They were leisurely chatting while the golem continued to lose HP. Suddenly they were startled by a loud roar, they looked at the golem and found that its body had turned hot red.
A shockwave exploded from the golem at its center, they were pushed back one step due to the shockwave. Then they saw the golem springing away like a bullet, they saw the fast-shooting golem collided with Jack, who then flew away like a kite losing its string. They still stood stiffly when the red golem turned around and looked at them with its menacing single glowing red eye.
The shock in Jack's heart did not diminish while he was flying away in the air. The golem had abruptly turned red after it lost half its HP. The shockwave that was created when it turned, knocked him back and stunned his movement for a second. It then suddenly shot towards him with crazy speed.
If he did not manage to summon up his Magic Shield to defend, he would lose more than a quarter of its HP which he had lost in the impact. His HP was a whooping 750 now, a quarter of his was around two-third of a regular level 16 Mage. Any other Mage would be in critical condition now. And if they didn't manage to summon their Magic Shield, they would be outright killed!
Since they were on a slope, when he was knocked flying, it took him quite a while before he landed back on the ground. He could see the golem turned towards the remainder of his team while he was still falling down.
Suckit and Bangstick were panicking once they saw the golem coming over, but they soon realized the golem was not after them. It was after the two magicians who had been harassing it while it was chasing that previous annoying mage around.
Suckit and Bangstick were stuck at their place, but Warpath and Dasher took action and stood in front of the two magicians. True to their Fighter class, they did not waver despite the imposing presence of the large golem.
"Go back!" Dasher told Flowerrain and Undo.
Flowerrain had run away right when Dasher warned them, Undo was slower in response due to being overwhelmed by fear. Warpath didn't show any consideration when he kicked at her to make her move.
The red rock golem had arrived at their front. It swung its arm horizontally. Warpath jumped back while Dasher used his shield to block. Dasher soon realized it was a wrong attempt, he was knocked flying and lost half of his life in just that one hit. Warpath was greatly alarmed. If one hit blocked by shield could knock out half of a level 15 Fighter's HP, it would most certainly kill him if he was knocked by one clean hit.
He was an experienced VR game player, he had been in such dangerous situation before, so he tried his best to remain calm. He jumped left and right as he dodged the golem's punches. Its turning red had increased its power and speed but he could still cope with it as long as he focused on evasion. As long as it didn't make a rocket shot with its body like it did when it sent their leader flying, he should still be able to manage.
As he continued evading, he couldn't help but thought the probability of dying again. After he died and experienced the complete loss of all that he had before, it was an extremely depressing condition. Although he technically didn't have any valuable equipment on him at the moment, he still definitely would not want to experience it again. He yelled loudly as he focused his mind to continue dodging.
The golem was originally targeting the two magicians, but this Fighter was like an annoying fly, kept on buzzing around. It would not be satisfied if it did not squash it to a paste.
"What the hell are the two of you doing?" Undo snapped at Bangstick and Suckit who were still frozen stiff. "Why don't you go lend a hand?"
"What's the point? We can't damage it, we will just get ourselves killed if we go over there," Bangstick argued.
"You two are hopeless!" Undo hissed.
"Let's go back, it's suicide to stay here," Suckit said.
"What about our leader?" Flowerrain asked.
"What about him? He probably has already suck it!" Suckit uttered.
"I suck your sister!" Suckit heard a voice and felt a kick that jolted him forward. The others turned around and saw Jack was safe and sound.
"Alright, you two, resume your attacks!" He said to Flowerrain and Undo. "The others, move aside."
Jack cast Energy Bolts, Flowerrain and Undo followed suit and cast their Energy Bolts as well. Numerous magical bolts rushed forward as Jack chased from behind. All the bolts stabbed at the hard body of the golem, taking a huge chunk of its life. It stopped its advance and turned to the source of its attacker. Warpath quickly put a distance during the respite.
When the golem saw Jack, it uttered an enraged bellow. It's the detestable mage again! It completely ignored Warpath. It advanced at Jack with large and heavy stompings. Jack ran sideways, circling the golem, putting it in between him and the two girl magicians, trying to repeat the previous kiting strategy. But the golem seemed to have gotten smarter, it knew it couldn't chase after Jack, so it changed direction and headed to the two girls.
The two girls were wide eyes. Why were they being targeted while Jack's damage was higher? They immediately turned and ran away.
But their speed was slow, they couldn't be able to overrun it. Warpath didn't want to bother to be a hero anymore, he was still catching his breath. Dasher was the same, the shock of having his life being cut to half despite blocking the attack still haunted him. Bangstick and Suckit were worse, they had run further away happily when Jack told them to move aside.
"Hey, blockhead!" Jack yelled as he chased after the golem frantically. He fired a few attacks as he ran.
The golem suddenly stopped and bent down. It picked up a large rock and lifted it up high. It then tossed it away at the running girls.
"Look out!" Dasher called out.
Flowerrain glanced back due to the shout and was terrified by the sight of the large rock encroaching. She pushed at Undo before lunging to the side. The rock missed them barely, and landed on the ground next to them. The outburst of the impact threw them away as the rock broke and its shrapnels fired at them. It caused them damages, but luckily the damage was not fatal.
Their relief of not being crushed to death by the rock was soon squandered by the loud stomping and the tremor they felt on the ground. The golem had resumed advancing onto them. They hurried to pick themselves up but the golem was almost onto them. When they were feeling despair, Someone came between them and the golem.
Dasher had always been interested in Flowerrain, but he didn't have the courage to express his feeling. The first time he had come to protect her from the golem was not because he was brave, he just wanted to prove to her that he could protect her. Even though he was still fearful of the golem's power after tasting it once, he forced his fear aside to allow himself to stand before her again, so he could protect her.
"Go back!" He said to her as he did before.
The towering golem had approached. Dasher screamed at it aloud to dispel the terror in his heart, and placed his shield before him. He would stand his ground! The golem sent a straight punch. It crashed heavily onto his shield. His body bent backward and he shot away at high speed.
"Good job, hero!" Jack yelled at him as he flew away. Although it was just a moment, the kid had halted the golem's advance. Jack came beside it and cast Mana Bullet at its large rocky head. The attack clearly enraged it as it turned around and slammed both its arms down at Jack, who deftly stepped aside from the point of impact.
He didn't use the kiting strategy anymore. He kept the golem at an arm's length, tempting it to continue throwing punches at him. He danced around the golem as he dodged its punch while occasionally sending magic attacks at it from point-blank range. It was riskier to fight this way, but this way forced the monster to focus its attention on him.
When the monster's HP was getting lower, it suddenly hunkered down.
Uh-oh, it's going to do that rocket spring attack again, Jack exclaimed in his mind when he saw the golem's action.
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