Jack took deep, long heaving breaths in an attempt to channel his focus to anything but the pain. He was no trained physician and neither did his perception give him the ability to see the inside of his body or detect wounds. A trembling left hand dug into his pocket, withdrawing a small vial that contained one, single red pill. Without hesitation, Jack unstoppered it with his teeth and swallowed the pill down in one gulp.

The sensation of healing soothed at his body, but at the same time he could not deny that something was taken from him at the same time, even if he could barely detect the sensation. Grunting, he stabbed his sword into the ground and used that as leverage to hoist himself back onto his feet. A sensation of lightheadedness threatened to overwhelm him, a bout of vertigo lasting for a few seconds before subsiding, but Jack did not hesitate. He could not afford to hesitate.

Finally the sensations subsided, allowing Jack to finally get a view of the battle. Thankfully, Sarah had managed to hold on, using her brain instead of brawn. He watched as she fired a shot of [Qi Projection] and retreated backwards, maintaining a monopoly on the attention of the [Gemstone Golem]. He noticed that her strike landed upon the creature's shin, unfortunately missing the knee joint. That was enough for Jack to realize her intent, surprised at how much Sarah had grown in a mere span of a day. She was displaying a good grasp over the battlefield, and retained clarity of mind when her life was under undeniable threat— that was not just significant, it was commendable.

His blade flickered with an azure light as he fired off an arcing blade, [Qi Projection] slamming into the creature's torso and barely managing to penetrate its surface.

“Come on then,” Jack taunted, but what he was really after was the small lull in momentum as the golem reoriented itself to face him. Another blade fired off, but Jack didn’t stop there. In rapid succession, a total of four arcing blades were released in the direction of the Golem, headed right for its wounded knee joint. Jack was not cocky enough to believe that he could get the thing in one shot, so he didn’t hesitate to burn through his reserves.

Pulling out a [Qi Replenishing Pill] from Sarah, he compensated his critically low Qi reserves by swallowing the pill, immediately feeling the waves of arcane energy flow through his limbs.

The first shot landed on its upper thigh, again perhaps only managing to shear through twenty percent of its significant defenses. The second shot landed slightly lower, resulting in a near miss. Thankfully, the third and fourth shots managing to land on target, that too in rapid succession. The satisfying tinkling sound of crystal shards raining upon the cavern floors and walls landed in his ears, a grin appearing on his face when he saw that the knee joint had completely blown apart, its crystalline leg landing a few meters away.

The golem’s imbalance frame could no longer support its weight, its red ruby eyes almost growing brighter as if it had a capacity to feel anger, staring right in Jack’s directionThen it fell to the ground, its remaining leg buckling under the weight before fell forward, kneeling.

However, the grin on Jack’s face turned to shock in the next second, followed by an expression of grave seriousness. For he had definitely not done enough damage for the Golem to start crumbling by itself, small azure shards chipping off its body and falling to the ground as it continued to eerily stare at him, the discarded shards losing their radiance.

The process then intensified, thousands of small shattered crystals spread across a center from the epicenter.

Gemstone Golem, Level 4 [Overlord] has entered Phase Two.

Jack’s heart hammered in his chest, throat suddenly parched as he saw what remained standing. At the center was a Gemstone Construct, but this time it was humanoid. It’s body was forged from a singular piece of crystal, no signs of melding crystals together or even the slightest hint of asymmetries upon the surface of its exterior.

Realization dawned upon him when Jack understood that the creature’s body was a mimicry of his own, his physique, build and even weapon, copied. The creature had no face, only two smaller ruby gems acting as eyes, and its blade was simply a piece of crystal chiseled into mirroring his own in shape and form, but lacking enchantments. Its eyes remained rooted upon him, and Jack knew that by destroying the Gemstone Golem’s mobility he had attracted its ire.

Sarah, on the other side, remained rooted to her position, gaping at the shocking transformation they had both witnessed.

“Analysis complete. Proceeding to eliminate threat,” The Golem’s voice echoed from all around the chamber, and Jack’s heart sunk when he heard the words analysis. It was definitely a construct, and even worse it was a construct that could learn.

The next second the golem charged forward, its speed terrifyingly fast now that it had gotten rid of all the excess weight. Jack’s expression warped when he realized how the golem’s movement reminded him of his own movement style, clamping down on his teeth as he sidestepped the ruthless thrust headed for his abdomen.

The Golem’s whistling blow only stuck air, but that did not seem to impede its momentum the slightest. Without hesitating, the thrust transitioned to a sideways slash. Jack knew he could not dodge his blade meeting the construct’s own. He marveled in surprise when he made contact, the overwhelming force sending him skidding backwards for half a dozen meters. Thankfully, in this form it seemed to have sacrificed strength for speed, but even then overpowering him was not a hard task for it.

Undisturbed, the golem pressed forward. This time, its blows were nowhere near as powerful— it had realized that pushing its target away was only counterintuitive to its purpose. And that… only served to make it far more terrifying.

Jack’s eyes were bloodshot with focus, his breath tense and sharp— for each one could be his last. Continuously parrying the construct’s strikes while it seemed to grow faster with each blow was a nightmare, a cloud of terror looming around him and muddying his thoughts. Death had never come closer, for he could almost feel it lurking over his shoulders.

His movements were beginning to flag, the fight burning his supernatural stamina way too fast, and finally, he made a mistake— His sword flashed with azure light as he struck out at the ruby gemstone eyes, knowing that they were a prime weakness of all gemstone creatures, or atleast hoping.

If the creature had a face, Jack knew that the expression on its ugly visage would be one of mockery— for it knew, it had anticipated his actions, and it knew its own weakness. His sword extended too far as the creature nimbly sidestepped his strike, it’s blade hand flashing with momentum and swatting not at his body or arm, but directly at his sword with overwhelming strength.

Jack watched in horror as the sword was blown out of his hands, his muscles strained and his eyes half shuttered from exhaustion, flying for dozens of meters before slamming into the crystalline wall with a loud, almost musical clang.

“Stop!” Sarah screamed loudly, shrilly and with such anger that the intensity of it even left him surprised. The next second, the construct’s right hand was blown away, the sword in its hand clattering away somewhere to the right. But for all of Sarah’s efforts, the creature seemed unperturbed, it’s intact left hand blurring in motion.

Jack felt a hard, rocky impact upon his abdomen that cleanly knocked all the air out of his lungs. He had tried to defend, but his body was simply too spent to respond and his foe was a tireless construct who felt no pain. The next second he felt a cold, icy grip lock around his neck, and hoist him into the air, before he began to gasp even harder for air as he felt pressure on his windpipe. Thrashing and kicking against the Golem didn’t help, and Jack knew that he would last no more than a few seconds before he lost consciousness… permanently.

“I SAID STOP!” Sarah screamed again, and Jack’s flagging consciousness could feel the anger, the sheer, murderous anger contained in that voice, one that reminded him of the night he had found out the truth about the death of his parents. The shrill was animalistic and vicious, as if something, some limiter, within Sarah had snapped.

The construct had hoisted him up in the air, so he angled his gaze towards her, wanting one final glance before the void enveloped all. His perception took her features in, her tear streaked eyes that…. were glowing silver?

The next second he was slammed back onto the ground with a thud, the golem’s grip on his throat loosening as he took desperate, heaving breaths of air, slowly rolling away from the golem’s direction. In the background he heard a loud slam, before crunching and shattering noises started sounding out, but he was in no position to care. All he wanted to do was breathe, breathe, breathe. The crunching sounds continued to echo out in the background as the minutes passed, as Jack stabilized himself.

He did not know how long had passed, but he finally regained some of his energy and the terror of death left him. The sound had stopped a minute ago, but the the terror of having the windpipe slowly crushed had left him rolling, thrashing, as he managed to regain his frame of mind. It was terrible, and it had left a mark— he now knew the true horror of death, and a very painful one at that. But what concerned him more was the scene he had seen before, and he steeled himself before sluggishly forcing himself back upon his feet.

“This was my decision,” he growled under his breath, trying to force the residual fear that still plagued his mind. However what he saw after getting back on his feet did that job much better, as astonishment flashed in his eyes. In front of him was a human-shaped pit, and Sarah, who was lying face up on the ground half a dozen meters away. She was unconscious, but one quick glance with his perception told her that she was breathing, and he detected no wounds upon her body, at least no major ones.

Curious, he peered down the pit, already having an inkling of what he would find. Even though he knew the construct did not feel pain, he cringed at the sight— it’s right arm, shattered into a thousand pieces. Everything beneath the torso? Shattered into fine pieces of crystal. It’s torso remained intact, but it was as if an elephant had trampled over it, and it was half caved in. Even in that condition, it remained alive. Without hesitation, Jack’s [Qi Blade] flared to life and he slammed a [Qi Projection] blade into the pit, shattering the construct’s ruby eyes. The next second it completely shattered, and a strong golden light enveloped both him and Sarah.

“Talent, huh?” Jack muttered as he gazed down upon the shattered creature’s body, pulling out another healing pill and swallowing it for his words came out hoarse and broken. “What a fucking nightmare,” he wearily added, not entirely sure himself if he was referring to the construct or Sarah’s talent.