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As Steph continued to observe from her hiding place, her attention was drawn to the sky, where what appeared to be a harpy was also taking note of the battle. Based upon the creature’s screeches, it was very much in favor of beasts, and by the looks of the local terrain, chances were that it was the one who had brought them here. She was momentarily taken aback when a spike of mountain blasted out from one of the buildings, impaling a beast attempting to claw its way inside. It appeared the villagers [i]did[/i] have a protector of some kind after all. Even so, Steph knew that they would need help if they wished to fend off this attack, especially with that harpy circling overhead…

While this was transpiring, Steph’s nanites had returned from their search and informed her that while there were indeed numerous sources of metal from which to craft a weapon, she would have to venture out from her hiding place to make use of it. That didn’t seem like a good idea, and even if she could somehow escape notice, she doubted a simple sword would be all that effective against these creatures, especially a flying opponent, like the harpy. There had to be another option, something closer…

It was then that Steph remembered the cryostasis chamber. It was easily the most advanced thing here and she certainly had easy access to it. Her nanite swarm was only programmed to manipulate metal, but if anyone could modify its programming, it was Steph. After all, she had reprogrammed her first robot at the age of five. Reprogramming the nanites to reassemble the cryochamber into a weapon was well within her capabilities. After hastily tapping away on a holographic display, Steph was ready to let the cloud of tiny machines go to work. After only thirty seconds, it was complete- a cryostasis rifle. It would only be good for five shots, six at most, but Steph knew that if she could make those shots count, then the village would surely be saved.

Once more taking up position at the pagoda’s entrance, Steph waited patiently for the harpy to come into view. Once the creature had done so, she placed her finger on the trigger, took careful aim… 

And fired.