Gacha Harem System

Chapter 226: According To Plan

Lukas’ hand was already moving before he’d even realized what he’d just met eyes with.

He instinctively fired a [Death Bolt] directly at the Automaton above the door, then yanked his arm back inside and slammed the door shut.

"What the fuck?" He heard Akira swore as the beast hit the ground directly outside the door.

He immediately moved to the window to check.

"Did it work?" Melody asked, crowding beside him. The others took their places around them.

Lukas stared at the window. The Automaton had fallen, but it was already pulling itself upright, the thin pale skin across its body darkening and flaking away where the necrosis had touched it.

Patches fell from its arms and chest in grey fragments, revealing the gears and clockwork beneath, but the ticking continued without interruption.

"The rot is eating the skin," Akira said, watching through the glass, "but the Automatons are actually made of metal, not flesh."

She stepped back from the window. "And since it’s not flesh underneath, the [Death Bolt] has nothing to work on. It’s useless against them."

More shapes appeared on the buildings flanking the street.

They moved on the walls the way insects move on a surface, their nails digging into the stone with enough grip to hold their weight, their hunched bodies skittering sideways and upwards with unsettling ease.

Lukas counted and they were eight Automatons in total.

"Don’t worry, guys." He turned to the group. "We can handle this without the Turtle."

"Are you sure?" Karrakas asked, clearly skeptical.

"Yes." He outlined the plan and they listened, nodding along.

He’d considered deploying the Turtle to take care of this for them, but if they kept relying on the turtle, they’d have a hard time moving from here.

The streets were narrow and the Turtle’s bulk would work against them in close quarters. It would fill the street completely and slow everything down.

When he was done explaining, they exchanged glances, knowing the plan was feasible. And after confirming, they arranged themselves.

Melody moved to the front, her [Cursed Blade] drawn. Lukas took the rear, while Akira and Karrakas positioned themselves in the middle, with Karrakas already holding his silver bow with an arrow notched and drawn halfway.

Akira looked around, then down at her position and made a sound of displeasure. "Why do I have to stay in the middle? I don’t need protecting," she said.

"Nobody said you did," Melody called back from the front, a teasing grin on her face.

"Then why am I in the middle?"

"Because the plan requires you to be a pretty princess."

"I have a sword, you know."

"You also have no shielding skill," Melody said pleasantly. "So the middle is where you stay."

Akira pointed at the dark armor covering her body. "This counts as a shield."

"And we both know a shield skill and a piece of armor are not the same thing."

Akira opened her mouth.

"Move out," Lukas said, interrupting them.

With a nod to make sure everyone was ready, they burst through the door.

Lukas and Melody activated [Hex Shield] in the same instant, the cursed energy barriers snapping into existence around the group.

They layered the barriers across the front, sides, rear, and above them in overlapping panels that enclosed them entirely.

Two Automatons dropped from the wall immediately, hitting the shield above with their full weight.

Most of the external barriers shattered, leaving a few covering them, but they replenished the shattered barriers instantly, pushing the beasts off.

The Automatons leapt high into the air, landing on the street and skidding backwards.

Lukas immediately drove his [Cursed Blade] forward and activated [Dimensional Slash].

The blade vanished from in front of him, leaving only the hilt in his grip.

He felt the resistance a moment later as it reappeared behind the nearest C-rank Automaton, angling up towards the heart from the rear.

There was a loud clang.

The blade had sunk in a few inches, then stopped. It wasn’t just that the metal that served as it’s body was denser, but also because the weakness they’d been relying on didn’t exist anymore.

He pulled the blade back, gritting his teeth.

"The hearts!" He said loudly, already moving along with the group as they raced down the street. "The C-ranks don’t have the same gap the D-ranks did! The protection goes all the way around!"

"So we can’t stab through it," Melody said from the front.

"No, we can’t."

They jogged down the street as a unit, the shield from Lukas and Melody in place. Even though that hadn’t worked out, things were still going according to plan.

One of the Automatons accelerated and slammed directly into the barrier in front of Lukas, the impact shuddering through the shields.

The outermost layers of the shields shattered, and he quickly replenished them without breaking stride.

While he’d expected his first attempt to succeed, he already a plan B.

He changed his grip on the hilt and swung the [Cursed Blade] with everything he had, activating [Dimensional Slash].

The blade disappeared from the hilt, slipping into the void and reappearing outside the shield, slamming into the lead Automaton across the torso.

But this time, he’d attacked with the flat of the blade rather than the edge. Instead of the sharpness of his sword, he was betting on his Strength stat, and his bet paid off.

The Automaton’s torso caved inwards at the force, sending the beast staggering to the side.

"There it is," Lukas said through his teeth.

He pulled his arms back and swung again, the blade reappearing and slamming into the same point. The second impact finished what the first had started, the collapsed torso giving way entirely, and the internal gears scattering. freeweɓnovēl.coɱ

[You have killed a C-rank Clockwork Automaton]

"Akira!" Lukas yelled the prepared signal.

"On it," she grinned, activating [Corpse Explosion].

Then the Automaton detonated.

Boom!

The explosion filled the street, fire and smoke spiraling through the air, the force of it slamming into the beasts nearby.

An instant later, the explosion slammed into Lukas.