Szzzt-
An explosive crack rang through the cavern.
It came the instant the dagger Silent in Xiao Lan's hand pierced the heat vent at Adam's waist.
The resistance was immense.
A dense protective force field surrounded the blue mana core. The moment the dagger's tip touched it, a violent recoil struck Xiao Lan's wrist. The web of her hand split open, and blood trickled down her fingertips into the raging energy.
[Drive it in!]
Kale's roar exploded in her mind.
Xiao Lan gritted her teeth, her dark pupils suddenly contracting to pinpoints.
Instead of retreating, she pressed her entire weight onto the relatively short dagger.
Adam's protective force field tore her leather armor apart inch by inch, exposing a pale, slender forearm. Bluish veins bulged beneath her fair skin, and strands of blood were forced back toward her shoulder by the magic. Yet her right arm did not tremble in the slightest. It remained rigid and straight, braced against the hilt as she pushed down inch by inch.
Xiao Lan clenched her teeth, twisted her wrist, and angled the blade.
At last, the dagger slipped into the seam between the closed armor plates and lodged in the blue light spewing waves of heat.
-Vmmm!
The deep blue glow abruptly faltered, then erupted into a blinding beam that shot upward at an angle, shattering the stalactites overhead. Vast torrents of tangible mana gushed from the armor's seams, accompanied by a series of dull detonations, as though some enormous organ were bursting inside the steel shell.
"Aaaah-!!!"
Adam threw back his head and let out an agonized roar.
It was not merely pain, but terror at the destruction of a vital core function.
The mechanical construct forming his lower body went out of control. Hydraulic rods jerked wildly, and the legs that