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Natalia plunged towards the golem’s legs, aiming at the knee that had been attacked previously. Without hesitation, she pulled the trigger. There was a burst of magic, piercing through the air and steel with a flash.

More explosions followed. The golem responded by raising its arm, but before it could swing it down, Natalia pulled back.

Once the golem’s fist hit the ground, she charged in again, stabbing the knee with her magic blade. After all the constant attacks, a crack appeared on the knee, which cracked open with that last attack.

She stuck her gun’s barrel into that gap, and fired an incendiary round. The explosion had nowhere to go so it just spread violently inside the golem’s body.
The entire leg burst open, and the golem fell to one knee.

“Alright, let’s finish it off.”
“Stop that.”

Danny tried to charge in to help Natalia, but Jane stopped him.

“But why? We can’t just let her do all the work while we stand back and watch.”

Jane thought Danny was justified to feel that way, but that only applied to humans, living beings.

“They don’t care what happens to them to accomplish their objective or protect their comrades, like dolls fighting without mercy or emotions. If you get caught in the mess, you could get awfully hurt.”

Jane had encountered and fought against rogue magic automatons in her many years as adventurer. They were an older type, known as Antique Dolls. Those had rather cutesy appearances, but would continue fighting no matter how hurt they got, only stopping when blown into pieces.

Danny still turned to look at the fight, but what he saw just confirmed Jane’s words.

When Danny met Natalia for the first time, he did not realize she was a magic automaton until her severed arm began moving on its own. Her appearance and manners were that natural and human-like.

But now he was watching someone, something completely different fighting. Was that really still Natalia? Danny could not tell anymore.

Float Light had shattered when she fell earlier. Shrouded in darkness, she still was able to read all of the golem’s large movements. For a moment she thought that maybe she was equipped with night vision features, but then she should have been able to notice the Night Wolf earlier. It was an odd feeling, as if she had suddenly become able to do that the instant she changed her fighting style.

Even after losing a leg and having its movements restricted, the golem resumed attacking, though its clumsy position now did not allow it to reach Natalia.

Dodging the falling fist, Natalia aims her broken right leg towards it and throws it. Even if it was damaged, she could still control it with her nerve threads. The leg bursts open, the shoe covering it breaking down as a magic blade appears from within. The magic blade struck the golem’s elbow, but the steel was too sturdy for it to do much damage.

Then she followed it up with a vertical swing from the magic blade on her left hand, broadening the cut. Next she shot multiple regular bullets at the deepest point. A large dent formed in just a few seconds, before a pale blue explosion filled it.

The steel deforms, and the elbow twists in an unnatural angle. But the golem still had another arm left. Natalia started running, evading the incoming fist and sent her left hand and right leg with their magic blades flying around the golem.

They drew large blue arcs around the steel giant, moving independently of her main body, sneaking between the golem’s four limbs and around them until finally the blades were stabbed into the ground.

During all that time, her nerve threads had wrapped themselves around the golem. Those threads were made of Purple Steel Spider Silk, which were strong conductors of magic, and incredibly resistant. Once tied by them, it was impossible to escape. Danny recalled his own experience seeing the golem now. The only difference with that time was that Natalia had been conscious back then.

The golem started wriggling and trying to free itself, but the threads, Aria’s pride, did not even budge.

Natalia landed on its back, holding her gun at point-blank and pulled the trigger. There were multiple gunshots, which reverberated around the forest. She continued firing like that at the steel armor. Until the magazine runs empty.

Her left hand was disconnected, making it impossible to change magazines, and it would take a few seconds to gather the required mana to refill it. Or it should have. The empty magazine dropped onto the ground and Natalia held the grip upwards. At the same time, she opened her magic storage, letting out a spare magazine fall from it, which landed perfectly onto the grip.

She resumed firing from point-blank.
A constant stream of gunshots.
Until the magazine is emptied.
She exchanges it again.
Resumed firing from point-blank.
Until the magazine is emptied.
She exchanges it again.
Resumed firing from point-blank.

If that golem had emotions, it would be trembling in fear, robbed of its freedom, and the armor protecting its vitals constantly being chiseled away.

Eventually there was a loud clang from the armor, and a hole opened on it. She struck her entire arm inside, and just like with the leg, fired an incendiary round.
She continued firing from point-blank like before, just with incendiary rounds this time.

The golem’s armor creaked every time she pulled the trigger.

She slowly went through the entire mass of steel, reaching the Sorcery Core and the mechanisms underneath it all, which was essentially the golem’s heart. To end it all, she fired an incendiary round that used up all the mana in one magazine.

There was a thunderous rumble as flames spat from the armor’s seams, leaving no spot untouched inside. The armor was unable to take it all and burst open, cracks running all over it, plumes of smoke emanating from them. The golem was destroyed.

She pulled her arm from the destroyed golem’s interior. It was cracked and her fingers twisted in random directions, all effects of the many incendiary rounds.

Natalia extracted the magic blades she used as anchors from the ground, and winded back her nerve threads. She had gotten them tangled up during her fight with Danny, but they returned effortlessly this time.

“Natalia!”

As the magic automaton jumped off from the golem’s back, someone called her name from the sky. She looked up, and saw Ophelia, her creator, floating on a staff. Ophelia hurried to land, and after looking around, she could surmise what had gone down. Going closer to the magic automaton, she spoke in a low voice.

“Good job. This is your next order, sleep a little.”
“I will, Mistress.”

Natalia answered with an emotionless voice, and collapsed like a marionette with its strings cut off. Ophelia caught her body, and gently stroked her silver hair.

“You really worked hard.”

Ophelia’s muttering voice was gentle, though also slightly sorrowful.