The ship emerged from the skyway into the Concourse dome. This was restricted airspace, but Lowell had already hacked into the local system and applied the correct permissions to the Glaive.

  As the view opened before them, they could see the devastation in the distance. The huge Golem loomed over the farther edge of the park. It had left a wake of fire and rubble in its path, and long lines of ruin stretched outward from it like fingers as it hurled fistfuls of wreckage towards its attackers. Krueger’s aerial Fist troopers swarmed around it like flies, darting off to hunt down any stragglers missed by the Golem.

  “If his true goal was to destroy the Watch, he could have just bombed it.” Gondo said. “Krueger always was one for theatrics.”

  “He’s flexing his muscle,” Lowell said, “And drawing you into the conflict. Our goal here is to limit casualties and to shut that thing down. You know the plan.”

  The Glaive reached the battle site in seconds and immediately began firing on the Fist sky-troopers. This luckily distracted them from their hunt below, but drew the attention of the Golem.

  It ripped out a section of the collapsed tunnel and winged it towards the Glaive. Lowell easily bobbed out of the way but the damage the debris would cause when it landed would be catastrophic.

  “Go get ‘em Gondo.” Lowell said.

  The roof opened above him and Gondo shot out of the opening into the air. He reached the crest of his jump and then rocketed forward, driven by pure psychic force. He estimated a power boost of over 200% from the Moonshield.

  With the momentum he had gained he was able to divert energy from his approach and into a sturdy shield in front of him. Just in time, as the Fist troops began lacing him with autofire.

  He stopped and floated in the air just ahead of their line. The Glaive lowered into position behind and above him. A surface to air missile rocketed from an emplacement on the ground and towards the Glaive but was eliminated by Ignasius's return fire before it reached them. It exploded and smoke and fire clouded the air.

  It was time for Gondo to make his move.

  He jetted towards the leftmost trooper on the line, his advance shrouded by the smoke of the destroyed missile. Before he reached them, he activated his focus and time began to slow. From inside his cloak, he removed a small adhesive pad and tucked it in a weak spot between the trooper's armor and his armpit. The soldier’s face was in a grimace as he pumped round after round into the space Gondo had just occupied. Gondo could see the muscles slowly shifting in the trooper’s arm as he absorbed the recoil.

  This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

  He followed through and placed a dozen more patches on the troops around him, pinballing between them faster than the eye could see, then returned to his original position below the Glaive. To his attackers it would seem as though he had never moved.

  With a wave of psychic force, he activated the small explosive packages contained in the patches. A chain of explosions popped blood clouds across the line and sent body parts flying. The remaining troops dropped to the ground like stones and fired up their full body shields.

  Like Gondo, the troopers were running on a limited amount of power. It took vast stores of energy to remain skyward, energy that they also needed to bolster their shields. Once the threat of aerial immolation presented itself the troops predictably grounded themselves.

  A cheer went up amongst the remaining Ourobouros soldiers and the militia. They moved in with renewed vigor to attack the remaining Fist troopers. The Golem’s throws were now effectively blocked by the front line, unless Krueger decided to start wiping out his own men. Possible.

  “Alright, they’re grounded,” Gondo said, “Iggy you’re up.”

  The back of the Glaive opened and jettisoned six parcels along with Ignasius himself, then it banked around and retreated into the distance. As the jettisoned chunks neared the surface their encased micro-mechanics activated and they began to transform.

  Slamming into the ground came two beefy mechanical legs. Linking into them from above was a larger scale version of Ignasius rectangular chassis. Two sturdy mechanical arms latched into the sides, and Ignasius himself socketed into a bank at the top, roughly 40 feet in the air. A final piece chunked into the ground behind him and dug partway into the ground. It found a powerline and lit up with electricity, then shot a cord outwards that bolted onto the back of the machine.

  “He made himself a damn Gundam,” Gondo said in awe as power reached the machine and its arms raised in the air. Ignasius began to charge forward directly into the battle.

  Bullets careened off his chest plate as he reached the front lines and sent his long arms swiping amidst the Fist troopers, scattering them like blocks in a child’s playroom. A few chanced the skies and rocketed upwards, releasing all their ammo stores on the giant robot. Micro-mechanics whirled back to life in the chassis and produced two rounded shoulder laser emplacements that immediately returned fire. The sky troopers careened off in random directions as the laser beams found their vital systems.

  Gondo landed amongst the Ourobouros line as Ignasius stomped one of the surface to air missile launchers on the ground.

  The giant robot pulled a pommel from the side of his chassis and raised it into the air in front of him. “Alligators have three eyelids!” his deep voice boomed out grimly as the energy sword he held crackled to life and produced a huge purple plasma blade, roiling with power. A perplexed cheer rose from the crowd.

  Ignasius let out a roar as he charged forward into the mountainous plastic Golem.