The Grand Battle 2: Round 3

[DuelStriker]

Soren easily finished off the illusion copy of Ironstorm. Now it was time to get rid of this ice wall.

Grode began to snap back out of his flashback. It was still hard to believe that Terry was standing right here in front of him. But something seemed off now. He realized that wind and snow were blowing around now. What was going on in this room?

Veyce bashed Raden's head against the ground as more ice began to collect on his body. The demon inside Raden could do nothing but watch as everything happened. Taking control of his mind would be way too risky... and it was way too soon to even try it.

"You're such a pathetic, weak minded fool," Veyce said.

And Raden had a flashback of his own. A short and simple one - the day he arrived at his home village only to find the whole population to be slaughtered by the might of the Dark Forces, and realizing, he was too late to do anything.

Veyce started laughing. Why this... why any of this? It just doesn't make any sense! Raden shouted in his head.

He thought about it for a minute. He recalled Soren's warning before they entered the first floor. And the sign when they had arrived on this floor. Was... was all of this just more illusion? It seemed so real, but... no, it couldn't possibly be real.

Demon-Soren started barraging the ice wall with waves of dark energy. Perfect, it was beginning to crack. He couldn't wait to kill the two weaklings on the other side.

"I... I get it now... You're not real."

Crack. Breaking this wall was too easy, just one more attack should be enough. Demon-Soren yawned as he sent off one more blast.

"You're just an illusion... an illusion from the past," Raden said. The ice and snow slowly began to disappear.

"Guess you're brighter than I thought... ahaha...ha...ha..." Veyce said as he too began to vanish.

The ice wall shattered. Just as the ice and snow, as well as Veyce, disappeared completely, Soren charged across the room, with the creepiest smile fixed on his face.

Well now the wind and snow were gone. Honestly, what the hell was going on now? What were the two idiots up to? Grode turned to see Soren with a crazed look, quickly zooming toward him from the opposite end of the room. Not exactly what he was expecting, he wondered if the haircut reject jokes got to him somehow and made Soren flip out. Well maybe this wasn't the best time for humor, since Soren looked ready to kill him in an instant. Yeah definitely, fear was setting itself above humor right now.

Raden picked himself up and quickly took notice of what was going on now. Soren... This just didn't look good. Now seemed to be a good time to fly, so Raden set to it. Now Soren was laughing maniacally as he approached Grode. Soren began charging up another beam of dark energy. One would think it would be over for this brave hero, but it wasn't. Raden flew in and grabbed the back of Grode's coat to pull him out of the way just in time. Outraged, Soren fired off another beam that pursued the two up toward the ceiling. The beam just barely missed them and shot upwards, blowing a hole in the ceiling above. Soren was catching up quickly, hot on the trail. "There's our chance!" Raden yelled, pointing to the hole in the ceiling. He looped up through the hole, hero still in hand, only to have another sharp jolt of pain completely wreck his concentration. This resulted in an end to the flight and a bit of a crash landing for both of them as Grode slipped out of his hand. Grode landed on the ground and found himself propped up slightly against a hard wooden surface.

Soren was absolutely outraged. His prey had escaped - just barely escaped at that. Perhaps he was just too blinded by rage to realize he could just have followed them up through the ceiling. He growled at the air. But wait, he could sense something. He felt it, he knew it was there - knew it was close. What had that announcer said? This was once home to a terribly demonic creature. Obviously the demon was gone, slain as it had been in the past by MacGilmour, at least according to the story. However, it was clear that even while the demon was gone, this tower still retained a trace of it - a mark, an essence left behind that could never truly be erased. And the corrupted-Soren felt it. He would search for it, on the next floor. Yes... it was clear now, that's where it was. Ah, this would be perfect. Without regard for stairs or any other possible entrances to the fourth floor (including holes already in the ceiling), Soren shot himself up through the ceiling, making another hole.

Grode, although still a bit irritated at being dropped, surveyed the room. He found it to be a library. Or well not much of a library, it was more of a ruined library with books littering the aisles and bookcases snapped in half or slowly decaying and falling apart. Surprisingly, many of the books still seemed to be in good condition. He turned his view to the other side of the aisle he was in and found Raden who had landed across from him. He was still kind of pissed off about being dropped through the air, but this kid saved him... again. What was his deal anyway? Grode tried to stand, but found it a bit difficult to do so, and also found a persisting pain growing. He had pretty much ignored the pain until now since it really wasn't that bad before. But now it was starting to get a bit worse. Perhaps what the announcer said was true. Maybe the poison was slowly claiming its first organ, steadily beginning to shut it down. He decided to stay put, for a little bit at least. There hadn't exactly been time to rest, and even if the poison was getting worse, resting would definitely be nice for a change...

Raden looked a little distant, and had his hands placed on his head like he had a severe headache or something. Why did all of this have to happen... He could hardly stand to think about it. He started to speak up, his voice a little shaky. He didn't turn his gaze toward Grode, but it was clear that this dialogue was directed toward him.

"Grode... Please... listen for a minute," he said.

Grode remained quiet, but decided to listen to the kid.

"I... I know we didn't exactly get off to a friendly start... and I'm not sure what you think of me even right now... but listen... This... this Grand Battle or whatever it's called... it's terrible, it just isn't right... It's only been a short time since it started... or has it been a really long time? I can't tell anymore... But... being forced into this... I just hate it so much. It's like we're imprisoned... like they've got us locked up and they're forcing us to fight... You know what I mean? ...And it's all for their entertainment, it's not for some damn bullshit like fighting a villain to save the world... I bet they're loving every minute of this battle..." Raden went on. He was sinking down from his more upright position into more of a depressed slouch. He still didn't know what Grode was thinking, but Grode's attention had definitely been caught.

"Be... Because of this whole thing... Ironstorm went mad with power... and now he's dead... all because of this! And Karen... sure she was a jerk, and no one really liked her... but think about it... did she truly deserve to die? I don't know what happened to her back there in that cave... but she's gone now... does she really deserve death?" Raden continued. He looked really worn out and really tired now. His eyes began to water as he went on. "And now... Soren... I know you don't exactly like him either... and I don't know what's happening to him... but this whole competition has weighed heavily on his mind... it's brought back the most painful memories of his past... he's losing his mind, he's truly going insane... he doesn't know what to think and can't even recognize reality anymore... all of what he told me... it's... horrible... and without this battle... none of this would have happened! And now... I can't help but feel that the Soren from before is completely lost..."

And it was true, Soren was almost completely lost. Soren's mind had been swallowed up by an inescapable whirlpool of complete and utter darkness. And Soren found himself in the library. But Soren knew that he couldn't allow the demon to find the trace. He'd have to fight to the bitter end to prevent this. "Arrggghh! I'm... not... gone... yet... bastard...!"

[Mr--Clean]

Grode began to snap back out of his flashback. It was still hard to believe that Terry was standing right here in front of him. But something seemed off now, something different than before. He realized that the once dry room now was filled with blowing snow and a strong gusts of wind, which is pretty odd for windowless rooms. Despite the mindfuck standing before him Grode couldn't resist giving a glance or two over his shoulder at the ensuing battle not to far away from him. There he found one of the losers who seemed to be the source of the ice and some other stranger he was locked in combat with. While Grode didn't catch much of what happened the two seemed to stop their fighting pretty quickly and after an exchange of words the stranger just... faded away.

Grode couldn't help staring in puzzlement for a few seconds. He strained his brain to to figure out why on earth that would happen and who the hell that stranger was anyways. Then it came to him
"Ah.. ah.. aw you have got to be kidding to me..." Grode groaned to himself while winding up his good hand before violently plunging it straight through Terry's sizable stomach. While usually an act such as this would have kind of effect such as splurting guts or a shower of blood there was just... nothing, emptiness, air. However the effects were apparent right away. While Terry showed no signs of pain he was quickly fading away with an expression of disgust on his face.
"Thats no fair, you were supposed to figure it out yourself" Terry spat.
"Pssh says the dead guy. I try not to make a habit of doing what losers want me to do, especially ones that suck to hard they can't even manage the most basic things, like staying alive" Grode retorted as Terry faded away into nothing.

Grode felt a warmth creep over him as he watched the air before him once again became clear and silent. Not the kind of inner warmth from a job well done but the kind of warmth when a rooms worth of snow suddenly disappears. Grode looked around himself wondering what the other 2 were doing. One of them were standing not to far away panting slightly. The other was charging straight towards him with a demented look and reeked of murderous intent.
"Hmm yeah I should probably do something about that" Grode thought to himself as the crazed thing raced towards him faster and faster "Yeah... I got nothing."

Just seconds before dark energy death met with Grode's still completely motionless body he suddenly felt a jerk upwards and was pulled to the next floor by the green haired kid. Where he found himself next was some kind of dust old library. Despite the entire place looking like it had been abandoned for years the shelves themselves looked freshly stocked with brand new books. As odd as the place looked Grode didn't have the time for scenery. The kid was opening up his mouth and he knew he was going to be for a long one.

"I... I know we didn't exactly get off to a friendly start... and I'm not sure what you think of me even right now... but listen... This... this Grand Battle or whatever it's called... it's terrible, it just isn't right... It's only been a short time since it started... or has it been a really long time? I can't tell anymore... But... being forced into this... I just hate it so much. It's like we're imprisoned... like they've got us locked up and they're forcing us to fight... You know what I mean? ...And it's all for their entertainment, it's not for some damn bullshit like fighting a villain to save the world... I bet they're loving every minute of this battle..."

As much as grode didn't like the kid in front of him he kind of had a point. The battle was bullshit and it came out of the same bull that shat out the last many years of his life. Grode leaned forward and possibly for the first time took the kid semi-seriously.

"Be... Because of this whole thing... Ironstorm went mad with power... and now he's dead... all because of this! And Karen... sure she was a jerk, and no one really liked her... but think about it... did she truly deserve to die? I don't know what happened to her back there in that cave... but she's gone now... does she really deserve death?"

Grode had to think to himself on this one. Did she really deserve to die? Hmm.. yeah, yeah she did he concluded internally. Grode was still pretty sore over the stump thing.

"And now... Soren... I know you don't exactly like him either... and I don't know what's happening to him... but this whole competition has weighed heavily on his mind... it's brought back the most painful memories of his past... he's losing his mind, he's truly going insane... he doesn't know what to think and can't even recognize reality anymore... all of what he told me... it's... horrible... and without this battle... none of this would have happened! And now... I can't help but feel that the Soren from before is completely lost..."

Grode remained quite for a few moments before asking "Is this guy really your friend?"

"Yes he is" was the quick reply.

Grode sighed "Then as his friend your only option" Grode stated while slowly rising to his feet "is to of course kill him."

"What!? I just said he's my friend!"

"If that really is true, then killing him is exactly what you should do. Think about it, he's running around down there like a mad dog. Know whats the kindest thing you can do to a mad dog? Put it down, and thats what you need to do, put him down like the sick puppy he is. If what you say is true he is no longer the man he used to be. He is no longer in control of himself and will destroy every and anything that meant something to him. Just like Stealstorm or whatever his name was, killing him was not murder, but mercy. Do you really think he was happy in his last moments of life? He was not. This is what your friend would have wanted, if he didn't say so with his words he said so with his action when he killed Metalstorm. Now normally I wouldn't do something like this... but your tale is something I can relate to. I will help you kill him."

[DuelStriker]

After a slight bit of struggling, Raden jumped to his feet. It was clear now just how much the stress of everything had caught up to him. He looked tired, pale, and had an increasingly distant look in his eyes. His expression was no longer the twisted, sad mess it had been just moments earlier, it was now a look of pure rage, a look of total disgust, fixed on Grode.

"What the hell is wrong with you?!" he roared. "You really think that's the best way?"

Grode was already losing his patience, and was about to respond when Raden cut him off. And by "cut him off" meaning Raden grabbed him by the collar of his coat and lifted him off the ground.

"Would you do that to one of your own friends? I... I'm going to kill you instead. Wait, what? No..." he started to have trouble thinking straight and his eyes flashed between gray and red a few times before he regained temporary focus.

"Do you even care about anyone else here, or even anyone at all? Because it sure as hell doesn't seem like it. Quit thinking about yourself for once during this battle." And with that, he tossed Grode like a frisbee and sent him flailing into a bookcase, which snapped under the newfound weight of flesh and bone, sending a plume of dust which had probably gone undisturbed for decades - perhaps even centuries, into the air. Something didn't feel right, he wasn't sure why he had raged like that.

He had a right to be angry at a suggestion like that, of course. It was an unbearable thought. But really, what other option was there? He thought it over. Perhaps... perhaps it would be better this way, as much as he hated to admit it. It wouldn't be easy. Nothing like this is ever easy.

---

Soren capped his hands over his head as he struggled for control.

What are you trying to do Soren?
"I... won't let you..."
Fool, why do you even try! Face the facts Soren, you can't suppress me forever! Nothing can prevent this now. There is nothing that can stop me.

As Soren continued to struggle with the demon, he bashed against multiple bookcases and rammed himself against the wall.

---

The room rumbled as Soren thrashed around. The mini-quakes shook the other bookcases in the room. A book fell from a nearby shelf and flipped open in front of Raden.

One is forgotten, the other fades away...

He didn't want to do it. But there was no choice. He turned toward the direction of the commotion that Soren was causing.

...another is corrupted, another stands no chance...

Grode stood up and brushed himself off, still rather outraged. Raden stood still, his eyes fixed in the same direction still.

...another looks for hope and finds none, and another lies and deceives.

Grode was pretty pissed off now, and raised his fist in order to show this loser what a real knuckle sandwich was like.

Raden ignored him and just walked away, without a word, without so much as a glance toward him. Grode stood there, he brought his fist back down. This kid... He would just never understand him, it seemed.

Then Raden paused for a second. Still without turning around, he spoke, this time with a far more serious tone; a tone which was sounded much more serious than he had sounded at all during this whole battle. "Well, are we going to do this, or not?"

Without waiting for an answer, he started moving forward again. And again, there was a breeze that blew through the room. As it gently grazed the confines of the library, it settled upon a target on the floor, and slowly worked its way across it, lightly turning the pages of the book and settled on a page selection.

Try as they may, the darkness can't be stopped.

The end was near.

[airob]

Soren was struggling to not lose his last piece of sanity, even though he had lost it already. It was more of an impulse out of mere will than of certainty of winning. The roles of the demon and Soren had now switched, Soren was now the one trying to get over his body through his subconcious while the demon was struggling to shut him down by causing a riot with his body.

"Its been ages since ive last roamed the land free! Now´s my time, come on Soren! it´s been to long since i played with your body! hahaahaha...haha!...ha!..ugh.. GWWWGHH!! He started bouncing and crashing into floor, wall and ceiling alike, much like what you would expect from an exorcism movie.

"-You´re a fool if you think im going down that easily wretched bastard! You´re not the only demon here! And im not refering to myself alone! Soren managed to recover a bit of control over his body for a while, and he was disposed to put it to good use.

He pressured on looking out for Raden, and after looking around he saw him coming at him with very unsettling expression on his face.

-" Hehe... may we both die or not, you´re not gonna make it for another day demon, for i have finally found a way of getting rid of you...

-"And what might that be? if i can ask? you´re as stupid as the last one who tried to dispose of me. After i engulf your bo-ughh... The demon was cut short of his speech with a strong fist down to Soren´s stomach by his own hand.

"-Dont you ever shut the f*** up? .. ugh... you know, there is but one way... And with a sadistic grin on Soren´s face he proceeded ...We should both die for once and for all, ive avoided death for too long... im such a coward scared of what´s beyond this plane of existence... I must know the truth... Ive seen loved ones come and go as if they are nothing...nobody means anything to me... but myself, and now it´s time to be really free from any links...

He steadily proceeded up to Raden, and they both met at 3 meters of distance. -" You know what you have to do Boy, you and mr raincoat have to do it, otherwise im afraid the demon inside wont rest until he´s sathed his bloodlust, and trust me, he´s been locked inside me for over more than what you can count.

So-Soren... i guess it cant be helped Raden was looking directly at Soren´s eyes, but he wasnt paying attention to him, but rather to the demon inside him. Isnt there a way of splitting you from the demon and killing him?

Now that you mention it... if i were able to do that, i could and then we could get rid of him, but that would also be too dangerous and near impossible for me, as it is not a demon itself, It is a perfect copy of my mind corrupted by the demon blood, sort of a split personality.

Excuse me mortals The demon interrupted with an echoed voice coming from Soren. May i remind you im inmortal? How do you suppose you´re gonna get rid of me? hahahaha as soon as you damage this body i will inmediatly regenerate it, im not like this fool here who refrains from using his full power and harnessing the energy around him, energy-mass balance? who cares about that-ughhh!... Soren proceeded to hit himself again in order to silence the demon..
-"Aheam... that... Raden... im afraid its true. Raden´s face expression was bereaved. -"well, sort of! you know, the regeneration power only works when i have enough energy stored to consume, and since it´s an ability i developed, the demon cant use it to it´s full extent, so even if he wants to draw energy from the surroundings...which....ugh... he is very good at...the entropy of the... several consecutive uses of my ability... will eventually... take... a toll on my body... and it will be no more.

-"So basically, you´re asking us to kill you several times until you finally die for good...while we only have one life... sound easy hu. Grode appeared before the two of them.

-"Well, yeah, you could say so... unless you can... you know... deactivate my regeneration ability, or kill my core essence, but you would need to take me to a certain... parallel dimension... or be able to use soul energy... as i did last time with the monster of the last floor... Soren started to look weary, control over his body was now coming to and end... A fight was sure to ensue in a matter of seconds. Well... my time is almost gone... one last present from me... im deactivating my powers for you... i think the demon wont be able to activate them again in like 5 minutes, so make good use of it. Try to use this period of time to kill me with no hopes of regeneration, but do it fast..... The atmosphere became less dense, Soren was now a normal human being, a very strong normal human being nonetheless...

Soren stood there for a few seconds without talking or moving... -"He...is gone... now´s our time. Raden drew his sword and swung several times at Soren, Who was now possesed by his demon side. It had come back to it´s senses and avoided each of Raden´s sword attacks. Almost inmediatly Grode pushed himself into battle and threw a couple punchs at Soren impacting him with every one of them and pummeling him down to the ground with a downward kick. Grode then pulled out a cell phone from his coat, a nokia to be precise. Cell phone in hand he tried to stab Soren in the chest, but he avoided the dreaded ancient device and roll-kicked it out of Grode´s hands.

Soren regained composure and tried to lift a giant boulder that was blasted out of the walls onto the ground using a hand rail attached to it as a handgrip. With some trouble though, as he no longer possesed the extreme strenght his dark powers gave him. -"useless, disgusting body... The demon mumbled while throwing the boulder at Raden and Grode. Raden jumped up to Grode and grabbed him by his coat, getting him to safety.

We have to keep attacking, we cant let him make time like this... Hey kid, i need a distraction, i have something good prepared for that weirdo. I still have some of those explosives i used earlier, and have some other ingredients to mix ´em up and make some fine ass-thrasing here. But i need you to distract him kiddo! think you can do it? Well sure i can! just be sure to be in time with the five minutes, we´ve already used two minutes. -"Alright kid, that´s the spirit, so there you go! -"Wait wha-aaat?! Grode took Raden from his haird and swung him towards Soren with exaggerated force.

Raden held his sword in front of him taking advantage of his momentum and shot several blast of lighting energy at Soren. And even if these were to fail, he was coming at him charged with a massive load of lighting energy ready to blow him to bits... things we´re getting serious now.

[DuelStriker]

So it came to this... This was it, there would be no holding back now.

Grode had finally chimed in and stepped up to action, but not with a move that really impressed Raden. While Raden flew toward Soren like a bullet, Grode was probably still standing there with a smug look, completely impressed with himself and probably glad this kid would be out there getting beat down while he sat back and stayed out of danger.

And as Raden soared forward, he wondered how exactly he would kill Soren. It seemed impossible. He had seen first hand what had happened back in the first round. He had shot Soren directly in the head. Yet Soren had stood up like nothing had even happened.

The moment was there, the moment where Raden's sword would strike. Three minutes had passed now. Only two remained before Soren's powers would reactivate. So little time, yet perhaps, so much time. Every second would count, every millisecond would count as the clock ticked away. The air, though already quiet, seemed to grow quieter, seemed to grow still.

And Raden struck. A clean slash partially across Soren's right arm and upper abdomen, coupled with the discharge of lightning energy. And the demon growled in pain as Soren's body flew back through several bookcases and eventually impacted the wall. He stood up, gripping the wound on his arm, an expression even more twisted than before on his face. The wounds dripped not blood, but pure black energy, nearly looking like the sludge that had been encountered earlier in the tower.

"Useless, pathetic body!" the demon roared.

However, they forgot that they were not only fighting against one clock, but two.

---

The announcer continued to observe. This round was most certainly entertaining. And he had been able to mess with everyone by injecting them with poison. It was perfect.

The four contestants once again heard the announcer's voice. "Hmmhmm, well now. I just wanted to inform you that you now have 30 minutes remaining. I'd hurry and get to those vials on the roof hmmhmmhmm."

And so the countdown continued, only half an hour remaining before the poison would claim its victims.

---

But the announcer's voice was ignored, drowned out by the showdown that was taking place.

The demon wasn't going to let a lack of power slow him down, even if he had to use this disgusting, plain old body. Several bookcases and chunks of debris were chucked at Raden. One more minute... just one more minute and he would truly unleash fury upon everyone.

---

Meanwhile...

Stupid, stupid sludge. For Ana, it was actually no longer much of an obstacle. After it had proved futile to try and blast it head on, Ana had just completely incinerated the first floor, destroying the remaining sludge and melting away any trace of it. She easily found her way through the hole in the ceiling and reached the second floor. What a mess that floor was, covered with remains of worm creatures or whatever the hell they were, and whole sections of the floor and walls seemingly... disintegrated? The only thing that stood in her way was a lone statue that had survived Soren's massive attack earlier. It was easy to use a hammer to knock the head clean off its body and heating up its body from the inside until it exploded. She ascended the stairs to the third floor, which was now apparently cracking apart slowly. She felt the building rumble as Soren flailed about and smashed his body around on the floor above. A few seconds later, she spotted another hole in the ceiling.

---

Raden began forming a ring of lightning with his sword. He launched it at Soren as he dodged another flung bookcase.

Soren just laughed at it as it came closer, and then stopped it with both hands. He could feel the energy slowly surging back through his body. The five minutes were nearly up. The lightning ring just dissipated into thin air.

Raden charged forward, sword ready to strike again. Soren jumped out of the way. As Raden took another swing with his fully charged sword, it was met with an armblade from Soren. Forgetting it would be foolish to do so, Raden took a punch at Soren with his free hand, only to be met with Soren's other hand. Dark energy was pulsing around it. As the sword continued to push against Soren's armblade, lightning began shooting out in random directions. One blast hit a bookcase, instantly setting it ablaze.

This was... absolutely ridiculous. Wasn't it? Sure he had agreed to help the kid kill Soren, Grode nodded to himself. But this... this was insane. How could he fight THAT? Yeah, he was a strong guy himself, but... how could he compare to that? How was he going to help fight a demon crazed haircut reject?

"Ahahaha, you are a fool Raden, there is absolutely nothing that can stop me now!" Soren shouted.

Finally, Ana told herself. She was going to reach the fourth floor. But she knew something was wrong. She knew something didn't feel right as she had gone higher up through the tower. She passed up through the hole in the ceiling.

[Mr--Clean]

"Hmmhmm, well now. I just wanted to inform you that you now have 30 minutes remaining. I'd hurry and get to those vials on the roof hmmhmmhmm."

These words ringing in his ears Grode stood motionlessly for what felt for an eternity. While he was nearing the top floor and still had half the time left 30 minutes still wasn't a lot of time, especially with the ridiculous fighting happening around him. He knew he could not compete on such a level and that fact made him hesitate. However no matter Grode's feelings of the fight the reality that he was standing in the middle of it was brought down raining on him in the form of bricks falling from the ceiling knocked loosed from one of the random lighting bolts creating by the clash of the two other fighters. Narrowly protecting his head from injury Grode dived out of the way and nearly dodged all the incoming bricks, all save one which he did not see. While the good news is it did not break any of his bones or even hit anything vital, the bad news is Grode discovered a whole new meaning to the term "stubbed toe."
"f***!" Grode exclaimed while hopping around on his good foot while holding his now blackened and almost nailless toe. In a stumbling fit of anger Grode crouched down and picked up the offending brick and chucked it as hard as he could, which as chance would have it, right at Soren. Without even looking the demon flicked a small bolt to vaporize the fast approaching brick. Too both Grode's and the demons surprise however, the brick was completely unaffected and nearly crushed Sorens skull if not for a quick dodge on his part.
Grode stood and stared at the new found pile of ammo at his feet. If all said was true then this floor was just another incarnation of the dead demons reality warping powers and it would only make sense that the Soren demons attacks would not be quite as effective against another demons powers... or his defenses for that matter, Grode concluded with a grin. Only one way to find out and Grode planned on testing his hypothesis thoroughly.
Picking up a brick in each hand prepared his dual wielding brick fists of destruction and charged at his foe. Before he could even finish his first step searing pain once again seized hold of his toe. As it turns out gripping heavy bricks is a difficult undertaking when one only has a stump for a hand. Despite Grode's fairly armored boots the pain still stung "like a bitch"
"Dam almost... almost forgot about that" Grode mumbled to himself under grit teeth and watering eyes. This time making sure he only had bricks in arms that had five fingers on them, he resumed his charge at his enemy, trying not to think about how on earth he managed to pick up that heavy brick with his stump anyways.
As much as Grode would have loved to win there and then, he knew he was still at a severe disadvantage and victory was still unlikely. He just needed to buy some more time and then he would be able to get to safety and move to the next part of his plan.

[Mr--Clean]

Grode belched loudly