Solar Ascension-Chapter 140: Marion?

BOOM!

Marion watched as Devon was launched backwards into a a wall, before she quickly caught him with her strings.

[Time remaining: 00:02:45]

They had been fighting these golems for a while now and they had been confident that they would be able to hold on.

Well, that is, until the final three minutes when the ground started rumbling and an even larger golem was created.

The duo first thought they could easily handle it, despite it being bigger and the results?

Devon let out a groan as he slowly stood up. He hated to admit but that hurt like hell. This golem might be big, but it was hella fast.

There was also the fact that they had been using a lot of SE during the past few minutes, especially against the heat and they were quickly running out.

Devon pushed himself off the wall, one hand braced against the scorched stone as he sucked in a sharp breath.

"Yeah... I definitely ain’t tanking more of that," he muttered, as he pressed one of his gauntleted fingers on his forehead, "my head hurts like hell."

"Are you okay?"

Marion asked as her strings loosened slightly but didn’t withdraw. They stayed wrapped around his torso and arm, ready to yank him out again if needed.

"Yeah, just a bit of a headache," was what he said, but his head was visibly bleeding right now, though he didn’t have time to attend to it for now.

Devon then turned towards the golem and clicked his tongue, "its fast, hits like a truck, and tanky... yeah, I’m startin’ to see the problem."

He launched forward again anyway.

Not with the same reckless burst as before, this time, his aim was to mess with its balance by aiming for its legs. His fist connected—

CRACK!

The impact barely slowed it.

The golem’s leg dented, moving it off balance for a second as Devon launched himself into the air, unfortunately, the giant twisted unnaturally fast and backhanded him midair.

BOOM!

Devon was sent spinning again, only barely avoiding being slammed into the lava thanks to Marion’s strings snapping tight and yanking him sideways.

"Devon!" she shouted, the strain was pretty clear now.

"I’m good!" he replied, though his breathing said otherwise, "Just..., this ain’t workin’."

The golem raised both arms, molten stone stretching and reshaping into massive pillars before slamming them down.

Marion barely managed to pull them both back as the platform cracked and a lava filled crater was created where they had been previously standing.

"Hey," she called out as she turned to him.

"Hmm?" Devon answered in question.

"Can you hold it back for a few seconds?" She requested without much explanation, but seeing the expression on her face, Devon just nodded.

"Aight," he said.

"Thanks," Marion said before calmly moving further back, closer to the core they were protecting and Devon watched as her strings cocooned her.

"Aight ugly," he turned back to the approaching golem, "you and me, we gotta talk."

Devon wiped the blood from his brow with the back of his glove, smearing it across his gauntlet as he rolled his neck again.

This fight would’ve been a lot easier if he was faced with an opponent that used SE, so he could just store and release their attacks against them.

Unfortunately, he hadn’t mastered it enough to be able to store anything other than SE, but that didn’t mean it was completely useless in this battle after all, he also had SE.

The golem loomed closer, each step shaking the platform and sending heat waves forward.

"Couple seconds, right?" Devon muttered, planting his feet on the ground and pulled his very on SE in. "I can do a couple seconds."

He inhaled deeply as he wasn’t sure if this would work at all but he had to try.

He then launched himself forward again as the ground shattered beneath his foot as he disappeared.

He slammed his fist into the golem’s knee, dumping his very own SE into the golem’s leg.

CRRRRACK!

The results were minimal as it only caused the golem to stagger a step but that was all Devon needed.

"Yeah, that’s it...look at me!"

He dashed forward again, dodging a couple of stomps from the golem, before delivering brutal strikes at its legs and lower torso.

None of them did real damage, but every hit forced the golem to pay attention to only him.

The giant swung down.

Devon ducked, the heat from fist grazing his back and tearing a chunk out of the platform behind him.

"Damn...okay.... it’s still fucking fast!"

He kicked off the ground, rebounded off the golem’s shin, and slammed his fist into its hip joint.

His arm felt as if it was about to fall off, but he still held on, detonating all the stored SE within it, causing that part to crumble.

But it was all for naught, as the golem started regenerating again.

The molten stone flowed back into place almost immediately, sealing the cracks like they had never existed.

Devon’s eyes widened, "Now that’s some bullshit."

The golem didn’t give him time to complain.

It formed a lava spear and launched it towards him, but Devon managed to avoid it quite easily.

What he didn’t expect though, was for the spear to suddenly detonate by his side, launching him backwards.

He rolled a couple of times before forcing himself to his knees as he looked up.

"Okay," he panted as his chest heaved, his entire body was now in pain and he could barely use his SE anymore, "yeah... I’m officially outta ideas."

[Time remaining: 00:01:00]

Seeing that the pebble could barely move, the golem lifted its massive foot aiming to crush him to paste, and unfortunately, Devon could hardly move out of the way in time.

"I guess we’ll be failing this one," he muttered as he let himself relax and wait for the end of the test.

But a couple of seconds passed and all he felt was the ground rumbling so he slowly opened his eyes only to realize that he was close to the core they were protecting now.

Wrapped around him were a couple of strings and standing in front of him in her combat suit was Marion.

She turned to look at him, causing him to realize that her hazel eyes had gone completely blank before she turned towards the golem again.

Her strings were wrapped all around her and her demeanor had completely changed, causing Devon to question,

"Marion?"