Proofread by Thomas F
'Are you sure?' I asked. She nodded. "Both are powerful, but artillery is more versatile,'
'Jon and I will fight it, while you are to keep the armored golem occupied,'
I looked at the ten-foot-tall monstrosity, and I couldn't help but feel a bite of fear. Especially after seeing how easily they had destroyed our aura attacks.
The attacks that have been supreme until now, the attacks that helped me defeat every enemy I have come across since I gained the aura methods, including a Great Mage.
I pushed those thoughts away and focused.
'Okay!' I agreed.
It would be tough, but it's a sound strategy. Once they finished with the artillery golem, they could help me deal with this armored golem.
I moved toward it with Dominion Surge. Immediately, my speed increased.
I am going to need speed if I want to defeat them. The armored golem looked slow at the start, but it's fast, and its hammer moves even faster.
I didn't stop at the speed skill, but also activated Might of Harmony and Lord's Eyes.
Immediately, my vision became clearer, and strength filled my body. I didn't stop there, and I also activated Tranquill Mind, which I copied from Margaux.
It is better than Still Mind, which I had compared before.
Along with it, I activated the second copied skill, which I copied from Reina. Proximity Sense. It's an amazing skill; it keeps me aware of the five meters around me.
It is a mentally taxing skill, though I am used to such skills and have practiced with it until I can bear it for minutes in battle.
It is also a skill that lasts longer with the Tranquill Mind.
The golem reached me, and immediately it attacked with its massive spiked hammer. Like before, its attack is fast and very powerful.
I am a Rapier user, and I am not going to take it head-on. That would be utter idiocy.
The fractal formed, and soon, the Bark Shield appeared. I imposed it with the Iron Veil, my defensive skill.
I brought it in front of the hammer, while I leaped, activating Tempest Razor and Sundering Blade, filling the skills with aura.
For this attack, I am using everything—my aura method, as well as my skills. I rarely use it all at the beginning, but these very powerful opponents.
If I don't use everything, I might get defeated before I know it.
My target is the head; the data we got from Orok's three battles is the attack on the neck, which affects the film covering them most, which is what I am going to target.
I appeared in front of its head and swung my blade with everything I had.
At that moment, the hammer clashed against the Bark Shield and tore through it. It was not able to stop the attack, even for a moment.
Seeing that, horror couldn't help but fill my heart.
It's one thing with Falling Leaf; it is an offensive method, but Bark Shield is a defensive method. Its very job is to defend against the attack, but it had been broken like nothing.
I was horrified because I could feel its power radiating through Proximity Sense.
It is massive, and it is now coming toward me.
I wanted to stop my attack, but I didn't. I moved my blade, and I thought it would hit it, when suddenly the massive shield appeared in front of my blade.
My attack crashed against the shield.
The attack is a combination of the aura method and powerful skills from both of my classes. Powerful enough to destroy through any Grade V spell, but it got stopped by the shield.
And the thing is, the shield didn't even shake. Not even faintly.
Fuck!
It couldn't help but make me curse, but in the next moment, I calmed down and used the force of the attack to leap back, avoiding the hammer by an inch.
Relief barely appeared on my expression before it turned bad. The golem followed me, with its hammer coming at me in another attack.
It will hit me before I even landed. I cursed, but didn't panic, and brought down my sword against the hammer.
My blade clashed against it, and I felt the massive power behind it, which came toward me. I used to leap back with great speed, but that was not enough to divert all the force.
What remained hit me like a sledgehammer, shaking me.
A drop of blood leaked from the corner of my lips, which I wiped away, while I watched the golem continue to follow me.
A moment later, six aura blades materialized around me and moved toward it. They didn't move at the same time, but moved one after another at different angles.
The golem moved its hammer, and it crushed four of the aura blades while the shield defended two.
Seeing that I smiled and landed on the ground.
I attacked, not to harm it, but to slow it down. I had noticed earlier that golem slow down a little when dealing with the attacks.
It's not much, but it gave me enough time to land safely.
Though that exact moment, I activated the Dominion Surge to full power and retreated.
Still, I was not fast enough, and the spike of the attacking hammer had torn through my sleeve. A red line appears on my arm.
If it had been a little deeper, the attack would have torn my hand apart.
It didn't give me a moment to be happy with my survival, and was followed by another attack, which I had dodged, but immediately another strike of the hammer came at me.
I want to defend, but I couldn't.
Its hammer is too powerful to defend against with my blade, and my defensive method is torn apart by it like a piece of paper.
I could still use the attacks to harass it, but I would rather not do so. If it had been any other enemy, a sentient enemy, I would have done that, but this is a golem.
You can't use psychology on it—only the logic.
Besides, I have to save my power. This is the strongest opponent I have ever faced, and I have no freaking idea how to defeat it.
Watching Colonel Orok and listening to the report afterward, I knew it wouldn't be easy, but the difficulty was beyond anything any of us had imagined.
I had launched my strongest attack, that aside from Bell and Knight, nobody could defend without suffering, but here, against this golem, it did nothing.
I had dodged another attack when the bursts of emotions came from Azalia, along with a clear image of the attack.
Immediately, the Bark Shield appeared to my left, and not just one. After what I have experienced and the continued information I am getting from Azalia, I know how powerful these lances are.
Four aura shields appeared one after another, and I immediately imposed Iron Veil to make them even stronger.
I need to defend myself; if I fail, they will come at me directly, and I have no time to deal with them. I am continuously dodging the attacks.
A moment passed, and five lances struck against the Bark Shield.
They tore through the first one on contact and clashed with the second, which only managed to stop them for a moment before it was destroyed.
They reached the third one instantly, and the Bark Shield shook before cracks began to appear on it.
They were slow at first, before they spread rapidly until they covered the whole shield, and it shattered a moment later, and lances struck against the fourth and final shield.
Like the third one, cracks appeared and spread, but far more slowly than before.
Still, they covered the whole shield, and I thought it would shatter, but to my surprise. The shield held on; it shook and cracked, but didn't shatter.
The lances slowly lost their power until they finally disappeared.
Relief washed through me, but it lasted only a heartbeat before reality settled in. A single attack had required four shields to stop. If the lances had carried even a little more power, the final shield would have shattered too.
I dodged attack after attack of the armored golem, trying to find a flaw, a weakness I could exploit, but the only thing I saw was mountainous strength.
The strength to crush through anything I could send at it.
The strength I had been so proud of—the strength I had worked so hard to build—felt meaningless before the golem's overwhelming might.
It left me with feelings I hated to admit.
I didn't mind losing. Not usually. But I couldn't lose this battle.
These golems were key to the Dominion's survival. I had to defeat them, yet the longer I fought, the more impossible that task seemed.
'Damn these golems! I wish I could use that integration, like the knight!' Jon's voice rang through my mind. He tried to slip through the golem's defenses again, but another flurry of attacks forced him to retreat almost immediately.
Integration.
That was what I had been trying to do for months. According to Bell and Knight, I already had the aura control required for it, but couldn't do it despite thousands of tries.