NSLICE-00P’s organic half flipped through menus and kept glancing at the battle in progress. She proposed trying to target the holes in the barrier that allowed the Legion attacks through. Her cybernetic half attempted launching a counterattack.

But the Legion had prepared for that as well. Anytime a hole was opened in the shield, they formed a second barrier behind the projectile in question. NSLICE-00P’s counterattack collided with the secondary barrier and made it no further.

NSLICE-00P’s organic half proposed wearing them down. Surely a barrier of this power required vast quantities of mana, while NSLICE-00P’s own reserves were holding steady. But the cybernetic half calculated that solution as risky. The sheer number of Legion soldiers below meant not all of them were required to maintain the barrier, and they could rotate shifts in and out. It might take an excessively long time for them to be drained, during which the situation could change. The Legion was likewise trialing different offensive measures; there was a chance they could find a way past her defenses if she gave them enough time. Attrition was the last resort if no other effective measures could be determined.

NSLICE-00P’s organic eye narrowed as she reviewed the footage of the Equalizer once more. The weapon had been effective, but couldn’t output enough power to bring down the shield in time. She could try to upgrade her energy channels to allow for more power, but there was a limit to what the Equalizer’s main components could produce at present, and upgrades for said components were not available via the foreign system. If only they were, a more powerful Equalizer could solve this situation.

Then, NSLICE-00P’s organic eye blinked. An idea popped into her head as she watched the Equalizer beam collide with the shield. She proposed it to her cybernetic half, which approved of the idea as potentially viable. She consolidated her two halves and created two new threads, each now containing a balance of cybernetic and organic processing power. Her cybernetic half’s capabilities were required for the proposed solution, so the organic half would have to pick up some of the slack on the defense. The defense efficiency would drop but the expected damage fell within range of her HP and mana regeneration, so it wouldn’t be a problem.

And with that, NSLICE-00P got to work.

She took out an ingot of mana iron, and created ingots of several other more mundane metals. She then began to mold and shape the metals together, forming a sphere of the more resilient mana iron with an interior of mundane materials.

The skill Metal Magic is now level 9!