Chapter 136: Blatant Product Placement

As the spawn rates of the small Golems lowered, the Mount Golem's previously crude, mechanical movements gained more speed and fluidity. Although it was not fast enough to catch Hannah just yet, its two gigantic arms swinging around at her were bound to be at least pressuring. Being grabbed by this colossal monster meant instant death even for Daryl, so even a graze could be fatal for Hannah.

In fact, just the wind pressure from the Golem swinging its arms was already enough trouble, but Hannah managed to stay airborne and moved in to attack. Since her hits did not seem to have any effect at all, taking on the Mount Golem by herself proved to be quite emotionally exhausting.

Even focusing on the monster's joints, where attacks were supposed to go through more easily, had resulted in no change so far. Then at one point, as Hannah kept on attacking, a familiar whistling sound came from behind her, then passed by over her head.

It was the sign that Diniel was getting ready to use <<Stream Arrow>>. Hannah took a glance behind her, confirming Diniel's location before moving away.

Diniel, after confirming that Hannah had retreated, shot an ice arrow into the air, aiming at a spot directly above the Mount Golem's head.

"<<Stream Arrow>>."

The white arrow streaked through the air, scattering ice flakes. And then, smaller arrows rained down onto the Mount Golem's head like a snowslide.

The Mount Golem, agitated by the <<Stream Arrow>>, proceeded to cover its head with its arms. Hannah, seeing an attack have an effect on the boss monster for the first time, started giggling as she hovered around in the air.

"Oof..."

The skill packed the most power out of Diniel's whole arsenal, but it also demanded the use of a great deal of mental energy at once. Diniel, feeling slightly washed-out from using it, immediately took a sip of Blue Potion.

And while she waited for her energy to recover, she opted to attack normally with water and ice-elemental arrows, as using powerful skills too much would make it impossible for Hannah to pull aggro properly.

"<<Enchant Earth>>! <<Combat Cry>>!"

"<<Dragon Form>>."

Since Diniel had gone to focus on Mount Golem, the battle got much busier on Daryl and Amira's side. Since Amira's level was the lowest among the party, she had to rely on her unique skill, <<Dragon Form>>, for a power boost.

"Ngh-"

And now, Daryl had to rely on his tower shield, powered up with <<Enchant Earth>>, to push back against the Bomb Golems that were rushing at him. One of them glowed white and exploded; one moment, he felt his feet lift off the ground — and the next, he was blown backward.

"AAAHHH!!"

Amira's <<Dragon Form>> certainly was powerful, but she had to operate on combat instincts due to still not being able to fully take control. This resulted in her attacking enemies indiscriminately, as opposed to focusing on the Bomb Golems. Without Diniel's support that they had had before, Daryl's workload was now heavier than ever.

"<<Medic>."

Observing the situation from up in the sky, Tsutomu dispelled Amira's transformation, and then reached into his Magic Bag to find his Wind Magic Stone-powered megaphone, but then...

"Amira!" Daryl spoke up, his face covered in soot from the repeated explosions. "Stop using your <<Dragon Form>> for now! And focus on killing the Bomb Golems! The ones that glow red!"

"Huh-? Y-yeah! Got it!" Amira answered as she stood in place, recovering from her <<Dragon Form>> being forcibly disengaged, before acting as she had been told.

Daryl kept an eye on the smaller Golems spawned by the Mount Golem, and used wide-area aggro skills as needed to draw their attention to him. He positioned himself in a way that prevented projectile attacks from going toward Diniel and Hannah, and tried knocking the Bomb Golems away from him to get the other Golems caught in the explosions. Such were some of the moves he had come up with from spectating other groups' Mount Golem battles beforehand. Needless to say, he was doing quite well — so much so that only high-leveled veterans like Garm and Bittman could hope to fare this well on their first attempt.

Additionally, the coordination between him and Amira had improved, making him much more reliable. He was no longer a Tank that simply stood around and defended, but one that acted on his own and knew which targets to distract.

[Looks like they'll be all right.]

Seeing how well Daryl was managing things, Tsutomu put the megaphone back into his magic Bag and focused on support, healing, and the occasional attacking. The battle raged on with the front-line fighters split into two pairs: Daryl with Amira, and Hannah with Diniel. As for Tsutomu, he could be considered a middle-line, positioning himself a decent distance away to provide support and healing.

Hannah's <<Haste>> buffing was the one effect he could not afford to let expire, since if it did, the change in the sense of speed felt by her body would interfere with her movements. This could end up causing her to be grabbed by the Mount Golem as she distracted it, which was sure to be fatal.

Moreover, Daryl needed regular healing due to the Bomb Golems' self-destructs quite often causing heavy damage to him. As Daryl was an excellent Tank, a mistake or two on Tsutomu's part would not be the end of the world, but the ground being flooded with various Golems meant Tsutomu had to be careful not to accidentally land his healing and support skills on them instead.

Diniel and Amira needed <<Haste>> buffs as well, and in the latter's case, he had to pay attention for when he needed to disengage her <<Dragon Form>>. All in all, Tsutomu felt quite pressured, since certain support effects running out could spell doom for the whole party. Two especially lethal ones were Hannah's <<Haste>> running out and him accidentally buffing and-or healing the smaller Golems.

"<<Haste>>."

Still, he had gotten used to this kind of pressure during his time playing Live Dungeon. His biological clock had been etched so deeply into his senses that he had almost perfect command of support effect duration tracking, enabling him to keep Hannah's <<Haste>> going by placing pick-ups near her as she moved around.

"<<Heal>>, <<Protect>>."

To avoid healing and-or buffing the enemy, Tsutomu had to pay extra attention to the movements of Daryl and the Golems on the ground. He had carried out his role with the stance that a handful of mistakes would be fine, but ever since he had gotten this Absolute Helix party going, he had yet to accidentally land his skills on the wrong targets.

"Ten Throw Golems! Seven Bomb Golems! Six Lava Golems! Three normal Golems! We're getting closer and closer to the boss — keep that in mind and adjust your plans, Daryl!"

And in addition to support, he also had to keep tabs on the battle's situation at all times, relaying the numbers and types of monsters to his teammates so that they could adjust their positions appropriately. This was made doable by the ability to stay in mid-air, as it enabled him to see what he would not while standing on solid ground. Stephanie had also gone with the same approach during her Clan's Mount Golem battle.

"<<Stream Arrow>>."

While Daryl drew the wave of Golems to him and repositioned himself, Diniel kept using her skills to wear down the Mount Golem. Being pretty much the only one who could do substantial damage to the boss monster, she had been permitted to carry a hefty stock of Blue Potions on her person.

Moreover, hitting parts of the Mount Golem with ice-elemental attacks would cause them to cool down, temporarily rendering those spots somewhat more susceptible to other attacks. This meant Hannah could now pull aggro by attacking, as opposed to before when only <<Combat Cry>> worked well enough.

"<<Combat Cry>>! <<One-Two Straight>>! And then! <<Count Buster>>!"

The more skills were chained in a single combo, the bigger the power boost the <<Count Buster>> would get. Thanks to the combination of this damage and her red aggro-generating aura, Hannah was able to keep the Mount Golem from attacking Diniel despite how powerful the latter's <<Stream Arrow>> was.

Being focused on by the Mount Golem was not an issue for Hannah. With the boost from <<Haste>> and the use of the vivid blue-feathered wings on her back, she could carry out intricate three-dimensional maneuvers, easily dodging the enemy's attacks and striking back.

By this point, Daryl and Amira also were able to destroy the Bomb Golems reliably, so there was no longer a need to worry about their formation falling apart. Amira was an effective Attacker even without using her <<Dragon Form>>. As inexperienced as she was, she still was the best of the best of her age and level range due to having learned the ways of the sword from Camille, whose skills had been honed from years of raiding countless Dungeons.

[Okay, no problem over here.]

While Tsutomu drank a vial of Blue Potion, he observed the situation and saw that the team was getting more and more stable. Keep this up, and they would have no difficulties wearing down the Mount Golem until it entered its middle phase. Seeing that there was some free time now, Tsutomu proceeded to cast a layer of <<Barrier>> on himself.

――▽▽――

The battle went on perfectly smoothly for a while, and then once the Mount Golem got hit by <<Stream Arrow>> the tenth time, it started to change. Its pitch black body started gaining a tinge of red, and just as it had when the battle started, it scattered clusters of red rocks all over the place whenever it swung its arms — red rocks that turned into Bomb Golems. Seeing that, Tsutomu shouted into his megaphone,

"Everyone, fly! Daryl and Amira, get back here! Diniel, attack as much as you can before it starts smashing the ground! After that, come regroup!"

The three promptly responded to Tsutomu's commands, with Diniel ascending into the air, while the two others rushed toward Tsutomu.

"Here, have some water."

"Thanks."

The boss monster spawning a large number of Bomb Golems was a sign of it entering the battle's middle phase. The transition was a good time to take a breather, so Tsutomu passed Amira and Daryl each a canteen so that they could rehydrate.

"Daryl, turn around for a second."

"Ah, okay."

Daryl's heavy armor's cooling function ran on Ice Magic Stones, so the supply must be regularly replenished for it to work. While Daryl drank some water, Tsutomu had him turn around, open the lid of the energy tank on his armor's waist part, and put in some Ice Magic Stones that had been chiseled into the right shape by the craftsmen.

"You know, this might be the best performance you've had so far. Keep it up."

"Thank you. I'll do my best," Daryl answered. Perhaps due to having gotten used to fighting in this layer, he was no longer nervous, as apparent from how he was looking at the reddening Mount Golem without any significant sign of concern.

Tsutomu proceeded to pat him on the back and wrapped up the cooling tool's Ice Magic Stone refilling process.

"Amira, you're actually plenty strong, even without your <<Dragon Form>>. Maybe you're better off this way for now? You know, staying fully in control, doing what Daryl tells you to. Keep it up."

"...Shaddup."

"Hmm? Come again?" Tsutomu asked, having not heard what Amira had just said, but the latter only blushed and nudged him away.

Seeing Amira turning awkward for seemingly no reason, both Tsutomu and Daryl tilted their heads.

"Whoa-!"

And then a roar suddenly echoed through the arena, prompting them to turn in its direction. The Mount Golem ignored Hannah, raised up its arms, and slammed its fists down on the ground. Diniel, seeing that, grabbed the confused Hannah and regrouped with the other three.

"Good job, you two. Here, have some water."

"Thanks."

"Huh? The whole thing's over already?" Hannah promptly asked, her blue hair soaked with sweat.

"No, just the opening phase. We still have the middle and end phases to go," Tsutomu said and let out a dry chuckle.

Diniel took her mouth off her canteen and looked down at Hannah with a blank look in her eyes.

"Which means the real thing is coming after this."

"Ooh, so I still get to fight some more! Great!"

"Oh yeah? I wanna leave already..." Diniel grumbled, totally not looking forward to what was coming next as she accepted her canteen that was refilled by Tsutomu, putting it away in her Magic Bag.

"Ah! Some water for me too, please!" Hannah said, passing Tsutomu her canteen so that he could fill it up.

While the Absolute Helix party took this brief moment of peace to rest, the Mount Golem kept on pounding the ground. The surface, filled with Bomb Golems, turned redder and redder — and then lava erupted from the cracks.

The heat from the repeated eruptions caused the Bomb Golems to blow themselves up. Staying on the surface would get one caught up in the endless explosions, so knowing that in advance, the team flew into the air.

The other types of Golems, roaming around on the ground, were also caught in the ensuing destruction — which in turn resulted in the ceasing of their projectile attacks. This attack of the Mount Golem's was scripted to happen after it had lost a certain percentage of its life force, and was a good chance for the combatants to take a quick break.

At one point, the sphere-shaped God Eye approached the Absolute Helix party. The number '2' was written on it, indicating the Monitor it was broadcasting the live footage on.

"Ooh! We're on Pedestal #2, Teach!"

"Right."

"Amy, can you see me?"

Daryl and Hannah had some good fun looking into the lenses of the God Eye, while Diniel made a peace sign. Amira, seemingly uninterested, kept on looking at the Mount Golem and the erupting ground.

"Oh! I almost forgot! We have to show off our sponsor's logos!"

"Ah! That's right!"

"Uh, you two? You shouldn't say that out loud..."

Since they were being shown on Monitor #2 and fighting against a layer boss, they could expect the viewership to be quite good. Daryl and Hannah looked for where the engraved logos were on their equipment, and called the God Eye over so that those spots could be shown more clearly. Tsutomu chuckled dryly as he looked on.

"This heavy armor they made is amazing! Please do check them out!"

"Dorren Workshop! Dorren Workshop!"

[Amy did say that the more visible, the better... but isn't this too much?]

Seeing that they were doing this product placement so awkwardly on the spur of the moment, the audience was bound to forgive their blatantness. With that in mind, Tsutomu let the pair do their thing, and then clapped his hands when the time was right.

"Okay, guys. The Mount Golem's going to stop attacking soon. Let's go."

"Ah! Yes, sir!"

"Cheer for us, people!"

After the pair said all they wanted to to the God Eye and moved away from it, Tsutomu grouped up with them and went over their plans once again. By the time they were done, the Mount Golem had stopped pounding the ground. Its previously pitch-black body was now mostly red, and its movements were much faster than what it had started the fight with.

"Hannah, the enemy's going to be much faster from this point on, so be careful."

"Got it!"

"Now's the time for people to see what an evasion-based Tank can do. Show 'em your moves, Hannah!"

Hannah looked back at Tsutomu, puzzled by his sudden enthusiasm. For a moment, she pouted... then nodded and smiled.