Two. Four. Seven. Nine. Ten.
He'd split off from the main pack of students early on, picking a spot where the bots seemed plentiful and his competitors sparse. Finding the space had cost him some time, but his extended range thanks to his weapons was allowing him to make it up relatively quickly. Heat radiated from the barrels of his twin pistols, one in either hand. He hadn't optimized their cooling systems yet, it had honestly fallen by the wayside after he was struck by the desire to waterproof them. Still, they were built from good materials, they'd burn his hands long before their insides melted from overheating. He spun on his heel, blasting an approaching one pointer's wheel out with one gun before destroying its head with the other.
Eleven. Fourteen. Fifteen. Seventeen.
Jake noted with some displeasure that he was being driven closer and closer to where the main horde of students were gathered. It was simple logistics: the majority of the robots were being thrown where the majority of students were gathered. Presumably, the ones he'd been finding so far were simply on the way from wherever they were released towards that main group. Still, the raccoon made sure to travel around that main cluster of students, doing his best to catch more of these approaching bots before they'd get lost in that sea of superpowers. He ducked into a narrow alleyway, traveling through it to a different avenue.
There was a two pointer bot here. They required a bit of a different approach to destroy. One shot to either front joint to disable the front limbs, that would cause it to crumple. Then it was an easy shot to destroy their head. They were more dangerous than the one point bots, as suited their higher point total. They were built like scorpions though, so long as Jake watched their stinger tail he was fine. Still, if he was ever going to be taken by surprise, it was due to one of these, one got close enough to just brush the fur on his ear before he dodged out of its way. He destroyed that one too.
Nineteen. Twenty-one. Twenty-two. Twenty-three.
Three pointers were big, noisy. He could hear them approaching over the sounds of the other bots. Whereas the one point bots were vaguely humanoid, and the two point bots were scorpions, the three point bots were effectively tanks with arms. They required the most concentrated fire to take down, and even shooting out their treads wasn't a guarantee of victory. They took longer to destroy, and every time Jake saw one he had to weigh the wasted time vs. the high point potential. Still, he was playing gatekeeper now, and though he couldn't be everywhere at once he certainly didn't want to knowingly let any of the robots get past him to the student horde some blocks behind him. He riddled it with shots until it stopped moving.
Twenty-six. Twenty-eight. Thirty-one. Thirty-two.
The ground shook beneath his feet. Someone's quirk perhaps? Jake looked back, the main group of contestants had gotten closer. Well, more like he'd gotten closer to them, he'd been slowly backing up to keep space between himself and the bots he was catching, and hadn't reclaimed any lost ground since the first time he entered this boulevard. He soon saw what it was that had caused that little earthquake, and it was no quirk.
The zero point bot had arrived. Whether it had been deployed near here or had been drawn by the students as the other bots were being, Jake did not know. The diagrams of these robots they'd been shown had severely understated the sheer scale of the zero point bot, it towered over many of the nearby buildings. It was easily a couple blocks from Jake and he could still see it. They'd been encouraged to avoid this particular bot, and the raccoon saw the wisdom in that. Snapping back to his senses, the raccoon sniped a pair of two pointers that were getting dangerously close to a student still enraptured by the zero pointer. No one important looking by Jake's estimation, still, better he have the points than they get them.
The raccoon ducked into a new alleyway, heading perpendicular to the direction the zero pointer had appeared in. There were a couple one point bots on this street. He quickly blasted them all. Were students going to approach the zero-point robot or keep away, he wondered. Certainly, some hotshots with a chip on their shoulder and something to prove would find the idea of 'killing the unkillable bot' a suitable challenge for them to inflate their egos on. More weak-willed students would likely clear the area entirely, while more realistically minded heroes-to-be, like himself, would hang nearby enough to catch any action, but outside of the bot's aggro range.
Thirty-four. Thirty-six. Thirty-seven. Thirty-eight. Thirty-nine.
He wondered if the weaker bots would be drawn to their oversized compatriot for its protection. He allowed himself to drift closer, weaving a jagged spiral path down roads and alleys, killing bots where he could still find them. In the center of his little vortex of destruction was the zero pointer. Before long, he exited onto the road the bot itself was on - though it was still some distance away from him. His original thought was correct, there were a number of students making a play for the giant robot. This unfortunately meant that any smaller bots that might have been near it were long since gone.
He turned his back on the zero pointer. It was a risky proposition, but it was still a ways down the road and presumably occupied with all the other students buzzing around it. Still, he turned an ear back towards the fight, paying attention to the sounds of battle while his eyes scanned the road for any remaining robots. He was soon rewarded when a new one pointer turned around a corner. Looked like there was still a few of these guys left.
Forty. Forty-one. Forty-three. Forty-four.
