In the Hot Box

Bursting through the metal door was the large robot with a gatling gun flamethrower fusion attached to its side. It turned whatever would be its face towards Garrett, Plex, and Vanessa and aimed its weapon.

"Figures it'd be you," Garrett said, switching positions to use the ring at the robot. He aimed it towards the robot and threw a punch as he did before, but nothing happened. "Oh come on. Is it out of charges or something?" Garrett ducked to the right as the robot launched a wave of fire at him. "Plex! How long is it gonna be?"

"Time: Unknown," Plex said back, focusing on keeping Vanessa safe from the fire and unlocking the door.

"Okay, guess I'll have to deal with this thing," Garrett said. He gripped his spear and sprinted towards the robot. It followed his path with a stream of fire, barely behind Garrett. "So, this thing is fast when it comes to moving, but it's slow to track." Thankfully, as long as Garrett stayed within the range of the fire, the robot didn't seem to pursue him.

Garrett rushed up and slashed at the robot with his spear, but the blade of it barely made a scratch into the armor. The reverberation of metal upon metal washed over Garrett's arms, but he had to power through it. The robot continued to follow Garrett with its flames as he ran around it.

"This Flame-Gunner machine thing is a lot tougher than those Biters and small ones we faced in that Mob Room," Garrett said to himself. He could feel himself beginning to get out of breath as he ran circles avoiding the fire. "There has to be some kind of weak point or something. That armor is really tough."

"Boss, I have an estimated time. It will take approximately five more minutes to unlock," Plex said.

"Understood!" Garrett shouted back as he ran, getting enough distance between him and the flame to have a bit of time to breathe. "Ugh, there's no way I can keep running like this for five minutes. There has to be something else." He quickly scanned over the robot, looking for any flaws he could exploit.

He didn't have much time as the flames nearly reached him. Garrett sprinted ahead again, trying to find any weakness. "Okay, let's try something sturdier." He swapped out his spear for his sword and swung at the robot. It stumbled a bit from the impact, and a small chip was taken out of its metal hide, but no real damage was done. "Alright, that didn't work that well. What else?"

It was getting harder to think and micromanage the distance between him and the fire as Garrett was getting more and more out of breath. "How is this thing generating so much fire?" There had to be some sort of fuel source. No matter how close Garrett got to the robot, it only ever seemed to use its fire.

'...Maybe if I disable the flames, it won't be able to do anything...But where is the fuel?'

There wasn't anything that looked like a fuel tank or a container of combustible materials on the outside of the robot. A quick glance revealed a tube that connected the gun part to something inside of the robot's body. However, Garrett's pace was beginning to wane. At this rate, there was no way that he could reach the tube without being burnt to a crisp. "I've got to immobilize it somehow. If only this stupid ring worked."

Without the vine ring's ability, Garrett began trying to think of a solution. "Maybe it can be stunned? Those legs look pretty weak." Garrett swapped his sword back to the spear and swung at the legs of the robot. It collided and knocked the leg out, but the robot quickly recovered. For a brief second, the robot's rotation was halted before continuing. "Okay, so that worked, but there has to be something else to take it down completely. Or at least enough that it won't follow us."

"Boss, the door should be open soon," Plex said as the electronic chirping intensified.

"Okay, maybe I don't have to defeat this thing right now," Garrett said, barely evading the flames. "Plex, as soon as you can, open up that door." He could feel the heat inching closer to his back. One wrong stumble or misstep and he'd be charred. All he had to do was keep ahead for a few more moments.

Then, he saw Plex fling the door open. "Boss! Come on!" Plex unplugged from the device and waved for Garrett.

"Coming!" However, he needed some way to hinder this thing from following them. It was larger than the door, but there was still a risk it could follow them somehow. "Alright, well if the sword worked on your armor, it should work on your legs!" Right as the flames were at his neck, singeing the hairs, he swapped out his spear for his sword. He swung his sword at the legs of the machine. The heavier metal cleaved right through, sweeping two of the legs out from under. The robot, now unbalanced, toppled over. It fell to the ground with a mighty crash onto its back. The fire spewed upwards like a fountain of flames. "And for good measure!" Garrett brought his sword down on the tube attached to the weapon, causing the flames of the weapon to die out. The tube, however, now was flailing wildly as the fire burst out like a firetruck hose. He felt the heat run against his leg, but he managed to pull away before any real damage was done.

"Well, guess that's it for you," Garrett said as he caught his breath and ran over to Plex. He rushed inside the door and Plex followed, closing it behind him. "We did it."

"Correction, you did it, Boss," Plex said, still cradling Vanessa. "All I did was open a door."

"And if you hadn't opened the door, I don't think either me or her would have gotten out." Garrett felt Vanessa for her pulse, feeling it faintly. "She's still alive. Okay, we need to find her some medical attention."

"And we have to find Cerezie," Plex added.

"Right, we have to find her. Though, we have no idea where she is."

"And where are we?"