commands, determined to keep him motivated. Another warrior winds up an overhead chop, but the boy immediately dashes away. Its axe plunging into the white ground, the animated armor must exert a significant amount of effort to pull it free. “Look! Once they attack they’re wide open for a counter,” she points out, noting the critical seconds in which the warrior must drop its guard to retrieve its weapon.
“That’s great,” Rift chimes in, the trepidation in his voice still growing. “Really only useful in a one-on-one situation, though.” Far in the distance, a tidal wave of white lava begins spewing from the ground, rapidly closing the distance to the battlefield. Blasting up through the cracks in the earth, the lava pours out in a specific shape, gradually forming a rectangular cage of molten liquid. Immediately sprinting back toward the entrance, the boy slows to a stop when he spots thousands of red eyes staring down at him from the darkness above. Now trapped in a closing pincer of worst case scenarios, he turns back to the approaching iron knuckles, steadily marching toward him as the lava-wall finally reaches them. Passing on both sides the lava suddenly turns a corner, completing the rectangular shape of the liquid enclosure, and cutting off the slow-moving warriors. Beginning to thrash about, the armored antagonists struggle to get away from the raining lava eating through their suits. One of the enemies trips forward, falling directly upon the geyser of flame and throwing its axe to the opposite side before the lava cuts him in half. Two more of the dreadful fighters quickly succumb to the volcanic torrent, but the final knight proves wiser than the rest, stripping his contaminated armor away before the lava can eat completely through. Now significantly more mobile, the axe wielder charges the deadly wall, winding up a mighty swing during the approach. Leaping into a somersault just as it swings, the dexterous foe chops a momentary window in the molten obstruction, landing safely on the other side. Its axe immediately begins to melt, the lava quickly chewing through the mighty blade as the knight inspects it. Throwing the useless weapon aside, the slightly less armored warrior marches forward, snatching the discarded axe of his fallen comrade out of the ground midstride and setting its sights on Rift.
“You were saying?” Mai asks, her tone practically dripping with narcissism.
“You’re really pushing it today,” Rift sighs, hiding a smile when his comment provokes an uncontrollable giggle from his companion. The approaching villain twirls its axe in one hand, demonstrating its absurd strength while it faintly growls between steps. Taking his battle stance, the boy eyes the overconfident sentinel, searching for an exploitable weakness. The initial attack is predictable enough, another massive horizontal swing. Leaping over the attack, Rift prepares to punch the knight’s faceguard inside out when it unpredictably uses the momentum from the swing to continue into an overhead, vertical chop. Trapped in midair, the boy crosses his arms, but the approaching strike will certainly end his life regardless.
“Look out!” Mai screams, suddenly appearing beside him in the air and kicking him aside as they both leave the path of the coming blade at the last possible second. Only getting a moment’s glance at the intervening goddess, Rift sees she has finally taken complete physical form when she appears, though she remains somewhat translucent. Her thin, seductive form is scarcely concealed by a sleeveless robe, open on the sides from her arms to her waist, revealing her pale skin. Secured at the waist by nothing more than a thin rope, the slit continues down the side all the way to base of the thin material. The potent dose of female anatomy is enough to annihilate Rift’s concentration for a significant time. “What’s wrong with you?” Mai shouts again as the iron knuckle finally plucks its axe from the earth. “Snap out of it, Rift!” Regaining his senses, the boy rolls to his feet and collects his bearings. His opponent advances once again, moving much faster without the bulk of its cumbersome armor. Rising back into his stance, Rift is not about to make the same overzealous mistake twice. The warrior feigns a vertical chop, twisting into a spinning horizontal chop instead, but the boy rolls over the top of the slow-moving slice of metal. Quickly regretting the stylish evasion, his back is seared through his cheap clothing, the blade piping hot after being driven into the sizzling ground. At Mai’s command, he quickly sidesteps the following overhead strike, finding himself in an extremely advantageous position. A powerful punch bounces off the knight’s head, but does nothing to slow it down. Two more rapid strikes produce no damage, and the sentinel has reclaimed its weapon, promptly winding up to murder the irritating intruder.
“His armor’s still too thick,” Rift declares, worriedly watching the foe prepare a new attack.
“Okay, I’ve got a plan,” Mai assures, watching the iron knuckle carefully.
“I’ve heard this somewhere before,” the boy quickly counters.
“Trust me,” Mai chuckles, immediately following with, “Left!” Dodging left, the diagonal strike misses the mark, giving Rift another suffocating blast of hot wind as it passes. “Right!” Twisting right, the perpetual swing continues in a figure eight, slicing in the opposite direction. “Block!” Rapidly spinning into an unorthodox rush, the knight thrusts the long handle of the axe forward, colliding with the boy’s gauntlets, and throwing him to the ground with a loud knocking noise. Wasting no time, the mighty warrior leaps forward, winding up yet another execution chop. “Left!” Mai commands, a slight tone of worry creeping into her voice this time. Rolling to the side, Rift narrowly manages to avoid the strike, finding himself with the strategic upper hand once again. A groan of exertion sounds as Mai appears on the sentinel’s back, slowly peeling a shoulder plate upward to reveal the vulnerable chainmail underneath. “Strike!” She groans, straining to keep the weakness exposed. Utilizing every ounce of his strength, Rift throws a devastating hook, landing directly upon the armor’s susceptible limb. The blow causes the combatant to recoil slightly, losing its progress in retrieving its deeply embedded axe as its arm falls limp. Vanishing and reappearing on the opposite side, Mai pries the armor apart once again, allowing Rift to repeat the process. Rising from its knee with a deep roar, the knight manages to scare the boy back a step, but its arms have clearly become useless, occasionally shaking, but remaining at its sides.
“That’s more like it,” Rift nods with a smile, strafing his target and preparing to strike once again. Charging forward, the iron knuckle lifts a boot high into the air like a sumo wrestler preparing for a fight, aiming to crush the boy underneath.
“Go!” Mai instructs, urging Rift to roll forward just before the boot plunges into the ground. Now behind the fuming foe, the boy spots Mai pulling yet another piece of armor loose near the ribcage. Wasting no time with excessive technique, he focuses purely on power, bashing the behemoth’s side with a violent uppercut. Another painful roar sounds, and another plate is shoved aside as Mai waits for the boy to finish the fight. Shouting a roar of his own, Rift uppercuts the armor one final time, and with that, the sentinel dramatically falls flat on its face, soundly defeated.
“That was awesome!” Mai proclaims, sounding extremely energetic, and a little immature. Suddenly appearing atop the boy’s shoulders, she points at the fallen combatant with a mocking demeanor while palming Rift’s spikey hair for balance. Her thighs and shins resting on either side of his face, Rift fights the nervous feeling welling up in his gut as she leans forward to look at his face. “I told you! You were all, I’ve heard this before,” she recalls, using her best impression of the boy. “But it worked. How do you ever doubt me?” She smirks, poking him on the nose before dissipating again. Slowly willing himself to grow accustomed to her physical antics, Rift still finds himself staring in a thoughtless stupor every time she appears. Unable to see anything but her thick, ropey strands of black hair dangling beneath her inverted visage, the feeling in his stomach refuses to relent. After an awkward cough he begins to walk forward, doing his best to act casual.
“I swear, you are in rare form today,” he chuckles, proceeding toward th
e dying down geysers of lava, still spraying a meager amount up onto the cracked earth. A quick glance over his shoulder reveals the sea of red eyes has disappeared, the open air behind him the same uninterrupted black as when he first entered the area. Cautiously approaching the bubbling line of lava, he sees the shape the molten liquid carved remains, though the tenacity of the magma jets has decreased severely. The armored victims of the onslaught lie about the area as the glowing, white liquid gradually seeps into the dark crevices littering the landscape. Suddenly, the rectangular shape of earth jumps downward, slowly sinking as a staircase gradually takes shape. The walls of the forming hallway are clearly incalculably hot, glowing as brightly as the oozing lava, still searching for a place to settle as the passageway forms. Slumping down to rest upon the now uneven ground, the severed half of the bisected suit of armor returns to its inert state. Beginning to descend into the still forming hall, Rift glances back to see the armor was empty all along, animated by some ancient magic for the sole purpose of killing anything