A whirlwind of sparks shot toward Marshmallow as Balor launched into a lightning-fast attack. The ground shook under his steps while his sword hurled arcs of flame capable of melting metal.
Marshmallow cracked a thin smile. He assumed a slight stance to receive the attack, and with a swing of his Titan Hammer, he repelled the strike in a burst of crimson sparks.
CLANG!
Marshmallow stood there, impassive at the center, completely unscathed. He had brushed off an attack from the legendary Balor as if it were nothing.
"What...?" Balor stepped back, his blazing, wide-eyed gaze filled with astonishment.
Marshmallow sneered, waving off the barrier with a careless gesture. "I told you this heat is nothing to me. It's you who should fear being in my presence..."
In the blink of an eye, a dazzling crimson light spear formed between Marshmallow's hands. With a lightning-quick motion, he hurled it straight at Balor, leaving a blinding trail of pure energy streaking through the warm air.
The attack exploded in a blinding detonation against the Flame King, lifting a thick cloud of debris and smoke. When the clouds cleared, Balor was still standing, but with a smoking groove gouged into his armor where the spear had struck. Tiny sparks flickered from the crack, while Balor stared in shock at the sizzling wound on his chest.
"Impossible..." he growled, his voice sounding like the very rumble of fire. His eyes glowed with murderous fury as he turned toward Marshmallow. "How dare you wound my immortal flesh? You will pay for this outrage!"
Marshmallow laughed boisterously at those words. "This is just the beginning, big guy. I haven't even started fighting for real yet..."
With a fluid motion, he signaled to the Goat Horse to transform into its equine form. He mounted it, now the battle was truly about to begin.
"This will be your end!" Balor roared, lifting his sword high in a whirlwind of fiery sparks. "No mortal can withstand my fury without being consumed by my eternal flames!"
Marshmallow tapped the Goat Horse, which started to gallop full throttle. He charged the light into the Titan Hammer and slammed it against the ground in a low arc, releasing a shockwave from its surplus energy. The rock floor cracked like butter, and the fissures spread radially toward Balor with the speed of lightning.
"What...??" Balor had only a moment to look in horror before the fiery cracks opened at his feet, making him stagger and wobble. As he struggled to maintain his balance on the crumbling earth, Marshmallow used the body of the Goat Horse as a springboard and was upon him in a leap.
CRASH!
The Titan Hammer came down with impossible force in a diagonal sweep, first shattering Balor's sword, then reaching Balor himself and smashing him to the ground, mutilating his right arm. A crater as wide as a house opened around his devastated body, while streams of magma from his molten limbs flowed like reddish serpents.
Balor lay helpless and mutilated in his own hellish palace, almost reduced to ashes under the weight of the tremendous assault. But his eyes still flickered with murderous fury, fixed on Marshmallow in a last powerless challenge.
Marshmallow stepped forward with a mocking smile, the glowing Titan Hammer dangling from his grip. "And this is just the beginning of my true power. I've just granted you the honor of tasting a bit of my strength..."
With a derisive laugh, Marshmallow continued to advance to deliver the coup de grâce. The Goat Horse, in its equine form, could only stare in astonishment, its wide eyes full of reverential horror as it witnessed Marshmallow's total supremacy over his formidable opponent.
Balor had been humiliated within moments. With his own flames rendered powerless, what could he ever do against such might? Marshmallow hadn't even begun to truly fight...
Marshmallow's mocking laughter still echoed in the fiery palace as he approached the crumpled form of Balor. The Flame King was on the ground, and his arrogance shattered in the devastating impact before.
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"So, monster?" Marshmallow's voice dripped with scorn. "Where's all that bravado about your eternal flames now? You're just an insect to be crushed under my feet."
A guttural groan escaped from the depths of Balor's throat as he made an immense effort to straighten his battered body. The fringes of his sizzling armor dangled around his twisted form, leaving a pool of molten magma on the cracked rock without one arm and without his sword.
"Damned... worm..." His voice was nothing more than a cavernous whisper, but his blinding eyes still burned with relentless fury. "You think you've defeated me... but the true power of the eternal flames... will annihilate you from the inside!"
Marshmallow scoffed derisively at those words. "Let me show you the futility of your efforts!"
With a lightning-fast motion, he unleashed a barrage of crimson light bullets against Balor's battered body. The explosions lit up the palace with blinding flashes, lifting clouds of smoke and blazing debris.
When the cloud cleared, Balor was still standing with his body of deformed magma miraculously intact. And with a deep rumble, the wounds slowly began to heal, closing up with a murmur of burning flames.
"What...??" Marshmallow's eyes widened for the first time, shaken during the clash.
A warped grin spread across Balor's face as his mutilated form slowly regained solidity. "Foolish mortal... the eternal flames have made me immortal! My body will always rise from the ashes to continue protecting this realm!"
A searing heat aura expanded around Balor as his body flowed back into his true colossal form. In moments, his imposing armor of black scales and obsidian reformed, with high flames furiously flickering from his joints.
"You dared to wound my immortal flesh..." Balor growled, his voice like the rumble of fire under the ash. "But now, my true fury will obliterate you!"
A massive vortex of fire exploded around the Flame King. Burning tongues coiled into a hellish whirlwind that engulfed the entire palace in its fiery maw. A deafening roar of frenzied flames invaded every corner, making even Marshmallow stagger under the unleashed fury of that element.
"You cannot win against the primordial flames!" Balor's omnipotent voice thundered from beyond the swirling tongues of fire. "I am the incarnation of fire itself! Now witness the true power of an ancient immortal!"
A horde of solid magma demons began to emerge and take shape from the vortex. They were extensions of Balor's body, twisted creatures with bodies of glowing lava and curved obsidian fangs. They moved with undulating motions, releasing puffs of burning smoke as they surrounded Marshmallow.
Balor himself reappeared amid that infernal pack with his appearance once again intact. The glowing sword of flames was back in his hands, ready to unleash a deadly attack.
"I will destroy your arrogance with the heat of the eternal flames!" he roared, raising the weapon in a gesture of defiance. "Mortal, only ashes will remain of you in this realm!"
With a cry that could shake the earth, Balor charged forward followed by his tail of fiery demons. Tongues of flame flickered from their gaping maws as they lunged at Marshmallow in a brutal and merciless assault.
The Goat Horse could only watch dumbstruck at the infernal spectacle, its pupils dilated with terror at the wave of destruction pouring over its companion. Had Marshmallow just provoked a force impossible to control...?
Yet, even before those creatures reached their claws toward him, Marshmallow's crimson aura boiled over in a new explosion of strength. With a lightning-fast flick, his Titan Hammer rose to meet the first wave of the fiery horde.
"So, old wreck... let's see what those ridiculous flames can do!" he bellowed with a furious and charged voice. His eyes glowed with primal excitement as he prepared to face the renewed fury of Balor, the Eternal Flame King.
A deafening roar of flames filled the palace as the first squad of fiery demons crashed into Marshmallow with devastating impact. Curved obsidian fangs and claws of solidified magma tore through the air with murderous fury, while tongues of fire swirled around like mad snakes.
But Marshmallow stood firm like a rock amidst that vortex of destruction. The Titan Hammer traced relentless arcs, shattering bones, and lava armor of the more reckless demons. Yet, for every creature annihilated, two more seemed to emerge from the depths of the same flame vortex that Balor was made of. The ranks of the infernal horde remained impossibly dense, an endless maelstrom of incandescent fury.
"Poor foolish mortal!" Balor's voice crackled with sadistic exhilaration as he watched his renewed attack. "These are not mere demonic summonings! They are the very essence of my power forged in the eternal flames!"
With a broad sweep of his mighty sword, Balor unleashed a new torrent of solid magma that twisted into the shapes of a new legion of demons. These joined the others in an unrelenting assault, hammering Marshmallow from every side with endless bursts of glowing projectiles and blasts of crazed fire.
Marshmallow raised a barrier of light to repel the more vehement tongues of flame, but the heat in the palace was reaching an unsustainable level. Even for Marshmallow, now forced to retreat in the face of this unstoppable deluge.
Balor smirked triumphantly, his ember-like gaze sparkling with renewed triumph. "You didn't really think you could stop the very fury of primordial fire, did you? As long as the eternal flames fuel my existence, I will be invincible!"