Despite the boss's "invitation," they didn't stop attacking us. And with the reduced manpower... it wasn't really that hard. There was still no real organized defense, for the most part, and considering that my partner's ammo was as endless as grenades, and she spent it with the same enthusiasm... well, I was there to cover her, to keep her from getting too carried away and making fatal mistakes, and to let her have fun.

  - Bwa-ha-ha-ha!

  Ta-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta

  - Aah!

  - I'll gnaw your bones and make socks out of them!

  - Aah! She killed him... or didn't him? Ah, me...

  - Magister, what are you doing? - Glancing in my direction, this ma... although why am I embarrassed, niac, fire another salvo in the direction of the obviously dead bandit from behind the cover of her bear.

  - I'm writing a letter to your husband - I informed her.

  - But I'm not married - she said puzzled, stopping firing. The bear kicked the corpse toward the pile of others, clearing a passage.

  I nodded.

  - Yup, working ahead of the game. Consider it male solidarity. Give it to him when you decide on a candidate.

  I held out a piece of paper to her.

  - "How to woo your magical girl," - she read aloud. I shrugged.

  - If anything was wrong, I was open to comments.

  She nodded and continued reading.

  - "If you care about your testicles, don't let aggression build up. Regularly walk your magical girl (hereafter MG) in places where socially useless individuals congregate (my recommendation: Pandora, but you can tailor it to your taste and mood), covering her and supporting her. A MG who is happy, satisfied, and has spent her ammunition allowance is the key to a healthy and safe family life. Note: don't forget to diversify your leisure time; monotonous shooting can get boring, and the consequences can be unpredictable...."

  Lily nodded again, then folded the sheet and slipped it into her unremarkable cleavage, an obvious show-off since the paper had clearly been digitized in the vault. The bear looked at me, nodded, and shrank into a small state.

  - I'll familiarize myself with the whole thing later - the girl informed me. I nodded to her and the bear.

  Although they continued to attack us, I noticed one unpleasant fact. Among the attackers there were almost no more relatively normal bandits, trying to act more or less intelligently. And that made me fear that the boss had gathered them around him, leaving trash to kill themselves. I'm a badass, but you can take down anyone with a numbers, and my "character" was already taken down by bandits once, at the beginning of the "game". And the boss clearly has his surprises, judging by teleportation, or whatever it was.

  By the way, teleportation technology exists, but... that's about all I know about it. There are short "jumps" used in some army equipment, like grenade modifiers, and there are interstellar "jumps". And there seem to be various personal teleporters, but I've only seen mentions of them and vague rumors, like that they're used by assassin-saboteurs from elite Atlas units. I know that we in Vladoff had a project of teleporting projectiles/rockets to overcome armor, without the limitations that grenade modifiers have, but I have no idea at what stage it is, or if they are doing it at all. Well, there are also landing pods - but it's not actually teleport, it's digitalization, the same as FTS.

  In any case, if this type had demonstrated some such rare feature - what else could he have in store? It was making me tense. If he had enough minions to level me up, I might have felt a little more confident, but alas. Even the display of the necessary "experience" needed before I could level up had not been given to me.

  Lily obviously didn't share my hesitation, whether it was due to overestimating my abilities, underestimating my opponent, or being fundamentally reckless.

  I suspect all three. That's why I have to keep an eye on her.

  The midget hiding in the skag was a surprise, slightly, but overall it was a normal day on Pandora.

  - Every step forward is a step toward death; death is the goal and reference point from which we are trying to escape and to which we are steadily approaching... - I muttered thoughtfully.

  - Another spell, Master? - Lily asked with obvious interest, taking notes.

  - No, I just wanted to philosophize - I refused, firing a bullet from my revolver into the back of the head of the fleeing midget with an enlarged skull. Huh. I expected more brains.

  ...If we do manage to get back to Earth, it might be difficult to acclimatize back.

  - Do you think they're there? - Lily asked, looking at the door ahead. A big, double-leafed one, with signs like "Welcome, Intruders!" and "Good Day to DIE" and "Figth Heer!".

  - Either it's a dumb trap, - I said - or it's also a trap, but with a boss.

  The two of us stared at the door.

  - We could just booby-trap it and blow it to smithereens - my companion suggested.

  - And Jim? - I asked.

  - Let's pretend that he was killed by bandits, - suggested the kind girl.

  - If you waste good mercenaries like that, they'll run out quickly - I said.

  - That's right, too, - Lily agreed. - As Mother says, people should be valued, and not overpaid.

  - Is a person worth less by weight than by potential merit? - I suggested.

  - But in parts can be sold more expensive - agreed the girl. - Do you know each other?

  - No, I just thought of the logic. Privateers are not so different from corporations. Anyway, Jim might still be useful... although I'm not sure it's worth the risk.

  Lily thought for a moment.

  - When in doubt, cast a...

  The SG disappeared from her hands, replaced by

  - ...EXPLOSION!!!

  with the thick tube of a grenade launcher.

  It went off. The grenade launcher, like the rest of this rich girl equipment, was definitely of "blue" quality. The rumble hit my ears, the blast wave hit my body, throwing me off my feet.

  However, despite the minor inconveniences, the result was pleasing. One door leaf, which turned out to be metal beneath the imitation wood, was torn in two; the other was ripped off its hinges and crashed into several of the group of bandits waiting outside the door, with a couple of skags on leashes.

  Lily was still standing proudly, chin up, grenade launcher tube in hand, her bear just beginning to enlarge, and the bandits and their pets remained stunned and disoriented as I opened fire from the Thunderer. Almost inaudible at first, the crackle of discharges gradually grew louder as my hearing returned to normal. Enhanced physiology and auto-pharmacy rulez...

  Lily held out her hand, and I clapped it. Well, we really do work well together, that doesn't even need to be voiced... Though she is a bit too impulsive.

  Although there were some among the backdoor ambush who were able to survive a full AB of Thunderer, it wasn't like it helped them - I just reloaded.

  The entourage surrounding the boss was smaller than I had feared, but it was still six big guys in armor, albeit not full armor and rather tattered, but mine too was in a state far from ideal. The only thing that pleased, or rather did not cause additional tension, was that only three of them had shields. The boss himself had a shield... but a physical one, a small round aspis with a fluorescent glowing ring on it. In his right hand was a whip crackling with discharges.

  "Shanks. Sometimes life prompts things to change drastically..." - the Echo reported.

  With a glimpse, I spotted Jim mounted on the wall of a spacious and rather tall room, closer to the ceiling.

  - What about the villain's monologue? - I asked, getting ready to start the digitalization of the turret.

  - Hey, you're the villains! - the host was outraged. - You burst into my palace, crushed everyone, even kicked in the door!

  - ...I apologize for the door - I admitted. The man sighed and waved his hand.

  - Okay, it happens to everybody. No offense, just die...

  The turret behind me came to life at the same time as Shanks - Shanka, Shank? What's his real name? - dissipated with 'holographic elements', and I darted to the side. Rolls don't grant invulnerability, but they do have an evasion bonus.

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  ...Wrong.

  I expected Shanks to appear from the side - if from behind, he'd be in the line of fire of his minions - and I was right. The problem, however, was that he appeared exactly in the direction I'd rolled.

  ...Or not a problem.

  Since the target was so close, I hit him with the butt of my gun. If those bells could jingle, I suppose it would be loud.

  Shanks crouched, his knees buckling, but not only did he teleport again before I could fire, he didn't even make a sound.

  Gunshots rumbled from all sides. Lily would have to deal with this on her own - I'd have to survive...

  My shield immediately lost a few hitpoints, but to my relief, no one had any electric weapons... oh, no, they did. The electroshotgun, and don't ask me how it works, caused the robot bear to be enveloped in a network of lightning - but contrary to the tropes, Pandora's robots are not at all vulnerable to electrocution, so my partner's "active ability", practically ignoring the shot, swung its paw, breaking the weapon and opening the bandit's armor.

  I tried to focus the Thunderer's fire on the same bandit that Lily was firing at, but it was difficult, given the fire that was being directed at us - I had to run like in fire, and constantly loop around to avoid becoming fried mincemeat, and in such conditions it was hard to maintain any kind of fire, let alone aimed fire.

  Difficult, but not impossible. And an additional motivation was the dire need to reduce the number of opponents who proved too professional and dangerous before they crushed the bear; after that, the situation would be even more in their favor.

  The robot's first relatively successful attack was just that, relatively successful; the wound was not fatal, and the bandit replaced the broken weapon with a new one. But there was a hole in his armor, and as soon as I had the opportunity, I took it, firing a bullet into the target.

  Not with a machine gun. Running with it is uncomfortable, and the accuracy, alas, leaves much to be desired, and I had moments in this mad scramble only for single shots. Surely I'm in a shooter and not some kind of souls-like game...?

  Anyway, the revolver was also pretty heavy, had a hefty recoil, and looked somewhat archaic, but in terms of killing power, Jacobs has little competition. I didn't really hit the hole - Jacobs' accuracy was good, but it wasn't perfect - but it was enough to cause the bandit to jerk, losing his balance, and catching first a few fire bullets from Lily's SG, and then hit from a clawed robopaw, which this time blew half his skull off.

  Alas, the bear was also hit; a shower of sparks erupted from its armor, and it was mangled.

  The eyes of the "beast" lit up red, and he fell on four legs and in one leap was next to the big man who covered him with an automatic rifle; I think he missed a little. The bandit immediately fired another round at the robot, shattering it further, but the robot, ignoring the damage and flying parts, pounced on the enemy and exploded.

  And another explosion immediately followed... or rather, a series of them. Lily's Firestorm almost hit me, but it covered me from the fire coming at me, and I took the opportunity to fire a couple bullets at the dude with the electric shotgun who try to finish the girl off. She, in turn, launched several grenades at once, turning a fair portion of our arena into a fiery inferno, but... I barely made it in time. The sniper, who had finished my turret, took aim at the girl who had risen into the air on a broomstick.

  ...But immediately switched to me, because naturally my shot was not fatal.

  I'm not Mordecai, I'm no sniper duelist. I'm a simple man, but I also have grenades - I borrowed them from my partner.

  The grenade, or rather modifier, was the same one I used against the guardian on the island; an electric AoE DoT. The sniper, seeing me swing it, tried to scurry off to the side, out of range, but....

  ...I could say it was a clever ricochet miscalculation, but I'll be honest with myself: I just missed. "Basic military training" didn't really go into throwing.

  In any case, the grenade bounced off the wall and landed next to the bandit who had chosen the wrong direction to retreat, and the next moment he was a lightning rod.

  I was forced to look away from my partner, but her maniacal laughter told me she was doing... well... okay? Uh, I'll take that as a yes.

  I tossed another grenade into the outline of the enemy behind the fading fire from Lily's grenades, and added the rest of the bullets from the revolver's AB...

  ...Shit.

  The whip whipped around my shield, knocking out most of it, and the rest was immediately knocked away by a bullet that burned my side with pain. The pain was moderate, but there was definitely a hole in me.

  I switched back to Thunderer and fired a round... just in time, the teleporter-Shunk that had appeared nearby spun around and interrupted his own attack. Covered himself with a shield, despite the small size of that... damn, it attracts bullets. And based on game logic...

  ...I knew it. It's a good thing my body starts to act before I even think about it: the bullets caught by the shield came hurtling back in my direction, with noticeably reduced velocity and damage, but still.

  Shanks disappeared again, and I turned and fired the rest of the bullets at his henchman, seeing him appear underneath Lily.

  - Lily, from below! - I shouted, hastily reloading. "Witch" immediately performed a bomber waggle, and Shanks, instead of teleporting, just ran away; cooldown, probably.

  The bandit with the electric shotgun started to reload as well, but I got there before he did. A short burst, and the weapon flew out of his hands; he roared and lunged at me with a big knife.

  The man was clearly bigger than me, but I had a shovel. Well, i didn't use it now, but still.

  Before the big four-cornered shield materialized in his other hand, I emptied my AB again. The man managed to dodge some of the bullets - he was a bit slow on the uptake, yes - but not all of them. And even the fact that the shield had time to digitally build up didn't save him: the wounded legs I was aiming at didn't hold the body, and then I rushed to him, using his body and shield to cover from bullets and electrocution.

  Also - headshot - it gave me a couple seconds to start digitizing.

  Shanks appeared in my field of vision, and I reflexively threw a grenade at him with my free hand... damn.

  ...Huh? His shield didn't catch it. Cooldown, or does it only work with bullets? Either way, the boss and the mini-Tesla tower were connected by a lightning bolt, but in the next second, despite the paralyzing effect of the electrocution, Shanks teleported again. Strong man...

  I was stung with pain again; this time in my shoulder. I felt a slight numbness, but my arm still worked.

  Which was immediately important, as I caught the whip swing and swung the shovel away. The tip of Shanks' unconventional weapon hit the working surface of the blade sensitively, knocking out a sheaf of sparks that nearly blinded me, and I tossed the grenade again... not just me. Lily did, too.

  Alas, there was no victim in the chaos of fire and lightning: he teleported away again.

  The bandit with the fire SG was less fortunate. The grenades didn't kill him, but the bullets did the trick.

  Apart from the elusive boss, there was only one enemy left in the arena, who had changed his weapon to a strange-looking checkered machine gun firing large-caliber explosive bullets. Poor accuracy was not a problem for him, as the rapid fire and explosions made up for it.

  ...I never expected them and my turret to take each other out.

  The lone remaining boss, however, was not only not going to give up, but also demonstrated that he was the boss for a reason: he was probably a more problematic opponent than the previous six. His constant teleportations made it hard to get a good aim on him, and when he did get a chance, his shield was a problem. And he could catch grenades, but there was a risk of them exploding in close proximity, which this device didn't save him from.

  ...Shooting in the back was mean, but effective. Well, seven on two isn't exactly a model of valor either.

  However, Lily was definitely not bothered by such trivialities.

  - This. Was. Cool - she informed, crouching down beside the body and pulling the whip out of his hand. - Every girl should have a whip, and I like this one.