"Ooh, gutsy. I love that," Marie said in a slightly cooing yet condescending way as she raised her hand, forming a magic circle underneath her construct, "But, don't think that is all you need to defeat me."
Then, a notification appeared.
[Construct Creation - Soul of Acedia]
The remains of metal chains, wires, and many miscellaneous waste metals in the room was lifted up and absorbed into Marie's construct. Now, the construct were no longer just black and gold, the clear gleam of silver adding a contrast to it.
Its bulk has largely been reduced, now forming a pair of shields and an armor that covered most of its body, with spikes protruding from its arms as means of counterattack. From afar, the construct looked almost similar to an armored knight, though where the visor was supposed to be, there was nothing but emptiness.
"Don't think I would do the same mistake twice," Marie said, and with her slight movements, the construct moved, meeting the mad kobold's attacks head on. True to its name, the kobold moved erratically, and though it was without a weapon other than its body, it attacked like a wild beast, punching, scratching, and thrashing atop of its quick movements.
Dylan raised his greatswordm smirked, and said. "Well, I've been waiting to show off my skills as well!"
As the words left his mouth, swirls of dark energy started to seep out from his hands and into the sword, giving the red and black weapon an ominous aura. The moment Marie's construct and the kobold collided again, he used the chance by dashing forward and slashing the creature on the arm.
[Dreadblade]
ROAR! GRAHK!
Caught off-guard by the sudden attack, coupled with the piercing effect from Marie's spikes, the creature screamed in pain. Despite the relentless attacks, Marie's construct didn't seem to break at all. Rather, it seemed to be rooted in place, unable to move. Some kind of strange scent wafted from it, tickling their noses yet seemingly having no effect on them.
"Come on, Charles, this is not time for you to watch. Let's go!" Henrietta said and transformed her limbs.
Charles raised his hand, prompting the ten-sided charm on his hand to glow. He then pointed at Henrietta, casting the familiar boosts.
[Low-Class Boost has been activated!]
[Your beast's strength, endurance, and agility have increased!]
Henrietta smirked, it was a wild smile. If a captive wild animal was able to smile, it would perhaps mirror her manic grin. Small, cute little fangs poked out of her lips, adding to her charm. "Well, time to let loose!"
As if wanting to match the crazed kobold, she moved with almost the same speed, enough to sometimes intercept the latter on the way to attack Marie's constructed fortress.
Though the construct Marie controlled looked static, sometimes the fortress would throw a punch in accordance with her hand movements, though its movements were slow and cumbersome, like it was rooted to the spot. Even though Marie seemed to just be sitting on the top, beads of sweat started to make her body a bit damp, her clothing making the muscles on her abdomen and arm stand out more.
BANG!
The punch from Marie's fortress connected right at the same time as Henrietta's punch, throwing the crazed kobold onto the wall until there was an imprint of it. Its body was practically destroyed, blood and guts turning into mush.
However, soon after, it recovered. Except for the stump on its arm, its body has knitted together. Henrietta watched as it did, her expression twisting into hatred.
"Tch, it repels physical attacks! That is why it still could run even with the injuries!"
Right after the kobold got up, ready to attack, Marie's construct crumbled, turning back into piles of random metal.
"So, in other words, you need some magic infusion like that guy's attack? This didn't happen before, but it's nothing to be panicked about," Marie said and took out a metallic, silver quill from her sigil. "Distract it a bit. I am no Nora when it comes to magic attacks, but I have something better."
"Let me," Dylan spoke up, just as the kobold moved again.
CLANG! CLANG!
They jumped wildly within the confines of the room, the crazed kobold attempting to attack while Dylan kept on blocking in search for the opportunity to counter.
Meanwhile, Marie took out remains of metal scattered all around her and inspected it for a bit, before taking out three bigger chunks. Then, her quill glowed in purple, as she started to inscribe something onto the chunks. From afar, the metal chunks she carved started to glow bit by bit, eventually turning into runestones with sets of symbols glowing in purplish-white, light green, and orange.
[Metalcarve Infusion]
"Catch!" She shouted at Henrietta and Charles, and the two each caught one runestone. Henrietta caught the stone first, with Charles almost stumbling and dropping it.
"Now, let's go!"
Marie shouted, and then, she crushed the metal chunk with light green runes with her bare hands. She looked a bit tired, however, her demeanor was as cheerful as ever. Wind energy enveloped her body, giving swirls of green across her arms and legs.
Then, without wasting time, she dashed forward, her speed matching Zarek's evenly this time. When Dylan blocked, she attacked the monster, and vice versa.
"Let's go, Henrietta!" Charles crushed his runestone first, followed by his partner.
Purplish-white aura enveloped his body, followed by the characteristic crackles of lightning, while embers floated all around Henrietta.
The battle went on without a hitch afterwards. With the four swarming the crazed kobold, it was soon defeated, turning it into a messy, burned corpse. At first, the corpse twitched, as if still unwilling to yield even in its last moments of life, then it stilled.
Above the corpse, a reddish glow with a blob of something appeared. However, it was just floating in place, and grasping it proved futile. Charles tried to take the item, and a notification appeared in front of his eyes.
[0/1000 kobold grunts defeated]
"…"
Everyone was stunned into silence.
"I think all of us got too excited," Marie sighed as she inserted the quill back into her sigil's inventory. "I can't believe I forgot that part as well…"
"Honestly, we are not blameless in that regard, either…"