Chapter 72 Rude Awakening [3]

In the novel, Leon was the 2nd person to clear the Dungeon, Conqueror's Trial.

At that point in the novel, his physique had 4 abilities unlike now, where he has only 2. The resulting boss monster was a 5-star Hydra.

How did he defeat a boss monster higher ranked than himself?

To put it nicely. He went Plus Ultra.

To put it my way. He got a crazy batshit power-up.

Anyway, I was sure he will get another power-up if I recreated the situation from the Dungeon of Trails.

Only, two things were stopping me: Was that even possible with Susan, and I didn't want to.

The first reason was self-explanatory. It wasn't possible to hurt Susan sneakily.

For the second reason. I didn't want to put my fate in another's hands.

Why should others decide if I live or die?

No matter what I didn't want to die.

But I equally loathed leaving my survival in hands of some bullshit power-up that might or might not come.

That was why, even if it was dangerous, I will decide my fate for myself.

At least then I won't regret the result. Whatever it may be.

"Make sure you don't miss the timings."

Susan and Leon nodded their head.

The towering Golem was still standing. Susan was beginning to get tired while the Golem was getting better and better at fighting us.

We have to take it down before it learned even more.

"Now!"

With my words as the signal, all three of us dashed in different directions.

Leon and I ran along the boundary of the Colosseum. Our goal was to get behind the Golem from different sides.

Susan dashed straight ahead and clashed with the Golem. Both of them swung their swords at each other.

They started swinging their swords at each other crazily.

Continuous explosions rang every time their swords struck.

The ground was breaking just from the shockwaves of their clashes.

Watching them fight, I couldn't decide which was a monster.

The Golem, despite its size, was swinging the sword swiftly. Each swing was faster than a peak agility-type Meta-rank.

Each of those swings could easily flatten a tank.

Yet Susan was fighting it on equal grounds.

Every time she changed her sword's path at the last second to strike the Golem's sword in a way that mitigated most of the force behind it.

She was fighting against a monster that could fight a party of peak Iota-ranks alone!

With her going all out, the Golem could no longer keep an eye on us.

But this wasn't enough.

Susan's breathing was laborious, and her strikes were slowly losing the strength behind them. Her stamina was about to hit its limit.

It was taking her all to engage with the Golem. She couldn't defeat it.

Seeing this, Leon and I ran even faster. This was a race against time.

-Craaccck!

The ground underneath Susan cracked when she blocked another strike.

The Golem's attack was getting erratic. With it learning from the battles, it understood something was amiss.

Time and again it tried to look for us, but Susan's attacks were relentless and unending.

She wasn't giving it the chance to check on us.

The Golem was getting cornered when suddenly it jumped.

With its weight, it didn't go much higher and quickly fell.

Timing its fall, the Golem raised its sword and struck the ground.

Even Susan wouldn't be able to block this strike, which had the momentum of the entire Golem behind it.

The Golem was adapting at a fearsome speed.

It had quickly devised a way to attack all three of us.

It knew Susan will try to block this attack and it will result in getting heavily injured. With her gone, it will be able to defeat Leon and me fairly easily.

Assured of its victory, the Golem looked at the ground.

But Susan wasn't there.

Moments before its sword struck the ground, it found Susan.

She was far at the edge of the Colosseum.

Boooommm-!

….

--Moments after Nathan explains his plan and the final attack begins.

"Take this."

I passed Susan the artifact shoes that I borrowed from Lark.

With this, she should be able to make it to the edge of the colosseum when the Golem jumps.

"How are you so confident it will jump?"

The Golem was like a newborn child with super learning potential.

Seeing as how it was trying to do it again and again, it had already realized the destructive power behind a full-powered swing.

At the speed of its learning, it will quickly discover that putting its own weight along with the swords will make the strike even stronger. Then it will definitely jump.

[War God Physique] was a total cheat alright. Even its copy was this troublesome.

"Intuition?"

Susan glared at my half-assed answer. But I ignored her piercing gaze and continued.

"Don't worry about us. You only need to make sure it doesn't see us climbing in the air behind its back."

My diversion tactic worked, as Susan dropped the previous topic and focused on the new one.

….

Boooommm-!

The entire Colosseum shook.

The floor broke and the debris shot in all directions.

Susan, who was at the edge of the colosseum, continued to cut the large piece and dodge the smaller pieces of the flying debris.

"Is this far enough?"

Feeling the Mana in the air, Leon nodded.

We were standing high above in the air, outside the [Anti-Magic Field], on top of my sword.

As I was watching Susan dodge the debris, Leon warned me.

"It will dissolve into smoke in 2 seconds after entering the [Anti-Magic Field]. Are you sure about this?"

I nodded my head at his unnecessary concern. If everything went according to plan, it will not dissolve into smoke but be struck down.

Leon's constantly changing expression betrayed his inner turmoil. It seems he couldn't understand why I knew his art.

Before he questioned anymore, I spoke.

"You only have one chance. You can't miss."

Leon's part was the most important in the plan. Susan was already exhausted. We can't expect her to fight anymore.

If Leon missed, it will spell our defeat.

I spoke again to hide the nervousness I was feeling.

"I'll buy you 15 seconds. You must finish the Golem during that time."

Leon exhaled loudly and got ready.

"Huuuuh….Sixth Form: Empty Fade."

Leon and I jumped from my sword, directly toward the Golem's head.

Fwoosh-

Our bodies quickly tore through the air.

I began channeling Ether into my legs to strengthen them. If the strengthening wasn't up to par, it was going to hurt a lot when I landed.

Screeech-

The Golem held its sword and looked around to find us. It already found Susan, but we were still missing.

It was looking around when it suddenly swung the sword above its head!

My eyes widened in surprise at the sudden attack.

The Golem was able to predict our location!

I again realized its fearsome growth potential.

It was growing at a speed that I had never predicted.

The surprise attack reached Leon and tore his body, killing him… Just kidding.

Swish-

The golem's sword passed through Leon's body without obstruction.

Having taken the Golem's attack for me, Leon's clone dissolved into smoke.

Now that the Golem couldn't attack me before I fell on his head, I began my job.

A red and black orb started forming on both my palms, respectively.

I was about to begin the fusion when I finally landed on the Golem's head.

-Baaangg!

Pain shot up through my legs into my spine. I could almost hear my bones creaking.

The stinging sensation quickly traveled through my bones, and I almost lost control over the fusion.

Gritting my teeth and I kept my focus on fusion. This level of pain wasn't even comparable to having my arms explode!

Finally, the moment arrived and a reddish-black orb was floating on my arm.

Swooosh-

The surrounding area dimmed as if the Sun had lost its brightness.

I looked up and realized I couldn't see the sun.

Instead, I saw the Golem's palm coming down at me swiftly. I was about to get squashed to death!

Holding the reddish black orb in my hand, I struck the Golem's head.

"Don't fail me now."

The massive palm moving toward me suddenly froze.

I quickly realized that it wasn't just the palm. The entire Golem was frozen stiff!

Then, like a puppet with strings cut, the Golem fell.

Without looking at the Golem, I quickly constructed swords and fired them toward the sky.

"Leon!"

"On it!"

Leon jumped down.

The count down to 15 seconds had begun.

15 seconds…

Leon, who was falling, used them and started running toward the ground.

The muscles around his eyes wriggled, and he stared at the Golem's right shoulder.

10 seconds…

Landing on the last sword, Leon took a stance.

Immediately golden lighting began gathering around him.

6 seconds…

He used the seventh form.

My spine tingled from the electricity in the air.

A giant golden slash came down on the Golem's right shoulder.

4 seconds…

It was so bright that I had to close my eyes.

But I could tell. We won.

There were still four seconds left. With the attack almost upon its mark, it will be over before the Golem wakes up.

2 seconds…

The Golem suddenly moved.

1 second…

Time was up.

Booooommm!

The lightning overheated the stone golem in milliseconds and a thundering explosion took place.

The Golem's movement stopped and dust filled the area.

Despite several seconds passing, the Golem never moved.

The ensuing silence marked the end of the battle.

Or so I wanted to say.

"Shit Shit Shit Shit"

I bolted to where the Golem's core was located. It has to be at the area where Leon struck.

Leon's attack hit the golem as we had planned.

But I felt the Golem move at the last second.

I parted through the curtain of dust and reached the Golem's right shoulder.

There I saw it….

The Golem, staring at me while laying on the ground.

It was waiting for its shoulder to heal.

This bastard was only playing dead!

Its right shoulder was blasted off, but the core, which was now exposed, was intact.

The Golem moved its left arm and swung its fist toward me.

Vrrooom-

I also ran to its core while channeling Ether to my limbs.

The Golem's fist landed and shook the ground.

I barely managed to dodge it because of the sudden increase in my speed.

Its arm started regenerating in front of my eyes. The core was quickly getting hidden behind the regenerating stones.

Without thinking twice, I jumped and punched its core.

My punch was about to land when the Golem's arm completely regenerated.

-Crack!

It healed when my punch was only inches away from the core. As a result, my arm was now struck inside the Golem.

My arm that was now inside it creaked.

-Cracck! -Crraccck!

My arm was crushed and twisted as the Golem's regenerating body tried to remove the foreign substance.

The pain was enough to make anyone lose consciousness while screaming in pain. Yet I was grinning like a madman.

"It's my win."

Phzzzt-

I held the dart with my mangled arm.

"[Pierce]"

Kaching-!

The core of the golem was pierced and broken.

***

"Cough..Cough"

'Did we win?'

Leon tried to navigate his way through the dust. His last attack had exploded the Golem's arm.

He knew that they had won.

Yet he couldn't suppress the growing fear in his heart.

Just a few seconds ago he heard a loud explosion. It wasn't something that Nathan should be able to create.

It had to be done by the Golem.

Was it still alive?

Leon knew that wasn't true. After all, there was no obstruction to his mana flow. There was no longer any [Anti-Magic Field].

Then what was that explosion?

He had to check with his own eyes.

"Hehehe… Hell Yeah, that was fun!"

Leon suddenly heard something. He used his last ounce of strength and bolted towards the source.

He quickly reached his destination and saw Nathan.

Nathan's right arm was badly mangled, and blood kept dripping from it.

Yet there was Nathan.

Standing on top of the Golem and cackling with a wide grin on his face.