“And I’m cleavin’, on a flat plane! Don’t know when good loot will drop again!” Axton sang as he improved his way through a self-made version of a very old song. The Gnolls in front of his were much less of a threat than he had expected them to be, and as it turned out their improvised cannon was a one-off.

However, while the number of bodies that fell before his giant stompy death machine grew in short bursts, the quality of these former foes was growing greater and greater with each group he put down. The first band had left small dings in Franken’s armor at most, but now there were a few dents that would take a dedicated repair session to get rid of.

He had to give the Gnolls credit; they certainly knew how to wear a man out through a gradually increasing difficulty level. He could only imagine what the boss at the end would be like. For the first time in a not so short while, Axton's blood was pumping, and he was chomping at the bit for a good fight.

Still, Franken was getting increasingly damaged, despite Axton pushing his War Suit to dodge and weave like nobody’s business. This was perhaps one of the downsides of trading armor for speed and maneuverability.

That wasn’t to say Axton and Sally hadn’t made use of higher quality armor plating and composites when making this version of Franken, it was just that this version traded thicker, more typically durable materials designed for more general defense for more composites designed to stop shaped charges, ranged projectiles and energy weapons rather than melee attacks.

And if these critters here had any one thing in spades, it was their love of melee attacks. If he was facing a bunch of normal people, he wouldn’t need to fear them nearly as much, nor would he need to worry about taking as many dings as he had.

But these Gnolls were batshit insane, and they threw themselves at him heedless of the danger and risk. Plus, there were far more of them than Axton expected, and they actually used some decent ambush tactics from time to time.

Franken had taken more than a few hits when a Gnoll lept off of one of their own to attack from a higher point, and somehow they had managed to avoid sensors and his HUD on at least three separate occasions. They were, as he had suspected previously, getting smarter.

However, after putting down the last few Gnolls in his way, Axton was left on the outside of the final stronghold. There was a part of him that wanted to rush in and just go for it, but that would have been a foolish choice. By this point, Franken was beat up and in need of a few spot repairs at a bare minimum, and Axton wasn’t going to risk his neck and his whole plan just to try and keep the rush going.

As such, he did the smart thing, and planted a few detonation charges around the entrance to the final bastion and blew the rock sky high. Or at least he tried to, but the bombs did nothing to the obviously sandstone walls of the canyon.

“Fucking indestructible terrain…” Axton cursed. “Why now?! Why here?!”

Shaking his head, Axton pulled Franken away from the opening and set to work on repairing his machine, hoping that nobody would disturb him. He managed to get through about 1/3rd of his work before a bunch of Gnolls rushed out of the opening and tried to kill him, but he was far stronger than any NPC they had dealt with before, and he wasn’t just armed with a gun and/ o a stick.

He also had the benefit of being a Player, which meant that, for the most part, what didn’t end up killing him would be something he could walk off given enough time. Popping a few healing items as the melee raged while delivering electric shocks to the various parts of his foes, Axton managed to render more and more enemies either unconscious or just plain dead.

About 6 minutes of in-game time later, Axton set back to work on repairing his War Suit, this time reaching roughly 3/5ths completion on his task before more annoying Gnolls ran out and tried to do what their predecessors could not. This battle lasted longer, and it drove Axton harder than before.

The Gnolls were stronger, faster, more durable, and in some cases smarter than before. This confirmed another of Axton’s suspicions; he had been facing what this ‘tribe’ viewed as nothing but chaff for a while and was now dealing with ever more elite forces.

Still, though, he persevered through this mess, eventually beating the foes sent his way and getting the final repairs done before psyching himself up for the big fight ahead. He moved Franken right in front of the opening that led to the innermost section of the canyon and raised his War Suit’s right arm.

With a click and a hiss, the right forearm opened up and elevated to reveal a special, hidden surprise. Axton grinned as he remembered the last time he used this gadget, and he mentally thanked Sally for both finding it and installing it without his permission or knowledge.

Another wave of Gnolls rushed him, but Axton pressed the trigger on one of the joysticks in his War Suit’s cockpit and a massive gout of liquid flame erupted from Franken’s extended right forearm. The plume of fire washed over the hyena people and even from inside the cockpit Axton could hear the screams and cries as the fire scorched their flesh and burned their eyes and sensitive noses.

A few droplets of the expelled mixture dripped from Franken’s right forearm, but while he normally would have been more worried about the cocktail that he knew went into making that mix, Franken’s arms had been specially treated so that they wouldn’t suffer from having burning flecks of thermite and white phosphorus on them.

With a grin, Axton watched and waited as the Gnolls died one by one. Resetting Franken’s right forearm back into place, Axton looked on as the fire slowly died down. He just needed to wait a little bit longer, and then he could rush in and finally deal with the bullshit that had occupied so much of his time up till now.

This was the last overworld quest that he needed to clear, and Thomas was already heading his way after clearing the final Dungeon. He was sure that his friend needed some repairs, and he was going to show off the fruits of his labors. He wondered how big the boss would be. Maybe he could take a nice trophy and mount the thing’s head on the wall in his quarters?

Nah, the Gnolls were both sentient and sapient, so they didn’t deserve that fate, even if they were his foes.