CHAPTER NINETY ONE

At first, the room was totally empty. It was just a plain area with nothing in it. The only unusual feature was its size - it was roughly the same size and shape as three consecutive football fields. There was no exit on the other side, and Jason cursed.

This area must have been carved deep into the cliff face. Sadly, they couldn't turn back.

A series of rickety clanks echoed from behind Jason and Danny. The two pilots whirled around, only to see a strange metal gate snap shut behind them. The silver gate reminded Jason of the ones at mall storefronts - it was segmented in the exact same way.

Danny slashed it with his sword, but his attack bounced off uselessly. The other pilot laughed and shrugged good-naturedly.

"I didn't think that was going to work, but it was worth a try."

Moments later, a message appeared on their screen.

UNFORTUNATELY, YOU HAVE REACHED A DEAD END

DEFEAT THE MINI-BOSS LEAPING ASSASSIN IN ORDER TO CONTINUE FURTHER INTO CASTLE NOTORIA

The metal ground split apart. The entire area turned into a black gaping void save for the sliver of terrain Danny and Jason were standing on. A loud shuffling sound echoed through the large stadium.

Jason immediately recognized that the stage was transforming. If he had to guess, the Illusionists wanted to shift the terrain so it was favorable for their boss, just like a usual Five Star Boss stage.

The first thing to emerge from the ground was a strange green blade with shone with a bizarre internal hue. At first, Jason frowned in confusion, but he soon realized that what he thought was the blade was actually the first leaf of a tree. More and more trees of all different shapes and sizes emerged. Jason saw several palm trees and even a Christmas tree. Almost all of them were ridiculously large. They towered over his Mech just like how an ordinary tree would tower over a human. Even the shortest of them was a couple of feet taller than Jason's Hemoborn partner.

However, all of their leaves had the same strange glowing green color as the very first blade.

Before long, the football stadium looked like some kind of massive greenhouse that'd been writ large for Mechs. The only difference was the lack of a glass outer layer - the density of the vegetation was the same.

But even though the stage changed, the boss was nowhere to be found. Jason's eyes darted back and forth, but he saw nothing but the countless leaves and dense forestation.

"Danny, where is this guy?"

The other player shook their head.

"Yeah, I don't see them either..."

Jason scowled and gripped his controls tightly. He wanted to deal with this as soon as possible. While Salvaging the mini-boss would be nice, the main prize was the Paranoid Parachuter. The longer they spent battling this guy, the less time they would have to complete the mission.

He stepped forward, and then a red light flashed on his machine's sensors. At first, he thought it was the enemy, but then he realized he'd taken a light cut on his Antigone Armor while walking forwards. He'd stepped right by a relatively small tree - one that was only the height of the Red Minerva - and one of the leaves had sliced into his mech, leaving a long white line on the typical red and black armor.

Jason frowned. He hadn't really taken any damage. It was more like hitting a curb on accident while backing out of the parking lot. He'd just chipped his coat of paint. However, tree leaves typically weren't as hard as curbs...

Jason requested additional information from his sensors. To his surprise, the leaves were made of metal and they were honed as sharp as blades. On top of that, the strange glow came from an outer layer of paint applied to the thin metal pieces.

Danny frowned.

"That's beam diffraction paint. It'll redirect your beam blasts if you strike it."

Huh.

Jason frowned. He'd heard of the substance before, but he hadn't actually experienced it firsthand. On top of that, it would be pretty challenging to deal with beam diffraction paint that'd been applied to the terrain. The substance was extremely valuable, and only a high-tier guild like the Illusionists could afford to blanket an entire mechanical forest with it.

A strange noise echoed through the artificial forest.

Jason's ears perked up at the bizarre thwicking sound, and he jerked the Red Minerva's head aside just in time. A strange spinning steel dart rocketed just a few feet away from the Red Minerva's eye. If Jason hadn't dodged, the shot might have pierced his brain cockpit on the spot. It'd been perfectly aimed in the tiny gap in the Antigone Armor's headpiece.

The dart had been shot with so much velocity that it pierced one of the nearby leaves. The item was purely solid, so it wasn't affected by the beam diffraction paint. However, it was still extremely impressive to pierce the thin layer of metal with sheer force.

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Jason turned to the source of the dart and saw a faint flicker of motion as a small machine leaped from tree to tree. The build was bright green, which matched perfectly with the leaves. The machine's color and its strange jumping motion reminded Jason of a frog. The build was unusually small - it was just twenty feet tall, roughly a third the size of the Red Minerva in her Antigone Armor. The highly mobile machine was a Mini Mech - the exact opposite of the towering Giga Mechs Jason had fought in the past.

The machine only had a single weapon - a railgun that'd been built into the machine's head, which was circular with large bulging mechanical eyes that vaguely resembled the lights on a car. The narrow weapon was clearly designed to look like a blowgun, although the frog-like assassin did not need to hold the tube in its hand before attacking. Instead, it used its arms to swing around and change directions, acting almost like a hybrid of a frog and a monkey.

The build traded speed for mobility, and the frog smoothly darted back into the trees as Jason fired his beam rifles. Every single one of the attacks missed, and the red beams of light were wildly redirected at unusual angles.

"Alright. This guy is pretty good. We need to figure out a way to take him out."

Danny nodded and the two friends quickly put a plan together. The blowgun was powerful, but its range was mediocre. The machine's strategy was to jump into range to attack before fleeing back into the woods.

First, Jason transformed his machine, shifting from the standard Red Minerva form into the Red Lamia. The snake woman couldn't use all of the Antigone Armor - the leg pieces were more or less useless - but her upper body was still well protected. Jason hadn't had the chance to use the Lamia for a while, but it was the perfect option for this shooting duel.

Meanwhile, Danny continued rolling for items. If he received his most powerful weapon, the ever-bending sword, he could end the fight immediately. Of course, that was a very low probability. Indeed, the first item he rolled was a mediocre mace.

However, his real goal was to put pressure on his opponent. Even though Danny had no ranged items, he could still force the boss to move forwards. The luck-based weapons system meant that opponents were punished for excessive stalling.

Jason grinned. If it weren't for Danny, the frog Mech would have been able to just hide inside the trees forever.

As it was, the tiny Mech was forced to fire its blowgun off cooldown, and Jason had plenty of opportunities for attacks. Jason alternated between the Pestilent Snipe and the beam rifles.

Unfortunately, all of his attacks were completely ineffective.

The Snipe had a much lower downside, but the frog had no problem avoiding the highly compressed bullets. The concentrated acid ate through a few of the trees, but not enough to make a significant difference.

The beam attacks were far worse. Jason had no idea how his attacks interacted with the leaves. It seemed like even the slightest different angle could lead to an unexpected result. It was even worse when the leaves deflected attacks into each other. Jason's beams wound up ricocheted like pinballs, creating danger for the entire team.

One of the shots looked like it was going to hit Jason before it deflected against yet another leaf. The bouncing light wound up smacking Danny's machine, knocking it briefly to the ground.

Shit...

Jason hastily apologized, but Danny laughed it off as his Angry Duck burned bright red.

"Ah, I wouldn't worry about it. Any hit makes my machine grow stronger, right? Your shooting is our best bet right now, you'll just have to keep it up. I'll save this strength for when we find the Parachuter."

A moment later, the frog fired its dart gun, forcing the two to stop talking and focus on dodging.

Jason raised his rifles, then paused. Part of him was hesitant to return fire, but he knew he couldn't just rely on the Pestilent Snipe...

Jason knew that Danny's statement wasn't actually true - he was just trying to be encouraging.

His Mech would deal more damage for its next hit, but that was completely useless right now. If they didn't make it out of here, it didn't matter how much strength the Angry Duck saved up. On top of that, there was always the chance Jason could mess up too badly and kill Danny before they made it to the next round.

Unfortunately, Jason's best bet was just making his shots. His typical tactic of burning up the forest wouldn't work on this artificial terrain. If anything, it would just lead Danny to die faster.

Jason winced. He'd never been comfortable with shooting, and he'd typically only used it to catch unsuspecting opponents off guard.

To advance in the tournament, that needed to change. His only option was to improve his gameplay on the spot.

The frog machine continued leaping back and forth, darting into range to fire its blow dart before escaping again.

Jason did his best to dodge when he could. When he couldn't, he made sure he shielded Danny from the brunt of the attacks. The dart was powerful enough to pierce the Antigone Armor, which meant it'd finish off the Angry Duck in just a couple of hits.

The combination of his ineffective attacks and the frog assassin's strength was nerve-wracking. The pressure tightened around Jason's heart like a noose. Just like before, it felt a lot worse to let down his teammates than to mess up on his own.

However, Jason shook off his fear. Despite the danger, Danny didn't seem worried. He really felt like Jason could get them out of this mess.

And to Jason's surprise, he could.

The frog Mech leaped forward again. Throughout the match, it'd only exposed itself when it had to attack because the blowgun needed a clear path. Otherwise, it would hide behind the protective trees.

As the frog leapt forward, Jason began to wildly fire his beam rifles in the surrounding area while charging up his Pestilent Snipe.

Before, he'd tried shooting straight at the frog, only to miss and get the shots reflected back at him. This time, he spammed the guns so that the blasts hit the leaves all around the frog at unexpected angles. He placed a special priority on leaves that were close by each other since he knew they'd deflect the beams in the messiest and strangest way possible.

The wild flashing beams temporarily formed an impromptu cage, locking the frog in place.

Jason grinned. He'd used the unpredictability against his opponent, and the beam diffraction was now his opponent's problem. Since the frog had no idea how the beams would fly, it wouldn't run the risk of withdrawing. The squishy machine would fall to just a few beam blasts.

However, it'd also fall to the Pestilent Snipe.

The Red Lamia spat the compressed bullet through the air, and the shot knocked the frog's head right off. The green sphere went flying through the battlefield.

Danny pumped his fist.

"Hell yeah! I knew you could do it!"

Jason grinned. If it wasn't for his friends' trust, he wasn't sure he could have figured it out.

As soon as the machine exploded, the door behind Jason opened back up again, but before Jason and Danny could leave, a white light started glowing in the middle of the forest.

BONUS PORTAL ACTIVATED