CHAPTER NINETY FIVE

Jason rolled the Vampire Brawler onto his back, then inadvertently scampered backward as a monstrosity stared back at him. This was one of the freakiest things he'd ever seen on the server!

Enemy Identified: Biological Beast - Hawk

A mass of expelled biological material had bubbled up behind him and transformed into an independent Hemoborn drone. Although the scouter identified the creature as a hawk, the red-eyed monster only vaguely resembled its noble inspiration. The strange ever-dissolving creature's razor-sharp teeth looked completely out of place on a bird, and it had six very thin wings instead of the hawk's usual two large ones. The beast's talons were an equally misshapen mess. The monster had extra legs sticking out of its chest, each of them ending in jet black twisted claws.

The beast folded its wings, and then the twisted talons on its chest groped furiously forward as the hideous monster did a strange scrabbling dive bomb. As the monster jumped, Jason heard a strange high-pitched wailing. The Biomancer was preparing some kind of ranged attack.

Jason crossed the Vampire Brawler's arms, then charged straight forward. He activated the Blood Transfer ability and damaged his armor in exchange for additional offensive strength. With enemies on both sides, he wanted to escape with raw force.

His Mech delivered a full-force punch straight to the hawk's face. The creature's thin scrabbling teeth lacerated the Vampire Brawler's fingers but to no avail. Even after activating Blood Transfer, his machine was just too tanky. The mutated bird's face immediately crumpled, and then the Vampire Brawler's thick arm crushed the rest of the creature's body.

Unfortunately, the Vampire Brawler wasn't fast enough to escape the Biomancer's attack. A globule of searing red energy smacked into the Brawler's back, and a damage report flickered onto Jason's screen. He'd taken ten percent damage to his torso, and judging by the high-pitched wailing sound echoing through the cave, the Biomancer was about to fire again.

Jason turned to face his opponent, but then he was promptly knocked off his feet by a new Biological Beast. He swung wildly, but he slipped on the ooze and crashed hard to the floor. This time, the ooze had transformed into a strange four-legged creature with lengthy dagger-like clangs and two heads with viper-like fangs. His sensor called this new creature a hound, but the resemblance was even lower than the hawk from before.

Jason tried punching the new creature, but it was too fast. It skittered to the side, and then another blast of red energy knocked the Vampire Brawler back to the floor.

As the hound leapt forward, Jason activated his Blood Transfer ability, then killed the slimy monstrosity with a single devastating kick through the chest. The beast exploded on contact, and the foul-colored blobs completely covered Jason's screen, blocking off his vision.

The Biomancer ruthlessly hit him with another bullet. By now, the damage was adding up. When Jason activated his sensor, he saw that his torso only had 63% health remaining.

Jason cursed.

His opponent was trying to get past his heavy armor by heavily focusing on the cockpit. On top of that, their high-speed bullets were way more powerful than they had any right to be. Considering the Biomancer's powerful buff ability, the machine was probably paying some proportion of its health to increase its damage. The ooze rippled, and Jason instinctively winced as his opponent summoned another Biological Beast: Hawk.

The creature surged forward. This time, Jason blasted it apart with his machine cannon, destroying it before it could get too close and splatter against his cameras.

He dodged the Biomancer's next two follow-up shots, but by now, Jason recognized that the current situation was untenable. An extended fight wasn't in his favor. He barely managed to keep his footing after two hasty steps. The ooze around his feet threatened to pull him under. It seemed like his opponent couldn't create a Biological Beast so long as he was stepping on the ooze, but the thick and mucky liquid was terrible for his balance.

Jason quickly looked around him, then cursed again. Against the Red Lamia, Jason had used the many weapons in the Vault, but now they were all covered in ooze.

What the hell was he going to do?

With no particular plan in mind, Jason charged straight at his opponent. This bizarre machine was completely outside of his expectations, but he knew how his own machine worked. The Vampire Brawler was, well, a brawler. He'd already landed a good hit on his opponent before, and he wanted to land a few other quality blows.

The Biomancer fired several red bullets at him. Jason dodged when he could, but he tanked with his shoulders whenever he couldn't. He had a feeling the little-used parts wouldn't come into play, so there was no negative to taking damage there.

The muck burbled behind him, and Jason knew that another beast would be hot on his heels soon. He didn't know if it was a hawk, hound, or something else, but he wanted to get away as soon as possible.

He fired his harpoon, piercing the faux cavern floor just in front of the Biomancer. Then he yanked his machine forward, twisting high into the air so he was directly above his opponent. He somersaulted, then twisted forward in a ferocious cannonball.

The Biomancer scurried away, barely avoiding Jason's head-on assault. The Spell Titan wasn't particularly fast, but the ooze around its body didn't slow it down at all. It seemed like just lightweight cushioning.

As soon as Jason landed, he turned around and prepared to fire his machine cannon, but whatever the Biological Beast was, it'd already disappeared back into the muck. All Jason caught were a few glaring eyes and dissolving slimy limbs.

Huh.

Interesting...

Controlling the Biological Beasts probably took a great deal of concentration. The creatures weren't regular drones. Normally, players couldn't use machines of different classes together. It made sense that the game system forced pilots to automatically operate the Hemoborn drones manually instead of leaving it to the AI.

The Biomancer's pilot couldn't maintain control over the Biological Beast while running away. Similarly, Jason surmised that his opponent probably couldn't summon more than a single Biological Beast at once. Aiming the cannon while controlling the independent drone was probably the most they could do.

In that case, Jason needed to make the fight as chaotic as possible. Once he closed the gap, he could win this fight.

He sprinted forward again, then fired out another harpoon. The weapon splashed against the muck, then yanked Jason forward. The Biomancer pointed, and a hawk burst from its chest. The hawk was very similar to the first one, with sharp teeth, a messy mass of talons, and red eyes, but the precise placing of the feet and wings were inconsistent. This creature had six arrayed talons in a circle around its chest and only a single wing that flopped around like a propeller.

The Biomancer continued firing - instead of going for a flank, it was simplifying things with two direct attacks.

Jason blasted the hawk apart with an uppercut, then kept on running. Although the hawk was faster than the hound, it was much smaller, which meant that Jason got a lot less crap on his screen.

He ducked past the next bullet, then slammed the Biomancer with a shoulder check. The two machines went tumbling to the ground. Jason went for the grab, but his opponent's ooze body allowed them to escape.

Jason cursed himself for his foolishness. Vinny's wrestling moves were a valuable ace in the hole, but they weren't any good here. His opponent summoned a new hound, but Jason decided to jump straight through it. This time, he aimed before leaping. The muck covered his screen, but he already knew where he was landing.

A deafening clang echoed through the stage as Jason bodyslammed the Biomancer. The heavy metal of the Vampire Brawler scraped against the thin frame of the enemy Spell Titan. Jason jerked his opponent forward, pining the vampire against his body.

He entered a quick command, then launched and detonated two of his shoulder pieces at point-blank range. Before, the Biomancer could summon new ooze to protect itself from the flames, but at this close range, the explosive impact would damage the fragile Spell Titan body beneath it. It hurt the Vampire Brawler too, but Jason's machine was tankier.

Something smacked into Jason's back, but he didn't even bother turning around. He swung a wild haymaker and clanged against his opponent's head. He struck again, activating his Blood Transfer, then followed that up with an elbow jab.

Some of the blows missed - he couldn't see the body beneath his opponent's slime coating - but Jason prioritized raw power over accuracy. Now that he was here, Jason had made a critical realization. His opponent had several tricky moves, but his machine was more powerful and durable. Sometimes, there was no need to outsmart his foe - he could just win with raw stats. Even if his opponent hit him, the Brawler would out damage the Biomancer at this range.

A snub-nosed blaster emerged. Red light gleamed, but Jason slammed his arm down and pinned the cannon to the ground. He twisted, and then the arm snapped. A swipe of his arm later, and the weapon skidded uselessly across the floor.

Eventually, one of his blows blasted clean through his opponent's slimy armor before hitting the Biomancer's head with a deafening crack. There was a brief moment when Jason spotted his opponent's utterly mangled head and neck. Jason's hit had sent the Spell Titan's head spinning almost 180 degrees backward. However, new fluid promptly gathered from the surrounding area. The sticky substance created a strange sort of moving splint that sent the wolf's head spinning back into place before holding it in place.

Jason shrugged and kept beating his opponent down. This time, he clasped both of the Vampire Brawler's hands together into a fist before hammering his opponent in the head hard enough to split the Spell Titan's skull. Then he clambered up and added on two knife-like knee strikes.

It took another three minutes before he finally smacked past enough ooze to destroy his opponent's base frame.

The Vault cleared, granting him access to the treasures in the Vampire's Vault.