Synthetic Survivor: Machine Age

A few days ago..

-

"W-who are you!?" The general cried. He pointed his sword towards them, eyes gleaming with fear.

The drones surrounded him and cut off any escape. He already had trouble taking down one of them even with his magic, now, he was surrounded by ten. Leading them was someone so ominous, it further deepened the fear already lingering in his heart.

Despite shouting his question from the top of his lungs, the menacing man in front of him did not reply. He only stared at him for a brief moment before setting his sights towards the distance behind the general.

His entire army has been decimated, what's left of the 20,000 troops he had have routed to the forest, some of them never to be seen again.

The general had his eyes fixed on the man. He was afraid and no longer had that iron will, despite facing many near-death moments and monstrosities that would make a normal man insane, he stood firm despite it. Now, he was only staring at a man, a meager man! But he was beyond terrified. An aura of complete darkness and despair enveloped the man's cold stature.

It oozed from its body like a slime only visible to those who can manipulate magic. The man's eyes then returned to stare at him, seemingly looking into his soul.

He panted as he sweated like a dog drooling from its mouth. His hands shivered as he gripped his sword ever so tightly. The man took a step forward, and then another. Each step felt like a giant stomping towards him, at any moment he could be crushed by the pressure alone.

"N-no!" He thought. He mustered whatever courage he had hiding behind his already shattered mind before finally saying in a loud voice.

"Out, ye demon!"

He then fell backwards with his sword. Blood oozed from a hole in his forehead and his arms twitched.

"Hm, you shot him," The man remarked.

"Was there a problem?" A soft voice replied.

Emerging from the smoke behind the man was a beautiful girl. In her hands was a sniper rifle, she had shot the general from a distance out of pure annoyance.

She walked beside One and c.o.c.ked her weapon.

"I was hoping to duel him,"

"Nah, he couldn't even handle one of our soldiers, how do you expect him to handle you?"

"Still,"

The ten drones then scurried behind the two of them.

"Shall we go?" The woman asked and smiled.

"Yes, we shall" The man replied.

-

In the outskirts near the Northern Tribal lands, the roaring sound of a speeding hovercraft shrieked through the air. Its sound was loud enough for anyone hearing it to cover their ears in fear. As the hovercraft flew over a city in the borders of Yuhin, the wyverns were mobilized.

"Go go go!"

The wyverns flew as the sound grew louder, not even the wyverns themselves could stand the noise. As the people beneath panicked and mages used their magic to sense the unwanted flying beast, Lily and Vilvintine have been dropped from the hovercraft and were already in the city.

It was past midnight and the commotion proved to be an effective cover. As they frantically searched the skies, the two dropped under their noses. The city was called a city but seemed far off from one, it was more of an expanded military fortress than a city. Towering stone walls, high towers and tens of thousands of soldiers and mages were the citizens of this place.

The two landed unnoticed at the rooftop of the central castle. By using the hover technology on the soles of their boots, they managed to slow down enough so that their landing produced little to no sound.

The castle roof was made of hard stone. Using a new cloaking device, they were successfully hidden inside a transparent dome that served as their cloaked space.

"Alright, use your magic to see if anyone is down there," Vilvintine whispered to Lily.

"Roger," Lily whispered back.

"Enhance!" Lily chanted.

Lily began to scan the room beneath them. They had to hurry, at any moment they could be spotted by a mage using his or her own enhancement magic.

"There's someone in the room beneath us, but he's the only one. There is nobody else in this floor,"

"Then let's bust ourselves in,"

"Why didn't our leaders give us any.. uhm.. extra of these "Instruments" for the mission?"

"I don't know either, they only gave us instruments for stealth, I remember Madame Hailey telling me that they're the easiest to use, maybe that's the case"

"But still…"

"Let's stop questioning them and proceed with our mission, go!"

-

"T-there we go! At last! Foe! You have been vanquished from my sword!," A jittery nobleman was pleased to finally have removed the smudge that tainted his glistering rapier.

"Now, to shine you to glo-"

A piece of stone fell on his head, knocking him unconscious. Lily and Vilvintine both entered through the hole they made in the roof and landed on their feet.

"I did not expect him to be directly beneath, why didn't you tell me?" Vilvintine turned towards Lily and asked.

"Eh, so we could, you know, take him out easier," Lily answered as she scratched the back of her head.

"Fair enough,"

The two scanned the room they were in, it was a spacious room full of pristine wooden furniture, velvet couches, a fireplace and a golden bed. It only took them a few seconds to realize that the man they knocked unconscious was the Lord of the city.

"We took out the lord with just that? How weak is he?" Lily complained.

"Let's not wait for him to wake up, we came here to retrieve maps that would direct us to natural wyverns," Vilvintine replied.

"Yeah yeah, let's start with these drawers,"

It only took them a few minutes to empty every single cabinet and drawers in the room, papers flew as the wind blew through the opened windows. They finally found one map, it was a vague map but it had a hint of where wyverns lived.

"Right, now let's-"

"Hold it there, thieves!"

"Crap!" Vilvintine and Lily turned towards the location of the voice, the lord was now awake.

He shakily stood from the floor while holding the upper part of his head. He grabbed his rapier and stared at it. After realizing that his hard work was yet again tainted, he exploded into a flurry of curses.

"You both will pay for your lives!" He shouted. His voice was loud enough for the people downstairs to hear them. Vilvintine and Lily heard the sounds of heavy armour running downstairs and up the floor.

"Shit, we gotta get out of here,!" Lily drew her bow and channelled her magic for a swift magical arrow snipe.

She released her hold on the strings of her bow and the arrow was launched. Vilvintine ducked as the arrow emitted a high amount of magic.

"Pah!" With a quick poke from his rapier, the arrow was sliced into two.

Dumbfounded, Lily charged her bow and arrow again. Vilvintine then ran from side to side, hoping to catch the lord off-guard.

"Too slow!" The lord mocked.

Seeing that her attack has been foiled, Vilvintine charged her body and continued her attack. She threw several punches at the lord when he was just within arm's length. The lord was swift and precise with his blocks and even managed to sneak a poke through Vilvintine's defense and slightly stabbed her right elbow.

"Argh!" Vilvintine felt the pain and backed off. Lily then fired her second arrow, this time it was enhanced with explosion magic. The arrow was glowing red as It sped towards the smirking lord.

With ease, the lord merely took a step to the right and the arrow wheezed through and hit the wall behind him. But the arrow, as expected, exploded upon contact due to being enhanced with explosion magic. The dust and rubble landed on everyone, including the blade of the lord's rapier.

In a bout of shock, the lord scanned his precious weapon. Upon realizing its fate, he exploded in anger.

"Rah!" He screamed louder.

Vilvintine and Lily were caught off-guard as the doors behind them burst open and knights stormed the room.

"Halt!" The knights surrounded them and drew their swords. Lily and Vilvintine both leaned on each other as the knights formed a circle around. The lord's aura finally became visible, his aura was a douse of flames surging from his body. His eyes glowed red with pure hate and he stared at the intruders.

"Leave them! I will behead them myself!" He ordered.

"This is quite a mess," Vilvintine remarked.

"You think!?" Lily retorted. She once again drew her arrows but what can her flurry of arrows do in such a tightly packed space? They were sandwiched. The situation looked dire, while Lily was oblivious, Vilvintine knew one important thing.

One was observing them.