CHAPTER EIGHTY SEVEN

Castor's Mech was incredibly fast, and he struck without any warning at all. The thin spider had a speed rating near the top of the S-tier.

However, Jason responded instantly, beginning his strike as soon as his opponent began moving. A resounding thud echoed through the tiny room of the Combat Dungeon as Jason's heavy tail crashed into his opponent's chest. In the past, Jason had disliked the heavy tail as it hadn't fit with the rest of the Red Minerva's design, but after several clashes against skilled opponents, he finally realized its purpose. The Red Minerva was a conventional melee attacker who used swift attacks. Mixing in a slow attack was perfect for catching experts like Vile or Castor off guard.

The tail smacked into the spider's chest, sending it crashing to the floor with a resounding thud. However, Jason's skilled opponent was able to respond with equal aggression. The spider rolled on the floor, then bounced forwards yet again. The creature was as agile as any gymnast.

Jason responded with the Blazing Avarice. He summoned his trusty Valorous Ji, then lunged aggressively forward. Jason knew that his team would eventually break him out of here, but that didn't mean that he'd play passively. Against such a strong opponent, he needed to use his natural fighting style.

On top of that, the small confines meant running away was a highly ineffective strategy. Now that the Combat Dungeon had been completely contracted, Jason saw just how small the room actually was - there were only about five hundred feet of space in any direction. It was more or less a tiny cube.

If he turtled up, he'd be done for.

The brown spider leaped off the ground, spinning violently through the air to avoid Jason's strike.

A cacophony of clicks echoed through the Dungeon as six revolvers emerged from the brown and gold machine's palms. The high-caliber weapons instantly started firing. Golden lights streaked across Jason's screen.

Jason assumed a defensive stance, allowing his Mech's heavy armor to block most of the attacks. Whenever he could, he deflected strikes with the flat of his Ji or the heavy weight at the end of his tail.

Castor's greatest strength was his ability to strike from multiple angles at once. Jason wouldn't be able to hold it down completely, but the versatile Ji and his heavy tail were sure to give the other pilot a run for his money.

Unfortunately...

Red warning lights began flashing all across his Mech.

Jason cursed under his breath. Castor's spider had upgraded his equipment. His machine's specs were now higher than the preview Lynn had showed them.

His Mech now used special high-caliber bullets, which were specially designed to pierce heavy armor. The Golden Caliber series was a special class of weapon designed to serve as the best all-around standard for each individual category of firearm. The six Golden Caliber Revolvers were capable of inflicting damage even to the Antigone Armor.

Jason cursed. It was time to adjust his strategy. He needed to start dodging more. Unfortunately, he couldn't dump off his heavy armor to do so. The Antigone Armor could only take three to four hits from the Golden Caliber Revolvers, but his base frame couldn't block anything.

The eight-legged martial artist began cartwheeling across the room, firing and firing the revolvers. The attack, simultaneously elegant and unpredictable, reminded Jason of gun-fu movies from Hong Kong cinema.

Each of the six main hands fired from a different angle.

In addition, Castor had intelligently spread his shots across the Red Minerva's body. He knew that he didn't need to kill the Red Minerva with a headshot. Simply inflicting enough damage would be enough to slow it down and put the draconic cyborg into a very dangerous position. He was seeking to activate Jason's Overdrive bonus as soon as possible.

Every single shot was perfectly calculated to maximize the difficulty of blocking the attack. Lynn said her brother had a goofy and almost simpleminded nature, he was clearly a combat genius. Jason was once again reminded of the feeling he had against Vile - he was up against a far superior opponent.

Jason's hands dashed frenetically back and forth across the control board as he desperately tried to avoid every shot. Despite his earlier resolve, he was totally on the defensive. He wasn't even able to remotely pressure his opponent.

Castor simply stayed in place, firing round after round of golden bullets.

After every six shots, the pistols would withdraw back into the golden hands, allowing the machine's automatic reloading system to prepare a fresh set of rounds. Castor carefully staggered his reload timers, ensuring that Jason never caught a break. The good habits were completely natural and effortless. He fired at the perfect place at the perfect times without even thinking.

The breaking point came suddenly and without any warning. A loud clunk echoed through the room, and the Ji abruptly vanished from Jason's hand.

Castor fired again. This time, the golden bullet was aimed for the Red Minerva's heart.

Unlike during the match against Vile, Jason didn't falter. Against a top-tier opponent, a single moment of hesitation meant defeat. He'd figure out what went wrong with the Blazing Avarice system later.

Jason fell into a deep roll to dodge the first bullet. When he caught himself, he began scrabbling on four legs across the floor. The modified stance increased his speed, allowing him to charge straight for the spider.

At the end, Jason used the move he'd practiced in the Good Game Shoppe. He briefly dove into the ground of the Combat Dungeon, tearing it apart with the Red Minerva's claws. Then, he popped up and grabbed the spider martial artist's legs, taking it down to the ground with a perfect wrestling shoot.

The attack worked. Castor had no idea what was coming.

He tried jumping into the air at the very last second, but the Red Minerva was simply too fast while bursting out of the ground. Jason grabbed onto the two silver legs, then yanked his opponent back to the floor with his weight. Next, he clambered forward and pulled his opponent's knees out from under him.

The two machines crashed to the ground. The spider's greatest strength was its fluidity and ability to keep the opponent always guessing. In response, Jason wanted to seal off his options as much as possible.

Jason and his opponent scrambled furiously on the ground. He had the spider's main two legs, but the creature could still balance itself with its other limbs. On top of that, Castor could switch between melee and ranged modes in the blink of an eye. It took less than a second for the gun to pop out of the palm. The Neo's bladed fingers made things even worse. Until the very last moment, Jason wouldn't be able to figure out of his opponent's strike was a punch, a grab, or a bladed chop.

At this range, the spider could easily attack through the gaps of the Antigone Armor. Because of the Red Minerva's low defenses, even a single mistake could prove fatal.

However, Jason's own advantage was his weight. He didn't need to focus too much on landing super accurate moves. The spider had a different outer body, but it was actually quite similar to the Red Minerva's base form. Both machines were squishy close combat types.

Jason simply thrashed wildly on the floor. The individual impacts hurt his machine, but it hurt the spider far more. As the two machines rolled around, Jason pulled up his damage report. If he could figure out what had happened to the Blazing Avarice, maybe he could summon an item and skewer his opponent from point-blank range...

A warning appeared on his screen.

BLAZING AVARICE: INOPERABLE

COMPUTER HAS TAKEN TOO MUCH DAMAGE

Ah!

What a smart move. Castor had likely seen the system at work in the earlier rounds. Since it relied on a hand clap, he'd probably also deduced that it relied on equipment stored in the Mech's hands. By hitting the Red Minerva's arms over and over again, he'd eventually rattled them enough that the built-in computer stopped working on its own.

Jason wanted to use his Overdrive bonus to recover the damage, but he needed to increase his advantage. He continued furiously flailing, and before long, he heard the other Mech's limbs starting to snap. Soon, two of the spider's arms had broken clean off. The slender limbs were brittle, and they couldn't take this amount of excessive force.

Then, to Jason's surprise, the spider managed to throw him off. The thin machine did a backflip, jerking its metal legs upwards with full force and sending the Red Minerva flying towards the roof of the Dungeon. His Mech bounced against the roof and crashed hard onto the floor.

The all-out move shattered yet another one of the spider's arms, but it didn't matter. Green healing energy spiraled around the spider, gradually recovering its limbs as it activated its Overdrive bonus.

Jason didn't hesitate for a single moment. He activated his own Overdrive bonus too.

He knew it meant he wouldn't be able to use it for the actual mission, but he needed his machine to be at full strength. He'd caught Castor off guard with his wrestling technique, but there was no guarantee that he'd be able to pull it off multiple times in a row. If he managed to survive this battle, he was sure that Danny could take the lead during the primary mission.

The two machines faced each other.

BLAZING AVARICE: QILONG JI

Jason smiled as the familiar Chinese polearm appeared in his arm. Although he'd only received this item recently, it felt like he'd been using the weapon his entire life.

Across from him, the spider's hands formed into weapons.

Barrels immediately poked out of three of the hands. The fingers on two others joined together, forming into deadly knives. The last palm remained open, likely to keep Jason guessing throughout the fight.

Jason wisely ignored the information. Considering the speed of the spider's weapons shifts, a bladed hand could become a gun before Jason nearly instantaneously. For all he knew, every single one of the attacks was a bluff.

Jason sighed. Seeing his opponent at full strength was demoralizing. That was the great strength of Hemoborn - they could undo your progress in just a second. Jason had benefited from that effect many times before, but now he was

A long and drawn-out fight wasn't in his favor. He had no idea how long they'd been fighting for, but it felt like a very short time. Nonetheless, he was exhausted. The effort required to block attacks from six different angles was utterly mind-numbing.

He took another look at the tiny room, and a plan formed in his mind.