hotmtlnovel Chapter 112: The Might of the Lord of Cinder
Chapter 112: The Might of the Lord of Cinder
The Boiling Spiders, nicknamed “Nightmare Robots” by the players.They were one of the Steam Church’s early bugged war machines. Their means of attack, aside from brutally sharp metallic limbs, included the inhumane method of ejecting superheated steam above 200 degrees directly from their iron bodies.
Because their appearance bore a strong resemblance to a dark animatronic from another game, players began calling them by that name.
Some bored players even liked to mod them with ridiculous attachments, most infamously, the grotesque face of Thomas the Tank Engine.
In short, they left Maria with no small psychological shadow.
Now, two of these twitching, metallic-limbed monstrosities were charging at the Forbidden Lord of Cinder like tanks storming a battlefield. Hunting him from left and right, they looked like giant arachnids from a primordial forest, savage, cruel, inhuman creations. Even the Forbidden Lord of Cinder lifted his guard slightly at the sight.
The first to attack was the Nightmare Robot on the right. With a burst of steam-propelled power, it leapt high from the mud, its massive frame hurtling down to crush the Lord of Cinder beneath it. The sheer propulsion gave the hulking machine a speed that defied its size.
The impact sent waves of mud surging into the air. Its stabbing limbs, meant solely for assassination, plunged deep into the earth. It was a merciless, brutal strike, befitting the Steam Church’s intent when designing such battlefield horrors.
But the Lord of Cinder was no longer there.
“Wolf Swordsmanship’s greatest strength,” Maria thought as she peered through the haze, “is the feral agility it grants its wielder, swift and unpredictable, like a wolf on the hunt.”
Leaping, locking on, diving down!
The Farron Greatsword was his fang, his claw, its edge chasing down corruption, relentless unto death. The downward strike from the Forbidden Lord of Cinder carried the momentum to cleave through anything before him. Only then did the Nightmare Robot realize it had been targeted.
Ordinary beings would be paralyzed by such a strike, radiant with the force of the sun. But Weavebinder automata knew no fear.
That was why they remained so efficient in the slaughterhouse of war, unflinching even if their own destruction was seconds away, they would still mechanically raise their weapons to strike.
Just like now.
In midair, with no way to dodge, his dive carried almost zero evasion. The second Nightmare Robot instantly braced, planting its stabbing limbs squarely in the path of his descent. Meanwhile, the first, knowing it would take the blow, sealed all its steam vents, its body rumbling with the ominous boil of liquid within.
“The third strike of Wolf Swordsmanship is deceptively cunning.”
Miss Maria sighed from the sidelines. She had seen masters on the forums perform it with artistry and style, and had studied the flashy technique herself.
The third strike, leaping slash from above. But its true aim was feint and misdirection, the predator’s trick. Like a wolf leaping into a ravine, it lured prey into overcommitting. And when the enemy revealed an opening, sharp fangs sank into the throat.
In a flash, three ruthless arcs of steel blazed from the Forbidden Lord of Cinder. His slaughter-blade twisted mid-descent, shredding the Nightmare Robot’s extended limbs, and with a brutal kick to its body, he ricocheted away from the prepared ambush.
The sudden reversal and inflicted damage threw the second Nightmare Robot into chaos. Its limited intelligence was no match for such abrupt shifts, exposing its fatal weakness.
On the battlefield, machine failure meant death.
The hesitation lasted barely half a heartbeat. But in that pause, his blazing sword pierced both of their steam cores as easily as chopping vegetables. Their vents erupted in violent, uncontrolled bursts, scalding jets shrieking like dying wails as their limbs twitched feebly, then they toppled, lifeless.
Against ordinary soldiers, the Nightmare Robots were devastating. That was the purpose of their creation. But against high-level transcendent beings, their cost-effectiveness was far too low.
The Forbidden Lord of Cinder had dismantled them both in less than a minute.
His crimson, slit pupils swept arrogantly across the battlefield, as if demanding: what dares challenge my might?
“As expected of the Lord of Cinder. Even in this burned and broken state, your power is terrifying. A shame I could not witness your prime.”
The Black Coat stepped into view, fingers flexing. At some point he had taken the frontline, gauntleted fists gleaming, not gloves, but iron knuckles wrought for killing.
King against king, general against general.
In the fractured world, where the transcendent and the mysterious walked, such primal logic endured. Otherwise, if both sides unleashed total annihilation, nothing would remain.
“Stand down. You are not my target. Push me further, and I will treat you as my enemy.”
Sensing the power coiled within the Black Coat, the Forbidden Lord of Cinder was reluctant to engage. The searing will of the First Flame demanded slaughter, his mind boiling with the urge to kill all life, but first, the woman had to be destroyed.
“Laughable. You’ve already declared war on us, yet you still dream of walking away?”
The armored fists slammed together, the sound enough to still hearts. From his shadow-painted mask surged a suffocating aura of darkness and violence.
“Then I’ll destroy you as well.”
The Forbidden Lord of Cinder crouched low, slipping into the stance of Wolf Swordsmanship once again. Farron Greatsword and dagger angled outward, his body coiled like a predator ready to strike. Time was running out. Though awakened by the First Flame, his strength was a pale shadow of what it once was.
For he was not the true Lord of Cinder, merely one fragment of what that lord had been.
A new battle was about to ignite!
Meanwhile, Leon, blessed by absurd luck, lay feigning death at the battlefield’s edge, secretly recording it all with his Memory Crystal. This was a transcendent battle without equal in all of Fractured.
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