The Founder's POV

Chapter 50: Winds of War [2]

Jin used his fog to surround the area after distancing himself from the machines appropriately. Since his defense was the weakest, he wanted to completely blind the enemy.

He was still unsure of the enemy's identity, but he could guess, remembering the shapes of the dwarves hidden in the forest. 'But why?' Jin thought as he moved around the war machines, still looking for an opening.

The last time he was within human nation, relations between humans and dwarves were relatively good, with no reason for conflict.

'Is this a group separate from the government forces? But that's impossible!'

A force separate from the army couldn't control this many war machines, and bringing them to the borders of the West required a lot of effort.

And since the StarHold family governed the West, such a force wouldn't dare approach here.

Jin stopped thinking about unnecessary things and decided to focus on the battle. Should he use the same method he used against the guard puppet at the gate of the throne hall in the Puppet Society?

The battle in which Lyra died...

But that technique could only work against creatures that couldn't shield themselves with mana. Doing that with war machines might take about an hour. Compared to fighting these machines, Jin preferred fighting Vantos or Sebastian again... even that last guard was better than five war machines.

It is known that the dwarves created these machines to achieve the best possible balance. If the combat statistics of these machines were written on a status screen, they would be as follows:

Stats:

Strength: S

Speed: S-

Endurance: S+

Intelligence: S

Senses: S

Wisdom: S

Everything balanced except endurance and speed. Jin thought about what he could exploit with this information. His only advantages were speed and skills, and unfortunately, he couldn't use the {manipulation} skill on these machines.
As for his other skills, he doubted they could penetrate such a solid bodies.

Jin's strength was rank S, and the machine's defense was rank S+. Unfortunately, Jin didn't possess purely offensive skills. His physical strength was enough to eliminate targets most of the time, so he never needed explosive skills.

It wasn't his fault his enemies were always human-shaped...

He pondered for a while and decided to try a few things at least. A simple shape that even an uneducated person like him could create...

He suddenly appeared above the machine holding the axe, thinking it was the most dangerous and wanting to eliminate it first.

{Transformation}
{Creating}

A primitive, huge cannon appeared in the sky, its fuse already lit.

A simple metallic shape with a large amount of gunpowder and cannonballs at the end, and the fire almost touching the gunpowder.

Jin left the cannon in front of the puppet's face and immediately retreated at his fastest speed, clearly not trusting his creation entirely. He placed a pleasant surprise inside the cannonball just in case.

Jin suddenly closed his eyes as a massive explosion spread across the field, barely able to keep the fog steady. Things didn't go as expected, and the cannon exploded entirely instead of firing.

Luckily, he had retreated and didn't trust his creation.

He tried to look at the axe machine and unfortunately only managed to create some scratches on its arm. Even the mana he placed in the cannonball didn't do much, maybe it didn't even hit...

Jin sighed and wanted to try something else but suddenly stopped.

His mind began working at full speed; he had fallen into a trap!

A massive club rose above his head, moments away from hitting him, its speed making dodging an impossible task. The eyes of the club machine met Jin's in that moment, and he understood what had happened.

'They can't see through the fog, but they can sense mana even when I'm using my ghost movement... terrifying...'

He raised his swords up and clashed with the club. Since the fog was already around him, he could summon it in a very short time.

When Jin was about to be completely crushed, the surrounding fpg began to lift the club machine. Although the machine was much stronger, lifting it was somewhat easier.

Of course, the fog couldn't lift the machine off the ground, but it greatly lessened the attack on Jin, allowing him to jump to the side to avoid the hit. The spear machine awaited him in that direction, and a quick thrust was rapidly approaching him.

'No time for rest!' He gritted his teeth as he maneuvered around the spear, starting to run towards the machine's head.

The machine tried to hit him after he jumped over the spear, but he simply dodged the strike and continued running towards it.

A strong kick hit its head, causing a noticeable distortion. "You're not invincible after all!" Jin spoke loudly as he stabbed one of his short swords into the puppet's eye socket.

Although it was also difficult, since the scientists didn't forget to reinforce the eyes, it was much easier than penetrating the rest of the body.

Unfortunately, Jin couldn't delve much into its eyes, as the other machines were getting very close.

'Looks like I'll be very tired today...' Jin sighed as he jumped high.

The fog can completely blind the enemies, but the machines have the ability to sense his mana even with ghost movement. In this case, he had to use his second Legacy skill, the one he obtained from this new body.

There are three levels of puppets:

1- High: Those responsible for directly serving the masters and entertaining them.

2- Medium: Those in the hell, still possessing minds.

3- Low: Those who have already lost their minds, like the puppet that attacked Jin upon awakening in the hell.

But if that's the case, what type is the wooden puppets that attacked Jin and Cassian with Gilbert?

That was at the beginning when they reached the island's center and dozens of wooden puppets began surrounding them. Those puppets didn't have human shapes like the medium and high ranks, but they were calm and obedient, unlike the low ranks.

So what type were they? And how did they come about?

That was through...

{Puppet Master}

Those wooden puppets were just cheap shapes created to support Gilbert in minor tasks, and the guards didn't use much mana in them. But what if they were used seriously?

Black and gray shapes appeared from thin air, spreading their aura everywhere. About ten puppets moved quickly around the war machines, each releasing an aura of rank A+.

'I still have a quarter left...' Jin thought as he descended from the air, starting to release the fog again at that moment.

The dwarves attacked when half his mana was depleted. He about to take a rest a minute before the attack. He would have used all his skills from the start if he were at full strength, but he began the battle with half his mana, unfortunately.

When Jin was about to start the quintuple assassination, he felt a deep voice moving through his mind.

<Summon.>