Absolute Cheater - Chapter 517
Chapter 517: Bionics XX
Asher slid back a step, feet digging into the stone to stop himself. The sentinel didn’t give him even a second.
SQ-L88 lunged, stabbing forward with its blade-arm like a spear.
Asher twisted aside. The blade scraped across his ribs, tearing cloth and skin but missing anything vital. He grabbed the sentinel’s wrist, trying to yank it off balance.
The metal didn’t budge.
SQ-L88 rotated its entire torso like a drill, forcing Asher to let go as the back of its elbow almost clipped his jaw.
The Knight attacked again, sword swinging down in a clean, heavy arc.
SQ-L88 snapped its shield up and blocked perfectly. Sparks burst from the impact. The sentinel shoved forward, pushing the Knight back step by step.
Asher rushed in from behind.
He kicked the sentinel’s knee joint as hard as he could. This time, the joint bent slightly—only a little, but enough.
SQ-L88 stumbled.
Asher grabbed its shoulder and slammed his knee into the side of its head.
The hit actually knocked its head sideways with a sharp metallic crack.
SQ-L88 stabilized instantly.
It turned its glowing eyes toward him.
“Structural damage detected. Hostile efficiency increased.”
“Yeah,” Asher muttered. “Get used to it.”
The sentinel suddenly dropped low and spun. Its leg whipped out in a sweeping kick. Asher jumped over it, but the Knight didn’t move fast enough—the kick smashed into the Knight’s legs and sent it tumbling.
Asher landed and lunged at the sentinel before it could follow up.
He grabbed both of its arms.
SQ-L88 pushed back with brutal force. The floor cracked under Asher’s feet as he held on.
For a moment, it was a raw strength contest—metal versus flesh.
Asher gritted his teeth.
Then SQ-L88 cheated.
Its spine extended—literally stretched—allowing its torso to shift back while its arms stayed locked with him. The sentinel twisted, sliding out of Asher’s grip like a machine with no bone limits.
It snapped forward and head-butted him.
The hit rang in his skull. Asher stumbled back, vision shaking.
The sentinel didn’t stop.
It sprinted at him with inhuman speed and punched him straight in the chest. The blow felt like getting hit with a steel battering ram. Asher flew across the chamber and smashed into a wall, stone cracking behind him.
He dropped to one knee, coughing.
“That… hurt.”
The Knight rose and stood between Asher and the sentinel again, sword raised. Its armor was dented, but it still held its ground.
SQ-L88 marched forward, blade pointed at both of them.
“Final directive,” it said.
“Eliminate.”
Asher pushed himself up and wiped blood off his mouth.
“Alright,” he muttered. “Enough defense.”
His aura surged—raw, heavy, and focused.
He stepped forward beside the Knight.
SQ-L88 shot toward them again, blade swinging with lethal speed.
This time Asher didn’t dodge.
He stepped into the strike, grabbed the sentinel’s blade-arm with both hands, and stopped it cold. The force pushed him back, boots carving grooves into the floor, but he held on.
The Knight attacked from the right, sword slicing toward the sentinel’s exposed side.
SQ-L88 twisted—too fast to be natural—and blocked with its shield. But Asher used that moment. He drove his knee upward into the sentinel’s elbow joint.
A loud crack echoed.
The blade-arm bent.
Not broken yet, but bent.
SQ-L88 tried to pull away, but Asher didn’t let go. He swung the sentinel around and slammed it into the ground with all his strength.
The chamber shook.
The sentinel immediately started to get up, body snapping back into shape.
Asher didn’t wait.
He ran in and stomped on its chest, pinning it down long enough for the Knight to thrust its sword straight into the sentinel’s shoulder joint.
Metal tore.
Light burst out of the wound.
SQ-L88’s voice distorted, glitching for the first time.
“Malfunction… joint stability compromised…”
Asher leaned in.
“Good. Finally.”
He grabbed the sentinel by the head and forced it back to the floor as the Knight braced its sword, preparing another strike.
SQ-L88’s eyes flickered wildly.
Its systems were failing.
And Asher and his Knight did not intend to give it time to recover.
Asher didn’t waste a second.
The moment the sentinel tried to push itself up, Asher slammed his forearm across its neck and pinned it harder. SQ-L88’s limbs twitched, trying to readjust, trying to change shape again—but its damaged joints sparked and froze.
The Knight swung its sword down at the same weakened shoulder.
SQ-L88 twisted its torso at the last moment, blocking with its shield-arm—but the damaged joint couldn’t take the impact. The shield tore free with a loud metal snap and crashed across the floor, skidding away.
The sentinel jerked, systems glitching again.
“Defense… offline…”
Asher grabbed the exposed shoulder, dug his fingers into the torn metal, and pulled. Sparks burst out as he tore the armor apart by force, ripping open the inner plating.
SQ-L88 tried to stab him with its remaining arm, but Asher caught the blade with one hand and stopped it. The metal screeched as he held it in place.
“Not this time,” he growled.
The Knight stepped in and stabbed the sentinel through the ribs. The blade punched through the metal with a heavy crack and pinned the sentinel’s torso to the floor.
SQ-L88’s glowing eyes flickered again and again, struggling to keep its systems firing.
“Critical… fault…”
Asher slammed his fist into its faceplate.
Once.
Twice.
The metal dented deeper with each hit.
SQ-L88’s arm swung wildly, trying to fight back, but its movements were slower now—broken, unstable.
Asher grabbed the sentinel’s blade-arm again. This time he pulled with everything he had.
The arm tore off completely, blue light bursting from the severed joint.
The sentinel still tried to rise.
“Hostile… cannot… be… contained…”
Asher stepped over it, planted his foot on its chest, and forced it flat.
“Stay down.”
The Knight raised its sword for a finishing strike.
SQ-L88 made one last attempt, its internal core glowing brighter—like it was going to overload.
Asher saw it and acted instantly.
He reached down, grabbed the sentinel by the front of its chest plating, and ripped it open like tearing metal doors apart.
Underneath, the core flickered, unstable and exposed.
“Target… core… breach…”
“Yeah,” Asher said, “I know.”