CHAPTER 832: A SMIRK REFLECTED IN RED

The golem only had time to see Adam blur from the four platforms he had bounced against as he reached one facing it. A dark arrow condensed beneath the human, one that made dust particles fly sideways—toward the painting of Brineheart on its torso.

Its protocols rumbled. They had already analysed and found countermeasures against this spell.

The gravity arrow propelled Adam, creating shockwaves that spread outwards as his cheeks rippled like jelly from his own violent velocity. The golem simply moved its silvery broadsword in his path, waiting for the human to crash onto its edges with cold efficiency.

However, the light beneath its visitor flickered in alarm when Adam strained to flick what would appear to be a desperate middle finger to anyone.

Not to it.

It saw the invisible threads connected to his finger, each leading to one of the dissolving platforms. And when he curled it, four gravity arrows, broader than the one propelling Adam, were revealed beneath four weapons.

WOOSH

A dark dagger shot first, its blade streaking with an ethereal hue. It crashed against its broadsword in a rain of sparks. A burst of radiant light erupted upon impact that forced the broadsword a millimetre aside before the Luminous Wildblade’s bounced off.

A sleek, dark bastard sword, intricately engraved with chimaeric symbols, took over.

CLANG

The Blade of Adaptation screeched with a primal roar. Its chimaeric resilience allowed its edges to force the broadsword off course a little more.

A wooden frame bathed in moonlight spun in replacement, triangular edges glinting with sunlight. When they clashed against the broadsword, a burst of pure, milky white solar flames erupted in a concentrated dome. Adam’s Macuahuitl pushed the broadsword further, but not enough for him to survive.

That’s when the somber crystalline edges of his discarded Chronoscar tore rifts that distorted space in their wake. The scent of absolute zero lingered in frozen trails.

BOOM

The collision came in a blast of screeching metal that almost knocked the broadsword off Adam’s path. It had analysed what would come next, but time didn’t allow for countermeasures, not when the frozen trails exploded into jagged spears of ice.

It strained its mechanical arms, its protocols refusing to give an additional millimetre to Adam. That was when the weight of three afterimages given solid form from shadows crashed on the Chronoscar like hammers.

Mechanical fingers loosened with a groan. The silvery broadsword spun in a high arc before planting itself in the ground’s ancient slabs, right between Adam’s weapons.

And Adam’s smirk, reflected in the red gem serving as its eye beneath the visor—just as his fist collapsed on the torso with the strength of a shooting star.

The impact jolted Adam’s arm. His knuckles burst, revealing the white bones underneath as metal caved. His mouth snapped open in a roar that cracked with suppressed pain.

"DESMOND!"

Spatial Qi erupted from his fist, not in a blast but in the shape of a dark eastern dragon. Stars shimmered in its galactic frame as it tore through the painting of Brineheart, annihilating the golem’s immunity to magic.

Desmond scrambled from behind the square pillar, where he had been hiding, to the scene of the Qi dragon exiting from the golem’s back. But awe couldn’t distract him from his mission.

Sweat stuck his purple hair to his forehead. He almost tumbled on the red carpet when he aligned the twenty circles of crackling lightning he had spent the entire fight setting up.

A purple lightning trident formed in his palm, and he hurled it through the circles, screaming. "YAHOOOO!"

The trident’s negative charge shrieked when they met the circles’ positive ones before its speed doubled twenty times. What was left was a purple beam that reached the golem’s stomach in a heartbeat.

Yet, to Desmond’s horror, the golem threw itself aside with cold accuracy. Air didn’t even have time to catch in his throat; the realisation did first. His trident would only partially hit the golem, and with Adam mid-air, vulnerable...

The golem’s fist would crush his friend.

Unlike Desmond, Adam’s mythical eyes narrowed on the blinding beam. Without thinking, he twisted downward, gripping it with his good hand. Lightning seared his skin and numbed his arm. Saliva burst through his clenched jaw. Against the sizzling sounds, he continued on his spin, rectifying the trident’s trajectory to the golem’s stomach, but not only.

The three lightning blades grew more substantial under his mana control. Curved, spade-shaped tips formed at their ends, and the crude shaft flourished with adornments. When he hurled it at the golem, it was with the centrifugal force of his spin added to the already surreal speed of the trident.

The beam crashed with a tearing boom, arcs sputtering across the golem’s stomach, the paintings of rivers, mountains, and cities dissolving in the heat. Adam saw the room’s opposite wall through the hole of glowing metal that dripped to the ground.

"Your loss, scrap golem!" He grinned even as the golem’s visor flashed and its hand reached for his falling figure.

The moment it bent, its torso split in a rain of blackened shards.

Adam stepped aside from the collapsing pieces. Watching its visor finally dim, he exhaled heavily. All the tension melted away like morning mist as he allowed himself to drop to his rear, clenching his fists. They had done it. The relief from this simple fact made him grin at his ragged uniform.

"Another one ruined, huh?" He chuckled as, aided by a wave of brilliant light and his Qi, his charred left arm slowly recovered a healthy hue.

Before it could completely heal, Desmond rushed at him. He folded on his knees, panting, eyes wide, but his concern still flowed out of his mouth. "Are you alright?"

"Fine and ready to go." Adam flexed his biceps, chuckling before he stretched his fist out. "Glad everything worked out more or less as planned. Nice spell, by the way."

Desmond’s fist met his before he collapsed to his knees, the surreal battle he had witnessed—no, played an integral part in was finally settling.

For a moment, he glared at the remains of the nightmarish golem as if it would move any second, then shook his head. "Almost nothing you did was planned! At least, it’s over, but... I still feel that call tugging at me." He moved to the hole in which the golem used to embed itself, then checked the wall behind it. After searching for a moment, he pursed his lips as if he had eaten the sourest magical fruit in the realm. "No reward or guarded treasure. Nothing..."

Adam cracked his neck and went for the silvery broadsword. "Perhaps its weapon is the reward? Or maybe it’s hidden inside its carcass. Tsk. You’d better not disappoint me after all the trouble."

Before his fingers could grip the almost four-meter-long sword, two red lights flickered from the darkness shrouding the golem’s carcass interior.

A silvery blur he barely had time to see flashed beside him. All he could do was widen his eyes at the beautiful face carved in metal before a kick hurled him against the wall.

Breath knocked out of his lungs, side hurting, he gasped. How? He knew he had obliterated the golem’s core and all its protocols with it. Was the second one hidden inside? Shit! The situation was growing out of control.

He took a step forward, only to stumble, the copper taste of blood filling his mouth.

"What happened?!" Desmond yelled, wand trembling at the human-sized female golem.

Without answering, she simply twisted the broadsword’s hilt. The blade instantly dripped layers of silver, revealing twin blades she gripped with uncanny familiarity. One was abyss-dark, the other glistened like light given form.

And branded on the female’s torso, Adam saw a black star with jagged edges.

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AN: As expected, writing this fight was agony XD. Hope you like it, though. :D