toe. A second head appeared, an extra set of wings appeared, and a ramjet turbo engine appeared.

Transformation came to her easier than it ever had before as a fiery halo appeared above her head and her flames turned white.

Shining like a beacon, she tore through the air to catch up with the green, spiraling dragon snaking through the air. After it had left the building, Roxanne had combined her other summons into it, expanding it to a monstrous length stretching from the alleys between institute buildings to the dark clouds above.

Closing the gap after a couple seconds, Nyssa batted a couple missiles away, transformed her scales and feathers into mirrors to reflect off lasers, and got in between Roxanne and the assassins.

Splitting her consciousness, Nyssa defended against the attackers while checking in on Roxanne. Yet, rain obscured the area between them. I can’t hear what the dragon’s saying, and... seems like Roxanne is nearly unconscious.

We need to take the fight back to the ground if we want people to help out though...

Roxanne, in her delirium though, kept ascending through the clouds. Nyssa could only watch as the dragon’s tail whipped one of the mechs into the distance as it ascended through the clouds. Not missing a beat, she burst through the clouds, matching pace with the four other assassins.

She sent a jet of fire towards one to disturb its rhythm, an electric blast towards another two, trying to short-circuit them, and swiped her claw at the last one to bat it backward. With the first few attacks missing, the satisfying CLANG from her last one brought a faint smile to her face for a half second until she sent a pair of eyes to her claws.

They’re undamaged... not even a scratch or a dent.

What did they change? How are they making these?

At a loss, she continued buying time while chasing after Roxanne and the dragon. Her wings beat as they made huge circles in the sky above the clouds. Every few seconds, Nyssa created a mouth on a part of her body not in the middle of fighting the wasps around her to shout. “ROXANNE, COME BACK!”

“CALM DOWN!”

“IF YOU WANT TO SURVIVE, YOU HAVE TO GO BACK DOWN!”

The dragon, though, just kept up its speed. Accelerating further whenever Nyssa transformed to streamline herself for more speed.

She’s lost consciousness...

So when is she going to run out of energy?

When? When? I need to be there to catch her.

Why isn’t anyone else here?

Why is the fifth one returning already? What happened?

Having already split her consciousness a few times, Nyssa grimaced and split it once more. She dedicated her new mind into keeping track of Roxanne’s energy usage as she trailed behind the dragon at its near sound-breaking speed.

The wind whistled. Projectiles flew through the air. Under the coordinated attacks of the five assassins, Nyssa fought three different battles. Having split her consciousness into four, one in charge of keeping up with Roxanne, the other three controlled three separate parts of her body.

Giffins appeared, laser cannons appeared, furnaces jetting out snakes of fire appeared. Everything she could conceive of streamed out of her to keep the assassins at bay until Roxanne tired herself out and dropped out of the sky.

---

Back in the hall, everyone fought with their lives on the line as every piece of furniture in the room transformed into war-automatas. Tables. Tablecloths. Clocks. Utensils. Everything. Hulking rhino-like machines tore through the room as small bee-like machines buzzed around performing repairs on anything damaged to keep everyone tied up.

Angelica, with her eyes dilated, fought like a machine as she tore through the pack. The cylinder she kept on her belt unfolded into a bo staff.

In. Out.

With every breath, she kicked outward and spun her staff to take care of the machine wave encroaching onto her from every side.

I need to get out there.

But how.

And what can I do if her summons couldn’t do anything either.

Do I use that?

Her mind wandered as her body moved. A quick glance towards the ground showed that most of the executives had already fallen to the ground. They’re out of fighting shape, they’re easing pickings...

The automata wave, however, had stopped at knocking them out for some reason though.

And the students can’t hold out for much longer. Nyssa escaped earlier, but the others have to hold back or they’ll hurt the executives.

... Fine.

I’m sorry, in advance, Roxanne.

Angelica, letting out a sharp exhale, stepped on one machine before performing a spinning kick into another, flipping off of the next machine she landed on and running out from the encirclement. While she ran, she reached under the back of her shirt to pull out six syringes—three in each hand.

Twirling them as she ran, she rammed all of them into her thighs, piercing through her clothes and injecting everything into her body.

A gasp left her mouth.

Yanking the syringes out as her world lost color, she planted her foot into the pool of blood Roxanne had left behind before leaping through the gaping hole in the wall.

I’m coming, my love.