Sand Mage of the Burnt Desert

Chapter 463
Clank! Wiiiing!
A metallic sound rang out as the metal golem’s arm began to transform.
The arm, which had split into dozens of smaller parts, rapidly reassembled itself in an instant.
Seeing the reconstructed arm, Oh Jin-ho’s face twisted.
“Damn it! Is that even possible?”
The other Awakeners were equally shocked.
Because the arm that Atlas had just reassembled was identical in form to a high-frequency vibration blade.
“That can’t be real.”
“It figured out the mechanism from that guy’s parts and replicated it?”
Something happened that shattered their understanding of reality.
One of the mechanized Awakeners shouted,
“There’s no way that’s a real vibration blade! It just looks the same!”
“Yeah! The precision required for one of those is insane! It can’t be copied that easily!”
But as if to deny their words, the vibration blade in the golem’s arm began to activate.
Wiiiing!
“Holy, !”
“Damn it!”
The mechanized Awakeners’ eyes went wide.
In that moment, Atlas moved again.
Shoooom!
It swung the massive five-meter-long vibration blade.
“Argh!”
“Gah!”
Two mechanized Awakeners failed to dodge and were sliced cleanly apart.
Their alloy bodies tore like sheets of paper.
“All intruders will be eliminated.”
Shoooom!
Atlas charged toward the remaining Awakeners.
Its speed was unbelievable for something over ten meters tall.
The vibration blade slashed toward them, aiming to take their lives.
At that instant, Oh Jin-ho leapt forward and blocked Atlas’s strike.
Kkeeeeng!
“Urgh!”
The shockwave sent him skidding backward.
Even with his mechanical body, Oh Jin-ho stood well over two meters tall, but compared to the towering Atlas, four times his size, he was like a child.
In size, strength, mass, and output, he was completely outmatched.
Crack!
Oh Jin-ho’s vibration blade shattered.
“Graaah!”
He screamed as he was hurled backward.
Atlas raised its massive foot to crush him.
If it landed, Oh Jin-ho would die without question.
Zeon could no longer stand by.
“Haah!”
Zeon launched a fire missile.
Pababababang!
Explosions rippled through the temple, rocking Atlas’s huge frame. But that was all.
Its solid cast-metal body bore only a few blackened scorch marks.
Still, it had succeeded in drawing its attention.
Kiiing!
Atlas turned its head toward Zeon.
“New enemy detected. Exterminate.”
With a metallic growl, the golem slammed off the ground and charged him.
But Zeon didn’t panic, he dodged smoothly out of the way.
Boom!
The spot where he had stood was obliterated by Atlas’s charge.
The situation was not good.
There was no sand inside the metal temple.
Outside, sand was everywhere, but within these walls, not a single grain existed.
It was the worst possible terrain for Zeon.
Even so, he neither despaired nor faltered.
His subspace was full of sand, and he had other skills he could use.
Zeon opened his subspace and released a torrent of sand.
A thick layer piled across the floor, and from it, soldiers began to rise.
He had summoned Sand Soldiers.
Zeon then reinforced them with stone.
Against a giant metal golem, ordinary sand soldiers wouldn’t stand a chance. Stone-bodied ones, at least, could hold their ground for a while.
“Go!”
At his command, the reinforced sand soldiers charged at Atlas.
In size, weight, and power, they couldn’t compare.
A human would have quailed before such a monster, but the soldiers felt no fear.
They simply obeyed Zeon’s orders.
Boom! KWAANG!
The sand soldiers climbed onto Atlas and hammered their fists down, but even their blows failed to leave a scratch.
Atlas, irritated, grabbed the soldiers and flung them away, then stomped on them, crushing them completely.
One by one, the sand soldiers were destroyed, yet Zeon didn’t seem worried.
“Summon!”
There was still plenty of sand, and his mana reserves were high.
From the sand, dozens more soldiers rose and rushed Atlas once again.
“Stand aside, inferior beings.”
As if enraged, Atlas swung its fists and vibration blade wildly, obliterating the sand soldiers.
They crumbled to dust, but thanks to them, the mechanized Awakeners managed to regroup.
Oh Jin-ho shouted,
“Find its core! No matter how huge it is, if we destroy the core, it’s done for!”
“Yes, sir!”
The mechanized Awakeners charged courageously toward Atlas.
While they and the sand soldiers kept it occupied, the mechanics trembling in the corner pulled out a detector.
It was a device developed in the West District to locate a golem’s core.
With Atlas distracted, this was their best chance.
The detector scanned the golem from head to toe.
“Found it! The core’s in its left shoulder!”
It wasn’t hard to find, considering the vast mana it contained.
Oh Jin-ho roared,
“You heard that? Focus all attacks on its left shoulder!”
“Yes, sir!”
“Damn you, golem bastard! You’re dead!”
The mechanized Awakeners went wild, attacking Atlas’s left shoulder.
Bang! Crack!
Their weapons gouged dents and fissures into the metal.
Atlas retaliated with its vibration blade, but it failed to land solid hits.
The sand soldiers interfered with its movements, blocking its strikes.
It looked as if the plan to destroy the core was working. But before long, despair spread among them.
“Damn it!”
“It’s regenerating!”
The wounds on Atlas’s shoulder sealed up almost instantly.
And that wasn’t all.
Kwoooom!
A red force field burst across its entire body.
“A force field? Shit, it really is S-class.”
Automatic regeneration and now a force field.
On top of that, the ability to absorb their mechanical parts and make them its own.
That was more than enough to be classified as S-class.
If not for Zeon, they would already have fled.
That was how terrifying an S-class monster was.
At least it had only copied the vibration blade. If it replicated their guns, things would turn catastrophic.
Oh Jin-ho shouted,
“Don’t let it get hold of your firearms! If it copies them, we’re finished!”
At his words, the mechanized Awakeners bit their lips until they bled.
“What kind of monster is this?”
“Who the hell created something like that?”
Zeon already knew the answer.
Atlas was the masterpiece of the dwarves of Kurayan.
And it had been imbued with the authority of the smith god, Graawen.
Of course it was powerful.
There was no choice but to fight with everything they had.
Zeon released every grain of sand from his subspace.
The temple floor filled in an instant, the sand rising to Atlas’s knees.
Then Zeon snapped his fingers and murmured,
Snap!
“Sand Gehenna.”
Tsssshh!
The sand around Atlas’s legs melted, boiling into heat.
A fiery inferno spread around the golem’s base.
Its lower limbs glowed red-hot.
The only reason its body wasn’t melting was the protection of its force field. Without it, the metal would have liquefied.
Even though Atlas was barely damaged, Zeon didn’t look disappointed.
This was exactly what he intended.
The molten sand had become like magma, binding Atlas’s legs and holding it in place.
The golem tried to wrench itself free, but the more it struggled, the deeper it sank, as if into a swamp.
Zeon shouted,
“Now! Pour everything you’ve got into it!”
At his call, Oh Jin-ho and the others unleashed all remaining firepower.
KWA-KWA-BOOM!
Atlas’s enormous body shook violently under the bombardment.
It didn’t just sit still, it swung its vibration blade in retaliation, trying to cut down the Awakeners and sand soldiers. But they dodged nimbly, countering from all sides.
BOOM! BOOM!
Atlas’s massive frame reeled as if being beaten from every direction.
No matter how powerful its defenses and force field were, it couldn’t withstand such relentless assault without cracking.
And the final blow came from Oh Jin-ho.
“Uwaaaah!”
He poured every last drop of strength into his strike.
Mana surged into his vibration blade, enveloping it in aura.
He had combined the vibration blade with an aura blade.
The power was staggering.
Ssskraak!
The weakened force field and Atlas’s left shoulder were sliced open at once.
A deep wound split the metal, and for an instant, the core was visible.
Reeling from the impact, Atlas staggered. Even so, as expected of an S-class golem, it began to heal. But Zeon didn’t let it.
He fired a Sand Blaster at the core.
Shoosh! Shoosh! Shoosh!
Dozens of streams of sand struck the core, but they did little damage.
The core was protected by a magic circle.
Zeon knew that. Still, he fired the Sand Blaster to prepare for the next attack.
“Sand Mixer!”
Kwoooom!
The sand surrounding the core began spinning violently.
He had focused the Sand Mixer solely on that area.
The effect was instant.
Pop-pop-pop!
Sparks flew as the magic circle trembled.
The disruption to the protective magic slowed the core’s regeneration.
Kwoooom!
Zeon poured in more sand, intensifying the Sand Mixer’s power.
“Everyone, concentrate your fire!”
“Use up the rest of your ammo!”
The mechanized Awakeners joined in, unleashing everything they had left.
Dozens of Awakeners fired with no restraint, and even Atlas could not withstand that.
The wound widened, the magic circle shattered.
With all protection gone, the exposed core was defenseless.
KWA-AA-AANG!
The core finally cracked under the pressure and exploded.
As it shattered, Atlas stopped moving.
Only then did Zeon exhale softly and withdraw his skill.
“Waaah!”
“We took down an S-class golem!”
“We cleared an S-class dungeon!”
The mechanized Awakeners burst into cheers.
Though they had needed Zeon’s help, the Bloody Assault Squad had succeeded in conquering an S-class dungeon.
It was an incredible victory.
Even just bringing Atlas, the S-class golem, back to the West District would make them heroes.