Chapter 1402 1402. Army
Screeching noises resounded in the pale-azure underground hall as the golems moved toward Noah. He remained at the exit of the tunnel as icy-blue light came out of his eyes.
The Divine Deduction technique was active. Noah wasn't aiming to defeat the challenge already. He had come there only to study the golems so that he could prepare his abilities.
The golems were a bit taller than the ceiling. They had to bend their back to move inside the hall, but their bodies were too clunky for that task. Their heads often hit the layer of metallic rocks and released screeching noises due to their movements.
Those creatures didn't have any peculiar features. They had long arms, large fists, and thick bodies. Their dark-blue skin was uneven, but it didn't carry any crack nor flaw. They moved slowly due to their clunky structure, but the joints on their shoulders and elbows appeared a bit more flexible than the rest of their fabric.
'I need to be wary of their punches,' Noah thought as he stepped off the entrance and shot toward the closest golem.
The Demonic Sword came out of the separate space and landed on his palm as dark gas flowed out of his skin. The fiendish armor soon covered him, and other trails of dark matter expanded to deploy the dark world.
Noah was going all-out since the beginning. He counted more than fifty golems at the peak of the middle tier in that hall, so he couldn't underestimate that challenge.
The dark world didn't manage to restrain the golem, but it studied them and sent those pieces of information back to Noah. He could gain a general idea about their physical prowess and sturdiness before even clashing with his first opponent.
'Don didn't mention this,' Noah thought as he studied those reports.
The golem's dark-blue skin carried properties that made them resistant to the "Breath" and similar forms of energy. Spells and common martial arts would find it hard to hurt those creatures.
That resistance didn't apply to the dark matter. Noah's higher energy worked perfectly fine against the golems, and that gave him hope to overcome that trial.
Noah stopped before entering in the golem's range and crouched as he pulled his black back. An intense sharpness spread through the dark world as the dark matter flowed inside the Demonic Sword and resonated with its intentions.
The golem drew near, but Noah released his lunge as soon as the creature's arms flickered. A trail of dense sharpness and dark matter came out of his sword and hit his opponent right in the middle of its chest.
The dark world's insides became chaotic as the golem ignored the attack and swung its arms toward Noah. He could see two giant boulders reaching his position at high speed, but he easily dodged them.
Noah flew toward the golem's shoulder, and his figure transformed into a black blade as the world in his eyes became blurry. He built his momentum before suddenly stopping and releasing a massive slash empowered by the dark world.
A giant black line crashed on the puppet's shoulder, but even that incredible attack didn't manage to slow down its movements. The golem had swung its arms as soon as Noah stopped, and its massive limbs covered his vision as they flew in his direction.
Noah had to dodge again, but he couldn't perform another attack at that time. A second golem had reached his position and had thrown its fists on the trajectory of his escape route. That puppet had actually calculated that path and was aiming to intercept Noah mid-air.
'They aren't as mindless as they look,' Noah noted down in his mind as he kicked the air next to him to perform a sharp turn that made him dodge those attacks.
However, his situation didn't improve. Noah found two more punches flying in his direction right after dodging the previous attack. A third golem had appeared, and it was trying to cut Noah's escape route.
Noah kicked the air under him and rotated on himself to dodge the incoming attack. The Demonic Sword released clinking noises as it hit the ceiling, but it didn't lose its power.
By the time Noah was above the golem's arms, the Demonic Sword had released a storm of black lines that rained on the creature and hid its entire body with the thickness of its blows.
Noah's kick also crashed on the giant's arms and created a shockwave that spread through the entirety of the underground hall. Its surfaces didn't tremble even after that impact, but that only proved how impenetrable and stable they were.
The golem's arms crashed on the ground after the impact, but Noah didn't feel safe yet. Three more puppets had reached his position and were throwing their limbs at him.
'I want to kill at least one,' Noah thought before kicking the ceiling to reappear on the ground.
Noah shot again and returned toward the first golem. That creature had suffered his strongest attack, but it had continued to move even if it had a large hole on its chest.
Cuts continued to appear inside the hole. Noah had used his boundless ambition to fuel his endless slashes, but they only managed to sever small pieces of the dark-blue creature. They continued to damage it, but that amount of damage wasn't enough to slow it down.
'I'll probably need three to four lunges to pierce it from side to side?' Noah thought has he pulled his Demonic Sword back again.
Among the attacks launched previously, the lunge had managed to damage the golem the most. Sword Saint's technique focused on piercing abilities, so that outcome wasn't a complete surprise for Noah.
Right before he could launch another lunge, the second golem reached his position and threw its limbs toward him. Noah had to interrupt the offensive to dodge, but an intense, dangerous sensation filled his mind as soon as he stopped.
Noah didn't need to turn to understand what was happening, but he still did it to inspect the scene properly. One of the last golems had waited for him in that position while crouching and pulling back its arm. It seemed that it was charging its blow.
The golem attacked before Noah could thoroughly study that form. Its fist condensed the air as it ran through the room and flung Noah back with the sole force radiated by its attack.
Noah couldn't even begin to imagine what would happen if the punch hit him directly. Still, he memorized everything he saw while he tried to escape from the dense shockwave that had engulfed him.
The tough rocks of the walls and his back clashed. Noah didn't manage to escape from that condensed air in the end. The blow had pushed him on the other side of the hall, behind many golems that promptly changed direction.
Noah quickly recovered to dodge again. The golems near him were already launching their attacks, which forced him to deploy an evasive maneuver.
Roars resounded through the underground hall at that point. Dragons formed inside the dark world and charged at the golems nearby. He had activated the workshop, but he wasn't using any fake core in that offensive.
Slashes also flew out of his figure and crashed on the incoming puppets. Noah's attacks always managed to hurt them, but they couldn't slow down their offense. The golems resembled an immortal army that would continue to march as long as it had an opponent.
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Author's notes: I'm almost done with the last one. Should take less than 30 minutes.