Adam didn't just rush into the fight. Instead, he popped up from the ground a few miles away from where the Metal Eaters were waiting to jump him.
Metal Eaters and the giants were natural enemies. When they met, it was all about fighting until one couldn't fight anymore.
Right away, the Metal Eaters turned and got ready to face Adam, forming a cone shape and heading his way.
They were all super powerful, but each one was a lot weaker than Adam. They weren't even as tough as mage apprentices.
However, they were smart about working together. Even though there were more than a hundred of them, they moved and fought as one unit.
They started by shooting a liquid at Adam that he couldn't see or smell. Adam could tell from the way the liquid reacted with the air that it didn't have any power on its own. But when it came out of the Metal Eaters, some kind of special force made it stronger and faster, almost like a magical storm coming at him.
Adam crossed his arms in front of him, and the little light in his Vital Generator started pumping out power. Bright lines showed up on his body, sending energy to his hands. He made an electromagnetic shield that stopped the liquid's strange power and held it in the air.
This plane was really a forgiving one. The electric and magnetic stuff happening didn't cause any fuss.
Maybe it had something to do with these creatures being made of metal. After all, metal, electricity, and magnets often go hand in hand. Maybe some creatures here had figured out how to use those powers too.
Anyway, this was a big plus for Adam's ability to keep himself safe.
The shield he made sent the liquid zipping back at the Metal Eaters. They didn't think twice and opened up, ready to gulp the liquid back down.
"Not too bright, are they?" Adam thought to himself.
While the liquid was hanging in the air, it got squished together, making it much heavier. When it shot back, the strong magnetic field made it hit like bullets.
These powerful creatures had certainly noticed the big change, but they still went to catch it. They must really trust their tough skin, or maybe they just weren't that smart.
***Bang, bang, bang, bang!***
The liquid smacked into their mouths and bodies with soft thumps, making their insides look out of shape. They stopped moving forward for a bit.
"They're smart but too sure of themselves," Adam thought.
The liquid that hit them splashed everywhere, quietly eating away at the ground and making holes. Adam carefully made his electromagnetic shield cover him all over. It looked like the Metal Eaters had come up with this liquid just to take on beings made of metal. Getting hit by it would definitely be bad news.
The Metal Eaters' lineup got a bit messy, like they didn't see this comeback coming.
When they saw none of their group was gone, they kept moving forward.
They changed from a cone shape to more of a spread-out fan. The one in charge, looking like a big bug, shifted color a bit, turning into something like a power station, making the force field stronger. The force field got so strong that little whirls of energy started to show up on it. After just a tiny bit of time, they let loose a heavy shower of liquid.
"They don't have many tricks up their sleeve. Is it because they're low-level creatures?"
Adam wasn’t going to just stand there and take it. Power from the generator moved to his legs, and flames shot out from his feet, lifting him up and away from the attack just in time.
The liquid shower stopped mid-air and then changed direction to follow Adam. A second later, the Metal Eaters were right behind him, with more whirls showing up on the force field.
Adam changed shape while flying, turning flat with lots of gun barrels popping out all over him. Power built up in no time, and he fired a bunch of tight fireballs.
When the fire hit the liquid, the two forces clashed and wiped each other out, making a bright fog. Even with the big show, the Metal Eaters were just fine.
"They're really good at blocking energy."
Adam changed again, this time into a big, heavy sword. He turned on the electromagnetic magic full blast, and loads of electricity zipped around him fast. He turned into a missile and dived down, cutting right through the Metal Eaters' spread-out shape and stopping just before he hit the ground.
Following that came the sounds of Adam breaking the sound barrier, the soft thumps of bodies hitting the ground, and the quiet hiss of the corrosive stuff melting rock reaching him.
"They're not so good at handling a real hit."
Adam got a bit banged up too. Touching the force field and getting splashed with the Metal Eaters' blood ate away bits of him. But for a being made of metal, this kind of damage wasn't a big deal. As long as his core power source and his inner spark were okay, he could fix himself up quickly.
The Metal Eaters weren't so lucky. Adam's electric sword took out a third of them. The leader, now only half its original size, let out a mad yell. The ones left got back into formation, powered up their shield again, and came at Adam even more madly than before.
Adam figured out the Metal Eaters talked to each other with really low-pitched sounds. These sounds didn't carry much power and could only share simple stuff, which meant the Metal Eaters weren't super smart.
By now, these natural foes had done their bit in testing Adam out. Even though he was kind of curious about what would happen if he got bitten, he wasn't about to try it himself. He figured this kind of info wasn't hidden. Considering what he had seen about mental beings, he had a feeling that they were pretty easy to get along with, and it shouldn't be tough to pick up common knowledge from them.
The way Adam's energy setup worked, borrowed from magical arrays, was all about using power efficiently. After a few rounds of fighting, his core power hadn't gone down much, and he still had plenty left to take care of the Metal Eaters.
…
Ironburg was a key spot for the Spark Federation, right on the edge of their land. Past Ironburg to the west was a no-go zone, crawling with Metal Eaters, the sworn enemies of the Titans.
The Titans named this planet Titania.
A massive fight between the two sides a hundred years back had cost both sides half their numbers. In the hundred years since, big fights were rare, but smaller clashes happened all the time. This current fight was just a bit bigger and deadlier than usual, but it was something the Titans were used to dealing with.
