The tiny winged golem, Earthrea, soared through the dust-choked air like a hawk diving for prey, its stone claws gripping the two precious vials. Its wings beat hard, sending faint trails of grit spiraling behind it.
Below, Albedo's boots still pressed into the obsidian-like glass body of the fallen elental, each stomp echoing with a sharp thud that reverberated through the cracked arena floor.
Earthrea tightened its claws around the vials, desperate.... every wingbeat fueled by urgency. Just a few more ters.
But then Albedo's head tilted.
A faint "Umm…" escaped his lips, almost lazy, yet carrying a predatory edge.
In a blur, his glowing blue eyes locked onto the incoming ssenger.
The mont hung still Earthrea's wings spread wide, the glassy shine of the vials catching what little mon light bled through the swirling dust.
Then, Albedo smirked and stepped aside in a single smooth motion, letting the tiny courier streak past him without interference.
Dila's eyes widened, brows knitting in confusion.
"What…?" she breathed, almost too softly for even herself to hear.
Albedo's grin widened into sothing playful and cruel.
"You see," he said, his voice low yet brimming with amusent, "I'm not satisfied with the fight yet. That's why… I need to settle more."
Dila's lip curled, and she scoffed.
"Settle my ass."
The winged golem dove, releasing the vials with perfect aim. They landed against the sprawled, shattered elental with a glassy clink—shattering into radiant liquid light.
The green potion burst first. A soft, glowing mist seeped into the spiderweb cracks along the elental's body, knitting shattered limbs and fractured armor back together in re seconds. The deep gouges along its slick obsidian form smoothed, as though ti itself had been reversed.
Dila's eyes went wide, her chest rising sharply.
"Wow… it really works! The recovery flash is faster than I thought."
Then ca the second impact red. The liquid seeped into the golem's obsidian fra, but instead of disappearing into cracks, its color bled outward, turning the slick, glassy armor into a deep, burning crimson.
The air around it seed to hum, vibrating faintly as an unnatural heat pulsed off its fra.
Dila's jaw tightened, her mind racing.
(It's working? Even on a non-living construct? I thought that wasn't possible…)
The crimson glow intensified, faint sparks rippling across the golem's surface like veins of molten glassi tal. It slowly began to rise then it stoo raising for a mont while still on it's push up form.
And Albedo… was still smiling.
Albedo's grin curled wider, his voice dripping with manic delight.
"Now this… this is what I've been waiting for. There's no one who can quench my thirst for a good fight… until now."
The air seed to tremble.
In the next instant, the slick, crimson-glowing elental moved.... so fast it was nothing but a blur. One mont it lay still on the arena floor, the next it was standing upright, its glassy, molten-red fra humming with raw energy.
Albedo's pupils dilated. His breath caught not out of fear, but pure, unrestrained excitent.
Then ca the wild, unhinged laugh:
"yeah!!! yeah!!!! HAHAHAHAHA!!!! This is superb!" while widening his eyes.
He rolled his shoulders, stretching his neck from side to side, muscles shifting beneath his skin as he loosened his body for what was coming. His arms swung in slow rotations, like a predator savoring the last calm before the storm.
The arena's light dimd under the swirling clouds of dust, but the crimson sheen of the elental cut through the haze like molten steel fresh from the forge.
It lifted one leg rotating the joint in a smooth, inhuman motion that creaked like twisting glass under strain then set it down with a soundless step, the heat around its fra making the air waver.
And then…
Crk-kkk!
Its head turned not with the soft movent of a living thing, but with a sharp, chanical snap. The neck joint rotated in a full half-turn before clicking back into place.
Its eyes flared a deep, searing red, like twin furnaces burning hotter than before.
The arena floor vibrated faintly under the pressure of its awakened power.
Albedo only grinned wider.
The red-lit elental stood tall, its molten-glass body still gleaming under the arena's fractured light. Heat continued to shimred off its fra, distorting the air.
Its voice ca.... harsh, tallic, and seething with rage:
"Old fart… prepare to die rcilessly."
The words echoed in the dusty air, vibrating through the cracked stone.
Albedo's smile sharpened into sothing dangerous, eyes glinting like icy blades.
"Ohhh… I like your enthusiasm. Even though you're just a practice dummy for ."
He spoke with the casual cruelty of a predator playing with prey.
From the edge of the battlefield, Dila clutched her staff, her knuckles white. Her mind churned.
I hope… I hope the elental can win before it runs out of power. That boost... it was her lifeline, her gamble. —it might get stronger every second for a minute… but I'm afraid it still won't be enough.
A chi of Nari's voice echoed in her head, bright yet strained:
☆ "Master, chill… we can win." ☆
But even that attempt at reassurance rang hollow. Beneath her cheerful tone, Dila felt it—Nari's own uncertainty, the creeping edge of doubt neither of them dared to voice aloud.
Dust swirled between them. The arena felt smaller, the air tighter. The next move would decide if that minute of borrowed strength would an victory… or annihilation.
The elental vanished in a blur of crimson light.
Albedo barely caught the movent just enough to throw his right arm up as a shield. The impact ca like a world-ending hamr.
"Ohhhhhhh—!"
The sound tore from his throat, strained and ragged, as the blow flung him like a rag doll across the arena. Stone split and scread as his body punched straight through the wall, sending shards spiraling into the air.
He didn't stop there. The force carried him into the forest beyond, splintering through a line of thick oak trees... each trunk exploding into showers of bark and leaves. The crash of timber roared through the battlefield until the final tree caught him like a brutal embrace. His back slamd into it with a deep, gut-rattling thud, and the trunk shuddered as though it might snap.
Albedo slid down to the ground, a faint wisp of smoke curling from his right arm where he had absorbed the attack. His chest rose and fell with controlled breaths, his teeth grit, eyes narrowed in sothing between pain and exhilaration.
Back in the arena, the elental remained rooted in place, arm still extended in the perfect form of its strike. The air shimred around it from the heat of its power, its slick red fra glowing like molten tal. Its eyes—now even deeper, furious crimson locked unblinking on Albedo's distant form.
The silence after the impact felt heavy, broken only by the settling crackle of broken stone and the distant groan of the wounded forest.
Albedo pushed himself up from the base of the broken oak, brushing bark and dirt from his body with slow, deliberate motions like a man who had simply stumbled, not been hurled across half the battlefield.
"Okay… good attack,"
he said, voice calm, almost amused, though his right arm still hissed faintly, tendrils of smoke curling from the scorched skin.
In the next instant, he was gone.
No sound. No blur. Just absence one heartbeat he stood in the forest, the next, nothing.
Inside the arena, the elental golem stood with its crimson eyes locked on the hole in the wall, chest rising in the faint rhythm of power. It didn't even register the sudden shift of air behind it.... until a voice, low and edged, breathed from the shadows of its back.
"My turn."
Albedo's fist shot forward like a cannon blast, slamming into the golem's face. His breathing was ragged now, each exhale tinted with exhilaration, his eerie blue eyes burning brighter than before.
The impact was thunderous stone scread, dust exploded from the blow, and the sheer force tore through the arena floor behind the golem, ripping a massive crater into existence.
Yet… the golem's head only tilted a fraction, as if resisting the punch through sheer defiance. The sound of cracking echoed in the air not from the golem's face, but from the earth beneath its feet, fracturing under the strain of the strike.
Slowly… unnervingly… the golem straightened its head back to face forward, the grinding of its stone joints sounding almost like a growl. Albedo's fist was still pressed into its face, locked there, both combatants unmoving—locked in a silent contest of strength and will, the air between them vibrating with heat and tension.
The arena fell into a hush, the only sounds the faint hiss of Albedo's smoking arm and the low hum of the golem's glowing red core.
Dila's eyes darted between the clash in the arena Albedo's fist still buried in the golem's face and the glowing red light surging through the elental's slick, obsidian glass-like fra. Her grip tightened on her staff, thoughts racing.
(What if I add another buff?
If I could push it just a little more, maybe… maybe it could overpower him even more.)
Her fingers twitched to her staff at her finger, the magic almost ready to flow...
when Nari's voice cut sharply through her thoughts.
☆No, master.☆
Her little tone was urgent, almost scolding.
"If you stack another boost. Like skill boost on that golem right now, it won't strengthen it'll shatter. Its body is already straining from the red potion's power. That enhancent is in full swing, burning through it like fire in dry wood. Your magic on top of that would be like pouring oil into the flas. It wouldn't survive the minute."
Dila's lips parted, her eyes flicking back to the golem—she could see it now. Hairline fractures danced across its surface, glowing faintly with the sa furious red as its core. Every breath it took seed to make its form pulse and tighten, like a bowstring drawn too far.
☆I'm not saying you shouldn't do it at all…☆ Nari continued, her voice quieter but still tense. ☆…but right now, we're playing safe. Push it too far and we lose the fight entirely. Look at it—it's already at the edge.☆
Dila exhaled slowly, tension rolling off her in sharp waves. She forced her hand, not drawing forward her magic staff and gave a small, reluctant nod.
"Alright… we'll wait."
Still, her gaze never left the golem. The thought of holding back when the fight's outco teetered on a blade's edge gnawed at her like a wolf in the dark.
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