C98: Loss and Grief, What it Means to be Human (p1)
Overall Word count = 1444 on 6/14/2024.
(music Rec: either continue last chapters song or move onto Broken Mirrors by Light up the Darkness)
The fist of the human form Huwawa connects with Axel's face as he truly did not expect its newfound speed. That said, the now human form guardian of the cedar forest's strength has decreased upon transforming. Yet what Axel did not recognize before was its high level of control.
After all, when Axel was struck directly in the face by Huwawa, he went straight up with absolutely no swaying in any direction. He can tell that Huwawa is now charging up energy around its fist for a follow up attack. Now any other opponent, Huwawa would have been successful in landing the followup strike as even a skilled opponent would have tried to bend their bodies in some way to reduce the pain from landing due to such a high flight or to attempt to escape the incoming strike.
Axel is not any other opponent, he is Axel Gram. As such, when Axel makes his way back down after getting a few breathless moments from witnessing the world's horizon. His body is poised like an arrow moving directly down on the return trip, yet before Huwawa can lash out. Axel projects his mantra energy to push him away, then like the Snake Game (the little wiggling snake that grows over time and cant touch anything), he pushes himself down but just an inch away from the ground before sending himself back to Huwawa.
(For anyone that is a visual learner. (H = Huwawa's location: ⬇️
⬇️↔️↔️ H
➡️➡️ 🛑 H)
Axel stops just before Huwawa as the human's pillar of fear shoots out its fist at Axel. Axel dares to meet the strike head off. His left palm reaches out to meet the strike.
BOOOM
The ground trembles and sand parts around them but the majority of the force of the punch is absorbed by Axel. His body trembles a bit before he raises his right arm which bulges due to having absorbed the wrathful energy through his left arm and circulating it back through his right. Axel also began to understand a few things as his fist connects with the human pillar's face.
BOOM
Huwawa is sent flying back but using his abilities, it connects itself with the sand to only marginally be sent flying back. It quickly counterattacks by dashing forward and striking Axel in the chest. Axel maintains his position and stance.
The fight quickly escalates into a full on fist brawl as neither side lets up, even when the fight progresses past 10 minutes. Even King Gilgamesh who had set a secret self-imposed timer allows them to continue fighting. The civilian audience watches the fight in mystification as the giant golems strength was awe inspiring yet when Axel met and outsmarted it, they cheered. Yet now, they watch in anticipation over what will happen as they now recognize that Huwawa has Axel's face. It's like watching Axel fight his own naked genderless self.
BOOM BOOM BOOM
The sand has been long dispersed and ruins of ancient buildings have been unearthed around the duo. With every strike, more sand is dispersed while they sink lower. Their fists are coated in pure frictional fire which has melted the sand into forming perfect walls that prevent more sand from flowing into the hole they are in.
Axel has been purely using his wrath energy to fight against Huwawa. His strikes have been strong and true to their destination. Yet the same can be said about the failed guardian of forests. Axel hor energy that might have tried to injure his internal organs with his mantra, so only his skin and outer layer of muscles have been injured. His body is covered in bruises but the same can't be said about Huwawa who is almost turned into a purple beast due to it not knowing how to defend itself.
It is simply swinging its arms and feet due to reflex and not any sort of instinct. Axel pauses for a moment and begins to make some distance from the human golem. Yet Huwawa grabs Axel's wrists, It swings back its head before bringing it forward for a headbutt. Axel recognizes the movement as well and begins to copy the gesture.
BOOOOOOOOM
The headbutt serves as the final impact of their fight as the glass around them shatters back into sand, the sand itself shuffles in to cover them up to their knees.
The duo stand there with their heads connected when suddenly Huwawa begins to fall to his knees when Axel does so as well but he only does so to ensure Huwawa's head lies upon his shoulder. The two kneel down as Axel holds Huwawa's head against him. The pillar of fear has passed out with tears on 'his' face.
Throughout the brawl they had, Axel has had plenty of time to understand Huwawa through his mantra. Huwawa is someone who was not born with intelligence. It was something it gained throughout multiple years of life. While he remains ignorant of the entirety of it's life and what led to it's current state. He can at least tell that the primary emotion behind its actions is rage, grief and self-loathing.
Axel remembers from Gilgamesh's introduction that Huwawa was a guardian of the Cedar Forest. Its rage was likely related to failing to stop humans from destroying the forest, that then led to grief. Where it used it's rage to lash out at others. This put the guardian on the two immortal lines of sight before they sealed it away in the endless sand.
With no way of venting, its grief turned to self-loathing. Stuck for who knows how long before it was allowed to rise once more, only to fight Axel. Now in the beginning, Axel was not able to detect the golems intent as it was truly a mad rage, but after losing the arm and getting into the tug of war with Axel. it had come to terms with its situation and the loss of the original forest.
Now that it had come to terms with it's situation, it started calming down as it's energy was being drained. It quickly realized that throughout the entire fight, Axel had been too small and nimble and it had to have a similar physique. So since it acknowledged Axel as one of the best fighters it knew (Gilgamesh bombarded it and Enkidu just chained it up), it took on Axel's features along with green to represent nature itself and it's original duty.
That is how it got to this point. Axel had allowed the Guardian to properly vent it's original frustration that in the last minute of their fight, Huwawa was no longer angry and had been smiling while they fought. Axel was slow to see this smile as he was too occupied with the situation and maintaining it. So when he finally saw the smile, he paused and tried to stop the fight.
Huwawa didn't want it to end, even with all the pain covering it's body, it didn't want the fight to stop. Yet it respected Axel enough to at least follow through with a final strike with tears in it's eyes.
Axel then had caught Huwawa before bringing him back to the city so he could let him rest in a bed. The audience, king and advisor are left speechless by him just leaving. They had to awkwardly dismiss everyone and there was a round of applause before they actually left. The duo in the golden room then made their way back to the castle as well.
Once in the castle and back in his room, Axel summoned Dr. Blythe to inspect the both of them for any major damages. The doctor gave Huwawa some anti pain medicine as well as gave Axel a healing ointment which he applied to himself as well as Huwawa. Axel was a bit put off smearing the ointment on the guardian at first since it's almost an exact replica of his own body…minus the dick. Thankfully, he was beaten up enough that it's hard to tell that they are the same person.
Axel moves to sit in a chair and rests while the human-like golem now sleeps properly. It is only a few hours later that he wakes up, Huwawa has a lethargic expression as they cover themselves in the sheets but upon feeling it, they are properly shocked awake due to panic. He quickly makes contact with Axel.
"Yo"