Hell Mode: Volume 6, page 21
Geraraba nodded in response. “All right, got it! Let’s go, men! Time to combine!”
“Aye, aye, sir!” all thirteen golems responded in unison. They then, with the dwarves still in their crystal cockpits, began to give off a shimmering haze as their eyes lit up.
“C’mon over here, Meruru! You’ll be the right arm!”
“Yes sir!” Tam-Tam shoved off from the mithril golem it was engaged with and approached Geraraba. All fourteen mithril golems surrounded the admiral’s hihiirokane golem, and an instant later, the room was filled with a blinding flash of light. When it died down, three immense golems were standing in their place. By using the Extra Skill Union, five super golems could come together to become one supercombined golem.
Whoa, now that’s epic!
Allen looked excitedly over at the supercombined golems and could not help but think of the combiner robots he recalled from his past life.
Union allowed golems of the same size to join together into what was known as a “supercombined” form. Of course, just like other Extra Skills, it could only be used for an hour and would need to cool down for a day before it could be used again. This was one of the reasons Allen hoped to keep the battle with the final floor boss to under an hour.
The pilots found themselves in a large crystal cockpit in the chest of their combined golem, with five dwarves per cockpit. Furthermore, each of the combined golems stood around 150 meters tall, not only making them one and a half times the size they were before combining, but also granting them a 1.5 multiplier on their stats, sending them up to the 10,000 level. The combined golem formed with the hihiirokane golem received an even greater boost.
Admiral Garara let out a roar. “Yaaaaar! Ye fools don’t know what ye’ve got comin’!” The combined golem whose chest was made of hihiirokane punched the nearby bronze golem, sending it stumbling backward, then wrapped its arms around its opponent’s waist, lifted it up, and hurled it toward one of the iron golems.
“You’re the one who doesn’t know what you’ve gotten into! Mithril golem, you’re up!”
At Goldino’s command, the mithril golem began to float into the air and transform into its flying mode. Just as Allen had previously experienced when fighting against it in the Mithril Zone, the golem began shooting balls of light from its twin cannons. He had anticipated this, however, and quickly Summoned multiple Stone As.
“You’re up, Rockanel! Don’t let any shots get through!”
As soon as the five Stone As were Summoned, they shot out gold orbs which absorbed nearly all of the mithril golem’s light bullets. In only a matter of moments, two of the Summons had already reached their absorption limit.
“That’s good enough! Time to mow ’em down!”
Allen had the ones that reached their limit use their Awakened Ability, Focused Bombardment. The shots went straight through the mithril golem, tearing it apart.
With the mithril golem defeated, a line of text appeared on Allen’s grimoire.
“Heh, so you think that’s enough to win? Iron, use Repair Energy!”
He’s doing a great job at playing the role of a villain.
At Goldino’s command, one of the iron golems fully healed the mithril golem.
Having two members that can use revive abilities makes this way harder than it needs to be. It’s probably safe to assume they’d bring Goldino back too if we defeat it.
While Allen was thinking over the situation, one of the Bird Bs he had lent to the other party let him know that the group had made it to the hallway and were waiting there.
“All right, everyone! Let’s head for the hallway. Admiral, your combined golem will take the rear!”
The three supercombined golems made their way into the hallway one after another. Though the hallway was fairly wide, it was not wide enough for them to pass each other. Therefore, unless all three were defeated, there was no need to worry about any enemy golems slipping through the gaps or going around them. However, the ceiling was quite high, which would allow the mithril golem to use its ability to fly and shoot balls of light at them, necessitating that Allen use more Stone As to absorb any incoming attacks.
“Look at you, escaping like rats!” Goldino’s voice boomed from behind the bronze golem chasing after Admiral Garara, who stood at the back of the formation. “What, have you lost the will to fight? I’m really going to enjoy crushing you cowards!” Behind Goldino were the spear and shield iron golems, as well as the mithril golem floating in the air above them.
Allen looked down at the formation from his airborne perch atop the Bird B.
Hmm, so this is the formation they’ve decided to take. Personally, I really would have preferred it if he’d split up the iron golems. Oh well, we should still be able to pull it off.
Allen then issued a command to Merus, whom he had Summoned earlier. “Merus, you’re up.”
“Got it.”
Merus flew over the top of Admiral Garara’s golem, which was currently taking a drill punch from the bronze golem, and headed straight toward Goldino.
Admiral Garara’s supercombined golem and the bronze golem fought on, gaining and losing ground in turn. With the five golems combined, they were finally able to hold their own, so it was now a matter of just how strong their opponent was. However, the party members with offensive magic and the ability to shoot arrows began to lay into the bronze golem from long range and slowly chip away at its HP.
Finally, Merus arrived at his target.
“Are we ready to go?”
“Yep, I assigned an element and created a nest.”
After hearing Merus’s reply, Allen turned back toward the group farther down the hallway.
“All right, time to strike! Helmios, you’re up! Homing Instinct!”
“Hmm?” By the time Goldino realized that something was up, it was too late. The iron golems at the back of the formation were already under attack.
“I’m taking the rear! Now to get down to business!”
“Looks like it’s my time to shine!”
At Helmios’s command, the whole party, led by Dverg, let out a roar of excitement.
Sacred and the supercombined golem were teleported to the entrance of the hallway and began attacking the shield-bearing iron golem at the back of the group in a pincer formation.
By using Bird A’s Awakened Ability, Homing Instinct, Allen could choose anyone within a kilometer of his current location and teleport them to a nest he had created. The Ability had several restrictions, such as whatever he was teleporting needing to be completely within the teleportation range, which seemed to end at the ground—he was unable to teleport any trees with deeply buried roots, houses with deep-set foundations, or rocks buried firmly in the ground. However, as long as they were within range, he figured he should be able to teleport over a thousand soldiers along with their supplies. Obviously, then, a 150-meter-tall supercombined golem was no problem.
By using Homing Instinct, Allen was able to teleport one of the supercombined golems along with the entirety of Helmios’s party, Sacred, behind the column of enemy golems who had followed them into the hallway. In order to create the all-important nest, Allen had sent Merus to the designated location and Summoned a Bird A there to create one. Merus’s Ability, Angel Halo, allowed him to Summon in place of Allen, which effectively eliminated the limit on how far away Allen could call forth one of his Summons.
The key to Allen’s strategy was taking advantage of the fact that Merus was able to move about on his own at high speed and freely create nests. He flew over yet another enemy golem’s head, followed closely by Helmios and Sacred.
Allen continued issuing commands using this Bird F’s Transmission Ability. “All right, the foundation’s in place. Good luck, guys!” The moment Sacred began their assault, the other party members still in the hallway also began to attack.
“Yeaaah! Let’s do this!”
“All right, they’re finished!”
Dogora and Krena, tired of having spent this whole time waiting, swooped in toward the bronze golem atop their Bird Bs, followed closely by the Ten Heroic Beasts.
“Hey, I’m comin’ too! I can’t stand waiting any longer!” Razo, the spear specialist rhinokin, shouted out as he launched forward. He paid no mind to the bronze golem’s drill punch flying right over his head and swung his halberd, striking his target in the side with a tremendous metallic clang. His attack had so much power behind it that the shock wave visibly reverberated across the walls as the bronze golem stumbled backward.
Razo, who was thrown backward by the sheer force, readjusted himself in midair before landing on the hallway floor, a look of surprise evident on his face. He could hardly believe that he had just been thrown back several dozen meters and was in awe of just how powerful the stat-booting rings he had borrowed from Allen made him.
“Looks like that’s about par for the course for you, Razo.”
“Just what are these things? This is pretty impressive!”
The other Heroic Beasts continued to chat among themselves as they discovered the effects of the rings during their onslaught on the bronze golem.
“I feel so light, almost like I’ve grown wings!”
Senu, a leopardkin dual-sword specialist, used their twin adamantite swords to slash at the bronze golem’s ankles with lightning speed. They were moving so fast that their movements all blurred together.
Fantastic, it looks like the beastkin’s attacks are working. Here in this world, attacks can become practically meaningless if there’s too big a gap between an attacker’s Attack stat and their opponent’s Endurance, but it looks like that’s not a problem here.
The Ten Heroic Beasts were all beaming with excitement as they swung their weapons and laid into the massive enemy. Even Zeu seemed pleased at the sight from where he stood a short distance away.
“Good job, men.”
While they had each earned the title of being the strongest in their division through the Beast King Martial Arts Tournament, they hardly ever got a chance to make use of their abilities until the following year’s tournament since Crown Prince Beku prevented them from going to the Rank S dungeon in the Empire of Baukis. The act of Albahal acknowledging their strength was, in effect, a prison sentence for them.
They were now realizing how much more exhilarating it was to fight with all they had against an immense enemy rather than simply having the chance to show off their skills in their own home country once a year.
“Well, it’s better than living in fear.”
“You’re right. Oh, looks like I’m up.”
“Yes, sir. Be careful of the drill punch, Your Highness.”
“Of course. My wife is waiting for me back home, after all.”
Prince Zeu lightly punched his metal knuckles together before making his way toward the bronze golem.
Allen looked down once again at the scene unfolding below him from his Bird B perch.
Well, well. It looks like things are going just as we planned.
Their enemy was at least as strong as Rehzel, if not stronger. However, their stats were now increased to unbelievable levels thanks to their HP- and Endurance-boosting rings. Even those in the rear of the formation could survive a direct hit.
“Why you impudent little fools! I’m going to crush you like the bugs you are! Stomp them, Bronze!”
At Goldino’s order, the bronze golem raised its massive leg high into the air. However...
“You really think we’re gonna let you do that?!” The supercombined golem kicked the bronze golem’s raised leg, causing its attack to miss.
“Insolent bastards!”
Goldino thrust a beam lance it had created earlier past the off-balance bronze golem and landed a direct blow to the supercombined golem’s shoulder.
“Ngh!” The supercombined golem retreated upon taking the hit.
The enemy has a pretty much perfect arrangement of abilities, including close-, mid-, and long-range attacks. Goldino is clearly the strongest of the bunch, but it seems like its attacks aren’t actually that strong. Could that mean that it has some sort of other, hidden ability?
From the bronze golem at the front with its drill punch to Goldino behind it with its beam lance, followed up by the mithril golem’s long-range attack at the back of the formation, it seemed as if they had entered the hallway so as to take advantage of each of their respective weapons. Out of all of these enemies, however, Allen still did not know what kind of skills or special abilities Goldino had, making it the only wild card of the bunch. Judging by the looks of the supercombined golem who had taken a direct blow from the beam lance, it did not seem like Goldino had a particularly impressive Attack stat.
After a few moments, General Hoba dove through the air and struck his massive hammer against the bronze golem’s chest, killing it.
“Whoa, you guys did it?!”
A new line of text appeared on the cover of Allen’s grimoire.
However, one of the iron golems behind Goldino used Repair Energy, allowing the bronze golem to clamber back to its feet. The mithril golem had also fallen at the hands of a Stone A’s Focused Bombardment attack, but it, too, was once again revived.
Zeu looked up to Allen for advice. “As soon as we take them down, they’re brought right back.”
“That’s all according to plan. There are fewer attacks coming our way during the brief window before they’re revived, so we just need to keep defeating them. Admiral Garara, go ahead and fall back slowly.”
“Aye, just as we’d planned.”
While it may have looked at first glance like nothing was changing, Allen’s group was slowly retreating down the hallway. Unfortunately, this caused a problem among the group forming the rear guard.
“I can’t keep up with the healing!”
“Everyone, stay close! Please, I’m begging you!”
The two beast healers cried out. They were at the center of the retreating group, taking care of allies wounded by the bronze golem’s short-range attacks, Goldino’s medium-range attacks, and the long-range attacks from the mithril golem that the Stone As were unable to block. They were healing nonstop and were not able to match the pace of the damage being dealt.
The Ten Heroic Beasts were a group specializing in war, sporting five members at the vanguard, one offensive magic expert, and one shield bearer. Two-thirds of their group was specialized for offense, while the remaining members were made up of two buff givers and a single healer named Fui, a goatkin with the Greater Beast Saint Talent who used healing magic. Though not one of the Ten Heroic Beasts, they were also joined by Sara, a catkin with the Beast Cleric Talent. She could not provide anywhere near as much healing as Fui could, but Allen figured that she would be of assistance since numbers were the name of the game during raid battles.
Helmios and Sacred were behind the enemy formation and were running short on healers. Meanwhile, the rear guard was also coming under attack due to the sheer volume of attacks the enemy sent down the narrow hall. As a result, the situation was quickly overcoming Sara, who was at her healing limit, and Fui, who had little experience with large-scale combat.
Keel, a Saint King, called out to the other two.
“Don’t worry, I’ve got this. You just focus on healing the rear guard.”
He then began chanting his healing spells, anticipating how the rampaging beastkin and Bird B-riding Krena and Dogora would move, as well as the attacks they would be hit by a few seconds later. On top of that, he had to consider who would be in the healing area when he cast the spell, whether they often took attacks head-on, and what their Endurance stats were.
Keel and the other two were responsible for healing all those who remained in the hallway with Allen and the group, including Prince Zeu, the Ten Heroic Beasts, and the two remaining supercombined golems. About half of that group was Keel’s responsibility, though most of this was done by him anticipating what would happen next as he chanted recovery spell after recovery spell to keep up with the rapid movements of the beastkin on the front line.
Fui was impressed at Keel’s skill. “Y-You’re amazing! I’ve never seen someone cast their spells so fast. I can only hope I’ll get there someday.”
“Please, just let me concentrate on healing. My Intelligence stat is still too low, so I can’t spare any more than what I’m already doing. I can’t do anything for the rear guard.”
Upon hearing that they would be facing five enemies at once this time, Allen figured that he and his companions would be attacked more frequently than ever before. In order to combat this, he decided to give rings that increased HP or Endurance to the group, emphasizing those in the rear guard. Now, thanks to the effects of both the rings and the stacked buffs, even the members of the rear guard could survive multiple blows. However, this also meant that Keel was not equipped with any rings to boost his Intelligence. This was currently hampering him, but even so, the way he was able to work his skills really impressed both Fui and Allen. Allen was doubly amazed, as he had never played the role of a healer in his past life.
Wow, Keel’s really going all out.
Between class promotions, improved equipment, and even changing how they fought, the No-life Gamers had grown quite a bit during their preparations to clear the Rank S dungeon. Allen figured that Keel had undergone the most growth, however, given how he had finally grasped the extent of his power.
Making use of healing magic involved multiple stages: chanting, casting, and then, finally, the restoration of health. Each stage took a few seconds, but that shortened as one’s Intelligence stat went up. In addition, by casting the healing magic several seconds prior to the target actually being hit with an attack and thus taking advantage of the lag between casting and healing, a sort of “reserve healing” state could be achieved. Doing so enabled the healer to greatly reduce the chance of the target sustaining any critical injuries by anticipating attacks and casting healing magic in advance, allowing the subject to take multiple blows at once. The person being healed would avoid losing the initiative or power behind their blows due to injury, and the healer could dynamically respond to the situation as long as they were able to predict what would happen next as they cast their healing spells.
