Chapter 440 - 411: Heavy-Armored Tyrant 2

Chapter 440: Chapter 411: Heavy-Armored Tyrant 2

’Once this annoying Mage is taken care of, the rest will be lambs to the slaughter.’

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

The heavy footsteps drew near, like the beat of a war drum.

With every step, the ground trembled.

"Waaah! Help me! Kael, save me!"

Mia shrieked, all thoughts of maintaining her composure gone as she turned and ran.

"Trying to run?"

Adam sneered and viciously threw the warhammer in his hand.

A whistling sound tore through the air.

Mia felt a chill run down her spine and instinctively cast a Magic spell.

[Phantom Shift]

Her figure blurred, splitting into three identical phantoms that darted in different directions.

"CRASH!"

The warhammer smashed into the spot where she had been standing, shattering the large rock there.

Shards of rock flew everywhere.

A sharp piece of stone grazed Mia’s cheek, leaving behind a bloody gash.

"That was close... I was almost turned into paste."

Clutching her face, Mia scrambled and crawled into a crevice in a scrap heap.

This was a completely one-sided slaughter.

Power, speed, defense, resistance.

He crushed them in every aspect.

Just then, the voice cut into everyone’s minds again.

[All units, on my command!]

The tone was flat, each syllable clear and forceful, with not a hint of hesitation.

The group’s scattered, frantic breathing instantly hitched before falling into a uniform rhythm.

Everyone instinctively straightened their backs and tightened their grip on their weapons.

[Cease frontal engagement.]

[Use Mia as bait. All units, disperse and engage in hit-and-run tactics.]

The moment the command was given, the view in everyone’s minds adjusted and underwent a dramatic change.

The dim scrapyard cavern was rapidly rendered into a three-dimensional map, with countless pale blue grid lines covering every inch of space.

Furthermore, the map was no longer static. It was locked onto the rampaging metal figure—the axis of the map had become Adam himself. No matter how he moved, the grid always radiated out from him as the center, dividing the battlefield into sectors of intertwined danger and safety.

Each team member’s position became a point of light revolving around this axis. The proximity warnings for red lines, optimal firing angles, and differences in the surrounding terrain’s elevation were all clearly displayed.

Kael’s voice cut in at the perfect moment.

[Listen up, everyone! Disperse with Adam as the center! Maintain a safe radius of at least seven meters. Stick close to the narrow rock pillars and scrap heaps. Don’t give him any room for a straight charge!]

[Number Nine, use a "Cloud Mist Skill" potion.]

[Number Ten, use acid flasks to block his path on the right.]

The instant the commands were issued, the team, which had been on the verge of breaking, began to operate again like a finely-tuned, clockwork machine.

"PSSSHH—!"

A plume of white smoke erupted, obscuring Adam’s vision on his left.

This was followed by several acid flasks hitting the ground, their corrosive fumes blocking the path to his right.

"Insects! You’re all insects!"

Adam roared in fury, picking up his warhammer and swinging it wildly.

But he found that he couldn’t hit anyone.

They were as slippery as eels, impossible to get a grip on.

Whenever he tried to charge someone, some kind of interference would appear at just the right moment.

Either the ground beneath his feet would suddenly collapse,

or a rock would fall from above,

or a stray arrow would shoot toward the gap in his faceplate.

It felt like he had fallen into a spider’s web.

He wouldn’t die right away, but it was enough to drive him mad with frustration.

On the edge of the battlefield, Kael was half-crouched on a crossbeam, a spare short crossbow in his hands.

He didn’t rush to attack.

His dark eyes were fixed on Adam’s every move.

He was searching.

Searching for the weakness.

No matter how perfect the machine, it had to have a weakness.

As long as it was man-made, it couldn’t be flawless.

Kael narrowed his eyes, his mind racing as he analyzed every movement of the iron monstrosity before him.

His gaze pierced through the layers of mist, and he keenly locked onto a joint in the armor plates on Adam’s lower back.

’That’s it.’

Relying on intuition honed through countless life-and-death battles, he noticed a pattern: every time Adam moved at ultra-high speed or swung his warhammer with force, a flash of light would appear at that spot for an instant.

’Just as I thought.’

The moment Adam turned to chase Mia, an extremely faint, ghostly blue light flashed again from the gap there.

It was the glow of the Magic Power core venting heat.

That was the energy hub that powered the lower body of this massive construct!

"Found it!"

Kael set down his short crossbow and drew the shortsword named "Punishment" from his waist.

Even though it was a fine enchanted weapon, he would only have one chance to get into close combat with this heavily armored tyrant and pierce that level of defense.

And that was to drive the blade into the gap between the armor plates the instant it vented heat.

But that required one thing.

He had to be stopped.

Even if only for a single second of paralysis.

[Mia, lure him to that dead end in the scrap heap.]

Kael ordered over the public channel.

[There are three support pillars there. They’ll keep him from swinging his warhammer freely.]

[I don’t wanna! That monster will eat me!]

Mia’s voice came back, tinged with tears.

[That’s an order.]

Kael’s tone left no room for argument.

[I’ll buy you a hundred bottles of... happy water when we get back. My treat.]

[...Deal!]

Mia grit her teeth, stopped abruptly, and spun around. She flashed her middle finger at Adam, a deeply contemptuous sneer on her face.

"Hey! Tin-plated eunuch! Why don’t you take off that turtle shell and let me see if you’ve still got anything down there? Or did you saw that off too and replace it with a rusty exhaust pipe?"

After saying her piece, she turned and ducked into the narrow dead end.

"You’re courting death!"

Adam felt all the blood rush to his head, his reason consumed by fury—he was completely enraged.

Without a second thought, he smashed through a pipe with his warhammer and charged in.

Only after he rounded the corner did he realize he was in a space enclosed on three sides by hard rock walls and discarded metal scrap.

The space had become constricted.

And Mia was nowhere to be seen.

Adam couldn’t swing his long-handled warhammer here at all. He could only thrust with it, like a fire poker.

’Now’s the time.’

Kael leaped down from the crossbeam.

He didn’t attack Adam’s back.

Because the heat vent wasn’t open yet.

What he needed to do was... draw aggro.

"CLANG!"

Kael landed heavily in front of Adam, smashing a teammate’s heavy shield against Adam’s helmet.

It didn’t do much damage.

But it was extremely insulting.

Adam was stunned for a moment.

He hadn’t expected this rat, who had been hiding the whole time, to dare jump right in his face.

"You..."

"Iron eunuch."

Kael coldly spat out two words.

This was the final spark that ignited Adam’s powder keg.

"I’ll smash you into a pulp!!!"

Adam roared, raising his warhammer high with both hands.

Even though the space was narrow.

Even though his stance was awkward.

This strike still gathered all the strength in his body.

The heat vent on his waist even began to furiously spew blue light.

He was overloading.

This was the chance Kael had been waiting for.

But he didn’t dodge.

If he dodged, Adam would pull back, and the heat vent would close immediately.

’I have to take it head-on.’

’I have to trade my life for that single moment of paralysis.’

Kael raised the tower shield over his head, curling his body into a ball and tensing every muscle to its absolute limit.

"Bring it."

BOOM—!!!

The warhammer fell.

The moment of impact, Kael tilted the shield’s face, trying to deflect the force. But in the face of absolute power, such a meager trick was utterly useless.

The refined steel tower shield twisted and deformed the instant it met the giant hammer, like a crumpled piece of waste paper.

The immense impact traveled up his arm and through his entire body.

"CRACK."

That was the sound of the bones in Kael’s left arm shattering.

Excruciating pain washed over him like a tide, and the world before his eyes began to go dark.

But he didn’t fall.

He stubbornly held up the ruined shield, his feet plowing two deep furrows into the ground.

He had blocked it.

Adam’s movements paused for the briefest of moments.

It was the instant when his old strength was spent and new strength had yet to be mustered.

It was also the moment the construct was under maximum load.

The blue light behind his waist shone at its brightest.

In the shadows behind Adam, a petite figure who had yet to make a move emerged like a phantom.

Xiaolan gripped the dagger named "Silence."

In that moment, time seemed to stand still.

Adam remained in his downward-smashing pose, his body rigid.

Kael was half-kneeling on the ground, blood trickling from the corner of his mouth, but his dark eyes were terrifyingly bright.

The tip of Xiaolan’s dagger was already touching that ghostly blue light.

"Got you."