The colossus moved. He was not slow, as his massive frame might suggest. His movement was deceptive, terrifyingly fluid, as if gravity exerted no pull on the tons of flesh and metal he carried. With one gargantuan stride, he crossed half the arena. The massive iron war hammer rose above his head, blocking the white light from the ceiling, casting a long, black shadow that swallowed me whole. I heard the air scream as the hammer plummeted like a falling meteor.
"Watch..." My crimson eyes tracked the contraction of the muscles beneath his rusted armor. (Analysis: Vertical crushing blow. Impact radius: 5 meters. Recoil: Lethal.)
I lunged sideways with every ounce of strength in my new leg fibers. "BOOM!"
The hammer struck the ground exactly where I had stood a millisecond before. The impact wasn't just a sound; it was a localized earthquake. The floor of clay and flesh exploded. Shards of stone and bone shrapnel flew in every direction like jagged razors. The shockwave hit me mid-air, like a giant invisible hand slapping me, sent me hurtling away to slam against the arena's bone-wall with a sickening "CRACK."
"Cough..." I immediately spat blood. My ribs—at least three of them—were shattered from the air pressure and the impact. I stood up quickly, ignoring the agony screaming in my chest. [Frenzied Regeneration: Active.] I felt the bones grinding as they forced themselves back into place, but the regeneration was sluggish this time. My energy was draining. The blow was heavier than I had anticipated.
The giant didn't wait for me to catch my breath. He pulled his hammer from the crater it had made as if it were a feather, swinging it horizontally this time, intending to sweep the arena and cut me in two. The hammer came at me like a freight train off its tracks. There was no room to jump over it; it was too massive, too high.
"Get down!" I threw myself onto the gore-slicked ground, crawling beneath the hammer's path. "WHOOSH!" The iron mass passed centimeters above my head. I felt the immense air pressure compress my skull and rip strands of hair from my head. The sound alone was enough to rupture an eardrum.
I scrambled up instantly. This was my chance. While he was rebalancing the heavy hammer after the missed swing, I sprinted toward him. "Eye of Sin... show me his weakness! Where does the heart of this monster hide?" I scanned his hulking body with my glowing eyes. Armor... armor... armor. The metal plates weren't worn; they were grafted directly into his skin with rusted bolts piercing flesh and bone. There was no gap. Even the joints were covered by interlocking iron rings.
I reached his right foot. I punched the side of his knee with all my enhanced strength. "CLANG!" The sound of metal hitting metal. My arm recoiled in agony. My hand went completely numb. The bones in my fist cracked from the impact. The giant didn't budge. He didn't even blink. He looked down at me with his sickly yellow eyes, as if looking at an annoying insect trying to sting an elephant. He raised his massive, armored foot... and kicked.
I couldn't dodge this time. The kick hit my chest directly. I felt as if a building had collapsed on me. I flew across the arena like a broken doll. I crashed through a pile of former mutant corpses, rolling through mud and blood, finally hitting the ground twenty meters away.
"Agggh..." I tried to breathe. No air. My lungs were completely compressed. Blood began to leak from my eyes and ears from the internal pressure. "He's... a moving fortress..." The giant began walking toward me slowly and confidently, the hammer dragging behind him, emitting sparks and a terrifying screech. Creeeeeak... creeeeeak... the sound of death approaching.
"Think, Ray... think!" I screamed in my muddled mind. "Brute force won't work. His skin is harder, his hammer is heavier. Find the opening!" My red eyes searched his body frantically as he drew closer. The helmet... sealed tight. The chest... double-layered plating. Then... I saw it. When he raised his massive arm to pull the hammer up for the next strike... I saw a very faint red glow under his right armpit. There... a tiny gap in the armor, left intentionally to allow the arm to move freely. Thin gray skin... and beneath it, a major artery pulsing with power (The Axillary Artery). But it was too high. Protected by his massive arm, and by the hammer itself.
"How do I get there?" I looked at the rising hammer. I looked at the hand gripping it. I smiled, blood filling my mouth and staining my teeth. A mad idea struck me. A suicidal idea no sane mind would accept. "If I can't reach him from the outside... I'll make him carry me there."
I stood up with difficulty, my legs trembling. The giant arrived. He stood before me like a mountain, eclipsing everything. He raised the hammer for the finishing blow that would turn me into paste. This time, I didn't run. I didn't retreat. I stood my ground, arms open. "Come on, you ugly bastard!" I spat at him, blood spraying from my mouth. "End it!"
The giant responded to the challenge. He exhaled toxic smoke and brought the hammer down vertically, aimed directly at my head to crush me. At the last second... the second that precedes death by millimeters... I did the insane thing. I didn't jump away. I jumped toward the hammer. I jumped into the "Kill Zone."
"CRASH!" The hammer hit the ground, but I wasn't under it. I was on it. In the fraction of a second before impact, I had leaped and grabbed the massive wooden handle of the hammer. The force of the impact transferred through the handle into my body. I felt my left shoulder dislocate instantly. My collarbone shattered. I screamed in agony, but I... held on. I dug my claws into the rotting wood of the hammer's grip, clinging to it like a stubborn tick.
The giant was surprised. He felt the extra weight on his weapon. He raised the hammer upward quickly to shake me off. That was exactly what I wanted. I rose with it into the air. I was now at the level of his face and chest. I let go of the handle and leaped through the air toward his armored chest. I clung to the cold metal plates, my fingernails breaking as they sought a hold in the cracks. The giant let the hammer drop and tried to grab me with his free left hand to crush me and rip me from his chest.
His massive hand clamped around my entire body. I felt my remaining ribs pop and shatter one by one. The pain was indescribable. I was squeezed in his grip like a lemon. Blood erupted from my mouth, and my breath cut out. My vision began to turn black.
But... my right hand was free. And his right armpit... was directly in front of me, centimeters away, exposed because he had raised his arm to grab me. My eyes locked onto the glowing red spot. The artery, pulsing with black life.
"D... DIE!" I roared through the blood. I extended my right hand. I made my fingers straight and rigid, like a spear of bone. I lunged with every bit of remaining strength, and all the energy of my regeneration, into the small gap.
"SQUELCH!" I pierced the thin skin. My hand sank into the soft, warm flesh. I felt the powerful, frantic pulse of the artery beneath my fingers. I didn't just cut it... I grabbed it, coiled it around my fingers, and ripped it out with savage violence.
"ROOOOOOOOAAAAAAAR!"
The giant unleashed a scream of agony that shook the foundations of the arena, as if the sky itself had split open. Black blood erupted from under his arm like a high-pressure fountain, drenching my face and body in a viscous, hot liquid. The grip crushing me suddenly loosened from the shock of the pain. I fell from a height of three meters and slammed into the ground.
But I wasn't finished. And neither was he. The artery was severed, and blood flowed like a river, but the giant was still standing. He began to stagger, flailing his arms, trying to stomp on me frantically. He was dying, but in his final frenzy, he was more dangerous than ever. A random kick caught my left leg as I tried to crawl away. "SNAP!" A dry, sickening sound. My leg broke at a hideous angle, bone protruding through the skin. I screamed, biting into the mud to stifle the agony.
I crawled backward using only my hands, gasping, my eyes never leaving the monster of flesh and iron as he beat the air, his life draining drop by drop. His movements began to slow. The giant fell to his knees first, making the earth tremble. He looked at me with his yellow eyes, their light beginning to fade. Then... he toppled forward. He hit the ground face-first with a massive thud. Black blood pooled and formed a vast lake around him, touching the tips of my fingers.
Silence fell. I was lying on my back in the mud and blood, unable to move. My body was completely destroyed. Dislocated shoulder, crushed chest, broken leg, and damaged internal organs. [Frenzied Regeneration] was working at its limit, consuming every last drop of energy in my cells to repair this wreck. The pain of bones being forced back together made my body twitch in involuntary spasms.
[Stage Four: Complete.] [Target: "Gatekeeper" Eliminated.] [Evaluation: Savage.] [Reward: White Door Key.]
I heard the sound of the rear gate of the arena opening behind the giant's corpse. There was no darkness behind it. There was that calm, white corridor... the path to whatever lies beyond this hell.
I tried to stand. I screamed, and fell again. "No... I must walk..." I leaned on the corpse of a nearby mutant, stood on one leg with difficulty, and dragged the broken leg behind me. I walked slowly... step... step... blood dripping from me. I passed the head of the dead giant. I spat blood and phlegm onto his iron mask. "You are strong..." I whispered. "But I am... more insane."
I reached the White Door. The light was bright, warm, and welcoming. I stepped into it... leaving the bloody arena, the hammer, and the corpses behind.
The moment I crossed, the door closed, and the noise and the stench vanished. The sterile silence of the white void returned. I fell face-down on the cold, clean white floor. I closed my eyes and felt consciousness slip away from me gently. "I survived..."
[The Fifth Door is open.] [Processing critical damage repair...]