The Warrior Mechanic

After the mana stream between Cael and the bot was released, he felt a lot of strain was removed from his body. It gave him greater freedom and calmness, then he decided to use this chance that they were given to escape.

They rushed away, while Adriano stumbled away, being healed by the medical bot that then moved on to him.

The fighters continued onwards and struggled their way forward, with Emily helping them wherever she could to get as much distance between them and the boarman as possible.

Vanessa charged right at the boarman, landing a starting jab to then land the most important punch of her short combination, the right hand.

Her powered gauntlet amplified the power of her punch, making small areas of the right forearm of her exosuit glow blue.

She struck him right in his stomach, but he seemed to take her attack relatively well. The boarman simply retreated slightly, stepping back but then noticed her right leg being whipped toward him for a kick.

All that he had to do was grab it and throw her right over his shoulder to neutralise her attack.

Vanessa was sent rolling, and as soon as she raised back up, she received a knee right to her face.

The knee cracked the surface of her helmet, while launching her toward a tree trunk behind her.

Fwoosh!

The boarman chased right after her with a mission, and explosively leaped forward in every one of his strides.

He tried to punch her in the face, but she reflexively fell back and off the tree she had been resting on to evade.

The punch crushed the area of impact, causing such tree to come crumbling down as a result. Vanessa was by the sidelines, with a bruised nose as a result of the impact, and a throbbing right ankle.

“This guy’s crazy strong. Just him grabbing my ankle made me feel like my foot was about to pop off!” She realised, before falling slightly as she got back up to her feet.

“You annoying pest!” The boarman shouted, while pushing right off the tree that his fist was just wedged into.

He continued to turn while looking backward and aimed the side of his fist right for Vanessa as he approached her.

The side of his fist nearly collided with her face, but she just about managed to lift her forearms before he could reach her.

POW!

The punch launched her right off her feet, also causing her to slam into the ground harshly. Now on the ground, she was in a very vulnerable position, and this alien was aware of that.

The bloody beast-like warrior growled lowly as it stormed ahead, and then threw down a punch to her gut when she was still on the ground.

He grunted in pain, before receiving a strike to the face. This strike caused her arms to drop by her side, as she was momentarily stunned.

The attack was simply too forceful, then even more punches rained down on her person. The armour of her exosuit wasn’t protective enough to protect her or even itself from the force of this savage beast’s attacks.

*****

“You are of the Fonti Family! Why are you still so weak? Your talent is like you are a commoner!” A large man told his daughter as she looked down, with tears welling up in her eyes.

She had long, blonde hair, while he had similar coloured hair, where some was tied up and some was left to flush down.

“There is no use in sending you to an institute of value when you have such little value yourself. Try and learn at least something in Carlo City. I have a C-Grade institute that is ready to take you in.” He revealed.

“Carlo City? I am Vanessa Fonti, I don’t deserve to be within a C-Grade institute!” She replied, close to tears.

Upon saying this, she received a slap right to her face.

“Don’t you dare try and flaunt that name like you mean something! You have practically no talent, your only use is being frontline fodder for the Soburg Empire!”

*****

“I do mean something!” She randomly blurted out, making the boarman stand still briefly.

“What?” He asked, holding back his fist.

Vanessa then shouted and threw her powered gauntlet right in between his legs, hitting his groin area. He shouted in pain upon taking this attack and cowered back.

Vanessa’s face under her cracked helmet was covered in blood, and she felt a twitch from her exosuit as she raised up. It was clear that her exosuit had taken significant damage from the beatdown and wasn’t going to follow her every movement as easily.

She continued to fight with every ounce of willpower that she had, and fought through the agony from her body as she had received several direct blows. Her resolution was unshakeable, and she restlessly battled the alien with every ounce of strength that she had.

Throwing numerous punches onto the beast’s face, the boarman just smiled upon taking the final hit. He then grabbed her right by her neck, and began squeezing so hard on her neck that there were cracks in the neck of her armour.

She was now struggling to breathe, and the alien took this chance to prepare and throw a full power punch to her face.

This strike dropped her to the ground once again, and she immediately felt willing to get back up. However, her body didn’t share this same desire.

She could feel agony across her entire body, and her exosuit even twitched from malfunctioning upon trying to get back up.

Coughing out blood within her exosuit, she fell back onto the ground and the boarman approached her once again. He lifted a large wooden branch from the ground, and stepped on the end of it.

He shaved off the smaller branches that protruded from its edge, ripping it off to reveal a sharp edge that Vanessa started to promptly back away from.

“Where are you running to? I told you that you signed your death!” The boarman declared.

Vanessa fell into another coughing fit once again, and her adversary just laughed upon hearing this.

“You humans feel so high and mighty behind that armour of yours but in the end, your bodies are still just as feeble as ever!” He stated, aiming the sharp wooden branch at her.

He then lifted it up, and shot it down toward her heart.

Vanessa then closed her eyes, and almost accepted her defeat as she saw the wooden branch getting shot down to her chest. However, her eyes remained closed and there was no such impact.

A large exosuit warrior, that was early as tall as the boarman, arrived with two autonomous bots by his side.

“Stay down, Vanessa Fonti. The medical drones will attend to you now.” The bot to his right stated.

It had six arms, each equipped with a thin curved blade, while the other bot had large arms, and glowing forearms that resembled powered gauntlets.

“How did you manage to get into our arena?!” The man shouted, revealing his face from under his helmet.

He possessed an aged, wrinkled face with silver hair and blue eyes. He looked to weigh around 240 pounds and had a large, bulky exosuit.

“You humans put your guard down. You got too safe with that piece of paper agreeing to peace! How can that stop us from getting what we really want?” The deep-voiced beast asked, smiling and showing off its large, sharp tusks.

“Anyway, I have overran my stay here. Goodbye, humans.” The boarman stated.

As he said this, he revealed a dark, black device, and the three warriors charged at him with everything that they had.

With these three warriors rushing in his direction blindly, he then threw forward a grey metal cube, with glowing blue lines across it also.

They closed distance between them in a flash, but the boarman was gone and the device that he had used to disappear was gone also.

These warriors evaded the cube that shot behind them, landing near the battle site between the boar man and the three students that had escaped.

BOOM!

An explosion was given off, but thankfully, the area had been long evacuated before their arrival.

“Since when could those boarmen use such advanced teleporters like pocket devices?” The exosuit warrior commented, before walking back to Vanessa.

The forest was now in flames from the large explosion that had just been given off, and an autonomous bot helped a lightheaded Vanessa back up to her feet once again.

“You fought valiantly Vanessa. Your efforts allowed us to save everyone else so that the boarman couldn’t hurt them, either. We have deep gratitude for your help.”

*****

Across the planet from them, the capital city of the Soburg Empire, Oseron, was in complete chaos. On the news, reports of a recent emergence of a member of the boarman race was all that was being heard.

In the country’s colossal parliament building, several esteemed, renowned officials were sat together in a hall that had thousands of seats.

The seats were directed toward a central throne, with several other seats that had noble individuals sat within them. These seats were a pale red, with golden cloth embroidered into the seams and edges of the fabric.

“We have been far too relaxed with these boarmen. We must co-ordinate all human states and launch a full-power assault to get rid of these aliens!” An official shouted, which was met with many cheers from other officials in the crowd and even those stood at the centre of this building.

“That is too rash! This could easily just be a rogue boarman going for glory. We haven’t seen any activity from boarmen within the milky way in decades!” Another official stated, which was also met with many cheers of agreeance from the crowd, but also with groans of disagreement and disappointment.

“Silence.” A booming voice rang out, silencing the entire parliament building.

This was the voice of the emperor. He had smooth, glossy black hair with clear skin that almost radiated light as the light from the chandeliers above reflected off it.

“This matter can only be settled by communicating with the boarmen first. First, we should give our own message to neighbouring states so that they can be alert. We will then contact our sister state at this instant and try and get any reply from them. Our conduct going forward should be based on their response.” He ordered, totally calming the room.

These officials, who seemed much more like commoners with suits and business attire, could give their opinions on things but when it came to the direct order of the emperor, there was little that they could do in resistance.

“The matter is settled. Further discussion around our response to this boarman sighting will be conducted after information is received from the sister state of the Soburg Empire, the Boarish State of Verboram.” An old man stated, slamming a wooden hammer onto a dish of the same material to decide the matter.

*****

At the stadium, the children were in panic. The aliens that were always talked about on the news and in almost all forms of media were finally ready to attack their empire and humanity.

The races made sure to segregate themselves from each other, because of the deadly wars that occurred between them when they attempted to live close by one another.

The outcome of this event would most certainly not be beneficial for both parties.

What Cael was most worried about was his autonomous bot. If he couldn’t acquire that damaged bot’s parts, he’d lose out on that massive sum of money. He didn’t have any form of fabrication ticket right now and had to get that bot before it was taken away.

They were in the large entrance hall, that was filled with around 80 students; 40 from each institute.

Cael pushed himself through the dense crowd, receiving some gestures and comments of annoyance from the people around him but he wasn’t bothered about this.

He arrived behind a teacher, that was the same aged man that had directly confronted the boarman.

The warrior was currently talking to another group of warriors like him, and they seemed very invested in their conversation. They were constantly talking through comm units, and clearly had many conversations on at the same time.

This event would most certainly disrupt the stability of almost all of the Soburg Empire and even humanity as a whole.

The man initially attempted to just ignore Cael but could tell that he was standing near him because he had something to say.

He tapped at his comm unit, before turning with an expression of slight frustration.

“What do you want, kid?”

“Um, my attack bot was in the event, and I didn’t manage to get it before I was forced to evacuate.” Cael explained.

“Well, the boarman set off a bomb near the site. All of the autonomous bots that we could salvage were returned to the owners. If the bot wasn’t confiscated beforehand for it being too dangerous, it was likely blown up in there.”

Cael looked quite bummed out from that and on the inside, he was distraught. This was supposed to be his magical opportunity to advance far in not just his journey as a mechanic but also a warrior too.

The experience he could gain within the vault and even the gears he would be rewarded from his eventual wins would be invaluable. Without a strong exosuit as a base, he wouldn’t be able to put up a fight.

“Okay then. Sorry for wasting your time.” Cael replied, returning to the crowd of students.

“Hello students. We will take into account the results from this event more lightly and won’t give detailed feedback like we intended. We are aware that a lot of you weren’t able to properly showcase your abilities but we have the final rankings readily available. They will be based mainly on coins, since there was still almost half of the teams within the arena by the time of the mandatory evacuation.” A teacher announced.

Seconds later, a panel appeared, highlighting the positions of the teams. There was a mixture of cheers of glee, also with groans of disappointment and fury.

Cael was near the front of these students after talking to the man at the group of teachers and so, he was able to get a clear view of the teams.

Scanning the panel from top to bottom, he found his team, snugly in the fifteenth position, out of the 27 spots.

“OH MY GOSH YES!!” He shouted in his mind, intending to head back to his teammates.

As he turned, however, he could see that a system panel was appearing.

He looked impatient as he saw the glowing projection manifest.

This was maybe his last chance at making back some of the losses that he had made.

[Quest Complete!]

[+1 Fabrication Ticket]

In his hand, a blue ticket started to fabricate out of practically nothing and he swiftly placed his hand in his pocket so no one around could see it form. Initially, it was just a projection and so, nobody could see that.

His system panels were invisible to everyone else around him, but when it materialised something out of nothing that would obviously no longer be the case.

A large number of exosuit warriors started to arrive at the scene, and they could also see that several roads had been closed off.

They could hear horns from the created traffic, as a result, and general disorder in the area. Many students didn’t even think about their position in the tournament for long, and were more invested in the boarman’s appearance.

It wasn’t long before the students were allowed to exit, along with the instructors that followed them here. The group of 80 students were escorted in military grade airbus coaches, used to transfer military units across planets.

The airbuses slowly traversed the cluttered roads, being given space for them to pass due to their military status. They would give out verbal messages through the airbuses for people to clear the streets, so that they could be given an easy path to the nearest airport.

This was supposed to be a nightly stay, but they knew there would be no need for them to remain in Amburg any longer. Many students, along with their frightened parents, wanted their children to be within their sight as quickly as possible.

Once again, since they were an exosuit cadet institute, they were given special status upon arriving at the spacious port. The interior of the port was also chaotic, as several flights were delayed or cancelled.

The city was in true and utter chaos, as people were restless to return to wherever they had come from.

However, they were escorted into a special aircraft meant for the military. It had a sleek, grey appearance and was more like a passenger aircraft.

It was no where near as luxurious as the special commercial aircraft they were supposed to board but this was on short notice. In just 45 minutes, though, they were back in Carlo City and arrived at the institute shortly after.

There were crowds of parents ready to see their students, and many were more than grateful to see that they hadn’t been harmed. Vanessa’s parents weren’t even present to see her bloodied physique, and Cael didn’t even have any parents to pick him up.

However, that meant that he was able to leave the premises and head home shrotly after.

Cael returned to his apartment, and immediately opened the system, along with the ExoTech Marketplace.

For him to be able to fabricate the autonomous bot, all he needed was sufficient virtual metals. WIth such basic metals, the system would somehow be able to fabricate all of the intricate internal wiring and processor technology from thin air.

He had to spend around 1000 dollars just to acquire these metals. The metals came in smaller sizes and therefore, he couldn’t take the advantage of bulk buying to decrease the cost per unit weight of metal.

Since he had bought such a small package, he wouldn’t be able to maximise his reward from it as much.

Nevertheless, he swiftly revealed his fabrication and got to work, selecting the WM-01 Valiant design that he had created.

[Would you like to redeem this fabrication ticket?]

“Hell yeah I would!” He said to himself, watching the ticket vanish.

In seconds, his special WM-01 Valiant had been fleshed out from nothing at all. It appeared once again, with its trusty heated blade and shoulder-mounted energy blaster.

“Alright. Now to sell!” He told himself, looking at the marketplace to see how much his autonomous bot could go for.

Now, this task was slightly more difficult because there weren’t any exact replicas of his design on the market, of course. However, using his wits and intellect, he searched up bots of a similar tier to his own bot, that contained components of similar prices.

He did so, and the prices that he saw around the panels that floated around him brought a smile to his face.

The very cheapest bot that he had seen was about 250,000 dollars, but he knew that it was at least a grade below his own. His bot literally had four arms, and those types of bot went for higher prices from the greater material used to make them.

In the end, he noticed a few bots of similar weight and grade to his own, which were sold at around 400,000 to 450,000 dollars.

With his Merchant tier profile, he placed his WM-01 Valiant model on the market for 350,000 dollars.

In mere minutes, the item was bought and he received a full 350,000 dollars right into his account.

Now, since the exosuit model was a very heavy item, it couldn’t be sent through teleportation through warping of spacetime.

Instead, it would have to be delivered through the use of spaceports that hired FTL cargo ships to transport heavy goods.

This wasn’t a bother, though, as the ExoTech Marketplace also had special access to deliveries like this for those of the merchant tier.

Special delivery bots arrived at the door of his apartment and retrieved the bot, which meant that he didn’t have to think about the delivery of the item.

With his model gone, and 350,000 dollars sitting in his account, he wiped his hands with a keen smirk on his face and wanted to get to work right away.

“Alright, where should I begin?” He wondered.