Ok, Bunai! This is the plan. I'm the damage dealer and you are the tank. I will try to make sure you don't get one shot, which you will if you get hit, but your focus should be to keep the boss aggroed toward you. I will do my best to carefully melt him or make it succumb to thermal shock without hitting you. Any questions? Bunai listened quietly. At least I assume. It was pointless because I was speaking in Hourai and golems don't react to anything besides Corund. I repeated myself in Corund and this time Bunai listened! Or perhaps not, it is hard to get a reaction out of golems. He just stood there battle-ready with his flaming hair.

Anyways make sure you don't get one-shot! It would be a shame if the protagonist of the story would get one shot by the end boss after going through all that character development and hard journey, where you didn't really do much in the latter half but I'm sure the readers will understand! At this point, I was talking nonsense but I tried to motivate Bunai. It sure is hard to motivate golems. I also tried to mentally prepare myself because next to making sure I don't get one shot and bringing the boss down I also have to make sure Bunai, the protagonist of the story, won't die pathetically. I would probably have to abuse his fresh new jetpack. I hoped it didn't have a time limit or other restrictions on flight else we might be in for a nasty surprise. I would also have to monitor Bunai’s magic levels to make sure he doesn't run out of steam and turns into a pile of rocks. We haven't started yet but it already sounds like this boss is over tuned it sounds like the ancients went ham on the difficulty setting here.

Bunai! Follow! We walked down the stairs but with style. We needed to make an epic entrance to the boss room.

Bunai! Flying smash! Bunai smashed open the door and it created a dust cloud. As the dust cloud settled all that the boss could see was Bunai with its flaming hair and me who was striking a cool pose.

You have terrorized Bunai's hometown for too long, villain! But we will put an end to your tyranny right here! I exclaimed as I pointed at the boss. The room was silent. At that moment I realized how big this boss was. It was easily 150m tall. It wasn't even a golem. It was almost fully made out of metal and had some parts here and there made out of rubies and sapphires but this was one giant mecha robot.

So cool! I inspected the mecha robot and concluded that we yet again have a problem. Unlike rocks, metals are quite conductive to heat and this mecha seems to have quite an effective heatsink. I guess golems don't have the problems of overheating while robots can but I gotta hand it to the ancients. This robot here is more advanced than what this era can produce. I'm thinking of ways a blacksmith can make something like this. It is probably impossible; I'd need a magical engineer for this. And even then, I would need blueprints! Is it possible that I will get these mecha robots' blueprints if we beat it? Suddenly I got motivated despite my fatigue. I should wrap this up. I'm sure Philip and Hera are awake by now. I made a fire sword and made a plan. Actually, it wasn't a plan, it was just to melt this robot.

Bunai! Fly! Bunai took off.

Bunai! Advance! Flying smash! Barrel roll! Nosedive! Smash! While Bunai followed orders I slid towards the back of the robot and hit its back with a flame blast. My goal was to disable its jetpack function as soon as possible. It wouldn't be funny if this robot started flying. I tried the magic that could detach rocks from golems but it was ineffective. I continued heat-blasting the jetpack part till it melted. The robot was busy trying to hit Bunai, but now that Bunai had flight it became hard for the robot to hit him.

Bunai! Ascend! Backflip! Turn 40 degrees left! Descend at a 25-degree angle! Advance! Smash! Smash! I made Bunai target the robot's ankles. For two reasons. Reason number 1: Make sure your opponent has to put in a lot of effort to do basic movements or skills! And reason 2! The bigger they are, the harder they fall! There was also another reason which is that it's hard for the robot to hit Bunai if he's flying around its ankles but that is not why I targeted its ankles. Reason number one is a big part of my fighting style, if your opponent can’t easily do basic movements or skills, they will have less energy left to deal with you offensively or defensively. I froze the joint of the robot's right shoulder when I saw that it was about to hit Bunai. It didn't stop the smash but gave Bunai enough time to complete its set of orders. I wonder if there was an autopilot mode since I would mess up an order sooner or later. On a basic level, Bunai seemed to attack the robot but they were simple attacks that would be comparable to Smash! Smash! Smash! Not a lot of variety in that pattern, also it is quite ineffective against something that is way outside your weight class.

Anyways, Bunai! Turn right 105 degrees! Advance! Advance! About face! Ascend! Ascend! Advance! Advance! Smash! Smash! Descend right at 45 degrees! Retreat! The orders started to become longer and more complex and I was hitting the limit of how much I could predict. The robot only needed 2 simple big motions and Bunai needed a whole paragraph of orders to not get one shot. I froze the ground under the robot to try and make it slip but it seemed that the surface area under its feet was large enough for it to not matter much. I needed to force it to move. I had an idea but this depended on how good Bunai's new upgrades were. I wanted to do the same thing as I did to the paparazzi stone but this time Bunai would be the projectile. I would put him on an ice slide so I could easily push and accelerate him. Of course, I will protect him with frost and water layers. Now while Bunai will be exerting a lot of force on the robot's ankles I will gather a lot of water magic and pull on the torso.

The plan was to make it slip and fall over. We needed enough force to upset its center of gravity which luckily seemed to be quite high up. I guess the ancients did not expect someone to try and topple this big robot! The plan seemed solid and normally there would be no issue executing this however this time it was different. I was pretty exhausted. At this point, I've been at it for about 11 hours and even longer without proper rest with the last time being dinner with Philip and Hera. I left the house at about 8 pm and it's nearing 7 am. I took some fruits out of my dimensional pocket for a little bit of energy and put the plan into motion. I kept spawning huge ice pillars laced with some magic to distract the robot. It seemed to be occupied punching them down in which I could make the ice traject I would shoot Bunai through.

Bunai! Here! I made him land on the frozen ground and I stopped him from slipping.

You are not supposed to slip! I made ice skates under his feet and activated my tail dynamo again. I was hoping those fruits I ate wouldn't come back up again. I accelerated and pushed Bunai towards the ice traject. This traject was way longer than the one I made to push the paparazzi stone since I needed some time to gather enough water magic to pull the big robot with. This traject was about 5 times longer.

Bunai! Advance 5x! This should add some speed to him. Now I had about 6 seconds to make sure I could pull this robot down. I fought off the fatigue and nausea. Luckily it was quite humid in this dungeon so I managed to create large volumes of water and ice and pulled at the robot's head. It tried to grab the water noose I made for him but since it was water his hands went into it. I also made some ice blocks smash into his feet to slightly help him move. Bunai collided with the Robot’s ankles. I could hear the sound of metal denting and the robot moved a bit. This was enough since the slippery floor would amplify this movement. The robot's center of balance shifted and more and more movement came into the robot. His feet were moving in the direction which was parallel to the direction Bunai crashed into him and the head of the robot started moving towards me. These movements accelerated and I had to get out of there because else I would turn into an Agnis pancake.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

Bunai! Here! I called Bunai over to make sure there wouldn't also be a Bunai pancake on the menu. The robot crashed down with a deafening sound. It shattered the ice I used to freeze the floor. But that was fine. I refroze the floor but this time I made frost climb up the knee, hip, and elbow joints of the robot. Any movement the robot tried to make would get absorbed by the frost and turned into energy which I could later use to melt this jerk. I was too tired to muster up energy by myself so I just let the big robot do it for me. I patted Bunai on the back.

Good job Bunai! Bunai looked at the robot. Or well I'm not sure it is hard to know what a golem is doing when it stands still. I sat down and retrieved more food out of my dimensional pocket. I offered some to Bunai but it didn't seem to be interested in the food. That was to be expected, golems are only interested in rocks as food! Ok maybe that is inaccurate too but a protagonist that doesn't eat is quite boring. I should do something about that after we defeat this boss. I tried my best to not fall asleep. I don't know if it was a blessing or curse but the robot started to make a lot of noise which woke me up. It started to expel a lot of steam and it lifted itself off the ground. Its joints were still frozen to the ground but he just lifted it with so much force that the ground got lifted with it. Unlike the rest of the dungeon which had corundum floors, this floor was made out of regular dirt and rock. Flabbergasted, I looked at the display of power this robot showed. Its eyes glowed red.

Ugh, of course, bosses always have a phase 2. As I got up to prepare for round 2, I noticed something. These red glowing eyes were charging their laser! My failure to notice this in time caused quite the corund-rum. I could easily dodge this but the protagonist of this story, Bunai would get hit by it. So, there was only one option. I pushed Bunai away over the frozen floor and covered myself with as many water and frost layers as I could gather in a short amount of time.

This is going to hurt! I managed to make 7 layers each of frost and water before the laser hit my bubble. A lot of energy got absorbed also a lot of energy ended up sending me flying into a corundum wall regrettably some energy still made it through messing me up quite badly. I did survive it at least. I coughed up blood and there was blood coming out of my nose. The wall where I crashed into was melting. I inspected myself. 4 broken ribs, a slight concussion, and my left arm had a small fracture. Also, some vessels in my lungs burst because of the pressure wave the energy blast created. I sent some nature energy to my lungs to fix that. Besides that, I seem to have gotten quite lucky. I was resistant to heat so I was relatively fine. The water layers evaporated but since they were trapped between frost layers the energy they created while expanding got absorbed. If I weren't heat resistant, I would have probably died on the spot there. I only have 7 lives in total but I think it would've been enough to kill me multiple times over. I tried to get up but my body didn't seem to want to listen. My vision started to get bloody since blood flowing from my forehead ran into my right eye. It stung. But I prioritized getting up because I couldn't see it but I could feel the robot charging up another laser.

This time Bunai and I were quite far apart so I could dodge this laser beam. In theory, that is. I tried to move but my body was like: Nah man time to rest. Which didn't help because I was about to get hit by a laser beam. I remembered my training on the third floor and shot 2 wires out which were attached to the robot's legs and I pulled myself towards it dodging the laser beam. It was sloppy but I was still alive. For how long was the question because right now I was right under the robot. At least it was focusing on me now which means the protagonist was safe. I looked at Bunai and he was spamming smash at the other robot’s foot. I didn't have the energy to spare to predict orders for him so he was at a good spot over there. I shot out more wires that attached to the robot and I swung myself around sloppily. I guess messing around on the third floor paid off. I finally managed to wipe the blood out of my eye and wash it with water magic.

I had a lot of energy ready for use but not the stamina to use it. That doesn't make any sense? See it as you have a hose and the energy that comes out of it can one-shot the boss and the only thing you have to do is press the on button and direct the energy. Pressing the on switch, which I have the energy for but directing it I don't really, I will probably end up melting Bunai and possibly not control it well so the heat doesn't concentrate on the boss. Basically, I could fire it off but the result might not improve the situation at this point. A smash this time towards my direction and again I sloppily evade it with wires. I was hoping I would recover some stamina to finish this boss off but it seemed I have reached my limit. At this point, I was wondering if I should go for an all-or-nothing situation. The only magic I could use at this point was frost magic since it has a negative mana cost as using it will give me mana. Even still I could do small things because it was hard to focus through the pain and fatigue. But hey at least I wasn't nauseous on top of it! I slid to the side dodging another smash and the boss started to charge another laser.

Oh shit! At that point, Bunai, who was continually punching the robot's foot, had made a dent big enough that it caused the robot to go through its ankle. This caused the robot to shift more toward its left which caused his laser to miss me by about 10 meters.

Good job Bunai! Bunai was doing some protagonist work here, saving his ally in need. I finally managed to get up. My legs were a bit shaky but I was standing. The robot prepared to smash and I shot more wires and dodged toward its arm that wasn't smashing. But the robot wasn't aiming for me.

Bunai! About face! Dash! Bunai turned around and started dashing. But it was too late. As I landed on a protrusion on the robot's hip, I saw a golem with flaming hair disappear under the robot's fist.

Bunai! The fist moved and, in the crater, a pile of crushed rocks could be seen. A tear rolled down my cheek and some inexplicable feeling welled up from inside me. I jumped down toward where Bunai got hit. I looked at the smashed rubies and sapphires and saw the ruby that made out the centre of his torso shattered. His core was also shattered. The robot smashed at me but the only thing I felt was that everything should just burn.

This was the first time I channelled my phoenix side in a long time since an obvious effect would take place when I do. It will boost my fire magic. But at this point, I didn't care. My tails disappeared, freeing up all the energy I stored from absorbing lasers and impacts with frost magic and I ignited it all. The intensity went up so high that after a brief moment of being fire red, it turned into a mix of light and dark blue flames. I was still mildly controlling them but when I saw it was going for another punch, I dialled the fire up to 11. I don't remember much afterward, just that I woke up inside of an enormous crater the dungeon seemed to have disappeared although it was hard to tell since this huge crater seemed to be way bigger than the area in which I found the temple it was so big that it seemed it blew away the whole mountain. The first thing I saw when I woke up was the sky, which was weird since I should be somewhere deep under the ground. After waking up I couldn't move. My body was completely exhausted, I was floating on a pool of magma but it didn't do anything to me since I had high fire resistance at the moment, I also was in phoenix mode but since I couldn't move, I rested some more.