The Martial Unity

Dodging was a basic part of human combat and Rui had no qualms of using it against the golem. However, he got the feeling that the concept was slightly new to the golem as it didn't react the way one would if one were accustomed to this foundational basic maneuver.

Generally, long-range Martial Artists maintained some measures against the capacity to dodge. Whether it came down to increasing the speed of their attacks or increasing the number or area of effect. However, it was clear to Rui that the golem had yet to make such measures.

'....despite being intelligent. It can be deduced that it hasn't been alive for very long, or hasn't faced any opponent other than golems.' Rui concluded.

Golems were far too unwieldy and large to engage in any amount of evasion, especially from a smaller target.

WHOOSH!

Rui evaded another wave of the fiery lava-plasma mixture with Wind Breathing before racing forward towards the golem, closing a bit more of the distance before the creature blasted away another attack.

The ground beneath them sunk as the creature began consuming more rocks from the land to fuel its attacks.

Even as he dodged the creature's volcanic attacks, he studied its body.

'The damage that I inflicted on its body is already gone.' Rui narrowed his eyes as he side-stepped yet another volcanic eruption.

He had landed his heaviest attack which certainly had crumbled the esoteric ore rocks in its body to sand in a single impact.

'The issue is that it restored itself by melting the sand to rock.' Rui noted. 'An interesting way to use its heat to heal from damage.'

It was stronger, faster, and even more resilient than ordinary golems while also much smaller, making it much harder to target.

like an evolved version of ordinary golems.' Rui realized. 'Is this a statistical anomaly, or is this some sort of growth path for

He didn't know.

he wouldn't be able to find

Furthermore, not only did golems have great stamina,

Something needed to give.

And something did.

as he activated Void Forestep. This metabody was the only one that could not be used without the VOID algorithm, which made it harder to use than

seemed taken aback as Rui ran literal circles around it at speeds that it was clearly unable to even perceive, for its attacks had all but

BAM BAM BAM BAM!!!

concentrated attacks impacting a single point to inflict damage as deep into it rather than wide. He had already learned from his previous mistake and had adapted to negate its

BOOM!

CRACK!

blow from him exposed the innards of the golem; a massive crucible. He had already figured out the mechanisms of how golems

with immense force. If the force was great enough, it would reduce the rocks at the center to smithereens and eventually

would explain why the entire

cores of their bodies had become powerful crucibles that didn't fall much behind genuine active volcanoes in terms of power despite

'Incredible. And yet...'

It was not enough.

BOOM!

with a concentrated blow, creating another release valve for all the

pressure if there is an escape route for all that heat to be expelled

a balloon rushing out the moment a hole was poked into the balloon. The crucible needed to be a closed