It turned and tried to see what had attacked as the shield dropped.
Jessica13 knew what would come next, and she really wanted to watch. The hammer arced above Hammerhand's head and swung to catch the monstrosity across the shoulder. It wasn't a clean blow but still powerful enough to make it stumble.
The blue film of the shield appeared again and seemed oddly clear against the smoke and fire in the background as the man surged forward again. The massive Excalibur moved faster than the Golem could, and the impact was enough to destabilize the monster’s gyros and it lurched into a smaller building that toppled with it.
The shield fell again and the hammer raised and activated the rockets on the back.
She flinched as it descended. Cutting into the mech was effective but crushing it was equally so, and after four strikes of the hammer, scrap metal was all that was left.
Windchime came over to where she still struggled to right herself and helped to pull the Minato to its feet.
"Are you all right?" he asked. "Are there any breaches in your armor?"
Jessica13 ran a spot check. "None that I can see, anyway. I'll need to run a quick systems check to be sure."
"Until you do, stay away from that mist," he said and removed a few pieces of rubble from her joints, which had probably been what prevented her from standing in the first place. "Go out there and help them take care of the rest of Athena's assholes. We'll clean up around here."
She nodded and turned carefully. The Minato's movements were still a little sluggish although she didn’t detect anything she couldn't bang out herself once they were clear of the smoke and caustic steam. She moved over to the rubble, retrieved the rifle she had dropped there, and brushed some of the debris from that too.
"Will it still work?" she asked.
"Scans indicate that it should be as functional as it was when you held it before," Mini said after a moment. "Rifles like this were built to take a great deal of punishment."
"Well, there’s only one way to find out." She raised the rifle and peered through the scope at the Lancers and Cinders the other Knights had begun to engage now that the Golem had been dealt with.
She pulled the trigger and was a little startled by the kick as the hellebore round exited and flew true. It bored into a Lancer and its AI took the functions over when the human was killed.
"There's something wrong with the inertia dampeners," she grumbled and rubbed her shoulder again. "I'll need to check on it when we have the time."
"Of course," Mini said. "I am already running diagnostics."
"Show me," Jessica13 said and checked the rifle again. She'd had no idea that it had that kind of kick since it was usually absorbed.
The diagnostics were running slow due to the external heat acting on the mech.
"The Minato should be functional for the moment, but there will be some malfunctions," Mini said. "My apologies."
"There’s no need for apologies," she said and peered down the scope again. "Let's get this finished."
Chapter Twenty-Nine
The confrontation dragged on. Athena's knights were well trained, and once they realized they were no longer merely in a containment role, they quickly reorganized, pulled together, and mounted a strong defense. If it had been only the Knights, they would have put up one hell of a fight and might have won.
But the group wasn't built to face the might that came with an Excalibur in the attackers’ ranks. Hammerhand worked quickly once he’d eliminated the Golem and focused on the mechs. Jessica13 continued to keep herself away from the fight as Mini conducted the work on the suit to keep them functional. The acid mist was rapidly burned away in the fires that still consumed the town around them, which made it safe again for her and the others who might have compromised their mechs had it remained.
It was slow, steady work, but it wasn't long before Athena's knights were defeated deftly and without quarter given. Hammerhand was in a state of fury, cut down those who attempted to retreat, and demanded that his team do the same. He intended to send a message of his own, not that there would really be anyone left to deliver it to Athena.
"Killing the messenger sends a message in its own right," Windchime explained to her once all the other mechs were destroyed and they went about the work of scavenging and recycling them. "Even if they don't return to Athena, she'll know none of them returned and that is a message in and of itself."
"I don't think it was an intentional reaction from Hammerhand," she said and shook her head. "In fact, I would go so far as to say that he is in the kind of mood where he would kill anyone who so much as looked at him the wrong way. He's not thinking right now. He's angry."
"It doesn’t mean both can't be true," he pointed out and cleaned his mech while other Knights worked to extinguish the fires. They were already starting to burn out, and it was only a matter of containing the blaze and preventing it from spreading into the nearby grasslands.
It would have been providential to have a rainstorm to put the flames out, but unlike Auburn, this town didn't appear to have its own connection to the weather control system.
They did what was required in the conventional way with what water could be found and by clearing the land and letting it die naturally.
Hammerhand appeared to take part in their efforts with a little too much enthusiasm. A single strike of his Hammer collapsed one of the buildings they
