The Discarded, Half-Eaten Apple Core New Life

I gained these new Skill ranks some time ago but I hid them from you. Yes, you! The reader! It's the Unspoken Plan Guarantee trope! I won't jinx it again by revealing my plan. Well, except I kind of did.

Anyway, the dragons were under a constant barrage of bullets from the spider Mecha. Thusly harried, it allowed our Planetary Defenders to fend off the demon lizards and regroup. Just like my previous fight with Jabberwock, we were severely outsized and though our Mecha was vastly superior to the old Ranger Ork ß, we wanted to get back home in time for the Christmas Eve feast!

"Prepare to combine! Jettison unused parts!" I commanded. "Just as we rehearsed!"

I swapped in two Perks.

• "Let's Gekiga In!": When your Mecha starts Gattai with other Mechas, the process is 100% smoother and faster. For every 10 times you perform the same fusion, this bonus increases by a linear 1%. Each fusion keeps its own tally.
• Unbreakable Transforming Sequence: Add 25 points of armor to your Mecha while it transforms or combines.

"Okay!" The Rangers (Róta was the white ranger for all 3 teams) shouted back and we started. With the healthier dragons shielding their wounded, a behavior I didn't see in any other Infernali (were they even?), we started our fusion.

The dragons launched some ranged attacks at us. Spine spikes, gouts of flame, even a lightning bolt or two, and a shower of icicles. Some of these attacks I absorbed or blunted, and some I let wash over the 125 points of armor these Mecha had right now.

First, The Planetary Defenders jettisoned body parts that wouldn't be used in the fusion. Usually, toy designers and TV show artists avoid that, often going to ridiculous changes in scale or perspective to make it work and look aesthetically pleasing but this was not a TV show. We didn't have the luxury of allowing Kibble – Those parts of the alternate mode that stick out of a transformed robot model – to get in our way.

Shaped charges broke the robots and tossed stuff that wouldn't be used away. The forearms, hands, and arm weapons. The heads. Panels were launched away, revealing connection ports. They didn't look like USB ports. Why would they? Jump jets fired and the robots leaped up, using directional thrusters to align the parts. Cables fired from harpoon guns and struck the connection port hardpoints with absolute precision. Powerful motors reeled in these cables, pulling the parts together.

My own Planetary Defender shed its head, arms, and legs once airborne, and opened some ports in its torso to reveal a mighty Samurai head. Then it connected to Róta's sideways torso (the robot, you pervert. This is a respectable PG-13...) and Ranger Dinosaur Black to form the body.

Three Trapdoor Spider robots fired their jump jets and jettisoned the long legs. They latched on Róta's left arm and leg sockets, becoming shoulder gun emplacements. The third kept two legs. It split open in the middle and connected to the back of the head, forming stylish antennae with straightened legs and allowing me to have guns on both sides of the head.

Another six Mecha combined to form the arms, three each, and four joined to become the legs. Once all the Mecha were together, Extending panels of Dungeon Walls slid over one another to cover the weak spots and give it a pleasing look. Also, to make it red enough to grant that 20% speed bonus.

The twenty-robot combiner was now 450 feet tall. And now the best part.

Mecha Operations: You can pilot Robotic vehicles of all kinds, from humanoid to vehicles.

9. For every other similar-sized Mecha that combines with yours, you gain a 1% combat bonus and 1 point of armor. Limited to 20 Mecha.
10. When you combine with Mecha piloted by other Mecha Pilots, you add 10% of their Attributes to the combiner Mecha's final score.

Now, a little System recap. Machines usually didn't have Attributes but the Mecha I pilot gains 50% of my Attributes. Now, I was adding 10% of the physical Attributes of sixteen people, all above level 100 on top of that. These were my Mecha's Attributes before the fusion.

Strength

10,364

Dexterity

3,072

Agility

3,063

Hardness

3,945

And this was after the fusion.

Strength

12,754

Dexterity

4,834

Agility

5,691

Hardness

5,433

Remember how Attributes work in this System? Each point was a 1% improvement over the natural abilities of the body. A preschool kid with 100 points in Strength will lift way less than a bodybuilder champion with the same score.

Now, can you imagine a 450-foot-tall robot that is 127.5 times stronger than a 450-foot-tall robot should be? Most of it was being used to fight the square-cube law as Physics-chan tried to explain to the machine a robot this tall shouldn't even stand up. And yet it did by the sheer potency of its Attribute pool. Not to mention it was 48 times more precise in its movements than it should be, 57 times faster, and 54 times tougher than ordinary steel.

I named this new fusion, "Gal Axes it Deft Fender Deer in Concert Binge Nerds Rage."

> You cannot receive an Experience Award for a combiner Mecha. Name Registered. Giant Mecha, "Galaxy Defender iCombiner" added to the database.

Numbers went up. Way up. At the height of a 32-floor building, We charged. I fired the jump jets. An immense amount of thrust, stronger than the ignition of an orbital launch, pushed the giant robot a fraction of an inch off the ground. That was enough to give me ten seconds of flight.

To buy us some time, I sent the horde of Spider Mecha on suicide missions to fire the autocannons up close and personal. The dumb dragons roared in defiance and started to crush and chew the Trapdoor Spider models as if they were real bugs. Steel bugs, but just a little tougher.

"Sword!" I shouted. Typed with the Shout-shift key pressed. It let the Rangers know what to expect. While I was in charge of the overall operations, some sub-systems were still in the control of their pilots. For example, Ranger Dinosaur Black was responsible for keeping balance and shifting weights inside his part to stop this giant pile of metal from toppling.

I projected a beacon and Replicated two sheets of metal, 0.1mm thick. I joined and welded them at the edges, keeping a pocket of air 1mm sandwiched between them. Infusing DM, they became tough as Dungeon Walls. Also, 1.2mm/0.047in was thinner than a carving knife. A hundred and fifty feet long and eight feet wide, it had the same proportions as a medieval longsword. On a 50:1 scale. Fifty times bigger, not smaller.

It was also engraved with the enchantment mandalas and circuits for Sharpness and Slayer. I had the other hand crushed the Cores of the Drakes I harvested and infuse the mandalas.

> For creating (level 185 Epic) "Apple Dungeon's Sharp Longsword of Dragon Slaying", you gained 1538 Experience Points.

> Your knowledge and training improved your Wondrous Magic Skill to rank VII — Battlefield Enchantments have (15*Rank)% more stability and duration.

With a mighty war cry, we charged into battle, crushing the discarded Mecha parts underneath our humongous feet. Ahead of us, the Spider Mecha were exploding left and right, making the dragons pay for each kill. Wreck. You get it.

*

*

Using the bursts of the jump jets to keep the Mecha mobility at its maximum while flying, I reached the dragons. From above here, they seemed... the same size. it was like staring at another building from ground level or from the penthouse of the building next door. And size comparisons weren't my forte. I mean, I was the size of one-third of a Smurf. But my perceptions could take in anything in my 1.75-mile range of Personal Domain. This dichotomy gave me the ability to shift the scope of my perceptions with great haste.

We descended with a downward swing, striking the ground and sinking like the earth was made out of talcum powder. We clipped the side of a dragon, slicing off a front leg, wing, and half of its torso. Blood gushed from the wound and the dragon lashed out at us, screeching in pain. A flash of jump jets and we were flying backward and swinging the sword horizontally, catching the monster's neck.

> For killing level 205 Demon Dragon (Water) With a party, your share amounted to 7,837 Experience Points.

We were splitting Exp equally, seventeen ways. Róta earned only 4,013 Exp because she was 3 levels above me, while the rangers... They all gained two levels. This dragon would put me past the Exp cap if I had killed it solo.

The other dragons ignored the rest of the spider Mecha units, which were barely functional. They all came at me. Us. I slashes another Dragon, who dodged and only lost one paw. Another one came to bite me from the left side and Ranger Wolf Pink grabbed its neck. The girl was controlling a 50-foot-long hand of pure steel and actuator pistons and magically-reinforced cables. She held firmly to the dragon's sinuous neck.

"Take this, you overgrown lizard!"

She deployed a hidden weapon in the wrist, every robot geek's fantasy, the Pile Bunker. It used a steel spike and a railgun launcher. With the loudest of pops, the trap sprung and lodged the spike right through the dragon's throat. It dealt extra damage because it was a Dungeon trap. Explosives inside the spike launched side prongs into the dragon's flesh, which became lodged in place. Good luck removing that.

At the same time, Róta was firing the shoulder-mounted railguns into the mass of writhing wyrms, scoring some hits. The Rangers on the right arm side and I were slashing at any that came too close.

Ranger Wolf Pink released the dragon and the beast stumbled back, clawing at its own neck in a vain attempt of removing the steel spike. We managed to stab one of them in the heart, then pull the sword sideways in a violent jerk, opening up its chest.

> For killing level 205 Demon Dragon (Earth) With a party, your share amounted to 7,837 Experience Points.

Another two levels for the Rangers. I could measure the Attribute growth by checking the Status screen for the Mecha.

The wyrms we were holding back snaked around us and some even took the time to finish the limping Trapdoor Spiders.

"Contractor, why don't you smite the dragons with your divine power?" Larry asked.

"Good question, Larry. I have two reasons. One, Don't want to, two, I'm not here to defeat the dragons. Well, they will be defeated eventually, but the main purpose here is to do exactly what we are doing. Collecting data."

"More telemetry?"

"More telemetry. Always. We are testing a new giant robot model, and several things. I need to know how the robot reacts to blows, and impacts, how much stress movement is putting on the different parts, where I need to reinforce the actuators, and where I need more speed, coordination, and balance. Also, training data for the AI. There are 20 computer brains all trying to run the robot the way they want."

"Oh. I see."

Róta fired a hail of Autocannon rounds at the wings of the choking dragon, grounding it. Galaxy Defender iCombiner advanced, swinging its sword and carrying two dragons that had latched to its back. They were starting to break through the fuselage after some efforts. With a sigh, I committed the whole Mecha to scrap. I activated the suicide mode to get 25 extra points of armor. That would keep the dragons off of the internal components for a bit longer.

One tried to grab a leg. "Floating sword!" I caught it with Animate weapon, freeing the arm. The robot caught the dragon's head, then stepped on the neck and pulled. Even with its ridiculously increased strength, it wasn't enough to rip the dragon's neck like a wet noodle. No. It just pulled against the robot. But that taut neck was a perfect target for the flying sword. A clean cut, +1000 style points. Two levels for the Rangers.

"Jump jets engaging!" I warned and then fired the jump jets. Ten seconds of flight. I turned the robot on its belly and then accelerated down, adding the flight speed to the gravity pull. Millions of tons of robots crashed on the ground with the dragons on its back, pushing them into the ground. I heard bones snapping. While it descended, I Replicated pile bunkers on the back and elbows of the robot and then fired when they were on the ground. Five spikes of steel forty feet long lodged themselves inside each of the dragons. The recoil even pushed the robot up but not enough to grant us more flight time.

"Elbow smash!"

The Rangers moved Galaxy Defender iCombiner like a pro wrestler, and they drove the elbows down on the dragons' limbs that were poking out of the Mecha's back. The elbow pile drivers fired and nailed the legs and wings to the ground. Then the secondary spikes launched, guaranteeing they would stay there. Then I fired the jump jets again, horizontally, gained flight, and straightened up the robot. While we did that, the Animated sword stabbed the two spiked dragons in the head. The rangers advanced another four levels.

These dragons would continue to give them two levels, even with the Exp split seventeen ways, until they reached 173. The Exp curve was cruel.

The other dragons watched us from afar, wary. They were used to be the apex predators, hunting things much smaller than them. Now, they had this robot that was as tall as they were long, with weapons in the most unlikely places. I checked the damage reports and the actuator telemetry. This fight wasn't kind on the Galaxy Defender iCombiner at all. But the dragons were all wounded and... afraid.

"HISSS!" One of them warned when we advanced, waving its head like a snake, moving its body like a feline. The others moved backward. That was fine. I needed the time to get a little fun thing set up.

"Róta, are you ready?"

"Yes, my Lord!"

"Fire at will."

The autocannons on the shoulders and on the sides of the head opened fire. The bullets, however, were special ones, enchanted with the Plant Growth and Tree Explosion spells. Some ricocheted against the dragons, some lodged themselves in the tough scales, and a few found purchase in the flesh. After almost a minute of shooting, the Autocannons ran out of ammunition.

The spell was already running its course. The tree seeds in the bullets started to sprout and grow roots. Now, roots were insidious things. They could grow inside the concrete. Crack the concrete.

All remaining dragons screamed in pain as trees exploded inside their bodies. Inside their scales. Around them. They broke the frail trunks and burned the trees where they could.

"I shouldn't feel sorry for the Infernali, but..." Larry covered his eyes.

Then they blew up. Chunks of flesh were ejected as gaping holes appeared on the dragons' corpses. Dozens of gallons of blood spilled as "Blood for the Blood God" did its thing and quadrupled the amount of blood they would lose. It was a crafting Perk so I needed it active only when making the bullets.

Satisfied with the result, I used the Animated blade and finished the remaining seven dragons. Fourteen levels for the rangers. Was anyone keeping a tally? My most trusted warriors had all advanced 24 levels. We successfully did a 20-robot fusion.

Best Christmas Gift ever. Now the cleanup.

"Larry, go to Speranza. Now." I shouted and then moved the platypus to the Demiplane. He only had time for one syllable.

"Why—"

Galaxy Defender iCombiner exploded.