The Black Goliath shifted.
Where it lay, its enormous body shook, smoke curling from gaping wounds and scorched skin. Its blackened hide was covered with burn marks, and the stone was bled with deep gashes. But the thing moved—in defiance, not in the pangs of death. One arm shook strangely, half-split down the bone.
Then it began to growl, a rumble from deep in its throat, vibrating through the stone underfoot. Steam hissed from ruptured flesh as its body convulsed and forced itself upright. The air thickened, charged with something unnatural.
Its wounds—gaping, seared, impossible—began to close, not through healing, but through sheer brute will. As if the beast refused to die.
Flesh knitted. Bone locked into place. Its breaths came fast and ragged—not from pain, but from rage.
With a roar that shook the canopy above, the Black Goliath surged to its full height.
Its limbs flexed with unnatural power, the movements stiff but unhindered. Cracked skin stretched over reformed muscle. The stench of scorched blood mixed with the heavy musk of rising mana. Its eyes—glowing pits of crimson—scanned the battlefield, then locked on Luthar.
This was no wounded beast crawling to its grave.
The air shifted. Mana began to pulse. The Black Goliath's chest expanded as its head tilted back—unnaturally so. Then the first flickers appeared: faint red lines crawling along its neck, racing down its jaw. The glow intensified with each breath, saturating the air in front of it with trembling energy.
Luthar's lenses auto-adjusted against the rising glare.
He didn't need to analyze. He recognized it instantly.
Not a roar. A charge.
A magic cannon—or something similar.
The monster's jaw cracked open, and within its throat, energy churned violently—a core of unstable power forming with chaotic intensity.
"Scatter!" Luthar's voice cut through the rising hum like a blade.
Ryuu vanished in a blur of motion.
Liliruca dropped low behind a root-choked ridge, rifle held tight to her chest. The servo-skull zipped to her side with precision, its projectors generating a shimmering energy barrier to protect her from shockwaves.
Luthar remained still.
His own shield emitter pulsed quietly at his side, calibrated and primed. Invisible, but humming with quiet intensity. Behind his mask, calculations ran—blast radius, heat pressure, backscatter. He was definitely not thinking about field testing as he prepared another servo-skull for deployment.
The Black Goliath finished charging.
It fired.
A beam of roiling crimson energy tore from its throat, scorching the air as it surged forward like a tidal wave of molten wrath. It engulfed Luthar's position in a blinding inferno—stone cracked, moss disintegrated, and the ground itself screamed under the impact.
For a heartbeat, the battlefield froze.
Ryuu's breath caught as she turned, eyes wide with disbelief.
Liliruca flinched behind her protective barrier, the servo-skull's hum drowned out by the blast. Smoke and light filled the clearing. No one could have survived that.
And then—something moved.
High above the beast, metal gleamed.
And then—space warped.
A shimmer tore through the smoke and air like a blade through silk.
Luthar materialized mid-air, the effect was subtle—no thunderclap, no blinding light—only a snap of displaced matter and the scent of ozone as the air screamed to fill the place he'd left behind.
He hovered for a breathless moment—just long enough for the rising steam to part—and then gravity took him.
The gravity emitters in his armor whispered softly as he adjusted his descent. No words, no war cry. Only precision.
The Power Axe ignited, its energy field humming with caged fury.
He dropped like a meteor.
And struck.
The axe buried itself in the back of the Black Goliath's neck, exactly where the energy had coalesced seconds before. Bone cracked. Flesh split. But before Luthar could destroy the core completely, a shockwave blasted outward in all directions.
Luthar's form was launched from the beast's back. He crashed through trees and hit the ground with a metallic thud, sliding to a stop in the dirt.
The Goliath reeled, half its head scorched and trailing smoke. Its crimson eyes flickered erratically, teeth grinding in painful confusion.
For the second time, the clearing stilled.
Then Ryuu arrived.
She dashed past the shattered remains of cover, vaulting through the smoke, sword drawn—but paused as she reached Luthar's side. He stirred, one arm twitching as he rolled onto his back, systems rebooting.
"That was quite reckless," Ryuu muttered, lowering her blade. "But it looks like it wasn't enough."
Luthar groaned, pushing himself upright. One knee on the ground, helm cracked but intact. His HUD flickered back to life.
Instead of checking his condition, the first thing he did was connect to the servo-skull near Liliruca.
"Liliruca. Increase the power and target the head. Just make sure it doesn't overheat," Luthar's voice came through the servo-skull.
Her eyes snapped open, and she prepared to take aim at the monster's head—the neck was already starting to heal.
She didn't hesitate.
"Firing!" she shouted.
The lasgun in Liliruca's hands thrummed with focused power, its barrel glowing faintly from residual heat. The servo-skull zipped in beside her, narrowing the projected energy barrier to shield her flank.
Each overcharged pulse lanced from the weapon with surgical precision, slamming into the Black Goliath's skull in rapid succession. Crimson beams tore through charred flesh and shattered bone, disrupting the regeneration with every shot—scorching exposed nerves and forcing the beast's head down under relentless fire.
A howl tore from its ruptured throat, gargled and broken.
But it didn't fall.
Steam hissed from its limbs. One eye, half-melted, still burned.
"Why. Won't. You. Die," Liliruca muttered between shots, sweat pouring down her brow.
Standing beside Luthar, Ryuu said, "That won't be enough." She remembered Bell's skill—the one that had nearly killed the monster. She wondered—did this man have something similar?
It wasn't an idle thought.
Luthar had shown extraordinary strength, the way he had appeared behind the Goliath and the powerful weapons he wielded. All signs pointed to a high-level adventurer—and most high-level adventurers had at least one special skill.
Before her hopes could rise further, she heard Luthar's voice.
"I don't have the skills of adventurers."
His cold tone drained her expectations.
But Luthar didn't stop there. He continued in his usual stoic cadence:
"But I have something better."
Saying this, he prepared himself for the final round.
---
Author's Note:
I know I usually upload on Sundays, but I felt this chapter ended on a strong cliffhanger—and leaving the story here would've been cruel—so I decided to upload the rest early.
While working on this chapter, quite a few unfortunate things happened on my end. You could say it was a test from the Machine God himself. Even now, the machine spirit of my phone seems to be failing. Still, I'm writing.
That said, I'd really appreciate your feedback on the fight scene—your thoughts genuinely help me improve and push forward.
Also, a reminder: even if I upload additional chapters early, Patreon will always remain 20 chapters ahead. If you'd like to support my work or read ahead, you can find me here:
👉 https://www.patreon.com/Silvervir
It's a place where your support keeps this machine spirit alive.