They passed through the protective field of the tent and began to make their way through the hot shards of glass and sand to the surface. Ronnie covered his face with the kufiyah and climbed higher, Nika followed him. They felt like their hearts were about to burst out of their chests. A lot of scratches and cuts appeared on their bodies. It felt like being inside an iron maiden. Six minutes later, the torment stopped, and they got out. Ronnie took her by the hand, pulled her up with a sharp movement and said: "It's time." She screamed like an Amazon in the heat of rage and fury and opened fire to kill. The sand soldiers smiled and hooted. Bullets flew right through their bodies and did no damage. The emperor howled from afar in his ancient language, and the soldiers moved forward, bursting glass fragments under their feet. In the white haze, their red eyes acquired clearer and more frightening outlines with each step. Ronnie grabbed her by the shoulder and ordered her to run towards the flint menhirs, she obeyed.

He did not shoot, he studied the enemy's behavior and the corners of his lips rose slightly. The thick veil of steam began to dissipate with noticeable speed. The view range has increased. Ronnie saw the accumulation of water droplets sucked into a bluish-white sphere on the palm of one of the titans. He sounded like a bugle and fired a shell forward. It stopped over Ronnie's head and blurred into a thundercloud from which stone totems fell, surrounding the sniper from all sides. Everything in this arena became electrified. The first lightning bolts rushed to the sniper's back. He dodged in a jump, shot at the totem and it exploded. The next blow aimed at his head. Ronnie did a somersault forward, threw a smoke grenade under him and tried to escape by firing at the totems ahead.

When he was at a safe distance, he turned around and pointed the muzzle of the PPSH-41 at the titan's head. 7.62 caliber bullets flew out faster than a thought, cutting through the air. A second later, Ronnie saw the bullets ricochet to the side. The Titan grunted and clutched his face. Ronnie cursed and then shouted: "Fire" and ran back, he saw Nika turn around, roar and start shooting left and right with continuous fire. He fell face down as soon as several bullets whistled over his head and waved his arms and shouted:

"Stop! Stop! You're going to kill me!"

She did not answer, but stopped firing. He got up, continued:

"Shoot three or four rounds at a time!"

Ronnie turned around and saw the first soldier pounce on him with a spear. He managed to dodge and fell on the side. The metal tip of the weapon entered the sand. Nika fired a burst, but never hit, the last bullet flew 5 centimeters from Ronnie's leg and shattered a shard of glass. He got up and hit the soldier on the head with the butt of the PPSh-41. The skull was sturdy, but he had enough strength to disorient the enemy. Ronnie continued the attack and pushed the monster with his left shoulder, disarmed it and took away the spear, he tried to stab the tip into the head. The sand soldier blocked the blow, snatched his weapon back and kicked the sniper in the gut.

Nika fired a few more shots. One of the bullets hit the creature in the eye, the second in the forehead, it howled and turned into sand. The emperor directed the pommel of the staff in the form of two snakes at Ronnie, collected red energy from the incandescent electrified skies and released it forward in the form of a ray. The sniper managed to jump back. A meter in front of him, an explosion occurred, spreading shards of glass and drops of mercury to the all sides. The next two soldiers jumped out of the smoke. Their burning scimitars rose above their heads, and then rushed downwards in a chopping motion. Ronnie had no choice but to block the blades with his weapon. The blades of the swords were not sharp enough, after contact, accompanied by a steely sound, they vibrated and fell out of the hands of the monsters. He wasted no time, stuck the butt into his shoulder and sent 10 bullets forward. The soldiers' heads exploded. He ran back, Nika continued her suppressing fire.

"Let's get out of here!" he shouted.

The next ten minutes followed the same scenario: shooting, moving, shooting, moving. They hid behind fragments of incandescent silicon, looked out, sent several bullets to the places of the alleged enemy, focusing only on the sounds of glass breaking under their feet and retreated back. Ronnie kept losing sight of Nika, and she, in turn, was losing directions and screamed at the face of the smallest danger. Emperor’s red rays hit the silicon every thirty seconds, melting the natural shelter and turning it into liquid lava, in addition to this, oxygen was no longer enough. Both poor souls were sweating just after a few minutes after the fight started. AI reported that the melting point of silicon is above 1414°C.

"The attack will turn you into ashes."

"I figured it out without you."

The leapfrog game was drawing out more and more stamina. In addition to this, harpies appeared above their heads, they used the natural magic of a heart-rending scream, releasing sound waves that threw off and disoriented the enemy for a few seconds. Nika hid behind another flint menhir and did not notice how a sand soldier jumped out at her from the other side, she dodged the blade of a flaming sword, made a roll and fired five bullets into his head, smiled and said while laughing: "Take this, fucker!" At that moment, the harpy flew up behind her and squeaked. Nika lost her balance and hit her head on the rock. Ronnie noticed this, pointed the handguard of the PPSH and hesitated for a couple of seconds, looked at how far he had to run to the forest, spat down and pulled the trigger three times and the half-bird half-human, who grabbed her hair with its paws and tried to pull her away, fell and twitched in convulsions. He ran up and finished off the creature with shot to the head, struck a special chip into her body to read the monster's DNA and lifted Nika off the ground and carried her on his shoulders. Ronnie's stamina dropped to one. The transportable weight has risen to 101%, there was not enough strength, despite the passive skill of the first modification "double increase in transportable weight". Fortunately, a couple of minutes was enough for Nika to recover and run on her own.