Radu takes a deep breath, then sighs and ventures forward into the mine. The mountain was extremely large. Radu was scared that it would take him too much time to find the plate. He kept on digging through the walls of the mine, eventually discovering a tunnel. He took out his orb, which started shining like a lantern. It had a glow that would spread around but not point in any direction. Radu kept on walking through the tunnel onto the railroad. Droplets of water slowly and peacefully fell from the ceiling onto the ground one by one, at first spooking Radu but then creating a more soothing atmosphere. He reaches the end of the tunnel, so he decides to continue digging through the stone with his hands. After just a few moments, Radu falls down through a chasm. He has quite the fall, but he slowly gets up, groaning slightly in pain. He takes out the orb once more, this time it shines even brighter, the aura spreading throughout the entire cave. There was a waterfall inside the cave as well, which greatly confused Radu. The cave was ginormous but mostly empty. Suddenly, from behind, a foreign entity with shiny black eyes slowly creeped up behind him and raised its shovel slowly, then it slammed its shovel into Radu while letting out a war cry. Radu quickly turned around and grabbed the shovel’s blade. It cut right through his elementalist coat, but it stopped right on his skin. He tried to fight against its strength, but he could hardly keep up with it. The being then kicks Radu and pushes him away. Radu looks at his palm, his elementalist coat did not heal.
“What is going on… Why won’t I heal? What is this thing?” said Radu to himself.
Radu raised his head, but his enemy was not there anymore. Suddenly, he hears a malicious laughter behind him. Upon a clearer look… It was a robot—a very muscular one—that had a digger clothing design on it. The same black, shiny flames from its eyes stared deep within his soul, but it took nothing more than a split second for it to swing its shovel once more at Radu. Radu drops his orb on the ground and grabs the shovel with both of his hands, struggling against it.
“Why is… Why is this thing so sharp? It’s like… It’s like a knife! This wasn’t made for digging, it was made for killing!” said Radu in his mind as he kept struggling against it.
The robot’s mouth shakes, then suddenly opens agape, revealing its chunky teeth. It lets out a horrific, slow laughter. Radu’s core’s pulse spikes upon seeing this scary introduction in such a dark room. He feels a sudden rush of adrenaline in his arms, but he’s too scared to push harder than he already can. The robot pushes him away with the shovel, knocking him into the wall and creating a small crater. Radu tried to think of a way to defeat it since he couldn’t use his element at all as there was no dirt around to manipulate. He opens his eyes and clenches his teeth.
“My element is ground, not dirt, shouldn’t it mean that I am supposed to bend any type of material?” asked himself Radu.
The robot stood there, the black flames keeping on flowing out of its eyes. Radu tried his hardest to concentrate on the stone of the mountain with his hands, but nothing worked out. The robot suddenly rushed towards him, then swiped him with the shovel once more. This time, Radu grabbed onto the shaft of the shovel with one hand, and with his other hand, he pushed against the robot’s arm. Radu’s feet suddenly turned into stone and solidified into the ground, not allowing the robot to push him back. Radu felt the sudden change, and he had a great confidence boost. He frowned angrily, then slammed his forehead into the robot, both of them clashing and pushing against each other. The robots let out another sinister laughter, this time black flames escaping from its mouth and floating backwards. Radu doesn’t lose focus, he grows even angrier. His hands turn into stone, then he pushes the robot away. His feet get unstuck from the floor, and then he rushes the robot. He tries to grab onto it, but it blocks with its shovel. The robot opens its mouth, and a blast of black flames engulfs Radu at once. He backs off quickly, but he couldn’t put out the flames. Just then, he realized what the robot’s power was.
“It tries to make me fear it. Black is the color of hatred, death, fear. I was able to swap my material when I didn’t fear death and slammed into it with full might. So that means…”
Radu’s elementalist coat solidifies into stone, then slowly emanates a gray aura around it, removing the black flames from his body. The robot leaps towards Radu and performs a downward slash with its shovel. Radu’s right arm shapes into a one-bladed sword, and he blocks the shovel attack with it. Radu keeps his angry frown as the robot realizes that there’s no way it could make Radu fear anymore. It quickly loses its cocky, sinister smile, and its expression grows more grim. Radu doesn’t give up, he pushes forward and forces the robot into backing off. The robot slashes the ground, and several stone chunks lift upwards in the air. It enchants them with black flames, and then they fly right towards Radu. He raises a thick wall of stone from the ground, which the rocks slam into. Radu pushes the slab at it, but the robot breaks it easily and grabs his throat, then slams him into the ground and pins him down. Radu tries his hardest to turn its arm into stone, but as he tried that, the arm would simply regrow back to steel… Just then, he realized. The robot raised its shovel with one hand, then, with a cocky, horrific expression, it went ahead and slammed it into Radu’s face. However, Radu caught the blade on exactly its tip. It pierced right through his elementalist coat once more, even touching his skin and making him bleed. However, it was all he needed. His hand turned into the same material the robot was crafted out of. The robot tried to pluck away the shovel from his hand, but it was worthless. Radu gripped hard onto the shovel as he smiled. His body quickly swapped from stone into the type of steel which the robot was also made out of. Just then, for the first time, the robot felt fear in its entire life. Once Radu’s body turned 1/3rd into steel alongside his head, he headbutts the robot, making a visible dent. He crushes the shovel in his hand, followed by a splash of blood coming from his hand. He then threw away the broken shovel blade and landed a powerful jab into its head.
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“No more toys, no more fuckery. It’s the end, demon of fear.” said Radu, with a wide grin on his face.
The robot lost it. Despite looking like a purely mechanical creature, right now, it felt like it was actually slightly more than just a robot. As if it actually had a soul within it. The robot clenched its fists, its muscles expanding, and metallic scrap started to fly out of it. The flames from its eyes grew stronger, and its hands became enchanted with black flames. The robot raised its guard and approached Radu to engage in close-quarters combat. Radu didn’t want to try to outpower it in physical power after its transformation, so he resorts to long-range attacks. He forms sharp stalactites from the ceiling which fall right onto the robot, piercing it perfectly and forming a cage of stone around it. The robot chuckles with its deep voice as it briefly pulls the stones out of its body, then, with a single swipe, destroys the cage of stones around him. Radu forms a battle ax out of his right arm (steel arm). The robot launches several black-fire blasts at Radu before rushing towards him like a gorilla. Radu manages to cut the two flame projectiles with his weapon, neutralizing them. The robot launches an extremely powerful blow, enchanted with black flames. Radu blocks it with his ax and hardly manages to push against it. The ground beneath him starts to crumble, but then he gets a new plan. He fully dives into the stone and digs at insane speeds, disappearing. Seeing Radu run away, the robot rushes towards the golden orb in order to destroy it, but Radu pops out of nowhere from the wall at high speeds and kicks it in the head before going back into the wall from the other side. The robot was severely damaged by the blow and instantly learned his intentions. The robot enters a flow state and fully focuses on a 360-degree range, awaiting the next attack. Radu jumps out of the wall once more. The robot takes no time to grab his face and smash him into the ground, shattering him fully in one go… However… It was a decoy statue. The real Radu came down from the ceiling, turning his right arm into a functional sawblade and slamming into the robot with it, quickly cutting its head vertically.
"Come on, come on, come on! Cut, cut, cut!" said Radu desperately in his mind.
The saw blade stopped spinning right after it split the head of the robot in two.
"Yes!" exclaimed Radu happily.
But his happiness was shortened because the robot instantly turns around and back slaps Radu, knocking him back together with the saw blade. The robot, with all of the holes in its body and its head split in two, still manages to launch itself towards Radu. But right before the robot would reach him, a gigantic chunk of stone in a cuboid shape fell down onto the robot, crushing it against the floor. Radu struggles heavily and lifts the stone up, then slams it once more. And again, and again, and again, and again, eventually running out of stamina. The cuboid remained in perfect condition as it crashed into the robot. Radu starts panting heavily as he lays down against the wall of the cave. Suddenly, the glow of the orb changes directions. Instead of spreading around the cave, it points in a direction. Radu slowly gets up and grabs the orb, then walks towards the glow. From beneath the slab of stone, dark flames spread away swiftly, eventually reuniting as a humanoid entity made purely out of black flames with glowing gray eyes. Radu sees it, and he doesn't want to fight it anymore, so he starts to quickly dig where the glow indicates, making sure he fills up his tunnel as he digs as well. Despite the insane speeds Radu is digging at, the new entity can dig just fast enough to outspeed him. The glow intensifies more and more, eventually making a special chime-like sound. Radu falls into another cave, this time a deeper one. The entity goes just after Radu and instantly rushes a punch in his face. Radu retaliates with a knee hit in its chin. The entity gets a hold of his neck and prepares a punch. Radu turns his right arm into a sword, pierces its head perfectly, and then throws it away. As they were falling, Radu sees the golden plate at the bottom of the cave. He uses rock platforms to cancel his falling speed, which results in the entity catching up with him. Radu then instinctively pinned him to the wall, sharp stalactites piercing his palms and feet and crucifying it onto the wall. Radu arrives at the bottom of the cave in a rather safe manner and goes ahead to interact with the plate…
Meanwhile. . .
Ares took no time to fly on top of the mountain using flame bursts.
"Tsk, the audacity of that kid... He knows nothing, and he shouldn't know anything either." said Ares in his mind, ticked off. Just a few moments later, Ares arrives at the lava geysers. The scenery was blurry, and smoke filled a good part of the zone. Ares launched a heat wave, which pushed away the smoke… But to his surprise... A menacing person he hasn't seen for years has the audacity to stand in his way. Ares' eyes widened as he couldn't believe what he's seeing.
"Mother?..." said Ares with a shocked tone.