The hills are aliiiive, with the sound of sniiiiiipeeeeers.

John looked at his pets, sending them some mental commands as he thought about the best way to get to one of the nearby doors, until, for a few moments, the bullets stopped. “Jack, Toph, quickly! Reinforce the wall!” John ordered as he peeked out from behind their small safe haven. He activated Hawkeye and finally saw the glint of a scope aimed at him. A copper colored droid was loading bullets back into a sniper rifle when John spotted him. John quickly drew his bow, the droid’s head slowly lifting to look through the scope again when he noticed something was off. John let go of his arrow, the droid aimed at him. The arrow whistled through the air as the droid moved to squeeze the trigger. The arrow hit, Boring Shot imbued on it activating and drilling a hole through one of the legs of the rifle. “Fuck, I missed,” John cursed as he threw himself back behind the wall his pets had created. The loud crack of a rifle once more filled the air, but much to John’s delight, the shot went wide. Another crack, this time the bullet didn’t even whiz past their little bunker. One more crack, and a small explosion followed. Coupled with a notification

+50 exp

John looked at Ilis, who looked back a bit puzzled. “What happened?” she asked as John for the second time in a minute activated Hawkeye to spot the droid he had seen before blasted back against the nearby cliffside.

As John wiped his brow, he turned back to Ilis. “Well, that blew up in his face.” A small, playful smirk on his lips. However, having learned from his costly cocky mistakes, he pointed at the door they were headed for. “I don’t know how many of those things are around, and frankly, I don’t wanna test that out… Let’s make a break for it!”

Jack was way ahead of him, breaking into a slight run with Toph on his back, the small pangolin peeping excitedly as she rode on the snow leopard’s smooth back.

Just as Ilis opened her mouth to speak, a loud static filled the air. Bzzz… ARGUS PROTOCOLS BZZZZZZT HAVE BEEN ENGAGED, a metalic voice echoed between the mountains. BZZZZ… SNIPER EYE DROIDS HAVE BEEN DEPLOYED. ALL. HAIL. WYXELTRAX.

“Nevermind what I was gonna say, John! Run!” Ilis quickly gathered a few parts from the ground, shoved them into her pockets and ran after Toph and Jack. John was just a few steps behind her as all around them small doors opened in the mountain sides. As the small group reached the bottom of the hill, the first loud crack echoed through the air again, striking at the place where Ilis had stood just a moment before.

“Fuck! Keep running!” John bellowed as he drew his bow, firing an arrow at one of the droids aiming at them. As he could just make out the glints of their scopes he didn’t really care which one he would target, he picked a glint, and just fired at it. Sparks flew as the arrow struck metal at the same time that he activated Wildrun to shift his body to the side and dodge two rounds that flew at him from different directions.

While John tried his best to take out some of the droids, Ilis found the door they were looking at to be locked down tight. She grimaced, then spotted the actual lock on the door. “John! This way!” she anxiously cried out, pulling out one of the orbs she had shown off to John a week before. She didn’t hesitate and threw it at the lock. The small ball started to glow almost immediately, melting open a small hole straight through the lock. The scent of molten metal added itself to the noxious mix of pollution, toxins and rust particles in the air.

Jack and Toph didn’t know what to do, both being unable to fight at these long ranges, looking anxiously at their master who was hiding behind rock formations, firing back at the droids as a few more grazes started to show themselves on his body.

“Toph! Jack! Help me with this door!” Ilis ordered as she rammed her shoulder against the heavy iron door; it budged just a sliver. As she pushed, she called back over to John, “John! We’re opening the door! Come!” Jack and Toph both put their backs into pushing against the door as Ilis beckoned John over, the pangolin even bringing forth small pillars of stone to help push against the door. Slowly with a loud ear piercing squeak, the door opened far enough for them to get through.

Ilis was the first to get to the door, followed quickly by Jack and Toph, and finally, with a dive like he was going for the home base, John came sliding through the door, scuffed, dirtied, but alive.

“I hate barriers…” John mumbled as Ilis, once more with the help of John’s pets, closed the door behind them. The heavy thuds of bullets striking the door rang out like hail on a metal plate roof, even as the door slammed shut again.

John was lying on his back, breathing heavily through his mask as his body set itself to healing again. He only had a measly 50 hp left, but at least he was alive. The ground around him felt strangely soft, springy even. It took a few seconds for him to open his eyes far enough to realize he was lying on a moss floor, his hands feeling the softness, slightly relaxing him from the intense battle against the droids.

“Hey, you okay?” Ilis asked as she picked a health potion out of her bag and held it to John’s lips, slowly ticking his health back up to around 120 before the potion ran out.

“Oh, yeah, I’m fine, didn’t think we’d run into enemies this soon though. Whoever that Wyxeltrax guy is, he must have one hell of a security system,” John half joked as he patted Ilis’ upper arm. “Thanks to your quick thinking, they didn’t get us.” His other hand patted Jack’s head as the leopard put on his old housecat routine, purring as he brushed his head against John’s hand begging for attention.

“Well, if all of his creatures are this mechanical, you won’t hear me complain. Do you know how hard it is to find springs this strong yet small!?” Ilis asked as she pulled out some of the parts she had scavenged from the first droid. “Your barriers are an engineer’s dream. Let’s just try to take them out one or two at a time, and I bet you, we’ll be fine,” Ilis said with a smirk.