With the first Giant Stygian down, and with a swift maneuver of a hand, Altair was able to realign the right assembly of blades and the left's pneumatic driver into proper defensible positions. His eyes darted from left to right, rapidly tracking the two Giant Stygians beside the Ironside.

  Just as he was going to respond, the Ironside began to tremble once again.

  "Damn!" he bellowed in frustration. "Vigil, reposition the sentries and target the two Giant Stygians on our sides with autocannons," he continued, his voice laced with caution as he carefully watched the last two advancing Giant Stygians in front of the Ironside, and the one without a torso just below them.

  "Affirmative, Lieutenant!" Vigil's reaction was swift and precise, partially fueled by desperation and the fear of the dark and cold place called death. He wasn't showing it, but deep down, his newly born consciousness was working overtime to make up for it, relentlessly creating new pathways of code and nodes across his entire sentient self.

  Right now, there were two Giant Stygians around the Ironside, one on the left and another on the right. Both of them had their fists deep within the Ironside's thick black armor. The one on the right raised its fist and punched once again, which was copied by the one on the left. After a few moments, the right one let out a loud screech of horror, despite not having any facial features on its circulating silver and black lines around its body.

  Once the screech simmered down, it raised its fist up and the alternating lines on its body glowed with slight intensity, and the fist and its entire arm started to morph into a blade-like structure.

  "No you don't!" Vigil screamed internally in frustration.

  Once the sentries were repositioned, the autocannons rose back up, and with fiery thunderclaps of kinetic bullets, the rightmost Giant Stygian staggered. However, it didn't stop and continued morphing its hands further into a blade-like structure.

  Mira, watching between the trees and bushes, watched with immense intensity on the ongoing battle.

  "The Ironside is losing." She whispered under the pitter-pattering of the black rain.

  Unable to take it anymore, she gripped her silver bow as numerous voices of mana started gathering around her. However, she was interrupted by a hand grabbing her shoulder. She glanced back with frustration and saw Brennan also tightly holding his axe.

  "Before you do anything stupid, all three of us must come to a consensus first." He laid out his demands in a matter-of-fact tone.

  Mira stared with great intensity toward Brennan, as if the good old veteran would be intimidated by it. When she found him unflinching, she looked to Lyria for support; however, she only merely moved beside Brennan.

  "Y-you two." She exclaimed in bitterness as she found no ally in the precise moment.

  "If we don't move out there, the Ironside will be defeated!" She said, her voice slightly raised, which Lyria came forward and brought her own index finger close to her own mouth in a gesture of reminder.

  "Fine!" She said in a tone akin to a child throwing a tantrum.

  "First of all, if we move out of our place, the black rain might start corrupting us. Second of all, we are already in a safe place. Are you seriously going to let the Ironside's sacrifice be in vain? Third of all, the Ironside seems to already have an understanding of your fighting abilities, as it forced you to stop from doing risky things earlier. Have you forgotten about that already?"

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  Upon hearing the reasons listed out, Mira averted her eyes. Despite the reasons, she still chose to argue.

  "Indeed, the black rain corrupts us, but you are forgetting something. That's what our resonators are for!" she said with increasing frustration in her voice. To which she then moved her eyes toward Lyria. "Moreover, a slight corruption could be cured by Lyria."

  Unable to contain herself, Lyria exploded in anger. "Why can't you stop being unreasonable?! You've always been like thi—" Her voice was cut off as she realized what she had done.

  As the loud sound traveled far, numerous Stygians faced their direction.

  The first one to react was Mira. "I guess we don't have a choice either way." Mira exclaimed.

  Which was followed by Brennan, who simply looked at Lyria with disappointed eyes, not with anger, but with disappointment. He simply turned around and tightly gripped his axe.

  The last one was Lyria. "I-I am sorry." She stammered with each word as tears started to slide down her cheeks.

  Brennan simply said, "There is no point crying over spilled milk." Which he followed with, "You should start preparing spells immediately." He advised.

  Mira, true to her thoughts and beliefs, immediately pulled her silver bow and aimed, calling all the surrounding mana, as visible cracks appeared around the bow, and a silver arrow appeared. She aimed, not at the Stygians coming from all around their direction, but rather at the Nightmare on the rightmost flank of the Ironside.

  Once the silver arrow was fully visible, she let go of the arrow, which left a trail of soft silver glow along its path. With great approximation, the silver arrow pierced the dark surroundings that were dimly lit by the soft crimson glow coming from the Ironside.

  The arrow struck its target, and the Nightmare began to have cracks of light all over its body as it began to let out a loud scream that sent shivers around their bodies. Its entire body began to shake as it was filled with a massive amount of mana. Then, like a silent judgment its body simply started turning into dust as it slowly disappeared, dissipated, and was put to eternal rest.

  With her actions, the Ironside was given a brief respite, which Altair and Vigil fully took advantage of. With the right flank clear of Giant Stygian, the right leg or now an arm, was able to move much more freely. With swift controls from Altair, among the dozen blades from the assembly, he switched it into a spear-like structure.

  With a sway of a hand, the Ironside's right hand struck its spear-like structure from the assembly of blades to the leftmost Giant Stygian. The Giant Stygian was pushed back a few dozen meters as the tip of the blade pierced its torso, which gave the pneumatic driver much more freedom of movement.

  Altair, with the assistance of Vigil, immediately pulled the left hand where the pneumatic driver was and using the right hand where the tip of the spear was they pulled it in front of the Ironside. Once the Giant Stygian was in front, the Ironside retracted the assembly of blades and drove the pneumatic driver forward with intense vigor.

  With a single thunderclap, the entire torso of the Giant Stygian ceased to exist. Once the creature fell, Altair immediately scanned the remaining cameras, and before the Giant Stygian was able to move its heart, he immediately reformed the assembly of blades and pierced it back with the spear-like structure.

  The Giant Stygian started to squirm around as it screamed in horror as if it was being tortured. The silver and black lines around its body started to dim and unravel, therefore revealing its bare muscles, fat, and its numerous facial features. Like a cocoon that has no use to those inside it, the Giant Stygian began to dry until it turned into ash and was carried away by the puddles of black water from the black rain.

  Now there were only two Giant Stygians at full strength and one that was incapacitated. However, for a brief second, Altair and Vigil had some respite.

  "Vigil, how many seconds are left until the weapons are finished?" His voice was hoarse but strong.

  "We have around ten seconds left until weapon completion." Vigil said in a fluctuating voice between high and low, as if he could not believe he had just survived that fight.