Chapter 8: First Final Battle

The crumbling boss had revealed a smaller form within, the human-sized golem looking no less fearsome for its reduced stature. This one's head was fully intact, but it had a hole in its chest that felt like a window to the Void itself. Its left arm was entirely missing, a tenebrious replica in its place.

Jax absorbed all of this in an instant as he avoided its attacks. After the surprise factor, it was strangely clunky and slow. Normally, bosses that get far smaller are overwhelmingly fast. Maybe it was saving that for an even further phase?

After centering himself and recovering from the emotional manipulation, he stabbed the monster in its chest. The flash of light separated them, almost throwing him off his feet.

He regained his balance in time to avoid the significantly faster flurry of blows. The golem’s chest was covered in crystal, but it now had four glowing spots on its body, one on each of its shoulders and hips.

He caught a glance at his sword, which seemed a bit worse for wear. The bright silver metal was tarnished, but it didn’t seem to be in danger of breaking. Which was good, as he still needed it to win this fight.

Dodging around the monsters flailing fists, he searched for an opening to strike at its weak points. He noticed that its Void arm hadn’t sped up as much as its other one. Striking out, he made the spot on its left hip vanish. All in all, the boss felt almost easy—.

‘Ha, ha. You almost got me. Ok. Preparing for instant death laser.’ Jax thought sarcastically, as if predicting the worst-case scenario would help him prepare for any twists. After hitting its other three weak spots, the crystal shielding its chest shattered, and it jumped back at least thirty meters.

Most people would feel dread seeing the golem pull a straight sword made of crystal from its chest, but Jax— ok, Jax was still worried, but that was because it felt too easy.

Jax could, if you were being generous, be referred to as a prodigy with the sword. It just resonated with him in a way little else did.

He didn’t learn as fast as most people that were referred to as prodigies, but he could absorb sword techniques with almost perfect accuracy. It definitely wasn’t effortless, but he put in a lot of effort to make up for that. Despite picking up the sword years later than Seth, he was the only one in their age group that could consistently beat him, let alone win more than he lost.

His skill was useful in fighting monsters—especially once he adapted to them—but what he truly excelled at was swordsman to swordsman combat.

So when the golem charged at him, its blade moving so fast it was barely visible, Jax just grinned. He could easily deflect and avoid all of the boss's attacks, even as it changed its patterns continuously. The only thing he had to worry about was the void hand, but in that moment it felt slower than ever.

He stabbed his sword into the Void within its heart. This time, there was no flash of light. His sword was simply pushed back as the golem sped up. But speeding up now was futile. His blade gleamed as he deflected and dodged its blows, attacking its chest whenever possible. It sped up every time he landed a blow, but it couldn’t do anything. Jax was focused to a razor edge, every movement considered and acted on.

After landing the seventh hit, he was thrown out of his trance by the blade of his sword shattering. The golem was thrown back, falling to its knees.

Breathing deeply, he stared at the motionless golem. “is it… over?” He whispered. He dropped the broken hilt of sword at his feet.

“Oh what a poor child, thinking he had a chance to win.” An amused voice cackled from the kneeling golem. It started to rise, thick ebony mist oozing around it. It was a twisted mockery of his dad’s voice, cruel and spiteful.

Jax’s breath caught in his throat. The dark mist flowed around him, surrounding him and cutting off escape. The shadowy figure of the golem moved closer to him. As it neared, its features revealed themselves. It was exactly how he remembered it from that time.

Its face was a parody of his dad’s, looking like his eyes had been gouged out violently. Scars of darkness stretched the empty sockets into a mask of cruelty. It was wearing his beautiful suit, but instead of the comforting feeling of the True Improved item, it felt like a hollow husk of that only existed to prolong people's misery. He had never even learned whether it was a parasite that took over his dad’s body, or if the creature took on a similar form to ‘blend in’.

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“You’re dead!” Jax yelled hoarsely. “you’re just a memory that refuses to stay down!” The twisted visage of Dad chuckled. “Really? You think that a Void Terror would die so easily? I just found a new host. It was actually quite fortunate that you humans take so long to start Improving. I mean, what race is so innately contrary that all the prime Aspects are Hidden from them? But it worked out great for me.” It tilted its head. "I was almost destroyed, you know." It reached out and grasped his chin. "I was so weak that even the weakest goblin could fight me off. But not you. What a beautiful, pathetic child."

The monster leaned towards him. “Now, die.”

Jax had known that the trial would try everything it had to defeat him. He thought up the most crushing, hurtful, and demoralizing challenge that it could use. And then, he thought up a way that challenge could technically, potentially be possible by the rules of Tutorials.

In the end, it didn’t matter whether the Void was real or fake, from within or without. He just needed to beat it.

He was surrounded by darkness and despair, and faced with the figure of his nightmares. But that was exactly what he had predicted. And had been waiting for. Jax lunged forward with the fang he took from the giant rat and stabbed it into the thing that used the face of his Dad.

The monster screamed in agony. Surging to his feet, Jax stabbed it again and again, furiously ripping into the manifestation of evil. Driving back against the black mist, he felt as if each stab was not only physical, but a defiant attack against the very trial.

The Void Terror screamed as it struggled pathetically. It was immensely cathartic and gave him even more strength to push back the dark. His arm worked like a piston, never letting up in the slightest as the monster started to melt and fray. The Void obliterated swaths of his skin, digging deeper and reaching bone in places on his hand. But he never let go of the fang.

After what felt like an eternity he stopped attacking, his hand barely attached to the rest of his body. The creature, and the darkness that had surrounded it, were no more.

Jax passed out, succumbing to the emotional and physical exhaustion. His hand was almost healed by the time he woke up. He got to his feet and looked around. There was nothing remaining in the room, not even a pile of crystals from the golem’s transformation.

He smiled. “Ok, I think I might have really done it this time.” Ducking his head, he cowered like he was expecting a blow. When no attacks came, he grinned and dropped his guard. After looking around aimlessly for a bit, he decided to investigate the throne.

At first, it didn’t seem to have anything special. But when he walked behind it, he thought he could hear noises from within the wall. After much effort and grunting noises, he shoved it to the side far enough to reveal an alcove behind the throne. He squeezed into the hidden room.

Inside, there was some sort of nest of sticks and reeds. Disregarding all the issues with how sticks would get down here. As he moved closer, he saw that there was something in the nest. A creature formed of Void.

Grasping the fang tightly, he moved closer until he stood over the nest. The creature looked a bit like a night lurker, but with a rounded face and smaller claws. It looked up at him with bright yellow eyes, the only color anywhere on its body.

The bat-like monster let out a little cry, the thing he had heard from outside. ‘Looks like the trial hid one last thing to make sure I failed.’ He thought. ‘Or this is his last attempt at screwing me over.’ He raised the fang.

Then he paused. Killing a defenseless creature didn’t sit right with him. This creature… it was completely non-threatening, and only his own experience with the Void gave any cause to kill it. Actually, that’s not quite right. It was in the form of a night lurker, something he had also fought during the trial.

Other than that, it was actually quite cute. He watched as the Void bat tilted its head at him and squeaked. Wait. He had always been a bit worried about losing himself to bloodlust. Most Improvers spent more time fighting monsters than in the True realm. That had to be a bit of a cause to worry. He also experienced some bloodlust when killing the rats.

What if this was a trial in and of itself? To resist or give in to his bloodlust. But which was the right answer? Obviously, resisting it was the ‘right’ answer, but what if the fear of bloodlust was something ‘holding him back’? He shook his head. He was looking about this all wrong. If becoming a cruel person was what it took to pass his trial, then he would have to settle for failing.

But he still wanted to try to beat it if he could. The bartender wanted him to ‘clear out the infestation’. Maybe he could bring the bat back to the bartender, and see what he wanted? That left his options open, and he would have time to think this through.

It was only after he had picked up the Void bat that he realized he could somehow subconsciously tell that the Void making up its form wasn’t corrosive. The little thing wriggled and squeaked a bit but didn’t cause him too much trouble as he brought it out of the hidden room.

The moment it left the room he felt a pulse run through the realm. His heart nearly stopped as the golem reappeared, but it was undamaged and motionless, with no corruption of Void.

Summoning his starter sword as he left the throne room, he had a bad feeling that it wasn’t the only thing to respawn.