The sky above remained dark and oppressive, a heavy canopy of distorted clouds pressing low over the ruined landscape, while a cold, metallic wind swept through the broken remains of the city, carrying with it the faint scent of rust and decay as fragments of debris shifted and scraped against one another across the fractured ground, creating an unsettling, hollow rhythm that echoed through the emptiness.
In the distance, movement broke that stillness.
A young man had been cornered.
His back pressed against the remains of a collapsed structure, his breathing ragged, his grip tight around a crude iron rod that he wielded with desperation rather than technique, as the robotic figures closed in on him from multiple directions, their movements precise and relentless.
He swung wildly and forcefully.
