As The golem's head tilted slightly, red eyes narrowing, voice deep and resonant like grinding stone.
"Hmm… is that all you've got?"
Albedo's smirk faltered just for a heartbeat—before his face twitched with irritation.
"Tch… I'm just warming!!"
He didn't even finish.
The elemental's right fist shot forward in a blur. The air between them cracked with a sound like snapping bone as it slammed into Albedo's abdomen. The impact warped the muscles of his midsection, distorting his frame under the sheer, brutal force.
A thunderclap of pressure followed.
Albedo's body arched violently as if struck by a battering ram, his feet lifting off the ground before the blow launched him upward like a ragdoll caught in a storm.
His arms flailed involuntarily, his head snapping back. For a moment, his glowing blue eyes went wide and unfocused—almost white—as shock and pain flooded his senses. His mouth hung open in a silent gasp, the air punched clean out of his lungs.
( Damn… that toy is strong…) while he breath like no air.
The thought flickered in his mind as his body spiraled higher, cutting through the dusty air of the arena.
But Albedo was not one to stay down.
Mid-flight, his senses snapped back. His body jerked under his control, slowing his ragged spin until he caught himself. Energy surged through him, forcing his boots to stop midair. He hovered there in the open sky, shoulders heaving, coughing once into his hand. The cough was wet, sharp—and it made his grin return.
Far below, the golem's glowing red frame stood like a statue of war, its arm still extended from the strike, steam rising from its joints.
The golem's head tilted back slightly, its cracked, red obsidian glass-like-face shifting in something disturbingly close to a smirk. Its voice came out in that cold, metallic timbre mocking, calculated.
"Huh… you didn't die with one punch?"
Its glowing red eyes pulsed, locking onto Albedo's hovering silhouette above the arena floor.
Albedo's boots hung a few inches off the air, dust swirling lazily around his legs in the heat of his aura. His breath was steady—but the muscles in his jaw twitched, and a slow, sharp grin spread across his face.
"Huh… dying?" he scoffed, his voice laced with venom and pride. "That's only for the weak."
The words slithered through the air like a promise.
Then his expression changed—his grin curling into something feral. The veins along his neck and temples bulged, crawling under his skin like dark serpents, throbbing in rhythm with his rising fury. His glowing blue eyes narrowed to predatory slits, locked solely on the golem below.
The arena wind seemed to still for a heartbeat, as though the entire place was holding its breath, waiting for what came next.
The elemental golem's head tilted upward more lightly, its fractured obsidian plates grinding with an almost amused hum.
"Hmm… let's see if you can live up to that expectation."
Its voice was a cold metallic growl, but before the sound could even finish echoing through the arena, the golem was gone—vanishing into the ground so cleanly it left not a trace of dust in its wake.
Albedo's brow furrowed.
"Huh? Where did it g—"
The rest of his words were swallowed by a violent impact.
From below, the golem's crimson-glowing form erupted upward, its fist slamming into Albedo's face with the force of a falling star.
FWEEEEEHHHHHH!
Albedo's body spun through the air, twisting in uncontrolled rotations, his balance ripped away by the sheer momentum. His head jerked to the side, jaw straining unnaturally—until a sickening crack signaled it had partially dislocated.
For a heartbeat, the world seemed to slow the sound of rushing wind around his body, the sky and arena flashing past with each spin..... until he caught himself still in midair.
With one sharp jerk of his hand, Albedo forced his jaw back into place—pop—the pain only making his smirk wider. He spat a crimson arc of blood to the side, the droplets catching moonlight before splattering on the arena floor far below.
His glowing blue eyes locked on the golem, burning brighter now, twin beacons of thrill and challenge.
"Ohhh… the elemental shit toy is fighting back now…"
Slowly, he clapped his hands together once… twice... each slap echoing like a war drum.
"Good… good."
Then. As the air hold it's breath.....
Albedo vanished no blur, no afterimage just gone.
The elemental golem's crimson-lit eyes scanned the mid air they levitated with and the arena below, its mechanical hum deepening. Even with its strength rising by the second, the end of its red potion boost was drawing near. Every instant mattered.
A faint displacement in the air was the only warning.
BWOOOM!
Albedo reappeared directly in front of it, arm already drawn back.
His fist slammed into the elemental red obsidian abdomen.
HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!
He didn't stop.
Another strike.
And another.
Each punch was a brutal shockwave, sending dust and debris rippling out in concentric circles. The air quivered with every impact, the sound a rapid-fire THUD-THUD-THUD like boulders crashing into iron.
The golem staggered, not from weakness, but from the sheer relentlessness of the assault.
"You… can never defeat me.."
Suddenly a hairline fracture spidered across its abdomen plating.
Its eyes flicked downward—surprise breaking through its cold voice.
"…Huh?"
Albedo's lips curled into a fierce grin.
Without hesitation, he hooked a savage right punch toward the golem's head, aiming to shatter it clean.
But CLANG!
The golem's hand shot up, catching Albedo's fist mid-swing. The sound was like steel grinding on steel, the air around them bending from the sheer force locked in that grip. Dust spiraled upward in a slow, choking dance.
The two stood locked Albedo's glowing blue eyes drilling into the golem's molten-red glare, the tension in the air thick enough to feel in the bones.
The golem's glowing red eyes narrowed, voice grinding like shifting stone.
"My turn now."
Its left hand still clamped tighter around Albedo's right wrist glassi metal on flesh, an unyielding vice that burned with raw force.
Before Albedo could wrench free...
CRACK-THUD!
The golem's right fist smashed into his face.
Then again.
And again.
Each blow was merciless, a bone-rattling rhythm that turned the very air into a drumbeat of destruction. The force was so violent that the moonlight above seemed to ripple, distorting in the shockwaves. Loose gravel and sand lifted from the arena floor, suspended for a heartbeat before raining back down in shimmering arcs.
Albedo's head snapped to the side with every strike, almost rotating from the sheer torque. His lips tore, teeth rattled, blood smearing across his chin in thick, crimson streaks. The metallic tang filled the air, sharp and iron-sweet.
"HAAAAAAAA!"
His roar was defiant, teeth gritted through the haze of pain. Both feet kicked upward, piston-like, slamming into the golem's armored frame in an attempt to break its rhythm. The arena floor cracked beneath their shifting impact weight.
But the grip on his right arm didn't loosen.
Desperately, he swung his free left hand in a counterblow—only for it to collide with the golem's next punch mid-arc.
CLANG!
The impact deflected his strike harmlessly, the golem's blow continuing forward as if his resistance were nothing more than a gust of wind. The fist smashed into his cheek again, forcing another spray of blood into the air, droplets glittering under the fractured moonlight.
Around them, the night seemed to tighten—wind swirling, shadows trembling—as if the entire arena was holding its breath for what would come next.
High above the chaos of the arena, Dila looked at the fight on her floating light, her staff projecting a shimmering hologram in the air. The image, shaped by Nari's precise magic, displayed the fight in crisp detail every blow, every splatter of blood and dust swirling above magnified larger than life.
Dila's eyes followed the scene, her voice low, almost guilty.
"I… I feel bad for Albedo. He's getting beaten badly. I thought he was truly strong… but right now, he's like a ragdoll."
Beside her, Fran gripped her dagger closer to her chest resting in a slant, knuckles white. Her voice cut in sharp, laced with disbelief.
"You should feel bad, sister—because he's your father."
The words struck like a bell. Dila's eyes widened, turning to meet Fran's stare.
"No. He's not my father."
Fran's face twitched, the faintest ripple of frustration passing over her features.
"What do you mean? He's clearly your father! Don't you… don't you love him?"
The projection flickered briefly as Dila tightened her grip on her staff. Her tone hardened, though her expression betrayed a flicker of pain.
"I don't know. The only thing I do know now is that he tried to hurt me—almost crushed my face with his own hand. If it weren't for the elemental golem stepping in… my head could be nothing but mush right now."
Fran's eyes darted back to the floating image, as if searching for some truth in the violence below. Dila turned away from Fran, the blue glow of the hologram casting stark shadows over her face.
In the projection, Albedo was still pinned, still enduring that relentless barrage. Dust rolled in thick waves of impact sent from the shattered arena walls, mixing with the drifting silver light of the moon. The fight looked less like a battle now and more like a predator toying with prey.
Dila's voice dropped to a quiet, almost resigned murmur.
"Looks like this fight's already decided… who will win."
The air around them was cold, heavy with the echo of clashing blows, as the image of Albedo's struggle played on—each passing second hammering her words deeper into truth.