Lord Of Puppets-Chapter 146 – Dungeon Raid – Part 17.

(Okay.... I think I really screwed up just now.) – thought nervous Thauma, upon realizing that trying to defend its core only ended up exposing its location like a total idiot.

"..."

(No.... If I didn’t do that, there was a chance that either of them could exploit the opening and try to destroy me.)

(Still, what the hell was that?!)

(I know I had suffered a lot of damage, but her attack just broke through everything!)

(I thought that the man was the most dangerous one here, but turns out she had most dangerous level of fire power?)

"..."

(There is also another problem.... I’m running out of mana......)

(Yea.... This ain’t good.... Like one bit.)

"..."

"Hey. Can you fire off that weird thing you did?" – whispered Markus.

"Nah. Only once." – replied Elizabeth.

"My right arm is complete busted." – said the girl, as her hand shake violently.

([Doryanthes Excelsa Spear Art: Final].) – thought Elizabeth as she gave her spear to the other hand.

(Ultimate battle art created by family.)

(It works really simple.)

(Put entire strength into one arm and into the weapon thrust.)

(Simple, but extremely destructive.)

(Both for the target.... And the user.)

(Still, I thought it would finish him off!)

(With the amount he had suffered, I thought it would be more than enough to finish off the bastard!)

(But he survived that!?)

(....)

(Still, he is dying.)

Elizabeth was right.

Thauma was dying.

Why?

Well, Thauma body may had been made with Mana Steel, but even it has its limits.

The golem took damage when it fought the support squad and even more when it ambushed the backliners.

And when it tried taking on the adventurers in the room, it was attacked nonstop from all directions by not only the B-rank adventurers, but also by C-ranks.

The damage that pilled up non stop and the golem even received few powerful hits, which caused bits of its metallic body to shatter and crumble away.

Magic, arts, blades and so on clashed onto the golem’s body, pilling up the damage.

And this fact was obviously noticed by the duo of B-rank adventurers.

(Even if we don’t take down the core, there is a limit of how much its body can take, before it is destroyed.) – thought Elizabeth as she gazed at the golem.... And her short spear in hand, which was visible at the state of ruin.

(....And also a weapon.... Shit.)

(It is at the breaking port.)

(Another exchange and it will break.) – thought the female warrior as she gazed at the fallen short spear, which was located in area behind the golem.

(There is also Markus... He is trying to act tough, but his side is bleeding too much.)

(Probably this time golem won’t let us drink a potion.)

"Hey." – whispered Elizabeth.

"Listen to me." – said Elizabeth as she began explaining her plan to the Markus, while the golem observed, unsure if it should rush at the pair or not, with the current damage it has sustained.

(I could.... No! Firing even few weaker spells will result in me entering critical mana deficiency state.) – thought nervous golem.

(But fighting at close range in my current state would be-)

"!" – before the golem could come up with its own course of action, the duo of B-rank adventurers took action.

Markus ran straight at the golem, quickly closing in at the golem, while at the same time Elizabeth threw her spear straight at the golem.

Thauma quickly with its guard up was able to react to the spear and use two of its hands to block off the attack, before then breaking the weapon with ease, which surprised and confused the golem that did not surprised the weapon to break, as it only intended to smack the weapon away, disarming the woman.

However, right as Thauma blocked off one attack, Markus already managed to get dangerously close to the golem.

The man thrusted his sword forward, aiming at the gab which was covered by the golem hands, alarming the golem who tried to forty its defenses further with enchantment.... But nothing happened.

The man sword hit the golem hands, but nothing happened. No weapon arts. No magic.

"Heh."

"Idiot." – the man fooled Thauma. The sword wasn’t the real attack, but instead the man’s palm, as he fired off [Wind Magic: Wind Ball] at the golem, unleashing a sphere of wind at close range that landed a soldi blow on the golem stomach area upon and bursting upon contact.

However, this wasn’t enough as the golem swung down its claws, forcing Markus to once again out speed the golem and back away.

"?"

(It is not firing magic?) – thought Markus, who was ready to defend himself against golem range magic, only to see the golem not even attempting to fire anything.

(Did it screwed up...No....)

(It is out of mana!) – the man quickly realized what was going on and rushed in to quickly try and land another attack, only for the golem to swing around its claws, keeping the man at bay.

The man tried move around, changing position and directions, but the golem wasn’t letting it get close no matter what.

However-

(Its panicking!) – thought Markus, realizing that the golem was in full panic mode as it was trying to keep its distance from the man.

"!"

(WAIT!) – but as the golem was focused on the Markus, the golem realized that Elizabeth was not trying to even attack, causing the golem to look around, noticing the woman who ran straight for her fallen short spear.

Markus tried attacking the golem while it was distracted by aiming for the golem knee, but Thauma noticed it and knocked the blade down, before then quickly launching a counter, which this time wasn’t perfectly dodged by Markus as his injured side ended up stopping him for split second, which allowed Thauma claws to slash the man leg and the injured side, which ended up catching Thauma off guard as it didn’t expected that.

(Shit!) – Markus did created some distance, but this time Thauma went on offensive, aiming once again at the injured part, forcing the man to use his sword to block off the attack.

However..... Thauma copied Markus.

The attack at the weak point was fake.

Thauma unleashed [Earthly Forged Blade] from its palm, manifesting the blade and aiming at the man’s belly.

Markus managed to twist his body in time, barely avoiding a fatal blow.... However, the blade ended up cutting Markus other side, leaving a very nasty wound.

Thauma knew that using magic would be beyond risky at this point, but it also knew that it was the only chance to kill the magic swordman.

And it paid off.

With the man current injuries, his movement speed ended up taking a critical speed, since any form of rapid movement could cause the man to lose dangerous amounts of blood.

Not only that, the man was now in range of all of Thauma hands, causing the golem to unleashed 4 of its claws at the man.

But right in the moment where the claws were about to reach the man, Eliabeth quickly got behind the golem.

"[Spear Art: Thrust]!" – Elizabeth unleashed her weapon art, stabbing the golem right in its back, cracking off parts of the metallic.

In split moment decision, Thauma stopped its attack and tried swinging its arms backwards, attacking the woman behind him, only for Elizabeth to quickly back off.

"Tch."

(I guess I didn’t had enough strength left to land a finisher.) – thought Elizabeth who was breathing heavily, showing how her stamina was slowly reaching its limit.

However, even though the attack wasn’t at the full power, the already heavily damaged body of the golem was susceptible to the attack, causing the woman’s attack to create a proper crack at the golem’s back.

Not only that, but thanks to Elizabeth taking away golem’s attention, Markus was able to blast himself away with wind magic, hitting the golem while also launching his own body away.

"Ugh!" – but even so, the man both sides were badly wounded, causing blood to gush out of them.

Thauma had now two critical spots – Its front and its back of torso. Not only that, it had barely enough mana to operate normally. If it uses even weakness form of spell or if one of its mana organs is damage, the golem will enter critical state.

Markus was left with two deadly wounds that hindered his movement and even causes him to bleed nonstop. These wounds can also be fatal to the man if the golem manages to exploit them.

While Elizabeth ended up sacrificing one of her arms and was slowly running out of stamina, causing the woman speed to also drop noticeable alongside her attack power.

This was a straight up fight between 3 corpses.

The C-rank adventurers were still focused on the golems, meaning that these two B-rank adventurers needed to take on the golem by themselves.

Right now, Thauma had both B-rank adventurers positioned on the opposite end of each other, surrounding the golem.

...

And the first one to make a move?

Both of the B-ranks.