Chapter 97 - Fixing the Golem

Immediately upon stepping inside the arena, Skyle was relieved to find that nothing had changed. It truly was a simple barrier just like that of the dueling arenas. This meant that he was free to fail this test and avoid revealing his secrets.

Skyle thought about it and decided to go with a kick. It was better than a punch, as the gravitas golem looked to be fashioned from stone and he didn’t fancy breaking his fist on his first day at the academy. Plenty of time for that when he was crushed by the muscle-bound brutes at the Warrior School. As for weapons, he bore none other than Moonshadow, and he could hardly reveal his trump card before everyone here. After seeing the disappointing quality of the golem, who knew what kind of waves would arise if a true masterwork like Moonshadow were unveiled.

Just as Skyle was beginning to shift his weight to prepare for a simple charging kick, Syrene’s odious voice rang out from behind.

“Don’t worry, Skyle. The grav puppet is designed to soften or harden depending on the severity of the attack it faces. Besides, I will gladly nurse you back to health if needed.”

Thinking back to the uncomfortable moments when he had been drowning under the massive weight of her breasts, Skyle suppressed a shudder and decided that a kick was definitely the way to go.

Since it should at least look like he was trying his best, Skyle ran at full sprint toward the gravitas golem. He leapt into the air and launched a drop kick with all the momentum of his dash, landing a solid strike against the puppet’s chest.

Skyle was dumbfounded to find his feet sinking a full inch into the puppet’s chest, then bouncing off with a slightly pop. He landed on his back like a sack of potatoes, so surprised he even forgot to arrest his fall with his hands. Skyle found the stinging pain in his butt far easier to bear than the scattered laughter that came from the crowd of students. Skyle gaped at the golem for a sullen moment before raising his eyes up toward the barrier in glum expectation.

Gravitas Test Incomplete. Reason: Insufficient power for calibration. Please try again.

Skyle’s face burned with humiliation as the entire crowd burst out in laughter.

“Insufficient power? Just how weak was that attack?”

“I don’t know, I’ve never seen that error before.”

“Did you see him charging in with that flying drop kick? That guy is so funny.”

“Yeah, I was expecting some sort of incredible elemental attack. Sure made us look like fools.”

“Haha, you have to admit it was hilarious, though.”

“Yeah, fancy that. A genius with a sense of humor!”

Swiveling his head around, Skyle could see the enthusiastic grins of all the students as they nodded to him. They all seemed to regard his previous attack as some sort of joke to lighten the mood. Only Kassandra and Reikard were studiously avoiding his gaze as they suddenly found themselves fascinated in the study of their own shoes.

Skyle’s misery was only compounded further when he heard a throat clearing sound from Syrene. The room immediately fell silent, and Skyle couldn’t help but get to his feet and return to his original spot with the slow, despairing steps of a man heading to the gallows.

At least the surface of the golem was a lot softer than it looked. Thinking back on how Orwen’s Stone Spear had shattered, Skyle was able to confirm Syrene’s words. The golem must be enchanted so it adjusted its surface to match the strength of the attack it faced. This meant that his own kick must have been even more pathetic than he had feared.

Skyle threw one last reluctant glance toward Syrene, trying to see if there might be any way of weaseling his way out of this test. The Aegis’sur seemed unfazed by Skyle’s failure. Instead, she nodded expectantly to him with a brilliant smile.

Grumbling under his breath, Skyle turned his attention back to the puppet. Helpless, he let out a loud cry as he charged towards the puppet with all the speed he could muster. This time, he made it look even more theatrical as he flew into the air and spun in a full circle while whipping his leg around for a backheel kick.

Though his father had dutifully trained his son in many barehanded techniques, Skyle had never been fond of striking in melee range. First, he could never get as much speed or impact as his father could. Second, in his mind, if the enemy was close enough that Skyle was forced to use his puny fists to defend himself, he would most likely be dead in any case. It was why he prefered using a bow and fighting from a distance. Not only did he excel at it, but it also compensated for his smaller size and lack of power. Though he launched an over-ambitious kick, it was painfully obvious that he would not achieve any better results than last time. After all, this golem could withstand blows from Master level spells, while Skyle couldn’t even muster enough elemental power to swat down a mosquito.

His blow struck the puppet with a satisfying crack, and the feedback from his leg told him that he had connected solidly. However, he didn’t have to look up to know the words that would be floating in the air above the barrier.

Gravitas Test Incomplete. Reason: Insufficient power for calibration. Please try again.

This time, the silence was deafening as every set of eyes stared back and forth between the barrier’s error message, and Skyle’s slumped shoulders. No laughter was forthcoming this time. In fact, only a few dry coughs could be heard hanging in the uncomfortable silence that cast a pall over what had just recently been an animated crowd.

Skyle let out a deep sigh as he turned around and headed toward the arena’s exit. He had resigned himself for the results, and at least he had put up a decent act of trying his best. After all, Syrene should know he was a cripple, so he really could not be blamed for this failure.

His foot was about to step outside the arena, his gaze cast down toward the floor as he dragged himself out, when his face crashed against those sickeningly familiar twin mounds of flesh.

Jerking himself back, Skyle stared in horror at Syrene. The Aegis’sur was standing right outside the barrier with her hands upon her hips. Her face was expressionless as she gazed at Skyle and did not say a word.

Skyle shuffled his feet uncomfortably, trying not to squirm under the weight of the summoner’s stare. He knew she was using silence as a weapon, and he could only curse himself for a fool because it was still working. After a few seconds, Skyle couldn’t bear her wordless gaze any longer.

“I tried my best.”

“Did you?”

Skyle’s glare turned belligerent, but the slight arc of her eyebrow was enough to make him throttle down on his temper.

“I’m an elemental cripple.”

“Are you?”

Clenching his jaw so hard that it hurt, Skyle scowled darkly.

“You know I am!”

“Do I?”

Skyle almost spat out a mouthful of blood. What kind of game was this wily fox of a woman playing?

Realizing that his excuses were getting him nowhere, Skyle resorted to the sullen silence that was a child’s last refuge against the cold light of reason.

Syrene’s lips quirked into a half-smile as her eyes narrowed into crescent slits.

“So, even you can be a silly little brat sometimes. That is reassuring to know.”

Skyle pressed his lips together into a petulant pout before he realized it and reluctantly went back to glaring at the insufferable woman.

“Just tell me something, Skyle. Who told you that you’re a cripple?”

Skyle opened his mouth, then paused for a moment as he frowned in thought. Had his parents ever said that to him? His siblings? His friends? It was only after a long moment of soul searching that he was finally able to come up with a truthful answer.

“I did,” Skyle admitted.

Syrene’s lips slowly spread into a sunny smile that would have taken his breath away in its radiant beauty, if he could only get over his instinctive distrust for her.

“Now tell me, was that your best?”

Skyle’s brow rode even lower on his forehead.

“In my current circumstances-”

Syrene laid her finger across his lips. “No excuses. I want a straight answer to a simple question.”

Skyle wanted nothing more than to bite the odious woman’s finger and chew until he could wipe that smug grin from her face. Then again, he reflected, he’d probably break off every single one of his teeth before he could put a dent in the steely woman’s flesh. Instead, he found the answer to her question but couldn’t bring himself to say it out loud.

In any case, it wasn’t necessary. Syrene must have seen the answer on his face, as she sent him a coquettish wink. Then she wordlessly spun him around, and sent him stumbling forward with a playful slap upon his butt.

Skyle barely bit back a startled cry as he was left squaring off against the gravitas puppet once more.

This time, Skyle squinted as he fully opened the True Sight and examined the puppet. Just because he didn’t want to use the shadowy power coiling in his veins, it didn’t mean he was powerless. Far from it. He had wanted to keep a low profile, but now that things had come to this point, he might as well show at least some results so the woman would leave him alone.

As he studied the golem, the familiar sight of countless threads of elemental essence filled his vision. They crisscrossed each other in a dizzying array of colors and patterns. The many runes etched upon its surface pulsed with power as they drew energy from glowing nodes within the golem’s core.

Squinting, Skyle unconsciously began to draw closer in order to take a closer look at the weave of the essence strands. Though they were far simpler than the inhumanly complex arrays in the statue of the Guardian in Sanctuary, now that Skyle paid more attention, he began to notice a clear pattern. He could follow the essence energy as it was drawn from four glowing cores in the middle of the golem’s chest. They were arrayed in a cross pattern, and each flared with a different element’s aura. The strongest was earth, encompassing a vast network that branched out all over the golem. It powered most of its structural integrity, he could now see. It pulsed with power that lay dormant just beneath the surface of its skin.

Without even realizing it, Skyle laid a hand against the golem’s surface. It felt surprisingly soft and cool to his touch, but a distinct tingling was transmitted to his skin. When he pushed his hand forward, a corresponding amount of energy was drawn from the earth core to reinforce the golem’s skin. The harder he pushed, the stronger the resistance became.

Skyle tapped on the golem’s chest and stared in fascination as he saw the ripples of even this small impact draw upon the earth core in several staggered chain reactions. A newfound appreciation for the ingenuity of this artifact began to grow in his chest as the began to test the reaction of the puppet in different spots on its body.

“Magister Syrene, I’m not sure what your honored disciple is-”

The voice was cut off abruptly, but Skyle didn’t even notice, he was so absorbed into this fascinating new world of power cores and reaction matrixes. He quickly identified several standard arrays of essence strands which were in turn connected to each of the cores. He could guess at the purpose of some, but most remained a mystery. This only fed his curiosity, as he was now striking, pulling and even pinching several different places on the Golem at once. Each time, he would study the patterns of force spreading across the golem and feed back into its systems. He didn’t even realize that he was panting and grinning like a madman while shamelessly groping the golem.

Suddenly, Skyle came to a stop as he frowned toward a specific section on the golem’s shoulder. The specific purpose of the essence streams in this particular section were beyond his understanding, but he knew there was something wrong there. Essence streams were coiled at this particular spot in far denser concentrations than anywhere else, save for the four glowing cores. Also, each time ripples from his strikes passed through this point from two or more opposite directions, they would clash in this particular array and produce a disturbance in the flow. Such a momentary flux in the essence stream lasted for no longer than the blink of an eye, but the ripples left behind were more than enough to alert Skyle to its presence.

Frowning at this obvious flaw in the golem, Skyle began tapping repeatedly at the golem’s neck, arms and chest. Each time, he would narrow down on the specific places that produced the greatest reaction from the flaw he had found. In the end, he identified four points that produced a cascade reaction where the flow of essence would increase the stress upon the flaw with each additional blow.

Having completely forgotten about the purpose of the test in the first place, Skyle gingerly infused some of his shadow essence into the golem at these four points. That’s what he had come to call the mysterious mist filling his veins and resisting the taint. His former resolve not to use his bloodline power lay entirely forgotten.

Instead, a huge grin spread across his lips. The results of infusing his shadow essence were nothing short of extraordinary. The moment his fingers left each point, a tiny, bean-sized speck of shadow essence fell into place as naturally as though it had always been meant to be there.

In his fascination, Skyle did not even notice that each time he infused a drop of shadow essence, the golem’s entire figure pulsed with a muted glow. This light grew brighter every time, until it flared into blinding brilliance after the fourth point was filled with essence by Skyle.

Loud gasps filled the room, and as though awakening from a dream, only then did Skyle realize what he was doing. His eyes flew wide open as he stared in growing horror at the pulsing glow emanating from the four points where he had infused his essence. He could see that the vulnerable spot at the shoulder area was now strengthened and the essence flow through those channels was much smoother than before. In fact, now that the flaw had been patched and the coiled essence streams smoothed out, the entire golem was overflowing with the energy that had been freed.

The barrier surrounding the arena began to flash intermittently, and Skyle began to truly panic now. He knew this flickering meant the golem was processing the results of the test. Only, what would it say about his shadow essence? What if due to the sudden energy he had freed up from the coiled essence at that shoulder area produced some bizarrely high numbers? He was supposed to keep a low profile!

His heart hammering in his chest, Skyle did the only thing he could think of to interrupt the process. He struck out with his fist at the four points with shadow essence in quick succession. With each blow, the shadow essence obediently popped and disintegrated into nothingness.

To Skyle’s horror, this only produced a massive backlash in the golem’s energy stream. A chain reaction was started, with power from all four cores being diverted to fill the vacuum left by his shadow essence. Individually, the amount of essence that filled each point was alarming enough. However, Skyle could only watch with a plummeting heart as all four waves of elemental essence began to flow toward the tangled mess at the shoulder area.

“Crap, that’s a lot of essence. This thing is gonna blow!”

Skyle’s breath was stuck in his throat as he watched four essence streams converging upon the flaw. His mind was drawing a blank, unaware of how he could resolve the situation. Panicked, he gritted his teeth and gathered a fistful of shadow essence to his hand. He didn’t even know how he did it, but all that mattered was that it worked and he struck out as hard as he could against the coiled essence streams at the puppet’s shoulder.

His desperate strike landed with a loud booming sound. The surface of the golem rippled around the impact area as crackling bolts of energy flickered over his fist and around the puppet. To his great relief, much of the coiled essence energy at the golem’s shoulder was expelled by his vicious blow. The resulting clash had even eliminated most traces of his shadow essence. By the time the energy from the four points arrived, they wiped away the last remnants of his essence and left only chaotic ripples from the golem’s own power cores.

Panting heavily and soaked in sweat as though he had just been put through a wringer, Skyle’s knees shook unsteadily as he slumped his head in relief. That had been too close for comfort. He had never realized just how much trouble his True Sight could get him into. Though he should be feeling excited over the fact that he could pick apart and even improve upon flaws in high end magical artifacts from the Conclave Arcana, the only sentiment flooding his heart at the moment was utter exhaustion.

After studying the golem with a heavy-lidded gaze for one last time to ensure that no hint of his shadow essence was left, Skyle turned around and walked back to the barrier.

A pounding headache made him sway upon wobbly legs as he exited the testing arena. Only then did he realize that no one was watching him. Instead, their gazes were fixed upon the barrier. Wincing, Skyle turned around to read his test results.

Gravitas Test Incomplete. Reason: Excessive power for calibration. Please try again.

Skyle stared in horror at the words blinking before his eyes. What excessive power? What did the damn thing want from him? This feeling was only compounded further when he heard a buzzing pop from beyond the barrier. His face twisted into a rictus of pain as he reluctantly turned to look at the gravitas golem.

Flickering arcs of essence began surging through the entirety of the golem’s surface, gathering at the four points where Skyle had released his shadow essence. It was almost as though each of these points were hungrily sucking essence away from every other essence channel in the golem. These were not enough, and even the power from the four glowing cores was diverted to these points.

In mere moments, four glowing fires of pure essence were pulsing upon the golem’s body. From these four points, endless streams of essence began to stream down toward the flaw in its shoulder.

At first, the clash of these four different essence streams only produced more arcs of bright energy strands. They quickly turned more violent, however. After the first few impacts, an audible booming sound could be heard every couple seconds, accompanied by a blinding flash of multi-colored light.

Skyle opened his mouth to protest that it wasn’t his fault, that the stupid puppet had been defective in the first place and that it was obviously out to get him. Before he could utter a sound, however, the whole golem suddenly flared with blinding brilliance, then exploded into a thousand fragments with a roar that shook the entire room.

Thankfully, the barrier held and no one was hurt. Still, Skyle’s ashen expression looked as though his soul had been blown away along with the golem. His lips formed the phrase “125,000 golds” over and over, his back deflating even more with every iteration.

Suddenly, a hand settled around Skyle’s neck with a growing familiarity that he had come to detest.

“My, oh my. You never cease to impress, dear Skyle. You do realize I was merely jesting when I said you could break the grav puppet?”

Skyle could only nod numbly, his vacant gaze staring at the shattered pile of debris that was all that was left of the magical artifact.

“Cheer up! At least we have your test results.”

“Huh?” Skyle stared uncomprehendingly at Syrene.

The Aegis’sur let out that rich, oily chuckle of hers and nodded toward the air above the testing arena.

Skyle followed the gesture and nearly fainted at the words flickering weakly upon the crackling barrier.

Gravitas Test Successful Input Value: 62 gu. Output Value: 1559 gu. Gravitas Ratio Efficiency: 2514.5%

No sooner had Skyle finished registering the words than the whole barrier gave a final, dying hiss and faded away altogether. By this point, the entire crowd had long fallen completely silent. Only three voices could be heard, each more enthusiastic than the last.

“Woa, you’re so awesome, big bro!”

“I knew you could do it, brother!”

“So very interesting, little Skyle. Tantalizing, even. And to think we still have one more test to go. I simply can’t wait.”

Skyle’s survival instincts kicked in right then, and he tried to run. Sadly, it was to no avail. The fox woman flashed her dazzling grin as she hauled the semi-catatonic boy to the next room like a calf to the slaughter.