We stood there for a few seconds, all confused at what to do. Suddenly, Houru lunged forward, scythe first, towards Ada. She acted quickly too, dodging backwards and slipping a half-mask onto her face, covering her mouth. Houru wasn’t done, because he took another step forwards and thrusted his hand out, palm facing her.

“Chain!”

His voice was rasp and as he spoke, chains, literal chains, burst out of his palm. They shot towards Ada, who… disappeared?

I looked around, wondering where she had gone. It was probably her skill, vanish, that had made her invisible.

Tap.

The soft sound of a shoe touching the stadium behind me.

I whirled around, suddenly cautious

Surely she couldn’t be going for-

Splurt.

Something sharp sliced the back of my neck and my vision went dark.

* * *

I sat up in a hurry. Where was I? I looked around and realised I was back in my cell. Someone had carried me back here and placed me on the mattress. What had happened to the sparring?

A daunting realisation came over me. Had I… lost? Come last? I touched the back of my neck where something had cut me. There was no wound or scar, only smooth skin. Did Calvin heal me?

At that moment, the door slid open and Gana walked in. I couldn’t read his expression but if I were him, I’d be pretty angry. I’d gotten knocked out in less than a minute to a level twelve girl.

“That was disappointing.”

Back to the short, crisp sentences.

I didn’t trust myself to speak.

“You know that you don’t get dinner now, right?”

A question? Gana never asked me questions.

“Yes, and?”

He shook his head like I was stupid, then sighed.

“You’ve been out for a day. It’s common training time.”

I took a step back, only to feel the cold wall against my back. Already a day? There was no way…

“You’re going to be late.”

Gana spoke crisply and I detected an edge to his voice.

I didn't move.

“Get. Over. Here.”

My body moved of it’s own will and I felt myself walking over to him. He turned around, already on his way out.

“Hang on! I can walk by myself!”

A feeling of powerlessness washed over me, accompanied with the fact that I didn’t even have control over my own limbs. Gana turned around and looked at me with such disgust that I even felt a little hurt.

He must have disabled the control or something because I felt the feeling return to my body. Stumbling a little, I followed him out of the door and into the dark corridor.

Within minutes, we reached the same room I had done my sparring in - if you could call a three second knockout ‘sparring’, that is. This time, neither Borno nor Calvin were guarding the door. As Gana ushered me in, I gasped.

The room had transformed. The walls had turned a dull, brownish colour and warped outwards strangely. The platform was now gone and in its place stood several large stone totems. Unlike last time, there was no one in the room.

Gana walked over to the centre and casually leaned against a pillar.

“There’s no one here yet.”

Pointing out the obvious seemed like a good starter at that time.

“Your performance yesterday was disappointing.”

Huh, so he wanted to play too?

“That’s why we’re here one hour earlier. I don’t want you making a fool of yourself again.”

He threw his arm out dramatically, and suddenly six more stone pillars rose out of the ground, surrounding me. This time, the stones weren’t exactly pillars - more like humanoid statues. They rose for a few seconds before stopping once they towered over me, more than twice my height.

“Gana? What is this…?”

“Training.”

He moved further back, and when I tried to follow him, the statues moved to block my way.

Animal Profile

Species Stone Golem Rarity Artificial HP 1000/1000

Level 50 Gender N/A Skills N/A Information

A summonable creature that it made of stone. It's only outstanding feature is it's health. However, it has a critical weakness that allows it to be killed easily. Size and shape can be altered by summoner.

“Defeat them. I want to see you in combat. Since I didn’t get a chance before.”

My heart panged a little at the last statement, but then I realised this was my chance to redeem myself. If I did well against these golems, maybe he would stop being mad with me?

I turned up towards the monsters, glancing around me. There were six of them, all surrounding me. That meant they were in my blind spots and I couldn’t face them all at once. I thought back to my skill list - a list that I hadn’t had to use in quite a while. I’d probably end up using ‘Double Light Ray’ or ‘Lightning Zap’ again. Those were the skills I’d come to depend on.

Action Skills locked.

It took a second for me to register what this notification meant and when I did, I wasn’t happy.

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“Gana! What’s the meaning of this?”

He smirked a little.

“You know, ‘Bind’ is a common skill in Nexus. If you depend on your skills all the time, you won’t survive. Not to mention that some of the floors in the core bind your skills too.”

I ground my teeth in anger. So he had just casually decided to only tell me about this now?

The golems had advanced closer, forming a tight ring around me. My two trump cards were gone, meaning I was back to basics. I didn’t even have my sword! I didn’t have enough time to pull out something from hold, so there was only one option left.

My newest skill, full body fighting style.

It activated automatically and I felt my body being guided into position by the system. Since this wasn’t a skill I had ‘learned’, it felt strangely unnatural to my mind, though not to my body. My arms and legs moved fluidly, like they had been doing this the entire time.

In my previous life, I once took a karate class. Let’s just say I didn’t do well. At all.

Yet here I was, kicking and punching these stupid golems like I’d been doing it my entire life. However, this skill didn’t help me dodge. A golem’s massive arm swung down towards me and I barely managed to duck out of the way. Calvin would probably heal me if I got injured, but I didn’t want to risk it. Those fists looked like they hurt.

Unfortunately, my melee combat didn’t seem to be doing them any good. They’re HP hadn’t gone down at all and my knuckles had begun to bleed from the impacts. I darted through a gap between a golem’s legs and ran for the wall. ‘The Exterminator’ gave me an attack boost against the golems, but I needed something that could seriously damage it.

Activating hold, I continued my run from the monsters, hoping to call up something that would help me once more.

Hold

Bag of coins (4560) Empty Armour Upgrade Stone Frayed Whip Weapon Upgrade Stone x2 Knuckle Dusters Giant Devil Ant Egg Werewolf's Heart Empty Bone Pearl

This felt familiar. Thinking fast, I reached into the screen to retrieve my knuckle dusters. Hopefully I’d be able to break through the golem’s defense with them. You’d imagine I was pretty surprised when I came out holding the frayed whip.

“The heck?” I muttered to myself quietly.

But this wasn’t the time to think. The golems weren’t as slow as I hoped they were.

Shaking my head, I reached into the screen once again, this time pulling out the knuckle dusters. I slipped my fingers through them, still holding the whip, and turned to face the golems.

They had surrounded me once again, blocking off any escape routes. The wall behind me didn’t help.

Actually…

The wall was curved inwards, like it had a large dent in it. It was a slope.

I turned and ran at the wall, using the slope as a pad to jump higher. As I jumped off the wall, I spun around and threw a flying punch at the nearest golem’s head.

Crack!

The stone cracked as my fist hit it. Was I really that powerful?

Then I remembered the knuckle dusters’ skill, spike. That must have been the reason why it did so much damage. In fact…

You have slain Stone Golem.

“Wow!”

I pumped my fist in the air. These knuckle dusters were really great! I’d have to make sure to thank Mei for giving me a deal on them…

Ah.

Right.

I had forgotten about my predicament in the heat of the fight.

My lips pressed together angrily, I leapt off the crumbling golem, looking for my next victim. Weirdly, the golems had all spaced apart, too far away for me to jump too.

“Aligned Perception!”

Time slowed as I rushed towards the ground. Normally, I would’ve just fallen to the floor, but today I wanted to try something different. It’s not like I could die here, right?

“Extension.”

My perk, extension, had worked with the rope once. I could use it on my whip and sort of lasso a golem, right?

A strange feeling came over the hand that was currently gripping the whip, and I was connected. I could feel the whip’s shape bending. But there was something else there. A feeling of… power?

Flicking the whip out, I guided it towards the nearest golem and as cracked against the side of the head, I tightened it. The whip wrapped around the stone and I yanked it backwards, unintentionally pulling the whole damn thing off.

You have slain Stone Golem.

Startled, I fell to the ground in a heap. Had the whip been this powerful all along? Or was it Extension?

Frayed Whip has gained Stone Golem Aura.

Frayed Whip has transformed into Stone Whip.

The whip lit up with a grey aura, before morphing slightly. A new item window had appeared beside it, but I didn’t have time to read it. There were still six more golems, after all.

I turned back towards the golems and flicked out my whip once again. As I whipped the golem, I realised that the frayed ends were gone, instead little stones were embedded into the actual whip.

Crack!

The stones stuck out a little, clacking against the golem’s hard skin. This time, the whip hit the main body and didn’t seem to have a large effect. A golem standing on my right swung it’s fist down at me again, this time so low it scraped the floor.

Debris spat out from the floor and I covered my face. The debris scratched my arms, legs, everywhere and I cried out from the pain. As if that wasn’t enough, I couldn’t avoid the golem’s fist which hit me full on. I was thrown backwards into the wall, denting it further.

My health dropped past halfway and my waist felt like it was broken.

Yet the golems still advanced.

Something snapped within me.

I was sick of feeling useless. Sick of losing. Sick of being the weakest. Sick of not being able to conquer the walls in front of me.

I would destroy it all.

There was nothing left for me, anyways. My mother was dead. My friends had left me.

Destroy everything in front of me.

“Ahhhh!”

I screamed and as I leapt forward, a sharp pain shot through my side. I ignored it. My whip flicked out like a snake’s tongue, wrenching off another golem’s head. Smashing my fist into a nearby golem’s leg, I punched it once more in the head as it fell. The others were not happy.

One roared and swung its leg slowly at me. Too slowly. With Aligned Perception activated, I saw everything in slow motion and registered the movements of these slow titans easily. However, I didn’t bother to dodge the blow, instead slamming my fist into the stone, shattering it.

My health was draining quickly. This destructive rampage wouldn’t last long. Screaming again, this time in both pain and triumph, I whipped two more golem’s heads off and slammed my leg into one’s leg. I felt the bone break, but by this time, pain was everywhere and this wasn’t anything new.

Huffing, I turned to face the final golem. Others crumbled around me and my legs buckled as I attempted to climb over one.

Warning: Critical Health

I was about to pass out, but there was just one more golem in front of me.

One more I had to defeat to pass this test.

Practically dragging myself to it, I raised my hand to form a fist and pathetically thrust it into the golem’s leg.

Tap.

You have recieved the title The One Who Never Falters.

For a second, nothing happened. Then the golem exploded and chunks of debris rained down around me.

“Not bad.” I heard Gana say before I passed out.