I'm a monster in Demon King's Castle

A figure with a mechanical eye and covered in weaponry burst from the darkness, unleashing a volley of micro-missiles at Li Yue and Yingying, who were breaking down the door.

Time was of the essence, and Li Yue didn't dare let Yingying take the hit. He pulled Yingying back in one swift motion, using his own bone plating to block several micro-missiles.

The missiles exploded with tremendous force, but thankfully, there wasn't a burst of holy light as he'd feared. Li Yue felt a slight sense of relief.

"What is a missile?" Yingying, pulled back by Li Yue, was very curious about this new concept.

"That was one just now." Li Yue finally had time to assess the person before him, noticing the array of guns and strange, arrow-shaped devices with holes, which filled him with doubt.

【Cool…】 Ying'er, inexplicably influenced by Li Yue, thought the missiles were cool.

"Gunner?"

Li Yue knew that such a path existed among the Braves.

"Uh… he should be a Mechanist from the Fabrication Department," Yingying corrected Li Yue.

"You know him?"

"I don't know him, but I know of them," Yingying replied.

Clearly, this was another piece of knowledge that the Shadow Demon possessed innately.

After the volley of missiles failed to inflict significant damage on Li Yue, only shattering a few bone plates, the Mechanist's mechanical eye locked onto Li Yue's movements, activating its recording function.

Then came a storm of gunfire and missiles.

This time, the missile types varied greatly, including explosive, splitting, piercing, and toxic spore types—the Mechanist was testing Li Yue and the Shadow Demon's weaknesses.

Li Yue wanted to kill the Mechanist, but his petrification rays were blocked by a mirror that the Mechanist produced from his palm, and the bone plates he launched were difficult to break through the Mechanist's mechanical body, resulting in a close-quarters struggle.

The Mechanist moved quickly, turning on lights, emitting light, and dodging shadows.

Engaging Li Yue while moving, the Mechanist passed by the wreckage of the clockwork soldiers near the doorway, and with a few flicks of his fingers, reassembled them.

The clockwork soldiers, which had just been a pile of scrap metal, rejoined the battle.

Assembling? Repairing?

Li Yue thought the Mechanist's path seemed quite suitable for humans.

The battle at the armory's main entrance was already intense. Li Yue saw the writing on Hunteral's contract blurring, indicating he was close to death.

But the good news was that the armory's anchor point on the map was almost fully lit. In a few more seconds, they could begin their retreat.

The Mechanist, however, seemed to believe that Li Yue's target was the exoskeletal armor in the center, and together with the reassembled clockwork soldiers, blocked Li Yue's path, protecting the exoskeleton.

"It seems they consider these creations very important," Li Yue noted keenly.

Therefore, Li Yue naturally shifted his attack towards the exoskeletal armor, and finally, Yingying seized the constantly jumping Mechanist.

"Squeak…"

Yingying began to twist and kill.

The guns and devices on the Mechanist's body twisted, and he quickly opened his mechanical hand, inserting it into the bodies of the clockwork soldiers beside him—countless parts surged into the Mechanist's body, fighting against the shadow.

With the parts and devices mixed together, Yingying found it difficult to discern the details of the Mechanist's body in a short time, making it difficult to aim accurately.

The Mechanist gained a moment of respite and immediately embedded himself into the exoskeletal device with his deformed parts…

"Clank, clank, clank…"

The exoskeletal device deformed, gradually enveloping his body with the Mechanist at its center.

The Mechanist donned the exoskeletal armor.

【Cool!】 Ying'er was once again influenced by Li Yue.

The next moment, blades, drills, and light spikes popped out of the armor, transforming it into a killing machine.

"Exoskeletal Armor Experiment No. 47, combat object, Shadow Demon…" The Mechanist directly designated this battle as a live experiment.

"Ha! You're going to be disappointed!" Li Yue had been waiting for the Mechanist to embed himself.

The armory's anchor point had been lit; Li Yue was looking for an opportunity to retreat, but he didn't expect the opportunity to be delivered right to his doorstep.

As the Mechanist, equipped with the exoskeletal armor, charged over, Li Yue waved his finger, and the killing machine creaked and swayed, staggering alongside Li Yue towards the armory's main entrance…

The machine was being controlled by Li Yue.

Because many of the joints used for weight reduction were made of bone.

Li Yue could freely manipulate these self-healing, high-density bones.

Although the mechanical torque was still resisting, overall, he could still paralyze most of the bone functions.

From the armory's inner layer to the outer layer, the Mechanist had no power to resist; and Hunteral at the door had already been beaten beyond recognition, barely clinging to life.

"Lord Woodson's concerns have become a reality. Using demonic materials to create constructs, if they encounter demons with the corresponding material control abilities, it will interfere with our operations…" The Mechanist was still faithfully recording the experimental process and his心得 (xīn dé - insights).

"Currently, it is known that the Shadow Demon possesses similar abilities…" The Mechanist looked at Yingying on the ground, adding an explanation.

"Next, the experiment continues to test whether the construct's safety mechanism is effective…" As the Mechanist spoke, the exoskeletal armor suddenly shook, and the mechanical torque rapidly intensified!

Li Yue also felt the entire machine overheating.

"Overheat overload!" The Mechanist shouted, and the exoskeletal armor resumed movement. Li Yue instantly lost control of the armor.

The overheating also placed a great burden on the Mechanist himself, and he began to groan in pain.

Li Yue attempted to separate the bone material within the armor, but every inch of bone was tightly embedded by mechanical components, and the separation failed.

The armored Mechanist instantly flashed behind Li Yue, delivering a punch to his back!

Li Yue was sent flying, and at the same time, the "whoosh, whoosh" sound of missiles firing from behind him rang out again.

Without needing to communicate telepathically, Yingying used shadows to control the missiles, pulling them around Li Yue's back and firing them directly at the clockwork soldiers pinned at the armory's main entrance.

A powerful shockwave erupted at the main entrance, opening a passage.

"Safety mechanism effective. In an overloaded state, the construct can resume movement…" The Mechanist's voice was very excited.

Li Yue's main body, protected by the shadows, didn't receive too much impact, but if he wanted to slip away, he still needed to get rid of the armor's entanglement. So, he turned around and scattered a large amount of binding thread, probing into the joints of the exoskeletal armor…

The Mechanist tried to pull away, but this time, with the pulling force of the binding thread combined with the bones themselves resisting, the armor's movement failed.

The overloaded machine was like prey caught in a spiderweb, trembling and unable to move.

"Summary: The overloaded state can break free from the Shadow Demon's restraints, but the explosive power still needs to be enhanced…"

"This construct needs to be further optimized. My experimental materials will further lay the foundation for its development direction until it can be put into use…"

"Initiate self-destruct sequence…"

The Mechanist babbled on, coldly stating his choice.

The armor's magical core began to heat up, with magical power surging within.

It's going to self-destruct?

Perfect timing for a big commotion, delivered right to my door?

Li Yue tore open the ground, summoned Yingying back, and quickly submerged.

Throughout the entire battle, Yingying remained very calm, and didn't forget to grab Hunteral's shadow as they left—the hunter, who had been beaten into a tattered mess, was taken into the shadow space, diving down with Li Yue.

The clockwork soldiers at the main entrance were blasted to pieces by a volley of missiles and were no longer able to stop them, while the knights outside wanted to initiate a duel, but were not able to hit Yingying or Hunteral due to the bone plates and eyeballs obstructing them.

And just as they wanted to rush in and pursue, a massive explosion occurred at the armory's main entrance.

As the explosion was about to engulf the entire outer layer of the armory, a light circle separated the explosion, lifting it into the sky…

Leight and Jessie arrived.

But Li Yue's shadow had already been lost.

"He'll be at the Bard's Convention at 11 PM tonight. Will you come?" Jessie asked Leight, looking at the devastated armory and the rising sun.

"I'll be there," Leight nodded.