The two gargantuan Automatons immediately began charging their lasers. Daz wasted no time and got Rimmy to throw him even though the lasers took roughly thirty seconds to charge up.

"SHOVEL SMASH!" The blood-red Hamson crashed into the thick and impenetrable metal arm, moving it slightly away from its original position. However, Daz wasn't done yet.

Daz used his high Agility to twist his body mid-air and he threw Hamson with as much strength as he could, straight into the Automaton.

A high-pitched screech echoed out as the Robot's arm was moved more, getting it closer to being aligned with the other Robot's core.

Daz fell through the air and Hamson returned to his hand thanks to his Throw and Retrieve skill. Blood seeped out of his gear by his shoulder and his arm felt like it was on fire.

As soon as he was just about to hit the floor, Rimmy caught him and spun around before launching Daz like a rocket once more. He knew that Daz was hurt and it pained him to throw his Master and friend again only for him to certainly injure himself even more, but he knew the importance of what Daz was doing, so he grit his metaphorical teeth and watched as Daz repeatedly hit the Robot's arm as much as possible before it fired.

As this was happening, Crusher had been thinking about how she would reach her target's arm and it had taken her fifteen seconds to finally come up with an idea.

"This is gonna hurt like a motherfucker..." Crusher mumbled before she sucked in a bunch of air and picked up her sledgehammer.

Crusher ran forward despite the pain her body was experiencing and she did something unbelievable. Everyone watching from the wall was already shocked by Daz's actions, but what Crusher had done was so... oddly effective.

Crusher had slammed her hammer down onto the ground and used that force to propel herself into the air. It sounded ludicrous, and that was because it was ludicrous. The only way this could be possible was thanks to Crusher's insane amount of stat points into the stat of Strength.

She sailed through the air like a loosed cannonball and just as Daz had done, she spun her broken body around and around to gain momentum and her sledgehammer heavily impacted onto the arm of the Automaton, sending it flying in the opposite direction and actually denting the metal.

Crusher then sagged out of the air like a lifeless doll. Before losing consciousness, she had one final thought. 'Did I maybe hit it a bit too hard?... hahaha... I hope not... or Lord's gonna yell at me once he fixes my mess...'

Unfortunately, Crusher's thoughts had hit the right nail on the head. Unlike Daz who had perfectly lined up his Robot after several small hits, Crusher's single attack had its laser cannon pointing just past Daz's Robot, meaning that it wouldn't hit its target.

Daz was tired, exhausted and felt like he was going to die from the pain in his arms and torso. He watched in horror as the two Automatons fired their beams of death and only one was successfully destroyed while the other still stood tall and was ready to destroy Fort Skip at a moment's notice.

"Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck FUCK!" Daz began cursing with what little strength he had left. How was he supposed to deal with this? Crusher was unconscious and neither he nor Rimmy had the power left to even stop this Automaton, let alone destroy it.

Almost like a scene out of a nightmare, the now-dead Tank Issue Mark IV Automaton slowly moved and fused with the current one. What was created was a monstrous-looking Robot. A tiny, Human-size ball of metal was floating off of the ground, and levitating above it was a far larger sphere of metal. Hovering on either side of this sphere was an arm just as large as the one from before.

Both of these arms immediately began charging a laser that seemed to be even more powerful than the previous ones. Daz's face fell and he felt truly terrified.

Successfully cleared half of the attack's boss monsters. The attack will now enter the third and final phase.

"Should... should I run away?" Daz felt hopeless, no, he felt even worse than hopeless. It was at this moment that time seemed to stop and Daz fell into deep thought.

'Would there even be a point in me running away? Everyone would die. Ger, Ellie, Lyle, Crusher, Rose... everyone... and I wanted to be the King of the World... hahaha... funny... I'm fucking pathetic... fuck it. I guess I'll die here. Let's do one selfless thing before I go to the other side, huh?' With that stupid and somewhat endearing thought over, time started to pass again and Daz wobbled to his feet.

"Rimmy, this is goodbye. I know I'm asking a lot, but could you block one of the lasers with your body? I'm gonna block the other one," Daz asked with a smile on his worn-out face.

Rimmy understood. He couldn't feel prouder or sadder at this very moment. It had been a short few days, but Daz had really changed since their meeting and Rimmy was happy at this brief second chance at life. He knew that after he got destroyed this time that there would be no coming back since Daz was determined to give up his life right now. Rimmy nodded his head and gave Daz a heartfelt thumbs up.

Daz held his earpiece and spoke to whoever was on the other side. "Run away. We can't win. Climb down the damned cliff if you have to. I can only block a single attack, maybe. Just... just get away from Fort Skip. Get far, far away. Far away enough that it can't reach you. I'm sorry that I couldn't protect everyone like I promised."

With that, Daz threw the earpiece away. He didn't want to hear a reply. There were only five or so more seconds until the lasers would be fired. The sound of them charging up was terrifying and honestly too intimidating for Daz to even care.

Both he and Rimmy were standing just below each of the Automatons arms, clearly ready to jump in the way.

"Daz? Daz?! Hey, Ellie! What the hell do you think you're doing?!" Daz was too far from the earpiece to hear this coming from it and he had zoned out, so he probably wouldn't have been able to hear it anyway.

Just as the lasers were about the launch, both Daz and Rimmy jumped up into the air to block them. Daz struggled to reach the required height, but he somehow managed and turned his body to its side and he covered his face just in case, by some miracle, he could survive.

One moment, Daz was conscious, the next, he was a mere hair's length away from death. The laser directly hit his travelling gear and although it lasted for a fraction of a second, it was destroyed almost instantaneously.

Daz fell to the floor in a wet mess of blood. If he could see himself now, he would be disgusted. His left arm and leg were completely gone and the rest of his body was burnt to a crisp.

He was only able to block fifty percent of the attack, so the remainder hit Fort Skip and tore right through the two walls on both sides and continued on into the distance. One of the new cabins Daz had bought was completely incinerated along with two shipping containers. Thankfully, no survivors in Fort Skip had died.

Rimmy fared slightly better. He was large enough to block the entire beam of condensed light, but his entire body had melted into some sort of goop. Were Daz still awake, he'd have seen a message telling him that Rimmy had been destroyed and that he couldn't return for another twelve hours.

The Automaton cared little for the practically dead Daz and for the passed out Crusher. Once more, its arm cannons began to fill with light particles. It was fully intent on destroying Fort Skip.

It was at this moment that Ellie stood in front of Daz's body. There were tears in her eyes and she was breathing heavily. Apparently, she had run all the way here from the Fort's outer rampart instead of running away. She was holding Mini-Daz and her hair was in a mess.

Ger ran up to her from behind. Clearly, he had followed her. "Ellie! We need to run! We can't kill that thing! Get a grip! Daz and Crusher sacrificed themselves for us. We can't let their lives be in vain!"

Ellie shook her head. "No, Dad. This is all my fault. If only I hadn't hidden my skill..."

Ger didn't know what Ellie was talking about and was just about to grab her arm, but he was stopped by the fact that Ellie started to float in the air.

"C'mon, Mini-Daz, let's beat this thing!" Ellie shouted before she immediately began using her telekinesis along with the one mysterious skill of hers that Daz was unable to identify. The Automatons arms began shaking and they were slowly being pulled away from its body.

Ger stood in shock. 'Wh... what in the...? Is... is my daughter doing that?'

Veins were bulging all over Ellie's hands and her forehead and Mini-Daz looked like he was mere seconds away from exploding. The Automatons arms were clearly resisting Ellie's skills, but they slowly craned towards each other and when they fired their lasers, they absolutely obliterated themselves.

Ellie coughed up a mouthful of blood and immediately lost control of whatever was allowing her to float like that. Ger caught her and looked thoroughly confused. Before he even had a moment to consider what had just happened, the large floating sphere that remained suddenly split open to reveal a third laser cannon.

Ger's face paled and he immediately started to run away with his daughter in his arms. However, he had only made it a few feet away when a loud slashing sound could be heard from behind him.

Slowly turning his head, Ger saw something unbelievable. A beautiful young girl no older than eighteen was stood there with a thin longsword in her hands. She had long, straight blonde hair that reached down to her waist and she was in a stance that would suggest she had just attacked with her blade.

As if to confirm his suspicions, the Automaton split into two perfectly cut pieces. Ger stood in shock and looked at the girl who had caused all of this.

She was wearing a simple pair of shoes accompanied by stockings which went up to her thighs that were hidden by a short skirt. She was wearing a blue buttoned shirt and something about her despite her cute and casual appearance felt almost... regal.

This girl looked at Ger and spoke. "Daz. Where?"