Pebble rose to its feet, free from the gravitational shackles, and charged forward. Nirvana swooped down in her bat form and landed on the summon’s back, turning back into a human.

She summoned her Goblin Mage Staff with a flash of white light, then instantly used a skill. Green, poisonous energy poured from the staff to form a screaming whip.

The wailing whip was formed from green, ghostly faces contorted in permanent agony.

She slashed her hand forward and the whip swam through the damaged steel like a spirit and into the armor.

Kye had warned them that most Worldbreaker armors had inbuilt wards. Apocalypse was a machine built to be an unbreakable cannon. Its wards would protect against spatial and temporal interference, but also special effects like attacks that ignore armor.

What the Kalan hadn’t expected was for the Annihilation effect to be turned on them. Nirvana’s whip phased the damaged wards and sunk into Fix.

"EIIIIII!"

The alien scream echoed through the crater. Faust was rushing towards a specific spot in the battlefield. Its health had to be low. They needed to kill it before it used any healing items.

Pebble spun and threw Nirvana into the air. She transformed into a bat just as Fix was counter attacking. The armor opened up and revealed the laser gun again. The purple beam tore through Pebble’s side, but didn’t kill the summon.

Faust summoned it back to his side, saving the summon, and sent a mental command to his second summon. The archer summon, which he smugly named Bullseye.

Arrows flew from the ruins of the building around them, accurately entering the gaps in the destroyed armor. The iron sphere rotated to hide its injured side to block the arrows with its uninjured side.

Fix spotted Faust charging at him and screeched with bloody murder. The kalan wanted to kill Faust no matter what. It rolled towards him and enhanced its gravitational field. It crushed Faustdown as he suddenly became ten times heavier, but his Strength allowed him to stay standing.

But he was far slower.

A crest appeared over the Iron sphere. Faust’s instincts screamed at him to run, but his legs felt like pillars. He knew immediately this was an equipment. It was a glowing purple insignia carved into the air.

Space turned static, black and white lights formed a dome around them.

Shadow Step!

[Skill failed. You have been locked in a temporary ward.]

It’s isolating me!

Faust’ plan was to get Fix to come to him then use Instance Replication to repeat the fireball that was blocked earlier. An instant explosion that Fix couldn’t escape. After that he would use Shadow Step to escape.

But in this closed space, a Heavy Fireball imbued with Annihilation would kill him too.

Fix spawned another equipment. This one was a blue cube that glowed with purple energy intermittently. It used this to begin rapidly repairing its armor.

"Healing in front of me is insane," Faust snarled, pushing through the gravity. "I’m like a dark souls boss without world-ending power.

Fix pointed its laser gun at him and amplified the gravity even more. The ground cracked and caved in under Faust. He could even move. This was checkmate.

Might be time for a suicide bomb. Let’s hope I survive replicating this fireball.

But then he remembered one of his newest equipement. The Gate bracer glowed on his arm. Fix fired his purple laser.

He used Growth to its maximum and his body and strength doubled instantly. Fix turned the laser up so it cleaved through space to cut him in half groin first.

Vindictive little bastard!

He moved to the left slightly and the purple laser only sawed off his left forearm. Suppressing a scream, Faust grabbed the arm and used Dash.

He slammed into the static barrier created by Fix’s crest, Gate Bracer first. The equipment glowed a blinding blue and grew extremely hot. Its ability to resist spatial interference was put to the test against Fix’s crest.

Whatever that crest was, it was a far higher grade than the Gate bracer. The static barrier fizzled and popped loudly, but didn’t break.

Fix didn’t fire the purple laser again as its railgun cooldown was ending. It slowly aimed at Faust and a cruel laughter sounded.

"KIKIKI!" The little bastard was having the time of its life. Breaking through the barrier must have been impossible in its mind.

But Faust wasn’t done. Spatial abilities would be weakened according to the system. And he had one last trump card.

He reared his shoulder back and prayed this would count as an attack. He slammed into the barrier once again with the Gate Bracer. The sparking static sound grew deafening. Like the barrier was screaming. Space flickered and distorted, sending sparks of black and white into the air

The Kalan stopped laughing.

Faust grinned as a hole formed in the barrier and he fell through. He applied Annihilation to his ’attack’ against the barrier.

Before his back even hit the ground he used his favourite ability.

Instance Replication!

◇◇◇

Nirvana felt dread in her heart as soon as the white and black static barrier formed over Faust and Fix. She fly low and reverted to her human form, ignoring how strange her legs felt after being a bat for so long.

The moment she hit the barrier, she bounced off like her full momentum had been reversed. Her back hit the floor hard. She gasped, but realised she was alright. High Constitution confused her mind.

She shot off the ground and punched the barrier again, but it repelled her force easily. She took out her sword and slashed the black and white static dome. Then her dagger. Finally she drew her staff and prepared to use Wailing Whip.

This was the part of the plan where Faust was to trigger an explosion using his schema. And somehow Fix had known to trap them both. The only way for Faust to win was to kill himself with the alien.

And it won’t even freaking die!

Fix was just a tourist. A very racist one, but still a tourist. This was a game to him. Come in here, kill a few humans and have a laugh with his alien buddies later.

But Faust was obsessed with victory. He wouldn’t let something as meaningless as his life come in the way of defeating Fix.

"No. Faust, please don’t—"