Battle Between Robots

Their faces stay still; no movement or distraction would deter them from this sight. Four robotic dogs feast upon a lone human; their metallic mouths devour his flesh and bones, and the sound of crunching echoes around the forest.

K4 starts preparing herself for a confrontation worthy of her. 'Robotic dogs are too difficult to deal with at my current level; without the railgun, their speed and bite power alone could shred me. I wonder how this came to be? In the other rewinds there were only the sounds, but we must've deviated from the original path by accident.

A slight whisper enters Hino's ear: "Go climb that tree; I will eliminate these rogue dogs." Her sharp voice was more demanding than suggesting. Hino instantly turns away from the gruesome sight, running towards a nearby tree.

His ascent begins; the dark oak tree was slippery, but there was not much struggle for him. He grasped nearby branches and went around 4 metres off the ground and rested upon a thicker branch, upholding his weight.

At the other end enters the rogue dog's vicinity; they stop their feast and turn to her, their lenses zooming in, analysing their new prey. They all start to tap around the luscious forest, some hiding behind trees and trying to encircle her, their mindless actions just wanting something to eat upon.

'They are rather smart for trying to encircle me, even for a mindless dog. There shouldn't be much issue if they try to overwhelm me, but if they have precise coordination, it might cause issues.' Her thoughts start to figure out counteractive ways to defeat them.

her lens focuses on the robot in front, who stands firm upon the bushy ground, preventing any escape. 'My first course of action is that dog. Time to see if I'm still up to par without my railgun.'

She rushes instantly at the dog, her initial velocity causing the ground to shatter underneath her. The dog stands firm, anticipating an attack, and gets into a defensive position. She starts raising her hand up into the air.

The dog, still unresponsive, seems to be confident in this futile attempt at its life to be insufficient. K4, having charged up and punched, decides to change her course of actions into a downward slam; the dog's sensors start going wild, and it starts to howl in a coarse, robotic voice.

Cling

The metallic bodies collide, making various clinging noises, with the downward slam then causing the dog to impale itself into the shattered ground, not an ounce of resistance made by it. The ground started to shake and crumble due to the weight of the dog's descent. It lay motionless, buried a solid metre into the ground; there were no signs of life even by robotic standards, and the faint signal it emitted was also gone.

With three dogs remaining, K4 gets back into her standing position, scanning with her lens for any actions that could be deemed dangerous. She stays silent and calculating, unaffected by the death of her own kind, a cold, programmed killer.

Hino observing this site gets a chill down his spine; in the last couple weeks that they have spent together, he hasn't ever seen K4 actually dismember a robot with this level of aggression; usually it was a graceful burial, but this time it was as if she felt no remorse.

He remembers the first time they met; the way she massacred everyone flashes for a mere moment. He thinks about how he could have forgotten that she wasn't human despite acting so much like one. She was designed to kill, and doing it this way was to show that she definitely understands the severity of these dogs.

'This shouldn't be an issue for me anymore; I have gotten a bit rusty. Maybe it's time for an oil change.' Her self-humour was rather appalling; these weren't the old days, after all. The advancement of technology makes her absorb sunlight!

The three dogs rushed towards her simultaneously, their AI being more synced than ever; they were closer to one being than three. This will prove to be a difficult fight after all.

'These little things are quite a warm-up after all for me.' She evades the attack by jumping up into the air, soaring above the tall trees for a mere second, trying to look down for an opportunity to strike; her high mobility paired with power makes her a formidable foe for the trio.

crack

The trees started to split as the three dogs started to run up their trunks, defying gravity itself; they leap upon her into the sky from three different angles.

'Ah, so this is their plan; they are too simple-minded.' K4 starts to meet one of the dogs from her left; she twists herself horizontally, evading the dog, causing it to fall down back onto the floor. The other dog goes in for a bite, her movements being as erratic as a dance, evading the dog by gliding its mouth before it opens.

Her lens scanned the air searching for the last dog; she couldn't find it at all as if it had vanished into thin air. She turned down, seeing the dog rush up towards her right arm, and a sharp bite followed with the clanging of metal was heard from Hino below.

'He somehow snuck up on me? This wasn't planned.' White liquid seeped out of her bitten-off right arm. She started to perform countermeasures by sealing off the right arm's fluid support; the white liquid retreated back, and she turned to meet the dog who had stolen her arm.

Her robotic mind couldn't wrap around what she felt anymore, a bit of a bitter feeling towards the dog who now has vanished from her sight. 'I won't let you get away!' With newfound calculations, landing onto the side of a tree, she pounds herself towards the dog.

Her lightning-fast speed starts triggering sensors warning of her dangerous actions; she ignores them with a goal in mind: to get her arm back.

The dog continues to crunch on her metal right arm, trying to make it irredeemable to fix. While the other two are trying to intercept her, the wind starts to howl like a dog from the immense speed; the surrounding area becomes just lines in a mere moment. She starts getting her fist out to deliver a devastating punch that could shatter its armour into pieces.

'So this is how it is, huh?' The other two dogs jump from the sides, intercepting her mid-travel. She uses her one metallic hand to grab one of the dogs on the left and rotates into the other one on the right, shoving it inside the dog's mouth as it tries jabbing her. The dog's head gets ripped off into shredded paper as all the circuitry and metal break onto the floor.

Now within range of the dog devouring her arm, she lands an impactful punch, causing the dog to shatter into pieces all around the luscious forest. The liquid painted her white from the dog's inner body, and she looks down upon her arm.

The arm was destroyed; it was split into thousands of pieces that would take years to fix, which obviously wasn't possible given the year limit. The best choice of action was to abandon the arm completely and focus on the last enemy standing.

Turning her gaze towards the dog, noticing how it's eating its own comrade aggressively.

'What a savage beast... This is no way to treat one of your own.' Her lens still fired up with a bitter feeling powers her towards the dog. The earth starts to rumble as her metallic legs advance towards the dog. She crouches down, picking it up with one hand, holding it by the neck, ready without a mere moment to break it.

crack

The circuitry cracks and breaks into tiny particles. The dogs all stopped emitting a signal. At the cost of her hand, she has destroyed four savage mechanical beasts. She stands there looking over at the tree Hino is hiding on.

"Hino, you can come down now." Her voice rang in his ear. He descended the tree slowly, walking up towards her; his eyes widened at the sight before him, the mechanical dogs being scattered all around the luscious forest and K4 standing among them as a sole winner.

He asks, "Did you do this?" His shocked expression tore into her deepest parts.

"Yes, I have. We can't treat these robots like you treat me." Her monotone voice explains the harsh reality of rogue robots who haven't gained freedom.

Without saying anything back, Hino's eyes wander off to the missing hand.

Noticing his worried expression, she tries to calm his worries. "This isn't a critical error; the railgun will replace this hand soon anyway." Her voice gave a sense of comfort to his worry.

She starts walking away. "Should we get going then?" She extends an invitation.

"Yes, let's get to the Nole Express already."