Netheril’s Glory - Chapter 140: The Giant alchemical puppet.

With the earth-shattering roar, a colossal figure rushed out of the cave. Its hard armour brushed against the cave wall, which caused large rocks to shatter and fall on the ground, and its loud roar even formed a shock wave that blew dust and gravel in the air.

What appeared in front of Punk’s group was a terrifying behemoth at least seven meters high. It had four glowing green eyes inlaid on its small head, and the alchemy armor covering every part of its body was filled with magical runes. Its claws that seemed to have been enchanted with spells cut the hard rocky ground like it was cutting through tofu. The most important thing was that although this guy looked extremely heavy, its speed while rushing toward Punk and the others was no less than that of the full-power charge of a warrior.

As it came near Punk’s group, a shield composed of dozens of energy bricks appeared before the behemoth, and No. 1, aiming at the enemy’s vision modules, the eyes, used the Acid gush spell.

But all of these had no effect on the huge alchemical puppet’s charging speed.

“Damn, Mr. Bahanger, prepare to smash its head.”

After saying this loudly, Punk immediately used the spell “Kinetic Energy Suppression” that was already ready in his hand.

With the system’s calculation, Punk’s spell accurately hit the behemoth and shrouded its entire body. The massive downpour of kinetic energy finally managed to halt its steps. Taking advantage of this opportunity, Bahanger jumped high up in the air, then with his heavy hammer, which had already accumulated a lot of battle qi, slammed on the puppet golem’s relatively small head.

“Let me teach you how to keep quiet.”

“Boom!!”

With his usual dwarf-style battle cry, Bahanger hit the runic armor on the alchemical puppet’s body. The armor hit by the heavy hammer was like glass hit by a bullet; it instantly cracked, and violent airwaves surged in the cave. Also, the cave area around Bahanger and the alchemical puppet was now filled with countless fine cracks.

Such a strong attack counteracted the momentum accumulated by the behemoth, so it roared and stopped completely. A large amount of energy was instantly transmitted from the hidden core to the body of the behemoth, and then the armor that was smashed by Bahanger started to recover at a speed that was visible to the naked eyes.

Seeing such a scene, Punk quickly released five or six rounds of “kinetic energy burst,” but the behemoth’s shield recovered faster than Punk imagined. Also, it performed several agile movements that were completely inconsistent with its huge body and evaded almost half of Punk’s attacks.

“Damn. If things go on like this, it will never end.”

Punk could not help but curse in his heart.

As a range-limited alchemy golem, it had an insanely fast recovery ability and had a computing capacity far beyond any other same-level alchemy golems. So, although, with its large body, it couldn’t really hit Punk’s group, but with its tortoiseshell and infinite recovery, it was more than capable enough to block Punk and others here.

The best way to deal with this guy was to cut off the connection between it and its energy core, and a direct battle should only be the last resort.

Thinking of this, Punk loudly asked Kang Kai, who was stealthily exploring the cave:

“Mr. Kang Kai, have you found this thing’s energy core, or at least the energy transmission track?”

However, Kang Kai’s answer was not optimistic.

“Sorry, the legendary aura in this place is interfering with my perception too much. So, I have no clue at all.”

“Damn this perception disruption! And why the fuck Ti Xiaer can still observe and set up traps so smoothly?”

Bahanger cursed hatefully. He was still hammering on the protective armour of the alchemy behemoth, but the thick protective shield endured almost all the attacks, and even if there were a few cracks, it would quickly recover completely. This kind of battle undoubtedly made the dwarf very angry.

No one answered Bahanger’s question. Kang Kai didn’t know the reason, and although Punk guessed that all of this might be because of the legendary equipment in Ti Xiaer’s hands, he obviously would not disclose that information.

Now the three of them were attacking the alchemy golem with full force while secretly preparing their ultimate move. After all, no matter what Ti Xiaer’s secret was, the thing they had to do first was to solve the behemoth in front of them. Only then could they rush to Ti Xiaer and stop whatever conspiracy she was brewing.

None of them really wanted to see what that crazy spider’s “great plan” was.

So, since there was no way to solve the big thing in front of them with tricks, then they could only take the hard path.

So the three men chose the same tactic – first, they would distract the alchemy puppet and then hit it with a big move.

For a time, Punk, Kang Kai, and Bahanger had begun to work in a synchronized manner without even communicating with each other. Punk kept releasing kinetic energy burst, No. 1  attacked the puppet golem with its sharp claws from time to time, Kang Kai flew around like a giant bat in mid-air and sometimes threw a few battle qi blades; finally, Bahanger circled the giant puppet on the ground. He was madly swinging his hammer, which caused afterimages on the air, and an endless “dang dang” sound could be heard in the cave because of his attacks.

In the beginning, the alchemy behemoth seemed a bit clumsy when facing the attacks of three official-level professionals. Most of the time, it was just passively defending, and from time to time, it raised its body and hit the ground fiercely in order to counterattack.

However, even though the situation might seem bad for the surrounded alchemy puppet, it was still a boss, and its subsequent move completely solidified that fact. While being beaten by Punk’s group, it actually secretly analyzed their attacks and suddenly launched a surprising counterattack.

With this, Punk and the other two of his teammates finally discovered that this alchemy behemoth actually had excellent tactical thinking modules and even autonomous judgment capabilities.

In everyone’s surprising gaze, the behemoth that was passively defending until now suddenly raised its head and let out a sharp howl. This howl was actually an engraved official-level spell, “Roar of the soul”, that was cast instantly without any warning.

This was a pretty powerful AoE attack. Although it didn’t have the extreme penetrating power of “The Psychic scream ” or the terrible power of “The Secondary Mind Blast”, its range was vast, and it completely covered  Bahanger, who was near its legs, Kang Kai, who was on the air, and Punk, who was on the other side of the cave.

Punk realized something was wrong as soon as he sensed a large amount of mana gathering near the giant puppet; however, what surprised him the most was the fact that this alchemy puppet launched a calculated sneak attack, as, generally, this kind of intelligence could only be found in master-level alchemy creations.

It could be seen that the timing of the alchemical puppet was very precise, as this attack was launched between the gap of Bahanger’s rapid hammer strikes, and it also successfully interrupted the second “kinetic energy suppression” prepared by Punk.

A loud noise that didn’t exist in reality spread across the cave in an instant. This noise sounded ethereal, but it created violent vibrations inside the listener’s soul.

The “mental barrier” spell that Punk always blessed himself with withstood this attack, but the terrifying howl still caused the layer of invisible spiritual barrier to vibrate violently.

As his soul was completely unharmed, Punk was able to prepare the same spell again instantly and also ordered No. 1 to spray another acid spray on the alchemical behemoth.

However, unfortunately, No. 1’s acid failed to create any significant effect on the runic shield of the alchemical puppet, and the acid-gush attack was almost entirely useless.

On the other side, unlike Punk, who dealt with the alchemical puppet’s sudden attack calmly, Bahanger and Kang Kai, who only had enough time to put on a battle qi defence on their body, weren’t so relaxed. Bahanger was able to wake up in a few tenths of a second by virtue of his higher level battle qi, but Kang Kai was really hit hard by the sudden “howl of the soul” attack.