During a call between Zeus and an officer at the police command office, Zeus asked:
"What do you mean the car disappeared!?"
"It seems it went off the main road on an unknown path through the wilderness… Camera 480 hasn't picked it up yet."
"How long has it been since Camera 479 recorded the car? … Did the truck go off-road too?"
"It's been over a minute… The truck is slower, so we can't be sure yet… But if it doesn't appear in the next thirty seconds, that means it also left the main road—or perhaps it stopped for some reason."
Zeus increased his speed, but when he noticed that the vehicles ahead were blocking his way, he decided to activate the hover system.
The front and rear wheels tilted after the bike jumped and began to hover half a meter off the ground.
Although this system allowed him to ride beside the highway over rough terrain, it consumed a lot of energy—something Zeus was trying to avoid in case of a long chase.
Just two minutes later, Zeus reached the area where the truck had disappeared. He stopped and began scanning the surroundings, only to hear the angry voice of the police officer:
"Why did you stop!! You must follow the black car! Forget about the truck for now! Our agents will track it shortly!"
"Sorry, sir, but saving a group of children is more important than catching the kidnapper."
Zeus then ended the call and followed the tracks he found, which must have belonged to the truck.
As for the officer, who was sitting among dozens of others in front of many screens showing scenes of the ongoing battle in the Tech Graveyard, he angrily slammed the table and spoke to the flying mecha that had been tracking Zeus and coordinating with the same office:
"Ignore Zeus's signal and continue to the coordinates I'm sending you."
"What did that fool do now?"
"He went after the truck."
The young woman piloting the flying mecha chuckled lightly, then a hint of sadness appeared on her face.
"That's just like him… I hope he's not still the reckless type I knew two years ago… but it's unlikely… It's hard to change some habits."
---
[Five minutes later]
Zeus noticed the tracks led to a nearby valley behind a steep cliff in front of him.
As he approached the valley, he saw a boulder atop a shattered tree.
What was suspicious was that the tree trunk and branches were still completely green—
Something that wouldn't make sense unless the boulder had destroyed the tree very recently.
Zeus examined the boulder's path and noticed some marks he wouldn't have seen unless he was intentionally looking—
Marks of a ground mecha's climb.
"Is there a mecha setting up a trap at the valley entrance!? But for who… It can't be for me… I was far enough from them, and they weren't speeding, so they had no idea the police were chasing them… Something's off."
Before Zeus could finish his train of thought, his eyes widened as two mechas emerged on either side of the valley, aiming massive machine guns at him.
Zeus didn't even get a good look at them—he immediately launched forward at full speed as soon as he glimpsed them. He raced through light trees as bullets flew past him until a shot hit the rear of the bike, throwing Zeus into a dip that led to a small river.
Zeus regained his vision and saw his ring crumbling—a sign that a bullet had hit it.
The ring he wore was incredibly expensive because of its built-in ability to use a normal human's blue energy to create a one-time defensive burst to block a deadly attack.
The downside of this tech was the pressure it exerted on a non-genetic fighter's body. It caused internal bleeding and slight muscle tears where the energy was focused—
In Zeus's case, his upper right back.
Zeus let out a painful scream and held his left hand over his right shoulder as he lay near the water.
Hearing gunfire and his bike exploding, he knew the robots were coming to kill him.
He ignored the pain and began analyzing the situation.
The first thing he realized was that the mechas had aimed directly at him as soon as they appeared, without even searching for him.
That meant his location was precisely known—they knew he was there.
Which suggested a tracking device or aerial surveillance drones.
But aerial drones were unlikely due to the outdated version of the combat mechas being used.
A more likely option was a detection system tracking vehicles and energy sources—commonly found in military transport and warplanes, especially those with limited cloaking capabilities.
The second thing Zeus's brain analyzed: how could he survive?
He had the rotary disc weapon strapped to the bike—his only weapon.
His body was injured, and even if it were healthy, it was impossible for a regular human without a specialized weapon to destroy a combat robot.
Even if it was an old, fully metallic, remotely operated model—the weakest class of battle mechas.
His mind didn't stop thinking, and he had one thing left with him—
The silver blood vial and the feather—two items he had brought to test his idea on throwing daggers without needing to return home.
Zeus quickly pulled the vial and the feather from the inner pocket of his long coat and enacted a crazy idea.
Theoretically, placing direct energy runes on the human body would destroy it the moment energy flowed through external pathways—because it would conflict with the body's internal energy.
Still, Zeus ignored that and placed a full-discharge kinetic energy rune on the sole of his foot, intending to launch himself tens of meters away. The energy storage rune should allow for ten full discharges.
He inscribed both—a storage rune and a movement rune—with a swift drawing motion he didn't even know he was capable of.
And once activated, Zeus launched himself into the air.
While airborne, he activated three consecutive energy discharges, propelling himself nearly 100 meters away.