Solar Ascension-Chapter 144: Test Completed

"I’ll handle this one," Calewin said without turning back.

Flint was a bit confused since he hadn’t even felt Calewin come close to him, so how had they switched spots so quickly?

Besides, he also wanted to fight that giant of a golem, but he knew that he was almost at his limit, so he decided to sit this one out.

The golem scanned the environment and its eyes landed on the objective, though, it also noticed that there was a pebble before it.

Looking at Calewin who still had his hands still in his pocket, the golem let out a loud roar, sending lava spit everywhere.

Calewin didn’t move even when the lava spit rained all around him, he seemed a bit bored though.

He had only gotten off the chair because he sensed that this golem was strong, but now that he was right in front of it, he was disappointed, extremely so.

Unaware of the pebble’s thoughts, the golem lifted its massive feet and stomped it downwards, the impact causing the ground to tremble again.

Cracks appeared on the ground, allowing the lava underneath to pass through, turning everywhere else, except the circular platform where the core was, into a river of lava.

Flint silently looked at Calewin’s previous location with narrowed eyes, he knew Calewin was strong enough to handle that golem, he was just curious to see how.

BANG!

The golem suddenly stumbled forward as a sudden force collided with it.

It swung its massive palm towards the direction of the attack only to hit empty air.

BANG!

Another hit it again, this time causing it to stumble in the opposite direction. Again, the golem swung towards the attack, but its attacker was long gone.

Even Flint didn’t understand what was going on, sure he knew that Calewin was the attacker, but he hadn’t actually seen him appear.

BANG!

The golem’s head snapped slightly to the side this time, a visible dent forming along its jaw.

Still, there was nothing there, all the golem noticed was just the impact.

Flint’s eyes narrowed.

That wasn’t teleportation.

Even at his fastest, Flint’s teleport showed some signs, maybe a glow or at least, even a ripple in space, but there was nothing.

Calewin’s movements seemed invisible if not for his attacks landing, Flint would’ve seriously doubted if he was still around.

The golem roared again, before swinging both massive arms in a wide arc, trying to clear whatever invisible insect was harassing it.

Desperate, the molten lines running along its body started glowing brighter and brighter before suddenly,

BOOM!

Lava blasted outward in a perfect sphere, vaporizing chunks of rocks that had appeared midair.

The circular platform cracked under the pressure, spiderweb fractures running toward the smaller elevated platform where the core stood, though, it still remained completely unharmed.

The shockwave tore across everything forcing Flint to teleport backward, abandoning the folding chair.

And yet,

BANG!

A strike landed directly at the back of its knee.

CRACK.

The massive leg buckled slightly and Flint’s eyes immediately widened, the golem hadn’t left a single blind spot with its AOE attack, and yet, Calewin had somehow been able to get an attack through.

He squinted his eyes and although he expected to see nothing, there was a difference this time.

There.

For the briefest fraction of a second, he saw something, a distortion in space, like heat haze bending light.

Then it vanished.

The golem tried to retaliate, slamming both fists into the ground in frustration.

BOOOOM!

The circular platform trembled violently again as the lava filled floor bubbled higher and chunks of molten rock started rained down from above.

And still—

BANG!

A heavy blow struck its ribs.

BANG!

Another slammed into its shoulder.

Each hit was precise and targeted at structural weak points.

The golem’s regeneration struggled to keep up with the attacks, and soon enough, they were appearing faster than that it could keep up.

Flint slowly exhaled.

From Calewin’s fight with Nox, it was clear that he was strong, but this is on a completely different level.

It now seemed as if he was holding back during his battle with Nox, which was a terrifying thought, after all, Nox still ended up losing.

The golem let out another roar, this time, of pain as it stumbled backwards, falling into the lava.

Calewin finally reappeared without so much as ash on his combat suit.

He had a bored look on his face as he stood on the golem’s chest. Now that he was this close, the size difference was really obvious.

Compared to the golem, he really did look like a slightly larger spot on it, and yet, he had been able to do such damage to it.

The golem roared again and tried to rise, one massive hand shooting upward to grab him. 𝚏𝕣𝐞𝗲𝐰𝕖𝐛𝐧𝕠𝕧𝚎𝚕.𝐜𝚘𝗺

It was fast.

For something that large, it was terrifyingly fast but when its hand closed, it realized that there was nothing within, Calewin was long gone.

"Are you done?" Calewin spoke up, revealing that he was sitting just above the golem’s folded fist.

"Now then," he quickly hopped off it’s fist and before it could react, he was standing directly above its core.

The molten lines along the creature’s entire body started glowing again as it sensed what Calewin was about to do.

The golem’s aim was to detonate again, and this time, with the pebble so close to it, there was no way it would escape.

Flint, watching from a floating slab of rock close to the core they were protecting, tensed up.

If it exploded at that range, no matter how fast Calewin was, he wouldn’t make it out in time.

The glow reached its peak and so did the heat, but Calewin didn’t seem the least bit bothered, or even hurried, it seemed as if he had all the time in the world.

Calmly, he lifted his boot, reinforcing his legs with SE before stomping downwards and the blinding glow that was building up suddenly flickered.

There was a cracking sound as he poured more SE into the core, before cracks started appearing all around the golem’s body.

It took but a second for it to detonate into molten rock as it’s core was destroyed, letting Calewin fall towards the lava but just before he could reach it, he disappeared again.

[Time remaining: 00:00:30]

"Well, that was anticlimactic," Calewin muttered as he reappeared close to Flint who was still stuck in surprise, "ah, where’s my chair."

Flint turned to him before frowning, "if you can handle a golem like that in less than two minutes, then why the hell didn’t help earlier."

"Two minutes?" Calewin put a hand under his chin, "I could’ve sworn it was longer than that."

"...That’s not the point," Flint’s frown got darker but Calewin just shrugged before patting his head.

"Calm down kid," He said, "the golems you handled were a lot weaker than this one so it would’ve been a lot more boring."

Flint slapped his hand away, almost getting annoyed at the fact that he was called a kid, but he was interrupted by a sudden chime.

[Time remaining: 00:00:00]

[Objective successfully completed.]

The holographic environment around them slowly started deconstructing around them and the floating fragmented rock they were on slowly started descending.

The two stood up, and when the simulation room rematerialized, they were standing where they previously were at the start.

The others were also there, each as they were before...well, except Marion who was being carried by Devon as medics quickly approached him.

They assured she’d be fine after a bit of rest, so Devon just let out a sigh of relief as he stood straight.

Radiant Boar also reappeared in the room again with both hands behind his back as he scanned each their faces before he started.

"Your performance during this exercise was satisfactory at best," he said, "the goal was to work as a unit, and while most of you achieved that."

Garron Boar paused as his eyes moved to Flint and Calewin, "you two decide to abandon that objective."

Neither Flint nor Calewin said anything as he continued, "and whilst the core was successfully protected, I saw no team work between you two."

Flint turned to Calewin with a frown on his face, clearly blaming him, but Calewin didn’t seem to care.

"As for you two," Radiant Boar turned to both Nox and Rhett, "while you did end up working as a team, you still failed to protect the core, which was your primary objective."

Nox and Rhett stood up straighter as Garron’s eyes remained on them as he gave his assessment.

"You prioritized eliminating the threat," Garron Boar continued evenly, "instead of safeguarding the objective, which would’ve cost you two if this was an actual tournament."

Done with the two, he turned to Devon, squinting his eyes before opening his mouth, "you two did well."

Well, that was a surprise.

"You will be reassigned into mixed teams next exercise," he announced, "we’ll leave in two days, so I’ll ensure you function as a unit before then."

With that, the doors behind them slid open with a hiss.

"Dismissed."