The blast from the falling containers lit up the sky like an extremely dangerous firework show, with countless bombs detonating all within the span of two seconds. A shockwave from the entire supply of explosive ordinance going off at once ripped across the battlefield, disturbing anyone with a low Fortitude stat.

Rangers on both sides of the fight dropped and clutched their ears while light warriors, mages, and healers were knocked to the ground left and right. Only tanks and a few of the higher leveled fighters were still standing, those who had diversified their points in both Strength and Fortitude.

Preston and Sarah were both fine as they had been investing points into their weak points for some time now, as were many of the Completionists attacking and defending. Teresa spotted a healer Completionists from the attacking group clutching his ears. The number of projectiles had drastically dropped as many were temporarily discombobulated, so she drew her bow and took aim.

Upon release, her arrow flew towards the healer undisturbed. A Completionist tank watched the projectile unworried, only for his eyes to suddenly widen as the arrow hit true, stabbing the healer in the chest. The tank likely didn't have enough resources to use a defensive skill, he was probably lacking experience in monitoring his resource consumption.

The sound of the Avatars drew closer, and Teresa wasn't sure what to do. They were approaching from the back left corner of the army, the tanks were running dry, and she had no idea how many Avatars were coming. Less than 10 attacking Completionists were remaining, but now that both sides were weakened they managed to still get hits in.

There weren't enough tanks able to block all of the attacker's skills, resulting in the occasional arrow or ranged spell hitting a member of the army. Healers rushed to help those who had been disemboweled by a slash through the air and those who had been scorched by <Embers>. One ranger had to have their own arrow removed from their torso after shooting a gray bubble that had been fired by the enemies. The arrow had struck the bubble and popped it, causing a wave of force to fling that arrow right back where it came from.

Teresa was ready to help the healers the second they seemed overwhelmed, but they were among the few in the army who still had most of their resources. A lot of healers used a variety of buffs, Jim especially, but a lot of buffs couldn't be stacked. <Magic Wellspring>, for example, couldn't be active on someone at the same time as another buff that had the same condition. <Blessing Of Artemis>, a buff that could improve someone's accuracy with ranged attacks, couldn't be used on the same person at the same time. Meanwhile <Facilitated Restoration> could, as it didn't have the same condition.

As a result, the healers only really used resources when initially buffing someone or when healing, leaving quite a few with a lot of remaining Mana while everyone else was struggling. Teresa thought that was a sign they needed to diversify their skill sets a lot more, but this wasn't the time for constructive criticism. If someone had a skill to transfer Mana between two people that would be absolutely fantastic, but unfortunately no such skill was present in the army.

"We're repositioning, we need to fall back to the east." Nikolas said as he ran across the battlefield to approach Teresa, who was firing arrow after arrow at the attackers. He spoke extremely fast, to the point where Teresa's mental stats were needed to keep up with processing his words on time. "I have Noah and Percy still manipulating the terrain while we do so, but I need to know what the situation looks like with the Avatars. How are your resource pools looking?"

"I'm mostly good on Stamina and Mana, my HP hasn't recovered fully since dealing with the scouts but I'm above half and I'm in good physical condition." Teresa answered, still firing arrows even if the tanks were blocking them with a physical shield now. One more person shooting was still one more person they had to worry about, and that wasn't counting the rangers who were using skills to make their arrows harder to predict.

"I need someone to scout the Avatars and possibly slow them down while we reposition. We might need to do a tactical retreat, we'll stay on the move recovering resources while sending elite squads to keep the Avatars from catching up. We need to stall at least until we can regroup with Ezio, a bunch of fully charged Completionists would come in a lot of use right now." Nikolas explained.

"Alright, what exactly do you want me to do?"

"Check out the Avatars and make a judgement call. If there are too many approaching too quickly for us to handle, slow them down. If the situation looks manageable, come back and report what you saw in as much detail. From the way things are looking, it's more likely you'll have to slow them down."

"Got it."

"I'll be honest with you, it's extremely risky. If you slow them down enough, you'll be positioned between the Avatars and the Completionists once we fall back. We might get separated, but none of the Completionists from Arconette I've talked to are willing to do this and I don't trust them not to run anyways. You're the last Completionists here I want to send, but you're the only real option."

"So you're saying it will be a suicide mission."

"Possibly. Put yourself first Teresa, if things are looking bad then feel free to retreat back to Arconette. They would probably be pissed, but The Mall would understand. There's only so many times we can put everything on you and expect you to risk your life for us."

"I'm not leaving you guys to die."

"Good, because if I offered the same thing to half the Completionists here they would be gone already."

"We'll go with her to stall." Sarah said with affirmative nods from Jake and Preston. "She's not going to risk her life alone again."

"Sarah-" Teresa started, but Nikolas cut her off.

"Understood, now get going. Seconds matter."

Shit, as much as Teresa wanted to argue for her party to stay back, she knew that not only was there no time for an argument but she probably needed them with her. There was a reason she had begun training with her party again rather than operating alone all the time, and it was because of the results that came with working in a group.

Teresa and her party made eye contact for a split second before taking off, updating each other on the way.

"How are your resources?" Teresa asked her party.

"I'm out of Mana and I already used a potion for it, but I'm good on everything else." Jake said.

"I'm at half Stamina and half Mana." Preston answered.

"Half Mana, low Stamina." Sarah said.

"Have either of you two had a potion yet?" Teresa asked Preston and Sarah. They shook their heads no, so she gave each of them an extra Mana and Stamina potion from her <Inventory>. The vials were pretty small so they were easy to stick into a pocket, and if they broke Teresa still had a few more. "I'll look first, I'm fast and I have <Sturdy Outer Shell>."

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"I'll stay close behind, my shield is mostly bulletproof now and most of my attacks use Stamina." Jake said.

"If you get me close I should be good to fight, I only really struggle against these guys at a range." Preston added.

"I'm out of arrows but my Mana arrows should be good if I target certain spots." Sarah said.

They began running uphill towards the sound, crossing over the top of the terrain that had kept the Avatars out of their line of sight. Preston was carrying Jake on his back so they could all run as fast as they could as a party, though everyone was ready for a battle to break out any second now.

Once they crossed the top of the hill, they saw what was coming for the army. An ocean of Avatars, easily comparable to the last one, was steadily approaching. Spamming <Identify> on a few revealed levels anywhere from 40 to 83, though that was unlikely to be the full range.

Teresa stepped back as multiple turrets turned to aim at her, taking cover behind the crest of the hill providing natural cover before the bullets began to fire. Clumps of porous rock flew through the air as turrets shot at the top of the hill, keeping Teresa from advancing any farther.

"They're coming." Teresa warned her party. "It's bad. It's a similar sized army of robots to the first wave we fought, but we don't have the means or the positioning to fight them."

"So we are going to have to slow them down then." Jake said, sounding more tired than anything. "Fuck it, we ball. What's the plan?"

"Our goal is to slow them down, not kill the whole army by ourselves. Best way I can think of doing that is by taking out some of the robots in the front." Teresa explained. "Last time people had to move the dead ones out of the way to make room for more to attack, otherwise the robots would take an alternative route. Now, we need them to take an alternative, slower path to our people."

"So kill a few at the front then retreat and repeat?" Preston asked.

"Pretty much."

"If it works, it works. If you or Jake cover me until I get close, I can mess up a few pretty bad, but I'll also need cover to retreat." Preston said.

"I can target some of the internal electronics with <Air Burst>, so I can probably take out their tracks so long as these still have the same wiring issue." Sarah added.

"Perfect. None of my ranged skills will do a lot of good against these guys, so I'll act as a mix of Preston and Jake." Teresa said. "So long as we don't spread too thin we'll be fine. Fight with each other in mind, and remember we're not here to kill all of them. Yet. If they get over the top of this hill, they'll open fire on everyone. Just keep that from happening."

The party exchanged looks one more time, each person mentally preparing themselves for a desperate strategy. She refreshed everyone's <Facilitated Restoration> and even <Magic Wellspring> on everyone except Sarah, who had <Blessing Of Artemis> still active from someone else. Once everyone seemed ready, Teresa gave them a silent countdown with just her fingers. 3, 2, 1…

They ran forward with Jake at the front and Preston right behind him. Bullets ricocheted off his shield and left dents in his equipment. The consumables they had gotten from the Radioactive Portals were coming in handy, if their equipment had still been level capped they would have been screwed.

Teresa ran just behind and to the left of Jake, <Sturdy Outer Shell> and <Dash> active as bullets rained down on them. Most of them were hitting Jake's shield, though Teresa herself of course took multiple hits. Her Fortitude had increased by 16 since the last time she had been shot, and <Sturdy Outer Shell> had gotten some more experience too.

Some hurt more than others. A few bullets hurt but barely did anything, while others were fully capable of breaking her bones. Her healing took care of it, but the initial charge was already proving to be dangerous. She covered her head with her arms as she ran, protecting the most vital part of her body. She could heal from a gut shot, she couldn't heal herself if her brains were painting the ground.

Her HP rapidly dropped, but thankfully the charge didn't last long. There were only so many turrets able to shoot at them at once without hitting another Avatar, and Teresa was pretty damn fast and hard to hit.

As she reached the first Avatar in her path she drew her sword and plunged it into the tank tracks, damaging its movement but otherwise doing negligible damage. Jake followed up with his axe while using <Heavy Strike>, smashing the weapon down on the main body of the same Avatar. Jake actually had less Strength than Teresa, but with his large weapon and his attack skill it did a lot more damage.

The front and center of the Avatar caved in on itself, denting it and damaging multiple internal components, rendering the Avatar unresponsive. A white Mana arrow hit an Avatar along the main body on a reinforced panel, seemingly doing nothing until the tracks on the Avatar locked up. If Teresa remembered right, that should fuck with both the tracks and another microcontroller that they hadn't been able to discover the purpose of.

Preston moved in a way that was impossible for someone even with improved stats, using his skills to move so erratically that if Teresa wasn't used to it she'd think she was having a stroke. It looked almost like he was lagging really badly in a video game, constantly shifting directions as he had repeatedly chosen multiple skills that assisted with his movements. He had several ways to redirect his momentum in various directions, jumped in the air only to use <Second Step> to propel himself back to the ground, only to pause mid air for a split second and shifted his direction again.

Turrets struggled to hit him while he made multiple weak stabs in locations where the armor plating was weak or near seams that connected a turret to the main body of the Avatars, damaging the motors that allowed them to aim. It was difficult to shoot him without hitting another Avatar, and multiple Avatars were accidentally engaging in friendly fire trying to shoot the young man. His sword glowed blue as he used <Mana Blade>, buffing his weapon by providing increased durability and damage.

Teresa manipulated <Sturdy Outer Shell> to her hands as much as she could before she punched the barrel of a turret as hard as she could, denting the metal and leaving the turret unable to fire. Rather than focusing on finishing it off, she moved to another Avatar as they continued to fire at her.

The Avatars each had a magically enhanced compartment capable of holding more bullets than its size would suggest, though the bullets still had to travel from the compartment to the turret. Along that path, it crossed by the neck of the turret where the armor plating was weaker, which Teresa could take advantage of. Her HP was too low to risk using <Retaliate>, but the Avatar she was on was only level 61. She was plenty strong enough to stab her sword into the thinner metal, crushing through it and cutting into the belt feeding the turret ammo.

A bullet hit her square in the back as Avatars began firing on her position, willing to hit other Avatars if it meant taking her out. The Avatar she was on was riddled with holes as she used it as cover, blasting shotgun <Embers> to obscure the other Avatars' vision rather than to deal damage against the heat resistant machines.

Metal crunched as Avatars rammed into the back of several other robots that were now struggling to move, having been hit by Sarah's <Air Burst> attacks crippling their electronics. Several Avatars began to adjust their turrets to aim at the crest of the hill where Sarah was peaking again and again to shoot, trying to take out the archer that had been systematically damaging the machines.

Preston jumped into the air, jumped back towards the ground and did a 90 degree turn mid air as he used <Momentum Build> to almost instantly change directions. He landed on the back of an Avatar that was targeting Sarah and cut across the rear of the turret, disabling it before moving onto the next.

Jake smashed his axe into an Avatar whose turret Teresa had already disabled, finishing it off and halting the Avatars behind it as a destroyed robot stopped their advance. Teresa herself found that the most useful thing she could do was punch gun barrels while making the other Avatars shoot their allies in an attempt to kill her, something that Preston was also making a lot of use from.

Bullets struck the top of the hill as multiple Avatars kept Sarah back with suppressive fire, though that opened the door for the others in the party to target those exact Avatars who were kept busy shooting at someone behind cover.

Teresa hit gun barrel after gun barrel, denting them and removing their ability to shoot effectively while Jake finished them off and Preston flew all over the place like a maniac disabling Avatars pinning down Sarah. Teresa's HP was getting low despite her body being in mostly perfect condition, she had been repeatedly healing injuries again and again, sooner or later she might drop dead with only a scratch on her.

She downed a quick HP potion and recovered 106 HP, which was miniscule compared to her max capacity of 1359 but it was a welcome boost nevertheless. They just had to keep this up, hold them back and buy time for the army fighting another battle not too far away.

They could do it.

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