While Max was busy in orbit, Nico was busy in the city below, clearing Narsians from the urban area with brutal efficiency.
"You seem to have a personal grudge against these creatures." Huntress Khan, leader of the Hunters here, asked from inside the cockpit of her Suit, Dominus.
"This is the species that managed to mangle my body so badly that I ended up as a Cyborg," Nico replied, blasting apart a high-rise building to let the rubble drop on top of a Narsian patrol.
"You seem to have made out quite well for yourself, even in your biomechanical body." The Huntress pointed out.
"It's the principle of the thing. They had me outnumbered two hundred to one. There was no need to be sore losers and mangle my body like that." Nico complained.
"Most of those ones are still alive." The Huntress pointed out, meaning the ones under the rubble.
"Not for long." Nico laughed, then unslung a weapon from her back and sent a burst of fusion fire into the rubble.
With the loose ends tied up, both Super Heavy Mecha charged forward, using their blades and close-range weapons to decimate the Narsian defenses.
They were only a third of the way across the city, and already the reports said that the garrisons on the far side had begun to deploy in their direction, trying to stop the two rampaging Mecha from taking this strategic point from them.
The Narsians were a prideful culture. Losing an entire city to two Mecha, not even a whole wing, was simply unacceptable, and they were planning to deal with them using pure brute force.
The problem was that the locals had known that there was a danger of attacks, and while they hid in the bunkers under the city, the buildings left empty up above were made of reinforced rockcrete and couldn't be easily shot through or knocked over.
That meant that Nico and Khan could hide between the buildings while they hunted the Narsians, stalking through the city like a pair of reapers, with drones circling overhead, keeping a proper count of the kills in their competition.
The banter between the two might be friendly, but they weren't going easy on each other. Nico casually fired her arm-mounted Disruptors at a patrol that Khan was about to ambush, stealing ten kills at once in response to the Huntress sending out a sound drone to draw away an entire patrol from Nico's route, making her double back and waste valuable time looking for them.
The guests aboard Terminus, who were familiar with the Hunters as a group, but who had rarely seen why they were given that moniker, were in awe of the competition as much as they were the fierce battle in space.
It was a two-person battle to show off their personal skills, and the contestants were incredibly efficient killing machines, especially when they could find a large group of targets for fighting against.
When they had first attacked, the Narsians had made the mistake of thinking that numbers would help, but the flurry of blades as Shattered Pride had charged them with all four arms launching brutal close combat attacks had changed their strategies to try to ambush the two and destroy them before they could find the larger defense posts.
"There it is, the last major Narsian base in the city. Shall we do opposite entry points again, or side by side?" Nico asked as they reached a barrier made of collapsed buildings.
"Side by side. Once we are finished here, there likely won't be enough enemies left for the trailing challenger to catch up again." Khan suggested.
"In that case, there is a saying from my homeland that is appropriate for this moment." Nico laughed.
"Oh, and what might that be?"
"YOUR SKULLS ARE MINE"
Nico used her thrusters to launch over the wall and charge into the camp, with all four blades swinging and every weapon firing at once. She even went as far as stomping on fleeing Narsians to up her kill count a little bit more.
Khan was right beside her, saturating the area in Ion fire as she attacked and sneaked random kills out from under Nico's blades.
When they reached the far side of the camp, nothing but the two Mecha was moving, and the ground was saturated with blood, with chunks of half-disintegrated or burned vehicles scattered all around.
"So, are any of the skulls worth keeping?" Khan asked.
"Probably not. We mangled them pretty badly." Nico shrugged, making the motion with her Mecha as well.
"Well, it's the thought that counts. I have already found a lovely new hammer to add to my collection." The Huntress agreed.
They turned to survey the battlefield, and something caught Nico's eye. A glowing energy halberd that she had kicked and impaled the wielder upon from the haft side.
Not only was it a viable skull, but it was also an excellent weapon as well for fighting outside the Mecha.
She jogged over and carefully used the lower arms of Shattered Pride to remove the body from the spear, leaving the head, and then tossed it into the flat space token that she had mounted to her Mecha's arm.
"I was wrong. There was one good one left."
"I think that they have fled the city. The drone feed isn't picking up any more life signs aboveground." Khan sighed, realizing that their competition was coming to an end.
"Well, I know that we agreed to twenty four hours, but since the city is clear and there is a Klem fleet coming, perhaps we should call it for interference at this point? What do the observers say about our scores?" Nico asked.
"They say that I am up by thirty-two Narsians." Huntress Khan replied proudly.
"Bah, that bus you caught really was the difference, wasn't it? Fine, I will take the zero one and one score for now, but I will even my numbers back up the next time we go hunting." Nico sighed.
"Should I have the Mothership deal with the Klem, or are we letting whatever gets past your Commander land here?" Huntress Khan asked.
"We should likely eliminate them. We wanted to make allies with these locals since they're in a good strategic position between two hostile forces. Not only can it be a defensive base, but it is also a good translation point for arriving hunters to depart from to go explore the region." Nico suggested.
"Agreed. We will let the humans do the politics, and we will eliminate the Klem before we cloak our vessel again."
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