— 3rd POV —
Ryo landed in the mock-city testing zone ten seconds earlier than anyone else. The air still felt untouched, quiet- too quiet. Then a metallic screech cut through the silence.
Three two-pointer robots, shaped like scorpions with segmented metal bodies and tails tipped with electric stingers, scuttled into view. Their claws snapped open and closed in jagged rhythm, scanning for targets.
Ryo exhaled once.
Time to work.
His right arm shifted with a sickening, organic grind of the Living Gauntlet awakening in a ripple of scales and sinew over metal. lines pulsed along its length like a heartbeat.
He sprinted.
The first robot lunged, tail snapping down like a spear. Ryo slid under it, palm bracing against the concrete, momentum whipping him into a tight roll. The tail stabbed where his head had been, cracking the pavement.
He was already up.
The second robot surged forward. Ryo stepped sideways, letting his momentum overshoot, then rotated his torso into one precise, compact punch. The Living Gauntlet's power erupted, shattering its armored head like brittle glass.
The third robot jabbed repeatedly, fast and frantic. Ryo ducked and weaved between strikes, each tail swipe singing past his ear. He slid in low, planted his foot, and with one explosive uppercut, he sent the robot flipping backward in a tangle of sparking limbs.
All three fell silent.
Ryo shook out his right hand, feeling the gauntlet's pulse vibrate too strongly. "Easy… don't get carried away" he murmured.
He didn't keep it active long, and there were good reasons for that. The longer he used it, the more alive it felt. Too alive.
But he didn't have time to rest.
He sprinted deeper into the test zone, stepping over rubble, listening for metallic movement. Then he heard them before he saw them, clinking and servo-whines overlapping.
Six robots.
They'd grouped like a patrol pack, their tails raised and scanning in every direction.
Ryo pressed himself behind a crumbling concrete wall.
"Too many to fight head-on… so pick them off."
'I think guerrilla tactics will work great here. Quick execution, vanish, repeat.'
He switched off the gauntlet—his arm returning to normal in a ripple of undone muscle. The sudden silence from the lack of its pulse felt relieving.
Ryo circled wide, keeping low, using broken cars and fallen streetlights as cover. When he got close enough, he reactivated the gauntlet with a twitch, its surge coming back stronger, wilder.
'Not now… behave.'
He crept toward the farthest robot.
One step... Two... Three!
He launched.
His gauntlet fist smashed down on the robot's back, crushing the joint before it could react. Sparks exploded, and the unit collapsed. Ryo vanished into cover as the other robots spun toward the noise.
The robots scanned around for the cause of the commotion and found nothing.
Ryo waited for their rhythm, their pattern of motion, the angle of their tails, how far their sensors swept. He counted to three again… then moved.
He vaulted over a fallen slab of concrete and grabbed a hanging cable from a cracked utility pole. Swinging forward, he used the momentum to slam both feet into the second robot, knocking it onto its back. Its tail wiggled helplessly. Ryo landed atop it and smashed its core.
Four robots left.
The gauntlet pulsed erratically as its claws slightly elongated without him commanding it. Ryo grimaced.
'Not good… don't start that.' But he couldn't turn it off yet.
He needed the power.
The remaining robots spotted him and charged.
Ryo grabbed a loose street sign, jammed it into the rubble like a lever, and used it as a springboard. Launching himself high, he flipped over the first robot, letting its tail stab the second unit by accident. As both stalled in confusion, Ryo drove his gauntlet into the ground, creating a shock in the ground that made their stance unstable. They fell over, twitching.
Two left.
He dashed between rusted cars, letting the robots lose track of him. As they tried to triangulate his position, he grabbed a concrete chunk and threw it hard at one robot's sensor, stunning it for half a second.
That was all he needed.
Ryo crossed the open space in three steps
Then the gauntlet suddenly surged uncontrolled, extra tendrils forming along his wrist like it wanted to consume the robot itself.
"Stop—!" he hissed.
He forced his arm forward before it could lash out on its own. His punch landed clean, blowing through the robot's head but sending a painful recoil up his arm.
Only one remained.
It tried to retreat.
Ryo wouldn't let it.
He switched off the gauntlet mid-run, letting it retract with a violent shudder. His normal arm burned from the strain, but without the gauntlet's pulse messing with him, he felt clearer.
He grabbed a broken pipe on the ground, spun it once, and jammed it into the robot's tail joint. The tail froze. Ryo stepped on its back and used leverage to pry the core casing open. With a sharp pull, wires snapped, and the robot died.
Silence.
Ryo stood alone in the ruined street, chest rising and falling. His right arm twitched faintly, as if annoyed that he turned it off.
He looked at it and sighed.
"I think I still need more training with you, partner."
The gauntlet pulsed once under his skin, almost like an answer.
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