DUM!
BOOMM!
BOOOMM!
Again and again, Rex madly crashed against the lonesome pillars of the hall. A continuous recurrence that had turned his pretty face a vivid shade of 'Beet Red'.
Yet, despite the unlikely colour of his face, Rex continued to suffer blow after blow. Although he found himself consistently on the receiving end of the exchange, there wasn't so much as a bruise, cut, or drop of blood to physically bear witness to the brutal beating he endured.
The infinite health rule of the trial ensured he returned to his peak condition after each blow and the infinite stamina made it so that he remained at his peak form. Even as he was violently struck with yet another sweeping kick to the stomach.
DUM!
Rex's back struck the pillar brutally once again, before he could even bring his face up to face the brutal copy that had launched him across the floor, a flurry of punches rained down upon his face.
A relentless pummeling that continued until he could feel his skull slowly merging with the unyielding obsidian floor.
Even though he had been doing nothing in combat, but receiving brutal blows, Rex had not been at a complete loss. Within the continuous assault, an adage from his early days under Big-Boned's training had returned to him.
An adage from the time when he had not been included in the weekly beating (AKA Shuttling Chp1), a period when he had acutely felt excluded from the rest of the Forge-Fitness members.
Big-Boned would always call out to him randomly during training then and loudly proclaim 'Brains Over Brawn Rex - Brains Over Brawn', A mantra Big-Boned definitely did not abide by according to Rex's understanding of him, but Big-Boned had nonetheless taught him then that brawn, when not intelligently guided by the brain, was nothing but a crude and inefficient tool.
He had never come into the full understanding of that mantra until today, he had always felt believed that with improved physical abilities, he could always push through whatever challenge that came his way.
But here he was faced with a foe he had to defeat, who was more monstrously faster and stronger than him. He had to win the fight at the moment, and his current physical abilities were not enough; he couldn't leave the fight and come back when they were enough.
He had to find a way to defeat the foe with his current capabilities, the essence of braince over brawn was brutally playing out infront of him.
Swoosh!
Rex dashed backward, keeping his body very close to the lonesome pillars that sparsely occupied the halls. The move was one that he had concluded on as he tried to develop a plan for winning the combat. He continued swooping from one pillar to the other as fast as he could. His feet strongly lit with the purplish flame of RageBorne.
Several moments passed,
The onslaught from the haughty replica greatly reduced. Rex was still taking kicks and punches, but staying close to the pillars reduced the numerous openings the replica had been exploiting to land its strikes.
With these reduced openings, he was able to maintain a better view of his opponent as they flashed and maneuvered throughout the hall, pillar to pillar. Both figures wearing nothing but their dark shorts.
One of the figures was madly darting backward from pillar to pillar in panicked lunges, while the other maintained the exchange with precise, lightning-fast follow-ups.
Rex's mind was functioning with the intensity of a cutting-edge processor, running on seemingly infinite RAM during this pillar scuffle.
He was analyzing and deciding which pillar to dash to and how to do so.
He had been doing his best to try to glimpse whatever information he could about his foe and try to analyze its next move so he could try to block it better or even hopefully avoid it altogether.
A part of him had also been trying to study his environment, to see if there was any peculiarity he could catch, possibly something he could exploit to defeat the boss. So far he had not seen anything like that, but he did notice a peculiarity.
The hourglass had a rather unique way of functioning, he had come to notice that its mysterious content was not following the conventional law of gravity, but was rather following a peculiar pattern. Each time a hit landed on him, some contents of the upper chamber flowed into the lower chamber.
The observation made him to view the replica's previous declarations in a completely new light.
Infinite health and stamina made it so that he could not receive any injury or grow tired and so also was it with his foe. So it could not defeat him, as was evident with the several beatings he had recieved already and was still standing.
Likewise, he also could not defeat the copy, but as he noted the peculiarity of the hour glass the rules of their engagement became exceedingly clear to him.
As long as he was receiving hits, Sand will flow into the lower chamber of the glass, and if this continues until the upper chamber of the huge hourglass became empty, he would lose.
For him to successfully pass the trial, he had to bring the hourglass to its prior state, which will involve him landing sufficent blows on the copy until the lower chamber was once again empty.
As Rex came to this conclusion, he felt a form of calm taking hold in his mind. He had to land at least a blow to be certain his analysis was on point, but coming to the conclusion made him feel like he had finally discovered the path to actually conquering the trial.
BOOM!
Rex received a punch squarely on the face, he did not let his mind wander to the splitting pain of the blow as he immediately dashed to the next closest pillar, doing his best to maintain his eyes on the copy.
Rex smiled, a smile borne from a deep sense of satisfaction from the combat, his mind had never felt like it was functioning this smoothly, or efficiently. It was obvious that the level-ups had affected his processing speed. The sensation made him feel like he was exactly on the path to what he deeply desired.
The ability to stand unshaking in the face of anything, trusting in nothing but one's own ability. Even though he was at the receiving end, his speed as he dashed backward was several times greater than what it was in real life, even the way his body felt lighter and stronger was exhilarating.
As long as he was able to succeed in the Overlord Quest this level of strength will very soon be his in real life and he could even progress pass this level of strength, with the possible peculiarities of his special class.