[center][h2]Elise Kim[/h2][h3]Saitama Prefecture — Western Front[/h3][/center]
"An angel? I wouldn't go that far," the young woman responded offhandedly towards her companion before readying her own weapon of choice—a sniper rifle that seemed just as futuristic as the rest of her Chi-Mechframe. As the other soldiers began firing into the oncoming waves of Warped, Elise steadily raised her firearm up to eye level and began to scan the battlefield. A few holographic visuals popped up in front of her face as she took a deep breath, and the Pilot soon focused her attention on a cluster of larger Warped approaching the nearest barricades.

There was a brief pause as the tip of the barrel glowed, but the flash of light that shot forth seemed more akin to a laser beam than a bullet. One look at the young woman's target would only confirm that such a thought was much closer to reality than not; though it's head had remained largely intact, the hole burned clean through it meant that it truly was no more than a standing corpse now. Even then, the Warped could only remain standing for so much onlyer without any sort of brain to continue functioning, and after a few seconds what remained of the creature toppled to the ground.

Despite the firepower that she held in her hands, though, there was [i]one[/i] issue with Elise's ability to contribute to the fight at large—namely, the speed at which she could push through the oncoming horde. All she could do in the end was make sure that every shot mattered, and prioritizing where to aim to begin with—especially in an open battlefield like this—was far from easy.

Hopefully the other Pilots would call if they needed backup.

[@SaltSight][hr]
Despite the efficiency by which the Warped were being dispatched, the horde showed no signs of thinning. Given what they [i]were[/i], such an outcome should have been expected to some extent. This was more a marathon than a sprint, and expecting things to be so simple would have been more naivete than wishful thinking.

Even so, the corpses of Warped strewn about the ground made clear that the capabilities of Frame Pilots were well beyond those of ordinary soldiers, and that their presence here on the battlefield meant hundreds more soldiers could live to see another day.

But if all of the Warped that roamed these wastes were as strong (or as weak) as those here now, would humanity not have taken back what was once theirs sooner?

A ear-splitting screech erupted from the skies near Jennifer, and turning towards the source in the skies above would reveal the cause—a massive avian-esque Warped, sailing through the skies above. The 'head' of the monster had since parted, opening and twisting into a gaping maw from which an ominous red-black light could barely be made out.

Then, the ground was ablaze. The light as it had been quickly turned into a laser that swept across the ground, carving through asphalt and rock alike as it left the ground scarred. It mattered not that the Warped's "kin" tread where it struck. So long as there was "something" that tried to fight back, it only made sense to keep attempting to fire away until the threat was gone.

[@Raineh Daze]

At the same time, something far [i]swifter[/i] had drawn close to Rozaliya. It would be subtle at first—a blur in the distance here, the feeling of 'being watched' there—but as more of the nearby Warped were executed, those signs would begin to increase in frequency.

At some point, it was [i]very[/i] clear that the Pilot was being hunted down by something. Once the Warped that had been tracking her realized that it's presence was known, though, the tactics it employed would swiftly change to match. Rather than lurk in the shadows, the quadrupedal, weasel-like Warped—whose size was comparable to that of a small truck—began to close the distance with alarming agility that seemed unlikely for something of it's size. Bounding about from wall to rooftop to wall, the beast eventually chose to close the distance and attempt to pounce upon the prey that was within it's sight. From it's forearms, a pair of blade-like appendages seemed to [i]snap[/i] out and into place and aimed right for the Pilot's neck.

[@King Cosmos]