Fire immediately appeared behind Kyle as he activated Ignition.
Yet, the current iteration of Ignition was very different from the previous iteration.
BANG!
Ignition released an explosion of fire, pushing Kyle forward.
The G-forces he was under would have killed any kind of organic life that didn't use Ether.
He saw the Metal Elemental charging at him.
The Metal Elemental had the appearance of one of the random golems Theodor used in his Inheritance Crypt.
It was clear that the Metal Elemental had already absorbed one of the golems.
Luckily, the Metal Elemental didn't have any form of human weaponry.
It was simply about 2.5 meters tall and fought with normal hands.
That didn't sound very intimidating, but only if one didn't actually think about it.
After all, gorillas also only fought with their hands and maybe their teeth.
If this Metal Elemental managed to grab Kyle, it would pull him into two pieces like he was a rotten banana.
The two of them reached each other in an instant.
The Metal Elemental just pointed its arms forward, intent on grabbing Kyle.
BANG!
An explosion of fire came out of Kyle's hammer, and it swung to the left.
Kyle's hammer hit the Metal Elemental's arm.
BOOOOOOOM!
Kyle's entire body shook as he felt like he had hit a mountain made of metal with his hammer.
The Metal Elemental exploded to the side.
At that moment, the left wall of the cave exploded, stones scattering everywhere.
The power of the stones hit the walls, floor, and ceiling, collapsing the entire cave.
Or, more precisely, it started the process of a cave-in.
Time for beings on their level had a different meaning than for normal people.
How long would it take for the stones on the ceiling to hit the floor?
Over two seconds.
For Kyle and the Metal Elemental, that was a long time.
BANG!
Even after unleashing his attack, Kyle's Ignition didn't stop.
He had fixed the earlier problem.
Now, as long as he didn't actively stop Ignition, it would keep going.
Kyle charged wordlessly towards the wall into which he had slammed the Metal Elemental.
Yet, before he could even reach the wall, the Metal Elemental charged out again.
There was a blackened spot on its left arm.
That was it.
It was not injured.
As soon as the Metal Elemental reached Kyle again, it moved its arm forward once more.
BOOOOOOOM!
Kyle attacked the arm again, and the Metal Elemental was pushed into the distance again. BANG!
But this time, Kyle kept accelerating, and his body shot right through the wall.
Solid matter was still harder than air, but for Kyle, there was not much difference between the two.
When he had thought that this would turn into a brawl, he had still thought with the mindset of a weak person.
Stuff like normal stone was no longer strong enough to dictate the shape of a battleground.
The fires from Kyle's Ignition melted all the stone he passed by, leaving a trail of bright magma behind.
Since everything was filled with stone, Kyle couldn't see the Metal Elemental anymore, but he could still feel it with his Ether Sense.
He could tell where it was just by feeling the movement of the dense Metal Ether it emanated.
He saw how the Metal Elemental stopped and charged back.
Its speed was shocking.
The two of them reached each other again.
By now, the first stones of the cave had started to fall from the ceiling.
Yet, neither of the two was in the cave anymore.
Just as the Metal Elemental reached Kyle, it moved its arms forward again.
But this time, its arms suddenly extended!
Metal Elementals didn't have the weakness of being forced into a solid state.
It could melt and shape its body.
At that moment, Kyle's surroundings started to distort.
He used the Fragment of Wind Movement to change his trajectory.
The liquid metal missed Kyle.
Yet, this wasn't a game.
In a game, the attack would continue, and the opponent would leave an opening to attack.
Real life wasn't like this.
When a human saw that their punch was about to miss, they changed the trajectory of their punch.
The liquid metal charged after Kyle.
The space around Kyle distorted more as he seemed to flow around the Metal Elemental.
The pick of his hammer struck the Metal Elemental's back.
CRACK!
Some hardened metal fragments shot out of the Metal Elemental.
This time, it was injured, but not much.
Instead of charging after the Metal Elemental, Kyle used his Soul to pull the will-less metal fragments into his mouth and swallowed.
This was valuable Ether, and he couldn't allow the Metal Elemental to reclaim these fragments.
Yet, within barely any time, the Metal Elemental reached Kyle again.
By now, both of them had moved more than 100 meters away from the cave.
The stones from the cave's ceiling had not even traversed a couple of meters yet.
By sensing the Ether, Kyle could tell that the Metal Elemental had a small wound on its back.
It wasn't more than two centimeters deep.
For a human, this would be a significant injury. Getting hit by a metallic spike that took off two centimeters of flesh would see almost all humans in the hospital, unless they were some super proud redneck who refused to get help even when their arm turned into chips.
But for a Metal Elemental, this wasn't much.
In fact, Kyle could already tell that the wound was healing.
Well, technically, it wasn't healing.
The Metal Elemental was just reshaping its body to close the hole.
As a result, the Metal Elemental became ever-so-slightly shorter.
However, the amount it had shrunk had to be measured in micrometers.
Not even millimeters were small enough to describe the loss of height adequately.
When the Metal Elemental's body reached Kyle, it completely lost its solid form, turning into liquid.
Kyle's eyes narrowed more.
An inexperienced person would think that Kyle was the one in control right now, but that wasn't true.
Right now, an extremely experienced Warrior was fighting an inexperienced beast.
There weren't many things Kyle could improve during this battle.
But there was an entire world the Metal Elemental could improve.
And that was happening right now.
The Metal Elemental was learning.
It was getting better.
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