14 In Tandem

Alfred realized he had asked the question in his head, so he rephrased it and said it out loud this time.

"How can you tell?"

Cysandoth scratched his beard and stared off into nothing to think. He eventually nodded to himself and began to talk.

"Once you reach the apprentice realm, it becomes quite easy to tell. For you, I would simply look at their martial arts."

Taking that information in, Alfred thought back to the inconceivable things the group was able to do. Alfred had a feeling that the "siblings'" direction-changes were not just simple rotations at a blinding speed, and Goliath's circular rotation around the group was simply robotic. It matched the speed of the creature perfectly to not give it any time at all to react, slow down, or reduce the impact. It went without saying that Fox's ability to disappear, and even slip Alfred's mind at times was not something one could do with physical power.

Alfred nodded after understanding that these "inconceivable" feats were the result of a mastered martial art, in this world.

"I have another question, sir," Alfred said while still looking at the fight, which had resumed. "It seems that they already knew they were going to fight against this… thing. How is that possible?"

Although Alfred couldn't see it, Cysandoth shook his head lightly. "Although I can't blame you, you've misunderstood the nature of this event," he began. "That right there, is an Orobas Golem. It is another marvel made from a Grand Artist's manifesto. He actually is still alive, Kingswell Orobas, as opposed to Kori Babbage, the man who's manifesto made the artifacts that the guards carry around.

"Right now, those four are taking on a volunteer event," he explained. "Advanced and Master gladiators are allowed to part-"

"*BOOOMM!!!~*"

"-icipate in them, and are rewarded. I think the reasoning I read on the poster was that Orobas was… testing out new improvements."

Alfred nodded, receiving his information. 'It seems I won't have to worry about that for a while, so back to watching this.'

The impact that created that noise was another even more violent clash between Goliath and the golem. The creature seemed to become weary of his positioning, which had returned to the front of their triangle after intercepting its last attack, so it decided to attack from the rear. This time, Goliath became a blur as fast as the golem and slammed again into it with his full-metal door-shield.

Its body had landed right in front of Alfred, so the sound of its ragdoll hitting the wall was made even more intense.

Again, the thing got up almost immediately. Alfred couldn't tell for sure, but he guessed that its expression was far more serious than before. This time, it started to slowly creep around the arena.

This time, the group went on the offensive. Goliath, Lefty and Righty all ran forward, when suddenly Lefty and Righty shot forward in unison with their shields raised.

The creature lunged forward and opened its arms fully to the sides, as if it were trying to give the most dangerous hug on the planet. On que, just as the creature reached the group, Goliath slid around and attempted to smash it.

Alfred's eyes widened at the scene that followed. The creature this time stopped centimeters away from the shield, and swung its arms around Goliath. He noticed this only a fraction of a second too late, and received two massive gashes along his back and shoulders. He got in a swift smash in, which sent the creature reeling, and the group took a few steps back. Alfred then saw his muscles flex, and the bleeding stopped.

'It already came up with a counter to his martial art?'

Before, Alfred assumed the "improvements" his master mentioned were probably physical. Intelligence, however, is in a whole 'nother ball game.

Alfred took a second to imagine the possibilities. What if you had multiple of these things that could work together? Due to the fact that they are man-made golems, the possibility of connecting them in a hive mind also comes up. 'If they can learn from mistakes they don't even make,' he thought, 'what's stopping them from amassing a counter to every martial art in existence?'

This thought shot a shiver down his spine. A fearless and unending army (depending on how costly the things were) that would eventually find a perfect counter to your martial art just for defending yourself.

He shook his head and re-focused on the fight.

The group seemed surprised at this fact too. 'They probably weren't told of the improvements either,' he thought.

Without warning, the group shot forward again. Alfred noticed a slight change of Goliath's stance, but had no way of figuring out the purpose of it. He got down lower while sliding his elbows closer to the shield and tensed his arms and back, making a vague demon face appear out of the muscles.

Suddenly, his shield separated in two parts with a loud clang, and he shot forward like a bull.

It seemed that Goliath couldn't produce as much speed as that strange technique that allowed him to circle his teammates, but that doesn't take away the sheer power he was radiating with this charge.

He wasn't even moving his arms, just keeping them in a defensive position similar to a boxer while shuffling towards the golem. It didn't seem to want to take him head on anymore, and without information on this new tactic, it decided to engage the two "siblings".

The golem proceeded to do a straight mad dash out of Goliath's way, turning it's figure again into a blur, before quickly changing directions on a dime and rocketing towards the two.

Lefty was first up, and he took the challenge in strides. He stepped up, presented his shield, and pivoted his foot. 'No way!' Alfred thought. 'The golem isn't testing them now, how the hell will it be possible for him to take that-'

In the middle of Alfred's thoughts, he found out what the plan was. As the creature lunged from both sides in a pincer attack, which would no doubt breach his defenses depending on the side he chose to defend, Righty appeared on his right flank and took the exact same stance but mirrored.

Both then leaned into each other, and perfectly redirected the attack away from their persons.

The creature seemed as confused as Alfred. Judging by the golem's speed earlier, it would be impossible for her to get into position soon enough. However, she had just… been there right when she was needed.

Now the creature was off balance, which gave the two a chance for attack.

Their arms turned blurry, and four loud and screechy clangs resounded in the arena. Before the creature passed over them due to its unexpected imbalance and momentum, Alfred saw a small opening get created in the membrane- that covered the mesh- that covered the core.

By then, Goliath had spun around and was rapidly approaching the golem's position. This time, it chose to engage with him.

The golem's arms were in a closed position, but they both suddenly vanished in a blur of speed. For this, Alfred decided to temporarily go up to the middle of level 3 HSM.

He was now able to see its arms faintly. In tandem with the attack, Goliath readied his now twin longshields. One was held flat in front of him, and the other at an angle along his right side. The first one made the creature's arm ricochet back in a closed position, while the other arm slid along and opened fully. Goliath then pivoted his foot and shoulder to momentarily lock the arm that slid along his right shield in place. The other arm already had gotten two more hits in, forcing him to defend, but the hole that the "siblings" had opened earlier deepened suddenly as if it had been stabbed by something.

The creature didn't seem to even notice it, as it had happened almost too fast for Alfred to see in his current level of HSM, but that finally brought Alfred's attention back to Fox.

The entire match, he had stayed hidden. At this point, Alfred had all but forgotten about him. Again, as if he had never been there, his presence vanished.

Bringing his attention back to the two locked in a stalemate, Goliath made a move. His calf muscles flexed madly as he pushed forward against the torrent of impacts he was enduring at his front while his right side was visibly shaking while trying to keep the other arm fully extended along his shield. The exchange hadn't even crossed the half second mark.

In that sudden push that he initiated mere thousandths of a second before, he pushed closer into the torso of the golem, getting dangerously close to its dagger-like teeth slowly dripping that clear liquid. His forward facing left arm then made the slightest of adjustments, which caused the golem's still punching arm to slide a bit on the outside of their engagement. He then flicked the other shield up and took a firm step forward while violently twisting his body.

Alfred swore he heard a clear crackle in the air as his muscles rippled and his right arm shot forward in the most beautiful slip-to-right cross he had ever witnessed. There was full extension and follow through, his left arm was tight to his body, but not scrunched, his shoulders and hips were twisted perfectly, the front foot was planted, and the back foot was pushing at the perfect angle thus creating a straight line from the earth to the impact point.

Said impact point was, again, aimed at the golem's core, which just happened to be at the perfect height for the punch.

A satisfying "BOOM!~" echoed around the arena as Alfred lowered his HSM down to the previous level. The punch had sent the golem tumbling backwards, which promptly stuck its legs out and stopped its momentum before it slammed into the wall again. This exchange happened with Goliath's back facing Alfred, so he was able to see the golem's expression completely now that it was on just about the opposite side of the arena.

If it were a human, it would surely be cringing in pain from that hit. The hole had widened enough for Alfred to be able to clearly see a sliver of the core. Now, the creature was wearing an eerily robotic expression.

Alfred switched back to inspecting Goliath. His breathing was noticeably heavy, and his shields seemed to be beat up, almost broken from the sheer force and number of hits they took, particularly the left one which was splitting in multiple places.

Another change in the aura of the group, and the golem happened.

'It seems, at last, that the fight is reaching the penultimate exchange!'