SL: Chapter 708 – Day Unknown – Trap

I kept pulling up the metal plating as Clarissa set up more layers of defense with Conner and Gregor. They were earning their paychecks, or whatever Clarissa had promised them as they moved the plates into positions that would stop beam attacks. It was a good thing Clarissa had saved up a lot of points so she didn’t have to worry about running out while using the portable store.

“Dammit,” I cursed since the wall was quite thick and it was slow going. Bracing my body, I brought my hand back and struck forward, it pierced into the metal up to my wrist. I brought my hand and arm back once more and struck again and again. It was thick. The sphere wasn’t playing fair. It had built a super bunker to hide in, instead of a boss chamber.

That was the real trap of this place as the attacks on our position intensified. “Michael, progress?!” Clarissa shouted at me.

“Thirty seconds,” I shouted back. I brought up my hands and focused, unleashing Acid Shot and Force Shot into the hole I had made. The two different energies produced an annihilation effect, destroying a large portion of the metal around them. I floated forward and struck out again several more times in rapid succession and repeated the process.

The thick metal wall broke open into another large reflective chamber. This time I saw the sphere floating in the center. “Bomb, now!” I shouted, but Clarissa’s guard was already moving and prepping the weapon. I then chucked it through the whole as Clarissa put several Magnite plates over the opening.

There was a loud explosion and the plates covering the hole were forced away, flying into the plates that had been set up defensively. I immediately went through the hole I had made and the sphere was there, but

“YOU COME AGAIN. A WEAK ATTACK,” the glowing white sphere projected the words through the ambient energy towards me. I didn’t respond. It wasn’t worth responding. Using Air Burst I flew towards it.

“DISPLACEMENT.”

That was a new trick. Over 50 golems appeared in this closed off chamber surrounding the sphere and we were all out of super bombs. At least the reflective surfaces of the chamber had been destroyed. No angling shots to try and hit me. I flew towards one of the golems and immediately punched into its chest, destroying it and then gripping its insides to use as a shield.

I hadn’t done this before, since maneuvering had been more important to move forward quickly. Here, I needed every bit of defense I could get as this was turning into a battle of attrition.

Beam attacks flew towards me as I flew about taking the golems out one by one. Clarissa and her two minions were holed up in the hole I had made, placing more defensive Magnite plates and chucking them out into the chamber with the sphere. The more debris the better.

I made sure to avoid using skills for now. The sphere was content to let me take out the golems it had summoned and I wasn’t about to rush it to do something else. I was already struggling to keep up and was heavily wounded.

“A THOUSAND THOUSAND ACROSS THE FIRMAMENT.”

Really, you had to give commentary during the battle now as well? What was next some battle music to fight with? I smashed another golem, my right hand was bruised and slightly cut up and bloody. It was not a good sight. My body was wearing down along with my energy. Using bursts of energy with my Body stat was draining my reserves.

“PULSE.”

The sphere emitted a burst of white energy, spreading outwards. I pulled over another golem and ducked behind it with my shield. I noted Clarissa chucking out a Magnite plate towards me as well. Just as the wave of energy hit, the plate was in front of me, taking some of the damage as the golems I used for defense were heavily melted.

That had been far too close. I would have probably survived without Clarissa’s help, but being injured would have only made things worse. I noted the sphere was looking slightly dimmer. I was injured, low on energy, but the sphere being slightly dimmer didn’t mean much. It was still incredibly durable. I had enough energy for one powerful annihilation attack and that was it.

“YOUR EXISTANCE SHALL FUEL MINE.”

“Get some new lines,” I muttered while trying to figure out my next move. At least my helmet was still intact. This was going to suck and probably leave curse damage behind, but I had to win no matter what. I flew forward and brought my right arm back.

Acid Shot x10. Force Shot x5.

The sphere was struck by an annihilation attack as my skills converged, leaving me low on energy. I punched into the sphere just as the annihilation attack faded away. Despite moving energy to reinforce my hand and the blow behind it as much as possible, the sphere didn’t budge.

I quickly retreated as I sensed danger.

“BEAM.”

Air Burst. I barely dodged, as my right side was a finger length away from death. The beam ripped through the side of the chamber and out of the fortress. The sphere was clearly done playing around. It was going to kill me in the most direct manner it could.

“BEAM.”

I barely managed to dodge again as the sphere kept unleashing attacks towards me. The problem was that it was too slow, my danger sense too good, and I was too quick at dodging. The problem was that I couldn’t hurt the sphere, or regain more energy at the moment.

My last attack had left a small crack on its surface, but not enough to destroy it. My right hand was busted up as well. Thankfully I had been able to avoid any curse damage or further energy contamination. But I had no way to damage the sphere. It was a stalemate at the moment which was frustrating.

“BEAM.”

The sphere missed with its third beam attack. I didn’t notice any more golems trying to get to us. It had hopefully run out after the number we had destroyed, or was focusing everything on itself and this battle. I wouldn’t complain, since the sphere couldn’t easily hurt me, while the golems were much more annoying with their smaller, quicker beam attacks even if they were far weaker.

Like being hit with small pieces of hail versus a cannonball. I would choose the hail if I couldn’t dodge, but if I could dodge, it was much easier to dodge the cannonball than all the hail. The same applied to the beam attacks that had been sent in my direction.

Waiting around wasn’t going to win me the battle. The sphere would last longer than me and recover quicker as well if I had to guess. “R-Plate!” I shouted out. Clarissa was ready. A stack of ten large plates went flying in my direction. The only thing that could hurt the sphere was itself.

It began charging up a fourth beam attack as I reached the stake of plates. I maneuvered them around, between myself and the sphere. This was all or nothing, something I didn’t like but we were out of options and quickly running out of time.

“BEAM.”

The beam attack hit the stack of plates, as I remained behind them and tried to keep the angled correctly. Lots of the beam energy went around me, digging into the sides of the ruined chamber. Some of the energy, melted and broke the plates I was holding. The rest was reflected. A simple enchantment, but one we hoped to exploit against the sphere as a last resort.

Clarissa had needed time to get all of them ready and only had enough material for this one batch. That was why I had to make it count. Also, I had no doubt that the sphere would adapt once it had realized the threat.

Despite all of that a portion of the massive beam attack struck the sphere.

“SHIELD.”

Of course it wouldn’t be that easy. It could never be that easy. There were more cracks on the surface of the sphere, and its white glow had dimmed a bit more, but it was still intact, or intact enough that it continued to be a threat.

The reflective plates I had used were mostly destroyed, the beam attack burning through them even as some of the energy was reflected. I floated there for a moment considering what else I could do. I looked over towards Clarissa, but she seemed out of ideas as well from her bag of tricks.

The helmet I was wearing was getting a bit hot and I noted two minor cracks and a bit of melting in the face cover. That was not good. I was glad Clarissa had focused on durability for this breathing helmet. Both the sphere and myself seemed to be considering our next move unsure what to do.

I didn’t think the sphere would risk another beam attack after what had happened. I had dodged the previous ones and then reversed the fourth beam attack, making them pointless. It could have targeted Clarissa, but it was focused on me. A small but important oversight.

Looking around, I grabbed a piece of metal that had come from a wall or a golem, and gripped it in my left hand. I then floated over to the sphere and swung the piece of metal. It hit, but didn’t do any damage. I kept swinging it over and over at the same spot.

The sphere didn’t respond in any way, clearly it didn’t want to waste energy trying to kill me and was content to let me waste my time hitting it pointlessly. It wasn’t pointless, it was distracting it, of that I had no doubt. Acid Shot.

I had enough energy for a single attack like this and it landed. After hitting the sphere for a minute, it hadn’t kept a shield in place to protect against an energy based attack. The acid from the skill began to slowly damage the sphere, but it was incredibly slow. Clarissa threw out a package towards me which I caught. I quickly spun and tossed it forward, using my metal beat stick to push the bomb towards one of the cracks on the surface of the sphere.

I caught a Magnite plate thrown after it and pushed against the bomb on the side of sphere to redirect the blast if possible. It went off, pushing the plate and myself back. As for the sphere, the damage was miniscule. The sphere was too durable to damage easily.