Damage was damage. Did it really matter if it came from an enemy, himself, or an unexpected rapid deceleration in velocity?

System's description had mentioned he was invulnerable to damage during a few frames of the animation.

And it wouldn't back out of its word.

All his momentum seemed to vanish at once, as he began the animation midair. His feet jumped off nothingness. His body impossibly rolled into the air, prior velocity and direction outright forgotten. He hadn't even been properly turned in the right direction, and yet the dodge roll boon had followed his intended direction perfectly, almost teleporting him into the correct position intended - which was not down into the ground.

A one hundred and seventy milliseconds later, Wade would have hit the ground. Instead, he rolled back on his feet over the next second as if nothing had happened and he'd simply dodge rolled earlier on the ground.

"Holy shit." He said, standing still for a moment, like he was waiting for the gym judges to rate his landing.

Unfortunately, that was dodge number two within ten seconds and that meant he'd gone through almost all his stamina. Wade promptly crumpled into the ground, the weight of the backpack filled to the brim with metal junk parts weighing him down.

In the distance, he heard sounds of battle. And yet he couldn't move, everything felt so heavy.

Machine-like gun fire came from the alleyways, getting closer to him. He crawled on his legs and knees, refusing to let the backpack go. If they were to have any chance of winning, the junk inside this-heavy-as shit backpack was key.

He heard sound getting closer. One of the golems was walking by to confirm he was dead.

Wade rolled on his backpack, feeling some wind getting back to him. "S-stats." He hissed out, looking for anything that mentioned his stamina.

Nothing showed up on his UI. The game didn't track that.

Internally, he could feel his dodge boon wasn't up yet. He didn't have the resources for it. Wade crawled further off the alleyway until he came to the side of a unit wall. No doorway on this side, but it did give him enough of a breather.

A few seconds passed. He took deep breaths, trying to get that stamina back up.

Thirty seconds had passed now. His breathing steadied, he felt as if gravity was slowly releasing its hand around him.

There was the sound of a building collapsing. Lapushka yelled out some Nathir commands, but Wade didn't have the mental focus to think about the message.

A minute passed.

He felt his stamina pass the halfway mark, and he felt just good enough to slowly stand back on his feet. Although sitting down seemed to help restore him faster.

Challenge Gauntlet (3) Complete! One storefront coin added to inventory.

Wait. What?

That meant one of the two golems had been destroyed by the rest of the team somehow. He considered the team and then realized the obvious: Eri was level 44. These honor guard golems were level 47. The system believed they were very close to the same danger level already. Add Illy, Leon, and Selena as backup and harassments, that skeleton could probably cut them to pieces. He didn't know the exact strategy they were using, or how they were communicating plans to one another, but it had been effective enough.

All he had to do was survive a little longer and the team would be here to pick him back up.

Unfortunately, the golem found him before that could happen.

It passed through the other alleyway, the orb head spinning around on itself, constantly looking for where the other humans had run off to. And this time the golem didn't look corroded or filled with rust. It could move that weapon just fine.

It saw Wade.

Well. Fuck. This would be such a shit round. He didn't have the coins to buy this dodge boon yet, and maybe killing the sewer golem and one extra here just now might have been enough to score a few extra coins on the game over screen, but Wade had a feeling it wasn't enough.

The spinning head stopped spinning, then focused on him. It raised its arm weapon, aiming directly at him. He could dodge one set of bullets, but then he'd be a sitting duck and the golem would just continue mowing him down wherever he rolled away to. Fucked.

But there was one last ditch possible plan his head had come up with. He didn't even know if this would work, but he imagined hard the direction of his dodge boon. Then triggered lightning dodge.

He wasn't trying to time a bullet shot to avoid it. Or whatever the golems fired. There was no raised rock to deal self-damage, no quirk or trick.

One moment he was sitting. The next moment he was on his feet, executing the dodge.

Through the wall behind him.

Simple physics really - his head would have slammed into the wall headfirst, dealing damage. But that would happen right during the invulnerability frames.

And as he'd seen with his rock testing, when invulnerable, things went through him. Which meant he could also go through things.

He wall-clipped through matter itself.

It admittedly had been a huge gamble. And he was absurdly lucky the wall was thin enough that when those invulnerability frames ended, he was already at the apex of his dodge roll within the little shelter, rolling into a table. Hilariously enough, that table did more damage than anything thus far. "OW FUCK."

But apart from a nasty bump on the top of his head, and a few percentage points of health down, he was alive.

Just completely exhausted once more, muscles having a small spasm as he lay defenseless inside. Inability to move pinned him down like a weighted blanket.

Could the golem track him into this little mancave? Or would it see zero entry points here and decide the human could not have passed by and must have teleported somewhere instead. How good was their vision? They weren't able to recognize two humans stacked on top of each other, so there was a possible chanc-- The wall behind him exploded inward, showering Wade with debris and dust. Through the haze, the golem's single glowing eye fixed on him, glaring. There you are, you little shit.

Well. Couldn't win them all. Damn. Seemed golems had their own wall-hacks, in that they just didn't give a single fuck if there was one or not.

The weapon arm raised up a second time. The eye seemed to narrow down on him, upset. Dodge this, you filthy human.

Right before the stone bullets would have shredded Wade into swiss cheese, the glowing blue orb head rapidly turned, as if detecting a greater danger behind it.

Red circles started appearing around the main body like a bullseye. Illy's dagger debuff. It fully turned around next, lifting its other hand to protect itself from something.

Not fast enough. Death sliced through its head and Wade saw a figure blur past in the air.

It was his goddamn skeleton.

Eri had leaped off a rooftop, and then used the featherfall spell until he was almost above the golem.

In one fluid motion, the skeleton made three quick moves. First throwing Illy's dagger, then canceling his featherfall - leaving him into a freefall nearly directly down on the golem - and finally swinging his greatsword in a full circle around himself, now glowing with blue crackling lightning.

Metal shrieked against metal as Eri's enchanted blade sheared through the golem's head, empowered by his spell, his far higher strength, and the System's debuff multiplying both. The result split the orb in half. Mana flowed out in a blue haze, spreading out into the air, circuits and components failing catastrophically as the blade severed everything.

The health bar instantly went down to 0%

Challenge Gauntlet (4) Complete! One storefront coin added to inventory.

Eri landed in a crouch beside Wade, bone joints clicking as he absorbed the impact. The golem remained frozen, its severed head sliding off at an angle before its massive body crashed to the ground with impact, collapsing onto its knees then falling to the other side of the alleyway, cracks forming on the wallside as the weight settled.

Wade stared at the fallen golem, then at the skeleton. "That... was goddamn lucky timing."

Eri tilted his skull to the left.

Not luck.

Wade narrowed his eyes. If it wasn't luck then… "Wait, were you using me as bait?"

Eri wiggled his bony hand and made a few more sign gestures. He'd had to cancel his featherfall earlier than he'd had wanted to, and used up more mana to get himself back on track - but that had been a calculated decision. Admittedly with only a split second left on the clock. The skeleton had been cutting it real close.

"You get a free pass this time, and only because it worked." Wade said, letting his head back down on the ground floor. Still exhausted. Probably would be for another minute or two before he'd feel better. "I can't move right now, the exhaustion debuff."

Eri didn't quite know what that meant, but he did know Wade had done some impossible things already, like return him to life completely restored, and so he believed when Wade said he could roll through any damage, twice in a row. With this as a caveat.

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There was a simple solution to this dilemma. The skeleton came to his side, then lifted him up in a princess carry. "Wait, wait, don't forget the backpack!" Wade called out, feeling it slip off his shoulders, muscles unable to correct the slide.

The skeleton clicked his jaws, setting down his greatsword while he fussed around with his boss's demands. In a bit, Wade once more had the backpack on his shoulders, and was tossed over the skeleton's back, right next to a sheathed greatsword.

Wade wasn't quite sure how to feel about that, these last two day's he'd been carried around like a sack of potatoes one too many times.

Next time he was back on earth, it wasn't his neck he was going to focus on healing, but his leg.

The undead champion carried him through the ruined streets, moving on their original plan. Even with the exhaustion weighing on his limbs, Wade's mind raced through tactical possibilities on how he'd possibly pull a win somehow out of this mess. Lapushka was being kept busy by the scattered team so far, holding out hard against the golem. They wouldn't last forever. Last time the golem had squashed them all within a few minutes. But last time it still had a working ranged weapon. That hadn't been fixed overnight.

"Get back to roof," Wade managed to say, hand straining to point upward. "Need to see if the elf's alive." The honor guard was broken down, if Selena was still alive, then there was a chance to keep going with the main plan again.

Eri clicked his skull to the right as he changed direction. The skeleton moved with surprising agility, scaling a half-collapsed ladder in an adjacent building with just his legs and one spare hand, while the other kept Wade steady on his shoulder.

From the third floor, he leapt to an escape on the neighboring structure, using the featherfall spell to allow all that weight across the gap. Wade winced at each metallic clang in his backpack, but the sounds of battle echoing through the streets drowned out their movement.

Within minutes, they reached the old rooftop they'd started all of this from, and Eri carefully set Wade down against the concrete.

Wade's breath caught in his throat as he crawled back on his knees and up on his feet. That gave him a view of below.

Lapushka was fully engaged with Leon and Selena, its massive arms swinging in wide arcs that demolished anything they touched. Its attack patterns looked more like it was trying to use collateral damage to handle the humans, expecting a stray rock to smash down on someone and end their life.

No, Wade realized the golem's strategy. Ruined rubble was difficult for Leon and Illy to traverse, and made them sitting targets for a slapdown. And Lapushka could easily step over or crush through anything.

The golem was reshaping the landscape to favor itself.

Leon was shouting, using his hammer's knockback to golf swing rocks into the golem. Chunks would go flying, slam into the armored plates and splinter into pieces. The health bar didn't even flash for damage.

The golem turned, a fist flying straight through the air to where Leon had stood a moment ago. It crashed through the rubble, digging a deep trench further up. Then was slowly reeled backwards.

Illy was nowhere to be seen, which could be either very good or very bad.

"Selena!" Wade called out, trying to get her attention. It somehow worked, as the elf's ears twitched. Then she glanced up at where he was. He lifted a weak thumbs up at her. The plan's still on. She raced off down the alleyways, hoping the others could stay alive for a little longer.

Eri crouched beside him, his empty eye sockets somehow conveying concern as he watched the golem's fist slowly get brought back.

"Right. No warhammer to empower my hit." Wade hissed.

Plus he felt like he was simply running too low on all resources:

He needed stamina to throw something as hard as he could and jump off the ledge with a backpack that weighted twenty pounds or so.

He needed stamina to do a prior dodge roll for the lightning damage.

And he needed stamina for a dodge roll to avoid dying on the floor if Selena couldn't make it, or he got knocked out of the air after.

He was barely at half stamina right now, he'd hardly manage to do a single one of these let alone all three.

Lapushka continued its savage rampage in the slave district, sweeping through houses, clearly searching for the running humans as its other fist was halfway back to the golem. Wade wasn't going to have the time to fully restore his stamina.

His head raced through options. Could he perform the dodge roll, then have Eri throw him over? He still wouldn't have the stamina to throw anything as an attack, and he'd die on the fall if Selena got swatted out of the air.

Could he save the dodge for later, get Eri to throw him off the ledge and fire a rock?

It wouldn't do damage. Only the lightning attack could penetrate the armor.

What if he got a weapon that could penetrate the armor? Like the greatsword.

He stared at the skeleton, the hands holding tight on the massive Nathir sword.

Wade wasn't strong enough to hurl that far enough to hit the target.

But there was something he would be strong enough to throw that could potentially cut through armor. It'd be the stupidest thing ever, but it could work.

Below he caught the sight of astral blue wings, as Selena jumped from rooftop to rooftop, rapidly making her way here. The golem had stopped hunting down Leon; because it had spotted Wade at the top.

A skeleton and a human were two easy to hit targets. The remaining fist turned to aim their way.

A rock flew at its side, forcing the golem to swap from offense to defense, turning the fist into a palm to intercept the hit. Leon had exposed himself, trying to buy Wade and Selena time.

Now or never.

Wade turned to Eri. "Use featherfall on yourself. No time to explain."

The skeleton clicked his jaw, and glowed the familiar wisp of mana.

Wade then turned the tables and grabbed him with both hands and lifted. The skeleton weighed nearly nothing. And with a grunt of extreme effort, Wade raced across the rooftop, jumping at the last second.

Then he threw the skeleton directly at the golem.

Eri didn't sail over at the same speed a tiny rock would. But that didn't matter.

Damage dealt by ranged weapons such as crossbows, slings, and bows.

Throwing rocks counted because his hands were the ranged weapon throwing a projectile.

So instead of throwing a rock, why not an angry level 44 skeletal greatsword champion with a chip on his shoulder that could, and would, slice deep into golem armors?

The skeleton understood the assignment immediately, the spell keeping him afloat, while he angled himself almost like someone freefalling through space. Arms tight to his side, blade held close, point tipped into the wind. He really did look like a missile from Wade's last sight.

The rooftops obscured his vision as he fell.

"Selena!" He called out, in half panic. He'd need to use the lighting dodge boon here again to avoid the fall damage.

He had no idea if he'd made his move too early.

If Selena didn't get to him, then it would be up to Eri to deal the strongest possible hit the skeleton could on impact, because there'd be no followup.

A shadow fell over him. Two arms yanked him up from the ground. They were still in freefall, Selena hissing in effort as she tried to lift both Wade and his heavy backpack up. Unlike before, where she'd caught him at the apex of his leap, this time gravity had been given plenty of time to make things hard for everyone. If they touched the ground, that'd be over. His jumping attack would be done.

She almost hit the ground.

Almost.

But at the last moment, she managed to complete the arc upwards, using the straight alleyways almost like a corridor to pull up.

"Get me over it!" Wade called out, feeling excitement. His plan could work. It could still be salvaged.

She angled herself, flying out into the open road, banking hard before flying upwards with heavy breaths.

And now flying over the main street, Wade saw the impact of Eri against Lapushka from here. The greatsword glowed bright blue, and the skeleton canceled his featherfall at the last moment, plummeting down on the golem.

The Nathir security golem turned its fist back into a defensive palm, ready to intercept the skeleton. Eri noticed, and changed his sword angle. Instead of an arching cut, the skeleton turned his attack into a stab.

He was moments away from impact.

Red crosshair marks appeared over the main golem body.

Illy. She'd popped out of a window, and threw her dagger right into the non-functional rock slabs the golem once used as weapons. Metal plates would have bounced her dagger, but rocks? They could be chipped. Which meant damage.

Eri cut into the palm with destructive vengeance a half second later, the blade sinking into the palm, then further down. Not enough to cut completely through. But enough to deal two percent damage. Possibly real close to three percent.

The golem slapped the hand downwards, aiming to squash the skeleton like a mosquito. Eri bailed from his greatsword, and fortunately the speed of the slapdown caused him to spin in the air off the side of the palm instead of straight into the ground.

The greatsword remained exactly where it had been half-stabbed within, and got impaled further into the palm. Something within the hand stopped functioning from that damage, large mists of mana escaping out of it, lights over it dimming.

It was unable to recall the hand back.

A second passed. And another percent of health vanished. The debuff had been applied.

Holy shit it worked.

Selena was still building up speed, picking up altitude as she banked hard against the roadway, and back up. Towards the golem. They had to make it before the debuff faded off.

Another second. Another health percentage fell off. Fifty three percent health.

Lapushka turned its orb to the last fist it had left, still being reeled back. It connected to some kind of invisible dome that surrounded the golem, and then lifted off the ground, rotating around like a turret, fist ready.

It didn't matter. Wade and Selena were now flying over it like a world war two bomber.

Wade unzipped his backpack, raining down hundreds of heavy metal parts.

All of it slammed into the golem like hail, doing no damage at all, bouncing off the armor and orb without issue.

A second passed as the golem looked almost confused by why the humans had even bothered.

Then its health tanked downwards by seven percent.

(Uncommon upgrade) - Consecutive hits within the same jumping attack increase the damage and duration of corrosive debuffs.

"Consecutive hits motherfucker." Wade snarled. The upgrade never said anything about the hits dealing damage. Just that they had to be consecutive. Such as a few hundred consecutive hits of metal projectiles, 'launched' from Wade's backpack. During the, technically, same jumping attack he'd done throwing Eri.

Multiplied that initial hit by several hundred?

Another second passed and the golem's health dropped another seven percent.

Thirty nine percent health. Even if it could survive the full ten seconds, the consecutive hits had increased the duration to a matter of minutes by now.

But until that health bar went down to 0%, Lapushka was still looking to murder them. And Wade could see the fist calculate Selena's trajectory, turning to palm mode and swinging for them as if they were a mosquito.

"Shi- Drop me down now!"

Selena followed order, letting him drop far too high in the air, and far too close to the golem.

No choice about it. If she hadn't dropped him as soon as she had, she would have been swatted out of the air.

The golem swiped for Selena. She barely managed to barrel roll off to the side, the palm going through one of her astral wings.

Wade on the other hand, was about to hit the ground like a brick.

Either he used his dodge, or he broke his legs. Both ways, he was in trouble. But at least one wouldn't be filled with excruciating pain before death.

He dodged the fall damage a second time, the timing easy enough to work with given how predictable his speed and ultimate location would be.

It also left him completely spent and defenseless, right in stomping range of a massive angry golem.

Lapushka turned to him.

Level 122 Nathir Security Golem - 32%

The blue orb seemed to outright glare at Wade, as if he was the source of all its problems in life.

Which, to be fair, he was.

And he was also in perfect crushing distance, trapped by his own exhaustion. The golem's hand raised up, palm rotating at the same time until it was in range.

Rapid math went through Wade's head. At the rate the golem was losing health, it was five seconds away from dying. And unfortunately, he was only two seconds away from the same thing.

A stone was golfed into its blue orb, while a dagger flew out from the shadows to stab into another exposed rock section, all followed up by a lance of blue mana from a distant rooftop. All three of his teammates were pouring out everything they could to keep it distracted.

And running out of the rubble was Eri, empty handed. Any other time Wade would have freaked out to see a feral skeleton charging at him, but this time he'd take just about anything compared to getting squashed.

Eri scooped him off the ground, then made a hard right hand dive, just as a leg stomped down.

Four seconds left, each tick dealing closer to fatal damage. It was now at twenty five percent health, dropping fast.

Lapushka lumbered around, systems unaware of damage accumulating within itself.

Three seconds left to zero percent health. Eighteen percent health.

THUD. THUD. The golem easily followed behind the running skeleton, keeping him in range. The palm rotated again, ready to slap down.

Eri threw him far off to the right, as the skeleton dove off to the left, trying to distract the golem. The ploy failed. Another leg shot out and punted the skeleton, knocking him far off into the alleyways, rolling like a pile of bones until he hit a wall.

The giant orb spun around, quickly recalculating the current situation. Then it fixated on Wade. Closer and non-moving. A quick kill. It shuffled two steps forward and was in range.

Two seconds left. Eleven percent health.

Rocks, knives and one last sickly looking weak beam of mana struck it from all sides. That at least forced the golem to use its palm as a shield rather than to crush Wade. But it had three feet right in range anyhow, so no hands needed for the job.

One second. Four percent health.

The foot lifted up, obscuring the streetlamp light above Wade.

Zero.

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