Chapter 78: Clang (Patreon)

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Strategically, clangs were one of the worst matchups for their team. The monster that was officially labeled 'animated armor', but colloquially called clangs, wasn't the least bit stealthy, meaning Marvenal's perception skills were unnecessary. Its wandering nature and the fact that they were trapped in a narrow corridor meant [Taunt] wasn't needed for Cayden to grab and hold its attention. And of all the monsters Cayden had learned about, it was perhaps the one most resistant to light-based attacks. Delphia's healing skills would always be useful, but in general, healers were more effective against the accumulation of small injuries over the course of a delve – working around the limitations of healing potions – than they were against singular monsters that could cause severe injuries. Not that they weren't still useful in those situations, but healing didn't mean much to someone who'd just been decapitated.

Marvenal's web skill was about the only thing they had going for them that could truly 'counter' clangs, and the usefulness of that skill was already limited by the dungeon itself: in the tight corridors, unless he wanted to tie up Cayden with the monster, Marvenal would only be able to use the skill if he was in front of the group.

They could count themselves lucky that they hadn't ended up in the clangs' territory. Their plan for that had been to avoid as many fights as possible by sneaking around the noisy wandering monsters, and it was bad luck that they were facing one now. In all honesty, they should have been more prepared for the possibility – while the instructors had harshly discouraged the students from crossing into territories that were assigned to other teams, there were no such limitations on the monsters. And here, near the center of the maze, the six territories were that much closer to each other.

Yet for all their tactical disadvantages, for all that this would be a much more difficult and time-consuming fight than any of those against the esprits...clangs were at the very top of the list Cayden had been hoping to face.

Cayden batted aside the clang's sword as it attempted a stab, retaliating with a strike with his other hand against the metal vambraces of the monster's sword arm. It tried to knock Cayden back with a shield bash with its other arm, but Cayden stood his ground, grunting as his shoulder impacted against the metal.

With the narrow corridor and his teammates crowded right behind him, he wasn't going to be able to dodge as much as he was used to. So, after both the clang and Cayden had disengaged, Cayden charged forward toward the shield as he increased his [Inertia]. Not too high – while the armor comprising the clang's body was heavy, there wasn't anything actually inside the armor, which meant the monster weighed significantly less than Cayden did. Anything more than a fifty percent increase would be overkill.

In the narrow corridor, there wasn't enough room for the clang to properly swing its sword, but that didn't stop it from trying. With [Blade Sense], Cayden could read the intention of his opponent's sword, but he could also read its trajectory – and right now, those were telling him two different things.

The clang attempted to intercept Cayden's charge with a wide swing, but its blade got caught against the wall. It wouldn't slow it down by much, but a split-second was all Cayden needed. He charged past the swinging blade and impacted the clang's shield, sending it tumbling back down the corridor.

Cayden didn't let up on his advantage, following the monster and bearing it to the ground. He targeted the clang's sword hand, slashing at its fingers in hopes of making it lose its weapon, but the metal fingers of the armored glove stayed locked around the sword's handle.

He resorted to leaning on the clang's sword arm as he continued attacking it with his right hand, but his strikes weren't doing much. His strength caused small dents, and his claws punctured through in a few places, but he wasn't able to slash the gaping rents that would be needed to truly defeat the monster. The clang bucked underneath him in an attempt to escape, and it was all Cayden could do to maintain his grip on the monster with his left hand while attacking with his right. For as light as the monster was in comparison to Cayden, it wasn't lacking in strength.

Red light flashed in the dim corridor as Velic's lasers shot over his shoulder, but Cayden didn't pay them any mind. Either his teammate's skill helped or it didn't – nothing Cayden did would affect it either way. He just needed to focus on what he could do.

The attacks on the armor obviously weren't working, and even with his increased [Inertia] he was struggling to hold it down. He needed to figure out how to take this thing down, and fast, before it was able to struggle its way back to its feet and he lost his advantage.

Gripping the sword arm with both hands, he attempted to wrest control of the sword away from the monster, but the fingers weren't budging. It almost felt as if they were welded in place with the way they had no give whatsoever – and with a flash, he realized that was exactly what it was.

Well, not that they were welded in place, obviously. But he had been treating the clang as if it were a person inside the armor, with the same vulnerabilities that a person would possess.

But the clang wasn't a normal suit of armor. It had no need for things like articulating joints in its fingers, not when the blade was just as much an attached part of the monster as the rest of its armor. With renewed vigor, Cayden turned his focus from the monster's fingers to its wrist, the joint closest to the sword that had to articulate if it wanted to effectively wield its sword. Cayden pulled his knees up until they were resting on top of the clang's forearm and then grabbed its hand with both of his own. And then, with all of his strength, he pulled, twisting the joint as far as it could go.

With his full weight and attention focused on the clang's arm, the clang twisted onto its side and proceeded to whack Cayden over the head with its shield. He hunched his back and ducked his head to avoid the worst of the impacts, but otherwise ignored its attempts. With his grip secured and [Inertia] increased, there was nothing the clang could do to knock Cayden from his perch. The clang's wrist flexed under Cayden's grip, much further than any human's wrist could flex. Until finally, with a yell of effort, something in the clang's wrist popped as the metal gloves disconnected from the vambraces.

Finally free, the clang scrambled to its feet and attempted to swing its sword down at Cayden's head. Yet it didn't seem to realize that it was no longer holding a sword – its hand and sword lay on the ground where Cayden had dropped them, inert hunks of metal that were no danger to anyone. After a few attempted attacks, what passed as a mind for the clang must have realized its 'swings' of the sword weren't effective, and it switched to attempted shield bashes.

But Cayden hadn’t been sitting around while the clang figured out its next move. He pulled himself back to his feet and met the shield bash with a charge of his own, once more bearing it to the ground with his higher [Inertia]. This time, he focused on the monster's left arm, trapping the shield against the floor to expose the inside of the creature's elbow. The shield was attached to the clang's forearm, once more seemingly welded in place, so as the monster attempted to bludgeon Cayden over the head with its hand-and-sword-less right arm, Cayden focused his attention on the monster's left elbow, once more applying his full strength and body weight to the joint until it snapped off and became inert.

Again, the clang scrambled to its feet, this time with one arm cut off at the wrist and the other at the elbow. Displaying its lacking intelligence, it attempted a few more shield bashes before realizing that it no longer possessed a shield, and then switched to melee strikes with what was left of its arms. Cayden ignored the attacks and turned his attention to his next targets: the clang's legs.

Without arms, it was much easier for Cayden to take the monster to the ground. If it was a bit smarter, it might have been able to muster up a defense, but as it was the monster seemed to keep forgetting that it no longer had all of its arms, attempting to push itself up with limbs that were no longer entirely there. Taking advantage of its uncoordinated flailing, Cayden snapped the legs off at the knee, first the left and then the right. They required more force to dismantle than the arms, but Cayden no longer had his attention split between defending himself and holding the monster down, so was able to manage without issue.

Thoroughly beaten, the clang refused to give up. It flailed about uselessly on the ground, its ferocity not dimmed in the slightest from its 'injuries.' Cayden took a step back and watched the clang flop around like a dying fish.

It was equal parts hilarious and sad, the way the clang kept trying to kill them even in its limbless state. But Cayden had no mercy for it, and after catching his breath, he knelt down by its head and twisted the helmet until it popped off and the monster fell still.

Now that it was dead, rather than monster parts it was just old pieces of armor strewn across the corridor, and not particularly well-made armor at that. The metal was thick and heavy, marred with scratches and dents from Cayden's tackles. Additionally, it lacked some of the joints and openings needed someone who had to climb into their armor.

If it was his first dungeon run, Cayden was sure he would have been ecstatic at the heavy haul of valuable monster remains. But now, with the jaded wastefulness that came with wealth, he fished inside the helmet for the experience crystal before tossing the metal aside with the rest of the scraps.

"Ready to go?" he asked, turning back to his teammates with a smile.

His teammates simply stared at him, mouths slightly open, before Velic's snapped shut and he turned in place. "Let's get back in formation and keep it moving! We can still finish ahead of schedule if we're fast."

Nodding, Cayden wiggled his way past his teammates to his spot on the other end of the formation, much less violently than he had when rushing to engage the clang. Delphia reached out and grazed his arm with two fingers as he passed, and Cayden felt a cut he hadn't even realized he'd had disappear from his forehead.  He handed Marvenal the experience crystal as he passed the rogue, and then, with Cayden once more leading the way, they resumed their delve.

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Cayden's spirits were much higher after his brawl with the clang. The next few minutes of the delve continued in the same way as the first forty-five: Marvenal spotting esprits, Cayden [Taunting] them, and Velic killing them. But though the process was as miserable as it had always been, a small smile remained on Cayden's face.

"I think this one will take us out of here," Velic said, not for the first time. They'd taken a few turns in an attempt to get to the exit, only to be foiled by a tee each time. They could tell they were close, though – for those teams without Velic's connections, the orb that glowed based on their territory also served as a rough guide through the maze. For them, it started out glowing a dark blue and got progressively lighter the closer they got to the exit. For the last few minutes, it had been lightly glowing a baby blue so pale Cayden could mistake it for white if he squinted hard enough, so they knew they were close. It was just a matter of finding the correct path to bring them home.

Cayden nodded and led the way down the new corridor. Whether this path would lead them out or not, Cayden didn't particularly mind. After the battle with the clang had cleared his head from the prolonged misery that was the 'fights' with the esprits, he realized he was proud of their delve. His team had worked together seamlessly to handle each esprit they'd encountered, and, if he could say so himself, he thought he'd done well against the clang. Aside from the single esprit Marvenal had missed, he struggled to think of how they might have been able to do any better. All in all, he'd describe the delve as about as close to ‘perfect’ as they could hope for.

Of course, just as he finished thinking that thought, a low rumble echoed through the dungeon.

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