Chapter 32: Metal Golem

Chapter 32: Metal Golem

As soon as Ain saw the figure, he knew he found what he was looking for.

'It's indeed a Metal Golem,' Ain smiled to himself as he prepared to carry out the familiar tactic.

He once again circled around its back and stealthily approached its back. 

Just as he was about to attack, he suddenly paused. 

With his current proximity, Ain could sense the golem's spirit energy. It reminded him of the Razor Panther. 

'It's at Advanced Rank-1.' Ain furrowed his brows slightly before they relaxed again. There were many reasons why Ain's fight with the Razor Panther was so miserable. 

The dark night had made it difficult for Ain to track the panther, and its ambush had also caught him off guard. The Razor Panther's intelligence was decent, allowing it to cause trouble for Ain. Moreover, he lacked experience in general. 

But the same couldn't be said now. The sky was bright and clear, and Ain was the one in the shadows this time. Golems possessed low intelligence in general, and their movements were slow. 

Ain felt confident in his chances. 

All these thoughts occurred in less than a second before Ain instructed Nox to use Possession. 

No matter how dull the golem was, it still detected the spirit energy fluctuations behind it.

Ain wanted to repeat the same strategy he used against the Rock Golems, which was to start by landing a three-strike combo on its back before dodging its attack.

As soon as Ain reached within arm's reach of the golem, he punched out with Spirit Impact, landing it squarely on the side of the golem's torso. 

Thud! 

A dull sound rang out. 

Where his fist landed, Ain only saw a faint dent.

He expected its defense to be higher, but he still felt a little annoyed at the outcome. The information from Scan passed through his mind. 

[Species: Metal Golem] 

[Attribute: Metal]

  [Rank: Advanced Rank-1] 

[Quality: Noble | Max Quality: Transcendent] 

Maybe it was due to its higher rank, but the Metal Golem was more agile than the Rock Golems. Ain also encountered Intermediate Rank-1 Rock Golems, but their agility didn't increased by such a large margin. 

Knowing that his previous plan wouldn't work, Ain abandoned his three-punch combo and dodged sideways.

As he predicted, the Metal Golem raised one of its arms up high, ready to use Smash, a common skill among golems. 

Seeing that Ain was no longer there, the golem turned its head towards its left, and tried to correct the attacks' trajectory. 

Ain once again dodged, arriving behind it, before unleashing a storm of fists. 

A few distinct sounds appeared simultaneously. 

Bang! Shatter!

Thud! Thud! Thud! 

The golem's arm landed heavily, smashing a crater in the ground. Dust and shattered rocks were blasted away forcefully. The epicenter was not Ain's previous location, but a little off to the side. It looked like the golem couldn't completely correct the trajectory of its attack. 

Ain's flurry of punches also struck the golem's back at this moment. Each fist left a small dent on its body, but no cracks were visible so far.

Although Metal Golems were of the metal attribute, they weren't completely comprised of metal. Their bodies were similar to ore. They could also shatter like ore and regular rocks. 

After this exchange, Ain retreated and put some distance between them. 

He looked at the clumsy golem as he shook his hands to rid them of the numbness. 

'It's gonna be a long fight.' Ain let out a breath before readying himself again. 

He already had a new battle plan, and it was very simple—it was to hit it until it breaks. 

Ain rushed towards the golem again. It recovered its posture and was making its way towards him. 

Seeing that Ain was rapidly approaching, it swung its arm horizontally with great force. 

This was just a regular attack, and its speed was still slow. Ain easily dodged it before circling around to its side. 

He released a two-punch combo with Spirit Impact, focusing his attacks on one place. 

The golem once again took a step and swung its arm. But Ain's response was no different from before  and two more attacks landed. 

This dance continued for a few rounds, and Ain eventually got used to the rhythm. 

After a few minutes, some cracks finally appeared on the Metal Golem's body, all centered around a single point, covered in dents. This was where all of Ain's attacks landed. 

Although the Metal Golem was a different species, its intelligence was only slightly better than the Rock Golems, mostly due to its higher rank. But it still wasn't a substantial increase. 

The golem was befuddled by this simple tactic.

With a full ten minutes of nonstop strikes, Ain finally felt a strain on his spirit energy. His reserves had decreased to a quarter. Ain didn't want to risk it exhausting his spirit energy and retreated while reaching into his pocket.

He fished out the small bottle of Spirit Recovery Pills before swallowing one.

Ain disengaged temporarily, but the Metal Golem didn't halt its attacks. It chased after him with sloppy movements as Ain easily maintained a safe distance, while his spirit energy recovered at an accelerated rate.

After calculating for a brief moment, Ain once again approached the golem. 

Before Nox reached Rank-1, Possession could only be supported for twenty minutes. But now, that limit had reached close to an hour. This was due to Ain's own effort in body tempering, as well as Nox's recent accelerated growth from the ghost resources Ain purchased last week. 

They were both in good condition, but they had been fighting non-stop for the past four hours, with minimal break in-between.

Nox could only support Ain another twenty minutes before it was completely exhausted. Ain didn't want to be left without a trump card, so he planned to finish this fight soon and attacked once again, without waiting for his spirit energy to recover completely.

The same old dance continued, and Ain, like a worker bee, was hard at work. 

Shatter! 

Five minutes later, rocks mixed with metal started to fall off from the Metal Golem's body, but Ain didn't relax his vigilance. Once bitten, twice shy. He had learned his lesson from the Razor Panther. 

After a few more hits, the golem suddenly raised both arms instead of just one, and they glowed with a heavy golden glow.

This didn't escape Ain's vision, and he swiftly jumped back, following it up with a handspring, covering an even larger distance. 

Bang! Shatter! 

Before he could turn back, a loud explosive collision sounded behind him, causing tremors to travel through the ground. Ain felt the ground tremble as an invisible shockwave slapped across his back. 

Dust flew everywhere, and rocks were lifted high into the sky, as if an angry volcano had just erupted. 

Ain quickly turned to look at the Metal Golem. Both its arms were buried in the rubble as it stood there unmoving. 

According to Nox, its life aura was still there. He could also sense its weakened spirit energy. 

Without further thought, Ain sprinted towards the golem and began a furious assault. This was a perfect chance, as the golem was stunned.

The Metal Golem tried to retrieve its limbs to attack him once again. 

"Sorry, but this ends here." Ain glanced at the golem's face expressionlessly and went in for the kill. 

One of his hands turned into white gaseous claws as he pierced it into the large crack using Spirit Impact. 

With true accuracy, his claw grabbed something and pulled with monstrous strength. 

Crack! Shatter! 

Rocks and ore flew everywhere as Ain claw left the golem's body. Clutched in it was a metallic object. 

The Metal Golem, that was struggling to free its arm, suddenly paused, before it began to crumble away, like an unfortunate sand sculpture.

Ain took a step back as he watched it die, or rather, it was already dead at that time. 

After confirming its death, Ain glanced around the vicinity before canceling Possession. 

Nox flew out of Ain's body and circled around the dead golem, examining their handiwork. 

Ain paid no mind and used Scan on the metallic object still in his hand. 

[Name: Metal Golem Core]

[Attribute: Metal] 

[Rank: Advanced Rank-1] 

[Attribute Traces: Metal 82.859%, Earth 8.335%, Fire 2.468%, …] 

After scanning it, Ain contemplated. 

He didn't use Scan to identify it. Its identity was already confirmed when Ain pulled it out of the golem, instantly killing it.

He was more interested in its attribute traces. The attribute traces were just the percentages of different attributes in spirit energy. He didn't bother looking for them during battle, as that was not an appropriate time. 

Previously, he also scanned the Rock Golem Core, and its attribute traces leaned heavily towards the earth attribute. 

It made sense, since it was an earth-attribute spirit beast, and it was primarily comprised of rocks. 

This was what led to Ain's curiosity. The Metal Golem also consisted largely of rocks. He wondered if it was not just a metal-attribute spirit beast but also an earth-attribute one.

And the Scan answered his question. Despite its body being largely made up of rocks, the metal attribute was still the most prevalent in its spirit energy. Thus, it was a metal-attribute spirit beast. 

This made Ain wonder what the attribute traces of spirit beasts with multiple attributes looked like.