Fighting the Asceptus Bot #1

The Asceptus bot stared at the chain held in Regis' hand and then turned to look at the now 'dead' Mechanical plant. For a second, Regis felt like the bot was silently cursing him silently.

"That was amazing." Alex arrived beside Regis.

Regis kept his eyes fixed on the Asceptus bot while clenching and unclenching the fist of his left hand. The Asceptus bot raised one of its hands.

'Bang!'

A dull metallic thud. Mirjena's fist hit the outstretched palm of the Asceptus bot. The two joints on the other arm of the bot bent at different angles as they blocked a beam shot by Avner.

Regis took in a deep breath and pulled out a small bottle of tablets from his space expansion bag and swallowed it. The pain immediately vanished. Regis could also feel a strange feeling in his forearm as his muscles, nerves and bones healed at unnatural speeds.

"This bot is not very fast, but it's strength and range are real headaches. It is also able to predict all sorts of motions by releasing micro-scans on our muscles. The ones in previous simulations also had these abilities along with an array of hidden weapons that can be used as surprise attacks." Regis nodded.

Mirjena and Avner pulled back and stopped near Alex and Regis.

"Now that it has no reason to stay in the range of the mechanical plant, the range of movement will increase." Mirjena added.

As if to affirm her words, the bot leapt forward with its fist aimed at Avner, the guy with the worst equipment combination among the four of them. The four cadets immediately dispersed in four different directions.

'Boom!'

The ground under the fist caved in. Mirjena took the opportunity and attacked from the same side as the fist. If it was modelled after a human, the bot would have suffered some injuries due to being caught in a position where its fist was supporting the weight, but it was not. The bot was designed after an Asceptus.

The two joints of the second hand twisted at unnatural angles and blocked the kick aimed at the side of the bot.

'Bang!'

Regis was surprised with the amount of force generated by the kick. Alex charged towards the bot from the front and swiped his dagger at the supposed face of the bot. Avner and Regis fired beams with different properties at the bot simultaneously.

Both the arms of the bot twisted into 'Z' shape before straightening. The bot used its arms like spring and leapt diagonally in air, dodging all the attacks. Regis followed the movement of the bot. He immediately shot another EMP beam towards the point where the bot was going to land. Avner also shot two beams which barely missed the Asceptus bot, but prevented it from grabbing nearby trees with its hands.

The bot stretched its hand towards the EMP beam and made a grabbing action. Under Regis' surprised gaze, the beam was crushed in the bot's hand without dealing any damage or freezing its circuits.

"Use the seventh or eleventh module." Avner said out aloud.

Regis immediately switched the property of the beams shot by his gloves.

'Number 7: Magnetic negative field'

This was a module that induced an unstable magnetic field when it came in proximity of metals. If used properly, this unstable magnetic field was strong enough to rip apart the metal placed in it.

The Asceptus bot stood upright and scanned the battlefield. Alex, Regis, Mirjena and Avner all prepared for the incoming attack and looked carefully at the Asceptus bot.

The bot stretched one of its hands towards Mirjena and fired a projectile in her direction. Alex was the first person to react, followed by Mirjena who dodged towards her side.

But as she moved, Mirjena saw the Asceptus bot rapidly dash towards her. A metallic fist expanded rapidly in her view. Mirjena crossed both her arms in front of her chest, bracing for the impact. As the unofficial tank of the group, she aided with her armour was the only one who could take these fists head on.

'Bang!'

"Sh*t!"

Mirjena cursed. She had fallen for the feint. The force behind the punch wasn't as strong as it should have been.

The second hand of the Asceptus moved towards Mirjena's stomach. Alex reached the two of them in the nick of time and stabbed his dagger towards one of the two joints of the hand that was moving towards Mirjena's stomach.

The dagger looked like a regular cold weapon except for a small red spot at the tip. Mirjena twisted sidewards and the bot shifted its hand to avoid the dagger. The punch barely gazed the side of Mirjena's armour. The dagger passed through the artificial skin of the Asceptus bot and left a two-inch-deep burn mark on the metallic artificial skin.

Avner's shots arrived at the same instant, one hitting the same arm of the Asceptus bot while other missed. The bot shifted its weight and tried to jump backwards, but Regis' attack arrived right on time.

Instead of aiming at the bot like everyone else, Regis had aimed his shot right behind the heel of the bot. The beam hit the ground, but due to the proximity with the metallic structure, it generated a strong 'magnetic negative field.'

The bot jumped backwards to get away from Mirjena's incoming fist, but after elevating just a few inches off the ground, a strong force pulled the bot back to the ground. The force weakened after a fraction of a second, but the damage was already done.

The tip of Alex's dagger pierced one of the joints which the bot had been very particular about protecting from the start. Mirjena's fist hit the arms that were folded before the torso of the bot.

The force should have sent the bot flying away, but due to a sudden acceleration against the magnetic negative field, a strong resistance stopped the bot from being pushed back.

The bot moved the two of its hands, one to deflect Alex's incoming dagger, other to block two beams shot from Avner's direction.

Two more beams hit the ground near the Asceptus bot's feet, one behind and one in front.

Mirjena changed her stance and delivered a kick to the unguarded side of the bot.

The bot quickly understood it's predicament and immediately took the adequate measure to prevent any further damage. It fired a projectile from its injured hand towards Mirjena, the same hand moved in a circular arc backwards.

Alex's attack missed, while Mirjena was barely able to twist her body such that the projectile hit her armour. The damage was greatly reduced on her part, but she had lost her footing.

The upper body of the bot twisted and it put its second hand at the ground, out of the range of the magnetic negative field. After his attack missed, Alex used the force of his stab to leverage his body. He placed his foot on the ground and spun his other leg, delivering a kick on the bot's side.

The bot was able to pull itself away with the help of its arm that had gripped the ground.

Avner shot two magnetic negative field beams at the bot that was in mid-air. As if expecting the attack, the bot voluntarily took the beams with its torso. A magnetic negative field was generated at the part of the bot that had no moving parts.

'Bang!'

Unexpectedly, it was Regis' fist that connected to the frame of the Asceptus bot. His relatively high strength paired with the momentum generated by his hoverboots generated an impact that was only a few marks short of the impact created by Mirjena's kick, leaving a bump on the leg of the Asceptus bot which was trailing behind because it had to be brought out of the magnetic negative field slower than the rest of the bot's body.

When the punch connected, Regis also used his glove to shoot a beam of the eleventh module: Exploding beam at point-blank range. This was the same module that Avner had been using before he switched to the seventh module. Although the explosion created wasn't very strong and was mainly useful when the beam pierced the outer protection, The controlled explosion struck between two solid surfaces pushed Regis and the bot apart with considerable force.

Regis was pushed backwards. He maintained his balance with the help of his hoverboots and swallowed another pill that was already placed inside his mouth. Regis felt extreme pain that was gone as soon as he swallowed the pill and replaced by the familiar uncomfortable feeling of his muscles and bones recovering rapidly.

The Asceptus bot stumbled backwards when it landed. The bluish screen that acted as its eyes turned a deeper shade. A large number of explosive projectiles were released all over the place.

'BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!..'

When all the explosions ended, the Bot had bought enough time for it to stand up and aim four different weapons at the four humans.

"Be careful! Those weapons should be better than our equipment. Try your best to avoid getting hit." Alex's voice had barely registered in his ears when Regis saw one projectile being fired towards him at a very high speed. He was barely able to get out of the way, but the projectile exploded in empty air as soon as it reached near Regis.

'Boom!'

The explosion rang in his ears and Regis was pushed towards the ground. The balance function of the hoverboots tried to stabilize Regis, but failed. The hoverboots had reduced the speed of fall, but the impact still left a sweet taste in Regis' throat.