CHAPTER TWENTY SEVEN

Every machine in the clearing moved to attack.

The bandits were the slowest.

Their beam bows were folded onto their arms. The compact storage was good for sneaking through the forest, but it delayed their draw. It took them two seconds to activate the items before they could start blasting away.

The dogs were a little faster.

They opened their mouths, revealing a set of high-powered beam Gatling guns.

Befitting a boss empowered by the Mechanical Son's Throne, the King of Thieves moved faster than any of its servants.

The magenta Mech gestured with its right hand and prepared to fire a salvo of missiles from its throne.

Bright yellow light particles gathered around the chair as it charged up for a high-powered area-of-effect beam strike.

However, none of the machines were faster than Jason and his partner.

Not a single one of the enemy attacks landed.

Although the other players' surprise ambush had delayed Jason's attack, the Red Minerva had already finished charging the Pestilent Snipe.

The ultra-compressed bullet and the Red Minerva's rifled throat meant he could fire before any of the enemies, even the empowered King of Thieves.

It was a simple matter of pointing and then releasing the triggers on his control board.

Now that their cover was totally blown, Jason decided to go for the King of Thieves and hope for a lucky damage roll.

There was a one in three chance the battle would end on the spot.

Even though it was unlikely, it was better than nothing.

More importantly, damaging the King of Thieves still put Jason in a favorable position.

His original strategy of destroying the bandit leader with passive flame damage was still workable.

But despite his skills and the many factors in his favor, Jason wasn't the first to move.

His ally was.

The Lucky Duck attacked faster than anyone else.

The long and thin sword danced wildly through the air, acting like it had a life of its own.

It darted across the battlefield, stretching out to over two hundred and fifty feet in length as it skewered every single one of the Grunts before they could even flinch.

The dancing sword even managed to kill the crossbow Mech.

Jason gasped.

What in the world?

He could hardly believe his eyes. He'd never seen anything like it in his many years of Overdrive.

Not even the high class mappers had a weapon like this.

The sword was completely and utterly overpowered.

Jason had already battled the Grunt Mechs himself.

Although he'd killed them quickly, that was only because of careful planning. He'd destroyed their cockpits after taking their pilots by surprise.

The Lucky Duck was obliterating its opponent with raw stats.

The swords cut through the tanky Kingbreakers like they were made of paper.

Destroying the crossbow Mech was even more impressive. The bandits were well-built Mechs, but they were still Grunts.

The crossbow Mech had been a dedicated artillery Ace, a machine specialized for defense and firepower.

However, the Lucky Duck had treated it just like a common obstacle, no more than one of the forest's trees.

If it weren't for the fact that his ally had just saved him, Jason might have attacked the Lucky Duck then and there.

The item seemed invaluable for the Blazing Avarice.

After killing every Grunt, the morphing sword dashed towards the King of Thieves.

The magenta machine raised its hand to try and steal the item, but it was just too late.

By then, Jason's Pestilent Snipe had already reached his foe.

The sickly green bullet of hyper-compressed stomach acid slammed into the enemy machine, knocking it clear off its throne.

The damaged machine fell to the ground as the sound of sizzling metal echoed across the battlefield.

The attack failed to pierce the cockpit, but the sheer impact had left a smoldering crater in the machine's chest.

Another strike to the cockpit would likely kill the pilot.

In addition, the acid splatter had damaged the King of Thieves's torso and arms, leaving it in a severely weakened state.

The sword abruptly changed paths, reacting instantly to the King of Thieves's new position.

It bent in a preposterous right angle as it surged straight for the magenta King of Thieves.

Once again, the deadly blade had no problems punching through obstacles.

The dancing sword sliced cleanly through the high-powered Throne of the Mechanical Son. The attack instantly obliterated the powerful weapon, destroying it before it could fire even a single salvo of missiles.

Once again, Jason couldn't believe his eyes.

The homing sword reacted instantly to challenges in an enemy's position.

It had no problem smashing through even five-star items like the Throne of the Mechanical Son.

It seemed completely unbeatable.

The King of Thieves only managed to survive because of its innate strengths.

Jason and his ally were strong, but the magenta Mech was still a masterpiece crafted by one of the most illustrious guilds on the server.

It wouldn't go down without a fight.

As the sword surged towards it, the King activated two of its most powerful abilities.

FRAME ABILITY ACTIVATED: PEERLESS ESCAPE ARTIST

The first ability, Peerless Escape Artist, was unique to the King of Thieves.

It allowed the machine to instantly teleport to another location within five hundred feet.

Jason remembered reading about it in the assassination dossier, and it was another critical reason he'd hoped to destroy his opponent as soon as possible.

Fortunately, Peerless Escape Artist could only be used once per match.

Like the King of Thieves's item stealing ability, Peerless Escape Artist was balanced around the fact that it could only be used a limited number of times.

OVERDRIVE BOOST ACTIVATED: LIQUID STATE ETERNIUM

The second ability was the machine's Overdrive boost.

Hemoborn, like Jason's Red Minerva, were granted increased regeneration and toughness once they activated their Overdrive bonus. Regeneration was unique to the cyborg Hemoborn class's biological parts.

On the other hand, the super robot-inspired Paragons were unique in that their Overdrive bonus increased all of their other stats.

Most players considered Liquid State Eternium the strongest Overdrive bonus in the game.

The King of Thieves had greatly increased its attack damage, armor, and speed for the next five minutes.

The overall bonus was perfect for the machine's current conditions.

Although the King of Thieves was outnumbered two-to-one, Jason knew the enemy Mech still had the upper hand.

Jason and his teammate were the assassins.

They needed to kill the other machine in order to win.

Meanwhile, the King of Thieves had an army at its back. Once the other troops returned from the forest, they could smash Jason and the Lucky Duck with sheer numbers.

All the King of Thieves needed to do was stall.

When it came to offense, both Jason and his ally were at a disadvantage regarding Overdrive bonuses.

The Red Minerva's Hemoborn boost was largely defensive.

The increased regeneration and toughness allowed Jason to play more recklessly, but it wouldn't help him kill his opponent.

Meanwhile, the Kingbreaker boost, Pandemonium, greatly increased the machine's speed and mobility.

However, the Lucky Duck's dancing sword already nullified any movement concerns.

Like Jason, the Lucky Duck's pilot needed increased damage to try and punch through the King of Thieves' increased defenses. Sadly, only the Spell Titan and Paragon Mech bonuses offered heightened damage.

Unfortunately, neither player had time to rue their Mech's innate balance restrictions.

Once again, the King of Thieves raised its right hand and pointed it at the Lucky Duck's twisting sword.

Jason instantly sprang into action.

The dossier stated the theft ability was a channeling effect.

The other machine had to point its palm at the desired item for three seconds before it could steal the weapon. In addition, it had to maintain eye contact on the weapon.

So long as those conditions were met, the King of Thieves would steal the item.

However, if its channel were interrupted, it wouldn't be able to activate the theft ability.

Unfortunately, interrupting his opponent's channel was easier said than done.

Jason had knocked the machine off course with a full-powered Pestilent Snipe, but the battlefield conditions had changed.

Due to the Overdrive bonus, the King of Thieves was now far tankier and tougher.

It would be difficult to interrupt his opponent.

On top of that, Jason simply didn't have the time to charge up a full-powered attack.

Instead, the veteran pilot clapped his hands together.

BLAZING AVARICE: TITAN'S MACUAHUITL

He pointed his clasped hands forward, and the enormous flaming bladed club burst onto the battlefield.

Sadly, his opponent dodged without even trying.

The King of Thieves simply jetted into the skies, flying right over the cumbersome bladed club.

Although Jason managed to set the forest on fire, the empowered King of Thieves no longer needed to worry about the splash damage from the burning environment. Its defenses were too high for the fire to inflict any damage.

Even worse, the King of Thieves didn't even stop its channel.

Although it moved from its original location, it'd kept its hand steadily pointed right at the lengthy sword.

Jason cursed.

Just as he'd expected, it was way harder to skewer someone when they were running away.

He dismissed the enormous club and began spamming the Pestilent Snipe ability.

Although Jason hadn't used the Red Lamia in battle before today, he was very familiar with the mechanics behind charge-up moves.

Thus far, he'd only fired fully charged bullets.

However, the Pestilent Snipe would still inflict damage even at low charge rates.

The globules of acidic spittle rapidly peppered the machine.

The blasts were too quick for the King of Thieves to comfortable dodge.

As a result, it simply stayed in place and tanked the damage while maintaining its channel.

If Jason couldn't stop his opponent, he'd force them to take as much damage as possible in exchange for stealing the sword.

The Liquid State Eternium bonus had greatly boosted the enemy Mech's defenses, but it was by no means invulnerable.

Most Paragons, including the King of Thieves, lacked regeneration.

Although Jason was worried about his opponent's damage, it was still a Mech with a giant hole in its chest.

Every bit of additional damage helped.

This sort of relentless advantage pushing was typical for Jason's aggressive playstyle. Even though his Red Minerva had grown far more powerful, he'd held onto his typical underdog mindset.

Besides him, Jason's ally caught onto his plan.

The blade lashed forward again, effortlessly slicing through trees as it slammed into the injured King of Thieves's side.

The Paragon's Liquid State Eternium buff prevented the worst of the damage, but the attack forced the King of Thieves to take a knee.

Sadly, it was too late.

All that mattered was the machine's hand posture, and the King of Thieves's skilled pilot had managed to maintain his posture despite the devastating blows.

The dancing sword vanished and reappeared in the King of Thieves' hands.

The change was instantaneous.

The sword immediately began protecting the King of Thieves.

Jason cursed.

Now that the King of Thieves had stolen the other item, the machine's defenses had increased even further.

On its surface, the bending blade seemed like a purely offensive item, but Jason knew better than to pidgeon hole such a powerful tool.

The blade could attack multiple targets at once - that meant it could also skewer multiple incoming projectiles.

Jason continued firing the Pestilent Snipe, but the sword began elegantly dancing through the air, intercepting all of the Red Minerva's poisonous spittle.

Jason grit his teeth.

The situation was grim, but they were so close.

They just needed a few more hits.

If the Pestilent Snipe wouldn't work, Jason had an even more spammable item at his disposal.

He entered a swift command into his control board, and his wristbands hissed as the pair of powerful revolvers appeared in his hands.

He promptly began to fire.

Instead of prioritizing accuracy, Jason focused on shooting as many bullets as possible.

The pistols blasted again and again.

The pistols replicated high-caliber handguns.

Once brought to a Mech's scale, the bullets were absolutely massive - approximately the size of cannonballs.

Jason pulled the triggers again and again, attacking as quickly as possible.

After he finished shooting, the wristbands automatically reloaded his empty cartridges.

The chamber popped open after six shots, and a tiny manipulator arm attached to his wrist fed new bullets into the revolver. There was no need for Jason to drop the Red Minerva's hands.

And yet, not a single one of the shots hit.

The sword danced and danced, skewering every single one of the bullets.

Jason cursed in disbelief.

Beside him, his ally swore just as loudly.

Then he loudly clapped his hands together.

"Alright! Lucky roll!!!! Please!!!! Don't embarrass me now, partner!"

The Lucky Duck's thin left arm abruptly straightened.

Jason frowned a little at the bizarre shape.

The thin rod reminded him of something, but he didn't know what.

Next, the four panels on the Lucky Duck's chest opened up.

The left arm jerked down, and then the panels instantly started spinning in place.

Once they did, Jason understood the Lucky Duck's name.

Earlier, his ally had commented on finally getting a "good roll."

The Lucky Duck was an enormous slot machine.

The thin left lever and the four panels on its chest decided what sort of item spawned from the enormous swiss army knife on the right arm.

Summoning the twisting sword every single time would blatantly imbalance the game.

A heavy luck restriction was the only way to balance the overpowered item.

The first three panels finished spinning.

Jason didn't have a perfect understanding of how slot machines worked...

However, he knew it was a bad sign if none of the slots matched.

Then the fourth panel finished spinning.

From what Jason could tell, the first three slots determined the weapon's quality.

Meanwhile, the last slot chose the kind of weapon summoned.

Item selected: Knife

Clang!

A tiny knife - barely larger than a Mech's finger - emerged.

The other pilot cursed.

"Shit! Shit! Shit!"

He turned to Jason.

"I can only roll once a minute. We need to run!!!!"

The two would-be assassins had no choice but to flee.

The sword snaked hungrily after them.