Building Zoids in a World of Titans

Anya's boots hit the cobblestones and she was already moving, shield up, eyes tracking the Liger's mane through gaps in the smoke. The guild district's main artery ran straight ahead, lined with shuttered storefronts and overturned carts. The Liger's trail of destruction was easy to follow — crushed stone, shredded timber, the occasional sparking remnant of a streetlamp.

She heard Fia's gauntlets cycling beside her, the hydraulic pumps building pressure with each step.

"Ann."

Lyra's voice came through the comms, thin and precise from her overwatch position on the guild roof.

"Its heat signature is concentrated around the mane and the thoracic cavity. Limbs are running cooler. Targeting those won't do much."

Anya adjusted her grip on the Guardian's Shield. "Weak points?"

"Joints. The connective tissue between the plating moves more. But I'll need a clear shot window. It's fast."

"Fi. You heard her."

Fia cracked her neck, her amber eyes bright with anticipation. "I'll give you your window, Lia."

Anya rounded a corner and saw it framed in the gap between two collapsed awnings, its galvanic hide throwing off faint blue sparks as it exhaled. It wasn't wounded. It wasn't even breathing hard.

The Liger stopped walking.

Its head turned, not toward the barricade ahead, but back toward Anya. Its optics — if they were optics — cycled once, low and slow. It knew she was there. It had always known.

"Hold," Anya said, and planted her shield.

The Liger watched her.

It took a step in her direction, its claws scoring deep furrows in the guild district's polished stone.

The plaza was a slab of quarried stone, wide and flat. No cover. No shadows.

Fia took point. She surged twenty meters ahead, her goldenrod plating bright against the smoke.

"Fi, wait for the formation!" Anya called.

Fia's voice crackled back through the comms, breathless and grinning. "I got this, Ann. Watch."

Fia didn't wait. She skidded under the Liger's foreleg, driving her gauntlet into the joint.

"That's a hit! How's that feel, you overgrown—"

The beast's weight shifted. It stumbled.

Fia bounced on her heels, pumping a fist. "Yeah! That's what I'm talking about. One more and this thing's going down on its—"

The tail whipped around before Fia could react.

"Ugh—!"

It caught her mid-stride. The girl went airborne, slamming into the stone. She tried to push up, but her breath hitched in a jagged rhythm. She slumped back, clutching her ribs.

"Fi!"

The word tore out of her before she could stop it. Anya's boots hit the ground hard, each stride eating distance. The Liger's foreleg was already sweeping toward Fia's crumpled form.

She slammed the Guardian's Shield between them.

The impact drove her back three feet. Her boots scraped against the stone, leaving pale tracks. The shield's frame shuddered. Her teeth clenched. She dug in and held.

The Liger hit her like a falling mountain.

Anya's boots carved furrows into the stone. A sickening pop echoed in her shoulder. The shield's frame groaned. She was losing ground, pushed back inch by inch. Her vision narrowed. She planted her back foot and held.

The beast pivoted. It flowed around the barrier. Anya tried to swing the shield to meet it, but her arm wouldn't respond. The Liger was already past her.

A crack echoed from the rooftop.

Lyra's Whisperwind rifle barked. Three shots. The third round slammed into the Liger's eye.

The beast blinked.

Anya froze. The round had hit dead center, yet the eyelid simply closed and opened, leaving the eye unmarked.

"It didn't even scratch it!" Lyra's voice cracked over the comms.

Two more shots rang out. They sparked off the Liger's brow.

The Liger looked up.

Anya watched the Liger’s torso flare, a deep, resonant pulse rippling outward from its chest. The blast gathered kinetic energy in the creature’s magnetic hide, then released it in a concussive wave that shattered stone and knocked the wardens off their feet. Its core—an electrically charged organ—served as the detonator, converting stored charge into a single, devastating shock.

The rooftop exploded. Stone and timber rained down as a blue wave of electromagnetic fury pulverized the structure.

Lyra tumbled from the debris, landing hard. She scrambled up, staring at Anya.

Lyra's hands were still shaking. She stared at the ruined rooftop, then back at the Liger as it turned its gaze from the rubble to the street below.

"That thing took three direct hits to the eye and didn't even flinch. Its hide density is beyond anything in the Rank C profiles. It's operating at a B-rank threshold, minimum."

Anya planted her shield and pushed herself upright. Her left arm hung at a bad angle, but she locked her jaw and stood her ground.

"Rank doesn't matter if we leave it walking through the city."

She turned toward the alley where Seraphine was crouched over Fia's unconscious form.

"Pinne. Fi's your priority. Stabilize her and move to the secondary rally point. We'll keep it busy."

Seraphine looked up, her violet eyes wide, then nodded and began pulling supplies from her kit.

Seraphine knelt beside the crumpled figure, her palms humming with soft light.

"Hold still," she whispered, pressing the glow against Fia's ribs.

The air seemed to pause.

The light dimmed, the hiss of it fading into the distant clang of stone.

Fia's breath came in ragged bursts, each exhale steadier than the last.

Seraphine eased her back, helping the Forge‑Hammer to a sitting position against a slab of broken masonry.

She lifted two fingers, then three, and snapped them against her own chest.

"Two, maybe three. You're done," Seraphine said, voice firm but gentle.

Fia winced, then grinned, teeth flashing.

"I can still fight," she rasped.

Seraphine's eyes narrowed.

"Don't push yourself, Fi. You already gave enough."

Fia's shoulders tensed, a spark of defiance flickering.

"I'm not done yet," she muttered, already reaching for her gauntlets.

The Liger's massive silhouette loomed on the far side of the ruined street, its head low, eyes fixed on the guild's towering spires.

Anya felt a cold knot tighten in her gut.

"Why is it heading for the guild?" she asked, voice low, more to herself than anyone else.

Lyra's visor flickered as she scanned the beast, data streaming across her HUD.

"I don't know," Lyra replied, tone clipped. "Its heat signature is steady, no erratic spikes. Nothing in the intel points to a specific target."

A shout rose from the front line—Wardens firing, the Liger shrugging off blasts as if they were raindrops.

Anya's jaw set.

"We can't let it reach the guild. They'll be crushed."

Lyra angled her rifle, the barrel humming.

"Cover me, Ann. I'll keep it in sight."

Anya tightened the grip on her shield, feeling the weight of the metal against her forearm.

"Fi, stay back. Pinne, keep Fi stable."

Seraphine nodded, eyes still glowing faintly as she tended to the wounded.

"We have to draw it away," Lyra said, shoulders rigid.

Anya surveyed the shattered walls, the cracked streets, the thin line of smoke curling from the guild's shattered gate.

"Follow my lead," she ordered, stepping onto the debris.

Anya planted her boots and swung the Guardian's Shield into the Liger's path as it lunged. The impact jarred her broken shoulder. She bit down on a scream and held.

"Lyra, left flank!"

Lyra's rifle cracked. The round sparked off the Liger's shoulder plating. The beast didn't slow. Its foreleg swept toward Anya. She ducked, but the wind of its passage knocked her sideways. She rolled, came up with the shield raised.

The Liger's tail whipped around. She saw it too late.

It caught her across the ribs. She flew backward, hit a collapsed wall, and slid down in a shower of dust. Her vision blurred. She tasted copper.

"Ann!" Lyra's voice, distant.

Anya pushed herself up. Her shield arm trembled. The Liger was already turning toward Lyra, who had repositioned on a pile of rubble. The sniper fired again. Again. Each shot bounced harmlessly off the beast's hide.

The Liger crouched. Its mane flared, blue light crackling along its spine.

"Lyra, move—"

The electromagnetic pulse hit the rubble. Lyra was thrown like a doll, her rifle clattering away. She didn't get up.

Anya's chest tightened. She raised her shield with both hands, ignoring the fire in her shoulder, and stepped between the Liger and Lyra's fallen form.

"Come on," she breathed. "Focus on me."

The Liger's head lowered. Its eyes locked onto hers. It took one step forward. Then another.

Her arms shook. The shield felt like it weighed a thousand pounds.

She wasn't going to hold.

A beam of white light punched into the Liger's back. The hide scorched, black smoke curling from the wound. The beast flinched, its mane flickering.

Anya turned.

The Arosaurer stood in the ruined gateway, its left shoulder still smoking from the shot. Cobalt blue plating gleamed through the dust. The cockpit canopy was open, and she could see Alex's silhouette inside, his hands steady on the joysticks.

The Liger spun away from Anya, its full attention shifting to the machine. Its mane blazed, electricity arcing between the spines along its back.

"GRRR-RR-VUMMM..."

The sound rolled through the street like thunder, vibrating in Anya's chest.

The Arosaurer's jaw servos clicked. Its optics flared red.

"SKREEE-CHAK-CHAK-CHAK!"

The metallic scream tore through the air, sharp and defiant. The Arosaurer planted its feet and lowered its head, autocannons swiveling toward the Liger.

Anya lowered her shield an inch. Her arms finally gave out, and she sank to one knee, watching the two beasts face each other across the broken street.

Advance chapters on my p@tR$0n/Najicablitz.

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