Gacha Harem System

Chapter 222: Under The Ribs

Karrakas pulled the door open and they burst out.

The five Automatons noticed their movement immediately, their heads turning in unison, the ticking inside them rising in pitch as they oriented towards the group.

Up close, the Automatons were tall, their flesh pale and waxy, and stitched in places where the clockwork underneath had been fitted into the body.

Their eyes were made of glass, catching the lamplight as they moved.

Lukas went straight for the nearest one.

He drove his [Cursed Blade] forward, aiming for the center of the chest. The blade hit metal beneath the flesh and stopped, the impact jarring up through his wrist.

"Damn," he said through his teeth. "It’s really harder than it looks."

"Noted," Akira said as she dashed out from his left, thrusting forward.

She met the same result. Unlike every other time she’d used it, [Temptation] had pierced the flesh but its momentum had slowed the moment it hit the plate underneath.

She pulled the blade out and leapt backwards, eyes narrowing.

Melody had taken a different approach entirely. She activated her bracer, her body shifting to match the stone wall behind her, and slipped around the side of her Automaton while it was still trying to find her.

She dashed from the side, angling her blade upwards beneath the ribcage rather than through the front plate.

The blade found a gap, piercing through, and the Automaton’s ticking stuttered, then stopped.

It dropped straight down, the clockwork inside it winding to silence.

"Under the ribs," Melody said. "The plate doesn’t cover the bottom."

Lukas adjusted immediately.

He swung downwards, and the Automaton drew its arm up to block, but it was a feint.

He dropped low and drove the [Cursed Blade] upwards beneath its ribcage.

He felt the resistance of the metal plate above him, but it was weak and his sword pierced through to hit the heart protected underneath.

The ticking stopped.

[You have killed a D-rank Clockwork Automaton]

Akira had heard Melody’s instruction and applied it without hesitation, catching her Automaton mid-swing and sliding [Temptation] up beneath the ribs in a single driving motion.

The blade punched through the heart.

[You have killed a D-rank Clockwork Automaton]

Two Automatons remained from the original five, and they were adapting, moving to protect their lower sections, their arms dropping to guard against the strikes Lukas, Akira, and Melody were using. freewebnovel.cσ๓

"They learn as the fight goes on," Karrakas called from the side of the street.

Akira simply smirked and dashed forward. The Automaton bent low, trying to protect its torso, but Akira didn’t even care.

She planted her feet, cracking the ground, then drove her sword forward with strength.

The blade punched through the beast’s arm, pinning it to the torso, into its ribs, and through to its heart.

[You have killed a D-rank Clockwork Automaton]

As for Lukas, he simply activated [Void Step], vanishing and reappearing directly behind the Automaton.

He stabbed, his [Cursed Blade] piercing upwards through its back, and finding the heart from the rear.

[You have killed a D-rank Clockwork Automaton]

Three more appeared at the far end of the street.

"Already?" Melody said.

"Keep moving," Karrakas said.

But the three newcomers were already close, drawn by the sound of the fight.

Lukas, Akira, and Melody spread out, each facing one beast.

Within seconds, their swords had pierced through the hearts from underneath.

Three sets of ticking wound down in sequence, the bodies dropping one after the other onto the stone street.

[You have killed a D-rank Clockwork Automaton]

"That’s eight," Akira said, looking around. Then she glanced at Lukas.

Lukas said nothing, silently activating [Resurrect].

The mana left him, spreading across all eight bodies simultaneously. Then the Automatons began to move.

Their fingers twitched first, then their arms, until they slowly began to pull themselves up from the ground.

All eight Automatons struggled to their feet, their ticking resuming at a slightly different cadence than before, their glass eyes now fixed on Lukas.

Karrakas took a step backwards. "What—"

"They’re ours," Akira said, placing a hand briefly on his arm. "They’re completely under control."

Karrakas looked at the eight Automatons standing in a loose formation in the street, his eyes wide. "That scare the fuck out of me."

"Let’s move," Lukas said.

They made their way to the end of the street. The road ended at a junction, with another street running across it in both directions. Karrakas leaned out and checked the left, then the right.

"Clear," he said. freēwebnovel.com

They dashed across and into the street beyond, their eight Automatons following behind them.

They rushed into a building on the left side for cover, and outside, the eight Automatons stopped on the street, waiting.

Lukas watched through the window as a patrol of four D-rank Automatons appeared from the far end of the road.

As they drew closer to the eight resurrected Automatons, something changed in their posture. Their pace slowed, and they had sensed the different cadence of the ticking ahead of them.

The eight were no longer part of the living pack.

The four moved towards them in attack, and Lukas let the eight loose.

They dashed forward, clashing in the middle of the street. The fight was particularly short and one-sided.

With the Automatons facing each other two against one, the four patrol Automatons dropped in under a minute, their ticking winding to silence one after another.

[You have killed a D-rank Clockwork Automaton (x4)]

"That’s efficient," Melody muttered.

Karrakas turned from the window, a frown on his face. "Enjoy it while it lasts," he said. "The dungeon has been watching us since we arrived, so it knows we cleared that street faster than it expected."

He looked at Lukas. "From this point forward, it will adjust. The patrols will be larger, and the Automatons will be stronger. The dungeon takes the difficulty up a notch every time it decides you’re moving too comfortably."

"So we’ve already triggered it," Akira said.

"Most likely, yes."

Lukas looked at their eight Automatons standing guard outside the window.

"Then we’ll keep moving before it catches up," he said.