Chapter 1257 – Aginian Crisis Protocol

Jake jumped backwards, making use of the space opening up to create some distance between himself and whatever would appear in the Labyrinth Master’s stead. Casper also started preparations of his own, taking advantage of the visual spectacle from the phase transition.

Stopping and starting to charge his Arcane Powershot, Jake also began to make modifications to the Protean Arrow he’d created within his quiver. It was originally designed for the flesh and blood dungeon boss, but based on current developments, that wasn’t what they were gonna face in the last phase.

He kept watching as the blue lightning bolt lit up the area, funneling energy into the corpse of the Labyrinth Master. Simultaneously, the many tiles on the ground also activated once more, the energy they had absorbed earlier streaming towards the boss to empower it further.

The body of the Labyrinth Master slowly began to rise into the air, bathed in insane levels of energy that shot down from seemingly nowhere. By now, all the flesh had been stripped from the cyborg’s body, leaving a borderline skeletal robot. As energy descended, Jake noticed that where the heart should be, there was instead a core of some kind that had begun glowing brightly. As both the C-grades were wondering what Minaga had cooked up for them, the voice echoed once more.

“Damage to vessel: Critical. Repairing essentials. Upgrading. Charging Core. All features unlocked.”

Right on cue, the body started repairing itself, replacing many of the places where flesh had been before with even more metal as the Labyrinth Master went from cyborg to robot, or perhaps more accurately, golem. The glowing core’s light was eventually hidden by metal covering the entire chest of the boss. Slowly, the lightning bolt subsided, fully revealing the golem.

The golem’s arm moved robotically as it reached out to the side, the gunlance below flying up into its hand, crackling with electricity.

[Aginian Crisis Protocol Golem – lvl ???]

Without any further warning, the entire golem’s body erupted with a thunderous sound, releasing a shockwave of electricity in the process.

Jake responded as he loosed his Arcane Powershot, an explosion of arcane energy sending his arrow shooting forward. At the same time, Casper, who was still in melee, was pushed back by the shockwave released by the newly awakened Aginian Crisis Protocol Golem, but not without activating the trap he’d laid.

To Jake’s surprise, the sphere of magical seals from Seal of Enervation appeared once more, the Risen having seemingly reactivated the curse despite the Labyrinth Master having died. Unfortunately, Jake’s poison was all gone, and his Aginiansbane was effectively useless as it was made to destroy members of the Aginian race and not their mechanical creations.

Right on time, too, as Jake’s Arcane Powershot impacted the golem right in the chest. The boss was sent flying back from the impact, but Jake could only frown as he realized that his attack hadn’t even left a mark on its body. Instead, he’d struck a small barrier right above its exterior that absorbed the entire attack.

It reminded him way too much of the Altmar Census Golem he’d fought way back then, so that wasn’t good news. Fortunately, it looked like Casper’s curse had still worked despite the barrier, and hopefully, it would even make it faster to breach through said barrier.

Jake and Casper quickly exchanged a glance, sharing the sentiment that this third phase was likely going to be annoying. However, neither felt any particular fear as they both got to work. Nocking another arrow, Jake started attacking as Casper enveloped himself in curse energy and sent a wave of cursed stakes toward the golem, which had stabilized itself after being pushed back by Jake’s opening attack.

Raising the gunlance, it fired, shooting out a beam of lightning toward the Risen. Casper quickly moved to dodge, but he was a bit too slow and was struck on his left side. His ethereal body was sheared off, and immediately, Jake knew that the Risen had actually taken quite a bit of damage.

A rain of arcane arrows struck the golem before it could shoot again, all of them exploding as the air was filled with destructive arcane energy. The passive barrier naturally blocked everything, but Jake confirmed that the golem consumed energy to do it, even with a weak attack like this.

With this realization, Jake kept shooting arrows that split into multiple, seeking only to fill the entire arena with destructive energy. Not only did this consume the energy of the golem, but it even helped Casper not be attacked, as he could use the arcane energy to avoid the detection of the B-grade.

The Risen retreated, wanting to avoid the lightning as he placed down traps in his wake. It didn’t take the golem long to pursue, having seemingly designated Casper as its primary target as it chased out of the destructive energies, straight toward him.

It passed through several newly laid traps, getting itself wrapped in black chains that barely slowed it down as they swiftly broke. During its charge, the gunlance it had been holding transformed, morphing into a long and thick sword instead of the semi-ranged weapon.

Swinging the sword, a crescent wave of lightning energy erupted forward, sizzling across the tiled ground as it closed in on the Risen. Casper summoned a cloud of ghostly energy to defend himself, but the lightning quickly tore through it. The Risen had the electricity wash over him, groaning in pain as he definitely took some serious damage once more.

That’s when Jake remembered something that he really should have considered earlier… ghosts were weak to lightning. It was their natural weakness, and despite Lyra being a Blightwraith, she was still a variety of ghost and couldn’t escape this natural affinity weakness.

With Casper being in their merged form, he was also at least half a ghost, meaning he shared this weakness. Perhaps that was why the Risen quickly used his movement skill to propel himself backwards as he made himself fully corporeal once more, retracting the ghostly energies floating around him into his body.

Jake helped as much as he could by bombarding the golem with arrows, but the barrier made it hard to do much. The B-grade didn’t even try to dodge as it merely tanked everything with the singular goal of killing Casper.

It swung its lightning-wrapped blade several more times, sending out crescent waves of lightning that Casper tried desperately to avoid. At the same time, it continued to close in, and no matter what Jake and Casper threw at the damn thing, it didn’t seem to give a damn.

Soon, it caught up with the Risen and started swinging rapidly. Casper tried to dodge and block, but the golem was faster and stronger than the Labyrinth Master had been. He did what he could, but Casper was continually pushed back and took damage, even when he fully blocked attacks, as explosions of electricity erupted with every blow.

He tried to run and get away several times, but the golem wouldn’t let him. Watching this, and seeing how utterly useless his arrows had been, Jake knew he had to do something else. Putting away his bow, he didn’t hesitate to use One Step and flap his wings as he propelled himself down toward the two figures fighting below.

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Casper was durable, yes, but he was entering dangerous territory as Jake approached. He had been slashed several times, his body full of injuries, and his resources were being drained rapidly.

At full speed, Jake arrived. He slammed straight into the side of the golem’s body, landing two Piercing Fangs at once as he encountered the annoying barrier. Fortunately, the impact was enough to send the golem sliding back, allowing Casper to desperately use his movement skill and even chug down a potion to help his resource situation a little.

The golem regarded Jake for a moment, only to promptly activate the same movement skill shown by the Labyrinth Master before. Its body shimmered and warped as it went straight around Jake, going for Casper again.

Reacting quickly, Jake chased after and used One Step to get ahead. The golem still tried to get around Jake, but he read its movements and kicked right where it went. He hit the side of the golem, deactivating its movement skill and knocking it slightly to the side, but needless to say, a kick didn’t do much in the damage department.

“We just need to buy time!” Casper yelled from behind as he tried to place more traps while running to avoid being caught.

“I know!” Jake yelled back while charging toward the B-grade again.