Squeak! Sq-squeak!

  From within this darkness, a chaotic swarm of dark black rats, with crystal, red eyes and super-heated blades for teeth.

  They rushed straight toward Stormraider, with many of them almost leaping onto its body. His bot remained calm, though, taking out at least five of these weak enemies with a single swing of the baton.

  The harsh current broke through the rats’ weak armour and disrupted its components greatly, causing great damage.

  These rats desperately tried to dig their glowing hot teeth through the metal armour of Stormraider, to no avail. The metal shelling was more than strong enough to protect Stormraider against these weak bites.

  Violently swinging the baton even more, the rats were soon all defeated. The dead bodies of these sparking rats were left by the feet of the bot, that looked forward to await the next bots to come.

  4 loud, robotic monkeys rushed out into the arena, beginning with circling around the bot. Even though they were just mechanical, they acted exactly like monkeys would. They constantly whooped, whilst sliding from side to side with their knuckles in the ground.

  “Here are the fiendish, agile mecha-monkeys! With super-heated fangs and an energy rifle for a tongue, they are a true nuisance for any bot. Let’s see how the WM Stormraider fares against these little demons!”

  As one approached Stormraider, it abruptly stopped its advance and stood in place. There was a brief period of silence and lack of movement between the two combatants. As for this mecha-monkey, though, it revealed an energy rifle slotted right into its mouth.

  Three red-coloured energy blasts were shot straight at Cael’s bot, that resorted to the use of its economical energy shield to take the brunt of these blows.

  With each impact, it was slid back against the ground but did not falter. The shield stood strong against the incoming assault and kept the explosions away from the bot’s body.

  More energy blasts rained in from these surrounding monkeys, with some reaching the outer armour of Stormraider. No matter how vigilant it tried to be, it was impossible to protect itself from all angles.

  Some energy blasts managed to make it inches past the sides of its energy shield, crashing into its metal body.

  With each impact, the heavy bot was still thrown back like a ragdoll; even the red energy blasts packed a serious punch.

  Another of these mecha-monkeys initiated a charge, running forward with a feral rage of a primate. Its super-heated fangs were revealed, along with its glowing energy rifle barrel.

  An energy blast was launched straight at Stormraider, that daringly met it with a swipe of the energy shield.

  With its own momentum counteracting the force behind this energy blast, it didn’t immediately throw it back. Swiftly after, though, this brazen monkey leaped straight at Stormraider with an athletic, explosive jump.

  In this motion, though, the autonomous bot already had its baton swinging straight toward the incoming enemy.

  SMASH!

  The crackling exterior of this heavy weapon added to the damage of this thudding impact. The monkey mechanically squealed upon being thrown over its brethren, harshly crashing into the sandy ground.

  A cloud of sand was erected from this harsh slam, and the other 3 monkeys sought to avenge their fallen comrade. They filled the empty space in between them and Stormraider in a flash, ready to brutally break down this bot.

  Stormraider felt no fear from their aggressive assaults, simply assuming its own battle stance and acting accordingly.

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  Stormraider employed a sword-and-shield type style through remaining behind the shield, discriminatively taking opportunities to strike back.

  This mainly defensive style was also used in addition with trying to keep the metal monkeys ahead of it. This bot did so by keeping its back to the cage wall, keeping all 3 monkeys in its field of view.

  With selective wallops to the monkey’s bodies, they were soon accruing grave damage with each incoming hit.

  One of these beasts jumped with its arms raised up and to its sides. Shooting an energy blast in this same movement, the glowing projectile soared straight past Stormraider’s evading cheekpiece.

  The monkey was left in the air and was a sitting duck; there’d be no way for it to readjust itself now. Slamming the baton onto the monkey, with a crushing descent to the arena ground, the beast was no more.

  Subsequently, another of the remaining monkey bots attempted an assault, only to receive the sleek, thin super-heated dagger to its midpiece.

  The intense heat allowed the claw to dig straight through its body like a fork through paper.

  Dismantling the other remaining monkeys with little effort, the next wave of bots had been eliminated.

  Stormraider now stood in a group of strewn mechanical parts, and Cael felt excited upon seeing his design fighting so well. Not only was it powerful but it was also tactical and precise.

  It had the best of both worlds, that humans would struggle to simultaneously master.

  A formidable warrior. An apex predator.

  With these dark gates opening, from the pits of hell emerged the next demon that Stormraider would be pit up against.

  “What follows is our infamous Scrambling Dragon. Based off Earth’s Komodo Dragon species, this bipedal bot possesses great power and savageness, with a keen trick up its sleeve!”

  “That’s annoying, just say what it is!” Cael reflexively thought.

  Cael hated being left in the red with situations like these. He couldn’t help but analyse the possibilities at hand but if this uncertainty left him with little to work with. This unknown was terrifying to him, like the pitch black of the night.

  A 6’0 tall, stocky framed beast revealed itself, roaring to reveal a metal tongue consisting of several sections almost forming a fluid chain.

  Its eyes were glowing yellow, and it possesses a green and red frame. The metal armour on its exterior resembled true scales, and possessed not just super-heated fangs, but super-heated claws too.

  This was going to be an issue. Just how strong was this bot going to be?

  Cael leaned forward in his seat, awaiting the battle.

  The Scrambling Dragon clashed with Stormraider’s energy shield, causing a thin cloud of dust to erupt from its feet. The impact kept both combatants still in the centre of the field, and Stormraider even managed to push the Komodo dragon back with its power.

  As the pistons in its legs whirred into action, the bot resembled almost an immovable wall. The Scrambling Dragon well, scrambled to try and move past the golden energy shield in its face but could not.

  In a split-second, Stormraider pulled back its shield to deliver a deadly, whipping baton strike to the lizard bot’s jaw.

  CLANK!

  There were several bright sparks released from the electrical impact, but the Scrambling Dragon didn’t seem affected by the hit for long. Throwing its claws forward, it managed to claw through the outer armour layers in its path.

  Following this attack, it sliced at the same wounds with fast but incredibly precise swings that didn’t leave more claw marks but only dug into the already existing cuts in the metal.

  With its final swipe, Stormraider retreated and did so with a slight shudder. A brief second later, the bot shuddered once again, this time with sparks flying out of the claw wound.

  “And that, folks, is the Scrambling Dragon’s famous move! The circuit venom! Deploying nanobots into openings in the bot’s armour system, these bots can reach into the circuitry system of its target and disrupt its systems with intense current and even physical damage!”

  Cael felt almost startled by this mechanism. That was quite honestly transformative. Nanobots being used for offensive purposes wasn’t really used very commonly, since it wasn’t easy to just break into a bot or exosuit’s armour systems.

  However, if the nanobots could play a role in that breakthrough themselves, they could be relatively useful. From the sounds of things, too, they’d be a serious, serious, problem.

  That’s why so internals were so protected; to protect them from the enemy. With these nanobots in the internal systems right away, how much longer could Stormraider really last.

  Cael couldn’t help but let out a physical grunt from his frustration. After coming so far, after fabricating this design from the ground up, is this really how it was going to end?

  He’d have no chance at even breaking through the prelims now!

  Stormraider continued to tremble and spasm, being left vulnerable to a devastating knee aimed straight onto its chest.

  The sheer force behind this incoming blow almost threw Cael’s bot onto its back.

  The Scrambling Dragon continued with its full-scale assault now that its enemy was stunned.

  “Oh no, it looks like the WM Stormraider design isn’t performing well against the Scrambling Dragon’s nanobots. With these many damages, how will it perform in subsequent rounds even if it steels through these challenges?!”