Chapter 271: Witty Prometheus (2)

The deafening gong echoed, but the expected earth-shattering charge didn’t come.STONEDESTROYER, the colossal, magma-veined titan, remained perfectly still. He didn’t raise his massive fists. He didn’t roar. Instead, he took a single, thunderous step forward and bowed his massive head slightly.

"Project_Prometheus," his voice rumbled, a sound like tectonic plates grinding together, surprisingly deep and resonant. "I have watched your climb. You fight with honor. For my thousandth victory, I wish for a true test. I will grant you the first strike. Show me your best."

Adrian, hovering in the air, was genuinely caught off guard. A trap? His [Omnisense] scanned the giant, but found no deception, only a calm, unshakable confidence. The alien’s posture was only open and inviting.

"Very well," Adrian replied, his voice amplified. "I accept."

He didn’t hesitate. He knew he couldn’t win a protracted battle against a being made of living obsidian. He needed to end this now.

The Mana Gun materialized in his hand, humming with potential. He didn’t just fire. He began to channel his dantian’s mana directly into the weapon’s core, overloading it, pushing it to its absolute limit. The barrel glowed with a blinding, white-hot intensity that rivaled the artificial suns above.

<"WHAT IS HAPPENING?! STONEDESTROYER IS GIVING HIM A FREE SHOT?! AND PROMETHEUS ISN’T WASTING IT! LOOK AT THAT ENERGY SPIKE! HE’S GOING TO TRY AND END IT IN ONE BLOW!">

Adrian ignored the commentary, his focus absolute. [Omnisense] highlighted a slightly thinner section of plating behind the golem’s left knee joint. It was a weakness he couldn’t ignore.

"Fire."

~BWOOOM!!~

The recoil sent Adrian flying backward. A lance of pure, concentrated mana, thicker and brighter than any he had fired before, screamed across the arena. It struck the knee joint dead-on.

A massive cloud of dust and superheated steam erupted, obscuring the giant. The crowd held its breath.

As the cloud slowly dispersed, a massive shadow emerged. STONEDESTROYER was still standing. He reached down, his hand encompassing his entire knee, and rubbed the spot where the blast had hit. There was a small, glowing scorch mark on the obsidian, nothing more.

"That stung," the golem rumbled, his voice amused. "A little. Now... let us fight."

<"UNBELIEVABLE! PROMETHEUS’S STRONGEST ATTACK DIDN’T EVEN SCRATCH HIM! HE’S COOKED, FOLKS! HE IS ABSOLUTELY COOKED!">

Adrian felt a cold drop of sweat run down his spine inside his helmet. He wasn’t the only one who shared the commentator’s opinion. If his strongest, focused attack couldn’t breach the armor, he had zero chances of winning a direct fight.

There was no time to ponder. STONEDESTROYER moved. He didn’t charge; he swatted. His massive hand, the size of a small car, swept through the air, aiming to slap Adrian out of the sky.

~FWOOSH!~

The displacement of air alone was like a gale-force wind. Adrian dodged, his thrusters screaming as he barely evaded the blow, but the sheer pressure of the passing hand sent him tumbling. The power behind that casual strike was enough to end him instantly.

’On the bright side... he’s slow,’ Adrian thought, righting himself. ’I can use that.’

The battle became a deadly game of cat and mouse. Adrian was the gnat, buzzing around the mountain.

He used Phantom Steps to weave through the golem’s guard, landing quick Resonant Fists on joints and seams, trying to find any vulnerability. But it was useless.

The vibrations simply dissipated into the massive, dense body of the giant. STONEDESTROYER wasn’t even trying to defend; he just kept swatting, his movements leisurely but terrifyingly destructive.

Every missed blow shattered the arena floor, sending plumes of magma and rock into the air.

<"IT’S ONLY A MATTER OF TIME! THE GOLEM IS PLAYING WITH HIM! PROMETHEUS IS FAST, BUT HE CAN’T KEEP THIS UP FOREVER!">

Eventually, STONEDESTROYER grew bored. "Enough dancing," he rumbled. He stopped swatting.

He clenched his massive fists, the magma veins on his arms glowing brighter. When he opened them, two colossal boulders, ripped from the arena floor itself, hovered in his palms, held by telekinetic force.

"Catch."

He hurled them. They didn’t float; they flew with the speed of a cannonball. Adrian dodged the first one easily, but the second one curved mid-air. Like a guided missile of stone, it caught him.

~CRUNCH!~

The boulder clipped his side. It was a glancing blow, but the mass and speed were overwhelming. Adrian was swatted out of the air like a fly, slamming into the arena floor with enough force to bury him in a crater of shattered rock.

[Durability: 39%]

Pain exploded in Adrian’s side. He couldn’t breathe. His ribs were powder. He lay in the rubble, staring up at the mock sky, his vision blurring. It was over. He had reached his ceiling.

He was about to open his mouth to yield when a blue window flashed in his vision, overriding the pain.

[NEW QUEST UNLOCKED!]

[QUEST: THE TITAN’S FALL]

[DESCRIPTION: You face an opponent whose physical might eclipses your own. To yield is to accept your limits. To win is to shatter them.]

[OBJECTIVE: Defeat ’STONEDESTROYER ’.]

[REWARD: 10,000,000 TP | 10,000,000 EXP]

Ten million TP. The number burned in his mind. With that, he’d make up for his spendings. And If the System was giving him a Quest, it meant victory was possible. The logic was undeniable. He wasn’t going to quit.

He gritted his teeth, forcing a wave of mana through his body to stabilize his broken ribs. With a groan of effort that was amplified by his suit’s speakers, he pushed himself up. He crawled out of the crater, standing shaky but defiant on the ruined floor.

<"HE’S GETTING UP! BY THE VOID, HE’S NOT DONE YET! THE KID HAS A DEATH WISH!">

STONEDESTROYER looked down, genuinely impressed. "You have spirit, little one. But spirit breaks." He raised his hand again. This time, the rock that formed in his palm was not cold stone. It was a sphere of molten, blazing magma, a miniature sun. "Endure this."

He hurled it. The magma bomb screamed through the air, a blinding comet of destruction.

It was a given that it would hit. Adrian was too injured to dodge, too weak to block. The crowd watched, expecting the incineration of the rookie.

But just a millisecond before impact, Adrian vanished.

He didn’t dodge. He didn’t run. He simply ceased to exist in that location.

The magma bomb struck the crater, exploding in a fountain of fire and liquid rock that turned the sand to glass.

<"HE’S GONE! WHERE DID HE GO?! DID HE DISAPPEAR...?">