"SHOVEL SMASH!" Daz roared before slamming an Automaton in the face with Hamson, sending it flying away through the army of Robots, destroying it and knocking over at least twenty more of its kind.

Crusher grinned menacingly before jumping away from Daz and Rimmy right into the thick of the humanoid metal men. She ignored the damage they were doing to her body and crouched before getting into a stance. "Strength Enhancement!"

A light blue aura wrapped around Crusher and she pulled her sledgehammer behind her back before yelling, "GRAVITAL IMPACT!"

Having put as much weight as her body could handle onto her weapon's head, Crusher swung around in place and due to how powerful the blow was, her sledgehammer absolutely destroyed the twenty Robots that had surrounded her, clearing the area.

She deactivated her strength aura since it was very stamina draining and she returned to Daz's and Rimmy's side.

Surprisingly, the attack kept on progressing more and more in Fort Skip's favour. Daz, Rimmy and Crusher were gradually thinning the Automatons out while Heather and Ger picked off as many as they could. Naturally, every minute and a half the ballista on the northern side of the inner rampart was firing and killing a few Robots every time.

Rimmy raised both of his humongous fists, and much like the time he had killed those thugs from Matt's group, he fired crystal shards from his palms. While not as effective as a blunt punch, due to the sheer size of each jewel shard, they managed to penetrate the bodies of the Robots, killing them.

Surprisingly, the one doing the most damage to the Automatons was actually Sarah. Her vines could squeeze between the tiny gaps in the metal of their bodies and completely destroy them from within.

Since the skill Basic Entwine was so cheap at ten worldforce per usage, Sarah was able to utilize it endlessly due to being able to regenerate that much worldforce in the ten seconds needed for its cooldown time to reset.

As it turned out, Ellie had spent the last few points she had earned from surviving thus far on an upgrade to her pet cube, Mini-Daz.

Mini-Daz [F-Rank (Middle Tier)] Description A block of iron granted life by the host, Ellie Richie. Stats Attack: 1 Defense: 10 Skills Basic Hardening Host Skill Amplification Basic Hardening Allows the object to harden itself by 5%. Host Skill Amplification Allows the object to act as a medium to boost the host's powers and reduce their costs by 5%.

Unfortunately for Ellie, she hadn't participated in an attack yet, so she could only get a small boost like this, but it was enough. With this, she was just able to reach the Automatons with her Telekinesis skill.

The original range of this skill was only five meters and the limit was a single object that weighed no more than two kilograms, but like Daz and the other fighters, Ellie had forgone some points to buy the levelling system. She had trained vigorously to raise her Telekinesis skill's level to a whopping six.

With every level up, the range increased by an additional five meters and the limit of what could be held went up by half a kilogram.

Basic Telekinesis [B-Rank (Lower Tier)] Description A skill highly sought after and one that is only possible to learn with decades of training if normal methods are used to obtain it. It allows the host to move objects with their mind to a limit. Level 6 Abilities Allows the host to move objects that weigh less than 4.5 kilograms a distance of 30 meters away from the host. The limit to the amount of objects movable at once is 1.

Again, this seemed unimpressive. Ellie couldn't lift an entire Robot that probably weighed roughly one-hundred kilograms. It was impossible. However, what if she didn't lift the entire thing, but simply its wrist?

With both of her hands clasping onto Mini-Daz, Ellie focused on an Automaton that was aiming its laser nozzle towards Daz and she immediately used her Telekinesis, raising it, forcing the arm to lose its accuracy resulting in the laser hitting a Robot on the other side of Daz, instantly destroying it.

Ger could only chuckle to himself when he saw how hard his daughters were fighting and how much effort they were putting in. 'That's my girls. I couldn't be any prouder.'

Meanwhile, Lyle and Mave, the Surgeon, were standing on the inner rampart and Lyle had a worried look on his face. "Something feels wrong."

"I hate to do it," Mave replied with a frown on her small face, "but I agree. Things are going far too well, all things considered. For starters, where's the boss?"

"Exactly." Lyle had a sombre expression and something was tugging at the back of mind. It was like they were missing something. Why would the system, which was supposed to make the attacks harder and harder to test adaptability, give them such an easy fight?

Unfortunately for Fort Skip, Daz and Lyle's worries were answered as soon as exactly one thousand of the two thousand Robots were defeated.

Successfully cleared half of the attack's monsters. The attack will now enter phase 2.

With that notification appearing in Daz's vision, the scraps of the one thousand immobile Automatons were all suddenly pulled towards each other and a huge ball of metal was created out of their bodies.

This ball began pulsing with power and an ominous feeling welling up in Daz's chest. A few seconds passed and the metal lump that was easily forty feet tall morphed into the shape of a one-armed Robot that only had a single mechanical eye for a head and it's arm made up for at least sixty-percent of its body.

Daz wasted no time and used Higher Identification to know what he was up against.

Makrov Tank Issue Mark IV Automaton's Status Basic Information Name: N/A Species: Makrov Tank Issue Mark IV Automaton Age: 0 Sex: N/A Class: N/A Affinity: N/A Description A combination of 1,000 Makrov Standard Issue Mark II Automatons. It boasts enough fire-power the erase a town with a single attack. Handle with extreme caution. Energies Energy: 30,000/30,000 Stamina: Infinite Stats Attack: 10,000 Accuracy: 500 Constitution: 6,000

Daz was tongue tied and scared. How could he deal with this?! Those stats were off the charts! "'Hard threat level' my ass. This should be at least expert, if not, impossible! How do we even hurt something like that?!"

Just as Daz was worrying about what to do, this Tank class Automaton raised its ginormous arm and a nozzle popped out of it which was pointed straight at Fort Skip, and not at Daz, Rimmy or Crusher.

"FUCK! RIMMY, GRAB ME AND THROW ME AT THAT BASTARD!" Daz roared after seeing what the mega Robot was planning to do.

Rimmy wasted no time and immediately Grabbed Daz by his torso and spun around before launching him towards the arm that was rapidly charging the massive laser held within itself.

"SHOVEL... SMASH!" Daz screamed with all of his might. Hamson collided with the thirty-foot long arm made of metal and a horrendous sound rang through the air. Daz's arms felt like they were going to fall off and the pain was unimaginable.

He grit his teeth and put even more strength into Hamson. "YOU! ARE! NOT! DESTROYING! MY! BASE!"

Either through luck, sheer will, or raw power, Daz's attack managed to fling the Robot's arm to the side, and its laser fired at that instant. Daz fell to the floor and landed unsteadily. He turned his head onto to see a skyscraper in the distant cityscape get cut clean in half by the soundless laser. The top section slowly slid off the bottom half and crashed into the city below, creating a thunderous noise that spread for miles on end.

A trickle of blood escaped Daz's lips and his arms felt like they were burning. "Just... Just how do we deal with this?" Daz felt hopeless. This was beyond his ability. How was he going to kill something like this?