Chapter 53: Sunken City (3) - Impossible Fight

The atmosphere between us grew tense. I seriously considered fighting the octopus right then and there, just to settle things once and for all, but I decided to hold back. Maybe waiting for a better opportunity was the smarter choice.

With that, I just smiled and said, "Sure. Wait here."

Then, without any fear, I jumped into the hole. It wasn’t very deep, which I already knew. I landed cleanly without feeling any pain in my legs.

I looked around, taking in where I was. Unlike up top, the ground here was a kind of red earth, and there were many plants all around.

And in one of the corners, I saw it. The statue that kept hammering away at the stone nonstop. Its appearance was practically identical to the statues up above, the difference being that it wielded a hammer as its weapon. On top of that, it looked dirty, with some vines wrapped around its body, as if it had been abandoned in that place long ago.

The statues up top were completely motionless, but this one seemed to have a life of its own. It kept hammering at the stone, yet its neck turned toward me. The statue was staring at me from a distance.

For a moment, I thought it would charge at me so we could fight, but the statue didn’t move. I knew that if I got close, we would fight.

But was fighting the statue really the right thing to do? I still didn’t know the answer. I decided to walk toward it very slowly, focused on dodging any attack that might come my way.

As soon as I got close enough, something came flying toward me. It was a sphere, spinning and glowing with a faint blue light. The sphere had come from somewhere I couldn’t quite tell.

And the strangest part was that it spoke to me.

"To discover the answer to the puzzle, face and defeat the statue."

The sphere flew off after saying that. Well, at least it answered the question I had in mind. Now I was certain that I would need to fight the statue and win to get the answer to the riddle.

Just how strong was that statue, though? The worst part was that, if it came down to it, my toxin wouldn’t work against a stone statue... I would have to win using nothing but my cube and my own physical strength.

But I had to push the fear aside and fight that statue. It was the only way to keep moving forward. It was necessary.

I changed the cube’s shape into two gauntlets, putting one on each fist. The way I was fighting was changing.

Since my body was much stronger and more agile after receiving the bloodline, fighting hand-to-hand seemed like the best option.

I took a deep breath and went toward the statue. When I got close enough, the statue stopped hammering the stone and started running at me.

It swung that large two-handed mallet at me. I quickly side-stepped to dodge, using my agility to escape the statue’s slow attacks.

When the statue slammed its weapon into the ground, the boom was massive. The force was impressive. Thank goodness I hadn’t been hit by that.

During the time the statue needed to recover its momentum and get back into an attacking stance, that was my chance to strike without suffering retaliation.

With the gauntlet, I landed a powerful punch on the statue’s back. The impact was strong enough to make the statue lurch forward, falling face-first into the ground.

I didn’t waste the chance and kept punching the statue’s back, taking advantage of the fact that it was in a position where it couldn’t defend itself.

Each of my punches made a boom as loud as the hammer strikes from before. Hitting solid stone did that.

My fists were starting to hurt. Actually, the impact was taking such a toll that my fists were already tearing open, showing nothing but flesh and muscle underneath.

The pain was terrible, but I stayed strong, attacking the statue without stopping.

When I finally paused to catch my breath, I noticed that, despite the brutal force behind each punch, the statue hadn’t taken any damage at all...

There wasn’t even a single crack on that statue, even after all the hits I had landed. It was a little discouraging, to be honest.

I decided to stop and observe every detail of the statue, trying to find a weak point. Maybe some part of the statue’s body wasn’t as tough, and I could exploit that weakness to attack.

But there was nothing. At least nothing I could see.

The statue quickly got back up, visibly irritated after taking all those punches. I jumped away to create some distance and avoid taking a hit.

"Fuck!" I cursed out loud.

How was I supposed to win that fight? The statue ran at me, now faster than before and attacking with more ferocity. Its eyes were glowing a dark red color. I figured I had pissed that creature off.

I decided to stop attacking and just dodge its attacks while the pain in my fists faded and the tissue recovered. Once again, the bloodline was proving essential to recovering all the damage done to my body.

And of course, while dodging, I kept observing every detail of the statue, and of the things around us too. It made no sense. I didn’t think they would put in an enemy that was impossible to beat, impossible to damage.

I knew there was something more, something I was failing to see in that moment.

But what? What was hidden right in front of my eyes? That question was driving me crazy.

I kept dodging the attacks. At first, it all seemed easy, and despite its strength and durability, the statue was nowhere near as fast as me.

As the fight went on, I started noticing the statue was getting faster. At one point I even thought maybe I was the one getting tired, but no, the statue really was getting faster.

That was not good at all. If I kept just dodging without finding a way to win the fight, eventually the statue might actually be able to catch me!

I decided to jump far away, and I noticed something strange about the statue’s behavior. Every time I got near the stone it had been hammering earlier, the statue changed how it acted.

It would no longer chase me and would instead focus on protecting that stone, as if the stone were the most important thing to it. That was odd.

That made me curious. That sphere had told me to defeat the statue, but that didn’t necessarily mean winning in a fight.

Maybe that was the trick. Even a really strong person wouldn’t be able to win if the statue was incapable of taking damage.

I decided to shift my attention to the stone the statue was defending. It seemed to be the key to finding the answer.

I tried to lure the statue away, and then circled back and ran toward the stone. I punched it with all the strength I could muster, and I noticed the stone actually took some damage! It could be broken!

But the statue went absolutely crazy when I hit the stone the first time. Its speed practically doubled out of nowhere.

I knew I wouldn’t have enough time to stand there punching the stone until it broke, so I decided to grab the stone and leave. Maybe taking it up top was the smarter move.

But the stone was way too heavy. I tried to lift it and couldn’t move it at all.

Damn it.

I turned my head and saw the statue closing in. I needed to think of something. Without many options, I decided to take the risk and suck the stone into my pocket dimension.

It worked!

The stone was sucked in and disappeared instantly. At that moment, I jumped up high. My cube flew up with me and transformed into a platform. I climbed on and flew upward.

I could hear the statue’s blows from down below. It was enraged, hammering the ground and the walls. The attacks were so strong that the platform where Ethan, Tom, and the octopus were standing started to shake.

Luckily, the statue couldn’t get out of that pit. The only thing it could do was pour its rage into the structures around it.

"What the hell was going on down there?" Ethan asked, visibly worried, thinking I had died.

"Nothing much," I said. "I think I found the answer to the puzzle. All we need to do is break this stone."

"What stone?"

I pulled the stone out of my pocket dimension. It was no small thing. The moment it landed on the ground, the entire platform shook from the weight. That thing was heavy to a supernatural degree.

Even with my bruised fists, I started punching that stone. Little by little, cracks began to appear...