Speet opened his eyes in time to see Prism soaring through the air above him from behind, landing a solid punch at the white plasma beast's damaged, leaking face. Prism, larger and far more muscular than normal, sent the sleek creature spinning and flying backwards in what Speet thought was an impressive feat of strength. Prism landed hard onto his shoulder and rolled into a stand.

  He turned around to look at an awestruck Speet moving away from him on the speeding truck. "Keep shooting!" Prism shouted with a voice so powerful that it made the truck shake.

  Speet shook himself out of his daze and gripped the firing controls of the minihowitzer again. He resumed shooting its powerful shells at the downed plasma beast watching the shots fly over the magically-enlarged Prism's head. The beast began to roll on its side, avoiding the salvo. It rolled so quickly that when it pushed itself off the ground, it flew over a dozen meters into the air.

  Prism saw an opportunity and took off running at the gorilla-like machine, kicking off with enough strength to create a small shockwave. Anticipating his enemy, the plasma beast threw a handful of rocks while it arced through the air. The rocks were so fast that they were like a salvo of long-range buckshot.

  "Shit!" Prism said as he saw the rocks flying at him and the vehicles.

  He punched his fist as he ran, sending out a pressure wave that struck the rocks, causing them to burst into dust. The plasma beast rolled onto its feet like Prism had only to begin charging in a semi-circle away from the hulking alien and towards his allies in the vehicles. Prism watched Speet continue to fire the minihowitzer at the machine and he saw sweat beading down from Speet's helmet.

  As he launched himself towards the plasma beast again in an attempt to intersect it, Prism saw several rounds strike the machine's arms and shoulder. He saw the beast's white skin ripple and then cause the shells to bounce away harmlessly from its body likes balls hitting gelatin.

  "It's made up of an adaptable meta-material. Exercise extreme caution. This isn't like the old-gen plasma soldiers you fought in Battle City, Prism." Leanna shared.

  She looked out of the window at the plasma beast, analyzing it at a glance while she monitored it with her smart-visor's magnification view. She saw the visible muscles of its powerful body flex and pulse as it ran. It seemed so lifelike, she thought, and she couldn't help but marvel at its design. If it wasn't for the creatures glowing blue eyes, golden embellishments lining its joints, and blue liquid leaking from the cracks in its face, she could've mistaken the beast for one of the large animals she'd read about in Old World books.

  She sent out two bug-drones from her dronepack to collect even more data about the machine. The drones hovered above the field to discretely feeding Leanna a plethora of data using their terpenoid communications. They soon observed a small group of Sguvan military copters headed to the glade from the east, higher up on the mountain. Leanna promptly shared the images with her team. "They'll be here in about 20 minutes."

  "Double shit!" Prism shouted while he picked up speed towards the beast as it used its powerful arms to dash towards the truck firing at it. His body glided through the air with each powerful thrust of his muscularized legs, making him appear to be skipping more than running.

  "We'll ride in a circle around this area. We can't risk bringing this thing into the tree-line with us." Ursun shared.

  "And what about the approaching military forces? How do we know that they aren't encircling the area, waiting for us to peek our heads out so they can chop them off?" Srell asked.

  "They're just observing. They want the plasma beast to subdue us. If it doesn't, they'll just keep their distance. They don't want to risk anymore of their forces, especially if they see that Prism is strong enough to beat one of the Queen's most dangerous machines." Wadaw shared with a certainty that lessened everyone's worry.

  "You know a lot more about them than you should." Lorias shared.

  Wadaw shrugged in his seat and said, "I almost became one of them," with a somberness that Leanna thought didn't suit him.

  When Prism was mere meters away from his knuckle-running enemy, he tucked his head in and lunged forward with his shoulder using all the momentum he'd built up, along with a magical boost. The mechanical gorilla's beady blue eyes fixed onto him as he attempted to tackle it. The plasma beast then grabbed Prism from out of the air like a tossed toy and then smashed the alien’s body down onto the ground. The machine placed its other hand atop the one pinning Prism down for good measure. Prism gritted his teeth from the pain of having a few of his bones break under the pressure.

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  "Prism!" Leanna and Srell shouted through the link simultaneously.

  Prism felt the machine's mighty hands pressing down upon his back, pushing him further and further into the soil. He would have been crushed if his bones and muscles hadn't been strengthened by his magic. He closed his eyes and began to drink in the mana that flowed all around him to offset the damage being done to his body. "I'm okay. Just...stuck." Prism shared.

  "This should help," Prism heard Speet's voice say over the link, within his mind.

  Seconds later, Prism heard and felt the explosions of several shells close by. As his eyes were being covered by an inch of soil, he used his telepathic link to see through Leanna's eyes. She saw the plasma beast's upper body covered in an inky black muck. "Gluifying smoke shells!" Prism thought with glee.

  He felt the beast slacken up on him as it started to wriggle its bound body in an attempt to free itself. Its arms were glued together and it nearly fell over trying to pull them apart. Prism ignored the pain from the injuries he still had as he rolled over the moment he had enough room to do so. He pushed one arm down hard against the ground once he’d rolled fast enough, pushing off into an acrobatic leap that got him clear of the shallow crater he’d nearly died within. He saw the plasma beast’s blue eyes begin to shine through the sticky tar that covered its face.

  Prism kept his eyes on the beast as its movements became wilder and faster. He began walking backwards away from the creature as its artificial muscles bulged obscenely beneath its white skin. The beast stopped moving and then fixed its gaze on Prism. All at once, the machine’s skin undulated, slipping the black goop off of it like someone slipping off a pair of panties.

  “That’s not good.” Lorias shared as he looked out upon the scene while turning his truck along the edge where the trees met the flowers.

  Prism hurled a green spell circle at the plasma beast. The seven-meter creature leapt high into the air to avoid the small ring of light, but Prism was persistent. He directed the circle up with his hands to chase the beast. Though the spell circle flew quickly through the sky, Prism couldn’t find his target. He looked around frantically for where the beast may have landed to no avail. "Dammit! I should've tagged it!" He cursed to himself.

  “Its still above you, Prism!” Leanna blasted her voice directly to Prism's mind.

  He pointed his head straight up fast enough to see the plasma beast's white foot stretched down, ready to stomp down onto him. Prism clasped his hands above his head just as the foot made contact with him. A blast of kinetic energy sent dirt and dust in all directions, obscuring the battlefield from the two vehicles.

  "Prism! You alive in there, buddy?" Srell shouted over the link.

  They all heard grunts in their minds but were unsure of what they meant. They felt the ground shake, even while in the vehicles. The dust cloud in the middle of the field was getting worse as the rapidity of the shockwaves increased. Ursun and Lorias both gripped their steering wheels more tightly for fear that their vehicles would be knocked over by the unstable ground beneath their wheels.

  "The plasma beast is...its kicking down at Prism. It's standing atop him and pummeling him into the ground with its feet," Leanna shared as she used her drones' infrared vision to see through the dust cloud. "Prism's withstanding the attacks with a barrier, but he's been pushed deeper and deeper into the ground. He won't last long like this."

  Speet tapped a few buttons and activated a special system aboard the minihowitzer. "This should help," he said, proud of himself for figuring out the foreign system so quickly. He took hold of the handles and twisted the weapon around on its turntable until it was facing the center of the dust cloud. The small screen at the middle of the handles gave an infrared view of the battlefield, showing what Leanna had shared. He squeezed the handles and fired a barrage of shells at the tall target within.

  The shells unleashed from the minihowitzer flew up into the air at an angle, then guided themselves near the plasma beast with small fins. Once they were close enough, the shells burst open, sending small round smart-bomblets at the machine's head and torso. The initial bomblets' coordinated explosions were powerful enough to knock the beast down and blast away some of the adaptable layers of its skin. Even after the enemy landed on its palms, it continued to stamp its feet on Prism's weakening shield of magic. Light blue liquid that shimmered through the dust cloud seeped from the broken skin on its side, but the damage didn't seem to slow it down.

  "It's got tunnel vision! Keep pummeling it with cluster-shells!" Ursun ordered Speet through the link.

  “At its current position, there is a higher risk of some of the bombs falling onto Prism.” Speet shared with Ursun as his hands gripped the control handle. He was as calm and rational as he always was on the battlefield. It wad one of the many talents that had earned him a spot on RED-2 right out of the Elite Training Test he received in Battle City.

  “He can handle it.” Ursun urged Speet on.

  Speet aimed the minihowitzer before psychically saying, “Alright, sir” to the commander of all Red Wolves mercenaries.

  With a twist of the handle, Speet unleashed the last dozen guided artillery shells from his weapon. Seconds later, small explosions could be seen raining down over the plasma beast’s gargantuan body. A loud thud was heard as the beast collapsed onto the ground near the crater it had created with its feet. The rumbling of the ground stopped as the dust cloud began to dissipate. Golden light began to surge from the body of the downed gorilla-machine, effulgent and beautiful.

  “It’s repairing itself!” Srell shouted as looked out of the truck’s passenger side window in a mix of horror and excitement. He felt as though he were living through one of the great battles of his favorite tv hero, but he also knew that the stakes were real. If they couldn’t destroy the beast with what they had while they were mobile and out of its reach, it would kill them all.

  “Hit it with every shell you’ve got left!” Ursun ordered Speet. The commander had no idea how advanced the beast was or how quickly it could restore its full functionality. “This is our last chance! We need to throw caution to the wind!”

  “Don’t waste the ammo. I'll end this.”

  Prism’s voice radiated through their minds like the warmth of the sun. He rose out of the center of the crater, just as bright as the self-repairing plasma beast. He reached out his hand towards the beast and concentrated even more brightness in front of his outstretched palm.

  “Let this be your comeuppance.” Prism said to the beast as his voice continued to reverberate through his telepathic link with his allies.

  A stream of white light shot from the orb in front Prism’s palm and struck the shining body of the supine plasma beast. The whiteness began to counteract the golden light of the repair matrix that stretched across the beast’s leaking, blasted body. In seconds, the machine was immersed in the harsh white light entirely. The people within the vehicles had to cover their eyes and look away as a final eruption of light annihilated the plasma beast. When the light faded, only a black scorch mark remained of their adversary on the ground it had crushed.

  Prism, still hovering gracefully above the crater, took in a deep breath and looked up at the light blue sky. He knew that his teammates were speaking with him and each other, but his mind was too spent to make sense of their words. He felt what was left of his body’s mana drain away from him as he closed his eyes. He soon felt himself falling, but he didn’t mind the sensation. He was out cold before he’d even hit the ground.