"Let’s see how tight those bolts really are," Sebastian gritted his teeth.
Goliath brought his free, left hand down in a brutal, open-palmed swat, trying to crush Sebastian like a cockroach.
*SLAM!*
The massive metal hand hit the floor, but Sebastian had already pivoted. Using his terrifying, hyper-dense leg muscles, Sebastian vaulted directly onto the back of the giant’s hand.
"GET OFF!" Goliath roared, trying to shake his arm violently.
Sebastian didn’t let go. He rode the bucking, thrashing limb like a mechanical bull. He sprinted up the thick, depleted uranium plating of Goliath’s forearm, his combat boots finding purchase in the jagged grooves and rivets of the armor. The heat radiating off the metal was agonizing, blistering the skin on Sebastian’s hands even through his tactical gloves.
He reached the giant’s elbow.
Goliath swung his other arm over, bringing the massive hammer handle up to physically scrape the annoying human off his bicep.
Sebastian didn’t hesitate. He leaped from the elbow, launching himself through the air and landing squarely on the thick, heavily armored gauntlet gripping the hammer.
*CLANG!*
Sebastian wrapped his left arm around the thick metal thumb of the giant to anchor himself. He raised the jagged, three-foot shard of obsidian glass high above his head with his right hand.
"Maintenance check, asshole!" Sebastian screamed.
He drove the razor-sharp black glass directly into the tiny, flexible mesh gap between the armor plates of Goliath’s wrist.
*SHHHK! SQUELCH!*
The glass punched through the heavy hydraulic lines. A massive, highly pressurized geyser of glowing green toxic fluid erupted from the wound, spraying directly into Sebastian’s face.
It smelled like battery acid and burning plastic. It scorched the side of his cheek, but he didn’t blink. He violently twisted the glass shard sideways, aggressively tearing through the internal wiring that connected the gauntlet to the rest of the arm.
"GAAAAH!" Goliath bellowed, a sound of genuine, localized system failure.
*SNAP!*
The heavy steel cables inside the wrist completely snapped. The massive gauntlet lost all grip strength. The giant’s fingers uncurled, and the colossal, dreadnought-sized hammer slipped from his grasp.
*CRASH!*
The hammer plummeted to the floor, shaking the entire mountain as it hit the obsidian and rolled away, completely out of Goliath’s reach.
"One down," Sebastian panted, his face covered in green grease and sweat.
But Goliath wasn’t just a machine; he was the apex enforcer. With a furious roar, the giant violently whipped his right arm, launching Sebastian into the air.
Sebastian flew backward, twisting his body in mid-air with the flawless agility of a gymnast. He hit the black glass floor boots-first, skidding backward ten feet before digging his heels in to stop his momentum.
He was breathing hard. Every muscle in his body felt like it was on fire. The reality anchor was suffocating, pulling at his stamina like a heavy lead weight.
"I WILL FLATTEN YOU WITH MY BARE HANDS!" Goliath raged, placing both of his massive, spiked fists onto the floor to push himself up.
The giant was trying to stand on his one good leg. If he got upright, he would just stomp Sebastian into a paste.
"No, you really won’t," Sebastian growled, spitting a wad of bloody saliva onto the glass.
He didn’t have his [Concept of Mass]. He couldn’t manipulate gravity. But he had his own physical weight, and he had a target that was already compromised.
Sebastian sprinted forward again. He moved with a frictionless, terrifying speed, aiming straight for Goliath’s left leg—the only leg currently supporting the giant’s massive weight.
"Sebastian, the patella!" Valerie screamed from the barrier, pointing desperately. "Hit the joint!"
"Way ahead of you, Seattle!"
As Goliath began to push his immense bulk upward, the thick, depleted uranium armor plate covering his left kneecap shifted, exposing the heavy, rotating ball joint beneath.
Sebastian didn’t slow down. He accelerated. When he was exactly five feet away, he threw his entire body into the air, twisting horizontally.
He didn’t punch. He didn’t use a piece of glass.
He delivered a flawless, hyper-kinetic dropkick. He funneled every single ounce of his thirty-percent physical synchronization, every bit of his biological steel density, directly into the heavy soles of his combat boots.
*WHAM!*
He struck the exact center of Goliath’s exposed patella.
The impact was like a cannon shell hitting a brick wall. The sound of the collision echoed off the dark, starless sky of Tartarus.
*CRRRRAACK!*
The heavy, depleted uranium kneecap didn’t just bend. It completely shattered. The internal ball joint exploded into a shower of jagged metal shrapnel and green hydraulic fluid.
"ERROR! CRITICAL MOBILITY FAILURE!" Goliath shrieked, his voice losing all its intimidating depth, shifting into a high-pitched, grinding mechanical wail.
Without the support of his left leg, and with his right leg already ruined by the glass shard, the giant’s center of gravity catastrophically failed.
Hundreds of tons of heavy metal violently tipped backward.
Sebastian hit the floor and immediately rolled out of the way to avoid being crushed.
*KRA-DOOOOM!*
Goliath crashed flat onto his back. The sheer weight of his fall caused the entire black glass plateau to violently buckle. A massive cloud of gray dust and pulverized obsidian exploded into the air, temporarily obscuring the fallen Warden.
Sebastian stood up, brushing the sharp glass shards off his torn black coat. He was bleeding from a dozen minor cuts, his chest heaving with exhaustion.
The massive giant lay flat on his back, his heavy, spiked arms thrashing wildly as he tried to find purchase on the slick glass. But he was too heavy, and both of his legs were utterly, completely useless.
Goliath was grounded.
"Well, look at that," Sebastian wheezed, a dark, utterly unhinged smile spreading across his bloody face. He cracked his knuckles, the popping sound sharp in the settling dust. "The bigger they are, the louder they bitch and moan."
He walked slowly toward the fallen giant. Magic was completely off the table. The reality anchor was still holding the server hostage. But that was fine. Sebastian didn’t need a developer console for what came next.
He was going to do this the old-fashioned way.
—-
The dust slowly settled over the shattered black glass plateau.
Goliath, the Level 100 Warden of Tartarus, was flat on his massive back. The twenty-foot-tall behemoth thrashed wildly, his heavy, depleted uranium arms scraping against the obsidian floor in a desperate attempt to push himself upright. But with both of his kneecaps completely blown out and leaking toxic green hydraulic fluid, he was entirely anchored to the ground.
"INSUFFICIENT! THIS IS INSUFFICIENT!" Goliath roared. His voice was a grating, metallic screech that vibrated the loose shards of glass around him. The single, horizontal orange slit in his domed helmet flared with frantic, aggressive light.
Sebastian stood ten feet away, rolling his neck. A sharp *pop* echoed through the dead, magic-less air.
He was completely exhausted. His lungs burned, and his black tactical suit was torn in half a dozen places, exposing pale skin slick with sweat and real, crimson human blood. Without his UI to manage his stamina or his [Thermal Immunity] to block the blistering heat radiating from the giant’s radioactive armor, every single breath felt like inhaling hot sandpaper.
[WARNING: Physical Exhaustion Critical.]
[Status: Muscle Tearing Detected.]
The dull gray prompt flickered weakly in his vision, a pathetic reminder of the Absolute Reality Anchor currently suppressing his godhood.
"You know, you talk way too much for a guy who’s currently stuck on his back like a flipped turtle," Sebastian muttered.
He didn’t hesitate. He didn’t look for another piece of broken glass or try to retrieve his dropped Earth Sword.
Sebastian sprinted forward and leapt.
He landed heavily squarely on the center of Goliath’s massive, thick chest plate. The heat radiating off the metal immediately began to singe the soles of his combat boots.
"GET OFF ME, MEAT!" Goliath bellowed, swinging his massive, spiked right arm inward to swat Sebastian away.
Sebastian didn’t dodge. He violently dropped to his knees on the giant’s chest, ducking under the clumsy, sweeping arm. He anchored himself, digging his boots into the deep, jagged grooves of the armor plating.
He looked down at the smooth, heavy iron dome of Goliath’s helmet.
"I am meat," Sebastian agreed, his voice dropping into a cold, terrifyingly calm whisper. He raised both of his fists, his biological steel muscles coiling tight. "But meat tenderizes."
*WHAM!*
Sebastian brought his right fist down directly onto the center of the iron dome.
The impact was deafening. Without the 10,000x multiplier or his [Concept of Mass], it was just raw, thirty-percent synchronized human strength striking depleted uranium.
A sharp, searing jolt of pain shot up Sebastian’s forearm. His knuckles throbbed, the thin leather of his tactical glove tearing instantly.
But he didn’t stop.
*WHAM! WHAM! WHAM!*
He began to rain down brutal, unrelenting, rapid-fire punches directly onto Goliath’s faceplate. He didn’t use technique. He didn’t use finesse. He just used pure, unadulterated violence.
"YOU CANNOT BREAK ME!"
Goliath shrieked, his voice distorted as his head was repeatedly knocked against the glass floor beneath him.