Final Round

Wham!

The Golem’s arm slammed down, cracking the concrete. The alley was looking even worse for wear with cracks, impact craters, and broken masonry. Slate has chucked the idea of ‘No Evidence Left’ out the window. To make things worse, it was making a lot of noise. Soon someone else might get dragged into this mess, or Slate cuts his losses and leaves, taking the mom and daughter with him.

“Can’t drag this out.” Cole thought as he dodged another. There was a chance Raven could come, which would just end the fight, but Cole couldn’t take the risk of some drunk or mall guard getting turned to paste.

The only reason he wasn’t dead was he was used to speeds like this. Okay it was a little faster than most sluggers but it was even more telegraphed. Cole had even found time to get a few hits in. Mainly with his Shadow, one hit with his actual fist was a bad idea. Even made out of junk, trash, and a small amount of concrete considering it’s size; it was just too tough to deal damage to. Not without a sledge or jackhammer.

“Well…, maybe I could do make one.” Cole thought. If Raven was right that he could make objects besides just flimsy barriers, maybe he could make something to break that monster’s hide.

Hopping to the side as a fist slammed into the ground where he was, Cole started gathering his Shadow together. Bits of light shrapnel tore at his skin but Cole wasn’t going to get a better chance. Bringing his arms up then down hard in and overhead swing, a large black hammer appeared in his hands. An echoing crack rang out in the alley.

The Boxer had to grit his teeth as his arms turned numb. Actual numb this time, not the weird disconnect he felt when his Shadow was cut. His legs still worked, which was good considering the other arm of the monster game flying at him. The boxer barely dodged again, but was showered with more shards of concrete from the impact. Was this thing learning?

Cole’s own blow had done something to it. A large gap had appeared where the hammer slammed down . Weird to see it looked hollow inside given how solid it felt, Cole chalked it up to what ever magic was animating it. Probably the same reason it’s would was healing.

“Wait… what?”

Cole quickly rubbed at his eyes to make sure he was seeing straight. The Golem’s mass seemed to just flow into the large crack, sealing it up like plaster. With a step and a wind up, the monster threw another punch his way. Cole barley dove out of the way, taking more cuts from the shrapnel. Turning his attention back to the golem, the boxer saw decent sided holes in the concrete where it once stood before attacking.

“Great, this thing just eats floor and wall to heal itself. The hell do I stop this thing.” Cole thought as he took a looser stance. No sense blocking or attacking at this point. Only thing to really do was keep dodging.

“Can’t just keep running though. There’s gotta be a way to break this junk pile.”

“Wait…., it’s not all junk is it?” Cole thought, his eyes widening.

There was that orb right, the one that Slate guy had used to create this monster. That had to be pretty important to keeping it together right? After all, it fused all the junk around itself. If he could figure out where that was and maybe break it, Cole could turn this around. Maybe. Probably. Worth a shot at least, but that was it. If this Golem was learning, or Slate was controlling it and thus had a human mind behind it's movements; he'd only get one shot. Whatever or Whoever was the brains behind this wouldn't that happen again.

"Chest, gotta be in the chest... like a heart, right? Well..." Cole mused as he steeled himself, "It's either that or the head..., let's try both then."

He needed a big hit to come first. Something that would make the Golem wide open. In fact he had an idea of how to do that.

Cole moved off to the side of the alley, hanging near one of the large trash bins still left upright and intact. He made a big show of dodiging side to side, hoping to bait the monster into a certain kind of punch. Soon enough, it took the bait, throwing out one large striaght punch. Just what the boxer wanted.

Other boxers would try to pin him in the corner, or against the ropes; the most dangerous place for an Out fighter like him. But if you could bait the other guy in the ring into a bad punch that overshot through the ropes, or hit something hard, well that might be the distraction you needed to get away. Same idea here..., kinda.

Only that the Golem didn't care about punching through brick or concrete. Getting' it's huge hand stuck in a half wrecked dumpster though...

Cole dashed forward, the Golem fighting to process how to free it's hand, or use it's new covering as some sort of weapon. But the boxer wasn't going to let this chance get away from him. As he ran, he gathered everything he could, every bit of strength and shadow he could muster. His new power starting to surge around his legs as he ran.

The Golem gave a fast sweep with it's other arm, but it was way too telegraphed. Cole simply ducked under it, almost sliding to dodge it. In another few steps, Cole was right under the Golem's torso, his body starting to twist to throw one HELL of a punch...

"Uncle Connor? Can you teach me a Special Punch?"

"Special Punch? Are you daft boy, what are you on about?"

"A Special punch Uncle! One that just lets me flatten someone in one hit!"

Connor McKay, a fit man in his 30s, turned to see his young nephew hopping up and down. Since he got into coming to the Gym, the young tyke had been wound up about getting a 'special punch'. Probably something from his comics or elsewhere.

"You want a one hit punch huh?" The man asked, stroking his bearded chin. The young boxer nodded quickly.

"Yeah yeah, is there any kinda of hidden punch like that?" Cole asked, his hand pressed together and held up, pleading for some sort of lost knowledge.

"HAHAHAH, There's no such thing as a one shot punch kid. Not unless you have a glass jar." One of the locals, a big mountain of man named Mike, laughed out as he put two punches into a sand bag. The blow causing the chain it hang from to jingle.

Cole looked down towards the floor, the sparkle in his eyes dimming. Connor coughed and drew his attention.

"Well I wouldn't say there aren't punches like that." Connor announced, giving his nephew a wink before he made his way over to Mike, "Hey mind if show the lad?"

"Your Gym, your Nephew, your rules." Mike said with a shrug as he toweled off some sweat as he got out of the way, "Besides I gotta see this."

Connor thanked the man and took a position near the Sandbag. The older man took several deep breathes and then went into... some sort of stance. It didn't look like boxing to Cole. It was something different, the start of a special punch no doubt.

The gym owner suddenly shot forward, and yet at the same time angled downward. It was like Cole was watching a folding ladder fall over rather than a man rushing forward. Connor's right arm stretched out as his left one pulled back, and there was some weird motion to his arm. Whatever the whole deal was, the effect was profound. The sound of the impact, even against a sandbag, was wince inducing and Connor slammed so much **** into it, the chain broke as the bag went flying a few inches away.

The young kid was hopping up and down when Connor turned back to him, arms pumping into the air as he hurried over.

"That was so awesome Uncle Connor! What was that, why doesn't anyone use that, can you teach me that?!?" he asked, quickly babbling all sorts of questions before the older man held up a hand.

"Couple reasons as to why no one does it. First, it's a punch I kinda designed myself, working in ideas from a couple different things. Hehe, I was a dumb feisty kid and did a lot of self defense courses, the mail in ones... ah... that was dumb." Connor muttered as he rolled his eyes at the old memories, "But it's not really a punch that would be legal in Boxing....pretty sure. Officials get a little put off when you try to pull stunts from other combat sports."

"But the big two are well, first Time. You saw how long it took me to brace myself to do that that punch, and it was a perfect set up too. It's not something you can do in the middle of a round. Not unless the guy is so out of it he can't see it coming, or so confident he can take what ever you hit him with he won't bother dodging. Speaking off..., Mike!" Connor called over his nephew's head, "How many hits could you have put in me?"

"Not counting your start up? Maybe three..." Mike paused to take a long sip from his water bottle, "Four or Five if I just went for Jabs and that's if I didn't just counter you."

"Thought so." Connor said as he looked at his nephew, "See, it's not a reasonable punch to actually use in boxing, or even in self defense. It's a bad silly punch made to just look good in front of the sand bag and..... and you're gonna make me teach you anyway."

When he saw Cole's face didn't darken with disappointment, Connor sighed and blew a bit air to move his bangs out of his eyes. "Okay... okay... put my arm behind my back why don't you? Fine, I'll teach it to you as practice. Simply learning the movement should help with your form anyway... so.... now.... put your leg..."

Memories of a trick punch came back to him, crystalizing in this one moment before him.

Firm foot for grip, proper motion to put his entire weight into it, the linked movement of his arms, the spinning motion of his entire body and arm, one whole fast motion that never stopped as it started. The only thing Cole added to it was his new power. Coiled up below him, the Shadow spiraled around his leg and up his body as Cole moved, spinning around his arm as he threw the punch and willed it into a proper from, one befitting this motion.

Slate could only watch, his jar slacked and wide open, as he saw the Large Golem before him, have it's upper body and lower head torn apart by a large mining drill formed from Shadow, coming from this boxing punk ass want to be hero.

The alley was still as the large void colored drill started to dissipate. Only the sound of rain mixed with the sound of rubble and rock slowly hitting the ground was heard. The Golem's body was ripped open, a massive gapping hole in it's chest. It's head wasn't doing much better, barely held together as it just hovered over where the neck had been. It's 'eyes' starting to glow weaker as parts of it's body started to chip off and fall.

Cole wasn't doing much better. He was panting hard, his knees almost buckled, his right arm burnt like hell. Adrenaline was the only reason he was still standing and that wouldn't last too long. He'd had his power for about a day and a half but he could tell. Cole felt completely burnt out, he'd pushed his powers far too hard over the course of the day. He was tapped out.