As soon as he finishes talking, the golem fires a concentrated blast of aether at August. He cloaks the blade of the glaive in a brilliant red aura and slashes it down. A wave of aura shoots out and collides with the blast. The resulting smoke from the explosion blocks August's sight as small aether blasts pierce through.

August skillfully evades them while moving closer to the golem. He manages to get within proximity of the golem and hits it with the glaive. The glaive slams into its torso area and gets stuck. The golem wastes no time and bashes him in the face using its giant fist. 

"Is he alive?" Zachry asks genuinely concerned.

"Alive? He's fucking dead!" Jasper answers.

"Quite down you two, and keep watching." Void says.

Because the golem is almost twice August's height and extremely bulky with immense strength, one would only assume he should be gravely injured. But it's the complete opposite, he took the full force of the attack without budging a single inch.

The golem lowers its fist and sees August with a bit of blood running down his chin. He licks some of the blood and smiles mischievously. The golem tries to hit him again but he moves backward and dodges it.

"I guess it's my turn now." 

He wraps his leg in his red aura and kicks the golem in the head. The force of the attack causes the golem to topple over. It tries to return to its feet but August doesn't give it a chance. He brings down his fist wrapped in his aura on the golem's head. The golem's head breaks in two 

as it stops moving.

"Over already? Was this thing the cause of all that worrying?" August says while he pulls the glaive free.

"RECONSTRUCTING." A robotic voice coming from the golem says.

"Wha-" August tries to say something but gets cut off.

"ANALYZING TARGET, PROFICIENCY INCREASED TO HIGH PAGE RANK."

The damaged golem rebuilds its head and fixes all damaged areas. August quickly puts some distance between him and the golem to assess its new strength. The golem fires a high-speed beam of concentrated aether at him. With little to no time to dodge it, he uses his ambient aether manipulation.

"Lex #1 Murus!" 

He erects a translucent wall of solidified aether in front of him and blocks the attack. 

"That's ambient aether manipulation!" Jasper yells in utter disbelief.

"To think he's capable of something we're only learning about now." Zachry says, "I can see how he managed to beat one of the heirs."

The second attack that the golem was charging dissipated. The golem's body liquefies and the voice begins talking again.

"REDISTRIBUTION OF ATTRIBUTES REQUIRED. STRENGTH, DEXTERITY, AND INTELLIGENCE ARE RAISED TO MAXIMUM. ALL OTHER ATTRIBUTES SET TO MINIMUM."

'Attributes?' August thinks.

"BODY RECONSTRUCTION NEEDED FOR OPTIMAL ABILITY USAGE."

The golem's body starts to reform, but it isn't large and bulky this time. The body is slender and a bit shorter with longer limbs. With the completion of the golem's body reconstruction, a wave of etheric pressure washes over the entire hall. 

In the spectator's section, Jasper and Zachry's knees buckle under the weight of the golem's etheric pressure. A bead of sweat runs down Jasper's face as he regains his composure.

"Such immense pressure couldn't possibly be coming from a Page rank," Zachry says, "Even for a Squire rank, that's still too much."

"Are you saying what I think you're saying?" Jasper asks excitedly.

"RECONSTRUCTION COMPLETED. PROFICIENCY INCREASED TO KNIGHT RANK."

'So it deemed him strong enough to fight a Knight rank. Considering his skillful usage of his aura element and his ability to use ambient aether manipulation it has all rights to deem him worthy. Interesting, to think someone with no academic background could be so able. With just a little guidance toward the right path, another genius can be born. But that all depends on his mindset.' Void visualizes.

'So this is etheric pressure of a being ranked Knight huh? I have to say it's impressive but it's still lacking in a few aspects. If I don't get serious as well then funs gonna end.'

August rips off part of his sleeve and ties his hair into a ponytail of sorts. He reveals his face to them which has a slight cut under his left eye. The golem takes a single step toward August and its etheric pressure drastically increases. The pure pressure it is releasing pushes August back a bit.

August sees this as a form of disrespect and his ego won't let him take it lying down. He releases his etheric pressure as his entire body is covered in a ferocious red aura.

Etheric pressure is the physical force produced when one releases the condensed aether within their body. When two or more of these forces clash oftentimes they will cancel each other out. But in certain cases when one force exceedingly overpowers the other, the owner of the weaker one will be rendered unconscious or unable to move.

The two opposing forces clash and after some time they cancel each other out. The state of the hall returns to normal as the golem and August stare each other down. Liquid metal begins profusely leaking out of the golem’s left hand and hardens into a huge hammer.

“TARGET ACQUIRED. ELIMINATION… IMMINENT.” 

“Oh really?” August says with gleaming eyes.

They waste no time as they swiftly approach each other. August swings his glaive upwards as the golem brings down the hammer. The two weapons clash violently and cause a shockwave. 

The size and weight of the golem’s hammer would normally shatter any blade it clashes with. But the blade of August’s glaive is still intact because of the ferocious red aura reinforcing and enhancing its capabilities.

The golem holds the hammer with both hands and applies more pressure. August’s knees buckle slightly under the unrelenting force behind the hammer.

“That’s the spirit. You should be putting your all into this fight.” As his aura starts to flare up, August begins to say, “Because if you don’t you’ll be broken beyond repair!” 

August uses all his might and knocks the hammer away. It staggers backward giving August just enough time for a follow-up attack. He withdraws his glaive and prepares for a thrust attack. His muscles bulge and tear his remaining sleeve to pieces as he focuses his aura on the blade’s tip.

He thrusts the glaive at the golem. However, before it reached its destined target, the golem created a wall of aether and lessened the force of the attack.

“What?!” August pauses for a second.

The golem takes advantage of this and swiftly moves to the right of August. It hits him with the hammer and sends him flying across the hall. He miraculously lands on his feet but the golem doesn’t let up.

It lets loose a flurry of aether blasts. August swiftly evades the incoming blasts and unleashes a wave of aura at the golem. The golem once again erects a wall of aether to halt the incoming attack. But August was betting on that, the wave of aura colliding with the wall exploded, creating an adequate smokescreen.

August appears behind the golem and thrusts at its head, but it leaps into the air and slams down the hammer on him. He barely manages to roll out of the way and evade the attack. As the golem swings the hammer at him again, he gets to his feet. He flips back and jams the end of the glaive into the ground.

The golem attempts to attack him again. But the moment it takes a step, the ground beneath its foot begins glowing red and explodes. The explosion sends the golem tumbling across the hall.

“Don’t get cocky you damn golem, your attacks are lukewarm.” He says as he removes the glaive from the ground.

“Wow. He’s able to stand toe-to-toe with a Knight ranked.” Zachry says surprised.

“That just makes me want to fight him even more!” Jasper yells with an elated expression.

“Is there anybody you don’t want to fight?” 

“I’ll even fight a god if I get the chance.”

The golem stands back up as if nothing happened. 

‘It's still not down for the count? Its durability is nothing to scoff at.’

He closes the gap between them in an instant and attacks the golem. But the attack is once again blocked by a wall of aether.

‘Dammit…!’

The translucent wall begins ripping apart as the tendrils wrap around August. 

“Wha-” August says as he tries to get away and fails.

The tendrils completely wrap around and trap him in a small sphere. August tries to break free of his spherical prison to no avail. With a squeezing gesture of the golem’s hand, the sphere gets smaller and smaller giving August no room to move.

The golem holds its hammer aloft. Aether begins circulating the head of the hammer as its size begins to increase. The hammer falls to the ground now five times as large and racks the ground beneath it. The golem takes a step back and prepares to swing the hammer.

‘Well, I’m fucked.’