The Forest Trolls for some reason got really agitated with the loss of the Monster Lure and it further infuriated them that they suddenly lost a portion of their own species to some energy beam that had been released by the Mechanoid.
Page, Click and Lynn would undoubtedly surprised by the strength and skill of Tellie's attack but there was no time for rest for the Forest Trolls suddenly turned their anger towards them. Their attacks were swifter, despite their size and the wooden clubs and poles hit harder that it left small potholes on the ground. The Mechanoids deduced that if they were to get hit, they might lose a portion of their body rather easily.
There was nothing they could do but defend Tellie as they needed her to keep a path clear for Yinn and Diaz to return. Little did they know that the monster lure that had been used was something similar to the cries of a baby forest troll. The destruction of the Monster Lure mechanical pillar was akin to the distortion of the forest troll crying and to make things worse, the explosion propagated the sound.
All of the Mechanoids within the vicinity had no idea that such an occurrence happened. All they knew was that the Forest Trolls turned aggressive and they had to maintain the objective of getting Yinn and Diaz back in one piece.
"Seriously, I think we should have cleared a majority of them before we let that duo do that search and destroy mission for the monster lure." Click complained as she hastily set up as many turrets as she could based on the limited amount of materials that were available within her bag. She knew that there were still some extras in their getaway car but right now, it was too far for her to do anything with regards to that.
Knowing that assault rifle turrets would not be extremely useful for the current situation, she had decided to use flame turrets instead as that was the only thing that had been working according to Lynn. She had infused her punches and kicks with high temperature and accelerated them further to cause the heating element to be visibly seen as she popped off those Forest Troll's heads.
Thus, when the flame turrets were set up, the periodic attacks did cause damage to the Forest Trolls and the mechanoids could witness that their regeneration was slowing down. With the evidence being apparent to them, Page found a System Upgrade card that enabled her nanobots to create a sort of ignition upon contact. A temporarily elemental buff which Page was surprised that it was within her repertoire of upgrade cards which she did not notice before. (Of course, she did not notice it, the System created it as per the situation demands.)
So, with the upgrade boost of the fire elemental nanobots, the team decided to hunker down and protect Tellie instead of moving her to a suitable position for the next firing. After all, if Tellie had to reposition, that also meant that after cooling down, the Sniper Mechanoid had to recalculate everything including her firing position to ensure that she fired a similar spot while taking into account the firing distance away from the initial shot as well as the dungeon entrance.
Seeing how it would be more time-saving to stay in position, the rest fought fiercely to ensure that Tellie's cooldown was not interrupted.
"Yinn! Do we still have artillery support?! We are being swarmed here!" Click asked through the System channel in hopes that the vice leader of the Grey Bear Squad could answer her.
"Send me the coordinates! I will push it out to the artillery support as soon as I can!" Yinn shouted but before the coordinates came through, the artillery strikes proceeded, burning the encirclement that was surrounding the remaining Grey Bears.
"The System can handle such a request. Focus on returning to the group. The User expects all Grey Bears to return in one piece." It was a surprise that the Mechanoids and even Lynn could not see it coming from afar.
"Wow for the first time in a long while, the System is taking initiative to aid? Are you okay, System? Can I ask you to buy the lucky drawback in our world? I think we can earn some good cash from the lottery from this sudden turn of events." Lynn said with such sarcasm that she might have been half serious about it.
Seeing how the mission had been accomplished, the System was probably satisfied that there were few resources spent on such an important mission. Thus, it concluded that the artillery strikes that it had been providing were a still significant net positive to their current predicament. However, that could not be said for the same with the West side. If not for Jin's hunch (even though his hunch was based on something completely unrelated), they would have been able to salvage the situation and have the Daimon City ready for battle rather than be besieged from all sides.
And so, the Grey Bears were instrumental in making sure that this impromptu assault operation could be completed, making it a priority to return to Daimon City as intact as possible without much damage so that they could be utilised again for the subsequent operations. That was why the artillery strikes continued even though it was to only save six Mechanoids.
"I am ready to go in ten seconds," Tellie whispered even though she was still steaming hot from the gigantic energy beam that she had used. After all, she had enough experience after multiple attempts in doing long distance sniping with large stakes. If there was an award to be given as best damage dealer of the operations, she might have won those multiple times in a row. Upon announcing her strike, she recalculated her angle as she deviated a little away from her previous shot so that she could clear the forest from the Forest Trolls while providing a brand new path for Yinn and Diaz to return.
"We are ready!" Yinn said as she picked up a power cord from her side vest pocket and plugged it into the Mechanical Hound. After which, she plugged the other end into her neck and thus provided not only additional battery energy but also information about where the next attack was going to be to the hound, allowing it to make decisions about when to jump and move. This was especially crucial as Yinn did not have sufficient attention span to take note of the hound's path since they were busy making sure that the Forest Trolls from the sides and in front of them did not block them to the point where they had no place to escape.
It was a game of extending the gap to ensure there was space to move and breathe for the duo and it was getting smaller with every second and every metre closer to their group. However, they were sure they could make it back.
"Page! Click! Fire up the escape vehicle and make sure we can return in one piece! Do any means necessary!" Yinn said as the countdown to Tellie's subsequent beam was less than five seconds.
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