The half destroyed golem backed away, and the second one immediately came rushing towards me, but this time I was prepared for the assault. I observed the golem, as even the slightest deviation in this plan could end up with me being hospitalised again. The golem was rapidly approaching, I coated my fist in the strongest poison I could manage with my depleted strength. The golem was right upon me just as I had planned, I leaned into the oncoming golem, using its own speed as a boost to my attack power; It crashed into my fist with a thunderous clap. The orb within the golem was directly in the path of my fist. It cracked with a jarring screech that made my ears bleed, but I couldn’t shatter it as I had planned.

I prepared to strike the orb once again, pulling my fist back and twisting my hips to build force. I released all the energy I had stored up, smashing right through the orb and out the back of the golem. The force of the punch made my arm tremble. The first golem I had fought was almost fully repaired, but it wouldn’t be able to focus on recovery and fight me simultaneously. I dashed toward it, but with how much energy I had expended on that last punch, I was barely able to reach the golem in time. Although it had practically fully recovered, I could still see the orb slightly. I was almost in striking range when I felt the platform rumble beneath my feet.

I looked over to the edge of the training platform, towards where Telluric was stood with the control system in his hands, he was once again twisting the 'leg' of the strange device. That sly old giant must really be trying to kill me. I shook my head, trying to focus on the fight I looked away from Telluric, the new golems, however, were different. Air solidified into a transparent golem, noticeable due to the swirling wind around it, and water solidified into ice. I had faced off against multiple opponents during my training with Telluric back at the Greenfeather manor, but most of the time, everyone I was facing was weaker than me. Now, I was confronting enemies with greater raw power than myself while simultaneously being low on energy.

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I pushed aside thoughts of how difficult victory would be and instead focused on destroying the still-recovering earth golem. Jabbing my hand through the small crack in its outer shell, I seized the orb inside. Pulling the orb out required more effort than I had anticipated, but just as I was about to release a sigh of relief, the golem, its core now ripped out, used its giant rocky hand to snap my arm in half. Pain flooded my mind, and my vision faded. Instead of the training platform I had stood on moments ago, I found myself in a pitch-black void. Fear initially gripped me, I feared being trapped as a gas once more, but gradually, clarity dawned. This was an entirely different phenomenon.

In my initial panic I had completely forgotten about my arm, but now that I had calmed down I realised that I couldn't feel the pain that would usually accompany a serious injury such as that one. I still have no idea what caused this reaction but the void I was experiencing also seemed to be boosting many of my bodily functions, my mind was clear, and for the umpteenth time today I was in shock. It was so obvious to me now, so obvious that it made me feel stupid for not getting it sooner. I have always had the ability to change my poisons composition, this is how I was able to make it act like an acid to melt through things like solid rock, but when it came to trying to form a solid object I only tried to do it by condensing my poison in liquid form, now I see it clear as day, I needed to alter my poisons composition to be more like a solid; I had already done the opposite accidentally as a kid, turning my poison into a gas, so it should be possible.

Colourful dots started to litter the pitch black world I was inhabiting, and sensation returned to me, immediately noticeable from the pain seeping through my arm, but this gave me the perfect chance to try out my new hypothesis, I used the poison still on my arm and changed its form into something like a brace, then I altered its composition, pulling the individual particles in the liquid together into a tightly locked grid, it took a lot more concentration than I had imagined but it worked. With my newly formed brace I crushed the orb still being held in my other hand, very much regretting my decision to form a brace and wishing I had just used my other hand. My broken arm was shaking, even with the support of the brace it wouldn't be able to handle fighting two more golems, let alone the fact that I know nothing about the two other golem's abilities.