Chapter 374: The Fate of the Diggers

Since there was no class of Players specializing in the Earth element, their hole-digging basically depended on art (explosion).

Moreover, even though the expendable team could delay the Mecha Giant for around half or one hour, relying on explosions in that bit of time could hardly dig out a pit that would hold a three-hundred-meter all behemoth.

Furthermore, most explosion craters were bowled-shaped, which was very different from what was required to restrain or even cage the Mecha Giant.

It was therefore fortunate that the Players above Level 40 were there.

With a Skyfire Herald like Edward consuming all his Illum crystals so that his Blackfire Dragon was at maximum output, he could easily burn sand into glass, instantly heating things above 4500 degrees! In fact, when Xi Wei was designing the class of Skyfire Herald, he had wanted them to unleash heat reaching or even surpassing the 6000 degree Celsius of superheated flames.

However, he soon realized that the little bit of Flame Authority which the First Flame provided was not enough, and he would either have to obtain more Flame Authority or claim a partial Authority of the Sun (or indeed the Authority of nuclear fusion) to reach such temperatures.

Be that as it may, 4500 degrees was still enough to handle most objects. In fact, against certain mage shields, he could just steam the mage up even if his Blackfire Dragon could not penetrate the mage’s defenses…

Either way, superheating the ground to melt it and blast it away was much quicker than focused explosion on a fixed location. Additionally, the depth of the pit would be much deeper than a typical exploded pit.

(Joe: Is the digging team done yet? We can’t hold it any longer!]

[Edward: Almost]

(Joe: Hurry up… I almost got touched by a shockwave that could have instakilled me!]

(Edward: Can’t you have your spirit familiar do the fighting, and keep your distance away from the giant?]

(Joe: Won’t work. My familiar has no range.]

(Joe: Hurry up. We are almost wiped out here.]

[Doug Ag: No choice. We, the second team is going out!] [Edward: Why is a long-ranged unit like you joining the fun?]

[Doug Ag: That thing probably has an ability close to Protection of Arrows. Long-range attacks deal not much damage and wouldn’t draw its attention]

(Doug Ag: Since we can’t help in the latter half of this quest, why not join the expendables and earn some contribution points]

***

It was just before the expendables had all died out that Edward’s construction team finally dug a pit to a barely-useable extent.

In return, Edward estimated that he would start throwing up whenever he smelled the scent of cola.

“It’s coming!”

With the roar from the Players just ahead, a ginormous hand reached out from behind a mountain, grabbed hold of it and leaving a massively visible print over its stone.

And as the giant hand clenched, the ancient Mecha Giant slowly revealed itself from behind the mountain. Its horrific frame was much taller than normal mountains as it showed up once again before the Players’ sight with its overwhelming might!

“Everyone, fall back!” Edward commanded. “Long-range units, maintain the pressure and lure it here. Do your best to prevent it from noticing the crater in the ground to avoid any surprises!”

Although a thin layer of stone was used as camouflage, the Players were too pressed for time, and any intelligent creature would have sensed that something was wrong.

Even so, despite the Players’ long-range attacks having no effect against the Mecha Giant of ancient times, its eyes… or what was supposed to be its eyes were kept fixed on the Players, and it never noticed what was beneath its feet.

Hence, when it stepped on one of the camouflaging rocks, its terrible weight left it slipping down the pit! “Success!” Edward and the others were clapping in celebration.

Nonetheless, the pit was not too deep and half of the giant’s chest was exposed outside the pit. While the scene appeared rather funny, the hill size behemoth still prompted a sense of danger.

Then, the Mecha Giant reached out to grab the edge of the pit, intent on mustering its strength to climb out.

“Now! Demolitions!”

At Edward’s call, the edge of which the Mecha Giant had grabbed hold was immediately blasted off by the Players. Losing its grip, the Mecha Giant stumbled, its head smashing heavily on the edge of the pit, kicking up sand and stone in a roaring storm of dust, seemingly blocking out the sun and the stars.

“How is the target?” Edward quickly asked.

“Its HP bar basically didn’t change!” A Player who braved death to stay near the pit reported.

“Tch!”

If it had been human, it would either have fainted or had its two front teeth knocked off.

Even though Edward had no illusion that his tactic could destroy the Mecha Giant, it was still troubling that it was utterly meaningless against the behemoth.

“Forget it then. Don’t try to hurt it-focus on its legs and don’t let it climb out!”Be that as it may, Edward quickly collected himself since that was expected. Moments later, following waves of rumbling, the Players at the frontlines reported in again. “It is switching its response after we tripped it twice! It is destroying the pit walls now… it is trying to punch out a ramp so that it just has to walk away!”

“Then destroy the ramp!” Edward calmly commanded since that was expected as well. “Use every skill-explosion, frost, wall-breaking or even seafood and throw it at the pit! Don’t let it get out no matter what happens!” Hence, the Players’ persistent tactics became effective. After the Mecha Giant tangled with the Players for almost half an hour, it did nothing other than widening the pit by three times and making it comparable to a grand rift valley, and not once did the Mecha Giant’s attempt to climb out succeeded!

“Awesome! We got this in the bag!” Having joined the demolitions team, Marni exclaimed cheerfully at the sight of the ancient Mecha Giant being foiled. While Gou Dan doesn’t know what a death flag was, he sensed that something was wrong the moment he heard Marni say that. In his impression, whenever Marni said stuff like that, there would be…

At that very thought, Gou Dan rolled aside by instinct.

What happened next proved his instincts right. His move saved his life!

For in the next split second, the ancient Mecha Giant fired a red mana beam out of its mouth, directly piercing the edge of the pit and blasting away the Players obstructing it.

The beam never slowed down either, and struck squarely on the tortoise colossus to the rear!

All at once, the HP of the tortoise colossusthe objective which the Players were supposed to protect with their lives dropped by a visible notch!