Faster

The sound of heavy stomping resounded through the tall, cold hallways along with the shrieking of salamanders and clattering of skeletons. A lone four-armed golem swiftly and mercilessly dispatched monsters left and right as it systematically went down every path and explored different crossroads.

Atlas had gotten quite used to cleanly killing each monster and storing the monster cores they dropped before it even fell to the floor. As it ran, it was actively engraving its path on a large stone tablet it had made and placed at the forefront of its spatial storage. The sprawling carvings were already quite extensive, and yet the golem could tell there was still a large portion of the second floor it hadn't been to yet.

Its body was quite different from before as Atlas had been experimenting, trying different ways to augment its speed and power. At one point, it had even tried a centaur configuration but found it cumbersome and unsuitable for the compressed labyrinthine stone unless it thickened the legs to the point of being slower than a bipedal form.

Save for the pure silver embellishments, its body has taken on a taller and leaner form. Atlas redesigned the armour to be more exotic while adding heavily condensed stone to certain points to serve as counterweights to better its running form for increased speed.

Soon enough, Atlas came upon a set of bronze doors and marked them down on the map tablet; it was the third mark of its kind. It kicked open the doors to the unchanging scene of a raised platform in the middle of a large room, though without the balcony of the haunted armour boss room. For some reason, that was the only room with an 'audience,' but it wasn't anything special considering the adventurer's reactions to it.

On the platform was a large eight-legged red salamander with a neon red liquid dripping from its mouth, and when Atlas stepped onto the platform, it spat a globule of the neon liquid at the golem.

Dodging the glob was no problem for the golem's current body, so it dashed to the side then forward to attack. All four swords were set to pierce the soft underbelly of the salamander, but the swords barely managed to go in at all.

'𝘖𝘰𝘱𝘴.'

The salamander swung its tail around and sent Atlas flying into the wall before spitting several globs at the point it landed. The golem pulled itself from the small crater in the wall and leaped to the side, but not quick enough to avoid some of the liquid. The neon red liquid splattered and covered a portion of its chest and both right arms; the condensed stone immediately began to corrode.

Atlas quickly transferred the spatial ring to its lower left palm and removed the corroded stone from its body without hesitation, the two right arms and a portion of its chest falling to the ground and crumbling away. It quickly swapped the two swords in its left hands out for large shields to block the neon liquid while it started repairing its body and shifting back to its standard form.

While the counterweights and momentum helped, the decreased weight of its speed form made its attacks weaker...

'𝘏𝘢𝘯𝘨 𝘰𝘯 𝘢 𝘴𝘦𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘥, 𝘐 𝘳𝘦𝘮𝘦𝘮𝘣𝘦𝘳 𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘮 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘨𝘢𝘮𝘦𝘴 𝘢𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘰𝘳𝘱𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘢𝘨𝘦, 𝘥𝘰𝘦𝘴𝘯'𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘮𝘦𝘢𝘯 𝘐'𝘮 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘤𝘰𝘱𝘺𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘰𝘭𝘥 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘭𝘥 𝘯𝘰𝘸?'

Atlas shook the thought from its mind, unimportant right now. It had to stand still while making heavy modifications to its body, lest it falls over from imbalance. The salamander fired a few more globs of neon spit that impacted the shields, but Atlas threw the corroded ones away and immediately replaced them with fresh ones.

As the golem finished changing form, the salamander got annoyed and moved in to attack. Atlas swapped the shields to its upper arms while taking swords in its lower arms. The salamander stood on its four hind legs while attacking with its forelegs and tail.

The shields were large enough to block the salamander's claws, but the golem could only parry with the swords. Cracks form in both shields and weapons as Atlas made shallow cuts in the boss' belly.

'𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘩𝘦𝘭𝘭 𝘥𝘪𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘦𝘢𝘵 𝘵𝘰 𝘮𝘢𝘬𝘦 𝘪𝘵𝘴 𝘴𝘬𝘪𝘯 𝘴𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘤𝘬?'

The golem cursed itself for underestimating the boss and began funnelling energy into the floor to take control of the stone. The salamander seemed to notice the energy usage and swung its tail, trying to interrupt whatever the golem was doing. Atlas braced for the impact but was still flung a couple of meters back.

'𝘍𝘪𝘯𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘯, 𝘭𝘦𝘵'𝘴 𝘵𝘦𝘴𝘵 𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘯𝘦𝘸.'

Atlas retrieved an odd massive tower shield from the ring and held it with both left arms and a large drill-like lance to wield with both right arms. There were barbed spikes on the front of the tower shield and a hole in the center with an intricately designed tube set in place. The golem expended a large amount of energy to expand its control of the floor and restrain the salamander from moving and clamp its mouth shut.

The restraints began cracking from the salamander's struggling near immediately, so the golem charged forward and slammed the tower shield into the salamander's belly. The hooks on the shield dug in, and it remained in place when Atlas let go. The golem rammed the drill lance into the tube in the center of the shield and channelled energy through both shield and lance.

Under the influence of energy, the tube locked together with the lance, and the apparatus began to spin violently and move forward. The salamander let out an ear-splitting shriek as the drill lance pierced through its tough skin and began tearing up its insides. Atlas ripped the drill lance out and used the last bit of remaining energy it had to prime a few big monster cores and jam them in before retrieving the tower shield, leaving the barbs behind.

Even under intense pain, the salamander could sense what just happened and began clawing at its own flesh to try and get the volatile cores out, but it wasn't fast enough.

The cores detonated, and they completely tore the monster's internal organs to shreds; the salamander let out one last cry of defiance before slumping to the ground.

'𝘐 𝘣𝘦𝘭𝘪𝘦𝘷𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘪𝘴 𝘤𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘦𝘥 𝘣𝘭𝘢𝘴𝘵 𝘮𝘪𝘯𝘪𝘯𝘨. 𝘘𝘶𝘪𝘵𝘦 𝘦𝘧𝘧𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘷𝘦 𝘰𝘯 𝘭𝘢𝘳𝘨𝘦 𝘵𝘢𝘳𝘨𝘦𝘵𝘴.'