2.41 Breach

Flora dashed out of the dome after Aidan had told her that he lost contact with Haidan, the AI in charge of managing her lair.

"You have to leave the building for porting back to the Metaworld, Milady."

"We take the shortest way out." Flora decided. Instead of following Aidan's signals and entering the elevator, she pushed the activating button telepathically from outside.

The door closed, and Flora heard the cabin shooting out.

Flora sawed a hole in the door and slipped through it to the rollercoaster tracks. Standing on the rails, she had a clear view of the city center. Dozens of meters below her were the park and the highways parting the greenery. From this high up, the traffic looked as if ants had made technological progress and discovered magic at the same time.

"This is a bad idea," Flora mumbled, slightly nauseated by the view. Before she could change her mind, she jumped off the tracks.

Of course, Flora didn't waste time, even when plummeting from a skyscraper.

When her Messenger Mech-suit encased her, she had nearly reached the ground.

Flora shot forward. The gravitational pull and momentum from the spell meshed. Instead of hitting the ground vertically, she curved towards it.

With a diving roll, she buffered the rest of the impact.

Even with the damage reduction of the prayer, Flora lost over 20 percent of her health. However, her sanity has taken a bigger hit.

"I'll never do this again!" She swore, wide-eyed on trembling legs. After she took some deep breath while fetching turrets and weaponry from her inventory, she added."Not never never, more 'never' in the sense of 'I'll never drink again', you know."

With haste, Flora enchanted the golem with 15 mana and assigned it Establish Connection, Lightning Storm, Lightning Shield, and Magical Push. She hadn't the time to ponder her selection but went with her gut feeling.

Flora transferred Aidan-Octopussy to the golem and raised Aito-Octopussy's MR/min to fifteen and filled the rest of her nocks with turrets.

Set-Up:

Nocks: 15 Aito-Octopussy, 5 Mech-Suit, Healing Turret, Repair Turret, 4 Laser Turrets, Mana-Battery.

26

Nocks Total

15

Golem: Establish Connection, Lightning Storm, Lightning Shield, and Magical Push

3

Weapons

0

Artifacts

0

Boost

0

Aura

44

Sum Total

When Flora entered the Metaworld, she appeared at the Server Square, the area of the Metaworld, where the portals to the game-worlds were located.

"Here's the plan: Aito, please scout and send a video feed when you find something interesting. Golly, you will stay close to the turrets and attack anyone who attacks them, if nobody does, shoot the same target as Laser Turret One. If you can hit more than two enemies with a Lightning Storm, use it. Aidan, you will direct the turrets, fight with your Octopussy and reclaim Haidan. Sounds good?"

"Yes, Milady!"

"Beep!"

"BLEAMTO Flowing Flower's Lair TO BLEAM!"

Flora and her team arrived on the teleportation circle on the first floor. The four laser turrets which defended the entrance were smoking wrecks. The repairing turret immediately went to work, and Flora joined it.

"Milady, I regained contact with Haidan. Six enemies are in the Church and currently hacking him for access to the Production Hall. I'm going to support him."

"How are they deployed? Are Haidan's sensors still working?"

"Yes, Milady. One is in the shop area, two demolishing the generators in the main room, two in front of Haidan's control board at the escalator, and one roaming the offices. The female mech-suit operator in the shop and the male paladin next to the hackers seem to be very powerful. Haidan said they one-shot the turrets."

The escalator was right next to the passage from Flora's living quarters to the church. As the center of her lair, the flat was unbreachable. Because of Flora's agreement with Evailyn, the church was open for everyone. Her production hall could be accessed by people on Flora's white list and followers of the goddess.

"Aito, go through the flat to the escalator and distract them. Just bully them, don't let them bog you down." Flora handed the octopus ten traps. "Give me the signal when you are ready. We'll storm the shop simultaneously."

Aito vanished into the flat, and Flora regenerated her pools. She wanted to start in top condition.

Flora tapped into the video feed and inspected all of her opponents. Last, she focused on the mech-suit user in the shop. The mech-suit was colored matt black with a camo-pattern in different shades of grey. It looked sleek and agile. Only the shanks and forearms were thicker than usual. Currently, the operator destroyed the counter of the shop, and the wood splintered under her powerful punches.

Plans and skills flitted through Flora's head as she clutched her multitool wrenches with more strength than necessary. Hundreds of possibilities of how this could go very wrong and hundred of ways of how this could be easy fought in her head. To calm her nerves, Flora took deep breaths.

*Beep*

"Go!" Flora yelled in her mind and dashed through the entrance.

Behind Flora, Aidan and the turrets went through the door. It was only big enough for one turret at a time, so Flora reached the operator before the second turret entered. Nonetheless, the robots started firing as soon as they had the target in sight.

The mech-suit woman spun around and crouched behind the counter. Although she reacted decisively, Flora's icicles still had hit her, as did some of Aidan's shots.

The arm of the woman appeared when Flora was just one meter in front of her.

Flora's eye's widened when she saw three cannons folding out of the forearm of the mech-suit. At that distance, she had no chance to react as thick slugs smashed into her torso. Flora staggered and lost control over the Ice Beam. However, she had a target now.

Ensnared in Flora's spell, the mech-suit slid over the counter. Its second barrage flew wide, but the woman spun in the air and hit Flora boots first.

Flora tumbled and went to the ground. Instantly, she rolled back to her feet. However, being hit by her own pull left a sour feeling in her mouth.

Just when she straightened herself out, the woman kicked her so hard in the stomach that Flora's feet left the floor. An elbow smashed into her neck and flattened her.

Thankfully, Aidan and two turrets had passed the door and were shooting at the woman.

Using Flora as a doormat, the woman stepped on her and whirled around in a spinning kick towards the entry. Even with the slowing effect of the ice, she was still devilishly fast. From the sole of her boot, light arced into the direction of the robots

Although the turret army was several meters away, the light pushed them back and jammed the doorway again.

Flora was absolutely flabbergasted. Nobody had ever treated her as their doormat literally, and those who did so figuratively soon regretted it. 'Not as much as she will bemoan stepping on me!'

Rolling around, Flora simultaneously kicked upwards and channeled another Ice Beam.

While Aidan sorted out the fallen turrets, Golly sprang to action. He leaped over the robots while shooting cantrips at the mech-suit operator.

Unfortunately, the two intruders from the main hall of the church had arrived, too. An archer shot a golden arrow at the two fighting women. In the last second, it split into two, one hitting the mech-operator and one Flora.

Flora knew the skill from her Anti-Ranger PVP training. It was from the Gamekeeper class and healed one target and damaged the other. Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed a hawk swooping towards her.

Desperation grew in Flora. She couldn't even deal with the mech-suit operator. How could she cope with three additional opponents? Was all her training in vain? 'No! Concentrate on the fight! Fret when you are dead!'

Still on the floor, Flora cast her standard spell to force her mind back in the game.

"I'm your target!" A heavily armored, shield-bearing guy yelled before he charged at Flora.

At the same time, the mech-operator brought her two fists down on Flora, who was just picking herself up. Light and Pain exploded from her back, but she still managed to get up, albeit blinded.

Flora had only used the spell one time before when she acquired it. It was the water version of Super-Charge, a ten-second buff that cleared most of her status effects as soon as they arrived and slowed time.

When Flora regained her sight, she almost wished she hadn't. The warrior was closing in, the mech-suit user had pulled back her arm for another strike, the hawk clawed at her helmet, and the ranger rained arrows on her poor robots.

Thankfully, her companions weren't idle. Laser beams zipped on the Ranger at a speed only Rapid-Fire could produce, and Lightning from Golly's storm rained down on Flora's attackers.

Flora didn't want to be hit by Charge. She remembered the impact on the insectoids too well. Thanks to the slowed time, she spotted an opening in the stance of the warrior, and she instinctively knew what to do.

Taking a half step out of his charging path, she grabbed his arm and spun.

Jiu-Jitsu for the win!

The warrior crashed into the mech-suit operator. While the former collapsed in a heap, the impact was only enough to make the woman stumble back.

x 2

Tendrils of lightning arced out of Flora's hands, hitting not only the freshly smashed warriors but also the hawk.

"Status!" Flora demanded through gritted teeth while channeling the elemental force.

"Gamekeeper dead, Mech Operator ca. 20 % health, Warrior ca. 60% health, Hawk ca. 50%. Aito-Octopussy 28% health, Turrets around 40%, Flora 65%, Aidan-Octopussy 93%, Golly 100%. Haidan and I are still defending against the Hacker successfully."

Flora worried about Aito, but pushed the thoughts away. She had to concentrate on her current situation and trust the crafty AI.

After the death of the ranger, the turrets had changed target to the warrior and then switched to the mech-operator. They had to hit the warrior to avoid getting debuffed from the taunt.

Golly still channeled lightning storm. Together with Flora's lightning, the secondary effect of the element caused the three remaining opponents to twitch helplessly.

"Break!" The mech-suit operator screamed. A blue glow enveloped her, and she jumped out of the range of Flora's breath.

The last thing Flora wanted to happen was letting her escape. 'Should I stop the breath and attack her? As sure as toasted bread!'

!

The mech-suite operator had nearly reached the door when she perished. Her death took a load off Flora's mind.

While the hawk had turned into a roasted chicken, the Warrior swung his sword towards Flora.

Now that she had nothing to worry about besides the less skilled player and with her full army pelting him, he was as good as dead.

"Aito is fleeing towards us, Milady. The paladin and a mage are on her tail. ETA: 4 seconds."