Clink. Clink. Clink. Click.

Alex's chest burned as he waited for Goldfist to move. His entire body was torn and tired. His muscles ached, and his breath came in short bursts. If not for the time crunch, he would have rested before he tried to take Goldfist in a fight. He leaned on his staff as Goldfist's chain between his arm and his fist grew taunt.

"Grah!" Goldfist yelled, jumping into the air with a leap that took him high above the pillars of the portal behind him.

Clink. Clink. Clink.

The chain kept reeling itself back in, but Goldfist's hand didn't return to him. Instead, his body followed the chain, pulled along through his jump and over the black pool and bridge leading to the portal. Alex ran to the side as Goldfist came crashing down into the wall, his body shaking the ground with a thunderous boom as he reconnected to his fist where Alex had just been.

"I'd rather fight you face to face anyways," Goldfist said as he ripped his fist from the wall, tearing out rock and dirt with it. "After everything you've done to me and my operation these last few days, it's time for me to settle the debt between us. You'll pay me back in blood."

Goldfist towered over Alex. His sheer mass was his greatest strength in Alex's eyes. One punch from the oversized mechanical hand would easily crush his bones, but that wasn't the only danger. Alex gritted his teeth. How far would he have to push his body and his gate to take the giant down?

"Where's your spirit now whelp?" Goldfist asked, raising his hand in a clenched fist. "You were all fire when we first met, but look at you now."

"Step."

Alex closed this distance between them instantly, taking the momentum from his body and into his fist, slamming it as hard as he could into Goldfist's stomach. Cloth exploded around his fist, shredding through Goldfist's shirt like it wasn't even there.

Thoom.

The sound of the punch echoed after the hit. Alex pulled back, ready to retreat, but Goldfist's mechanical hand came down around him, grasping him tight and cutting off his breath. His staff and arms were pinned to his side, and he could only kick the air uselessly. Goldfist pulled him up like he weighed nothing. Alex grimaced as Goldfist held him up to the giant's eye level.

"Thought you had me there." He coughed and spat out a trail of blood on the stone. "Lucky for me, I'm built of stronger stuff. That's one thing I can thank Hajh for. Giant's blood in my veins gave me the strength I needed to become the man I am today!"

Pressure pushed in from all sides as Goldfist held his grip tighter and tighter. Alex coughed up the air in his lungs as Goldfist smiled at him. The giant's eyes glinted as he pulled his fingers tighter and tighter together.

"I'll make you pop," he said as he looked Alex directly in the eyes.

Bang!

The pressure on Alex released for the briefest of moments. He took in a quick breath as he pushed against the fingers. They released him from their grasp, and he slid down to the ground, catching himself on his hands and knees. His staff clattered out of his hands and to the ground as he fought to catch his breath.

"Who did that?" Goldfist turned and froze as he looked to the tunnel.

Alex looked up. Sam stood at the tunnel entrance, Silvertooth's gun in her hand and the barrel smoking from the shot. Her hands shook, and her face was white as she stared down Goldfist. Alex put a hand to his side as he tried to stand up, but his leg twisted beneath him.

"You shot me?" Goldfist raised his fist without a moment of hesitation. "I'll crush you! Golden Bullet!"

Time froze around Alex. He saw Sam dropping the gun and running back toward the tunnel like a statue. He saw Goldfist above him, hand up and ready to fire. If Alex did nothing, Sam would be hit by that fist. The fist that had knocked over a train car. The fist that had turned a man into a puddle of blood and flesh in an instant. That fist would obliterate Sam.

Alex might have been selfish. He might have only helped Sam because he wanted to access the core. However, Sam was there because he brought her. She had the gun because he had given it to her. Her death was on his head.

"Step!" he yelled through clenched teeth, pushing his body up with his hands as he disappeared.

He reappeared between Sam and Goldfist, planting his feet on the ground. He held out his hands, bracing his entire body. He could only do it one more time. Anything more than that, and he would rip his body apart.

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"Might!"

Boom!

The fist exploded out from Goldfist's arm. It streaked through the air toward Alex. Alex didn't dodge. He didn't move in the slightest. Instead, he took the fist head-on, bending forward and planting his feet.

Slam!

Every muscle and bone in his body screamed at him as he took the hit. Alex clenched his teeth and screamed but held firm. His feet dug into the stone floor behind him, cutting through the stone like a hoe across a field.

Clong.

The pressure stopped. The fist fell to the ground in front of him, rolling across the stone in a clenched state. Alex fell to his knees and looked down at his chest. Blood was already soaked in his duster, and his muscles were alight with a fiery prickling pain. If he used might again, he really would tear his body apart.

"Alex!" Sam yelled from the tunnel, already running toward him. "Are you okay?"

Alex resisted the urge to respond sarcastically. He was a little angry, but it was stifled by the horrible pain and the fact that the gunshot had gotten him free of Goldfist. Instead, he looked her directly in the eyes and nodded. He needed her to stay away. He couldn't win the fight if he had to defend someone else.

Click. Click. Click.

Goldfist walked forward, his chain returning to his arm with each step. Alex looked up at him. Every breath in and out made his chest twitch. His arms felt like limp noodles at his side. Yet, he still needed to fight. He still needed to stand.

"You're like a roach," Goldfist said with a smirk as his fist rolled across the ground to return to his arm. "I hit you again and again, but...klech."

He stopped mid-sentence and made a coughing noise. Blood fell out from Goldfist's mouth as he fell to his knees. He spat it out on the ground, pushing himself up on his mechanical hand as he glared at Alex.

"Internal bleeding," Alex smiled. "I hit you hard enough that it sent ripples through your body and messed with your internal organs. I might look bad on the outside, but you're torn up on the inside."

"Shut up!" Goldfist pushed himself up from the ground, towering over Alex again. "I just need one more good hit, and you'll be splattered on the wall."

Alex couldn't argue with that. He opened his gate and reached out along the chamber's magnetic lines. His staff rose from the ground, whirling through the air in a wide arc. He reached up with one hand and caught it, planting it on the ground and forcing himself to stand up.

He was like a child next to Goldfist in size, but he had to win. He opened his gate further, focusing on the cavern around them as they stared each other down. Goldfist looked in about as much pain as Alex felt. He just needed to outlast the giant and take him down. Yeah, that was it, he told himself through the dizzying haze around his mind.

"Let's see how you handle this!" Goldfist yelled, charging forward with his mechanical hand, ready to throw a punch.

Alex held up his staff. He might be able to step again, but he needed to conserve his strength. The Path of Step and Might put pressure on his body, and he couldn't do them indefinitely. Combined with his fight against Silvertooth, he had already pushed himself too far without rest that day. He needed to fight smart.

"Golden Blows!" Goldfist yelled, his hand suddenly speeding up into a flurry of punches.

Alex ducked and weaved, keeping an eye on each fist as they came at him. While it wasn't the Fivefold Path, Goldfist's technique tapped into the same source of power that fueled those feats of strength. Goldfist was calling on the ambient aether of the Surreal to make his punches so fast that it seemed like a flurry of punches in a single moment.

Alex vaulted backward and out of the flurry, landing on one knee by the black pool. Goldfist punched the air where Alex had been, stirring up dust and dirt with his attack. Alex took a moment to catch his breath, holding himself steady with his staff.

"Hah, you couldn't stand up to it." Goldfist breathed heavily as his attack finished. "If you hadn't run, you would have been reduced to mush!"

"Yeah, I would," Alex admitted, standing up with his staff. "I'm surprised you knew a technique at all. I thought you were all bluster and just the fist."

"Heh, don't insult me." Goldfist smiled. "I've had over twenty years in this world to learn how it works. I may not be able to move like you, but I found the power I needed long ago."

"And what have you done with it?" Alex asked. "You took over some no-name town in the desert and subjugated people to dig holes. That's all. You didn't challenge yourself. You ran to hide where no one could find you so that you could still have power that isn't rightfully yours."

Goldfist frowned, looking down at Alex from his great height. After a moment, he clenched his teeth through his black beard, raised his fist, and pointed to the portal. Alex didn't move, even with the fist pointed toward him.

"What are you saying?" Goldfist asked. "I am strong! I am rich! I have everything that any man would ever desire. When I get the core, I'll bend this entire island to my will and create a paradise!"

"I'm saying you're missing something."

"What's that?"

"Strength binds you. Strength gives you a responsibility to act. It makes you bound to the world around you. Money has to be maintained. It has to be guarded. Money binds you again to this island and to this world."

"What of it?" Goldfist asked, slamming his fist into the ground and shaking the room around them. "It lets me fulfill every desire. What's wrong with that?"

"It robs you of your freedom," Alex said, looking at the inert portal. "You stand there bound in chains of your own making. You can never really be free."

"Trash," Goldfist said. "Everything you say is just trash. You're saying you don't have things you want? Why else would you be down here except to take control of the core yourself? You'd take the island the same as I would."

"Would I?" Alex asked, turning to look back at Goldfist and taking a stance. "Let's find out after I beat you into the ground."

Inside his body, Alex's pain lessened. He wasn't whole, and another use of the Path of Might would break him, but he could fight. Just the time talking had been enough for his body to start the repair work that he needed to keep on his feet. For once, he wanted to thank the people who had turned his body into an experiment. They were why he could keep fighting, even beyond what a person should be capable of. He opened up his gate and embraced the magnetic flow around him.

"Step," he whispered, cutting across the cavern to the right of Goldfist and away from the portal and tunnel.

It was time for the fight to really begin.