The colossal gauntlet fell down, blocking the way for the incoming demon army. The impact also destroyed nearly all of the Fortress Golems that had previously been holding on to it. Yet their deaths were not in vain with all the C4 that had been stuck on the gauntlet.
Only a single Fortress Golem had survived the toppling of the gauntlet because of the angle it was hanging on. Thus, it climbed up to the top of the gauntlet to make its last stand there aware that retreating now was the dumbest option he could choose.
The Fortress Golems had never been designed with speed as their main focus, merely their joints were responsive for quick minor movements. Running away would just be losing the advantage of halting the demons even though the pilot was aware that it would be impossible to hold them for more than a couple minutes at best.
However, to the defenders, every second was a precious commodity. Qiu Yue was finally able to take a breather and reorganise the cultivators that were left slightly stranded from the attacks. The same was true for Xiong Da, who needed this time to tend to his own wounds. Stray debris had cut into his arm when the gauntlet fell onto the sky bridge.
In a way, the other goblin pilots were a little envious of the situation for the one stranded right on top of the gauntlet. They had been ordered to remain in their respective watchtower picking off targets one by one while his demise was inevitable.
According to the protocol, he was now authorised to use up every tool he had available before his inevitable demise. Luckily, there was still the ongoing artillery barrage to aid him, so why not use that to its maximum effect?
\”Maybe the System might reward me with extra points for being so courageously stupid to stand here on my own.\” The goblin pilot wondered as he checked on the remaining arsenal he had in the golem’s backpack.
Four fully loaded sixteen gauge shotguns. There were extra shotgun shells to spare, but he knew there was no time to reload. A two hundred fifty clip heavy machine gun packed at the side of the metal backpack. A heavy calibre customised pistol at the back of the golem’s hip. An emergency reactive explosive buckler ejectable via the side of the backpack as well as a foldable axe. Oh, and a total of nine minutes of operational time before the battery wore out…
Chucka smiled as he watched the battery tick off second by second. \”Better not waste any more time.\” He quickly unloaded his machine gun and relocked his golem’s soles onto the fallen gauntlet with its long steel nails. Surely he would be receiving a shit ton of attacks but Chucka, the Goblin pilot of Fortress Golem #046, or as he nicknamed it ‘Chucky’, believed it could- no, it WOULD weather the worst of all of the attacks until his power runs out. If not, Chucka would definitely complain to the Goblin mechanics and Orc engineers for slacking too much.
Before Chucka could even pull out the heavy machine gun, the Wight Mages of Rubies had already started sending fireballs in his direction. In the meantime, foot soldiers were climbing up the gauntlet to reach and destroy his construct, hoping it would fall and grant them glory for tearing it apart. Unfortunately, they had forgotten that Chucka was not alone as other watchtowers were still operational.
\”You lucky son of a bitch, you better kill a hundred before you fall. I do not care if your golem drops dead or you are limping, just KILL THEM. You have no rights to return unless you complete my order!\” A duty goblin officer from the watchtower shouted through the System subchannel, and the rest of the golem pilots laughed and added further insult.
\”Aye aye, sir!\” Chucka had already deployed his emergency buckler to protect the primary sensors at the head area while arming his heavy machine gun to spray at the crowd. A digital counter specifically came out when his duty officer relayed the order to him. Once he saw the numbers climbing up rather rapidly, Chuka could have sworn his duty officer asked for a thousand instead.
\”Don’t push your luck, Chucka.\” The golem pilot felt a sudden chill as if the golem itself was talking back to him. But there was no time to be distracted, so he continued his incessant slaughter. With the aiming assistance provided by the console, the Fortress Golem was doing considerably well, targeting the Wights. However, their shields were more than decent, and only the foot soldiers died from the attack. Chucka stopped trying to go for them, instead, he concentrated on the foot soldiers to lower the overall numbers.
Suddenly, his heavy machine gun got stuck. His training instinct kicked in to check the chamber quickly instead of panicking, and Chucka realised he had yet to shoot out even half a clip of ammo.
\”Fuck, fuck!\” Chucka used his third arm to reach for the reloading mechanism to clear his jammed gun and simultaneously take out a shotgun from the automated backpack of the golem. However, it seemed like the Wights had been waiting precisely for this moment and a high-intensity fireball coincidentally impacted with the Fortress Golem’s third arm, taking it out almost immediately because of the lack of a magical shield.
Fortress Golem Chucky did have a magical energy shield module installed, similar to the ones used for the Anti-Air Defences, but it took way too much energy out of the battery pack. Thus Chucka did not bother using it.
Seeing how the third arm got obliterated, Chucka inserted strength into its fist to destroy the handle and held the heavy machine gun like a makeshift blunt weapon, hitting on any potential enemies that came too close to him as Chucka handled the enemies in mid-range with his sixteen gauges, oops now twelve-gauge shotgun.
The goblin pilot was able to stay alive up till now mostly due to skill and with a fair bit of luck, the situation he was in right now was certainly a testament to that. Chucka was just an ordinary pilot, and unlike Tomas who wished to prove his worth, the goblin pilot had considered the bigger picture, which was why he stayed behind to hold the line. Besides, Ayse and the rest of the engineers had spent hundreds or thousands of dungeon dollars on this piece of metal.
Some of the enemies managed to slip through the cracks of Chucka’s buddies support fire and tried to pierce the golem with their weapons. Unfortunately for them, the steel armour it wore was not something to be underestimated.
Inscribed with defensive inscriptions beneath each plate of armour, the golem had increased resistances against slashing, piercing as well as magical attacks, making it quite a terrifying defender, if not for its limited mobility and single battery pack system.
\”Only three more minutes!\” Chucka gritted his teeth and kept moving the controls to defend his primary sensors while dealing damage to the surrounding enemies. The shotgun subsequently got turned into a blunt weapon too since the heavy machine gun had already broken into pieces after considerable smashing. The second and third shotguns were used the same way as well until he was left with the heavy calibre pistol.
But unlike the shotguns or heavy machine gun, the heavy calibre pistol was an invention from the Mecha World. It had a smart chip inserted into it, and the bullets could fly like mini-missiles towards their targets. Was there a particular type of target that Chucka was aiming for?
The C4s his comrades and him had previously planted.
A quick shift in programming with voice control from Chucka, enabled Chucky to make the necessary changes to the targets the smart gun was aiming at. Yet at the time, he was flailing his retractable axe to pretend that it was out of options. And that enabled the demon army commanders to press for an advance while keeping the golem occupied enough.
\”Idiots.\”
Chucka smiled as he raised Chucky’s arm and shot the bullets upwards, causing them to fly upwards and subsequently to their targets. Meanwhile, he too pressed the self destruct button three times, indicating to quicken the destruction time sequence to the minimum time as he retracted the handle to eject his pod.
In short, the series of explosions seen happening on the gauntlet was a magnificent display of fireworks too. (Oh and Peppers rated it a 3.5/10. The 0.5 for the blood spattering. Such a harsh critic she was.)
