With a single Impact Wave, Aeridar blasted through the encroaching stone sentinels. He spun on his heel and chopped down with a rigid palm, an invisible slash cleaved through a stone-carved golden eagle that had swooped in to ambush him.
As the metallic eagle regained flight overhead, Aeridar squinted at its gleaming body.
What kind of alloy is that thing made of? he wondered. Way too durable. I doubt even a typical great swordsman could put a dent in it.
Amid the army of stone warriors, "Lion" had also taken note of the brief clash between Aeridar and the metal eagle. His eyelid twitched.
He actually sent 'Ikou' flying midair... Just what kind of monster is this guy?!
"Damn it!" Nekk's eyes bulged in disbelief. "He knocked that thing back?! That's forged from volcanic copper, blended with several other ultra-hard metals! That's not a beast, it's a freaking monster!"
The massive metallic eagle was one of five ancient metal beasts enshrined atop the altar. Though Nekk hadn't realized they could be activated as hidden trump cards, he was well-versed in their design.
Those five guardian statues dated back centuries to the Gamas Kingdom, each cast from rare volcanic copper and reinforced with alloys that gave them tremendous weight and near-impervious durability.
Even if Nekk unleashed everything he had, the best he could manage would be a few shallow gouges on the metallic eagle. That was a clear indicator of their absurd toughness.
A gleaming katana bit into the shoulder of a towering metal knight, just one inch deep.
"Hmm~?" Oliver tilted his head, puzzled as he examined the two-meter-tall knight clad in full steel plate, wielding a greatsword and shield. "Weren't we fighting stone monsters just now? When did the metal ones show up?"
Sure enough, the battlefield was now crawling with metallic knights and beasts, mixed in among the stone constructs. There were dozens of them, steel-forged and relentless.
"Not just stone, now metal too? Whoever's behind this... their power is terrifying." Aeridar's eyes gleamed with battlelust as more metallic guardians marched onto the field.
He charged forward several steps, Armament Haki hardening his fists to obsidian black. With a thunderous punch, he hammered a steel knight square in the chest. A deep clang echoed, like an anvil struck by a warhammer. The knight was sent flying four to five meters, its chest plate caved in, a deep fist-print and web of cracks marking the point of impact.
"INTRUDER. TERMINATE."
Despite the blow, the metal knight barely flinched. It rolled once on the ground and sprang back up, brandishing its halberd as it lunged again.
"Full-body steel... damn, they're tough." Aeridar grinned despite himself.
The stone ones had already been a pain, arms snapped, legs shattered, and they still kept coming. Now the metal types were sturdier, meaner, and seemingly unkillable. The entire force had just stepped up a tier in deadliness.
If someone could master the technique to animate constructs ... they'd dominate attrition warfare. Your side loses flesh and blood. Mine? Just stone and steel. Let's see who runs out first.
Now that Aeridar had gauged its capabilities, it was time to finish this metallic knight. A mere automaton, no matter how durable, was still no match for a pirate of his caliber.
Elsewhere on the field, Nekk found himself targeted by a massive metallic snake, another of the five shrine beasts.
This one spanned twenty meters from snout to tail, its bronze body shimmering with lifelike scales. Razor-sharp fangs jutted from its jaw, a forked tongue flickering with a cold, metallic glint. Its slitted pupils glowed with a predator's chill.
"Oh, f*ck me... they sent 'Senek' after me, the guy codenamed 'Snake'? That's just poetic," Nekk muttered with a bitter laugh.
This thing was hard as hell, he wasn't confident he could even scratch it. Chances were they'd end up in a stalemate where neither could harm the other.
Senek's serpentine form slithered across the ground, its twin metal eyes locked on Nekk. Without warning, its body snapped forward like a spring-loaded harpoon, fast as lightning.
"Damn it!" Nekk cursed, twisting his frame into a tight C-shape, spine flexing unnaturally as he bent away from the snake's strike.
In a blink, his curved blade was wreathed in pitch-black Haki. The cold steel arced through the air, slashing down at Senek's weak spot.
Though it was a slash, the impact echoed like a hammer blow. Sparks flew in all directions, and the force of it sent the snake hurtling through the air.
The massive creature, Senek, easily twenty meters long, tumbled back more than ten meters before crashing into a stone tiger statue, shattering it into rubble.
A furious roar erupted behind him.
Startled, Nekk instinctively twisted around. A gust of killing intent swept over him like a typhoon, and he swung backward in desperation.
A shockwave exploded out. Nekk was thrown like a rag doll, his body slamming into a boulder with bone-rattling force.
The rock caved in from the impact, spiderwebbed with fractures. Nekk coughed up blood, his face pale.
"That technique... full-body Armament Haki hardening..."
Standing several dozen meters away was the man called Tiger, his face obscured by a sabertooth mask, his body a mass of thick, rippling muscle. His entire form was jet-black with Haki, glinting in the moonlight like polished metal, like a man forged from steel.
Beside him crouched a massive bronze-furred tiger, five meters long, growling low as it fixed its eyes on Nekk.
And not far away, Senek, shaken but not defeated, was crawling back up, bloodied but moving.
"Tiger, Senek,... and now even Taigo... Is this really where I die?"
Nekk staggered off the fractured rock, wiping the blood from his lips, his expression growing grim.
"You've thrown away the name of Guardian, Nekk. Today, you die."
Tiger's voice was low and final, charged with bloodlust. He stepped forward—
Suddenly, thunder roared across the sky, and a shadow tore through the air like a missile, crashing down between them. Rocks exploded outward from the impact, scattering across the field. The figure tumbled once, twice, then slid to a halt between Tiger and Nekk.
Both men squinted into the dust cloud.
A metal-furred beast, bronze, massive, more than three meters long, rose shakily to its feet. Its body bore deep scars, and it growled low, fangs bared, eyes scanning all three enemies in every direction.
"...That's... Worf?!"
Both Tiger and Nekk stared, wide-eyed.
"Who the hell managed to launch it all the way here...?!"
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