Chapter 251: The Law of Adaptation

Iron kept dodging the Golem's steel fists.

​Every time a gap opened in the Golem's defense, Iron delivered a fast, whipping counterattack.

​Columns of data continuously streamed across his retinas. With every contact with the armor, the Golem's metal became denser, and its energy absorption crept upward. Iron immediately recorded these values, making mental notes right into the scanner's active log.

​...I need to check the limit.

​To calculate the algorithm, Iron decided to increase the load in stages. During the next lunge, he locally altered the gravity around his left hand, increasing the mass of his fist and also condensing his bones and muscles. The heavy blow slammed into the chassis with an echoing ring. On the next dodge, Iron added more mass, raising the force to +2500G. The armor responded with instant densification, matching the load increase exactly.

​Understanding the principle, Iron soared high up, hovering above the roofs.

​"Well, let's see if you can..."

​At that very second, the air right above his head split with a hum—the Golem shot upward at tremendous speed and stopped right behind him. Iron clearly tracked this dash and only dodged to the side in the last millisecond, letting the fist that tore through the air pass over his shoulder.

​Both hovered in the sky at a height of several dozen meters.

​Iron smirked, looking at the floating Golem:

​"I didn't doubt you."

"Hand fully restored," Lumon's dry voice rang out.

Iron clenched and unclenched the restored fingers of his right hand—the bones had fused. But at that exact moment, a sharp wave of dizziness washed over him. For a split second, the Golem's silhouette split in two before his eyes, but instantly gathered back into a single bulk.

​The Golem bolted forward again, raining dozens of fast blows on him in the air. Iron spun, dodged, blocked, and continued recording the incoming data into the scanner's memory.

​At this time, down on the empty street, a knight ran sluggishly. With hands trembling from fear, he gripped his sword. All around were only the corpses of knights, but from above, a deafening hum and rolling crash could be heard.

​Up above, the Golem twisted its chassis and brought a two-handed strike down on Iron with all its might. The engineer only managed to throw his palms up in front of him, forming an ultra-dense physical barrier.

​A blow of terrifying force crashed right into the shield. Iron was hurled downward, and he smashed through the cobblestones at full speed. A second later, Iron saw the Golem falling right at him at top speed.

​The engineer instantly did a backward roll, jumped to his feet, and retreated with quick steps.

​Behind the rising Golem, he noticed the knight, frozen in terror. Not losing a second, Iron collapsed space and materialized exactly behind his back. Grabbing him by the scruff of the neck, Iron yelled at the top of his lungs:

​"Hey, Golem!"

​The Golem instantly turned its steel head. Its crimson oculars focused on the knight, and the status instantly flashed Red. The Golem bolted forward, rushing right at them.

​The knight struggled in panic, trying to break free, but Iron held him in place.

​"Wh-what are you?!" the knight only managed to yell, and in the final fraction of a second before the rushing fist, Iron collapsed space again.

​And popped out a few meters to the side, barely keeping his balance—from the frequent teleportations, a sharp wave of nausea rose in his throat, and everything blurred slightly before his eyes.

Right before his eyes, the Golem smashed its fist into the knight at full speed, instantly crushing his head and armor into a bloody pulp.

​Iron swallowed the lump in his throat and mentally noted the conclusion:

​A specifically assigned protocol... I get it.

​Pulling out its bloodied fist, the Golem turned around and charged straight at Iron again.

​The engineer just dryly snapped his fingers.

The space around them instantly compressed, and in the next moment they found themselves in a flat green clearing. Short grass with rare flowers rustled quietly around them, and a couple of lone trees stood nearby.

​The Golem froze for a second, as if confused. But a fraction of a second later, its systems adapted to the spatial shift, and, heavily scraping its feet, it pushed into the attack again.

​Iron began to rapidly retreat backward, keeping his distance. A tiny circle appeared on his slightly open palm.

​The Golem reared its fist for a crushing lunge. Instead of jumping back, Iron sharply dove forward, sliding right under the raised steel arm, and ended up right against the giant's side.

​"Your adaptation is your trump card, but also your weakness," he said quietly.

​The engineer sharply pressed his left palm against the Golem and completely zeroed out its mass.

​Deprived of weight, the Golem shot straight upward with a whistle. However, a second later, the Golem adjusted to the weightlessness—redistributed its internal impulses and fell back to the ground with a deafening crash. The multi-ton bulk slammed into the clearing with tremendous force, kicking up a cloud of dust and punching a deep pit in the soil.

​Iron stood slightly to the side; in his palm was a white-purple glow. The bright cluster itself began to change with frantic speed into perfect geometric shapes: a triangle, a hexagon, a circle. Inside their clear outlines, long lines of formulas and numbers appeared and multiplied, scrolling backward in mirror image.

​The Golem jumped out of the newly formed crater and charged right at Iron at top speed.

​The engineer tried to instantly collapse space to jump back to a distance, but nothing happened.

​"So you know how to block teleportation too...?" Iron tossed out through his teeth.

​He sharply dove under the raised steel arm, zigzagging past the flying fists and dodging a series of straight lunges with lightning speed.

​"Lumon, I take it I won't be able to save it?" Iron asked on the run.

​"Correct."

​Iron sighed heavily:

​"I see... Lumon..."

​At that very second, the skill activated—Iron's eyes instantly washed out to a gray-white hue, and the time around him slowed down.

​The geometric structure above his palm rapidly expanded. Iron forcefully threw the spell at the rampaging Golem, mentally saying:

​Your name is Ssengnihton.

​Right in flight, the glowing cluster transformed into a perfect rectangle. The same shapes—a circle, a triangle, and a hexagon—continuously rotated around it, while mirrored equations streamed in lines inside.

​The projectile struck the Golem squarely in the center of its chest. On impact, the formulas and numbers splashed in all directions across the steel armor.

​At that exact second, "Ssengnihton" instantly expanded, covering the Golem's entire bulk. The spell transformed into two decagons layered on top of each other, around which a triangle spun in a frantic vortex. The formulas and numbers that had scattered across the armor were pulled back into the center of the geometric outline and spun wildly inside.

​A moment later, only a flat shadow remained of the multi-ton Golem. Another second—and the dark silhouette vanished. The geometric shape itself crumbled, leaving absolutely nothing on the grass.

​Iron deactivated the skill. Time flowed at a normal pace again.

A brutal, bone-deep pain immediately tore through his entire body. Looking at the empty spot where the Golem had just stood, Iron breathed heavily and raggedly:

"If you had been more agile... my attack wouldn't have landed. A masterpiece..."

​His legs gave out, and Iron collapsed onto his back in the grass. Tilting his head back, he raised his weakened arm and covered his eyes from the scorching sun with his palm.

​"I should develop this magic... Right now it was just a couple of shapes and formulas. I need more..."

​His hand fell powerlessly onto the grass, and Iron just lay there, breathing heavily and recovering his strength.

​At this time in the capital of Nill, the crash and crushing blows suddenly quieted down. An oppressive silence descended on the ruined streets.

​After some time, the most curious of the townsfolk began to carefully return. There was neither Iron nor the Golem.

​But as soon as the people stepped onto the cobblestones, they saw that the Central Street was flooded with thick blood. Armor dented into the stones, torn-off limbs, pulverized heads, and the mutilated bodies of the royal knights.

​A couple of people immediately doubled over from a bout of wild nausea, and people started throwing up right onto the cobblestones. Someone screamed in panic, running back and covering their mouth with their hands.

​At this same time, deep inside the royal castle of Nill, everything was in perfect order.

​In a spacious office behind a massive desk sat the King. Before him towered neat, tall stacks of state documents. To his right and left stood frozen two loyal servants.

​The King, without raising his head, calmly signed the document in a broad, sweeping hand, turned the page, and coldly said:

​"Remove the corpses."

One of the servants immediately bent in a low bow and silently exited the office, setting off to carry out the order.