Chapter 168 Vengeful Craftsman 2

*Dwoosh~*

Thankfully, Anya was there and she dealt piercing damage.

All the armour of the statue counted for nothing, and the [Brittle Armour] passive had no effect on ranged attacks.

A heavy bolt shot forward and ignored the armour as it punctured right through it, creating a borehole as it struck deeply into the stone blacksmith’s large stomach.

The statue was in a corner now, which was a much more defensible position, though after the bolt pierced its stomach, it looked directly at Anya as if warning her, even daring her to shoot another – before going back to striking at the pesky skeletons with its large stone hammer.

With its back protected it began to fight back, each swing causing heavy damage to the skeletons – but after being flattened they instantly springed back up, retaliating with their own powerful strikes.

*Boom~Doon!~*

It would periodically miss, creating tremors throughout the room.

It definitely had lower dexterity than the skeletons, but it was still a level eight opponent, so its strikes would sometimes land on the nimble undead skeletons..

Blue was doing slightly more damage than the other skeletons, chunking off parts of its armour slowly. It was level four now so it was dealing more damage.

[5.3][5.3]

Another bolt struck the creature, dealing massive damage and causing it to pause for a moment as it recoiled from the hit; this only served to let the skeletons freely attack, getting in more easy damage.

It glanced at Anya again after taking more damage from her. Once it was done with these skeletons, she would be the next to die, but for now it just had to focus on culling the skeletons.

Shortly into the fighting, a skeleton had finally been slain – but Jay just resummoned it. It rejoined the battle with the same intense vigour it had died with, and only a moment passed between its death and summoning.

The statue gazed at Jay next, slowly realising that killing the skeletons would be pointless.

After seeing that taking the skeletons out would not be effective, the statue played more defensively for a moment while it analysed the battlefield.

Between a few horizontal swings to keep the skeletons at a distance, it would briefly glance at Anya and Jay – who would it kill first?

After the next bolt came flying and piercing its stone chestplate, it made its move.

*Doon, doon, doon~*

Each of its steps was heavy as it marched forward uncaringly; the skeletons made the most of it as they basically had free reign to attack it.

*tink tink tink*

They bashed their hammers against its heavily armoured back and took away more chips of stone along with some of its health points.

[4][4][4][5.3][2.2 – 2.2]

“Hm?” the statue wasn’t moving towards Jay or Anya – instead it was going to the forge area. Its head was fixated on the metal hammer.

Jay recalled what happened with Estobar. It might be interesting to see what would happen once it reached its metal hammer, but it was simply too risky.

“Nope. Not this time.” Jay thought as he instantly commanded a skeleton.

The skeleton hopped across and made it to the hammer first – it tried to grab it with one hand but it didn’t budge, so it dropped its bone hammer and used two hands.

Nothing. No movement at all. It may as well have been fixed to the ground.

The hammer was simply too heavy.

“How the hell was it lifting it with just a pair of tongs?” Jay’s brows creased in confusion.

The statue was coming, so the skeleton gave up on its prize and grabbed its bone hammer again before dashing away.

Just before the statue grabbed the hammer, it hesitated for a moment as it gazed at the metal hammer; it was about to dual-wield two hammers.

As it reached out its hand paused for a moment – though as another hammer strike from the skeletons came down on its back, it shook its head and grabbed it instantly before swinging around behind itself.

The hammer was instantly coated in a faint golden aura; it was hard to see because of the orange light from the forge, but it was definitely there.

*BOOM!!!~*

It smashed right through two skeletons, ending them instantly.

“What the fuck?!” Jay said as he watched two skeletons turning to flying bones in one attack; he instantly resummoned the destroyed skeletons.

The statue was now looking directly at him.

As it walked forward, the hammer slowly stopped glowing golden, it became faint before pulsing for a moment and suddenly disappearing.

Next, the metal shine the hammer was giving off before disappeared.

Jay looked a little more closely and noticed that it had dark-grey veins now travelling through it. It was turning to stone, and the grey veins now growing through it were beginning to look like the other stone hammer it was dual-wielding.

*Doon, doon, doon~*

It walked faster towards Jay, who suddenly realised what would happen.

The curse of Helvetia’s revenge was changing its last metal hammer to stone – this was why it used the metal tongs to hold it awkwardly. Due to its blacksmith experience, the metal hammer in its hands was much more dangerous than some cursed stone imitation.

If the hammer connected with him with it was still metal it would end in instant death; if he evaded long enough, it would be a battle of attrition until he wins. It was over once the hammer turned fully to stone.

Basically, there was a time limit for the statue to slay Jay within.

It decided to go for Jay first, as Anya would be helpless without Jay because she was immobile when she reloaded her bow. How would she do damage if she kept having to run away?

Once the necromancer was gone it could just walk towards her until she either died or left the dungeon. Of course, it still needed the annoying necromancer to die.

The statue was like a moving mountain, a wall of death heading right towards him. All Jay could do was flee from it.

Instead of moving into another part of the room, Jay headed back into the passageway.

Anya decided to move into another corner of the room and continue to fire. In the event of the blacksmith statue turning on her she would be fine, since she had her black mist ability as well as her unique skill.

“Just keep shooting it!” Jay called as he reached the twin-doors.

***Bonus chapter 3/5***