BA3 - Chapter 39

The Enjiho circled up, arms raised.

Dokun’s voice boomed from all ten of the bots. “Surrender yourselves and no one will get hurt.”

I transferred Hana to Yin’s waiting arms, but she protested. “No, I’m staying.”

“You can’t fight like this,” I whispered, tucking a stray strand of black hair behind her ear.

She inhaled deeply and the air around her flexed with power. “I’m not leaving you.”

My throat tightened, threatening to suffocate me, but I accepted her choice. I palmed her one of my three remaining potions and held her to stand. We faced the armed and ready Enjiho, and I stepped in front of Hana, concealing her potion drinking.

“We’re leaving.” I said.

“You’re coming with me,” Dokun replied. One of the Enjiho stepped forward, hand turned upward in an offer. His tone shifted to something soft and kind as he went on, “I can keep you safe.”

“What about from yourself? I’ve seen what you’ve done. I watched you murder Ko-nah.”

Yin inhaled sharply beside me, then took a step back.

The advancing Enjiho stopped. “Is the loss of one life not worth the peace and prosperity of millions?”

“But you haven’t just taken one life, have you?” I snarled back.

The energy from the potion was nearly used up and my stores full enough to take control of at least two more of his elite Enjiho.

“Jiyong, you’re simply too young to understand what I’m trying to do, but it is for the good of this world. If you would come with me, I promise not to harm the others.”

“You’re lying.”

Another explosion rang out from behind the school followed by the sound of whining wood. I used the distraction, rushing forward with my two bots. The elite Enjiho reacted all at once, launching a powerful spray from their raised arms.

Hana darted in front of me with a flourish of blue en. She captured the liquid and thrust it back at the Enjiho. The liquid slapped against them harmlessly and faded into purple mist that blew away on the wind.

My two bots collided with the enemies on either end of the semi-circle. I ripped and pulled on the armor, reaching my smaller hands between the gaps to crush the operating wires. Their arms went dead, and I moved on to the next bots—but I was too slow.

Four of his Enjiho converged on my two, holding them by the arms and ripping them from their sockets. I abandoned my armless bots, then released the stored munje from my reservoir. Two enemies came for me, and I let them. I touched both, sending gold-red munje into their systems.

‘Take one.’ I thought, and relinquished control of the second bot—keeping only one for myself. Mae responded in an instant, turning her Enjiho on the spot and rocketing into the fray. I turned, taking a defensive fighting stance against the three advancing enemies. Mae boosted across the clearing and slammed into one of the bots, taking it into the trees.

“Yin, go.”

“But we can win,” he protested.

I could sense the presence of Dokun’s reinforcements, they weren’t far out. “More are on the way.”

Yin’s hand fell on my shoulder. “Fight well, Jiyong.”

I watched from the rear camera of my bot as Yin helped Yuri and Cho to their feet, then rallied the rest of the students. They charged off through the trees, heading north-east.

One of the broken-armed Enjiho activated its rockets in pursuit. Hana punched the ground with bright blue en, lifting chunks of dirt. She thrust her hands up and forward, using the dirt to crush the pursuing bot to the ground. The second armless bot made chase and Hana took off after it.

The two enemy Enjiho left closed in.

The speaker on the lead Enjiho popped to life with Dokun’s voice. “It doesn’t have to be this way, Jiyong. If you understood what I was doing, I know you’d be on my side.”

The rumbling of reinforcements filled the yard, and three more Enjiho dropped at the edge of the tree. The bot under Mae’s control returned to my side, clutching two dismembered bot arms like weapons. Five on two—that wasn’t great odds.

With a massive roar, truck summited the hill to Anbura and plowed through the Enjiho in the back. The three bots flew into the air with a sickening metal crunch, all of their parts bent at strange angles. The truck kept coming, hardly slowing down from the impact. The two remaining enemies boosted into the air, escaping a similar fate as the others.

The truck came to a stop before us and Shin-soo whooped with joy from the open window of the driver’s seat. “Get in loser, we’re getting out of here.”

“Sung-ki!” I looked through the truck, trying to find the instructor. Silver Dragonflies filled half the seats, blocking my view inside.

Sung-ki poked his head out the door. “Where is everyone?”

“Yuri is leading them on foot. Woong-ji needs help!” I pointed behind to the crumbing pagoda. Thick beams of wood splintered and collapsed in on themselves and the school tipped sideways. It stopped short of crushing the battling titans, but only just.

Sung-ki dashed past me shaking vials lodged between his fingers. “Leave!”

The enemy Enjiho hovered just overhead, their bodies turned toward the forest where Yin and the others had escaped. They sped off that way, and my stomach dropped. Hana still wasn’t back from chasing the half-disabled Enjiho, and if these two intercepted her, it would be too much.

I looked to Shin-soo, panicked. “The other Bastions are in trouble. Get the Silver Dragonflies to safety!”

“I drove all the way up here and you don’t want a ride?” Shin-soo asked.

I hopped on the back of my Enjiho, gripping it under the armor. “I’ve got one.”

I wrapped my legs under its primary arms, then locked its secondary arms under my knees—like a piggyback ride I’d given to Minjee a hundred times. I breathed deep and activated the boosters. My sweaty hands threatened to slip from the armor, but I used a bit of zo to hold tight as we rocketed above the trees.

‘Mae, how long will it take Shin-soo to get to the road north? Will Yin and the others intersect their path?’ I asked. The wind whistling past my ears made it hard to think, and the fear in my limbs kept my mind occupied with not falling to a slow and painful death.

“If they stay at their current trajectory and make good time—four kilometers an hour—they’ll cross paths on the highway north in about ten kilometers.” She replied easily.

I envied her level head, then squeezed my legs tighter against the sides of the Enjiho. The enemy turned, diving into the trees.

“I see her,” Mae said, dropping into the canopy.

I followed behind, my Enjiho dodging tree trunks and boulders as we half ran, half boosted through the forest.

Hana was sprinting over the rocks, leaving zo infused contrails in her wake. The enemy bots were nearly to her, with fists raised and primed. Through my Enjiho’s camera, I could see the energy flowing through their arms as they powered up an electric device.

“Hana, drop!” I projected my voice through the speakers on the bot to reach her.

Hana skidded to a stop and slipped between two boulders just as the enemy launched a tasing wire. The pins stuck into the trunk of a tree, discharging with sparks of blue and white. The second bot slowed and scooped low behind the other, yanking Hana from her hideout.

My heart slammed against my chest. “Hana!”

The Enjiho rocketed into the air, taking her with them. I tried to boost my Enjiho, to follow them, but stopped as the Hana in the enemy’s grasp shimmered with purple, then dissolved into a rotted log. I cut my booster and stopped in front of the rocks Hana had slipped between. She smiled at me from under a pile of dead leaves. That smile erased all fear from my mind for a blink, and I beamed back.

“You’re a genius,” I said. I reached for her with my long, primary arms.

“Too much weight, give her to me,” Mae said through the speaker on the Enjiho she piloted. I did as she asked, and we took off through the trees at a lumbering sprint, trying to conserve the last remaining fuel in their systems.

“Dokun is going to be so angry… when he finds out he kidnapped a tree!” Hana said between jostling jumps.

I laughed. “Furious!”

A boom like a sonic blast shook the earth and blasted the trees with gale-force winds. We took refuge behind a hill for a few seconds, then it was over. A massive gray cloud hung in the air over Anbura and my breath caught in my chest.

“Master,” I whispered. “I have to go back for them. Get Hana to the others and ditch the bot in the other direction.”

“But Jiyong, they said to leave,” Mae protested.

I activated the boosters and took off through the trees. I could refuel the Enjiho with my on ma if I needed to, and still had two potions left for it.

“Jiyong, turn back!” Mae blared in my head. “You have the secondary device, all the data. If you get captured, they’ll have died for nothing!”

They weren’t dead. Woong-ji couldn’t be dead.

“Jiyong, don’t be stupid!”

Movement in the sky far to the south caught my eyes and I used the Enjiho to zoom in on the objects. At least five train cars full of Enjiho were on their way to Anbura. I couldn’t fight that many, not even with all the potions I had. Even if I made it there in time, I couldn’t carry Woong-ji or Sung-ki—we’d be too heavy to outrun the enemy. The Enjiho would chase us through the forest, and we’d lead them to our fleeing classmates.

I glared at the lingering gray cloud, hating myself for the depth of my betrayal, then turned away.

“You’re doing the right thing,” Mae whispered.

Anger warmed my cheeks and blurred my vision. But she was right. This was the only way.