As it turned out, even without adding any special mechanics, just bumping the stats a bit was enough to leave people completely helpless. The Steel Giant Puppet was basically a super turtle with maxed-out physical defense, Magic defense, and attack, and on top of that its reactions were super slow. Nobody could even tell whether those explosions they'd set off inside its turtle shell had actually done any real damage, or what that damage even amounted to for it.
It looked like this tangled slugfest would go on forever, but people's stamina was ultimately limited.
When the fight hit the twenty-minute mark, Berto was a hair too slow in one dodge. The giant axe came crashing down and grazed his waist, and he went flying, slamming into the ground and unable to get up for a long while.
Even if it was only a graze, that one hit still left him unable to stand for ages; his waist was probably broken.
"Berto!"
