Rise of The Demon General

Amon entered the red tent. He saw engravings on the tent walls. Even if the wall was made of fabric, Amon had no doubt it was sturdy enough to resist impacts from the Human realm practitioners.

Inside the tent, aside from the official who stood at one corner, the only other object was a metallic mannequin.

The mannequin stood inert at the opposite end of the room. Words of power were engraved all over its metallic skin. Its face was blank without any indication of eyes, nose, or mouth. Amon didn't need to ask that this mannequin was the battle puppet.

"Are you ready?" The official, who was on standby at the corner, asked.

Amon nodded.

"Then begin!"

As soon as the official's words ended. The words of power on the battle puppet flared to life. It started to budge. It then strode towards Amon with mechanical movements. Amon lowered his stance and waited for the puppet to come.

When the puppet was halfway from Amon, it suddenly lunged forward, taking Amon by surprise.

Amon's skin turned bronze as he put his two arms in front just as the puppet's fist came smashing. The impact threw Amon's back. Amon stomped his feet to the floor and force himself to skid to a stop before he bumped into the wall.

'A puppet has no killing intent. I can't sense their moment of attack as I sense my living opponents,' Amon thought with alarm.

The puppet didn't let Amon take a breather. It was already throwing another punch. Amon ducked, letting the wooden fist pass above him. He used Bone Shattering Shadow Fist to the puppet's waist as he ducked away. He felt as if he was punching a very thick solid steel wall.

The puppet made a back swing, completely unaffected by Amon's punch to its waist. Luckily Amon didn't stay near, he had put some distance after his punch, so the puppet's back swing only hit the air.

Amon's arm was trembling. The rebound from the impact of his punch had hurt him instead.

'The thing is too tough, I can't compete with it with only strength,' Amon thought.

Unfortunately, he also couldn't use his poison claw. A battle puppet had no blood and flesh, so his poison was useless against it. Not to mention, Poison ability was not common. Hence, Amon preferred to not expose his poison expertise in the open, lest any usage of it could be linked to him later.

Amon thought about his options. The condition of winning was either to make the puppet fall to the ground or hit the walls of the tent. He didn't even consider surviving for five minutes. That was just too unchallenging.

Not considering the surviving option, winning against the puppet might sound simple, but after the initial clash, Amon knew the puppet was very heavy. It would take tremendous strength to push it to the wall. Its legs were also thick and its movements steady, it would be difficult to make it lose balance and fall.

Amon punched forward as the puppet came at him again. His Bone Shattering Shadow Fist sent a torrent of fist energy forward. The fist's energies crashed into the puppet's left knee. Sounds of loud impact were heard. The puppet paused from the impact but soon resumed its movements as if nothing had happened.

'Its hinge parts were also very sturdy,' Amon thought as he moved backward, keeping his distance from the puppet.

Of the two options, Amon thought pushing the puppet to the wall was more viable. He might not have the strength to do the actual pushing, but he had a method to utilize the puppet's own strength to send it tumbling to the wall.

However, there was actually a third option. The information that Amon had on the battle puppet was from books from the pyramid legacy. These books not only contained general information about the puppet but also their construction process. It required three different professions to construct a battle puppet. The smith formed the puppet's physical body and injected the concentrated aer stone that served as its fuel. The words of power that gave it life came from an Engraver.

The last profession was the Talisman maker. Hidden within the puppet's body was a core that was formed of a series of interlinked talismans. How the battle puppet moved and fought, was heavily dependent on these talismans. This core was like their brains. Their core processor. The more talismans inside this core, the more complex the puppet could function. Whether or not a battle puppet possessed an art also depended on the talismans in the core.

From how simple the battle puppet in front of him, Amon surmised it to only have a single talisman in its core.

The third option for defeating this battle puppet was to destroy the talisman within the core. Like most beings, once its brain was destroyed, they most likely stopped moving. The battle puppet was the same. Additionally, the talisman was the only weak material within the puppet. The rest of the puppet was normally constructed from sturdy materials. Even its fuel source, the concentrated aer stone, was extremely dense and hard. The talismans, on the other hand, were fragile. So, it was the most vulnerable part of the puppet's body.

But it was easier said than done. He had an art that should be able to penetrate the puppet's metallic body. Yet, he had to first identify the position of the core. The books about the battle puppet construction informed Amon that the placement of the core was not restricted. The makers were free to place it anywhere within the body. Hence, in this sense, only the makers knew the exact weakness of the battle puppet.

Amon might be able to win faster if he used the method of sending the puppet tumbling to the wall. But considering this fight was under a safe condition, Amon saw it as another form of training. To collect experience in case one day he had to go through a life and death battle against another battle puppet. Hence, he didn't choose the easy method.

Amon approached the battle puppet who was coming. The puppet threw a right punch once Amon was in range. The metallic fist pierced Amon's body, or at least it appeared to be. Amon had used Lingering Shade Stride, which gave him a short explosion of speed. He reappeared at the puppet's left side and knocked its head with a weak punch. The puppet responded by throwing a left punch, which Amon again dodged.

This continued repeatedly. Amon continued to use his Lingering Shade Stride to dodge the punches while the puppet threw its fists nonstop. The official that was observing from the corner shook his head. Was Amon trying to tire the puppet? That was a very foolish intention. A battle puppet never got tired. This was another of the battle puppet's advantages. A battle puppet could last for a long time upon activation. The concentrated aer stone installed inside it could normally allow a complicated battle puppet to last for days. For a battle puppet as simple as this one, it could last for weeks before its concentrated aer stone needed to be replaced.

But after observing for a while, the official thought Amon's seemingly erratic dodging was a bit strange. Amon always came at a different side from the last. It was like Amon trying to confuse the puppet by keep on alternating between its left and right. However, Amon never attacked for real. Aside from the first punch, all Amon did after that were weak knocks. He always threw those knocks every time he dodged a punch, and it was always at the puppet's different body parts. It was as if Amon wanted to knock every single part of the puppet.

After the battle proceeded in this way for a full minute, the observer saw that Amon was grinning.

Amon grinned because he had roughly identified the position of the talisman core. The reason he kept on alternating between left and right was to measure the puppet's response time. He found that its right punch came faster compared to its left. He deduced this should indicate the talisman core to be placed around the right side of its body, hence its response time was shorter.

The knockings all over its body were to check for cavities. The talisman required considerable empty space so it would produce a different sound from the other solid parts of the puppet's body. Amon focused the knocking on the right side of the body. After rigorous checking, he finally concluded that the talisman core was located slightly below the puppet's right shoulder.

With that assumption, Amon was ready to deliver the killing blow. He first put some distance before he focused the aether on the tip of his finger. Flickers of light appeared before they turned into sparks as fire elemental aether started to gather around his finger.