Gustav nodded and stared at the front, 'Since I decide to play it this way, I will have to go beyond... Besides, doing things this way will have more benefits when I make up my mind on deciding whether or not to become part of the special squad.' Gustav concluded in his mind as Gradier Xanatus gave the go-ahead to the AI to increase the difficulty level of the sub-phases for Gustav.

At this point in time, Angy was already undergoing the third sub-phase.

​​

"CANDIDATE 00126 SIDE OF THE STATIC FLOOR WILL NOW UNDERGO A CHANGE IN DIFFICULTY!" The Robotic voice announced.

The black floor started restructuring.

Gustav was moved back to the beginning of the large floor.

After a few seconds, it was done.

It generally still looked the same as before. Still, there were changes like obstacles on the floor along with sharp pointy spears shooting out of the wall occasionally.

There were places on the floor that had bumps and different kinds of things.

The AIs began to appear once again, along with cannons.

This time they were level 6 AIs instead of level 5. These AI's looked sturdier and menacing.

There were seven of them, just like they were in the previous sub phases. By contrast, the cannons had increased both in size and in numbers.

Each cannon placed on the walls and different parts of the floors were as large as six feet and a bit more robust than the previous ones.

Gasp!

Gasping sounds could be heard coming from the spectators' seats after witnessing the change.

The difference in difficulty was very visible.

Some of them already knew that they would struggle with finishing the sub-phase talkless of actually getting scores if they were to undergo this.

"CANDIDATE 00126 CAN NOW RESTART THE COMBAT PHASE!"

Immediately after the robotic voice gave the go-ahead, the AIs and cannons came alive and started shooting at Gustav before he took a step forward.

Twwiii! Thwwii!

Even before Gustav was able to activate Dash and evade the beams that had arrived in his front.

Each laser-like beam traveled at a speed of over one thousand feet per second, so it was like they suddenly appeared in front of him.

Fortunately, Gustav still had perception and had already moved out of the way before the first one was shot.

[Dash has been activated]

He activated Dash the moment he swerved to the right to dodge the first.

The other three were also headed for him. However, since they were a little bit behind the first, Gustav could dodge at his current speed.

Swerve! Swerve! Swerve!

Gustav dodged the green, blue and red glowing beams shot towards him.

Dash didn't really make his speed faster than the projectiles, but he could predict them before they were shot out. He was already moving out of the way before the projectiles reached him. Still, it looked like he was faster.

Swoooshhh!

Gustav dashed forward. Immediately he crossed seventy feet; Gustav jumped upwards and threw out his right foot. Instantly, the floor below him suddenly pushed upwards. However, he had already jumped high enough to get out of its range.

Bam!

Gustav's foot accurately smashed into the head of the first AI, sending it flying from the top of its neck with wires and circuits ripping out along with it.

Gustav grabbed the body and suddenly turned to his left to place it in front of himself.

Thwwii! Thwwii!

Two beams slammed into the decapitated mechanical body of the AI, protecting Gustav in the process.

Gustav lifted the body of the large AI that was taller than six feet and weighed more than a thousand kilograms.

He swung it casually towards the two AIs that shot at him and jumped backward.

Bam! Bam!

The body smashed into both AIs, sending them flying towards the spiky wall on the side.

Prruuhkk! Prruuhkk!

Both AIs were pierced by numerous sharp objects protruding from the wall.

As Gustav jumped back, he also dodged the shots of the cannons on the walls.

He had to move across the floors carefully because some places had traps on them.

He didn't activate God Eyes, but he could tell.

[Gravitational displacement has been activated]

The gravitational force surrounding the environment suddenly turned weird.

Gustav threw his arms apart and ran forward.

It looked like he only did that because he wanted to run. However, the truth was that he was directing the gravitational displacement towards the walls.

For a few seconds, the cannons on the walls turned their nozzles down due to the heaviness and ended up missing shots.

Gustav made use of this opportunity to dash towards the rest of the AIs and smash them to pieces.

Bam! Bam! Bam! Bam!

He consecutively threw out his fists towards the last two, leaving holes in their bodies.

Pieces of the AIs parts flew across the place.

Both heads smashed into two cannons on the left, dismantling them in the process.

[Gravitational displacement has been deactivated]

Gravitational displacement could only be maintained for a few seconds, so it had already served its purpose when Gustav destroyed the last two AIs.

The cannons regained their functionality and started shooting at him once again.

Swoooshhh! Swoooshhh! Swwoovvv!

Gustav dashed across the place, dodging the beams in the process. He counted the number of cannons on each wall and noticed seven were on the left while only three were left on the right.

Gustav dashed towards the right and leaped a hundred feet upwards.

Thooom!

He landed directly on the first cannon. He sat on it like it was a chair.

Trooinn! Trooinn! Trooinn!

All the cannons turned towards this particular one and started firing at it.

Thooonn! Thooon! Thooon! Boom!

Gustav jumped sideways as the cannon was blasted to pieces and landed on the next.

The same scenario played out as Gustav jumped from one cannon to the other, causing their destruction.

In a few seconds, the eight cannons had been smashed to pieces, and he landed on the floor and dashed towards the ones on the left.

Thoom!

He leaped upwards while raising his right kneecap.

Bam!

His knee cap smashed the cannon's middle as he reached out with both hands to smash the ones on the right and left.

Bang! Bang!

His fist broke them to pieces before his body started descending from the air.

"CANDIDATE 00126 HAS COMPLETED THE COMBAT PHASE!"