Chapter 48 - Papa is the best!

Dodging a strike from the single titanic golem made by Wren, Arthur rolled over the ground, looking for a blind spot to attack.

Standing before him was a towering behemoth, a golem of colossal proportions that seemed to scrape the very sky with its presence. The creature's stony body was hewn from solid rock, imbued with an absurd amout of mana that rippled across its surface like a living force. Its massive frame dwarfed everything in its path, casting a deep, inky shadow across the ground below.

The amount of mana used was evident from Wren's state, as he sat in his floating throne, covered in sweat out of breath.

The golem's multiple appendages were like the twisted limbs of an ancient tree, branching out in every direction, each one bearing a plethora of powerful arms that bristled with deadly weaponry. Its fists were the size of boulders, massive appendages that could shatter smaller mountains with a single blow. Each hand held a different weapon, from a towering war hammer that crackled with lightning to a gleaming broadsword that glimmered in the sunlight.

Despite its immense size, the golem moved with surprising grace and agility, its stony armor plates clanging together like the ringing of a hundred bells as it stepped forward with measured strides. Its glowing, magma-like eyes seemed to radiate with an inner power---mana surge, conveying a sense of focused intent and unwavering determination of the conjurer that could be felt even from a distance.

As it approached, the golem's rumbling voice echoed through the air, a deep, reverberating sound that evoked a sense of ancient dread evident from the birds that flew away from that place. Its very presence seemed to shake the earth beneath Arthur's feet.

The rules of this duel were simple. Arthur had to defeat the Masterpiece of a golem made by Wren without using his flight ability and then he would be able to go back to Dicathen. Sylvie was sitting far away with Lady Myre who were watching this final brawl. Several other asuras had also gathered to watch this showdown as making this golem wasn't every Titan's skill. Only a few skilled ones could make it. It was one of the most powerful mana arts of the Titan Race of asuras, a spell that could destroy continents once it was in berserk mode.

Kordri along with his students which included Taci, someone who deeply envied Arthur were also there. Lord Indrath kept an eye on this match from his castle, but he soon turned away from it, the outcome already visible in his eyes.

The golem let out a deafening roar, its titanic hands holding every kind of weapon hurled down at Arthur. Pressing the ground beneath him, Arthur jumped upwards. The ground beneath his heel cracked. As he soared through the air, the temperature around him began to drop. In an instant, Arthur manifested a sword made entirely of ice, its ethereal form trailing behind him like a mist. The golem's massive morningstar swung towards him like a mighty club, but Arthur was far too nimble to be caught off guard. With a twist of his body, he narrowly avoided the blow, the weapon whistling past him mere inches away. Just as the arm got a bit ahead of his own body, Arthur spotted a small opening and once again mana exploded beneath his feet, propelling him towards the arm pit of the golem. The golem's massive arms seemed to move in slow motion as Arthur made his swift move, his ice sword glinting in the piercing light of the battlefield.

From the few swings the golem did before, Arthur was able to calculate the timing of the window that opened to the blind spot of the golem. Getting closer, Arthur swung his sword and then kicked the golem's chest, making some distance between him and it.

"What happened?" Taci asked, his hazel eyes wide and in shock as it saw the golem take a few steps back.

Kordri smiled and placed a hand over Taci's head as he pointed with his finger, "He managed to sever one of its hands."

As if on cue, the hand holding the morningstar fell from the golem's hand and landed on the ground, sending a huge tremor throughout the valley. Taci's hands balled into fists, frustration building up inside him like an active volcano. Sensing the inner tumroil of his ace student, Kordri sat beside him, "I know it is frustrating from your point of view. Seeing a lesser surpass you and do things you are not able to. And the feeling that is actually envy slowly morphs into hatred more and more since you're from the proud warrior race of Pantheons," Kordri paused and Taci looked up to him, "as much as it is hard to admit, we should learn to accept things. Not everyone is born equal. Not everyone is born perfect." Kordri said and moment of silence lingered between them. Both of them didn't look at each other but rather at the fight that was happening in the valley.

A fight that screamed perfection.

Arthur's fighting style was nothing short of awe-inspiring, every movement purposeful and fluid, without a single wasted motion. His mana signature was perfectly hidden beneath the veil of atmospheric mana, not flickering for even a split second. It was like he was in perfect harmony with the Pantheon's art of fighting. The warrior style of fighting the took pride in. It was being perfectly replicated and being elevated to perfection as seconds trickled and morphed into minutes.

"But Alas. It seems like the term of 'no one is perfect' is indeed a false statement." Kordri remarked as he kept his gaze at Arthur, shining with nothing but admiration.

"But master... that is not perfect. There are obvious flaws in his style."

"You're wrong, Taci." The weight of Kordri's words landed upon Taci's ears like a deafening explosion, reverberating through every fiber of his being. The impact was so profound that it felt as though the ground beneath him had crumbled away, leaving him suspended in mid-air. Taci's mind raced as he tried to comprehend the full scope of Kordri's message. The sheer magnitude of it left him stunned, unable to find the words to respond. It was as if the very fabric of his reality had been torn apart, leaving him adrift in a sea of uncertainty, "If anything it's your eye that is failing to catch the perfection in his fighting style."

Despite the loss of one of its massive arms, the golem seemed to shrug off the injury without so much as a flicker of concern. However, Wren was not content to let the creature off so easily. His dissatisfaction was palpable, and the very air around it seemed to thrum with a tangible stream of mana that ran along the cracks of the golem's rocky surface.

As Wren's frustration grew, the flow of mana increased in intensity, its power radiating outwards in a bright, ethereal glow. The golem may have been resilient, but Wren was determined to push it to its limits, to test the golem and Arthur's strength and endurance to the fullest extent.

Dissatisfied by the outcome from the few seconds of fight, Wren pushed more mana into it.

The result was a spectacular display of magical spectrum, as the golem was engulfed in a blaze of energy that left it reeling and disoriented for a split second. Its movements became dynamic and coordinated, its defenses becoming steadfast by the sheer force of Wren's raw mana.

Arthur sighed, knowing he has to reveal more, or the golem would kill him.

"Looks like I have to use to use more elements." He mumbled to himself, "Or no."

With a sudden burst of power, an intense aura of blue flames erupted from the depths of his being, illuminating the darkness from the shadows of the golem around him with an ethereal glow. In an instant, his palm became engulfed in the blazing inferno, the flames dancing and flickering with a hypnotic rhythm. He held the searing flames aloft, brandishing them like a weapon of cataclysm.

His mana core trembled as mana trickled from it and coursed through his mana channels, his mana more potent than before. As the flow of mana continued to imbue his spell with boundless power, the flames grew in brilliance and intensity, each flicker and lick of fire taking on the untamed and feral quality of a beast with a mind of its own. The magical energy seemed to awaken a primal consciousness within the inferno, infusing it with a wild and uncontrollable ferocity that burned with a heat and fury that defied all attempts to tame it, scorching like wildfire amidst the subtle breeze that seemed like a flowing battle flag in a war.

The ball of azure flames took the shape of a perfect sphere in the palm of his hand as he started to slowly curl his fingers. The ball of flames compressed further and further until it disappeared within the closed fist of Arthur.

Pointing his index and little finger like a gun towards the rampaging golem, he took aim.

[Flashpoint]

Softly chanting an incantation, he conjured a spell that materialized as a brilliant beam of pure, blinding white light. The beam erupted from his fingertips with such velocity that it seemed to cleave through the very fabric of the air, igniting a scorching path in its wake on the ground. The sheer intensity of the light was enough to sear the surrounding atmosphere, turning molecules into dust in a flash of searing heat.

A series of systematic combustion triggered as the beam moved, the ambient water molecules being reduced. The golem caved in, using the shield in one of its hands to try to guard it. However, just as the beam made contact, a huge explosion reverberated. The stream of dust washed over the battlefield like a raging tsunami as it covered everything.

It seemed like the golem was encased in a blazing cage of inferno, that swirled like a tempest around it. The intense heat, like a relentless tempest, assailed the golem from all sides, gradually chipping away at its once impregnable defenses, trapping it in a maelstrom of flames.

The heat felt like a nip in the skin as Kordri and others felt it across the valley. Myre placed a hand over Sylvie's shoulders, pulling her in as a subtle smile formed at the corner of her thin lips, "The human boy never stops to amaze me."

"Yes. Papa is the best!" Sylvie proclaimed with an exultant expression, throwing her hands in the air as she squealed excitedly.

Myre looked down at Sylvie, her eyes carrying a reprimanding look. Sylvie was told not to call Arthur papa. She looked down, her shoulder slumping, "Sorry but-"

Before she could talk, Myre's eyes creased as she smiled, "You can call him whatever you want... as long as you are around me."

Sylvie's sad eyes brightened up as she coiled her arms around Myre, giggling, "Thank you grandma."

Myre returned her hug by hugging her back, but her eyes kept focused on the battlefield. The smoke that has rose up like a mushroom---akin to a nuclear bomb, began to settle down, the visibility for the naked eye finally increasing.

Wren sat in his throne, his back arched forward as he rested his arms elbows over his thighs, closely observing everything. He held his breath, as he waited for the mana infused veil of smoke to dissipate. Taci's focus was unwavering while all 4 eyes of Kordri were closed, a content look over his face.

Finally, the smoke cleared, granting a clear view.

(*****)