Y/N POV

The wall in front of me smashed clear open, creating a massive hole. In the shock of it, I dropped the communicator to the floor. My eyes narrowed in anger as the same creature I'd encountered shortly after my arrival in this factory emerged, the creature with the engine torso and spinning propeller.

I muttered "You're the last thing I need right now. Damnit." Chris' voice could be heard from the communicator asking "Y/N? What the hell was that noise?! Y/N come in-!" He was cut off, before he could continue as the monster stepped on the communicator, crushing it under its large black boot.

I knew from earlier how durable this particular creature was, so instead of wasting ammo, I took off running back the way I'd came. Behind me, I heard the propeller swirl even louder as is scrapped against the stone walls, chipping the stone and making sparks fly.

It followed close behind, I occasionally turned and fired a handgun round towards it. I knew it wouldn't do much, but it could at least hopefully whittle it down a bit while I looked for another chute for me to escape through like last time.

There was no such luck now though. I ran back through corridors, even venturing back across the walkway I'd been on before, this time going right across it in order to reach a door at the other side, I didn't bother going back down the ladder.

I entered the door on the other end of the walkway, finding myself in a much shorter corridor, leading up to a flight of stairs. The propeller creature was still in pursuit so I ran up the stairs reaching a metal door. 

Heading through, I slammed it behind me, hoping that the creature's lack of arms would at least buy me a couple of minutes to think up a plan. It did not.  Before I'd even made it a quarter of the way down this path, the door was busted down completely, a glimpse back showed the creature continuing to follow.

I rolled my eyes asking myself "What does it take to stop this thing?" And it was at that point that I remembered what I'd purchased from the Duke. It had been at least an hour or two since then so I'm not surprised I'd forgotten.

Reaching round, I took out one of the landmines I'd purchased. Arming it, I proceeded to place it on the ground and continued running. I listened carefully as this unique Soldat kept up its approach before suddenly, there was an EXPLOSION!

Looking back, I couldn't help but grin. For the first time, I actually saw this creature experience damage. It staggered back, a small stream of smoke coming from the side of its engine. It took a moment to regain its footing and it continued after me. Now though, I knew I had a slight edge over it.

After that, I wasted no time repeating my earlier trick. I placed another landmine on the floor. Given how narrow the corridor was, the propellered Soldat had no room to avoid and simply stepped onto the landmine again, causing it to blow up right in its hypothetical face.

And column of smoke now came out of it, this time from the other side, however even then once it had regained its footing, it followed and now there was only one mine left. After that, I still had my pipe bombs, I'd have to hope that's enough.

At the end of this corridor was another door. I ran as fast as I could to reach it. Even with its damages, the creature was approaching quickly and that's when I used my last landmine, right outside the door.

I entered what appeared to be another thin corridor at first. I walked through it as the monster entered the room behind me, triggering the landmine. The resulting explosion caused parts of the walls to break away revealing what seemed like a much larger room encasing the corridor.

The Soldat recovered, the damage beginning to pile up. It was honestly kind of funny. In my first encounter with it, I had been unable to make a dent and yet now, with the help of explosives, smoke was now pluming from both sides and the top of it.

It's engine let out a roar and it raced towards me in a swift charge. Thanks to the damage in the wall, I was able to get out of the way, otherwise I'd have been doomed right then and there. The Soldat's propeller spun rapidly as it collided with the wall.

Just like from the explosion before, the wall crumbled completely along with surrounding chunks of it. As the Soldat hit the outer wall of this room. It came to a stop for a moment, perhaps overheated from the previous charge, however it was here I saw my opening.

In the centre of its back was what looked like a damaged opening. Clearly from earlier, beneath a loose sheet of metal was a glowing orange core identical to the ones I'd seen on every other type of Soldat up to now. The weak point!

I went in heavy straight away, reaching for a pipe bomb and throwing it. It didn't hit perfectly but it landed close enough so that when it exploded, the Soldat was badly injured and fell forward, only barely managing to stop itself.

Now I was noting elements of sparks coming from it. I threw another pipe bomb in its direction. It exploded making the Soldat stagger back yet again. Due to it not being hit in the weak spot, it quickly regained its composure and dashed at me a second time.

Once again, I managed to leap out of the way making it crash into yet another wall. It seemed this entire small network of corridors was actually concealed within a larger open room. The Soldat with the propeller crashed into the wall and once again overheated, leaving itself open.

My last pipe bomb was thrown quickly followed by two magnum rounds before it exploded causing large amounts of damage in the Soldat's body. Now it was engulfed in flames and yet, still managed to function.

Now I don't know if machines had emotions here. But if they did, this Soldat would be furious. It slowly began to approach, propeller spinning as it slashed at the floor. I stepped back slowly, barely keeping ahead of the blades.

When I saw my opportunity, I dodged out of the way. The Soldat repeated its slashing motion for a while, carving lines into the floor. Eventually, it did notice I wasn't there and spun around. I glared at the Soldat before speaking.

"You know, I'll give Heisenberg credit where it's due. You are well built for a construct of scrap metal melded with flesh. But you're beginning to annoy me now. Now that I've got your weakness, there's little you can do."

Of course, I very much doubt it could even understand me, the Soldat roared once again and performed one last charge in my direction. Of course you know the drill by now, I ducked out of the way, this time the blade did catch my arm in the process, leaving a faint cut but that was all. The Soldat collided with the wall and came to a stop.

With no bombs, I resorted to my magnum as I opened fire right into the core. It took a surprising number of hits however after a moment, I noticed the Soldat began shaking. It's engine was in flames with smoke coming out. And then, just like the explosives that damaged it in the first place, its entire body exploded!

I shielded my eyes from the blast at first, however as it died down, I slowly lowered my arm to see no sign of the creature, just small bursts of flame dotted around. In the centre I did notice something of interest.

Much like the Lords as well as Dimitrescu's daughters, there was a piece of crystallised remains. This one actually had chunks of cybernetics merged onto it. I reached out and picked the object up, noting similarities to that of a heart, perhaps the heard of this Soldat, preserved in crystal and machinery.

Image of the Complex Mechanical Heart:

I didn't NEED this item, for my research, the remains of Dimitrescu and Moreau would be enough, if it came to it, Heisenberg as well. It would be worth bringing this with me though, I could possibly sell it to the Duke for a good price.

As I placed the item away, I heard a voice behind me that made me let out a sigh. "Where the hell have you been?! What happened here?!"

Author's Note: And that's it for this chapter. Now of course, like I said yesterday, I'm still thinking about how I can work around my new job, it's possible I may only write on weekends, or that I'll write parts of chapters in chunks over a few days, I may even be able to keep writing like I have been, I'll have to see. I wanted to get this chapter up since I already had it planned out yesterday. I wanted Y/N to fight Sturm since he was absent for Ethan fighting Urias, similar to how I handled Cassandra and Daniela earlier. I hope you enjoyed the chapter and as always, thank you for reading.