The Amber Sword volume 3 - Chapter c244

The Pendulum
The sound of footsteps became louder, accompanied by the clanging of metals. A towering silhouette appeared from the shadows. It was the height of two grown men, and nearly as wide. A cold metallic face came into view, bearing no expression on its unchanging surface. Its face was adorned with crystals, trailing down its neck to its shoulders, forming tumor-like protrusions. It wore a cloak lined with metal, scraping against the ground. A metallic arm could be seen beneath the cloak, holding a bronze staff as thick as a man’s arm.
The creature stopped near Brendel. Unfortunately for Brendel, the spot where the creature stood was right beside Halran Gaia. Now that the creature had ceased its movement, Orthylss and Brendel could clearly make out a rhythmic ticking sound, similar to that of a beating heart. It was the sound of clockwork mechanisms. Beneath the cloak was a giant pendulum that seemed to be driving the creature’s movements.
It was the guardian of the ruins of the Tower of Babel, The level 92 Pendulum Golem. Brendel’s expression changed. The Tower of Babel was so far away, how could a creature such as the Pendulum Golem appear here? Has the world been flipped upside down? Furthermore, the Tower of Babel was introduced in the seventh major patch. The Pendulum Golem’s prowess could be considered the strongest in all of Kirrlutz. Even 3 Veronicas would not be able to defeat it.
Brendel swallowed.
Orthylss seemed like she wasn’t familiar with the creature. However, she could sense that the creature’s hostile intentions and could detect the changes in Brendel’s psyche. She asked, “Do you know what this thing is?”
“It’s a Pendulum Golem.” He paused for a moment, trying to describe the creature’s prowess. “Bottom line, it’s extremely powerful, we are no match for it. The only good thing is that it's a lifeless object, it doesn’t have any Element Powers. Do you have a plan to escape?”
“Don’t treat me as your savior, it does nothing to help you grow,” Orthylss replied curtly.
“Who cares about growth now? We’re dead if we can’t escape from here!” Brendel thought.
However, the Pendulum Golem looked as if it couldn’t see Brendel, or at least chose not to. Instead, it stared coldly at Halran Gaia by its feet and reached towards it. A chain snaked down from its cloak, wrapping around Halran Gaia, then threw it towards Brendel. Halran Gaia clanged to the floor at Brendel’s feet, stunning him for a while. What does this mean? Could it be that the Pendulum Golem still believes in chivalry, so it cannot kill an enemy who is unarmed?
Does this mean that if I don’t pick it up, it won’t attack me? Brendel felt a surge of relief. However, the giant Pendulum Golem wasn’t like any other, especially the crystals on its face and shoulders as normal Clockwork Men did not have any accessories on them. However, it still wasn’t good news for Brendel. No matter if it was an Elite or a Boss, meaning he still could not hope to defeat it.
To be truthful, he wouldn’t even be able to defeat a regular one.
After tossing Halran Gaia at Brendel’s feet, the Pendulum Golem opened its mouth and said in a cold and mechanical voice, “You’re a Planeswalker apprentice, yet you still use stuff like this. Truly disappointing.”
“Shit!” Brendel started sweating. It had enough confidence to speak lightly of Halran Gaia. Brendel picked up the sword, after all, it was impossible for him to defeat the creature, the enemy had no reason to use any underhanded methods against him. “Are you a Planeswalker?”
“It seems that you misunderstood me for one. Planeswalkers are superior beings, they do not need to rely on useless items like these.” The Pendulum Golem ignored him, instead of pointed at the sword in his grip. “I am not a Planeswalker, but the master I am following has a power that you could never have imagined.”
As he spoke, he waved his bronze staff around. A card floated around in midair, before opening a light gate. From within the gate appeared a group of Marionette Swordsmen. These soldiers had bodies made of bronze that gleamed. Their limbs and torsos were covered with rivets. They held foils in their hands, on their backs were thin wires. There were 20 of them in total. Once all of them had passed through the gate, the Pendulum Golem brandished its bronze staff, “Attack! Chase the invaders out---”
“It claims that it’s not a Planeswalker, yet it's using a Card of Fate! Where’s the logic behind this?” Brendel yelled in panic while retreating. Those puppets were called Marionette Swordsmen, they were monsters whose levels were higher than 40. However, there were too many of them, and there was the Planeswalker-like Pendulum Golem at the back to worry about. Brendel could only hope to retreat.
However, the Pendulum Golem had other plans. “Coliseum of Fate.”
It slammed its bronze staff into the ground, causing a loud thud to reverberate throughout the vicinity. A card fell from the skies and drew a light circle with a radius of 1 mile on the ground. Brendel was going too fast. He ran head-first into the edge of the circle, causing his head to bleed.
Brendel started to see stars. Thankfully he didn’t faint, but he immediately received a warning:
-Coliseum of Fate
-None of the combatants will be allowed to leave the arena before a winner is decided
Even though he was stunned, he had enough of his wits to yell out, “I surrender!”
To everyone’s surprise, the light circle flickered, then went dark completely.
“What just happened?” Even the Pendulum Golem was stunned.
“You…” Orthylss, who had been spectating the entire time, was miffed. “Don’t you dare tell anyone that you know me! How embarrassing!”
Brendel’s face was also red with shame. However, he knew that his life was the number one priority. He stumbled out of the light circle, before the Pendulum Golem’s cold voice said, “Idiot, the path to the surface is already blocked, where can you run to?” After hearing that, only then did Brendel remember about it. He began to despair. However, he was not a man who gave up easily. He immediately ducked behind a pillar to catch his breath.
“What do you plan to do?” Orthylss’s asked him calmly.
“What else can I do? I’m going to play hide-and-seek with him until Ciel and the rest manage to get in here.”
Orthylss rolled her eyes at him. “Don’t you realize that the enemy is familiar with the terrain? What’s more, is that it has nearly the same job as you, aren’t you afraid that he summons more strange creatures? As big as this place is, you wouldn’t be able to hide if there are a hundred monsters searching for you.”
“You’re right,” Brendel nodded. Brendel tried to think of some jokes to lighten up the tension. After some thinking, he decided, “I’m going to fight.”
“How?” Orthylss asked.
“He is a Planeswalker, so I’ll use my skills to fight too. His body may be strong, but its summons doesn’t seem like much to me. After I defeat its summons, I’ll just continue our game of hide-and-seek.” Even though it seemed like an ordinary plan, Brendel had actually put a lot of thought into it. Orthylss couldn’t find anything wrong with the plan, so she just nodded.
Brendel immediately picked out his cards, but he was actually panicking inside. In truth, he had only a few cards on hand that he could use. His main Cards，Wind Spirit Spiders、Fireclaw Lizardmen were still in the tomb, even Pristine Archangel was also there. He couldn’t help cursing Andersha under his breath.
He still had Medissa, Ciel, Morpheus and the Mercenaries outside. Because their cooldown was not reset, he couldn’t summon them onto the field, which was basically most of his fighting prowess. Besides these cards, he didn’t have a lot of choices at hand.
He had six cards left (Sun’s Blade was already used up), which were Mana Loss，Sprint Drive，Golden Battle Flag, Rune Summoner，Graveyard Revival, Night Lord, and Vampire Baron. The rest of the cards were either Boundary Cards or were related to Resources, meaning they were basically useless.
After some thought, Brendel decided to summon The Night Lord, a level 35 Card, the same as Medissa and it was a rare silver card.
His Dark EP pool was nearly full, after leveling up in the Black Forest he had 30 points. He spent 15 points to use the card, causing a plume of black smoke to appear in front of his eyes. After the smoke dissipated, a naked girl appeared. Her beauty was unearthly --- even though she wasn’t human to begin with --- the vampire girl’s skin was as white as snow, black hair shining like obsidian, tender lips as red as blood, eyes shut lightly as if she were still sleeping. Her figure was perfect, even though one wouldn’t have a nosebleed after seeing her, one could tell that everything was just the right proportion.
The girl slowly opened her eyes. A pair of crimson orbs stared at Brendel.
She clasped her hands. Black smoke billowed around her body once more, forming a tight, black gown. Brendel looked on in shock. Is this beautiful lady going to wear that into battle? He almost blurted out.
Before he could say anything, she interjected, “Speak, where are the enemies?”
The enemy was right behind them. The Pendulum Golem still hadn’t noticed Brendel’s actions, still commanding its troops to search for him. It even summoned a machine ball made of gears that were floating in midair. Brendel couldn’t recognize what it was, but he knew that it wasn’t good news. He pointed at the troops and said to the vampiress, “Those Marionette Swordsmen, I’ll distract them while you launch a sneak attack. Destroy as many as you can. Can you do that?”
“Okay,” she replied.
“What’s your name?” Brendel asked suddenly.
“My name is Andrea, my family name is Thermis. Remember it well, for I will not answer that question again,” the girl replied after staring at him coldly.
“This is one interesting girl, ” Orthylss said, amused.
He smiled bitterly.