Chapter 287 Robot Arachnid
Moloch's man puppet's head drooped down. Instead, the minotaur puppet, who was always lazy, stood up and sat on the back of the man puppet's head. The man puppet automatically raised his two hands with the Tact Tweak on it towards his head, and Moloch started analysing the urgent situation that Jin ordered him to resolve. In the meantime, Jin continued to focus his attack against the Titan Knight who still repeatedly shot the tendrils.
"Fanatic Minotaurs! Shield up and set the outer defensive parameter!" Moloch commanded and immediately set a series of tower shield upgrade cards out. Tens of shields magically emerged and dropped right in front of the fanatic Minotaurs to grab. However, instead of using them to defend against blows when setting the defensive parameter, the fanatics used them as if they were blunt weapons by bashing or smashing the robot crawlers while the rest retreated to form a defensive formation.
It was not that the minotaurs or werejackals learnt or performed any drills for these defensive formations, but it was the unique ability of Tact Tweak. It influenced the monsters that were registered in the System and gave them the ability to follow commands through a single swipe or a tap of a finger (or in Moloch's case, cotton hoofs.) and therefore allowed complex formations to be followed unless the monsters themselves expressed strongly opinionated thoughts against the commands. Such ideas would pop up like a message as a consideration at the side of Tact Tweak screen. But for now, Moloch found that the 'defence in depth' defensive tactic was the best he could adopt since both Team Mino and Team Jacks were caught off guard by the Robotic Arachnid.
Next, Moloch gave two sentry gun upgrade cards to the cowboy Minotaurs. He commanded two fanatic minotaurs to act as the tower support while the cowboy Minotaurs stood on them and placed the bipod of the sentry gun on their head and horns. Once stable, they immediately fired at the far reaching robot crawlers and with the support of the Fanatic minotaurs, it felt like the cowboy minotaurs were on live chariot running around shooting at the robot crawlers. However, Moloch explicitly stated not to attack or provoke the Robotic Arachnid as much as possible because her patterns of attack were still unknown. It might be too much trouble for the groups that were still rallying against the onslaught of robot crawlers.
After ordering his cowboys, he turned to the werejackals and gave them the upgrade card Firestorm. Although the werejackals were not exactly mages, a collective group chant and their knowledge of fireball from Grey made them the next best candidate aside from Peppers who was on site.
Grey took the lead by starting the chanting, which created a magical circle rotating around him. The rest of the werejackals followed by stepping into the circle reciting parts of the chant to compliment the chant made by Grey. Moloch figured that if he could make the Minotaurs buy enough time for the werejackals to cast their magic, it should provide sufficient devastating powers against the robotic arachnid instead of using his Trump card.
Moloch later controlled his battle maids to protect the werejackals where most were in their half human form summoning the reinforced mass firestorm spell. Half human half werejackal gave them a stronger sense of concentration which they did conjure the spell circle splendidly. But the robot crawlers were able to detect sizeable magical presence from them right away.
Not able to even touch or interrupt the magical chanting due to the constant defending of Team Mino, the robot crawlers communally sent an SOS to their Robotic Arachnid. The motherly arachnid did not hesitate to act upon receiving their plea and sounds as creaking and parts turning were heard at the top of her robotic body.
Moloch used the binoculars function on the Tact Tweak to monitor mother arachnid's location and he sensed movement from it. "Shit! Are those… launchers? The ones that fire magical explosive javelins from a long distance similar to someone I knew?" Moloch did learn that humans and even some advanced monster species had developed some form of projectile technology that shared the same characteristic of a missile but something faster than that. The thought of those missiles made him panic though it was not shown on his stoic plushie face.
He quickly called upon Niu Lang via the Tact Tweak. Niu Lang was holding a makeshift shield and sickle, complimentary of the werejackals, as he received his orders. (Niu Lang helped them out at times in their farms in their own home instance.) The boy smiled widely and with a blow of his magical horn, Mechataur materialised right in front of him before it grabbed Niu Lang to put him into his cockpit.
Even though the Mechataur was still rather damaged after the fight against the Dungeon Core's Guardian in the previous battle, it managed to recover with the help of Niu Lang. He had been diligently reading on the blueprints of the Mechataur and assisted in the repairs of Mechataur with whatever daily metal that the System provided it as free food. It was not perfect, hell it was not passable in Mechataur's eyes, but it could sense the passion Niu Lang the Cowherd had when he did the emergency repairs. (Separately, Mechataur did have fond memories of him and Zhi Nu working passionately. It remembered waking up and seeing Niu Lang asking Zhi Nu the Battle Weaver to use her celestial strings to prop Mechataur's legs up so that he could adjust the soles. Niu Lang could have just asked Mechataur to lie down but he was too embarrassed.)
The Mechataur started up with Niu Lang's special horn, and without hesitation, it also began to creak as his shoulder plates opened up. As expected the Robotic Arachnid fired those explosive javelins that were similar to pulses of light and the Mechataur's retaliation missile fire could not intercept all of them in time, causing injury to the defensive formation that Moloch tried to set up.
However, those retaliation missiles killed more than half of the robot crawlers but could not deal a scratch to the Robotic Arachnid. After the smoke was lifted, it revealed an energy barrier projected around the mother arachnid to protect itself. Many of the minotaurs, especially the battle maids were injured by the barrage of explosive javelins, notwithstanding the werejackals. It was all thanks to Mer who created an overarching ice barrier to protect the werejackals, but the damage was injuring his mana circuits as he tried to repair the ice barrier from the explosive javelins. Even Mechataur tried its best to shield the ice barrier, but no doubt only managed to block a hit or two.
"…And thus, the skyless dark night shall pelt down the fury of our hearts!" Grey finished chanting as he pointed upwards. With mana burning visible from his eyes, Grey's index finger was lowered to the direction of the Robot Arachnid.
"FIRESTORM!!!" The mass of werejackals echoed so loudly that even the Titan Knight could have heard it. The magic circle disappeared from beneath them, and a few werejackals went on their knees panting.
A spiralling vortex of space manipulation was opening above the robotic arachnid and an orangey red dusty cloud came into existence. In no time, it began sprouting a ball of fire which the robotic arachnid defended with ease… at first. The ball of fire was not the only one of its kind, and more comets of burning flames rained down upon him. They multiplied as time went by to the point that the robotic arachnid started to pour more resources into the energy barrier and had to reduce the number of robot crawlers coming out.
However, it was not the end. Moloch knew that this was the opportunity he was looking for. "Mechataur do a full heavy arms blast, unleash everything!" Moloch commanded, but Mechataur was somewhat hesitant. Due to the damage, it was afraid it would be broken to the point of no repair.
"Trust in Lord Moloch, in Master Jin and me. I will make sure to bring you back every time you fall my buddy." Niu Lang said as he gripped onto the controls tightly.
"Heh, you better upgrade me well." The Mechataur sneered as it communicated back to Niu Lang via its electronic systems. The Mechataur struggled to remove the limit breaker as it forced open all the weaponry slots it had and it stared at the Robotic Arachnid intensely.
"FIRE AWAY!" Both Mechataur and Niu Lang shouted simultaneously as beams of energy, rotating Gatling guns and dozens of missiles flew to the direction of the Robotic Arachnid. Being unable to move from the bombardment of the firestorm, the Robotic Arachnid senses went over the top crazy as it first saw the energy beams melting the barrier causing holes in it.
Thus making it impossible for the Arachnid to cover it in time as many missiles penetrated through the barrier and eventually, the continuous explosions damaged the Arachnid feeble metal body. The Firestorm finally broke through and burned the entire spider body before it disappeared into oblivion. (Well, technically the System caught it. Teehee!)