Ashley

I quickly start the battle by doing what I've been doing against all the other clockworks in the tower. Destroying their connectors between gears. But to my surprise, while that works like a charm as usual with the minions, it actually doesn't work on the overlord.

My eyes widen when I see the gears actually regenerating at the same speed as they're being destroyed.

The hell?

Regenerating gears…

Never expected something like that.

What's even stranger about it is how the black outline on the gears is always there. Regardless of what part of the gear is destroyed. It just follows the edge of the gear.

All while the clockwork overlord is still just sitting on his throne.

It's kind of irritating that the thing hasn't even bothered to stand despite my slaughtering its subordinates.

I rush straight up to the monster before slamming my fist into its chest. Only for my fist to just suddenly freeze the moment it makes contact.

As if time itself stopped.

I try to move my fist back, but it won't move at all.

The clockwork finally lowers its gaze to stare at me. Then a sudden blast of time mana shoots out of it in a large pulse. Making everything around us gain a gray tint to it as time itself stops.

Freezing me in place entirely.

I try to push forwards to break out of the time lock, but nothing happens. I try to activate skills, activate spells, and even use my Gaze of Destruction, but nothing works.

Even Gaze of Destruction only makes some cracks in the gray around us.

Cracks that are restored when more time mana is pushed into it.

I then watch as the clockwork finally slowly climbs up from its throne and begins reaching a hand out towards my head.

Well, shit.

This isn't going as well as I'd hoped.

I continue trying one thing after another, but nothing works.

All the way until I finally try to use my own time magic. At which point I break out of the time lock by flooding the area around us with time mana.

Shattering the gray around me all at once and letting me quickly move backwards to avoid the clockwork's hand right before it was about to reach me. Leaving it grasping at nothing.

The clockwork stares at its hand in what appears to be shock. Then it slowly raises its gaze towards me.

And as I'm panting ever so slightly at the exertion and the slight panic I was feeling when the hand was getting close, I realize something.

That the livestream is currently on. Clearly showing me to the entire universe right now.

Right. I forgot.

Certain bosses in the System Tower are still livestreamed to the universe.

I disregard the livestream though as I focus on the monster in front of me. Meanwhile the monster itself freezes time around us again.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

So I blast out some time mana again before rushing straight at the creature and slamming my fist into it again. Only for my fist to freeze the moment it makes contact. Just like the first time.

But this time I blast some time mana out around my fist, shattering the time lock on my fist and letting me move backwards again.

My eyes narrow a little bit. Then I begin sending several different attacks at the boss one after another.

And just like with my fist, every attack I send at the monster freezes in time the moment it makes contact.

This is getting annoying.

Very annoying.

The only thing that seems to work on the golem itself is my True Damage skill. And that's working too slowly to actually harm it. So slowly that all it does is damage it at the same speed the golem regenerates.

I try to send time magic attacks at the creature. But time magic itself is so confusing. So sending bolts of time mana at it does nothing to it.

If I had to guess, bolts of time mana only ages the things they hit.

And there's not much point in aging a clockwork golem that isn't even technically alive.

It's a golem after all. It's made out of metal.

And it's a regenerating metal too.

Eventually the clockwork seems to grow annoyed at my attempts and stretches both of its arms to the sides before letting out a strange roar. One mixed with the sounds of shifting gears. Following which numerous bolts of time mana shoot straight out of the creature, arcing towards me. Only for me to flap my wings and shoot straight into the air before dodging them one after another.

Then I try the last thing I can think of to deal with this boss.

I coat my clawed hand in time mana before moving up to it and slashing at the boss with my claws.

And for the first time in the battle, my claws actually tear into the golem's body. Breaking past whatever protection the golem has in the process.

A grin stretches across my face at the sight of the injury on the golem's body. Even if the injury is starting to heal already.

There we go.

Without any hesitation, I convert most of my current mana into time mana before coating my body with a thin layer of it. With a much thicker layer on my hands.

Then I rush the golem again while slashing at it repeatedly with my claws. And even using my wings to slam into it as well.

Denting and slicing up the large golem's body over and over again.

And while the monster is still regenerating, it's not regenerating fast enough. Allowing me to finally target its connectors.

Both with my Gaze of Destruction and with my claws themselves.

The instant the golem finally loses a hand though, it freezes stiff before letting out a roar in anger. With all the gears in its body shifting one after another. Then the creature's entire body begins to shift as it turns from a humanoid form to a large quadrupedal form.

But what surprises me is the sight of its hand rejoining the rest of its body in its new form.

Seriously?

It rushes at me with a much greater speed than before. Tackling into my stomach and sending me flying to slam into the ground closer to the edge of the tower's peak.

I grit my teeth at the pain before stabbing all of my claws into the creature's body. Cutting into the gears in the process.

Then I grip onto the thing's body and begin to rip some of those gears out. But the gears I rip out just rejoin with its body again.

Damnit. This is getting old.

After this repeats several times though, I figure something out.

The gears that I rip off lose their black coating and stop regenerating. And even the black connectors turn orange instead when broken off.

Meanwhile their black color and coating returns when they rejoin the body again.

So I try something out.

When I rip off the next gears, I focus on those gears. Crushing the gears and using my Gaze of Destruction to destroy them entirely.

And after doing that, I finally stop the gears from rejoining the main body.

That's the sweet spot.

A grin stretches across my face.

The monster loses its regeneration when the gears leave its body. So I have to destroy the gears after they're separated from the creature.

With that in mind, I quickly get to work separating gears one after another. Then destroying the gears when they're separated.

And while doing this, I realize the gears still have their time freezing powers even when they're not connected. Leaving the only thing capable of genuinely completely eradicating them being my Gaze of Destruction.

When I try to destroy them physically with my claws, they just reform whenever they reconnect to the monster's body. Since they aren't completely eliminated from existence.

Which leaves destroying the gears one by one rather annoying.

It's a long and tedious process. With me focusing on one of the monster's legs in particular at first.

All while the clockwork golem repeatedly attacks me, with more and more panic in its movements as it loses more gears.

But I don't stop.

I continue whittling away at its body one gear at a time.

Until the monster itself finally jumps back with a limp and opens its mouth.

Making a large orb of time magic appear in front of its jaws made of gears.

My eyes widen when the orb suddenly turns into a blast that shoots straight out at me far too fast for me to dodge.

Shit.

Then it slams into me, sending me flying backwards with a cry of pain.