Overdrive and the King Kong marched towards each other with thunderous steps that shook the entire cavern. Both connected their punches with the jaws of the other, the King Kong however, caused more damage by punching Overdrive at the torso as well.
The cha groaned, turning to the side and grabbing the lower arm that had struck its midsection. The King Kong tried to reach for it with its other three arms, but Overdrive’s positioning made that difficult.
"Over drive!" Kasto cried. "Ceiling!"
The cha humd in obedience, activating the rockets on its elbow, back and feet, then it launched itself into the air.
The King Kong groaned madly, the rage in its magma-hot eyes searing as it pulled higher and higher. Overdrive grabbed its hand with more force, then, using its launchers to generate power, it spun.
The movent, the launchers, and Overdrive’s strength allowed it to fling the King Kong so high up, crashing it into the cavern’s ceiling.
BOOOMMMM!
The rockface detonated and pieces of jagged earth started to fall.
"Get out of the way!" Dane yelled at everyone.
They all looked up as a giant shadow lood over them. Scrambling like ants, they made it out of the way just in ti before a large piece of earth crashed on top of them.
As the smoke and dust cleared around them, Lancet and his team rose to their feet, coughing and waving dust off their faces.
Finally, the haze cleared.
"Is everyone okay?" Lancet asked.
"Yeah, I’m good," Kasto replied.
"Uh, guys..."
Everyone glanced at Vera’s direction, wondering what the problem was. She was pointing, her finger directed behind them and her eyes wide with fear.
Lancet and the others followed the quivering finger.
"Hah!"
The Kong which had eliminated Kallan and his team was marching hungrily towards them. It leaped, upper hands raised, and the lower hands were about to collide together to create the shockwave power-up.
"Buster!" Dane shouted. "Go left!"
The Astral-Claw Ursine vanished into a portal and appeared directly beside the beast. It countered it, slamming its head to the beast’s side.
The Kong toppled to its right, but rolled over and found its feet pretty quickly. But Buster was relentless. It used its massive astral claws—each one longer than a sword—to carve glowing wounds across the Kong’s back.
Purple energy crackled along the cuts, leaving behind wounds that didn’t bleed so much as leak otherworldly light.
The Kong retaliated instantly.
One massive hand caught the Ursine mid-swipe, fingers closing around its ethereal body like a vice. Another hand slamd into its ribs with enough force to crack stone.
The Ursine rashed violently into the cavern wall, leaving a spiderweb of cracks in the stone where it hit. It slid to the ground in a heap, breathing with difficulty.
"Buster!" Dane cursed, his voice cracking.
The battlefield was falling apart.
Too many attacks. Too much pressure. Too many points of failure in a formation that had been designed for controlled chaos.
Lancet grimaced. A strange feeling crept up in his chest. It was normal for him to be helpless. In fact, that was how he lived in the first few weeks of Awakener Supre. But now, with all the power he had, being helpless felt like a curse.
All of his skills and strengths countered by his broken channels.
Lancet interacted with his core, testing it. But it was still there: that awful instability inside his channels.
His Grace flickered like a dying fla. One mont it was there, burning bright and steady in his chest. The next it was gone, leaving behind nothing but an empty ache where sothing vital should have been.
The Radiant Guillotine dimd in his hands.
Lancet tried to push Grace into it, but even then it was fluctuating. It almost seed like his emotional state affected his magic. And right now, Lancet was pretty emotional.
Thankfully, Dane’s Ursine had bought them ti to regroup. The beast spotted them and erupted into an attack, but Min Tu’s Skeleton Soldier—Wraith—was ready.
It leaped high into the air, cleaver catching the light as it descended.
The Kong stumbled backwards, unsure of how to evade the attack. Before it had the chance to do anything, Wraith’s blade drove directly into its skull.
CRAAAAACK!
Bone split. Brain matter sprayed.
The Kong’s remaining eye—the one not blinded by Wraith’s assault—went wide with shock before going permanently, utterly blank.
The beast collapsed.
Silence filled the cavern for a long mont. Then everyone looked at Min Tu.
"You did it," Kasto whispered. "You killed one of those things."
Min Tu sighed, frustrated. "They’re pretty strong for Level 55 Beasts."
"Tell about it."
Min Tu looked over at Lancet’s direction who was staring at the Kong"a lifeless body.
"Hey," she called him. "You okay?"
Lancet snapped out of his reverie and looked at her, a weak smile touching his corners. *Yeah. Great job, Minny."
The Necromancer imdiately turned pink-cheeked at the sound of that, eyes freezing wide.
"AND ONE OF THE KONGS GOES DOWN!" the announcer scread, his voice nearly drowned out by the roar of the crowd. "SUMMONER-D IS STILL IN THIS FIGHT!"
"But look! BEHIND THEM!"
The temperature in the cavern spiked, turning the air so blisteringly hot it singed the hairs on Lancet’s arms. A sound like a tearing jet engine filled the massive space.
Before Lancet or anyone else could even pivot to see the danger, a massive shadow eclipsed them.
VZZZT!
A loud sound like a spaceship pierced the silence, and then a blast. Lancet and the others whipped around, their eyes widening in sheer realization.
Overdrive stood firmly between them and absolute destruction. The King Kong had recovered from the ceiling collapse and had unleashed its red hot eye beams.
But Overdrive had stepped in just in ti. The cha’s heavy tallic arms were thrust forward, projecting a massive blue energy shield that caught the brunt of the Boss’s thermal assault.
"Overdrive!" Kasto yelled, relieved and afraid at the sa ti.
The cha dug its heavy iron feet into the obsidian floor, sparks showering from its thrusters as it was pushed backward inch by agonizing inch. The blue shield flared, vibrating violently.
It absorbed the heat around it, using it to charge the shield.
"That’s it, buddy! Hold the line!" Kasto encouraged, his hands balled into tight fists.
For a few grueling seconds, it seed like the machine would actually hold. The hexagonal panels of the shield glowed brighter, feeding off the searing beam.
But the King Kong was a Level 60, and its rage was boundless. The beast let out a guttural, ground-shaking bellow. The beam grew stronger, thickening as the blast built up to a critical mass.
Overdrive’s internal alarms began to shriek, a desperate, chanical wail.
"It’s too much!" Kasto scread.
The shield cracked like thin ice. A millisecond later, the barrier shattered completely. The overwhelming kinetic and thermal force of the blast slamd into Overdrive’s chest, lifting the massive cha entirely off its feet.
It was sent flying backward through the cavern, crashing violently into a cluster of jagged stalagmites. tal twisted, joints popped, and the optical lights on Overdrive’s head flickered wildly before dying out completely.
"No!" Kasto cried out.
But there was no ti to mourn the machine. The King Kong exploded forward, together with the remaining Kong.
That one lunged toward their exposed flank.
"Don’t let it flank us!" Lancet shouted.
Min Tu’s eyes narrowed. "Wraith! Take it down!"
Her Undead warriors blurred past her. The Skeleton Soldier vaulted over a rock formation, its cleaver raised, clashing violently with the four-ard beast to keep it away from Kasto.
But the true nightmare was already upon them. The King Kong was charging forward fast.
talhead shot out its fists to intercept the beast but the King Kong just punched and shattered them into bits of tal.
Before the cha could use its head next, the Dungeon Boss crashed right into it. talhead tore through the air like a cot. Shrapnel rained down on the cavern floor as the cha hit the rock face far behind and above.
"No!!" Kasto cried, his face tarnished with pain.
Lancet narrowed his eyes fiercely. He looked around. Everyone was occupied.
Vera was healing Dane’s Ursine. Min Tu’s Skeletons were focused on the other Four-Ard Kong, and Kasto had no other cha to summon.
Lancet looked at the beast storming towards them. His Grace was still violently fluctuating, but right now, he was the last line of defense.
Once it was close enough, the King Kong leaped, raising all four fists high above its head.
Lancet’s eyes widened.
Those four fists—each one the size of a carriage—hung in the air like the hamr of so vengeful god, poised to descend.
"No—"
He quickly pushed his hand forward and yelled at the top of his voice:
"RADIANT CROSS SHIELD!"
The Phantom Ring on his finger flared once, down a charge.
Instantly, the cross stretched around the team and the force field was created.
The King Kong’s fists crashed down.
KABOOOOOOOM!
The entire cavern shook.
Dust and debris rained from the ceiling in a continuous cascade. The shield held naturally; it was an extrely powerful shield, even though reduced to fit Lancet’s level compared to Astensia.
Nevertheless, everyone was protected inside, saved by Lancet’s desperate action.
But the relentless King Kong attacked again.
And again.
And again.
Each slam reverberated through the shield, though it took all the brunt of the damage, preparing to explode forward under Lancet’s call.
Lancet’s knees buckled.
His veins burned—actually burned—as his Grace tried and failed to keep up with the demand. The power flowing through him was like a river trying to fill an ocean, insufficient and desperately inadequate.
Lancet knew that if he pushed his Grace to activate the detonation of the shield, it could cut off the magical energy completely.
But, his Grace cut off anyway.
The barrier instantly vanished.
Lancet’s eyes widened.
The King Kong’s fists descended. Those hamrs of destruction.
Straight toward all of them.
Fuck.
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