The Innkeeper

"Their coordination is incredible," said Lex, no longer wasting time with jokes. In fact, to speed along the communication process, he was no longer speaking with his voice but directly transmitting the message through his spirit sense.

They had barely a couple of seconds before the robots attacked again and they needed to get on the same page before then. Lex could probably brute force this floor because of his incredible defense, but if they became overwhelmed, there was a very real chance that Alexander could die. Of course, there was a chance that Alexander had a way to protect himself in such a situation, but the point was that these trials could be lethal if taken lightly. The fact that even Lex felt overwhelmed on just the fourth floor spoke of how difficult it was to overcome it. Although Jotun did not guarantee that this pagoda was exactly the same as the one he visited, he had to overcome 99 trials to reach the top of the pagoda.

"Their claws and fangs are sharp and are resistant to blunt force damage, but are slightly weaker than sharp or cutting attacks," informed Alexander. Unlike Lex, he had not suffered a single attack yet as his 6 swords cut down any threat.

"I don't have any weapons but I am excellent with arrays," volunteered Lex. By sharing something about himself, he hoped that they could form a cohesive strategy.

"Then you should have no problem surviving while I take care of things," said Alexander with a smirk. For some unknown reason, he was feeling extremely competitive. No one from his generation on earth had ever given him any pressure before. The fact that Lex, who shared so much in common with him, was able to threaten him, awoke something in Alexander that had never existed before.

For someone who was always serious all the time, a juvenile desire to show Lex up had taken hold of him for the first time. Since Alexander had never felt anything like that before, he didn't know how to navigate it, so he allowed it to take hold.

As if to indicate the seriousness of Alexander's claim, a change overcame not only him, but his weapons as well. Lex immediately recognized the phenomenon.

Alexander's grandfather, upon becoming enamored by anime, changed some of their spiritual techniques to give birth to visual effects similar to the aura displayed by anime protagonists.

But while Lex could identify the anime which inspired Alexander's previous visual changes, this one did not bring any prominent anime to mind. Hmm, maybe it wasn't just for show in that case.

Like embers flying with the wind, small red grains started leaking out of Alexander's body and weapons. Although the color evoked images of fire, Lex felt to no heat. Although, as more and more red flakes began to come out, Lex's intuition gave him a firm warning - in his current state, Alexander absolutely could hurt him!

Of course, there was a massive difference between hurt and kill. But even managing to cut Lex's skin deserved recognition!

Unfortunately, they had no more time to chat amongst themselves as the robots reached them once again.

Four of Alexander's swords revolved around him, cutting anything that tried to attack him from his back or his sides while he used the other two to coordinate with his attack! Though, despite his eagerness to prove himself, he retained the good sense to not rush into the horde. Lex and Alexander stayed closed.

Unlike Alexander, whose lethality had shot through the roof, Lex was pretty much the same. He immediately felt the pressure of the robots attack, and was left to crush them one by one using brute strength. Yet a part of his focus remained on Alexander. He could not figure out what it was that had empowered him, and if it was an element, it was not one he was familiar with. He had a feeling that instead of artificially trying to look like a protagonist, whatever training the empire had given him was further pushing him along the lines of actually becoming one. He suddenly had an idea, though that would have to wait till he was done with the pagoda.

The robots had started latching onto the walls and ceiling as well, completely threatening to crush the two under their numbers. One of them even fell onto Lex's head and tried to claw at his face, to no real success.

Every fiber of Lex's being was equally tough. He had no 'weak points' at all whatsoever. Still, the psychological alarm of something scratching at your eyes was not easy to overcome! Lex was immediately alarmed, and then pissed! Just because he didn't have anime effects didn't mean he could be picked at!

Lex immediately entered the overdrive state again, and analyzed the horde. If he assumed they had the same strengths as the spider he faced, neither electricity nor fire or any of the common elements would be able to harm them. Or at least, it would require those elements in with a stronger kick.

But the beauty of arrays was, reality was literally in the palm of his hands. He could manipulate the elements as he desired, even into becoming things that didn't naturally exist! Or at least, into things he had only imagined and never seen!

With a decision made of what he wanted to do, an array began to form. But since he needed both his hands to fight off the horde, he decided to form the array at his feet. Technically speaking, now that he was in the golden core realm, he could even form arrays away from his body as long as the flow of energy was never interrupted. But considering the current circumstances, it was best that the array be as close as possible to him.

The shape arrays took was usually in the form of a circle. The main character or attributes of the array would be in the center most of the array, after which would be surrounded by a circle. Then the many layers and nuances of the array were written around that circle, adding as many circles as was required.

The greater the complexity of the array, the greater the number of circles. When he was at the Foundation realm, although the complexity of the arrays he could form was far beyond what normal cultivators at his realm could do, he was ultimately limited by the capacity of his own mind. That was why the array he formed to defeat so many nascent cultivators was so incredible.

But now the same array wouldn't cut it. It wasn't because the array or attack was weak, but because it was mismatched against the kinds of opponents he was facing. Conversely, although the array he had in mind was technically as destructive as the former, he had a feeling it would be a lot more effective.

The array under his feet quickly expanded from a single circle to two, then to three, and then four. In a few seconds, the entire width of the floor was covered by the array, but unfortunately Lex needed to grow the array further, so it began to crawl up the walls. But even then it kept growing as more and more circles were added, until it eventually started to creep across the ceiling.

Alexander, who was busy slaying the robots, suddenly felt something and scanned the area behind him, and was taken aback. When Lex had said he was good at arrays, Alexander did not expect he was able to sustain such a massive array in the middle of combat.

Moreover, while usual arrays looked ephemeral, and almost transparent due to the fact that they were made only of spirit energy, Lex's array carried a tinge of silverish gold. A somewhat serious expression donned Alexander's face. This was an indication of an affinity, and a very strong one at that if it could color his spirit energy in such an obvious way!

Before he could continue to observe, Lex suddenly moved towards him and grabbed his collar.

"Hold still for a moment," was all he managed to transmit through his spirit sense before suddenly surrounding the both of them with a protective shield. Then a few more. Then a few more again!

The thing about the array Lex just used was… it was an omnidirectional attack! There was no distinction between friend or foe!

There was an explosion of white, and the ground beneath them actually trembled. Since the shields Lex had formed were made of inferior spiritual techniques, they could not survive the strength of his own attack!

Lex groaned in frustration and suddenly forgot about defending himself and instead covered Alexander with a strengthened version of Talk to the Hand. The barrier came up just in time before Lex's last shield broke.

Snowflakes as large as Lex's hand started cutting his body, thoroughly shredding all his clothes. He released another groan as they actually started cutting his skin! Though, of course, the cuts were miniscule, and barely allowed a drop of blood to drip.

Lex had used the characters for storm, sharpness and snowflakes together to create an explosion of ridiculously sharp, and extremely cold snowflakes! Not only could they cut through the robots, the moment they lost their integrity and broke, all their 'coldness' would be channeled into whatever was cut.

Lex planned on using this to not only damage as many robots as possible, but also freeze any that survived the storm so that they could be picked off easily. The problem was, he forgot to consider that his defensive techniques would fail and his clothes would get shredded!