Upon defeating the second golem, the platform beneath Lucy and Cole began to move. It slowly shifted to their right, wading through the lava that surrounded it. After adjusting his footing, Cole moved towards the center, staying as far away from the edge as possible.

The platform quickly reached its apparent destination, abruptly colliding with another, sloped surface. Both surfaces rotated slightly before perfectly fitting together, as if they were pieces of a jigsaw puzzle. The increased space for movement was nice, but Cole remained intent on staying as close to the center as possible. There were other platforms still scattered across the room, but only one was close enough for them to potentially reach. Before Cole could finish looking back over the room, five golems emerged from beneath the lava, surrounding the newly arranged platform.

“I guess this’ll be quicker than the last trial.” Lucy said, turning to Cole, “how are you feeling?”

“Great,” Cole replied. “Really great, actually.”

“Good. I’ll leave the rest to you, then.”

“Alright, captain.”

With a larger area to move around in, Cole was easily able to walk around the golems before they could get close enough to touch. They moved so slowly that they could hardly be seen as a real threat, given they didn’t sneak upon him. Knowing this, Cole made sure to keep in view as many golems as possible, only turning his back to ones that were sufficiently far enough away.

Slowly but surely, Cole repeated the process he’d used to defeat the first two golems: Form a shard of ice, condense it as much as he could, and send it plummeting towards the unsuspecting creatures. Within the next few minutes, Cole managed to take down each of the golems that had emerged from the lava below.

“This isn’t so bad,” Cole said, catching his breath.

He’d made quite a lot of progress the past few days, but he didn’t plan to slow down anytime soon. While he wasn’t in the best shape in his past life, he wasn’t in the worst shape, either. Losing his breath from some mild cardio began to pester Cole, reminding him he’d have to train more than just his magic.

Nevertheless, this would have to wait. The platform beneath Cole returned to motion, now moving perpendicular to its previous path. This direction pointed to the platform Cole had noted earlier, as the remainder were scattered far away along the wall.

As the floor beneath them slowly approached and joined with this platform, Cole looked more closely at how they connected. Each surface rotated slightly to fit together with one another, leaving little trace of them not being connected in the first place. With this new addition, the platform beneath them almost doubled in size.

“This is so cool,” Cole said, once again looking over their strange environment.

“Your breathing has gotten a lot better,” Lucy said, doing the same herself.

“Oh, I just don’t exercise much.”

“I mean from when we first entered the trial. You’ve acclimated to the heat much faster than I thought you would. ”

“Huh,” Cole said, looking down at his shirt.

He hadn’t put much thought into it, but, when he’d been attacking the various golems, Cole had stopped using his shirt to lessen the strain on his throat. Yet, he wasn’t only breathing just fine, he was somehow having an even easier time than before. Maybe this is where I come into my own, and my real journey begins! Wishful thinking aside, Cole began to notice the pain in his throat slowly returning. I guess it was just adrenaline.

Cole moved his shirt back over his mouth and started putting more thought back into his defense.

“Cole,” Lucy said, “I want you to try-”

Abruptly interrupting Lucy, two pools of lava swelled near the edge of the platform she was closest to. Emerging from these pools were two large masses of rock. As they breached further from the lava’s surface, it became apparent that these were two of the remaining three golems.

Being of a much larger stature, Cole thought these golems took a more typical shape than the smaller ones, having bulky arms that spanned most of their body. Lava flowed seamlessly through the various crevices across the golems bodies. Compared to the smaller golems, these looked far more robust.

However, there were now only two, neither of which were moving towards Lucy very fast. Similar to the smaller golems, they hovered slowly towards their prey. Breathing out slowly, Cole once again focused mana into his hands. He’d slacked off slightly on defeating the last couple golems but put everything he could muster into this next shot.

While Cole had been worrying slightly about running out of mana, he’d come to realize that, no matter how much he collected, he was always able to collect just as much into the next shot. He figured mana couldn’t be infinite, but he’d have to ask Lucy at some point to be certain.

The golems slowly hovered over the side of the platform, their lava subtly dripping beneath them. Lucy backed up slightly, giving Cole a clear line of fire. Without much else to consider, Cole shot the shard at the golem. It whistled through the air between them, striking the golem in its right shoulder. Cole could feel the fatigue in his body grow as he released the shard, particularly in his arms.

The golem recoiled at the sudden impact. Even as lava coursed over it, ice slowly spread out from the projectile, restricting the golem’s movement. However, the transmission of ice across the golem’s body stopped short of spread past its arm. The hot lava and chilling ice came to a standstill as the creature examined its wound.

The golem moved its other arm to the site it’d been injured, but it was too late. A slight tap from the golem’s arm was enough to fully break off its shoulder. The golems arm fell to the floor. The lava, still flowing through the lower half of the arm, rapidly dissipated. Cole found this oddly appealing to watch, as the once vibrant and colorful arm turned to molten rock.

While Cole was momentarily distracted, the golem turned its attention from its demolished arm to Cole. Reaching towards the ground, the golem used its remaining arm to dig into the platform’s surface, scooping a chunk of rock from it like a scoop of ice cream.

The platform rocked as this happened, and Cole turned back to the golem to see it bringing its arm above its head. The chunk of rock it collected was immediately engulfed by the lava that flowed from the golem. Without any further warning, the golem hurled the scalding mass directly at Cole with great force and precision.

Cole’s eyes widened as he jumped to the side to avoid the golems attack. He was close to avoiding it entirely, but his quick reflexes weren’t enough to miss it entirely. Cole had become more sluggish the longer he’d been using magic.

The chunk of molten rock collided with Cole’s left calf, easily penetrating through a small portion of the ice that protected him. While the initial impact hurt, it was nothing compared to the scalding liquid that persisted on his lower leg. Cole yelled out in agony as the lava slowly sunk into his skin, burning away at his flesh.

Falling to the ground, Cole continued to writhe in pain. He’d never felt something so excruciating before, and had no idea how to handle the immense torment he was in. Holy shit, holy shit, I’m gonna die. I’m actually gonna die.

As he clasped his mangled leg, Cole felt a firm grip peel his hand away. Looking up revealed Lucy crouching over him, looking incredibly worried. She placed her right hand over Cole’s wound, gripping it tightly.

“AAH!” Cole yelled.

Even through the pain, he knew Lucy was probably doing what she had to do to help, but the waves of heat he felt were nearly impossible to bear. All he hoped for was that she’d work quickly, and everything he felt would be over as soon as possible.

To Cole's surprise, he eventually could feel the intense pain dissipate as Lucy continued to grip his leg tightly. He felt a soft, sludgy liquid pour into his wound, slowly removing all sense of pain he had felt. Whatever magic Lucy had used, it worked like a charm.

Even with the pain subsiding into a minor annoyance, Cole was still rattled by the experience. Suddenly all the time he’d thrown his in-game avatar into lava wasn’t so funny. Cole’s mind felt oddly clear as he thought this, feeling totally removed from the thoughts of death he’d felt moments ago. Is this what it means to be an adventurer?

Cole had thought about it when watching Felix’s fight against Daphne, how painful getting really beaten up must be. Yet, he hadn’t assumed his first experience would be having his flesh melted by lava. In comparison, the attack from Felix almost seemed like a joke. If it hadn’t been for the magic Lucy had taught him, his leg would have been toast. Cole made a mental note to never stop training his defensive magic, no matter what. He never wanted to feel something like that ever again.

“How’s it feel?” Lucy asked, standing back up.

“Oh, it’s fine,” Cole replied, snapping back to reality. “Sorry I made you step in like that.”

Cole looked to his leg, expecting a massive scar to appear. As Cole looked it over, he realized Lucy had done more than relieve him of his pain. Not only was his injury completely healed, there wasn’t even the slightest indication that it’d been there in the first place.

“No, I’m sorry,” Lucy said. “I should have stepped in to help you at the start. Pain like that isn’t something I’d wish upon anyone.”

“No worries!” Cole said, trying to sound positive. “It’s all part of my training. I won’t be able to rely on you forever, right?”

Lucy continued to seem bothered but soon shrugged it off. Cole hadn’t seen her so worried before, but, given how much his injury had pained him, the concern was appreciated.

“Anyway, how’d you do this?” Cole asked, looking back over his leg as he moved to sit upright. “This is amazing. Will I be able to do this anytime soon? Or is it some super high rank, platinum adventurer type of thing?”

“No, it’s not that amazing,” Lucy insisted, smiling awkwardly, “I’m only a platinum adventurer because of how small my guild is. If I was actually good at healing magic, I’d be able to use magic like this on myself, rather than just others. I’m sure you’ll be able to learn how to do something similar, eventually.”

“Suure~,” Cole replied, smiling slightly. “Do you mind if we take a break? I think I need a moment.”

“Of course.”

Cole looked over to the golem that attacked him. It was now frozen in a massive chunk of ice along with the other golem a few feet away. It was almost like seeing a set of cavemen frozen in an iceberg. Cole raised his eyebrow, but he wasn’t exactly shocked. It’d made sense for Lucy to take care of the threat before helping him, but wasn’t this a little much?

“Jeez,” Cole said, shaking his head, “I’ve got a hell of a long way to go, don’t I?”

“If you still want to fight them,” Lucy replied, “I can unfreeze them for you.”

Giving the frozen golems another look, Cole made one final mental note: never piss Lucy off.

“I’m good.”