The barrage of Mass Driver rounds against the barrier that the Myceloids had erected was accompanied by a storm of blood and flying limbs severed by the rounds on their way by. But the front rank of attackers had made their goal, a trench line that had been built by previous waves, which let them get out of the direct line of fire and start setting up gun emplacements.
Now, they were setting up their shields above their heads, giving them some shelter from the bombers, and the force that was actually protected by the barrier began to charge over the top of them, aiming to get as close as possible before the shield fell.
The charge was accompanied by a wave of gunfire from the Myceloids that forced most of the Hunter Suits into hiding while the Mecha sheltered behind their shields, which were rapidly being torn apart by the incoming bullets.
The barrier that the Myceloid army had erected finally fell, and the Mass Driver Rounds began to hit home in the new front rank of attackers, but the intensity of the enemy fire was becoming too much, and the Mecha wouldn't be able to hold up much longer.
[Disruptors at medium output. Clear the waves of bullets with overlapping fire.] Max ordered.
It didn't matter how many bullets were coming their way if they could use the Disruptors to break them into random atoms. But that also meant that they would have to cease fire with the Mass Drivers.
It wouldn't matter for long, though. The enemy was under a hundred metres away, and soon they would be in range of the Fusion Flamers.
The other sides of the Camp had also equipped themselves with flamethrower-type weapons from the Hunters' arsenal. It wasn't their preferred method, but they had some excellent ones for clearing horde-type pests that often congregated around their preferred prey.
The Disrupters briefly halted the advance when the attackers got to ninety metres, but they learned quickly that a thick layer of metal was harder for the weapon to breach, and they used them along with their own comrades' bodies to push forward.
The heat of the Fusion Flamers burned the air, and the bodies of the Myceloids sent thick ash into the air, choking out the sky and turning the battlefield into a haze of smoky darkness.
The smoke was so thick that it was even interfering with Max's targeting abilities, and the sensors were nearly useless, as all they could see was the clouds of ash.
Then, the enemy was on them.
[All units press forward. Get in front of the Hunter lines so that the taller units can shoot over the top of us while we fight.] Max ordered, leading the way with a shield bash and a raised blade.
The energy field on the blade hummed as it hacked its way through enemy after enemy. The thick smoke was just as much of a hindrance to the attackers as the defenders, and they hadn't realized right away that the Mecha were charging, which led to the first row of them being torn apart by the vicious serrated blades that Nico had chosen for the mission.
They were a replica of the ones that the Demons in the other layer had used, but with an energy barrier over them to reduce damage if they should hit a hard target. The combination was working even better than Max had expected, as the serrated edges easily tore through flesh in a way that it hadn't done against armour.
That seemed to excite the green aliens even more, though, and Max did his best not to laugh like a maniac at their resemblance to both Nico and the Hunters.
Once they were in close combat, they were in their happy place. Even though they were losing, and Max had torn apart a dozen with his blade, they still gladly threw themselves into combat with him.
Each one that he faced had the same two thoughts on their minds. The possibility that they would be the ones to drop the enemy Commander and earn great glory and the pure joy of a good fight.
There was no fear for their lives, and there was no real blood thirst. They weren't driven to kill like the Demons in the other layer had been. They simply wanted to fight until the end because they enjoyed it.
In practice, that made them a nightmare to fight because they never backed down, and they only hesitated when they realized that they were making a tactical mistake. Max thought that they were making one right now by charging into close combat against his Company of Android Pilots, but the Myceloid force thought very differently of it.
The Androids didn't feel fear or anything else. They were commanded to fight, and they did so with the very best of their programmed skills and limited personal experience every single time.
They didn't hold back at all. There was no pity for wounded or less capable opponents. They were all faced with the same intensity. The enemy respected that, and even when the battlefield was beginning to turn muddy with the amount of black blood that had been spilt among the piles of green-skinned corpses, both sides still fought as hard as they could.
The Bombers had done their work well, and the back lines of the Myceloid force had split off to look for a better target, leaving only this front row and the ones that were hidden in the trenches behind.
Those ones didn't show any signs of getting out of their spots, and Max suspected that they were a forward reconnaissance post of sorts, left behind to keep an eye on the Hunters' camp and update their main force on what was happening here.
A blast from his Disruptors cleared a large area around him, leaving Max with nothing to fight when the horns from the Hunters Camp sounded the retreat.
[Everyone back to camp. Nico, it's time for a break, so find us a secure location to get some sleep. Teams One and Two, keep up the good work on the defensive line and we will rejoin you once we are rested.]
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