"Are you sure he's in this awful place?" Conner asked in disbelief.
"It's what he said; we can only keep trying to find him," Travis replied deadpan.
Conner responded with a wave of his arm, pointing to the nearby flowing river of lava, "Surely even he isn't crazy enough to train for so long in this place. We both have high attainments in fire, but neither of us could have survived the heat for this long without these high-grade ice talismans."
"Conner, you just can't apply common sense to a man like him; he's just a monster."
"Who are you calling a monster?!"
"It's the Sect Masters' voice, but where is he?!" Conner exclaimed.
"Over there." Travis pointed toward one of the various lava rivers, where a head was barely visible above the lava. The head pushed through the thick lava river and brushed the leftover lava from his body, revealing his chiseled muscles and manhood.
Conner turned his head swiftly to the side. "Why are you naked?!"
"And ruin my expensive enchanted clothes? You know this is lava, right? Are you an idiot?" The Sect Master stated as he brushed off the lava with his hands. “You’re Travis and Conner, right? The two new inner disciples?”
"Wha! You're the one swimming through lava, and I'm the idiot?! I - I mean my apologies, Sect Master." Conner replied, flustered.
“Pft! I hate all the formalities. And I’m fine, aren’t I? Damn, lava is getting stuck in my hair.”
Travis maintained a neutral expression and maintained eye contact. "It seems your training has been beneficial, Sect Master," Travis noted.
The Sect Master gave a mischievous smile and raised his hand around chest level. His hand erupted in a white flame, increasing the heat to terrifying levels.
"Dear god!" Conner exclaimed.
Travis’s usually neutral expression broke out in shock. "The legendary White flame!"
"Our talismans! They're rapidly depleting!" Conner panicked as the paper talismans were shrinking noticeably faster.
"Hahahahaha, I guess that's enough." The Sect Master laughed and dispelled his flame. "Let's go back to the Sect for now."
The Sect master confidently started to lead the way back when Travis stopped him.
"Sect Master, are you sure you want to return like that?" Travis pointed at his naked body.
"Hm? Oh, hahaha. I'm sure it will be fine," The Sect Master laughed without a care in the world, "Let's go! I may not need to eat, but I'm dying for some good food and booze!"
This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.
Conner looked over at Travis with shock and disbelief on his face.
"I told you he's a monster."
"I can still hear you, Travis!"
Rumble
The ground beneath their feet shook as large boulders the size of hills slid toward each other, rapidly growing into a significant figure.
Travis observed the mad battle-hungry grin on the Sect Master’s face and the look of pale despair on Conner’s face. “Sect Master?”
“Mhm? Yeah?”
“Can you win?”
The Sect Master turned to Travis, full of bloodlust.
“I guess we’ll find out, won’t we?”
When the Lava golem finally finished forming, it stood over five hundred feet tall, like a living mountain given form.
“A lava golem emperor! I can’t ask for a better opponent!”
“Roar!”
The golem cried out in challenge, or perhaps it felt threatened when it smashed down with its hill-sized fist.
“We’re dead!” Conner cried out as he fell to his knees.
The Sect master jumped up and met the fist in midair with his flaming white fist.
BOOM
An explosion rang out, blowing Conner back dozens of feet as Travis managed to stand his ground before retreating to Conner.
“Are you alright?”
“Monsters! The both of them!”
The Sect Master fell back to the ground, neither of them coming out on top of the exchange.
“Roar!”
The golem roared in rage, not believing such a tiny being could stop its unrivaled fist.
Rumble
Hearing its roar, dozens of lava golems approached Conner and Travis.
“Get it together, Conner. We have company.”
During the fight with the lava golems, Travis noted that the apocalyptic explosions had stopped; however, he could not spare even a moment's distraction. Only when Travis turned to meet his opponent did he notice that no lava golems remained.
“Conner! Where are you!”
“Cough cough! Travis?” a weak voice cried out behind the body of a lava golem.
Rushing behind the golem, Travis found Conner with his back against the golem, his left arm broken in multiple locations. Travis examined his injuries closely, releasing a sigh of relief.
“Whew. It looks terrible, but it won’t kill you. You will be miserable until we get back, though. That’s what you get for skipping out on training.”
“Ha Ha, I guess it is. Cough! Where is the Sect Master? He must have won since we no longer hear the golem emperor. Cough!”
“I don’t know, let me look.”
Travis stood on top of the golem's body and scanned the surroundings.
The golem emperor's body is over there. I should check over there.
“Hold on, Conner, I’ll be right back.”
“Cough! Where are you going?”
“If the Sect Master is anywhere, he’s by the emperor’s body.”
“Alright, don’t mind me. The Sect Master will help us get out of here.”
Leaping off the golem, Travis carefully moved to the golem emperor, on the watch for any potential ambush. Travis found the Sect Master on the other side of the golem, still completely naked, with his rib cage completely collapsed, dead.
Several decades later, Travis appeared in his mid-thirties, sitting atop a lava golem emperor with countless other golems surrounding them.
“Sect Master”
“Ah, Conner. What is it?”
“You finally did it! You surpassed the old Sect Master.”
Travis looked to the sky. “No, this is just the beginning.”