Fighting the Asceptus bot 2

None of them had expected the projectiles to explode in mid air without striking anything solid. All the four cadets suffered varying degrees of injuries from this attack. Mirjena had the protection of her full body suit and suffered the least damage.

Alex had the best reflexes in the group and was able to take a single step back, which reduced the impact for him, but he was still the one who took the highest damage because he did not have any sort of protective gear or hoverboots which decelerated the fall and reduced the impact for Regis. Avner had also slammed into the ground, but with luck, he was in a better condition than Alex and Regis. The explosion took place on his chest plate armor. The armor absorbed most of the impact from the explosion and even when he fell, Avner somehow managed to cushion the fall due to the chestpalte.

Although he was gasping for breath due to sudden deflation of his lungs on impact, Avner was still mostly uninjured.

Mirjena hopped back on her feet and took a deep breath while her eyes searched the direction where the Asceptus bot was. Avner also got up once he was able to breathe with relative ease. Regis swallowed another pill to help recover the cracked rib on his right-side chest and slowly got up.

Alex on the other had remained lying down for some time even after swallowing a recovery pill.

Regis swallowed another pill together with the blood in his throat while feeling some pain for the first time when the cracked bones reconnected themselves.

Slowly getting up, Regis took a look towards the Asceptus bot which was standing in its last position while looking back at the four cadets. No one in the human side moved as the Asceptus bot could not perform any further attacks due to the intense energy used to launch its last attack, a limiting mechanism that made it possible for the cadets to fight the bot instead of being nuked by attacks one after another.

The cooldown ended after a few seconds and the bot started moving once again. Regis, Mirjena and Avner immediately moved and covered Alex who was still lying on the ground.

"Give..me a few..seconds…." Alex said, drawing deep breaths.

Instead of waiting for the bot to reach their location and attack them over there, Mirjena dashed forward to attack the bot. The bot which was strutting forward due to a deformed leg was still able to block her attack.

Regis moved forward right after Mirjena. He aimed his glove towards the bot and shot two beams in rapid succession. Avner also shot two beams at the same time as Regis. The Asceptus bot raised both its arms to block the four exploding beams.

Mirjena took the chance and punched towards the bot. The bot twisted the two joints of its unharmed hand and blocked the attack. A smile blossomed at Mirjena's face as she twisted her upper body and punched at the chest of the bot with her other hand.

'Bang!'

She was also capable of using feints. The bot was pushed back with its legs dragging on the ground.

'7 Magnetic Negative Field.'

Regis changed the module and immediately fired two beams, the first behind the bot that stopped its lower body abruptly. The second beam was aimed towards the forward part of the bot's leg. Avner shot two beams that hit the bot right at the centre of its chest and exploded on contact, pushing it backwards.

The magnetic negative field did its job and froze the lower body movements of the Asceptus bot. Mirjena smiled and delivered another punch at the bot. The bot used one of its arms to stop the punch while the other arm moved towards the ground.

It was at this critical moment that Alex, who had only partially recovered arrived near the bot and stabbed his dagger into one of the joints. His mask had already predicted that the bot would use the same method to escape the lock of the two magnetic negative fields. Alex knew that this could be a critical moment in this fight and got up.

Alex ignored the pain caused by the medicine acting inside his body and placed one of his legs on the back of the Asceptus bot's hand, preventing it from getting the hand off the ground. Mirjena also grabbed the other arm of the bot that had a relatively lower range of movement due to Alex's dagger stabbing one of the joints previously.

She used the mechanical support of her Armor to deliver tens of punches at the chest of the Asceptus bot repeatedly. Regis and Avner also aimed their attacks at the bot. Mirjena moved aside while still gripping the arm of the Asceptus bot. The volley of exploding beams hit the Asceptus bot on two different spots on its chest while occasional magnetic negative field inducing beams were fired at its feet to keep them in their position.

The algorithms saved in its systems told the bot that it was in a dangerous position, but it couldn't do much to get out of its predicament. The bot waited for the cooldown on the threatening attacks to end so that it could get away.

"Get away, the cooldown on attacks similar to the last one should be ending soon." Alex shouted out aloud while taking his dagger out of the multiple holes that he had created on the bot's hand.

"Try to dodge with as large margins as possible."

Alex and Mirjena moved backwards while looking at the bot carefully. Regis and Avner continued shooting at the bot. The bot tried to move both its hands to block the beams aimed at its chest, but one of its arms did not respond due to Alex's stabs nearly cutting the arm from the joint, while the other arm moved rather slowly and could not stop all the beams.

The cooldown on the threatening attacks ended and the bot immediately shot two streams of fire from two nozzles that revealed themselves on the bot's shoulders. One of the streams was aimed at Regis and other at Avner. The streams immediately spread, covering much larger area when they reached their targets.

Regis had slid back as soon as the attack was launched so that he could get more time to react to the attack. Seeing the fire expand rapidly, Regis immediately turned and slid towards his right, getting out of the conical range of the fire.

Avner was a bit unlucky this time. He had taken precautions against attack and moved sideways as soon as he knew that he was the target, but the high temperature flames were still able to touch one end of his hands. The glove of that hand did prevent his body from being burnt, but it got too hot in the process. Avner immediately took off the glove and threw it on the ground. The hand under the glove still suffered some burns of varying degree.

The bot could generate energy for it's functioning over time, but these critical attacks drained too much of the energy and limited the functions that it could perform over the next few seconds. But this time, the bot was in much greater predicament.

Alex immediately moved towards the bot as soon as it had launched the fire streams. Mirjena followed him. Alex moved towards the hand that was hanging motionlessly on the bot's side. The glowing red tip of the dagger sliced through the remaining metal that connected the joint and the bot was left with only the part that joined the upper arm joint to the shoulder of the bot.

Mirjena gripped the other arm of the bot and punched it at the dysfunctional joint. Bending the area around the joint due to the impact. The bot used the little energy it had to move backwards in the absence of the magnetic negative field.

Once Regis had a clear view of the bot, he instantly shot a series of beams at it. One of those beams exploded on the visor of the Asceptus bot, creating a sizable crack.

"Take this!"

Mirjena's punch landed on the visor of the Asceptus bot, shattering it. Her fist went through the shattered visor and directly damaged the internal circuits of the Asceptus bot. The bot continued moving backwards, but its fate was already sealed.

Due to all the power being used for movement, the bot had to cut off the power supply to the structure reinforcement system. One of Mirjena's connected to a deformed part on the bot's chest.

'Bang!'

Mirjena's fist embedded itself inside the chest of the Asceptus bot. She unclenched her fist, reached for some internal circuits and pulled the outside, destroying the circuits in the process.

The Asceptus bot ceased all form of motion and a badge of sorts dropped from its broken visor. Alex picked up the badge. All their missions for this war simulation exercise were over. In all, Alex and Regis had defeated an attack type mutated beast, a defence type synthetic beast, a control type mechanical plant and an Asceptus bot that had all three abilities.

"Don't celebrate just yet. You still have to help us defeat another Asceptus bot for our mission." Somehow, Mirjena's voice seemed a bit threatening and Alex immediately nodded in response. The three of them walked over to Avner with concern on their faces. Avner could not participate in the final attacks due to the second degree burns on his hand. Luckily for the group, Alex had a burn ointment in his space expansion bag, which immediately relived the pain and the burns and swelling were gone in the few minutes that followed. Avner walked to the glove he had removed and heaved a sigh when he found that it was not damaged, just overheated.

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When Regis and the other cadets finished their war simulation exercises, they found that the camp was very boisterous and there was a celebratory vibe to the entire camp. Upon questioning some ok the more friendly soldiers, they were able to get an enough understanding of what had happened in the ten hours that they spent in their war simulation exercise. A real war had been fought and won under the leadership of Major Arbrit Klesen. The soldier took the name so reverently that one would have mistaken him for a deity if they had not known that Arbrit Klesen was the commanding officer of 'CAMP CERBERUS.'