A powerful eruption occurs as the golem tries to grab Vyus, but he narrowly escapes and returns to his fighting stance, maintaining an intense focus on his opponent.
Vyus launches a lightning-fast dash. The golem throws a punch, but Vyus brilliantly uses the golem's fist as a stepping stone, propelling himself to eye-level for a swift claw-dagger slash.
Vyus lands behind the golem and evades a low kick. Exploiting this opening, he sprints to the golem's right leg and unleashes a rapid series of slashes, causing the massive creature to kneel.
Sensing danger, the golem swings its long arms. Vyus demonstrates incredible agility by grabbing one of the arms, flipping over it, and landing gracefully.
He immediately follows up by dashing towards the golem's core and stabbing it.
Despite the direct hit to its core, the golem barely flinches. It retaliates with a powerful fist strike, sending Vyus flying and leaving him with a bloody nose.
"Dang, this beast is tough..."
Vyus, acknowledging the golem's resilience, is caught off guard by the creature's surprisingly swift dash.
Vyus attempts to evade, but the golem's speed allows it to grab his arm and unleash a brutal barrage of blows to his upper body. Fortunately, Vyus manages to break free from the powerful grip.
'He's... fast'
He began to create distance. The golem charges again, but Vyus leaps out of the way, retaliating with a flurry of strikes before creating distance once more.
The two combatants finally meet in a direct clash of speed and power, becoming blurs of motion. Vyus delivers a rapid series of left and right slashes, while the golem parries and counters with its furious smites.
The intense exchange ends with Vyus scraping his claw-dagger against the golem's fist. He then crouches and leaps high, aiming for the golem's crystal eyes.
While airborne, the golem manages to grab Vyus's arm. In a display of incredible skill and adaptability, Vyus spins his body into a blurring spiral, using his dagger to break free from the golem's grasp.
Vyus lands back on the ground, now taking a moment to assess the situation and strategize his next move.
'I'll assess the golem's close combat, to see if I also have the advantage,' Vyus concludedly thought, as he prepared for the next clash.
He charges, meeting the golem's strike by scraping his dagger against it, effectively parrying the blow.
The golem immediately follows up with a right jab, forcing Vyus to fall back. However, the golem presses its attack, sprinting towards Vyus, catching him off guard with its relentless pursuit.
The golem lands a direct strike on Vyus's face. But Vyus, despite the blow, uses the momentum of the golem's attack to twist his body, simultaneously unleashing a series of rapid slashes against the golem's right arm.
Seizing the momentary advantage, Vyus didn't relent. He exploded upwards, launching himself off the ground with incredible speed, aiming directly for the golem's head.
His makeshift claw-dagger was raised high, positioned for a decisive downward stab.
However, in his speed and perhaps overconfidence, Vyus's form faltered.
He used the wrong form of technique, trying a piercing thrust that did not support the crude dagger's construction against the golem's supernaturally hard surface.
Instead of the dagger sinking into the body of the golem, the tip of the claw cracked.
Vyus immediately recoiled, using his agility to lunge backward and away, putting distance between himself and the golem.
But the creature, showing adaptability, didn't pause. It had tracked Vyus's movements and somehow anticipated his retreat. He followed Vyus's evasive leap instantly.
Closing the distance Vyus had tried to create, the golem swung a massive, stone-like fist, driving it straight into Vyus's solar plexus with brutal force.
'Shit...!'
The world momentarily went bright white. A spray of blood erupted from Vyus's mouth from the impact of the blow.
He crashed heavily onto the dark forest floor, the impact shivering every bone in his goddamn body.
But before Vyus could even manage to get his arms properly underneath him, a heavy shadow emerged over him.
It was the golem — it was already there. Its speed was terrifying, closing the distance in the instant Vyus was in the air and landing.
"Son of a bit—"
There was no moment for Vyus to recover. The golem raised its massive fists and began to pummel him relentlessly.
Heavy impacts hammered down onto Vyus's upper body — his shoulders, his chest, his already aching ribs — they were all getting destroyed.
Vyus weakly tried to shield himself with his arms, but the blows were too powerful and too fast.
Each one sickened Vyus to the core — his vision darkened as if he were going to die.
He couldn't breathe. Panic began to set in upon Vyus. He failed to inhale the necessary air required to live.
However, a sudden turn of events occured.
Something flickered deep within Vyus — deeper than the pain, deeper than the despair.
A spark in his Nexus. It wasn't the raging 'demon' persona, but something else — efficient, fast, and most importantly; a tool.
Vyus's eyes, which had started to almost shut completely, snapped wide open, his silver irises suddenly blazing with an almost unnatural intensity.
'I... can see it,' Vyus gasped, the words appearing within his mind. 'I... can see its attacks...!'
He ignored the pain, classifying it with an act of pure will. The world seemed to stretch, just for an instant.
The heavy stone fists hammering down him simply... ceased to exist mid-swing.
One moment, the golem's thick arms were driving down with crushing force; the next, they were gone from the elbow.
They dissolved into nothingness or perhaps severed by a speed too fast for the eye to truly register.
Even the creature itself seemed to pause, perhaps processing the impossible disappearance of its limbs.
The golem's glowing eyes then locked onto a figure rising smoothly from beneath it. It saw only a silhouette.
It was one radiating an intent so potent, so focused on utter destruction, that even the golem's entire structure felt a flicker of absolute fear.
Vyus — he moved, not just fast, but like an invisible being, who was unable to be seen or felt.
His movements became a blurring spiral around the now armless golem, rendering its attempts to track him or retaliate utterly useless.
Vyus circled his prey once, a predator enjoying the final moment, then launched himself upwards in a final arc.
Whether it was the cracked claw-dagger moving faster than sight, or his hand itself imbued with the cutting power of the sharpest of blades, the result was the same.
A clean slice through the golem's thick neck.
The creature's head, eyes flickering out, separated cleanly and tumbled to the ground with a heavy thud.
Vyus landed lightly, his body automatically finding balance even after the fight.
He took sseveral deep gasps, after all, it was an intense battle that raged on to the point where he had to go beyond his capabilities.
Strangely, the panic, the feeling of suffocation, was gone. It was replaced by a strange, almost unnerving calm that settled over Vyus like a shroud.
He turned his gaze towards the now headless immobile golem. There was no glory in his expression, no lingering bloodlust from the demon persona, nor the horrified recoil he'd felt after the rhino massacre.
Vyus rose from the slight crouch he had landed in, ignoring the ache in his ribs.
He gave the golem's corpse one last dismissive glance.
'It was strong,' Vyus acknowledged internally. 'But, not the strongest.'
Vyus wouldn't waste any more time here. He wouldn't expend energy on glaring at a fallen opponent that was merely an obstacle within his eyes, not a true goal.
He turned away from the kill, his gaze lifting towards the vast sky of his Nexus. Vyus fixed his gaze upon the distant horizon.
It was faint, but still visible — silhouette of mountains — peaks far higher and more menacing than anything he had encountered within this inner world.
"That's where I need to go," he murmured, steadily.
"If I want to grow stronger... strong enough to be hell itself... I need to defeat the strongest on that mountain."
With a final and determined intake of the air, Vyus began walking towards the distant peaks.