S-class Trials Second Phase: A Test of Strength

Teresa looked around, noting that while many of the contestants had made it, some faces were missing from the small crowd of guild members who had made it to the island. However, she had little time to worry about others at the moment as the second phase of the trials were currently being explained to them. Another solitary trail that would seek to test their strength in combat against a durable and hardy opponent.

After being assigned their separate paths, Teresa began to head down her own as she began to think of what her opponent would bring. Due to the nature of golems and their heavy bodies, she quickly assessed that it would likely be a close ranged fighter that relied more on its overwhelming strength than any sort of planning. Even if the guild master himself were controlling them, their strategy would most likely be mostly preset due to how difficult it would likely be to control enough golems separately to give each of the contestants a difficult fight worthy of being called the "test of strength". With that in mind, she knew the best way of handling such an opponent would be to study it, her ability to do so relying on how much time remained for the rather short trial once she reached the end of the path but due to how small the island is she doubted reaching the center would take long.

Before she knew it, a large shadow blocked out the light and caught her attention. In her deep thought, she hadn't realized how quickly she'd reached the end of the path and yet, nothing was there. She wondered if she had simply arrived earlier than expected and thus the obstacles meant to be here had yet to have been placed but she doubted such a thing was the case. She adjusted her glasses and waited in silence for something to happen.

The silence was deafening, not even a bird sang to break the stress inducing sound of her own heart beating like a drum in her chest. Moments later the barrier shot up and snapped her out of the slight daze the silence was placing her in. The sounds of rock sliding across the ground to converge at a single point only a few feet in front of her, her eyes watching as the rocks grew to form the shape of a rather large stone creature with broad shoulders standing at just over seven feet tall. To the small mage, the golem was massive, towering over her much like the ziggurat. She jumped back, knowing that she was at a disadvantage in such a small space. Her specialty was mid to long ranged attacks but the barrier limited how far she could get away and thus limited her abilities greatly as opposed to a regular battlefield.

Her face hardened as she stared down the newly formed golem in anticipation of its first move. Pulling her wand from her boot and beginning to move slowly around the golem. When it raised its fist, she readied herself for a punch but the serious look on her face turned to surprise as it slammed its fist into the ground, causing a minor earthquake to shake the ground. The earth she stood one seemed to lift itself under her feet, throwing her off balance and as she attempted to regain it she found that she had taken her eyes off the golem which took advantage of the lack of distance to quickly close it between them and deliver a powerful punch to the blonde haired mage's gut. The force to the punch sent her back into the wall of the Jutsu Shiki barrier which itself delivered a powerful shock to further disorient her.

Immediately falling to the ground, she felt weaker than she had before. The punch to her stomach had knocked the breath from her lungs and the shock had weakened her muscles. Making it to her hands and knees, her eyes widened as the shadow of the golem was once again cast over her. Its fist rose to attempt another blow but she quickly threw herself out of the way, rolling over the broken ground wich stained the white of her button up shirt with dirt as loose rocks seemed to cause small cuts in the fabric.

She quickly rose to her feet again, pointing her wand at the golem and casting her shard shot, several crystal shards converging on the golem. Sparks flew as the crystal hit rock but a quick observation saw that no damage had been done to the golem who never even bothered to block her attack. A slight flash of anger on her face hid the desperation she did her best to force down as she told herself she still had more tricks up her sleeve.

Throwing her other hand out in front of her, she let out a telekinetic wave toward the golem in hopes of pushing it back. As the wave hit the large stone creature it seemed to react a bit, its body seeming to lean back in response but it quickly recovered. She didn't have the strength to throw several tons of rock around as easily as she hoped she'd be able to.

The golem held its arms out to either side of it and began spinning like a twister, its legs tucked in to become a single point on which it began to spin toward her.

Teresa dodged, rolling to the side before quickly getting back to her feet only to feet the golems punch delivered to her face.

Once again, she was thrown back, her body hitting the ground before the taste of iron filled her mouth as blood dripped from her busted lip. Using her telekinesis she pushed herself up to her feet quickly, just in time to dodge the golems next swing which landed in the exact spot she had been lying at before. She knew she had to think of a plan, trying to recall all the things she'd learned while fighting alongside Alyssa, hoping that working with the close combat specialist had taught her something.

However, thinking and staying on her toes was difficult when her opponent had such an overwhelming advantage over her. She had no idea of how much time she had left but those thoughts needed to be pushed to the back of her mind if she wanted to win this fight. She couldn't rush things or it would be the end for her.

As the golem approached again, she formed crystal over her arms and raised a fist. Throwing the punch, she felt it collide with the golem's chest but like her shard shot it did little more that annoy the creature who quickly swung its arm to push her away. Using her other crystal covered arm to protect her, she was able to escape it with little injury aside from what would likely be a painful bruise on the arm she'd used to defend herself.

Her breathing had become somewhat labored and her hair was a mess compared to the bun she had formerly had. Her plan to observe the golem and learn from its move set had fallen apart and she began to wonder if she was wrong about its preset and it was actually learning as it went along, adapting to her in some way. If that were true it would only become more dangerous as the fight went on.

Her eyes stayed glued to the creature that seemed to stop moving in the center of their small arena, its blank stone face staring at her as if studying her in some way. Again it lifted its arms and she prepared herself for another earthquake but again it deceived her, its arm coming down to toss a large rock from its hand in her direction. She barely had time to dodge it before it flew past her to hit the Jutsu Shiki barrier and explode into hundreds of small rock fragments. She scurried around the creature to avoid becoming a stationary target, making it halfway around it before it threw another rock. However, it wasn't headed toward her but instead, it was headed toward where she would be in only a few seconds. Her momentum made it impossible to stop so she was forced to use her telekinesis again, catching the rock mid-air before turning on her heels and using all of her built up anger to hurl the rock as hard as she could at the beast who was giving her far more trouble that she had anticipated.

The rock slammed into the golem with a great amount of force, the stone beast being forced to the ground for the first time in their battle. Her eyes caught the sight of where the rock had hit the golem and she was able to see several cracks forming in the chest of the creature as a result of her counterattack. That was when she realized its weakness.

Her shard shot had not carried enough blunt force behind it to crack the golem, her intentions had been to attempt to cut through the creature but that idea had been a mistake. Its weakness was that of blunt force to shatter the rock it was made of. However, her shard shot would have been able to crush any normal rock to a pulp with easy but it hadn't so much a scratched the armor flesh of the golem and so that would mean it would have to be made out of something other than regular rock.

She pointed her wand at the golem again, this time casting her Orb volley, several orbs the size of a bowling ball forming and finding their way toward the golem. The first two easily hit their marks but it quickly learned of her attack and smacked away the other two orbs, shattering them as they hit the barrier. She grits her teeth before trying again, using one orb in front of it to keep its attention while the one behind it delivered another successful blow as it cracked the shoulder of the golem.

The golem quickly retaliated, however, as it moved toward her at a speed she had no idea such a thing could move. It slams into her full force before she can do anything to stop it and she is once again forced to the ground where she uses her telekinesis to lessen the damage from the fall. "Damn you!" She yells, knowing she needed to find some way to distract it if she hoped of killing the creature.

Forcing herself back to her feet, she casts her crystal warrior spell, the mighty warrior forming beside the golem and meeting it with a tackle that pushed the golem back. "That's right! You aren't the only one with muscle around here!" Her frustration allows her to yell before the two remaining orbs moved to join her as her warrior keeps the golem at bay.

The crystal warrior pushes the golem away once more before raising its sword and decapitating the stone golem which falls to its knees. For a single moment, Teresa wonders if her battle was truly over but her answer quickly comes in the form of the golem springing to its feet once more to wrap its arms around the crystal warrior, lifting it from the ground and slamming it down onto its back.

Teresa sends the orbs at the creature now that its back was turned, the two hitting their marks as the golem is forced to release the warrior which quickly kicked the golem away.

The golem seemed to become angered by their teamwork as it began to spin once again, knocking the jaw from the warrior before continuing on with its spinning barrage. Cracks formed in the warrior but it did not back down, a punch delivered to the chest of the golem broke away its armor and revealed its core surrounded by another barrier. A beautiful glowing gem in the center to act as its heart. The warrior reached for it but the golem quickly intervened, delivering several heavy punches to the warrior's face to bring it to its knees.

Teresa now knew where to aim her next attack, but she needed an opening soon, the crystal warrior was receiving a great deal of damage and without it to distract the golem she doubted she'd be able to get an opening to destroy the core. She wiped the drying blood from her lips and moved in closer, keeping her orbs on it so it couldn't focus all of its energy on the warrior that seemed to be on its last legs. Losing one of the orbs in the fight, she was left with only one to continue with before launching it as hard as she could at the golem.

It quickly turned, catching the orb with little regard as to the damage it had caused to its hand. Taking the ball of crystal and smashing in the head of the warrior who quickly fell to pieces, thousands of shards crumbling to the ground before the orb followed and the golem turned back toward the near defenseless blonde haired mage. With core revealed, it approached her, with a raised fist. Attempting to back up, she fell to the ground, the golem finding itself on top of her in seconds. As it swung its fist, she raised her wand and caster her Crystal Javelin. The orange crystal shot from the magic circle that appeared in front of her and hit the barrier directly before it began spinning like a drill. The punch of the golem was stopped as it grabbed onto the javelin in pain, the rotation being too fast for its damaged arms to stop as they began to crumble away to pebbles every time it tried to grab ahold of it.

After only a few seconds, the Jutsu Shiki barrier protecting the core began to buckle under the force of the javelin that she telekinetically forced into the heart of the creature. "Die you bastard!" She yelled out before giving it one last push, the barrier breaking and the two crystal colliding with both shattering into small shards. The golem collapsed to the ground in several chunks as Teresa let out a sigh of relief, her head pounding from the mental strength she was forced to use to break the barrier around the core. She knew the trials would only become more difficult as she pushed on but she had no idea she'd be put at a such a disadvantage so early in them. Regardless, she had made it and checking her watch revealed she had done so in the time provided. Getting to her feet, she watched as the barrier that had made up the arena of her and the golem's battle fell away and allowed her to continue her path into the ziggurat where she had little doubt the next trial would be held.