“Hopefully, the last one’s small,” Cole said, eyeing the heap of ice before him.

The two golems Lucy defeated slowly crumbled away along with her ice. They’d managed to defeat nine of the ten golems required to pass the trial. With only one left, Cole was more than ready to return to their room for a break. Lucy, on the other hand, seemed to be doing just fine.

“Yeah,” Lucy replied, “We can work more on your training when this is over.”

Cole was happy Lucy was ready to get back to training, but all he wanted to do was go relax and play video games. If this place has TVs and consoles, then maybe they have some video games, too.

Nevertheless, he was determined to refine his magic. The pain he’d felt from the golems attack was seared in his mind. Cole shook off the idea of finding video games in this world. I can’t keep relying on Lucy. I need to improve my magic as fast as I can!

Before Cole could put much more thought into his determination, the platform beneath his feet began to move yet again. It slowly brought them towards the one wall that lacked any sizable surfaces, outside of the one they were already on.

Making sure to stay close to the center of the platform, Cole leaned forward to get a better look at where they were going. He noticed a small divot extending out from the wall, blocking his view of what laid beyond.

As Lucy and Cole got closer, he realized there wasn’t anything there in the first place. All he could see past the divot was more wall, revealing that the room was a strange, polygonal shape. It wasn’t until the platform shifted past the divot that Cole noticed an opening in the wall, seemingly too small for their platform to fit through.

Regardless of this, the platform rotated to a more fitting angle, narrowly allowing it to fit into the opening. This revealed a secluded, circular area as their final destination . It wasn’t quite as large as the area at the other end of the opening, but had an inscription on the wall at the opposite end. Below it was a small surface, enough to fit at least a dozen people. Their platform slowly made its way into the crevice, narrowly clearing its surrounding walls.

As their platform slowly floated towards the inscription, the surface began to sway slightly. The pool of lava before them swelled in five places near the room’s center. These pools slowly rose up, giving Cole a bad feeling.

“I thought we only had one left,” Cole said. “I don’t think I can take on more than that.”

He was trying to be realistic, but Cole wasn’t sure he could defeat even one. The confidence he’d gained from defeating seven of the small golems had been robbed by the immense pain he’d just felt. This was now emphasised by the five additional golems Cole imagined would appear before them.

“Leave it to me,” Lucy replied reassuringly.

“Let me take one on,” Cole said, trying to suppress his doubts. “It’s the least I can do.”

With a wavering sense of conviction, Cole watched the five raised portions of lava. They swayed side to side as he waited for them to fully emerge from the lava. Surprisingly, Cole’s concentration was broken by soft laughter. Looking to his left, he saw Lucy covering her mouth while looking in the same direction he was.

“What?” Cole asked.

“Sorry,” Lucy said, “I’m not laughing at you. I’m actually pretty impressed. I didn’t think you’d want to get back at it so soon.”

“Well, I’m not going to stand here and cry about it.” Cole insisted. “I won’t get any better if I don’t put myself back in danger, right?”

“You think so?”

“Uh,” Cole said, wondering whether or not there was a ‘right’ answer, “yes?”

“Good for you. It can take a long time for people to come to terms with their pain in a constructive way. I know someone who took years before they actually started accepting quests, fearing they’d get hurt.”

“Sounds like they needed a reality check.”

“Hmm,” Lucy said, raising an eyebrow at Cole’s response. She turned towards the five points of lava that continued to swell as they spoke. “A reality check, huh?”

Without another word, Lucy raised her hand before firing a burst of five shards at the figures masked in lava. Each shard landed directly in the center of each swelled portion of lava, freezing a small portion of their body. Each of the five slowly retreated back into the lava that still cloaked them, as if they’d never been there at all.

As Cole was about to comment, the entire room quaked. Lava rippled with increasing frequency, making the platform he stood on sway with the waves.

Lava burst forth as a massive figure shot up from where the five “golems” had been previously. The wave of lava that rippled towards them rocked their platform immensely, knocking Cole off balance. The lava that shot upwards began to rain down as Cole tried to adjust to the movement beneath him, giving him no time to dodge. Falling backwards, Cole raised his arm over his head, attempting to block as much lava as he could.

Before the masses of lava could reach their platform, Lucy conjured a plethora of shards, far too many for Cole to count. Each shot out towards the various bits of lava that had erupted outwards, turning them into equally sized chunks of ice.

A loud yet muffled roar brought Cole back to his senses. Turning to the figure that emerged from the lava, Cole realized why Lucy had laughed at him earlier. The golem before them was far more massive than either of the two forms they’d seen before. Comparatively, the small and medium-sized golems may have well been identical in size. How could I ever fight something like this...

The behemoth of a golem towered over their platform, its head nearly reaching the room's ceiling. The monstrous arms that hung at its side lowered as the golem locked its gaze towards Lucy and Cole. Dipping its hand into the lava, it recreated the scene Cole had seen earlier: five, golem-like figures beneath the lava’s surface.

“How did you put it,” Lucy asked, “something about needing a reality check?”

“Geez…” Cole said, giving their final obstacle a look of disbelief.

The large golem continued to reach deep into lava, rummaging from side to side. Lava poured out from every crevice of the golem, continually flowing around its massive exterior.

Isn’t this a little unfair? Cole imagined Niko and Susie, two of the weaker-looking adventurers they’d encounter, trying to fight this thing.

The golem’s arm began to retract back from the lava, revealing a large chunk of molten rock now in its hand. With its gaze still fixed on Cole and Lucy, the golem flung the melting mass towards their platform. Lava spewed out as it hurled towards them, leaving a devastating trail in its wake.

With her hand still raised, Lucy effortlessly formed a massive shard of ice before her. While it was relatively faint, Cole could see a blue mist emanate from all around Lucy’s body. It continually collected into the massive shard, but didn’t make it any larger.

With the golem’s attack quickly approaching, Lucy shot out the mass of ice she’d formed. As the two projectiles collided, a wave of frost coated everything in the vicinity of the shard. Lucy’s counterattack effortlessly penetrated through the chunk of molten rock, freezing over both it and the trail behind it.

Watching intently, Cole noticed the shard travelling farther out, inevitably striking the golem that stood in its path. The golem’s head crashed against the ceiling as it recoiled and roared fiercely. The shard stuck out from the golem's upper chest, having dealt some damage.

However, the ice only spread slightly from the impacted area, leaving the golem fully functional. It leaned forward, removing its head from the ceiling it’d struck. The golem slowly moved its arm to the shard, hastily prying it out of its body.

Once again, Cole saw a faint hue of blue flow into the shard. He followed it back to Lucy as he realized her attack wasn't over. The golem clumsily tried to throw the shard back at Lucy, but it’d become stuck to its hand. Ice slowly spread outwards, covering the golem’s hand as it tried to shake off the ice.

The golem seemed to become increasingly frustrated as the ice continued to spread. No matter how much it shook, or how much lava poured over the ice, it continued to spread.

As if admitting defeat, the golem began to retreat back into the lava as the ice spread up its arm. For something so big, Cole wondered how its body was able to fit in the lava below.

“Did we win?” Cole asked.

Cole noticed the faint blue hue disappear as the golem’s body became fully submerged. Looking back to Lucy, he realized her eyes were still tracking something. Cole followed her gaze to see a thin trail of lava flowing across the surface, moving from where the golem was towards their platform.

“What do we do now?”

“Wait,” Lucy said. “It’ll come out eventually. They always do.”

“You’ve fought something like this before?”

“Not a golem, but the circums-”

Lucy was interrupted by a subtle tremor beneath them. The platform they stood on rocked from side to side, abruptly stabilizing after a brief moment. I’m getting a bad feeling about this...

To Cole’s surprise, nothing happened. The tremor they’d felt had faded as jarringly as it’d begun. Sighing a breath of relief, Cole looked back to where the golem had sunken back into the lava. The trail leading towards them had vanished, but Cole had a hard time believing their foe would leave them be for long.

Seconds turned into minutes as Cole remained focused, scanning the room for any oddities in the lava’s flat surface. He soon became worried that their trial had only just begun, and there was some obscure puzzle they’d need to solve before being able to finish off the golem.

Even after the previous trial, Cole hadn’t thought to bring food with him. Lucy hadn’t said anything about it, which made him less worried about going hungry, but the threat was always there. It wasn’t like there’d be any food for them there, Cole assumed.

While skeptically worrying about this, Cole saw something from the corner of his eye. At one of the edges of the platform, a small pool of lava had formed that wasn’t there before. The platform Cole and Lucy stood on wasn’t flat, to say the least. There were nooks and crannies everywhere, most of which were easy enough to trip over if one wasn’t careful.

Where the lava had pooled was no exception. Liquid poured in from a divot in the platform's edge, and was encased by portions of the platform that were slightly raised. This all made sense to Cole, but he couldn’t figure out why this didn’t happen earlier. There was only one thing that came to mind.

“The golem must be using something to pull us down!” Cole said, looking around the rest of the platform. “We definitely have less space than before.”

Cole was able to tell due to him wanting to stay close to the center of the platform, making him more mindful of where the edges were.

“What’s the plan?” Cole asked, looking to Lucy for reassurance.

“I guess it can’t be helped.” Lucy sighed.

Walking out towards the sunken edge of the platform, Lucy looked over the surrounding lava. Before Cole could bother to ask what her plan was, Lucy took another step forward, moving her foot closer to the lava’s surface.

“What’re you doing?” Cole asked. “Won’t your magic just melt again?”

“I wasn’t being entirely honest with you, Cole,” Lucy said. “Do you remember what I told you earlier about keeping your magic a secret?”

“Yeah…”

“The same goes for each of your spells.”

“Spells?”

“You’ll see.”

Turning her focus back to the golem, Lucy stepped onto the lava. As her heel connected with the scalding liquid, it was immediately frozen over. Each subsequent step left a small patch of ice, leaving a short train behind Lucy as she walked further from the platform.

The ice she left behind quickly melted away as she got further from it. The ice Lucy stood on, however, remained intact but didn’t spread very far.

Cole watched closely as Lucy stopped a few meters from the platform. She stood still for a moment, scanning the lava directly beneath her. Lucy inhaled slowly, moving her hands in front of her. They faced palm down towards the lava below as she spread her finger apart, uttering words that were barely audible enough for Cole to hear.

“Ice Magic: Eternal Frost.”