CHAPTER 96: FIGHTING

The sword was heavy, but Kaedros gripped it with both hands and charged at the two remaining golems. He drew it back as if preparing to parry, then suddenly jammed the tip into the floor, vaulting upward with the momentum.

Landing atop the head of the golem he had already wounded, he unleashed a torrent of searing fire. The intense flame melted through its skull in seconds, turning it into bubbling slag.

Golem two, down, Kaedros thought with a grin, flicking molten droplets off his fingers. He couldn’t help but feel a flash of gratitude toward Nyra.

The moment his feet hit the ground, the remaining two golems were on him. Swords slashed at his flanks in a blur of metal.

He needed a real weapon and fast.

He activated a compact formation on his finger, no larger than a ring. Channeling mana into the link between his core and the rune, fire flared to life and a golem’s head tumbled to the ground, cleanly severed.

Its body followed, collapsing in a heap as steam hissed from the molten neck.

Kaedros laughed, spinning the weapon in his grip. It wasn’t a physical blade but a sword-shaped mass of condensed yellow heat so dense it looked solid. It wasn’t sharp, but it burned hot enough to carve through steel.

"Ready for round two?" Kaedros asked.

The remaining golem paused, for the first time since the battle began, clearly registering the threat.

Rauk, meanwhile, had enveloped himself and his attackers in a field of swirling grey smoke. Lord’s Breath. The spatial mist deadened sight and sound, rendering the battlefield into a muffled void.

He couldn’t be sure how the golems perceived their targets, but within Lord’s breath they were all but blind.

And he wasn’t.

He exhaled slowly, releasing more of the mist, thickening the field. He could still see clearly both within the dome and beyond it. That’s why he caught sight of Kaedros, blade flashing, and a collapsed golem at his feet.

Show-off, Rauk muttered with a smirk.

Unfortunately, a golem had wandered too close and picked up the sound. It swung blindly, its sword slicing toward him.

Rauk didn’t move. The smoke hardened like iron, halting the blade mid-swing. In the next breath, he surged forward and slashed.

His arcane-infused sword cleaved cleanly through the golem’s head.

Another enemy down.

-----

From his throne, Gold watched the fight unfold with growing awe.

They were stronger than he’d expected. Much stronger.

His gaze lingered on Kael and his impossible heat. That light —it chilled him, even though it burned.

So this is what Father meant...

This trial was supposed to have been led by the Keeper, but his father had insisted Gold do it instead. And now he understood why.

"You must not die on me now!" Gold shouted, voice echoing through the chamber.

The floor trembled. Seven more golems erupted from hidden slots, joining the fray.

"The longer you take, the more golems will appear!"

—

The trio fell into rhythm, slashing, blocking, and, in Kaedros’s case, burning through their enemies.

But the battle was beginning to turn against them.

Even with their skills, they were tiring. The golems had doubled, and their movements were growing sluggish. Their cores were near empty.

Taria, breathing hard, staggered back into the safety of Rauk’s dome of grey mist.

"What are we going to do?" she asked, voice strained. The essence shielding her body shimmered faintly, almost gone. Her core was on the brink of depletion after taking down three golems.

"Hide here?" Rauk offered, wincing as the golems outside hammered against the barrier. He’d shaped Lord’s Breath into a hardened dome, but even it wouldn’t hold forever.

"That won’t last long," Kaedros said grimly. He’d slain five golems, but his fire had finally guttered out.

Only four golems remained, but those four hit like battering rams.

Then the ground shook again.

Seven more golems rose.

"Sorry," Rauk muttered as the dome cracked, then shattered, Lord’s Breath collapsing in a burst of smoke.

"Damn it!" Kaedros snarled, raising his hand to summon his flame sword again, but the spell fizzled, his depleted energy snuffing it out immediately.

All he could manage was a weak fireball.

It hit a golem harmlessly, dispersing like steam in the wind.

The three of them were quickly surrounded, golems closing in, weapons raised.

Gold’s laughter rang across the chamber. "You lost! What fun! I haven’t been this entertained in years. And you killed ten golems! That’s no small feat."

Kaedros eyed the encircling swords, his mind racing for a solution. If only they had time, if only they could refill their cores.

"And now what?" he asked darkly. "Are you going to kill us?"

"Why would I?" Gold said with amusement. "The rules were simple: earn this room, and you may leave. Not die."

Kaedros narrowed his eyes. "And what does earn mean exactly? You keep adding more golems."

"It’s simple," Gold said with a shrug. "Defeat all the golems before I can summon more."

Simple? Not remotely. He could easily summon more just before they killed the final golem. They’d never get ahead of the curve.

"And you," Rauk said, his voice quiet but sharp.

"Me?" Gold tilted his head.

"We’ll defeat you, too. That’s part of the trial, isn’t it?" Rauk’s pale blue eyes glittered like broken ice.

Gold leaned forward, smiling. "If you can."

They were given time before they could challenge again.

Magical energy from the throne made the defeated golems rise from the floor and become whole once more. Metal body parts turned to silver smoke and vanished.

The golems lined the wall again, looking like statues with red eyes.

Taria shook her head from her place below the stairs, where they had retreated to recover their cores. "I can’t believe we won’t be leaving here until we’re done."

Rauk grunted. "Don’t remind me."

They were sitting in the Flow position when Kaedros lifted his head to look at the two. "Sounds familiar. Like our first day here."

The reminder made the other two shiver, but Kaedros was already calculating the benefits. "If it’s like the Shadow Blades, then the reward afterward will be worth it. Remember, the Shadows reconstructed our bodies and made us stronger."

Even though they shivered at the thought of the Shadow, the reward was enough to send them back into the Flow. Maybe they could end this before nightfall.

"So, any strategy?" Rauk asked as they stepped into the room again.

It had taken hours for them to refill their cores, and now they were anxious to finish this and make use of the remaining day.

"Well, the golems don’t seem to fight uniformly, so we can’t predict their patterns, but this time we know their weak points. I say we hit them fast and hard," Kaedros said and materialized his formation. Followed, a blazing heat that made his two companions give him distance.

"You’re ready? Let’s play!" Gold said, snapping his fingers.

Seven golems jerked upright, fire eyes burning bright.

The fight began and just as Kaedros had said, they now knew the weak points. Taria’s spear pierced a head, and Rauk’s sword sent it flying.

Kaedros burned a head together with the shoulder.

That was when they knew.

Gold had won this round again. The golems’ weak points had changed. It wasn’t the head anymore and before they realized it, they were surrounded with swords pointed at them.

They hadn’t even used that much arcane yet.

"I win," Gold said. "Again."

"You changed the weak point! They didn’t die when we cut off their heads!" Taria accused.

"Who told you that was the weak point? In battle and war, people have different vulnerabilities. You have to be able to kill your enemy even if cutting the head doesn’t work." Gold pointed at them like an instructor schooling his students. "That’s what my father taught me."

Kaedros sighed. "Seems he was right."

They returned to the stairs to talk, and the result of that conversation was clear: in the next fight, they would focus on detecting weak points and communicate them to the others as soon as they were found.

It didn’t work.

Before any weak point could be detected, they had already lost. It went like that for the rest of the day, and by evening, they were forced to give up.

Taria complained bitterly that they had no food, which made Gold chuckle from his throne as he ate fruit brought by Chef. They didn’t know where he got it, but he was very vocal about enjoying it.

At least the shadows didn’t come to fight them, and their rest was almost normal for the first time since they had entered Throne of Ruinlight.

Almost.