Chapter 4: Chapter 4: Burst

Chapter 4: Burst

 

Parth dashed forward to engage the golem once more. To his surprise, his body moved way faster than normal. It took him a second to get used to the change, but even his reflexes were dialed up to eleven, so he was able to adjust quickly.

It all came down to mana. Since he was actively imbuing his body with it, he could feel it bolster his every single movement.

With just two swift steps, he was back within fighting range. He kept his eyes peeled for any surprise hits from the legs and the tail. Those were the attacks he was most unfamiliar with. He could handle punches just fine. The kicks and the tail swipes were the things that would throw him off his rhythm.

Like a broken record, the golem went for the same sweeping punch that it always opened with. He ducked it without much effort and was met with a straight punch. He leaned towards the side and deflected with his left arm. The force of the blow staggered him briefly, but he stomped his front foot strongly on the ground and regained his balance. At the same time, the deflection messed with the posture of the golem as well. It too repositioned itself around the same time he did.

The following minute was full of the same song and dance. He kept dodging and trying to make a move, while the golem adjusted to his movements and unleashed attack after attack. Parth might be on the defensive, but he was in no way stuck. He could feel himself getting faster and faster as he dodged the oncoming attacks.

As he ducked and weaved from the umpteenth attack, his stoic expression melted away into a smug smirk.

“So that’s how it is,” he said to the moving block of stone and sidestepped. As he predicted, a kick passed through that place harmlessly.

His smile widened as he nodded to himself in confirmation. Parth had been noticing the whole time that the golem always started its offense with the same attack, and then changed the follow-ups based on how he responded. There was a good amount of variation in the moves, but not enough. So, he put his plan into motion.

He jumped away to disengage and right as the golem reset itself to its default stance, he slammed his foot down hard and rocketed forward.

The oncoming opening swipe was a second too late, and he easily evaded it and broke the pattern. He was within punching range way faster than before. It didn’t have enough time to mount a second attack.

Parth’s heart sang in elation as he swung his fist while pumping a good amount of his mana throughout his body. He couldn’t yet pinpoint where the mana went, so he just opened the valve and let it flood his entire being. To his delight though, the right gauntlet sucked in most of the mana flowing through the right arm at that instance.

With a massive roar, a sizeable jet of fire shot out of his right fist before the punch even connected.  Right before the flame landed, the golem attempted to block it with its arm. He expected the fire to harmlessly brush off the stone automaton. To his astonishment, at the moment of impact, its arm got swatted away.

He didn’t let his surprise cloud his decision making though. An opening attack without a follow-through was a waste. So he followed through.

Taking another step to get really up close, he pivoted his leading leg, turned his body, and unleashed a powerful left hook. Normally a punch at that height would hit an opponent’s torso. Preferably the area around the liver. Alas, due to the height of the golem, Parth’s punch slammed hard into its thigh.

It was not without a result though. The damage was spectacular. There was no fire, no light show this time. But his mana was still circulating strong. The area of impact cracked hard under the force and broken rubble flew off the area of impact.

The golem immediately took several steps back. He didn’t want to let the opportunity pass and took a few steps of his own. But in response to that, it retreated several more steps.

Parth stopped and assessed the situation once more. When he had been flung back by it, he had aimed to move it out of its spot within a minute. He hadn’t been able to do it in that time frame, but it hadn’t taken much longer either. He glanced upwards and saw on the screen that only three minutes had passed since the fight began.

The golem itself was not pristine anymore. His left hook had made a small crater in its right thigh, exposing some of the wirings inside. More of the powder blue light emanated from that area, showing him the conduits that were unmistakably funneling energy to its leg. His biggest surprise was its right arm though. He thought that the jet of fire had only swatted the hand off course, but it had done more damage than he had imagined. Parth realized that his gauntlet had released a highly pressurized burst of mana that had carried the flames forward in the first place. The force of that alone had swatted the arm off course. On the other hand, the fire itself had done more damage than he had expected.

The right arm of the golem was aflame.

He didn’t expect stone to burn just due to just a small application of fire; no matter how strong and forceful it was. But he saw that there was a film of fire still burning relentlessly. Like burning oil over water. The stone arm had a good amount of discoloration due to the fire constantly burning over it. He wondered how much stronger he would need to be to melt it off straight away.

He could also somehow gauge how much of his mana was present in the flame and how long it would last.

The instinctive connection with the gauntlet had previously told him that he could create flames, to what extent, he hadn’t entirely known. What he knew was that it was not an ordinary fire. He figured that he should stop expecting things to work the same way they did without magic.

One thing was clear to him though. Just using the gauntlets as glorified punching gloves wasn’t prudent. He was too used to his training and just jumped into this like it was a boxing match. He still didn’t know how to use it properly, but from what he had seen so far, he knew that the more mana he pushed into it, the more fire came out. With practice, he could guide the flames. But right now, at that moment, it was not possible for him. It didn't matter though. He would use what he had. He hadn't taken any major hits and had landed a good one. It was a fine exhibition so far.

The temperature of his gauntlets was soaring. He could feel the heat exuding from it. It was dichotomous, as he could see and feel the effect of the heat, but he himself stayed unharmed from it.

As if on an unseen signal, the golem now began moving towards him. The tables had turned, and this time, he waited for it to walk into range. He realized that the algorithms – or any other standing instructions ­­– that dictated the actions of the golems were geared a certain way. It obviously had protocols to only go on the offensive if it was pushed above a certain threshold. His successful attacks had flipped that switch. He had moved it from its zone of dominance and established himself as a threat. That gave him some amount of confidence.

He held his ground and waited for his foe to reach him.

The moment it was within range, it made its move. Instead of dodging the incoming punch this time, he tried something different. He jabbed at the punch with his left hand, while constantly utilizing his mana. The burning hand of the golem got smacked away once more with another jet of flames. To compound the effect, the new dose of flames intensified the existing fire on the golem's arm and amped up the heat. 

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Parth capitalized on the opening and jumped in for a punch of his own. Alas, he realized too late that he had overextended. An overhead elbow smash clipped him in the head and threw him off his tempo. The next moment, something smashed into his side and he found himself tumbling across the floor.

He didn't waste much time on the ground though and jumped back to his feet in an instant. A quick assessment of his situation told him that he hadn’t taken much damage from the elbow smash. The only damage that he could feel was self-inflicted, as he had bitten the inside of his cheek due to the shock. The posture of the golem told him that the second hit was most definitely a tail swipe that had caught him in the ribs. His movement was not impeded, so there were no broken bones. Hopefully, he would be unscathed in that area apart from maybe some minor bruising. He would check on it later.

What had taken another minor hit, were his reserves. He realized that the mana consumption went up each time he had used it to tank some hits. It still wasn’t much of an issue though, since he had barely used one-fifth of his reserves so far. There were approximately seven more minutes and he had more than enough left in his tank. He didn’t plan on leaving it up to time though.

Time, which the golem was unwilling to give, as it was already upon him once again. It lashed out a kick with its injured leg. Despite the injury, the kick was fast. Par for the course, as he hadn't damaged any integral components. He had only taken out the armored portion.

Parth used this opportunity to weave underneath the kick and step right next to the leg that was still planted on the ground. Aiming to damage this one as well, he pivoted on his leading leg, turned his body, and unleashed another strong hook. 

An imprint of his fist was seared into the limb. Although, this hit was not as strong as the previous one. There was no explosion of rocky chunks. But it did manage to rattle the golem. Its balance was already shaky since one leg was still up due to the kick. It completely lost its balance as a result and began falling backward.

He had expected this result and he was already up in the air, propelled by a mana-fueled jump. As the golem fell backward, he clasped both his hands together and reeled back for an overhand axe blow.

To his surprise, it speared the ground with its tail and used it as leverage mid-fall. It lifted both its legs, rearing for a two-legged front kick.  

Parth could see the incoming attack, but he couldn't dodge it in midair. So he hastily increased the pace of his attack. His clasped fists interrupted the kick right before it made contact, and the resulting blowback sent both of them flying in opposite directions.

He rolled on the ground and quickly regained his footing before the golem could. As it was still ambling back to its two feet, he dashed towards it with every ounce of speed he could muster.

The golem still hadn’t stood up completely by then. With the massive opening in its stance, Parth easily smashed into the golem’s torso with a straight punch. Several chunks of rubble got blasted away, and the golem staggered backward due to the blow.

Not letting the opportunity go, he aimed for the cratered thigh and punched at it. At the moment of impact, flame exploded all around the area and the golem stumbled backward on one leg.

Parth could see that the fire had consumed the internal components of the right leg and it had stopped moving completely. It teetered on its left leg and speared its tail on the ground to regain its footing. He metaphorically had it against the ropes. He wouldn’t let it go. Victory was almost within reach. Without relenting, he continued his onslaught.

He planted his feet firmly and opened the floodgates. Almost the entirety of his remaining mana surged across his body and burned bright. There was a faint red glow surrounding him, signifying the sheer quantity of mana he was using. The air around him shimmered due to the amount of heat that was now spiking from his body. He didn’t look like one, but he sure projected the aura of a walking bonfire.

As his right hand shot forward in a vicious cross punch, the world seemed to slow down to him. The massive amount of mana flooding into his brain was causing his mind to run on overdrive. He could see the golem's only unblemished limb coming toward him. It looked like it was trying to mess up his attack. But its stance was improper, and the hit was way slower in comparison.

It was a risk he was willing to take. He was confident that he could tank the oncoming hit. And there was nothing much he could do to change his own trajectory as well. The mana would protect him. He had eaten tougher blows in the past few minutes and had come out relatively unscathed. This was easy.

With a mighty roar, he funneled everything he had into the punch. Fire erupted from his gauntlet and spun around his arm right before his punch connected. He got clipped in the head once more, but his hit landed first, and that sealed the deal. 

Technically, such a punch would hit a six-foot-tall human's jaw. Due to the height difference, his punch landed a little below the solar plexus of the golem. The next instant, the torso of the golem almost caved in due to the impact.

The force of the blow, combined with the expulsion of the concentrated flames blew away most of the stone armor in that region. The majority of the damage was done by the torrents of flame that burst out of the gauntlet relentlessly and kept flooding into the golem. The sudden spike in temperature and air pressure was immense. The force with which his mana was propelling the flames was also tremendous. All this lifted the golem off its good leg and flung it several feet across. Its body almost folded in half due to the amount of stress it was put through, all within a second. The caved-in torso was the entry point for the flaming burst, and within seconds, all the blue light coming from the golem was replaced with scorching flames.

As he stood still, his arm still extended due to his punch, the whole thing blew up due to the internal damage that the fire had done. Parth ducked and covered his face and chest with his gauntlets as the shrapnel harmlessly pinged off his mana-clad body.

He straightened himself and looked around. He was standing amidst burning rubble. Nothing else remained of the thing he was fighting. He thanked his stars that it did not blow up when he was standing right next to it. The shrapnel might have done some damage if that were the case.

Parth exhaled a long breath and forced the mana surging across his body into a state of rest. He had expended a good chunk of his reserves with that last move, and only a little bit of his mana remained. Although, this was just his first hour with his newfound mana reserves. It was bound to grow with time.

“Congratulations on your victory. Please follow the guides into the infirmary,” the voice announced over the speaker.

His head immediately snapped to the overhead screen to see that the timer had stopped at five minutes and eleven seconds.

At that moment, it sunk in. For the first time in a long time, he whopped in joy. He had finally won a match after the rut he had been on. Now all he had to do was to replicate this feat inside the dungeon without expending so much of his mana.

At that moment though, he didn’t worry about it. It was the first fight he had won since his life had spun out of control. Ever since his parents passed away a year ago, he couldn’t focus on his fights. No matter how much he tried, he couldn’t train properly, nor could he perform at his peak capacity. He had finally done it. It was now up to him whether he could do it once more. His dream of being a professional boxer might have been dead and buried, but he didn’t want to lose any more fights.

The feeling of winning after all that hardship was euphoric. Almost addictive. He didn’t want to let go of it for even one moment.

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