Niko and Hana were now back to walking on foot, treading through the metal roads as they headed towards the city square.
They had managed to cover most of the distance on the moving platform, so it wouldn't take them that long to get there.
Niko was still a little bit annoyed about it, though, but listening to Hana humming cheerfully all along the way managed to make him feel a bit better about it.
It really was nice to have some company.
Hana's humming abruptly stopped, however, when she tripped on something and fell over.
She quickly got back to her feet, and looked down to see what had caused her to fall.
It was a small metallic machine, which had a red light coming from a small opening on its front surface. There were a few others moving around the nearby area.
The machines zipped across the ground, scanning it with their red light. Every time the light shone on any debris, rotten fruits or mud covering the metal road, the machines would move towards it and suck it up.
However...they would then start shuddering, smoke coming out of their openings, before spitting all the trash back out.
So, Niko really wasn't sure what the purpose of the strange machines was. He eventually decided to just ignore it, and the two of them stepped off of the metal road so that they wouldn't trip on something like that again.
After walking some distance, they turned around a corner, only to be greeted by another strange machine.
This one also had a red light that it scanned its surroundings with, but it wasn't small at all. In fact, it was easily five meters tall, with a humanoid appearance and large blades sticking out from its wrists.
It was a large guard robot. However, it was clearly malfunctioning, its lights flickering from time to time as electric sparks came out from all over its body.
Both Hana and Niko's eyes widened.
Not with fear, but awe, because they both thought the same thing upon seeing it — It was a toy!
It looked exactly like the one they had found in the first house they visited, but much bigger, and it was still working!
The 'toy' scanned the two of them with its red light, before shaking and shuddering while saying something in an ancient language.
Then it slowly raised its arm and slashed downwards, aiming to sever Niko's shoulder with the blade on its wrist.
Hana tensed up upon seeing that, realizing too late that this wasn't just some ordinary toy. She panicked and tried in vain to intercept the attack with her vines.
The blade fell down with frightening speed.
It cut through the vines with ease and struck Niko's shoulder...and shattered instantly against the adamantine flesh of the Child of Death.
Niko tilted his head.
This toy really wasn't safe for kids. So, he decided to deal with it before it ended up hurting someone.
As the robot raised its other arm to try and attack again, Niko brought his own hand near the robot's head...and flicked it with a finger, knocking the head off of its body.
Hana, who had been ready for a fight, looked at Niko with a dumbfounded expression. She blinked a few times, and then coughed before composing herself again.
But then more malfunctioning robots started approaching the two Spirits, each carrying a different set of weapons.
The two of them sighed, not at all in the mood for ruining their pleasant mood with another fight. So, they glanced at each other and nodded, before dashing away from the approaching robots.
The robots chased after the Spirits, but that only made the two of them more happy.
It was time to play another game of tag!
A robot tried to grab Hana, but she stepped out of the way. Another appeared from the side and tried to strike her with a mace, but she used her vines to pull the mace towards the first robot and smash its head, before continuing to run.
Niko ducked under a horizontal slash from a sword, sidestepped to avoid a falling hammer, and then stepped out of the way as two robots came running at him from both sides, causing the robots to smash into each other instead.
Another robot raised its arms as it prepared to slash down at him with a greatsword, but Niko just kicked it lightly in the shin, shattering the robots leg and causing it to topple over from the weight of the greatsword.
He then hurried to follow after Hana while the remaining robots chased after him.
The robots turned around a corner, and ran through an alleyway, but the Spirits were nowhere in sight when the robots reached the street on the other side.
The robots stumbled about, searching all around the place to find the two intruders.
Meanwhile Niko and Hana were sitting atop a nearby tree, covering their mouths as they tried to hold back their laughter.
Niko felt a bit strange.
He normally wouldn't have had trouble holding back his laughter, he also wouldn't have bothered to run and hide from the robots when he could take them all out in an instant, and he wouldn't normally be spending all this time playing silly games like this.
And yet, right now, he found himself doing all that, and even enjoying it.
He found himself behaving like a kid, and even enjoying it.
It felt quite nice.
He glanced at Hana. He was really starting to enjoy having her around. It almost made him want to keep travelling with her like this all the time.
But he shook his head. No, that won't do.
She had her own life — one that didn't involve facing the kinds of dangers he faced...or posed. And it was better for her if it stayed like that.
Once this was all over, the two of them would go their seperate ways again. That was for the best.
And yet, a part of him felt a bit sad at that thought.
Niko shook his head with a scoff, turning his attention away from such thoughts.
He stood up, taking a moment to scan their surroundings. They weren't that far from their goal now, since he could see the city square in the distance.
Niko waved his hand, creating several bone platforms that stuck out from the sides of the buildings and created a path to the city square that avoided the group of robots below.
He gestured for Hana to follow him as he jumped from one platform to another, heading straight towards the city square.