Chaotic Craftsman Worships The Cube

So then what’s next? Ben couldn’t help but wonder. Jake had dealt with three golems and Amy six, meaning he couldn’t count on things being consistent for each of them, and he got what felt like the worst answer as the next ones came up.

Nine of them, and more interesting was the fact that two didn’t seem to match the rest. Instead of the hard, granite appearance that the others had, two of the new ones seemed like they were made of mud, having a wet look to them as Ben processed what he was seeing.

Okay, new types could be bad but the fact it went up by another three is worse. If we all need to fight then is the last person going to have to take on fifteen? More importantly, is the order going to keep going like this?

He got his answer as the barrier beside him opened, letting Thera step out. With the first being Jake, the second being Amy, and the third her, that left Ben confident he would be fourth, with Yuzu taking the last fight.

It wasn’t ideal. Of them all, he was confident in saying that Thera was going to be the most suited to handle whatever was to come, but at the very least he wasn’t going to be last.

Yuzu handled the golems in the first section fine so I guess that will be quick, but am I really going to have to fight twelve of these things? And if Thera got a new type then I’ll probably be getting them too. Ugh, why is my life already flashing before my eyes?

He tried to ignore his worry as the announcement for the beginning of the fight went up, Ben focusing the best he could to see whatever Thera was going to have to deal with, as the fight almost ended as soon as it began.

She held out her staff as the announcement was called and before any golem could take their first step, seven of them were destroyed, the stone they were made of crushed into a single large sphere as he cheered from where he was being held.

There was nothing shocking about it, he knew for this section at least she would be fine, but he couldn’t help but worry about the two remaining, wondering if for some reason she hadn’t been able to use her magic on them.

It was a worry that quickly vanished. Briefly, she looked back at him, making sure he was watching what would come next. She had figured out as easily as he had that he would be fighting next, and likely a larger group than she was given, with the fact that she was fighting new golems meaning he was sure to as well and considering that he was far less equipped to deal with such a thing, she wanted him to know ahead of time what they were capable of as she focused on them and whatever they might do.

Ben’s belief that these golems had been made of mud was verified a second later, the trial showing once again that it was willing to mix affinities so long as it kept earth as its base when the golems both acted in two different ways.

The first of them fired bullets of mud forward, Thera easily deflecting them with her magic, while the second fired itself, the totality of the golem blasting towards her in a powerful stream of water and dirt, only to be tossed backwards in the same instant. Neither of the golems had been damaged from Thera holding them back though, she just waited to see what they would do next.

From there, attack after attack was thrown, all of them watching as Thera handled them with ease, her overwhelming mana and high level of skill meaning that the floor they were on wasn’t even remotely a challenge for her, her only concern being to let Ben see what everything he’d have to go against was capable of, only stopping when she was sure they had nothing left to give. Not only had she witnessed anything they could do, but they had shrunk too, with every ball of mud fired being pulled from the golem itself, costing it some size with each attack that didn’t use its full body.

Seeing there was nothing left to learn she cast her magic on the dirt that made them, moving both mud golems so fast they separated from their water, leaving two puddles and piles of dirt on the ground that were both absorbed into the earth as the winning announcement was called out.

“With victory comes well earned pride! Would the competitor return to their area to await the next match?”

Instead of going back though, she yelled back. “Let me take the next match!”

She tried to show all she could of what Ben might have to face, but she would rather he not have to face anything at all and waited to see if she would get any response, nothing happening at all until the voice called out again.

“Would the competitor return to their area to await the next match?”

Hearing that, she deflated. She had felt hopeful that she’d be able to keep going instead, but the continued call with no change to the stage made it clear that they were going to be stuck there unless she went back to wait, meaning Ben would have no choice but to go.

She looked at him in worry, but he tried to give her one of confidence. Admittedly, he wasn’t actually feeling it, but he was sure he’d be able to put some of the items and weapons he had to use for his turn, before watching as Thera was sealed back away and gritting his teeth at what had come next.

He’d been right on the twelve golems, but there was another change that was plain to see. Thera had helped him immensely by showing off all he might have to deal with going against the mud golems, and like her, he’d been given two to fight as well.

He’d been expecting more, but what he hadn’t been counting on was that instead of having additional mud golems, he’d been given a new type. Lava golems.

“Nare, should I take these guys to be your self-inserts here?” Ben muttered.

They admittedly only kind of resembled the god. Both looked like they were made of lava, but the golems were more barrel-chested like the rest, and taller too.

And also going to try and kill me, which thankfully Nare hasn’t yet. Okay, don’t panic. I’ve got all the weapons on my vest, I think I can handle this without diving into my bag. Maybe. We’ll see… God I really don’t want to do this.

Visions of his death flashed through his mind, but he did his best to ignore them as he stepped out into the colosseum and hardened his heart. This was nothing compared to any single stage he’d faced in the dead god’s trial. He could do it, he just needed to act.

He pulled some items hanging from his vest pockets at the same time he activated the enchantments on his shoes, bringing the barrier up around him as the announcement of the fight rang out.

“Fighters, show your valour!”

At those words, Ben moved, activating his items and throwing them from the safety of his barrier as he and the others with him watched what they would do, while the small items each hit and stuck to one of the regular golems that were rushing towards him, only for both to collapse in on themselves seconds later as sounds of stone being crushed rang out amongst the stands.

No one watching understood what happened but Ben as he let himself quietly cheer on the success of his version one space bombs.

The designs had been simple, though admittedly expensive. The enchantments were made the same way as his sticky pads, using a barrier spell to lock on to the target, but in addition to that he had a space enchantment tied to it as well, enhanced with all sorts of other enchantments and made to replicate one of the most dangerous effects he’d experienced in the dead god’s trial, spatial collapse.

It was an effect that had almost mangled his arm when he’d experienced it firsthand, an effect that shrunk the space of an area itself, making all of the matter in it move to compensate, leaving it all trying to occupy the same space with predictably disastrous consequences.

Seeing how well it had worked gave him confidence as he pulled two more from his vest as the rest of the golems rushed forward, only momentarily stopped by the surprise attack. Ben’s minds worked in a flurry figuring out which to strike at next, with the choice he went for being both of the lava golems rapidly approaching. While fire wouldn’t make its way past the barrier he had set up, heat would, and he didn’t want to find out what would happen if his barrier ended up covered in the stuff, let alone what else those unknown threats might pull.

The first of his throws successfully hit, the liquid stone reacting to trying to be forced together by ripping itself apart, the molten rock splashing on the surrounding golems and eating into them as well, but the second missed as his throw was avoided, making Ben move fast with another.

This time as a test he threw two more, trying to make it look like they’d miss as expertly as he could as both hit the ground one after another, each right in front of two golems that didn’t react to them, thinking they were safe before being caught in the collapsing effect, the enchantments radius being big enough to take in the feet of the two his throws had landed by, bringing both to the ground.

Five down, seven to go. He thought to himself as he looked at all that was left. He’d managed to remove the unknown variable that was the lava golems, leaving only five stone and two mud to deal with, all of them acting far more cautiously.

The two mud golems moved back, taking advantage of their properties to shoot at him from a distance as his barrier took the blows, not buckling under the force of the attack as he tried to decide what to do next. He had plenty of space bombs left and he hadn’t even touched some of his other options, but with the golems taking a more cautious stance his options were limited, leaving him no choice but to reach into his pocket, pulling out his revolver.

He’d considered bringing the shotgun he’d made when dealing with Ather but ended up leaving it behind, wanting the convenience that the smaller one he’d made first would give considering he hadn’t actually known what they might end up dealing with. Whether that had been the right call or not was something he didn’t know for sure, but as things stood all he could do was hold it out and take aim as he ran his mana through it, taking his first shot.

His accuracy had always been weak, but with the size of his targets that didn’t matter as much. He was already seeing his barrier could stand up to whatever the mud golems threw his way, so instead he focused on the stone ones who seemed to be waiting, trying to understand what to do next so that was what he fired at first, not getting it where he wanted to but still hitting its torso as the very next instant the golem exploded, the stone in it shattering as the effect of the magic bullets Ben had made showed their strength.

Both his bombs and bullets had challenges in their creation. As for the bombs, they needed specific activation conditions placed on them since the moment the space spell went off the item holding those powerful enchantments would be destroyed too, breaking the white mana crystal they were placed on, but the bullets had been a whole other issue.

With his current skill, there had been no problem adding an enchantment to something that small, the problem he’d had to face was ensuring that the bullets wouldn’t be damaged when they were fired, giving the potential to break the delicate enchantment on each one.

The solution to that had been orichalcum, the magic metal that proved to be all but unworkable unless mana was used in its processing. He’d had to carefully hand make each one with his material magic, shaping the casing of it while coating it in enchantments, creating an internal filling that was thin layers of moribusial and rainbow mana crystal to power it, and a complex composite material that would sit between the bullet and firing mechanism, not letting the enchantment that acted to shoot it have the chance to act on the orichalcum, all so he could deliver an effect that was a combination of both earth magic and his own destruction, each heavily enhanced by all he could get from his blending system.

He was firing his next bullet before he even processed that the first shot worked, moving from one golem to the next as fast as he could before he could act, only really missing once as the last five stone golems went down and his gun was empty, leaving him with only the remaining mud ones, still firing off attacks from a distance, both of them much smaller than they’d started as mud piled up around his barrier.

From there, his minds were a flurry of activity, his headache spiking as every one in his head tried to figure out what to do about the last two as fast as possible. He could reload and take them out, but he didn’t want to take his eyes off them for a moment. His barrier was holding so far, but there was always the potential that a large enough attack could change that and he’d already seen in Amy’s fight that the golems were willing to self-sacrifice if it would give a different one better odds, and from where he stood he didn’t think he’d be able to hit either of them with his remaining space bombs.

At the end of things he wasn’t a warrior, he couldn’t count on himself to make the right choice in a split second, all he could do was hope it wasn’t the wrong one as he rushed forward toward them, reaching his hand into his pocket to reload just two shots as most of his minds were observing the foes before him, both using the rest of their mass to shoot themselves at him as he let himself fall back to the ground, rolling over and holding his gun out, trying to take aim as time around him felt like it slowed to a crawl while he watched both golems change directions in mid-air, coming back at him as he fired his shots and ended things.

“With victory comes well earned pride! Would the competitor return to their area to await the next match?”

As the announcement went up he just kept laying there, feeling his heart pound against his chest in the moment. He’d done it. He’d survived the stage through his own efforts and hadn’t even gotten injured in the process, and even if there were points he wasn’t sure of himself, there hadn’t been a single one he wouldn’t have been able to come out of in some way, even if he could have ended up hurt along the way.

As the announcement went up again he finally got to his feet, looking around to see that not only had the golems disappeared, but the shattered remains of his weapons too as he mumbled for the gods to hear.

“Even if they were broken, all of the materials were still good and they weren't cheap. I want those back.”

No matter how much money he had to his name, he wasn’t going to just throw out anything worth its weight in gold, but since there was nothing he could do about that in the moment he walked back to his area, enjoying the looks of his companions.

Even though he couldn’t hear it, Ben could see Jake cheering while Amy mostly seemed surprised. Thera looked almost ready to collapse with relief while Yuzu gave him a smile, even if it seemed tinted with an edge of worry.

He just smiled back at all of them, looking exactly as happy as he felt as he stepped back into his area, the barrier making it up closing around him while the next set of golems showed up to rear their heads as Yuzu’s turn was finally about to begin.

Bucking the prior trend of adding three more each time, this time there was only two, adding an extra mud and lava golem compared to what he’d fought against as he had to wonder if the gods were cutting them a break, or maybe had gotten the trial to spare the resource anyway since the result was clear. With how fast she’d handled them in the first section the outcome seemed obvious, even if she did look nervous as she went out.

Her staff was almost shaking in her hands as the match was called to begin, but as Ben waited for it to end with those words, nothing changed. None of the golems collapsed to the ground, instead firing off their attacks or starting to run forward as Yuzu ran, avoiding the mud and lava coming at her at high speeds while she showed off the attributes of a third-tier skill holder, rushing and weaving around all of them without rest.

Is she just playing with them? He couldn’t help but wonder as he watched. Or she’s maybe treating this like practice? A chance to put her attributes to the test against a powerful enemy? I guess if you have the leeway this could actually be a decent opportunity for things like that. Really need to make sure I keep raising my own stats too. Absolutely want the option of running circles around anything trying to kill me in the future.

Whatever it was, she was definitely getting a workout. Ducking and weaving, jumping and dodging, all to go against the horde before her as well as she could, right until her first slip-up.

It was comparatively small, but having dealt with plenty of burns himself, he didn’t doubt it would hurt. He watched as a ball of lava skimmed across her arm, an inch of flesh and muscle disappearing with it as she screamed, putting her hand over the wound as she rapidly healed it while she kept pushing herself, trying to get all of the speed she could.

“Okay, that’s probably a sign to finish things Yuzu,” He muttered, casting a quick look to Jake and Amy to see how they were reacting, only for it to finally click for him that something was very, very wrong.

Jake was screaming, pounding the barrier with each of his strikes being loaded with spells, all ending impotently against the might of the trial while Amy was slashing at it with her weapons, the force in her blows that had so easily sliced through the stone of the golems she’d fought being useless, but not keeping her from hitting harder and harder till her hands bled.

Thera was trying to force it open the only way she could, the scales of her armour being ripped off and condensed into a ball to smash against the barrier as well, all with no luck as things snapped into place for Ben. He’d just been assuming that Yuzu would be able to handle this as easily as she had the first time because he’d assumed that like the first time, what she was facing were proper golems. Magical constructs given a false life through the combination of earth and life magic. But if he was wrong, if they weren’t golems but puppets being controlled by earth magic alone, then that would mean there was nothing she could strip from them. Despite all of her strength, without having a different magic herself she was basically powerless.

Shit.

If she really had nothing then she was going to die. The very thought brought all of his nightmares to the front of his mind as he dug through his bag to do everything he could, as desperate as everyone to fight against her inevitable fate.

He slapped on two bracelets, both made to give him the best buffs he could despite how little that would be with his resistances before slamming a potion made to enhance his mana recovery rate even more as he smashed his hands against the barrier trapping him, pouring almost every drop he had into his destruction, only to feel it not work.

Come on, I can do this. He told himself as he opened a different potion, feeling his mana rise all the faster as he again put everything he had into applying his magic to the wall before him. This is just a construct of mana, I know I can break these, come on!

Still it held as Ben gulped down another potion, while before his eyes Yuzu got another injury, the attack of the mud golem getting her other arm, knocking her staff from it as the bone broke.

This is just a stupid trial! Aren’t I the trial defier? Aren’t I the trial breaker? So just break already!

Still his effort failed him as Ben slammed another potion, failing again and again like the others as they were forced to watch Yuzu get battered more and more, injuries piling up as fast as she could heal as it took as much of a mental toll as a physical one.

It felt like his teeth were going to shatter from how hard he was clenching his jaw. She was being cornered and they all knew it, and in his last bit of desperation, every mind in his head focused on directing his destruction as perfectly as possible to a single point as he forced every bit of mana he’d recovered out of his body.

“Come on!” He yelled, everything he had going into it. “I’m the king of sacrilege, I’m not going to let something some stupid god made get the better of me, so just break already!”

He felt his headache worsen as he nearly bottomed out of his mana again while at the same time he fell forward, the barrier in front of him shattered under his hands and evaporating into unstructured mana as he kicked off the ground into the trial with all he had.

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