Writer’s spot: Greetings friends! After some time, here we have the time where Gaz finally manage to do something against the bull! (Or is it?)

SO, with much delay, I’ve finally began to bring this arc to a close, and am already planning for the next arc, where I’m planning on bringing this series back to it’s original idea. Even if only temporarily.

BESIDES, I wanted to let it clear that the bull is something that entirely outclassed Beepy as an opponent. Such it is that most of the time, he was the one taking the attacks. This also works to destroy his body and have him start working on the next one, so all works out in the end…

Beep, and enjoy your story!

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[So, what’s the plan?] Gaz asked in a hollow voice that seemed almost lifeless.

[For now, we have to find the bull before it find us, to prepare the field.] Ruby replied briefly with her serious tone.

[He’s to our right… Thirty degrees…] Ekis said with the exact same tone as Gaz.

For a moment, Ruby stopped and turned to the duo with a confused face.

[I can understand Gaz being depressed, but why are you too, Ekis?] She asked after a moment while resuming her walk.

[[Because we were pretty much useless back there…]] They replied in perfect synch before sighing.

Rather, Gaz let out a long and drawn out beep that sounded really similar to a sigh. This seemed to attract the attention of the hugger, who turned to him in confusion for a moment as if waiting for something.

Gaz simply gave him a brief glance before turning back to the front, walking away. Hugger understood immediately that it simply meant that it was to follow him, so it complied and quietly followed him, its four legs moving the slim body in a slightly creepy way.

On the plus side, at least Gaz got himself a subordinate, it seems. While having this slightly happy thought, the wolf robot quickly checked up on his body. His leg was still damaged, so he couldn’t count on it for attacks, while he still had one of his ears missing due to the tournament earlier. Luckily, the fact that it was a pair was more for cosmetic purposes, as each one had enough capacity to work just fine by itself.

But, with what he had, even he knew that his armor-piercing capacity was a bit on the low side. Back when he planned this body for himself with Ruby and Ekis, he didn’t expect to fight such a though enemy right out of the bat with such heavy armor. Thus, he had to resort to a last-moment addition to his body.

Hastily welded to his body was the buckshot case he stole from the boar-like robot back at the preliminaries after finishing the fight. The single case had been stuck to his back right behind his leg-joint, tilting to the side so that it wouldn’t hit his head when he activated the weapon.

But, on Ruby’s calculations, a single shell wouldn’t be able to pierce Brutus’ armor, so he would need to discharge the whole case in one volley if he wanted to do any real damage to the bull robot. Since it had been a last minute addition, there was no time to add a reload mechanism to the case, and even then, they didn’t have any remaining shells to reload, so it truly was a one-shot wonder he had there.

Thankfully, the mechanism worked perfectly fine, as a brief shell-less test showed before, so the need to worry about a possible malfunction was inexistent.

[But the exposed cables do make it look like a sloppy work] Ruby complained while glancing at him briefly.

[Not like we had enough time to pass it under the armor, right?] Ekis said with a wry tone, and Beepy nodded in agreement.

[even then, it would look a bit off. I mean, we made all this sleek looking body, then suddenly, BAM! A wild box appeared. It doesn’t match the design at all…] Gaz continued to complain loudly.

[I would also like the modifications to work better, but… aren’t you complaining a bit too much?] Ruby asked slightly bothered with the way he was acting. For a moment nothing came, but finally, Beepy said with a low tone.

[I’m nervous, you know?] He said wearily. [Last time, if you didn’t save me, I would have died there… For the second time in my life… And somehow that makes sense…]

Ruby blinked for a moment, before nodding knowingly. Indeed, in such situations, the normal reaction would be to become nervous like him, but for her, as nervous as she was, she still managed to maintain her calm thanks to still being on her professor mode.

Shaking her head to move her thoughts away from this matter, she once again focused on the matter at hand, reviewing and refining her plan so that it wouldn’t fail her at the last moment.

…

[He is here.] Gaz said with a warning, making Ruby stop in her tracks immediately before throwing herself against the wall.

The wolf stopped right beside her with the Hugger stopping right behind him, as if following his order. Ruby sent him a curious glance for a moment, slightly surprised with how the two robots were coordinating so nicely, even thought it was only some time ago since they had their bout. But as many questions she had floating in her mind, she left it for later.

She had a few theories that were good enough for her for now, like the Hugger recognizing Beepy as his superior and simply was following his orders. Although the communication method was still a mystery for her, she could leave it for later.

Peeking from the corner of the wall, the Morfian saw as the bull walked ahead, it’s huge hooved legs smashing apart a small robot that dared to attack it. Besides him were a few soldiers, all wielding firearms with a confused face.

Surrounding all of them were a horde of small robots that were rampaging around. Ruby guessed that this might have been caused by her freeing the robots earlier. Mixed feelings crossed her chest, as this was the perfect distraction, since all the focus had turned towards the robots, but it also had a bad side, since so many of the robots were being destroyed non-stop by the gunfire and the rampaging bull.

Steeling her resolve, she quickly analyzed the situation. The three guards would be a bother for her plan, but if she managed to pull Brutus away from the scene, the smaller robots would easily lock them in place for quite a good time. Potentially even defeating them despite their weapons.

Nodding slightly, she turned towards Gaz and made him a brief signal with her hand. The robot nodded briefly before turning the corner and looking at the bull.

Waiting for a moment when the guards were all focused ahead, Gaz quickly loaded one of the remaining needles he had on his tail and took aim.

Swinging his tail as he put maximum pressure on the launcher, the needle flew true and hit the bull right on the back of its rear legs, digging surprisingly deep taking in consideration the heavy armor of the bull.

However, this only managed to get the bull's attention, as a single movement from it broke the needle within its joint.

By the time the bull turned towards him with its massive body, Gaz had already hid himself behind the wall and activated his presence sensor. Barely on the edge of his sensor, he could feel as the large bull turned back towards them. The soldiers turned to the bull confused for a moment, but they didn’t have enough time to wonder what was happening, as the smaller robots immediately swarmed them, since the larger threat seemed occupied.

Ignoring the situation happening around it, the bull turned towards Beepy with a scary precision before kicking the ground, preparing his charge.

[He’s coming!] He warned via the link as he moved away. Ruby nodded back and immediately moved away. Not even a moment after the bull crushed the wall in front of them, passing through it as if it was made of paper.

Dodging the robot’s charge with ease due to the advanced warning, they still were caught up by the debris of the wall as the monster passed through. Beepy’s armor easily protected him from the shards, but Ruby didn’t have as much luck, and started bleeding slightly as some cuts appeared in her skin. However, despite her clear pained face, the cuts closed with a scary speed as her natural Morfian skill kicked in.

“Was that…” She asked in a pained tone, but Ekis replied immediately.

[No, time he took to reach was far too long.] she replied immediately. Ruby grimaced slightly as the goddess went on. [Maybe it is holding the last charges for an emergency?]

[Maybe, but not the time to ponder.] Gaz said while moving his head as he followed the bull. [He is doing something strange.]

[Is he circling us?] Ruby asked, but it sounded more like she was confirming it than being surprised.

[Yeah… How did you know?] Gaz asked doubtful. Ruby smiled briefly while looking around wearily.

[I thought about it… how he seemed to easily find us earlier.] She said briefly.

[And that’s…?] Gaz asked when he noticed that she wasn’t going to continue her words.

[I’ll explain later. He should be coming again soon.] She said while picking some pebbles from the ground. Just as her words left her mouth, Gaz noticed as the bull made a sharp turn through one of the rooms in the building, turning straight towards them.

Gaz widened his eye in shock and quickly prepared to dodge out of the attack’s way. However as he readied himself to dodge the attack, he saw as Ruby simply stood where she was, holding the pebbles in her hand.

[What are you doing? Run!] Gaz said worriedly, but she simply gave a slight smile while holding the stones in her hand.

Before Gaz even had the time to react, she started throwing the stones. Staring at her surprised for a moment, he saw as she quickly picked up a stone and threw it seemingly randomly down the corridor. Then, shortly after she did the same with a similar stone, then another and another and another, each one throwing faster and harder than the previous one.

Shaking his head, he quickly prepared to push the foolish girl away from where she was.

But then, the bull turned.

[What…] Ekis said in a silent shock.

[From your surprise, I guess I was correct.] Ruby said with a smirk before quickly frowning once again. [Not the time, as soon as he bust the walls, run through the hole he made when getting here!]

Gaz looked at her in confusion and shock for a few moments, but he didn’t have much time to wonder what happened, because a brief moment later, the bull crashed through the wall nearby, straight ahead of where the pebbles had been thrown at.

As much as he wanted to ask the Morfian how she did that, he still put his mind towards what ruby had said. Seeing as the bull looked at them in what seemed surprised and tried to stop on it’s tracks, Gaz quickly darted forward, leaving a single beep as a warning for the hugger to follow them.

[What do we do now?] He asked worried as they followed the trail of destruction through the innards of the building. With Ruby leading the way, they literally ran through the trajectory the bull had taken while running through.

[Swerves. Did you sense anything similar while it ran through here?] She asked briefly. Gaz stopped to think before nodding weakly.

[Yes, there was this one time when he seemed to dodge something.] He said briefly, and the girl smiled satisfied. [Why would you… Oh!]

As Gaz understood what she meant with those words, a small smile formed in his mental landscape.

Why would the bull dodge something if he could plow through pretty much anything?

Precisely because it was something it couldn’t simply plow through. As this idea finally became clear in his mind, the robot started to understand the idea behind the girl’s mind. However, they didn’t have much time to enjoy the craftiness of the girl.

Soon, his presence sensor blasted an alarm as the bull closed in on them at an alarming speed. Due to having his optical sensor also working, he didn’t have as much range he would like on his sensors, and at the speed the bull was coming, the time it would take him to warn the girl would be the same it would take for the bull to reach them. Cringing in his mind, he quickly gathered the steam he had on his back legs and blasted it heavily.

[Wha…] Ruby said in surprise as he reached her side suddenly, but before she could react, he landed a body-blow on her, throwing her aside.

Then, like a metal storm, the bull crossed the place where she had been with a scary strength, tearing apart the ground as his hooves carved the stone floor. The low hanging horns coming low on the ground were raised just as it reached the spot where she had been, tearing apart the lateral armor of the robot who had pushed her aside.

Shouting in pain, Gaz was thrown upwards as a large gash appeared on the side of his body, ripping his armor apart. Luckily, he barely managed to recover his balance while still on air, and twisted his body just enough for him to land on his four feet.

[Damage was only superficial. Inner systems are mostly fine!] Ekis gave him a quick assessment of the damage. Grunting in satisfaction, he heard as Ruby also let out a relieved sigh. [Watch out, he’s still coming!]

Gaz quickly recovered his focus while seeing that the bull was still heading straight towards him. But all his steam reserves had been completely used on the maneuver to push Ruby away from danger, so his reserves were still low while his cauldron generated more steam.

Forcing his feeble electric motors to the extreme, he barely managed to twist his body aside, swinging his tail meanwhile and slamming it hard with all the spears he had remaining within his body poking out from there.

The impact barely managed to swerve the huge bull’s head away from him, as well as make it let out a loud steam-like sound in pain. Not really bothering with that reaction, Gaz himself let out a sound of pain as he felt his tail getting stuck on one of the bull’s horn.

The price for surviving the attack was to lose his own tail. If he had tried to simply dodge, the bull would have still caught him, but his attack with the heavy tail managed to redirect the bull’s head at the last moment, but the speed of the bull still managed to rip it right off his body.

Falling to the ground tail-less, he silently thanked Ekis for cutting off his sense of pain once again. However, her lack of answers slightly bothered him.

This time it took him a bit more time to recover from the impact, as he had to rebalance his body to its new center of gravity. Stumbling a bit, he saw as Ruby looked at him worriedly for a moment before turning and running down the path they were following.

Hugger stood there with him confused for a moment, but Gaz looked towards Ruby and let out a quick beep, making the robot crawl his way towards Ruby, who was the one who knew what to do with him.

Quickly turning his attention back to the bull, he noticed that it had a strange lack of reaction from the bull, who simply stood there for some time, head hanging low and moving slowly from one side to the other, as if expecting something.

Gaz took this chance to slowly take some distance from the bull, whose strange reaction left him bothered for a bit too much. He could have taken the chance to unload the shotgun shells he still had in his body, but his instincts told him otherwise.

After a few seconds of what looked like a strange stillness, the bull finally raised its head as if in shock and turned to Gaz, who was standing right behind him.

Suddenly, as if going mad, the bull started flailing around madly, its back legs kicking wildly the air, not even managing to get close to Beepy’s position. And just as sudden as it started, it also stopped.

Turning around, it eyed Beepy strangely for some time, before its leg started kicking the ground slowly.

[It’s coming…] Ekis said with a weary tone. Gaz widened his eyes and immediately understood what she meant. Running away in a stumbling motion, he closed his eyes and focused everything he had on his presence sensor.

The bull, barely within the range of the strange sensor, kept on with his ground kicking, and the longer he did, the more worried Gaz grew, as he knew that it was putting everything he had on that.

[This way! Quickly!] Ruby said hurriedly. Sensing around, he noticed how the girl stood only a few meters ahead, laying behind what looked like a large and thick pillar. However, he barely managed to sense her there, as the pillar seemed to block a large part of his sensor coverage.

[That pillar…] Ekis said in a surprised tone, before shaking her head an nodding to herself. [Gaz! That pillar… Should stop his charge.] She said in a tired tone.

[Really?] He asked surprised but changed his focus. [What about you? You alright?] He asked, worried about her tone.

[I am. Blocking your sense is a bit more tiring than what I expected, though…] She replied in a weary tone before becoming serious. [But, one thing else you should know… That pillar…]

[May bring down half of the compound down, right?] Ruby said with a wry tone.

[…You’re kidding me…] Beepy said in shock.

However, before he had any time to complain anymore, he felt as the bull started its monstrous acceleration, crossing the gap between them with such speed that it took him only a couple of seconds to reach the wolf robot.

With his lack of strength and still unbalanced body, he tried to jump to his left side out of instinct, but his leg gave away, making him slide on the ground. Cringing, he complained loudly in his mind while bracing himself for the impact.

[BEEPY!] Ruby shouted worriedly as the bull approached him with its head hanging low, the sole working horn aiming straight at him.

[It’s fine…] Ekis suddenly said with a relieved tone.

[[Huh?]] Both Ruby and Gaz asked confused.

Then, they watched as the bull missed Gaz by a fair margin, continuing on its path straight ahead not stopping.

Only after it had blasted through a wall did it finally stop and look around in confusion.

[Huh? What happened?] Gaz asked confused while quickly getting back up.

“Could it be…” Ruby asked out loud, watching as the robot looked around in confusion for some time before setting its sight on the trio who had reunited. Even when it lowered its head and started a slow charge towards them, the morfian simply put on a smile and started laughing.

[Huh? What happened?] He asked confused.

[You did it, Gaz.] Ekis said with a slightly happy and tired tone.

[Did what goddamit?] he asked confused, seeing as Ruby took a step aside, together with hugger, as the bull approached them, only to have it pass straight though, not even threatening to get close. [What the hell happened so suddenly?] He asked angrily, being the only one who didn’t understand the situation,

[Look there, where your tail landed on his head.] She said, and Gaz took notice of a surprisingly deep dent on the bull’s head, just beneath the still hanging tail on its horn. [I had my ideas, on how he could see where his target was going even when charging with its head looking straight down or when he went through walls… But to think that I was right…] She said with a smile.

Gaz simply stared in confusion, seeing the bull stop and look around in confusion once more.

[The giant that could hear anything he wanted…] Ekis said in a dramatic tone.

[Just became deaf!] Ruby completed with a smile.

[Haaaah?] Gaz asked confused.