CHAPTER NINETY FOUR

After battling through the Tournament of Assassins, Jason knew that his mind wasn't in its top mental condition. He'd concentrated throughout the morning for the long battle down to the planet and through Castle Notoria. Taking on a one-shot mission like a Vault after that was pretty risky. If he failed, he wouldn't get the chance to compete again.

On the other hand, success beget success. After an exciting last-second win, he was on a huge mental high and he wanted to push himself as hard as possible. From playing with the BAG Guild, he'd learned how important it was to follow his emotions and do what felt right.

In the end, he split the difference. He found a nearby coffee shop and walked there and back for a drink. When he came back to his house two hours later, he was feeling somewhat better rested.

Afterwards, Jason pulled up a quick guide, studied up the map's enemies, then logged back into Overdrive and loaded into the stage.

The overall One Star Vampire stage looked was a massive Gothic castle.

There were three separate floors as well as a secret basement level. The secret basement level contained the map's official boss, and it could only be accessed from an elevator located on the top floor. The conventional mission map involved battling to the top of the castle before ducking down to the basement.

However, Jason had noticed that the stage had a Vault located on the very top floor, almost like a secret attic to complement the basement. Jason planned on fighting the Vault boss rather than the conventional boss, but most of his mission would be the same as a regular player's.

This time, he picked his Vampire Brawler. He'd upgraded the machine so it could detach its armor like the Red Minerva, but he made no other changes. He'd even kept the typical machine cannons over the beam rifles he used on the Red Minerva - due to the Brawler's higher weight, it had fewer problems with recoil.

The thick heavyset wrestler was an upgrade over the base Mech, which meant he'd unlocked the special bonus mission. His machine spawned outside the towering castle. The structure was vaguely similar to the Castle Notoria, but the difficulty level was much lower. Instead of sneaking into the castle, the portcullis automatically opened, and Jason easily stepped inside.

On top of that, the map was a simple One Star mission. All Jason needed was brute force.

The Vampire Castle had three separate categories of Grunt Mechs.

The first enemies were melee-type Thrall Grunts, which were low-level Hemoborn. They reminded Jason of the grunts summoned by the Red Lamia, but due to the stage's low difficulty, they were much weaker. Although these skinny Thralls had decent attacking stats, their low defenses meant he could take them down in a couple of blows.

The second category consisted of high-speed Kingbreakers shaped like bats. They swooped in and out for hit-and-run attacks. At first, Jason would gun them down with his machine cannons, but then he realized that the damage was just negligible. He could more or less ignore them.

The only worrisome enemies were the Bloodmasters, moderately powerful Spell Titans that seemed to act like mini-bosses. They had a unique ability that allowed them to directly curse a machine's pilot. If Jason didn't kill them within the three-minute time limit, his pilot avatar would die, meaning that he'd lose regardless of his machine's actual health. However, the wrestling moves Jason learned from Vinny meant he could pin and destroy the Bloodmancers without too many issues.

In fact, the largest overall problem was Jason's familiarity with the stage. He wasn't nearly as familiar with this castle as the Towering Crag, and he took the wrong turn several times even after he'd read the guide. After stumbling into another dead end - in this case, a ballroom filled with Thrall Grunts - Jason could only shake his head and laugh.

His ability to read maps and figure out directions was even shittier on the server than in real life!

Nonetheless, he finally made it up to the attic. The Vault entrance was just as he remembered it - a thin and almost imperceptibly lined panel set in the far right corner of the roof. Jason had only noticed it after a couple of stage reviews, and he doubted that too many contestants would look in such a weird area. The few players who'd bother playing through this One Star vampire stage were mostly looking for the boss.

Although the Vampire Brawler couldn't fly for sustained periods, Jason was familiar enough with this machine to reach the panel. He went off to a running start, then kicked off the wall and activated his thrusters to crash right through the roof.

He crashed right through the roof and saw something totally unexpected.

He was so surprised he had to double-check to see if he was in the right place. His instinctive thought was that this might have been another wrong turn.

Fortunately, this was indeed the Vault - the room was covered with rare items, although many of them were special Spell Titan techniques rather than conventional weapons, which meant they were stored in large video projectors shaped as scrolls. However, there were many different Hemoborn-related weapons set in the back of the room, including viral-based weapons and various life force cannons. The boss of this stage was a Spell Titan, but since its signature ability could be used by both classes, the Overdrive Corporation had filled the Vault with additional items that could be used by either Spell Titans or Hemoborns.

The Vault itself was shaped like a cave, but Jason could tell by the hollow echo of his machine walking forward that the whole thing was synthetic. It seemed like he was in a stone cavern, but the whole structure was made of metal. Jason raised his leg and stomped downwards to test the durability. Unlike the attic in the Palace of Emotions, he wouldn't be able to break through the floor. Behind him, a large metal plank slid into place, cutting off his possible escape route.

There was no reason for Jason to think he was in the wrong place, but his opponent looked so weird that he couldn't help but think this was another wrong turn.

A notification appeared on his screen.

CONGRATULATIONS - YOU HAVE UNLOCKED THE SECRET MISSION

DEFEAT THE HIDDEN BOSS BIOMANCER IN ORDER TO CAPTURE THIS FRAME

Biomancer, huh?

That explained things a bit...

It seemed to be a Spell Titan that battled using blood and other biological material. The regular boss had fairly closely fit the image of a Spell Titan. Although it was a robot, the thin Spell Titan was still somewhat aristocratic and classy.

This thing was basically just a slime monster. Jason couldn't even tell what the actual machine looked like underneath all the gunk - it was smothered from top to bottom in a thick coat of ooze. The patchy and pasty slime immediately called to mind the image of sun-baked vomit. Jason could almost imagine the hideous smell from across the screen.

Although it was obscured by gunk, its rough overall shape actually looked much more like a rabid beast than a vampire. Now that the typical elongated Spell Titan head was covered by a thick coat of ooze, the enemy Mech looked like it had the head of a wolf rather than a human.

The enemy's only distinctive feature was the strange bio-material delivery system on its back. The hideous vaguely human-shaped blob wore several transparent glass tanks on its back. The tanks carried a burbling reddish-brown sewage-like fluid that Jason immediately recognized as fresh sources of bio-mass.

Jason put his guard up, but the enemy didn't attack. He frowned. The upgraded Vampire Brawler could inflict serious physical damage...but would it work?

The strange and slimy mass was very puffy, almost like some sort of nightmarish cotton candy. What if it just cushioned his blows?

That'd happened a couple of times in the past...

Back when he was a One Star Boss, Jason had fought a few Hemoborn like this before - the thought of building a slime monster Mech was unusual, but not totally out of the question. However, each of them had different abilities. The Mech could be capable of anything ranging from regeneration to contaminating other machines.

Jason smiled as he realized what he should do. Now that he'd upgraded his builds with detachable armor, he could also use them as incendiary bombs. He raised his machine's hands, then pressed down the two keys at the top of his control board. A loud clang echoed through the attic as he launched a piece of his elbow armor right at his opponent, setting it for self-destruct. The heavy metal piece crashed straight into the ooze.

To Jason's surprise, the piece didn't sink in. The slime had fully congealed, and Jason only barely managed to crack it. However, the backend of his plan still worked. The armor piece exploded, setting the whole thing on fire.

The tremendous whooshing noise echoed through the attic, and Jason smiled as his opponent crashed straight to the ground. The ooze promptly began melting, and the creature started scrabbling madly on the floor as hideous red-brown fluid seeped uncontrollably to the floor. Jason didn't know who he was fighting, but he'd already noticed that several Five Star Bosses were uncomfortable controlling their machines. Now that the ooze was flying uncontrollably all over the place, the other machine couldn't even get back to its feet. It kept slipping every single time.

Jason aimed his machine cannons, then started blasting at the tanks on his enemy's back. To his surprise, the tanks were extremely fragile. They promptly shattered, sending even more disgusting fluid all over the place.

Jason then detached a second armor piece. This time, he fired the one from his left knee. The heavy metal exploded again, and the monstrosity just flailed around pathetically as he continued burning the soup-like mass of molten flesh and blood. Jason knew that there was probably a Spell Titan lurking somewhere amid all the gunk, but there was just too much biological material for him to see it.

Of course...

This felt way too easy.

Jason activated his scanner, and the Vampire Brawler's implanted eye camera beeped moments later.

To Jason's dismay, the enemy Mech had hardly taken any damage. The slime was also serving as a shield. Even though the material kept burning, it inundated the machine from any damage. This biological material was of a much higher level and quality than what Jason had previously experienced. It could nullify all material, not just physical blows.

As it burned, the slime turned black and wasted away, but new goop smoothly took its place.

To make matters worse, his opponent was still a Hemoborn. The creature could still control its supply of extra material even after it was knocked out of the tank. The condensed fluid had automatically expanded as soon as it left the container, almost like a perverse version of whipped cream. The ooze burbled and bubbled all around the room. There was a chance Jason had actually helped his opponent by getting the gunk all over the place.

If Jason just stood there setting his opponent on fire, the two of them would be here forever. Even worse, he'd run out of armor pieces long before his opponent ran out of gunk.

Jason's eyes narrowed as he stared at the cascading ooze, and he decided to charge. He activated the Vampire Brawler's ability, willingly taking damage to empower his next few strikes. Then he charged straight into the muck at maximum speed.

He heard a loud clang as he smacked straight through the muck and made contact with his hidden opponent. Unfortunately, his sensor couldn't see through the gunk. He could roughly feel out an armored Spell Titan body, but he had no other information.

Next, Jason brought his leg around in a vicious roundhouse, kicking the monstrous Biomancer straight in the chest.

Pssshhhhhhhhhhhh...

The Lunar Stalker's outer armor burst like an overinflated paper bag as the Vampire Brawler's heavy foot knifed cleanly through the swollen material. The disgusting goop flew through the air before Jason's kick landed with a satisfying thud.

The Biomancer stumbled back, and to Jason's surprise, he saw that he'd inflicted ten percent damage to his opponent's torso. The ooze had cushioned the blow, but his new Brawler's strength was great enough to make a dent in even the most insulated opponent. A few other hard hits and the creature's chest would cave in entirely.

But then, the Biomancer activated an ability. A sudden previously unseen force slammed into Jason's back, knocking him straight to the ground. The tide surged upwards, threatening to engulf him.