Having escaped into the night Mare stalked the elven forces from the top of a roof, her large brown eyes gleamed faintly in the moonlight as she counted the opposition.

"I can't take them on alone…"

Realizing her own limits Mare opted to stay in the shadows and only strike when she had the utmost advantage, therefore mostly avoiding combat altogether as she moved throughout the academy. The hostile forces seemed to have quickly noticed that Mare had escaped, but didn't seem overly invested in chasing her down, properly because she like everyone else was trapped inside the gigantic golden barrier that was still present around the academy. Without much resistance Mare moved towards the silent part of academy and entered one of the teachers dormitories, entering the bas.e.m.e.nt where she ran into a locked metal door.

"This could be a problem.."

Looking at the heavily reinforced metal door that without power locked down with force of several tones Mare was at a momentary loss of ideas, but after a few seconds of looking at the door she picked up a sound and cautiously approached the door. The sound she picked up proved to be something moving behind the metal door and as Mare knocked on it in a rhythmic fas.h.i.+on she heard a familiar voice from behind it.

"What's the situation?"

"... People took over the academy, I think Dax was captured."

".. I see.. Guess we need to take back control of the academy."

With those words Lux dug her hands into the reinforced bunker door of the armory and slowly started forcing the door open. After working at that for about a minute Lux finally breathed fresh air after being locked inside the armory for a few hours, locking the door open with a broken rifle that immediately cracked under the immense pressure. Once the door was open Lux took the time to make sure that it stayed open as she tossed a Rex-357 rifle and a few spare magazines to Mare as she emerged from the armory weilding a Rex-0999 light machine gun.

"Is this still working?"

Looking at the rifle she was tossed Mare noticed that the sight didn't light up like it used to.

"Yeah, it's a hybrid propulsion system. Even if the capacitors are fired and the coil system doesn't work there's still chemical propulsion in the rounds."

Chambering a round in her entirely chemically powered Rex-0999 Lux looked at Mare that still seemed confused and reached out to ruffle her hair as she crouched down to match her height.

"Accuracy should still be the same, but penetration is way down. Aim for headshots, but don't expect armor pricing capabilities."

"Mmm, okay."

Finding the explanation appropriate Mare inspected her weapon as she checked the magazine before priming the rifle.

"Ready."

"Good. We're collecting a weapon before taking on the intruders."

Taking a deep breath Lux centered herself before she made sure that the armory was secured then made her way out of the teachers dormitory, Mare guiding the way as Lux couldn't really see well in the dark.

"Are you okay?"

Noticing that her teacher wasn't all there Mare dipped into an empty cla.s.sroom and faced Lux with a hint of worry in her eyes. 

"Not really, that EMP really f.u.c.ked with the part of my central nervous system that's integrated with ICI."

"... The creepy voice?"

"Why did I expect you to understand that?... I have some trouble moving but otherwise I'm fine, thanks for worrying Mare."

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"Mmm, okay."

Having a moment between each other Mare and Lux both picked up movement from outside the cla.s.sroom. With quick non verbal communication, Lux took a concealed firing position while Mare drew her favorite knife and hid near the door. With a few seconds of complete silence Mare and Lux both sprung into action as they heard the distinct click of a manual safety being turned, both seeking cover as the wall of the cla.s.sroom was priced by a hail of rifle fire. 

"Kill them!"

As Lux hid behind a metal desk she rolled her eyes before getting increasingly annoyed with the proficiency of the hostiles.

"Exercise proper trigger discipline, first identify your target, then terminate the contract. Restrict full auto fire against trained/AI forces, as you only make a fool of yourself before dying."

Focusing herself Lux completely extinguished her presence, then she emptied her lungs of air as she laid down with her Rex-0999 in front and calmly rolled out from behind her cover into a shooting position, setting up the weapons bipod as she rested her cheek on the stook.

"First target… Identified."

Entirely stoic even when bullets snapped right past her head Lux calmly identified her first target, centered her sight and squeezed the trigger.

"First target terminated…. Second target, identified.. Mare secure exit."

With a single shot Lux silenced one of the hostile shooters before filtering through the extreme amount of information currently available to her, finding the second target as she called out to Mare.

"On it!"

Springing into action as Lux switched to suppressive fire, Mare jumped out from cover and smashed through a window behind Lux, clearing the immediate area.

"Exit secure!"

"Affirmative, exit northwest."

Relying on Mare's keen sense of hearing Lux calmly voiced her orders that were drowned out by the continued deafening rifle fire. After killing a few more elvers Lux slowly got up on her feet, wielding her machine gun with a single hand and letting off snapshots as she reached behind her back and pulled out a grenade.

"Fire in the hole."

Casually throwing the grenade, Lux once more brought her Rex-0999 up to her chin and picked off a few more elvers before making her exit covered by the grenade exploding that wiped out a few more hostiles. Regrouping with Mare Lux moved quickly through the empty academy while gradually withering down the opposing forces through rapid ambushes while continuously outwitting the poorly trained elven forces.