"Huh!? HUH!??!" Ryan shouted, utterly baffled by the situation unfolding before him. His voice echoed through the dimly lit core chamber, his heart still pounding from the near-death experience.
"I mean, it does look similar to the Elen I saw before, but why does it look like that?" Ryan asked, his eyes darting between the new combat-ready machine and the ever-unfazed Elain.
Before Elain could respond, a sharp mechanical voice filled the room.
"Each time I am destroyed, I use data from the way I was killed to create a new form to combat what destroyed me," Elen explained, its jagged blade-arms pulsing faintly with blue energy.
Ryan blinked, processing what he had just heard. Does that mean…?
"Wait," Ryan said, his lips curling into a grin. "Does that mean you can get rid of that centipede now?"
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The Next Day – Sunrise
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The sky stretched vast and endless, painted in hues of orange and gold as twin suns rose over the arid wasteland. The dunes, once blazing under the midday heat, now shimmered coolly under the morning light. It was a rare moment of peace—before the battle began.
"Who knew it was cooler at this time of day? Still hot, though," Ryan muttered, shielding his eyes from the rising sun as he stood near the entrance of the Elenatia. Beside him, Elain remained still, its metallic frame reflecting the ambient light.
Their focus, however, was entirely on the battlefield ahead.
Elen stood motionless, its bladed arms gleaming under the sun as it faced off against the monstrous centipede—the Tendregulon.
Ryan squinted. "I don't think Elen is doing any real damage to it," he remarked, watching as Elen clashed against the creature's towering, armored legs. Every strike seemed insignificant against the exoskeletal plates that covered the beast like living armor.
"Creak," Elain chipped.
"Continue observing," it instructed, its voice as calm and emotionless as ever.
Ryan huffed but did as he was told.
Suddenly, the centipede let out a high-pitched screech and dove underground, its massive form tunneling beneath the sand with terrifying speed. The ground rippled like waves on a stormy sea, shifting unpredictably as the creature circled below.
Elen, however, remained completely still.
Ryan frowned. "Which direction is it coming from?" He scanned the shifting sands, trying to anticipate the attack.
And why isn't Elen moving?
Then, without warning—
WHOOSH!
The sand erupted beneath Elen as the Tendregulon burst forth, its massive jaws wide open, razor-sharp teeth glistening with toxic saliva. It moved with terrifying speed, aiming to swallow Elen whole in a single devastating chomp.
Ryan tensed. "Wait… is it seriously just standing there?"
Elen did not react. It neither flinched nor attempted to dodge. It simply let itself be consumed by the monstrous creature.
Ryan sighed, shaking his head. "Is this your plan? To get eaten again?" he chuckled, though a part of him was genuinely worried.
Elain, as usual, remained unfazed.
"Elen is made from the data gathered from previous battles against the species known as Tendregulon," Elain explained in its signature monotone.
Ryan raised an eyebrow. "And that means…?"
Elain continued, "Each new combat body is adapted to counter previous failures. This includes resistance to the Tendregulon's bodily acids, fluids, as well as improvements to counteract its density, durability, and attack patterns."
Ryan was about to respond when a horrifying screech split the air.
"SKREEEEE!!!"
The ground trembled violently as the giant centipede suddenly reemerged from the sand—this time, thrashing in agony. Its body coiled and writhed, slamming into the dunes with enough force to send dust and debris flying into the sky.
Ryan's mouth fell open.
"What the hell—?"
Then, in a gruesome display, Elen burst out from the creature's body, tearing through the armored exoskeleton as if it were paper.
The Tendregulon convulsed wildly, its segmented body twitching as bright green semi-solid acid oozed from the gaping wound.
Ryan grimaced. "Ugh, gross."
Elen stood triumphantly atop the creature's twitching remains, its frame untouched but covered in the glowing green fluids.
Ryan rubbed his temples and exhaled. "You know, there has to be a less… disturbing way to deal with that thing." He gestured vaguely at the ruined corpse. "Like, I don't know, a giant bug spray or something?"
For a brief moment, he imagined an oversized can of insecticide descending from the sky, blasting the monstrous centipede away in a puff of chemical mist.
Elain, ever the emotionless machine, responded with a simple, "Creak."
Elen, however, seemed to acknowledge Ryan's comment. It turned its head slightly before responding in a cold, robotic voice:
"Target eliminated."