ManaTech: A System of Magic And Technology

Fight Back

The pressure from the squeezing hand of the mecha was immense, but I quickly realised that it was nothing that my newly buffed body could handle. 

The robot was just a little bit too weak to squeeze me hard enough to do any real damage. 

While that was the case, sitting in the palm of the mecha’s hand wasn’t exactly going to win me many points with whoever was watching. I’d planned to put on a show, and that was still my goal. 

I took a deep breath and began to push back against the colossal grip of the robot. 

For a moment nothing happened, our power was seemingly matched, but then inch by inch it was clear that I was breaking my way free of the thing's grasp. 

Before I could break my way free completely the robot took things into its own hands. It slammed me down into the ground as hard as it could. The chairs that had been in the way were smushed into the ground and I was buried in a pile of dust and rubble, the ground cratered away beneath me. 

The robot stared down at me triumphantly, light from the trio of stars up above glinted off its headpiece. 

It had been an impressive blow, but I still felt as though I hadn’t taken any damage at all. 

The robot was distracted for a moment, likely by some of the other lifeforms that had been in the room making a break for it, but a moment was all I needed. 

My AI had said that I had the ability to summon energy blasts, and while I didn’t exactly know how magic worked I was pretty sure I’d figured out how to do something as simple as put on a bit of a light show. 

Power was radiating through my body, and all it took was a little mental nudge to direct that power into manifesting just below the palms of my hands. 

With one shove the energy I’d been building up ripped free in one roar of energy. 

The flash of light was blinding at first but was soon refined into twin beams that collided with the mecha head-on. The machine reared back as the beams struck it directly on the head as if I’d struck it physically. 

The thing was off balance, but it was clear that I hadn’t actually done any damage to it. All I’d done was stunned it momentarily. 

I sucked in a deep breath, stood, and launched myself through the air like a bullet once again. 

The robot recovered in time to reach out with its hand once more, but a blast of energy slapped its hand aside just enough for the grasping fingers to close on air instead of my body. 

I collided with the robot’s arm and sprang off it again in another jump. 

The jump sent me soaring up above the mecha and, at the height of my jump, was able to look down directly into the thing's face. 

With a grunt, I drew on even more energy than I had before and allowed it to pool in the palm of my hands. It only took a few seconds before the energy I was trying to control became too much for me and it broke free of my control in a destructive arc. 

The beam of light struck the mecha directly in its shoulder and cut through the thing as easily as it had soared through the air. The mecha didn’t stand a chance. The joint was severed as if it were made of paper and the robot’s limb fell away before hitting the ground with a resounding clunk. 

Whether it was an artificial intelligence or someone piloting the mech remotely I didn’t know, whoever they were were clearly very unhappy that I’d managed to deal such significant damage to the machine. 

Before I even had a chance to react to what was going on the robot brought its other hand around and slapped me back out of the air with an open hand. 

The attack thwacked me back through the hole in the ceiling that the robot had made when it began its attack and into the ground hard. I was left rolling through the chairs until I crashed into the wall at the far end of the hall hard enough to knock the breath out of my chest. 

I staggered back to my feet spat out a small amount of blood from a cut on my lip and stretched a crack out of my neck. 

The slap hadn’t done any major damage to me and I was starting to feel like I was actually having fun. 

I grinned up at the robot. I wanted whoever was controlling the thing to know that they hadn’t done any damage to me. The robot’s visor glinted back at me ominously. 

The mecha clearly got the message, its undamaged arm reached behind its back and pulled out a long and heavy sword from some armoured partition I hadn’t seen and positioned itself defensively with the blade out over its chest. 

I steadied myself with a breath and prepared to jump into the fray once again, but before I could attack the mecha was assaulted by a trio of spells I hadn’t anticipated coming. 

While I’d thought everyone in the hall had decided to flee the fight I was clearly wrong, and at least a few others were trying to score some points with whoever was watching early on as well. 

From my left, in a position obscured by a pile of chairs, someone fired out an icicle that was as long as the mecha’s fallen arm. 

The attack was in vein, all the robot needed to do was adjust its defensive stance and the ice was split in two, each piece left to harmlessly pass by either side of the mechanical construct. 

From somewhere on my right, someone else summoned a blast of swirling wind in an attempt to knock the robot off balance, but it stood strong and unfazed by the buffeting gale that had been summoned to strike it. 

The last attack came in the form of a magically enhanced vine. 

The thick green tendril thwipped out like a living lasso and wrapped itself around the Robot’s sword arm. It wound itself down the arm and around the robot’s fingers, binding it tightly in place. Nature struggled against metal, and if the creaking groaning sounds were anything to go by nature was winning. 

This was my chance.