As Penny accelerates across the skyline she can hear the staccato gunfire following in her wake, charged magitech energy tearing into the ruined buildings just a few feet behind her. She can see Blair moving in parallel to her on the other side of the street, jets of fire propelling the girl in a sharp arc across the crumbling skyline. She too threads the needle of gunfire, shouting profanity as she rockets through the air.

Between blasts of electricity and gets of fire the massive robot’s weapon systems, turning pods and cannons to melted slag as the two Ars Magi work in tandem. The turrets and pods that line the surface of the machine are decommissioned one-by-one, its armaments disappearing one by one.

The machine does not stand for this for long, however. The barrel of its enormous rifle swings toward Penny, giving Priya and Nicole a reprieve from its blasts. Penny, unfortunately, is no longer so lucky. Energy swirls around the barrel of the cannon as it begins to charge, unleashing a beam of energy to chase after its tiny assailant. 

Back on the ground there’s not much left of the advancing machines after the blast of the Dana-charged grenades envelopes the street, leaving only half-constructed husks of steel and broken concrete behind. Noah finds the time to give Dana a quick high-five as the group reassembles, flashing a bright grin toward their gunslinging savior. There’s a brief conference between the officers before a decision is made:

“We’ll retreat to the roof and do what we can.” Says Dima, making a quick motion toward the portal. The cadets proceed quickly after, vanishing through Cordelia’s doorway and assembling on the relative safety of the half-collapsed roof that the girl stands on.
Amanda lowers her bow as the officers make their retreat, the girl giving a short nod of acknowledgement to Dana. 

“Come on.” She says, turning toward the towering figure of the war machine the other Ars Magi are engaging. “Let’s go.” She sets off at a quick jog afterward, drawing her bow back as she takes aim, a frosty arrow materializing on the string.

As she takes aim Nicole is already preparing her strike, wind whipping around her as she calls the font of her elemental power. Air ripples and distorts as she sends her strike toward the already damaged leg of the mecha, the force of her cut sheering through the hard metal shell of the giant weapon. She leaves behind exposed wires and a thin metal frame upon which the machine still balances precariously—until Priya, with a blade made of gleaming fire, flashes by to finish the last of the work with a final slash.

Without one of its supporting feet the machine begins immediately to topple, it’s great bulk tilting to the side. The goliath falls, its bulk crashing into and halfway through one of the ruined buildings nearby, a plume of dust and debris clouding the street from the impact.

As the machine struggles to right itself arrows begin to perforate its elongated ‘head’, bolts of freezing cold fired from Amanda’s bow. Frost begins to spiderweb across the surface of the machine, biting into the metal and forming crystals of ice across its surface.

“Grenoble! McKenzie! Smash it!” Calls the girl in white.

But the machine it isn’t done yet.

Not content to sit and wait for its deathblow one of the remaining pods on its shoulder, half-burnt and scarred from earlier impacts, opens up to reveal a silo of a dozen gleaming missiles. They take flight with a hiss, racing into the sky, contrails of smoke swirling behind. The projectiles arc sharply soon after, turning back downward, heading for the street and surrounding buildings. Several streak toward the officers on the rooftop, others toward the Ars Magi on the street below.