169 - Pride Before the Fall

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Metal shards tumbled from the ceiling, dislodged as Qin Yun slowly wriggled himself out of his precarious position. Surprisingly, the robotic wolf merely observed, showing no impatience nor intent of pouncing upon him.

Its reasons were apparent, for Qin Yun could see the large open gash showing its metallic innards slowly closing, conduits and circuits repairing themselves by cannibalizing non-critical parts. While Qin Yun could clearly feel the barrier surrounding it lowering in strength, the creature’s exterior plating became as good as new, showing no signs of damage after less than a minute, not even a single dent.

As for Qin Yun, his wounds were substantial. Although slowly healing, his right hand would be out of commission for a while. It dangled at his side, unable to exert the slightest force through his damaged muscles, yet his hand remained clenched around one of the wolf's fangs.

Even while severed from the body, the fang's glow and the searing heat it pulsed with remained. It scorched Qin Yun's skin, even bypassing his severed nerves, assaulting him with searing pain, and yet, Qin Yun didn't so much as flinch, for the fang wasn’t truly nestled within his palm.

The blackened char visible around the fang wasn't his skin, but metallic dust particles Qin Yun had wrapped around his hand, which served as a shield against the heat, allowing him to snatch that fang from the wolf's mouth without much danger to himself.

Usually, any metallic element would be considered a great heat conductor, serving as poor armour against the incandescent fang, but these dust particles were different, for their origin deviated quite a bit from the norm.

They were the shards of the creature’s plating, ground to dust then used as a barrier, with Qin Yun’s earthen qi used as the glue keeping the armature steady.

He had tried once before to use the wolf's metallic nature against it by infusing its body with his qi, yet it was all to no avail. A force was resisting him, just as there was within the entire chamber, preventing him from exerting control over the earth. Had his cultivation been higher, he may have been able to overwrite this unknown force, but this was an exercise in futility with his current means. He could only have such effects when these shards had been severed from whatever held them.

With the fang firmly in his hand and ceiling shards falling all around him, Qin Yun finally had a weapon he could use against the beast. Although not much, it was still better than ramming his bare body against the machine's force field, hoping to somehow break through. He now had the means to bypass it.

His feet touched the ground, but he barely stopped to catch his breath, even as blood flowed from his eyes, slightly blinding him, and his head spun from the shock he received as he endured the monster’s paw strike. Even now, he could barely breathe. His chest cavity remained caved in, clearly showing the backside of the paw print on his torso.

Despite it all, he rushed forward, feet digging into the hard ground, causing metal shards to rip from it, but instead of falling back to the ground, they swiftly followed after him, rushing through the air until they congregated around the fang.

Qin Yun only opened his hand slightly, and the fang jumped as if possessing its own consciousness. However, upon giving it a closer look, one could see a cloud of metallic particles spin around it, quickly attaching themselves to its effervescent surface, only for bigger shards to be subsequently added.

All the metallic shards he had broken off, from the creature and the chamber itself, came together as one, aided by Qin Yun’s earthen qi, into a single long shaft with the glowing fang attached at its peak.

Qin Yun held the shaft with his left hand, tucked closely near his body, as he charged forward. Using this newly formed spear as a lance, he aimed straight at the incoming creature.

Qin Yun saw a shift in the wolf's eyes, a mix of surprise and fear, if that was at all possible. It flashed for but an instant before swiftly switching to unbridled rage, knowing that a part of its body could be used in such a way against it. Its pride seemed wounded as an apex predator, yet Qin Yun's eyes couldn't help but narrow, for despite his ample knowledge of these creatures, he had never seen one display such vivid human emotions.

This one obviously does not use the default programming, which makes one wonder: What else could it possibly have in store that I'm unaware of?

Despite his doubts, Qin Yun accelerated further, for his path had already been chosen. Retreating now would only result in his defeat, for the wolf was almost upon him, maws wide open, teeth ready to sink into his flesh and rend him apart for the last time.

No more was there the playfulness of a predator knowing that its prey could do nothing against him. It now saw Qin Yun as a threat worth using its full might against. It didn't hold back anything, as Qin Yun could see the barrier surrounding it clearly, almost as if on the verge of exploding. It was concentrated near the wolf's front, ready to receive Qin Yun's lance with all its power.

A clash of strength against a worthy opponent!

However, Qin Yun did not intend to play with such destructive tendencies. Once the point of his makeshift spear was about to collide with the barrier, Qin Yun's knees buckled under him.

This was no accident, for he had calculated the optimum moment to do so, late enough that the wolf would be too slow to react, yet early enough that the creature’s teeth missed his head as they snapped shut on empty air.

Now sliding forward, Qin Yun dug the butt of his spear into the hard ground before bracing himself for impact. The wolf tried to stop, ramming all four paws straight into the ground, forming four small craters as metal shards flew everywhere. Still, it was all too late. Qin Yun’s spear reached its target.

Qin Yun had aimed the point of his weapon at the beast's only weak point, its neck, where he had inflicted some damage before this. The wolf wasn't stupid and had reinforced it to the best of its ability, but it was far from enough to stop the fang at the tip of Qin Yun's spear from piercing through.

The fang ripped through the beast's barrier like butter, but this was no surprise to Qin Yun. It was only to be expected, for how else was the beast to hit him with its jaws if the fangs weren't allowed to bypass the force field?

This was no conjecture on Qin Yun's part but merely a result of his extensive knowledge. The beast knew as much, but until the end, it never realized how desperate Qin Yun could be. A single wrong move, a single miscalculation in the timing, and Qin Yun's head would have been ripped clean off by the beast's glowing teeth, reaping his life in one swift motion.

Despite it all, Qin Yun had bet that the beast wouldn’t think he would choose such an inane method, and he had won.

The spear passed harmlessly through the force field, only to reach the wolf's exterior plating covering its neck. Without much resistance, it seared right through, producing clouds of blackened smoke as the metal melted almost instantly before turning purplish. This was a sign that its coolant conduits were ripped once again, and the content was being swiftly vaporized by the intense heat.

Stripped of its coolant, Qin Yun saw the grey plating turn slightly redder. It was minute, yet the metallic shielding's change in colour proved that it had no other choice. It served as a secondary heat sink, diverting the residual heat produced by the reactor in its core away from it purely to avoid an unexpected reaction due to a meltdown.

It was to only be used in emergencies when the primary coolant ran dry, which was precisely for cases like this, as Qin Yun's makeshift weapon had ripped a canyon along the underside of the wolf's body.

Its metallic innards hung loose through the opening, some reaching the ground. The beast turned slowly to face him, as it had overran his position due to its charge and failed to stop in time.

Qin Yun clung to the shaft of his spear, using it to prop himself up, using all his qi to heal his injuries as quickly as possible, expecting another charge from the creature. Despite how unsteady it already seemed, Qin Yun wasn't naive enough to believe this was all this creature could offer.

His current advantageous position had only been born out of luck. If not for the creature's own fang he had acquired, he would have long made his getaway, no matter what he might have lost doing so. Losing flesh and bones meant nothing if he could fight and be victorious another day.

The wolf slowly turned its massive body. Each step was taken deliberately, but Qin Yun couldn’t feel the same assurance they once had. It seemed the beast’s confidence had been shattered when Qin Yun ripped its guts apart, yet it still refused to yield.

“A machine with pride... Why doesn’t this surprise me?” Qin Yun chuckled weakly, taking an unsteady stance.

Now that the once pristine floor had been broken into countless shards by the beast’s onslaught, Qin Yun used his qi to form a metallic armour over his body. While it would do next to nothing against the beast’s fangs and claws, it was better than nothing.

And so, Qin Yun waited for the end to arrive; his spear held steady, yet the end never came. The wolf stood its ground without taking a step more, even as its core was quickly growing critical.

Its grey plating was now a deep red and even the surrounding air began to shimmer from the rising heat, but the wolf remained static, eyes glued on Qin Yun.

Correction. They seemed aimed at him, but the beast's gaze was to his left, slightly higher than eye level.

Qin Yun glanced to the side, only to see the black box that always followed him around, slowly rotating with no care in the world. Despite the violent battle that had just occurred, no damage could be seen on its surface. It seemed just as ethereal as the lotus floating above Qin Yun's head.

Yet, for the first time since he was born in this world, someone seemed to have finally realized its existence.

Qin Yun’s eyes narrowed slightly, yet chose not to do anything. He merely waited. Waited for the beast to make the first move, and what a move it was.

The beast began to wretch, almost as if something was stuck in its throat. Yet nothing could be further from the truth, for its throat merely led to its core. There was nothing for it to throw up, yet throw up it did.

A small spherical object flew from its mouth, only to dent the floor as it landed. At first, it seemed light as air, yet it became that much heavier once out of the beast's mouth, sinking to the floor as if to the bottom of an ocean.

Qin Yun's eyes couldn't help but grow wide as he looked back and forth between the wolf and the object, barely masking his shock. Mere seconds later, the beast fell to its knees, never to rise again as its plating quickly cooled off.

The beast gave Qin Yun one last glance as if to display its approval before closing its eyes.

Without wasting another second, Qin Yun approached the fallen beast as fast as his weakened limbs could carry him, shedding off his makeshift armour. All of Qin Yun's caution had evaporated, for the beast wasn't merely asleep but had become completely inert.

He knew this to be the truth for one simple reason: The mechanical wolf's fusion reactor, still pristine, lay on the ground next to his feet but now inert.

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