15 Penultimate

Although the golem was well and fully beat up, Goliath didn't seem to be in the best shape either. Without him, the group stood no chance in hell of beating this particular opponent.

They all silently got back into formation, but Goliath kept his shield, now shields, separated.

As they did it, Goliath whistled a simple melody, which almost certainly had a hidden meaning behind it. Only time would tell what.

Both Righty and Lefty seemed to understand that signal, and stood at the ready. Fox was still out of sight and out of mind. Goliath then began to breathe in a strange pattern, and his muscles pulsated a slight gray hue.

Alfred couldn't help but wonder if he was recovering, or preparing a move, but he wouldn't ask his master at this moment because he wanted to focus fully on this penultimate exchange.

Once Goliath seemed to have completed his ritual, or whatever it was, he too stood at the ready. At this moment, time seemed to stop. Alfred was not immune to this feeling. He could sense that everyone around him, maybe except for his master, was holding their breath subconsciously. At a point, Alfred swore he felt a single faint pulse flow through and past like the "tha-thump" of a heart. After that, as if on que, the engagement commenced.

The team of gladiators, as Alfred learned they were called, employed an earlier used, but countered technique. The two "siblings" shot forward to bait the golem into Goliath's unusual counter, and it seemed confident it could use that opportunity to strike at Goliath once more.

Alfred mind-shook his head. 'Despite being freakishly intelligent and a quick thinker, it seems this golem is quite inexperienced, even more than me. How could they employ the exact technique you previously countered?'

The smile on its face confirmed Alfred's "worries", but he didn't fail to activate HSM to the previous middle of tier 3 to witness every single detail of the exchange.

When it entered the range, it again pretended quite well that it was going to attack the "siblings", now with straightforward punches using its monstrous physical prowess. As before, Goliath arrived before it and reacted the same way.

The golem then, thankfully, didn't use the same hug "technique" it did before, and slashed at the open area near the top of Goliath's head and gut where the angle of his shields failed to protect.

Again, in another show of this strange and seemingly impossible movement, the shields just… appeared in the trajectories of the attacks. Alfred couldn't help but be surprised, as the weight of Goliath's shields had to be at least 250 kilograms… for each side. A movement like that made Alfred's brain hurt.

He stopped thinking about the technique to focus back on the fight. Despite the exchange beginning at the time Goliath arrived before the golem to when Goliath's shields changed position lasting for Alfred, only about 20 seconds even in HSM, the world was moving much faster. The golem's brain didn't seem to have even been given the visual information yet by its neurons. Even if they did, it would have been too late to adjust as its attack was already millimeters away from impact.

Alfred saw the air rip from the speed that the golem's arms were creating and the impact seemed to distort light itself. None of that, however, managed to surpass the scene that followed.

As if the two were welded, the creature's arms and Goliath's shields stuck together. Alfred could tell that its attacks, while shockingly powerful, had not pierced the metal, but they stuck nonetheless.

'It's over!' Alfred realized.

Just then, thousandths of a second later, Fox finally showed himself. This time, it was his moment to show something heaven defying.

In fractions of fractions of a second, his blades cut, pierced, and cleaved through the small opening at the golem's core. Alfred felt a shiver go down his spine while watching the speed at which it happened.

Fox's arms had turned into vague blurs of color in Alfred's vision. He was, in fact, still in the third tier of HSM, but he could only barely see the flurry of thousands of space distorting attacks eviscerate the core.

The inconceivable changes of direction and placement of Fox's other teammates' shields seemed perfectly instant, but they only did these moves in isolation. Alfred also had a stinking suspicion that there was some sort of visual or mind trick hidden in the techniques. This, though, seemed to be a purely physical move that defied all common sense or science Alfred had learned up until that point.

After one thousandth of a second had passed, and after the core was thoroughly turned to dust, Fox blankly shot back to a safe spot behind the two "siblings" with speed as fast as the golem.

For the remainder of the next few seconds after the core was broken, the fight continued on. However, the intensity took a steep nosedive.

Alfred even turned off his HSM, and was still able to make out the creature's arms. It all came to a point where it limply attempted to bite at Goliath's person, but he simply sidestepped the golem, letting it fall to the floor lifelessly.

The whole stadium together couldn't help but stare blankly. Everyone's (except the few masters present) ears were ringing from the constant sonic-booms that happened. In that last exchange, to all that couldn't understand what had happened, the golem simply keeled over and died. They didn't care, though. Quickly, the entire colosseum erupted in an earth-shaking roar of applause and cheering.

Alfred had so much to learn. He was practically bursting at the seams to bombard Cysandoth with questions about how they did what they did, and what it even was. It wasn't possible now, since even the tables were shaking due to the noise.

That applause continued through the retrieval of the golem's dented and cut up corpse, through the preparatory medical treatment given the the team of gladiators, and through their eventual departure. In the end, it only dissipated after 11 minutes.

Alfred turned to begin questioning, but Cysandoth shook his head. "Wait for later," he said knowingly. "I'll answer any and all questions you have to the best of my ability later. For now, perfect your wording and collect even more questions while watching the rest of the events, I'm going to have some tea."

With that, he walked right out of the door. The guard only needed a look at the person who was exiting the SE to go back to his business on the tablet.

Alfred's mind was spinning, but he eventually sighed and turned back to the arena. 'This mother fucker will be the death of me…'

.

.

.

After all was said and done, nothing came close to the event that started the day. Alfred didn't let that stop him from taking in all the information he could.

Sunday, apart from an evident increase in more unusual battles; including group ones, free for alls, and even a few man vs. monster ones, was similar to Saturday's events. Slaves at a similar level to those on Saturday were the main contestants, and masters never appeared again for the entire day.

He still gained great insight when it came to the different types of techniques and personalities that popped up. Some even piqued his interest with their peculiarity and evident power.

Currently, Alfred was walking to the courtyard after dinner. Even if his expression didn't show it, he was greatly excited to train, plan, and most of all: get answers. When his master left for "tea", he never came back into the SE, so Alfred's questions had been festering in his mind the whole time.

Still, even though he wanted to run there, he couldn't. Alfred still had to deal with the wisp that was constantly evaluating his movements, and he made sure to perform them as best he could.

Doing so was hard, as the movements required unusual muscles and a constant effort on his part for what would normally be a simple task. Still, he arrived within a reasonable time.

Alfred saw his master sitting under the tree with his eyes closed. Once Alfred touched the grass, Cysandoth opened his eyes and waved him over.

"Mas-"

"Sh!" Cysandoth took out the book and placed it in between Alfred and him. "First, end the training for today so we can see your percentages."

Alfred was peeved, but he didn't complain verbally and ended the training program once he connected with the Isolation footwork's page. The wisp finally re-appeared and changed its form to a square with rapidly rotating numbers. In an instant, it had finished calculating his score and displayed it for the two to see.

" '72%?' !"Alfred thought and Cysandoth said simultaneously.

Alfred looked towards his master for an explanation, which the latter promptly gave him.

"The five levels of this technique have their own grading. Such is the norm with many other simple or foundation-level techniques. Other more complicated techniques have their own grading system alongside less or even a complete lack of 'levels', but forget about that for now. A 72% completion rate for your first day of practice on level 1 is astonishing."

"... What would an average person score for this?" Alfred asked after a brief pause. Cysandoth, seemingly seeing this question coming, answered instantly.

"30%"

"th-!!!"

The moment Alfred heard the number, his eyebrows shot up. He quickly regained his composure and nodded his head. Inwardly, he felt kind of proud of himself.

"You won't be mastering this technique as quickly as 70% per day, though. Following your progress, two days should be enough for you to reach perfection for level 1" Cysandoth added. "Following the pattern I experienced for this technique, you'll slow down for level 2 and 3, but it will accelerate for 4 and 5. I don't expect you to be stuck on it for more than a week, give or take a few days."

Alfred nodded in understanding. 'I'm guessing the speed up will come from recognizing and gaining muscle memory for certain common movement ideas.'

"Ahem~" Cysandoth sat up a little more against his tree. "I assume you still want to ask your questions. I think now's a better time than ever."