Chapter 48: The Overpowered Golem
==============================
What to do, what to do, what to do? Jiang Cheng's anxious heart pounded wildly.
She rarely got this nervous anymore, but facing the monster she had personally created, she was tense to the extreme.
Now, she was like those game designers who, after creating a super disgusting boss, were asked to playtest their own creation—ridiculous, they had no idea how to beat it.
And unfortunately, because she only needed to switch her identity to control it, Jiang Cheng hadn't installed any other backdoors.
But now...
Jiang Cheng turned her head, glancing in Lyle's direction. At such a close distance, there was no way for her to switch directly.
It had taken so much effort for Lyle to believe she was dead—there could be absolutely no mistakes now.
However, unlike Jiang Cheng, Lyle's eyes lit up when he saw the golem beside her.
"This is the golem Teacher once built for my sparring training!"
"This is one of the things Teacher lost—I've finally found it and brought it back for her!"
There was simply no need for you to retrieve this thing! Jiang Cheng silently complained in her heart.
"No matter what, as one of the few relics my teacher left, I must recover it,"
Lyle declared firmly, unprecedentedly putting aside the sword Jiang Cheng had previously given him.
That sword was crafted by Jiang Cheng after collecting an abundance of rare magical metals and various materials.
She had even incorporated many magical runes unique to high elves into the design.
Unfortunately, now on the battlefield, since it was forged solely by Jiang Cheng's knowledge of magic and materials rather than by a true divine craftsman, the sword was already falling behind Lyle's growing skill.
Thus, facing such a formidable enemy and determined to win, Lyle drew the Sword in the Stone.
Even though as someone who had barely gone through the trial, he couldn't yet unleash much of the sword's power, it was still far superior to the sword Jiang Cheng had made purely of materials.
But as she looked at the imposing Lyle, Jiang Cheng was full of question marks in her mind.
What are you doing? Don't go, kid—you can't beat him!
Jiang Cheng had given the golem way too many overpowered features; its strength had reached the demigod level. If not for the risk of Lyle discovering her identity, she could have controlled it to fight on par with the God of Adventurers.
If it was just normal danger, she'd honestly be happy to see Lyle get beaten up a little.
After all, that would be fun—and she could go over and laugh at him.
But the golem's power was so overwhelming, Jiang Cheng was genuinely worried Lyle would get killed if he made one wrong move.
That would make the world just too boring.
Unfortunately, there was no way for her to stop Lyle, much less talk him out of retrieving his teacher's 'relic'.
She watched as Lyle gripped the Sword in the Stone and, with a flash, dashed forward.
............
"Careful! There's something strange about this thing!"
Inside a battered, collapsed building, members of the technology faction's association were still entangled in battle with the golem.
"Damn, its body is so tough," cursed a member after firing several armor-piercing rounds with zero effect on the golem.
"Stop trying. So many bombs went off at once just now, and they did nothing."
"How about magic?" someone suggested a new approach.
"Useless. Three teams ran their magic generators at full power for half an hour, overloaded and blew up two mana batteries, and got nothing for it—this thing is magic proof."
"Try to restrain it then!"
"We can't—nets, high-strength adhesives, you name it—we've tried it all. It has a protective energy veil on its surface that annihilates everything that approaches, except for the human body."
"Damn it! Who's the wretch who made this thing? Got precious materials to burn or something?"
"All we can do is melee now! Melee team, get ready!"
"Reporting in, it demonstrated a variety of martial arts techniques. The whole melee team was already sent flying three minutes ago."
"Hell..."
"I'll handle this."
Just as the association members were panicking, Lyle's figure appeared.
"Hero, sir?"
Lyle had been in the city for over two months, and his reputation had already grown.
Although he'd only been to the corrupted zone twice, he often helped citizens in town and even spent large amounts of money on charity.
This was a stark contrast to Jiang Cheng, who would only wander around the city, taking whatever she wanted on a whim and paying solely according to her mood.
Over time, the legend of the most evil Saintess and the kindest Hero had become widespread.
The young association members all respected Lyle, with a few even being his die-hard fans.
But now was obviously not the time to idolize—Lyle simply nodded in acknowledgement.
In the next moment, wielding the Sword in the Stone, he charged straight at the golem.
When someone rushed over, the golem stood its ground, waiting for Lyle to approach.
After all, it was designed for Lyle's training. According to Jiang Cheng's base code settings, its desire to attack was not strong.
Lyle used the momentum to stab the Sword in the Stone directly at the golem's chest.
The golem stood calmly, seemingly even too lazy to move, but just as Lyle was about to stab it, it sidestepped in a flash.
Taking advantage of that motion, the golem brought both hands together, palmed and chopped at Lyle's sword-wielding wrist.
Lyle pivoted, his sword drawing a graceful arc. Dodging the golem's attack with his back turned, he slashed at the golem's head.
The angle and timing of this strike were extremely tricky; not easy to avoid, and Lyle took advantage of the golem's downward slash, hitting while its inertia made it harder to recover.
But with all the martial arts techniques from across the continent poured into it, how could Jiang Cheng's golem be taken down so easily?
In fact, even though Lyle had already mastered Jiang Cheng's martial teachings, he had still never defeated this golem.
Graduation only meant that Lyle, at that time, could last half an hour under the golem's assault without losing.
This was precisely why Jiang Cheng was so anxious for Lyle's safety.
The golem pressed in, its downward-chopping palm poking straight at Lyle's waist.
As for the sword? The golem didn't even bother dodging. At such close range, its own attack was obviously going to land first.
Jiang Cheng was already running in circles upstairs, anxious and unable to do a thing to help.
As a magic-based class, divine arts were also nullified by the magic-prohibiting materials of the golem.
And what about switching into her teacher's identity to control the golem since Lyle was at a distance?
Don't be ridiculous. Even just leaking a bit of her presence somewhere in the city would have Lyle sniffing her out in an instant, chasing her all the way to the auction house.
If she actually transformed here, Lyle's "dog nose" would immediately pick up the scent, and without regard for the fight, he'd turn and charge at her shouting, "Teacher, I finally found you!"
"Haaa,"
Jiang Cheng let out a breath. It seemed her only remaining option was the last resort—
Find the method by which the faith-faction controlled the golem, then eliminate the controller or destroy the method. That would be enough.
Jiang Cheng really didn't want to use this method, because once the control method involved a god, there was a chance she could be discovered by one herself.
But for Lyle's safety, she had no other choice.
Even though Lyle's progress over the years had been remarkable, Jiang Cheng estimated that he still couldn't last more than twenty minutes.
Six minutes had already passed.
That left fourteen minutes for Jiang Cheng to find and destroy the control method.