Chapter 63: The Climb Up, Core Exposed

’One fist down. One to go. But my Essence is dropping fast. I cannot do another long touch fight. I need a new plan.’

The Colossus got its balance back. Its six eyes locked onto Alvian with cold hate. The mind behind those eyes had changed its plan. A straight hit from above had failed. The boy had caught it. The boy had melted half its fist. The boy was just standing in a hole, looking up like the monster was a simple puzzle to solve.

The Colossus raised its left fist.

Full size. Full power. A mass of hard space crystal as big as a truck, glowing with space magic all over. The air around it bent from the thick magic field. The ground under the Colossus cracked as it pulled its arm back for a wide side swing instead of a top punch.

The remaining three fingers on the right hand twitched as they tried to heal. They were useless for fighting right now.

The left fist swung across. A side hit aimed right at the ground, made to smash Alvian no matter which way he jumped. The force of the wind alone flattened everything within thirty meters. Grey fluid from the dead beasts splashed across the stones.

Alvian did not jump to the side.

He bent his knees, loaded into his legs like tight springs. The broken floor under him smashed to pieces as he jumped straight up into the air.

Not back. Not side.

Up.

Right at the Colossus’s chest. Right toward the clear crystal that showed a glowing light ball the size of a beach ball deep inside its body.

The Core.

The Colossus’s left fist swung through the empty air where he had been a second before. The wind from the hit cracked the rest of the bushes and threw grey fluid everywhere. Helen Croft’s pillar cracked from the force.

But Alvian was already high above the swing, flying up like a rocket.

He crashed into the Colossus’s chest.

His Clearwater Coating lit up when he hit the stone. His fingers dug into the crystal chest, and the stone melted where he touched it. Small handholds opened up in the smooth wall as his acid ate through the top layer, giving him deep grip spots.

He started to climb.

The Colossus felt him land.

Its thirty-meter body shook as a small, acid-covered boy stuck himself to its chest. Its six eyes moved down, looking at the small target on its front. The monster changed its plan right away.

It did not try to punch him again.

All six eyes opened wide. The bright light inside each eye turned super hot, making the air around its head look blurry. Then all six eyes shot at once.

Six strong beams of space energy shot out in a wide sweep. They cut deep lines across the courtyard, melting stone right away and leaving glowing marks behind. The beams passed through hard walls, but broke apart magic shields on contact.

Alvian’s Clearwater Coating flickered as a beam grazed his shoulder. The shield did not break, but the Essence holding it dropped for half a second before fixing itself.

He shifted position.

He moved left across the chest as the first beam tracked toward him. His fingers melted fresh handholds with every step, pulling him sideways across the crystal. The second beam missed by centimeters. The third beam hit the edge of his torn shirt and burned it away completely.

He mapped the attack pattern right away. Each eye shot on its own with a 0.3-second wait between shots. The pattern was easy to read. Six shots, one after another, with 0.3 seconds in between.

Three tenths of a second to move between each shot.

He used it to his advantage. During every 0.3-second gap, he moved higher, melting handholds and pulling himself up. When a beam shot, he flattened himself against the chest and let the beam pass over him. The Colossus’s own body took the hits without taking damage, since its skin was too thick for its own beams to break.

The monster saw its eye attacks were failing and stopped shooting.

It went back to close attacks.

Its left fist swung inward, smashing straight into its own chest where Alvian was holding on. The hit was huge. Crystal cracked wide. The wind from the blow flattened everything on the ground below. Students fell over. Broken rocks flew through the air.

But Alvian was already gone. He had felt the arm coming from the shakes in the stone under his hands. He shifted right three meters before the fist hit, so the blow only hit empty crystal.

The Colossus’s own fist cracked its own chest wall.

Alvian pulled his sword. The cracked blade, held in his right hand while his left held onto the crystal, hummed with Severing Sword Aura. He covered the metal with Clearwater and swung.

The shiny air wave shot point-blank into the Colossus’s left wrist. The sharp wind, loaded with acid energy, cut through the hard crystal like a hot knife through butter. The acid broke the bonds holding the stone together, and the sharp air pushed the pieces apart.

The left fist fell off.

A piece of space crystal as big as a truck separated from the arm and fell thirty meters down to the courtyard. It hit the ground with a massive thud that shook the whole school. The fist started melting the moment it hit the dirt, as the acid left on the blade ate through the stone from the inside out.

[Severing Sword Aura: successful severance.]

[Colossus left fist: DETACHED.]

[Essence: 160 → 152 (8 spent on Severing Sword Aura).]

The Colossus roared. The sound cracked the space around the Rift itself. But the monster was already healing. New stone grew out from the cut wrist, building a new fist right before his eyes.

Alvian did not wait for it to finish.

He climbed. Both hands on the crystal wall, Clearwater Coating melting grip spots as fast as he could touch them. Hold, pull, let go, hold again. He moved up the body like an acid spider, leaving a trail of grey dust and melted stone behind him.