Dang Convergence Vol. 1

Chapter Thirty-two The Prototype

Chapter Thirty-two

The Prototype

The murderbots seemed to spawn in triples whenever one of them got destroyed. No sooner had Wombat just blown a hole through one of them that three more emerged from the ground, guns blazing. The intense layer of heat that coated him nullified much of their projectile attacks since they either melted or combusted once they got close enough to him, but then the heat offered him no protection against their energy beams and pulse blasts, both of which seemed a lot more painful than Dang, Daedalus and Dante had said they were.

He remembered what Dante had mentioned while they were training at the high school.

"There's really no way to prepare for Bellum's bots," he'd said, before blowing a hole into one of the training dummies. "They're quick, they're strong, they're lethal...and perhaps even more frightening, they know how to adapt. A bot comes after you today, you destroy it easily. Another one comes after you tomorrow and it's almost like they know exactly how to beat you. You ask me, I think they collect data on encounters and adapt to specific combat instances."

"What's that mean?" Daniel had asked.

"It's simple," Dante had shrugged. "When the time comes and you're up against one, ten, a hundred or even a thousand murderbots, don't try to do things by the book. Don't try to recreate whatever it is you've learned in training because chances are they're prepared for that. When the time comes, you need to go all out. And you need to adapt."

Now, staring down at the murderbot horde that had him surrounded, he wondered how he was supposed to adapt. Just how much hotter did he need to burn for him to put an end to the murderbot rampage?

And it didn't help that from where he stood, he could feel the vibrations in the air no doubt emanating from whatever battle the others were involved in. Whichever monster they were up against must have been really strong and he felt a little annoyed at himself that a bunch of pesky little robots had him occupied when his friends needed his help.

He thought about Tiger, who had been radio silent for some time now. He'd thought to call in on the comms but he couldn't risk getting distracted during his fight. If anything had happened to Tiger, he preferred not to find out about it until after all of this was over.

He drew a deep breath and slid his feet across the ground, holding his left hand up, the other just over his waist. When he exhaled, flames spurted from his nostrils and mouth, and gently-burning flames engulfed both his hands.

"Adapt," he said to himself. "Come on, Daniel, you can do this. No big deal, you've been adapting your entire life. It's just like Donkey Kong and Mario Kart all over again. If the other guy's playing better than you, just play harder."

His flames burned even brighter, and then he attacked. He dashed forward and sent a murderbot's head flying with a powerful kick. He lifted the murderbot high over his head, coating its metal body in flame and then launched it at a group of bots.

The murderbot crashed into its comrades and exploded, sending bits of flaming metal flying in every direction. Wombat aimed a hand at the flaming metal scraps, focusing on the flame that coated them.

He willed the flames to bend to his power, and they did. He levitated high into the air, arm still outstretched, the flaming metal parts rising up with him, heeding his command. A simple gesture of his hand sent the metal parts raining down on the other bots like projectiles, metal pelting against metal, burning through the bots and causing a few more to explode.

He summoned a fireball in his hand and had been about to hurl it downward when a murderbot flew into him from behind, an excruciating jolt of electricity coursing through him upon impact, causing him to yell in agony.