“You really think a change of weapons is going to make that big of a difference?” Chet erupted in thunderous laughter. He lifted his large, muscular arm into the air and clenched his fist. “Look at me! I’m way stronger than you could hope to be! You are just delaying the inevitable.”

  Austin rolled his eyes and entered a boxer’s stance. He did not care to have a back-and-forth with Chet. He only cared about defeating him. Chet needed to be dealt with, and talking was not going to do it.

  Essence flowed into Austin’s leg armor before he kicked off the ground. Silver light exploded from Austin’s heels and tore apart the ground beneath his feet. He went flying like a rocket towards Chet. Austin anticipated speed, but he was shocked at how fast he moved. Before Chet could react, Austin channeled Essence through his gauntlets and threw a punch at his chest. An explosion of silver light flashed as Austin made contact with Chet. Chet was instantly thrown backwards by the powerful explosion. He was able to keep his feet on the ground, but they skidded through the dirt as he tried to stop himself from moving further backwards.

  As Chet regained his balance, Austin had seemingly blinked in front of him. The speed shocked Chet, but he was able to get himself into a guard position. Austin’s fist closed in on him once more, but Chet was able to block it with a swipe of his arm. At least, he was able to block more damage to his chest. Chet heard a cracking sound as Austin’s spiked gauntlets rammed into his arm with another explosion of silver light. If it were not for Chet’s increased durability, he knew that his arm would have been shattered into nothing by the explosion.

  Chet barely had a chance to recover before Austin continued his barrage of punches. As Chet narrowly dodged each punch, corrupted Essence surrounded his body and tried to heal it. He could not even think about fighting back as his attention was too focused on dodging and healing. Even with Chet’s successful dodges, he could tell that Austin was gaining the advantage. Austin’s movement gave him a greater position after each attack. If Chet did not respond with something quickly, then Austin would corner him.

  Austin danced around Chet with each punch. Chet could run all he wanted, but it did not matter to Austin. A person could only dodge so much before they were cornered. Each movement that Austin made pushed Chet closer and closer to the trees. It would just take a little more before Austin had him in position. At that point, there would be no escape.

  “Are you scared?” Austin taunted as he continued his assault. “I thought you were so much stronger than me, but you’re just running away now.”

  “Shut up! Shut up!” Chet yelled in frustration. “You’re just getting lucky!”

  As Chet grew more frustrated, his eyes started to glow red. Then the same glow started to come from his mouth. With a loud yell, flames shot forth from Chet’s mouth at Austin. Austin quickly moved from attacking to blocking his body with both arms. The force of the attack pushed him backwards. Luckily, his gauntlets took the brunt of the attack, but he still could feel the burns on the rest of his body. The sensation was strange, like a mix of extreme hot and cold as they ran across his body.

  “Looks like I have a new trick too,” Chet laughed as he raised his hand. Flames started to form in the palm of his hand. This time, they were a mixture of red and purple.

  Before Austin could fully recover, Chet threw the flame at him. He was forced to block the flame with his gauntlets once more. While his techniques could usually absorb Essence, the gauntlets were not made for protection and corrupted Essence was very different from other Essence affinities. Because of this, the gauntlets only provided minor protection, and Austin felt the flames burn against his skin.

  Another ball of flames exploded against Austin’s gauntlets. Chet was not going to stop throwing balls of flame, and it forced Austin back into a difficult situation. He had to somehow close the gap between the two, or Chet would keep up his attacks. He was not sure what to do. Total Defense was an option, but it really would only delay the inevitable. His Breaker Ball was a long-range attack, but even it required more time than he had.

  Flame after flame hit Austin. He could even feel his gauntlets weakening under the pressure of the continuous attacks. While he did not want to, he felt like his only option was using Total Defense. Maybe it would give him just enough time to turn the situation around.

  Austin did not focus on making his Total Defense especially strong. Instead, he focused on getting it up as soon as possible. The silver dome erupted out of the ground in an instant, and Austin heard flames hit the dome and sent an echo inside of it. He did not have much time. So, he had to think quickly.

  “Using that again?” Chet laughed. “That won’t hold out for long!”

  Austin ignored Chet as he started to formulate a plan. He opened his pack to see if there was anything that could help him. He did not have many options, but as he opened his pack, he did remember one thing he still had. He had the Thousand Wood Fist scroll. He wanted to save it for a time when he would really need it, but it seemed like that time was now.

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  The metal dome broke apart under Austin’s will. With a plan, he no longer needed to wait for it to break from Chet’s attacks. As the dome broke apart, a brilliant emerald green light filled the area. Austin held the scroll in the air and pressed his hand against it. The ground started to shake and almost knocked Austin off balance.

  As the light faded, roots erupted from the ground and rose into the air. The roots twisted together until they created four large arm-like shapes. As another fireball came at Austin, one of the arms moved in front of him and blocked the attack. The flames splashed against the arm harmlessly. Then the arms immediately targeted Chet. Four large fists flew towards Chet. Despite their size, the fists were fast enough that Chet was unable to create another fireball.

  Chet covered his body with his arms as the massive fists slammed into him. The fists came one after another in a massive barrage that seemed like it would not stop. The punches started to come from the side in powerful hooks that knocked Chet around like a plaything. The size and power of the fists gave Chet no opportunity to stop them.

  The fists started to break apart into chunks of wood, one after another. The attack was powerful, but it did not last long. Just as Chet thought he had a moment of relief, a metal ball slammed into his chest. As the ball fell to the ground, another ball smashed into him again.

  Chet toppled over as Austin charged him with an explosion of silver light at his heels. The damage was too much, and Chet’s body could not heal fast enough to recover from it. Austin’s fist smashed into Chet’s face with another explosion of light. The toughness of his skin had worn down, and the explosion caused parts of his skin to tear off and reveal the bone underneath. If it were not for Essence, the blow would have killed him.

  “Please,” Chet’s voice quivered. “Please stop, I’ll do anything.”

  “There is only one thing you can give me,” Austin looked down at the pathetic man with cold eyes.

  “What is it? Just tell me, and I’ll do it! Just don’t kill me!” Chet begged.

  “You have threatened the lives of everyone here, including my wife and son, and you think you are just going to live?” Austin’s eyes narrowed in anger. “The thing you will give me…is your life.”

  Austin channeled a massive amount of Essence into his gauntlet. His gauntlet started to shine silver light as Austin walked closer to Chet. With a swift punch, his fist slammed into Chet’s chest. Silver light exploded much larger than any of Austin’s previous attacks. As the light faded, all that remained of Chet were his legs. Austin turned away as the legs fell to the ground and disintegrated into red and purple dust.

  Austin let out a tremendous sigh of relief. He had finally done it. He allowed his gauntlets and leg armor to vanish, breaking away into silver motes of light as they did. He then sat down and looked down from the top of the hill. He desperately needed a break, but he still felt a need to survey the situation.

  The area below was blanketed in red and purple. The dust from the fallen beasts had created a haze over the area. Because of this, Austin could not make any details of the battle. He hoped that the dust in the air meant that everyone was able to fight back the beasts successfully.

  “Looks like he did it,” a voice pierced through the haze as Austin saw Gavin walk towards him. Following close behind Gavin was Josh. The pair looked exhausted as they approached.

  “I knew he could,” Josh said with a smile. “I told you that he is incredible.”

  “Yeah, yeah,” Gavin responded with an annoyed expression.

  “Don’t try to act all cool around Austin. Just the other day, you were talking about how great he was. I’m pretty sure it was something like ‘I hope Austin can show me some more tricks! Maybe I could be a student of his. Wouldn’t that be cool?” Josh mocked Gavin.

  “I don’t think I said exactly that,” Gavin’s eyes narrowed.

  “Eh, I’m summarizing but I know that’s what you meant,” Josh shrugged.

  “Well, it looks like you two are fine if you are bickering like that,” Austin laughed as he pushed himself off the ground. “Any idea how everything else is going?”

  “Not too sure,” Gavin responded. “James helped us and then went to help Maya. I’m pretty sure that fight finished not too long ago. As for the battle below? I’m not sure how it’s going.”

  “At least Chet and Andrea are done for,” Austin nodded. “I’m sure that everyone else will be able to deal with the beasts just fine.”

  “Yeah, it seemed like James made a point of fighting beasts on his way up,” Josh said. “He was using the black sword.”

  “Why would he do that?” Austin growled. “He should know that will screw up his Essence.”

  As if in response, Maya and Grayson entered the area. Austin did not know Grayson well, but he could tell that there was something wrong as they arrived. Even Maya looked somewhat sad as the pair arrived.

  “He knew that,” Maya answered Austin. “Which is why he planned to die in his battle with Andrea. From the moment he took up the sword, he planned to die in the battle to give us a chance at victory.”

  “That’s stupid!” Austin yelled angrily. Despite his exhaustion from his fight with Chet, he felt worked up. “I was able to defeat Chet without using something like that. Why would he think he would need it?”

  “I hate to say it because he helped me so much,” Grayson said. “But you are that much stronger than Natasha and James. He had full faith that you could beat Chet.”

  “We were all Coppers! That doesn’t even make sense,” Austin protested.

  “You really don’t know?” Grayson’s eyes widened in shock. “I guess you were too caught up in preparation to realize the truth. Natasha and James were firmly at the bottom of Copper. According to James, you could easily ascend to Iron at any time.”

  “There is no way that’s right,” Austin said. “How could I become an Iron, already?”