Man Vs. Machi– Whatever The Fuck That Is!

Neigh!

Roaring in pain, the blind horse's eyes glowed bright, before shooting a burst of red lasers. Eyes squinting in shock, Duncan barely dodged, missing only a few strings of hair. Without missing a single beat, a horse with its front legs replaced with machine managed to creep up to him, smashing its legs where Duncan lay stupefied.

Just as the rider felt that it was about to kill the Elf, a soft ding was heard, before his head exploded into tiny fragments. Face covered in white matter, Vivian stared dead-eyed at where the bandit's headless body now lay, its arms twitching.

At the sudden attack, the horse grew spooked, veering madly to its right, where it landed on its feet. Suddenly, a large shockwave emerged, destroying the ground in a 5 m radius. Nearly tumbling down to his (foreseeable) doom, he was only saved by a quick yank from Titus. "What the fuck on Earadun was that!"

Sweating more than ever, Duncan swore like a sailor who got caught shitting in a storm. To him, this was pretty unbelievable: in a fantasy-esque world, there are still people who believe in 'flesh is weak, steel is eternal'. This is bloody impossible! I mean, how on Earth do these people even get the necessary technological doo-dats to replace fucking body parts!? This ain't Warhammer 40K!?

Unable to believe what he witnessed, nevertheless, he continued his fight with the bandits, weaving tier-3 and some tier-4 spells in conjunction with a little martial arts he learned from Titus.

"Fiery Fist!"

"Whipsnap!"

"Fireballs!"

While throwing spells left, right and center, he turned his head towards Vivian, believing that she needed help, but instead got the shock of his life.

There, despite being besieged by 5 fully grown men, she was, astoundingly, holding her ground. With each glimmer from her staff, she swung it at them, ducking and crouching when needed. With each attack, her blows landed heavily on her pursuers, until one of them at last blew up their head in a spectacular fashion, raining bone and flesh across the ground.

Awed at the girl's brute strength, he couldn't help but realise that there seemed to be a light, silvery shimmer across the girl's body as the tiny metalish pendulum inside her staff kept swinging. Just as he was about to ask her how on Earadun she was able to gain that much strength, he heard the sound of something spinning.

Ratatatatatatatat...

Twirling his head, he was met with one of the manliest scenes he could ever imagine:

There stood Titus, bare-chested, as bullets flew from the center of one of the bio-mechanized horse's torso, where a primitive Gatling gun lay, rotating at incredulous speeds. Despite each shot landing exactly on his chest, the old Orc barely flinched, powering through until his golden hue imbued fist landed directly on the horse's torso, shattering it into a bundle of gears and flesh. With relief in its eyes, the horse soon passed away, glad to be freed from the torment that had plagued it for so long.

Grabbing the rider by his throat, Titus lifted the straggling bandit until they saw eye-to-eye. Seeing his dead, cold eyes, the masked bandit realised that he was dead either way, so after a brief hesitation, he bit his teeth, releasing the poison within, killing him instantly. Titus's expression grew dark, for he realised that he had fumbled up, real bad. Shit! Damn it, I wanted him alive to know what they did with the captured Elves, and who were they part off. I hope at least they kep– Oh for the love of...

Veering his head to the left, he was met with the mangled bodies of the rest of the bandits, with some still being thrown around as rag dolls despite being very much dead. "Damn it you lot! Couldn't you at least keep one alive!? Now we've got no leads..."

Feeling guilty, Vivian lowered her head in shame, realising she had disappointed her saviour. Wooo, wooo, *sniff*, *sniff*, I'm sorry for not keepi– Hey, what's that?

She saw some black markings on the side of the horses, reflecting the bright sunlight. Peering closer, she realised that they were not burn marks.

They were brands

She discovered that etched upon the skins of the horses were the bandit's affiliations. Just as she was about to call them for her discovery, she heard a loud clicking noise.

Click, click, click, click, click...

"Shit! Run!"