—Kumuna’s Trial Begins—
Smoke still lingered from the explosion that tore through the training grounds. The cracked earth steamed beneath the weight of the monstrous figure now standing amidst the rubble—its armor groaning as unstable mana leaked from its seams.
The Shadow Golem.
Kumuna stood frozen, twin blades trembling slightly in his grip. Everything in his body told him to run—but he didn’t.
Orwin pulled himself from the fractured wall, blood on his lip, expression dark. “Kid. Stay back.”
Kumuna blinked, glancing at him. “Wait, what? But—”
“I said stay back!” Orwin’s voice thundered—not angry, but protective, even desperate. “This thing isn’t like the sparring matches. It’s not here to test you—it’s here to kill.”
The air around them grew colder, as if the creature’s very presence drained the warmth from the world.
Kumuna hesitated. His body tensed. He knew Orwin wasn’t just being overprotective. This wasn’t part of the training.
This was a real fight.
And he wasn’t ready.
The Shadow Golem roared and charged.
Orwin met it halfway in a burst of wind and motion, drawing both his blades and clashing steel-on-steel with the creature’s massive gauntlets. Sparks flew, the shockwave of their collision blowing dust and debris outward in a wide arc.
Kumuna shielded his eyes, heart pounding. He could barely see them. The two figures clashed with such speed and power that it was like trying to follow lightning strikes with the naked eye.
They’re moving too fast…
His eyes struggled to track anything beyond a blur of silver and black.
Orwin ducked beneath a strike, spun, and slashed—only for the Golem to parry with surprising agility. The beast was larger, bulkier, but somehow… it moved like something far more nimble.
Orwin’s eyes narrowed between exchanges.
“Why is it this fast?” he thought, breathing hard. “It wasn’t built for speed… Veraxis made it to be a tank—slow, durable, controlled.”
He flipped back as the golem slammed its fist into the ground, cracking the stone like a hammer of divine fury.
“Its strength too… This is wrong. How did it break the seal? How did it get out without triggering the alarms? This isn’t supposed to be possible…”
Orwin gritted his teeth and pressed forward.
Behind him, Kumuna struggled to maintain distance—dodging debris, keeping his footing on fractured ground. He deflected a flying chunk of armor that had torn loose in the chaos, but otherwise, he held a defensive position.
He wanted to help. But what could he do?
He couldn’t even track the fight.
“Come on…” he muttered, crouching behind a broken pillar. “There’s gotta be something I can do.”
Then—
A blow finally landed.
Orwin roared, driving both blades into the Shadow Golem’s side. Mana exploded outward in a spiral of light and darkness. The creature staggered, its momentum halted. With a final yell, Orwin flipped over it, spun, and smashed the back of its armored head with a crushing downward kick.
The beast crashed into the dirt, its body twitching.
The battlefield went still.
Panting, Orwin stepped back, blades still raised. The Golem didn’t move.
Kumuna rushed over, eyes wide. “Holy crap! That was insane! You actually—”
“MOVE!” Orwin shouted.
Kumuna froze.
The Shadow Golem’s body twitched—then suddenly jerked upward, one massive arm lashing out and smashing Orwin aside like a ragdoll. He hit the stone wall with a bone-cracking thud and slumped, dazed.
Kumuna stared, eyes wide with horror.
The creature stood fully upright now, swaying slightly. Its chestplate cracked straight down the middle. The enchanted armor began to fall away—one plate at a time—revealing the roiling black smoke beneath.
Then—
It screamed.
Not a roar.
Not a cry.
A howl—one that shattered the silence like glass.
A wave of shockwave energy erupted outward in all directions, splitting the earth and hurling Kumuna off his feet.
He landed hard, skidding across the ground.
When he looked up…
The Shadow Golem was gone.
In its place stood a monstrous shadow, vaguely humanoid, its form shifting and warping like smoke in a storm. Inside its chest floated a single pulsing orb of black-violet energy—its core—glowing brighter with every passing second.
Kumuna’s heart thundered.
“…Phase two…?” he whispered.
Orwin groaned behind him, pulling himself back to his feet, one hand over his ribs. His golden eyes narrowed. “It’s fully unsealed now…”
The creature locked eyes with Kumuna.
Kumuna raised his blades again, legs shaking.
“I’m not ready for this,” he muttered.
Orwin stepped beside him, planting his sword in the ground for balance.
“Too bad,” he growled. “Because now we’re both in this.”
The creature shifted unnaturally in the air, its form no longer bound by the rules of flesh or metal. The Shadow Golem’s body had become a storm of living smoke—twisting, stretching, pulsing with dark mana. Glowing tendrils of shadow snapped out with whip-like precision, lashing at the ground and ripping through stone like paper.
With every second, the creature grew sharper. Less unstable. More precise. The flickers of chaos from its transformation gave way to deliberate, focused movements—dangerously controlled.
Orwin darted in from the left, blades spinning in a blur of slashes, only for a tendril of shadow to coil around his ankle and slam him into the ground. Kumuna sprinted forward to intercept, but the beast flickered—vanished—reappearing midair and driving both claws toward him.
“Damn it—!” Kumuna threw himself into a roll, just avoiding the impact as shadow claws gouged the earth where he stood a moment ago.
He scrambled back to his feet, heart pounding.
“It’s like it’s reading us!” he shouted, deflecting a chunk of debris with a quick slash.
Orwin landed beside him, breath ragged, a gash running down the side of his arm. “It’s not just reading us… it’s learning. Adapting to our attacks.”
The Shadow Golem reared back and shrieked, and this time, the ground sank around its feet. Tiles cracked, the air distorted, and the creature launched itself forward—an unpredictable, erratic blur of motion.
Kumuna saw nothing but black and red.
Orwin shoved him aside and intercepted again, blades clashing against smoky limbs. Sparks erupted. The shockwave from the impact sent waves of pressure in all directions, throwing loose stone and shattered training weapons across the field.
Kumuna tumbled, slamming into a broken pillar.
Pain exploded in his side, and he coughed violently, trying to rise. The world spun for a moment.
“I can’t… keep up…” he gasped. “They’re moving like—like lightning…”
And then—
Ping.
A sound—not from the battlefield, but inside his head. A crisp, ringing chime like the first note of a song.
SKILL UNLOCKED: Sword Dance – Burning Strikes
Kumuna’s breath caught.
“What…?”
Across his vision, a strange flickering began. Not hallucinations—instructions. Glowing shapes appeared on the ground around him—circles, arcs, sweeping lines like chalk drawn in midair. Movements. Rhythm. Footwork. A pattern only he could see.
A dance.
He watched the memory unfold in fragments: a ghostly image of himself stepping left, spinning, crossing his blades, dipping low, sliding under an invisible blow, then launching upward in a flourish.
His mind clicked into place.
“…A sword dance,” he muttered. “Like an actual dance…”
The Shadow Golem turned toward him again, roaring with rage.
No more thinking.
Kumuna moved.
He stepped left. Pivoted. Slid into the stance. His muscles protested, his ribs ached, but he flowed with the vision.
Each step fed into the next—momentum gathering like a storm behind his blades.
Step.
Spin.
Cross.
Dip.
WHOOM.
Both of Kumuna’s swords erupted into flames—blue at first, then orange streaked with gold. The fire hissed against the air like a living force, wrapping around the metal as if it had been waiting for this moment all along.
Across the field, Orwin’s eyes widened. “What the hell is that…?”
Kumuna exhaled through clenched teeth, a grin tugging at the corner of his mouth.
“Alright… let’s see if this works.”
The creature lunged at him with killing intent—but Kumuna met it head-on.
He danced.
His body became a blur of motion—each strike a step, each dodge a beat, each flame-wrapped slash a crescendo. He flowed through the battlefield with a rhythm that didn’t belong to a first-timer. The burning blades seared through the creature’s limbs, cutting trails of fire across its dark form.
The Shadow Golem reeled back with a distorted shriek. Its smoky body flickered wildly, trying to reform, but the flames were doing real damage. Mana surged. Every time Kumuna’s blade connected, bursts of light erupted from within the creature’s core—like the fire was reaching into it.
He ducked under a wild strike, slashed upward, flipped back—and lunged forward into the final step of the dance.
His blades crossed in an X over his head—flames roaring—
And he brought them down.
BOOM.
A massive fireburst erupted on impact—an explosion of mana, heat, and light that engulfed the battlefield in a storm of smoke and molten force. The shockwave flattened nearby ruins, sending both Kumuna and the creature flying in opposite directions.
Kumuna crashed hard, skidding through the dirt, coughing violently as smoke filled his lungs. He forced himself to rise, planting his scorched blades into the ground for balance.
He squinted through the smoke.
“Is… is it over?”
Silence.
Then—
Growling.
A low, guttural sound like boiling tar.
The smoke shifted.
From within the haze, the creature emerged.
Its form barely held together—its limbs twitching, writhing—but its glowing core pulsed brighter than ever. Its body shimmered with rage.
Its arm raised.
Its claws gleamed.
It lunged.
Kumuna raised his blades with what strength he had left. “No no no—!”
Orwin, bleeding and bruised, sprinted forward.
“I won’t make it in time—!”
The claws were inches from Kumuna’s chest when—
SHHHK!
A crimson blur cut through the battlefield.
A flash of light. A streak of red.
And then—stillness.
Kumuna blinked.
Before him stood Kai’Zen.
The warlord’s eyes were narrowed, expression like carved stone. His spear—crackling with glowing red energy—was buried deep in the creature’s core.
The orb trembled. Cracked.
Then shattered.
The Shadow Golem’s body spasmed once—twice—
Then disintegrated, collapsing into a whirlwind of ash and black mist that evaporated into the air like it had never existed.
Silence.
Kumuna collapsed to his knees, his body shaking.
Kai’Zen pulled his spear free with a practiced flick, shaking off the remnants of darkness.
“Are you trying to die?” he asked, voice cold but grounded.
Kumuna looked up, panting, sweat dripping down his jaw. “Y’know… I had it handled.”
Kai’Zen didn’t answer right away.
Then, quietly—
“…You held your ground.”
Kumuna blinked in surprise.
Kai’Zen glanced down, nodding once.
“Not bad… brat.”
Orwin limped over with a wince, his tunic half-torn and armor scratched. He still managed a crooked grin. “Took you long enough.”
Kai’Zen didn’t meet his gaze. “I was watching.”
“You always are,” Orwin muttered, smirking.
Kumuna groaned and fell back onto his palms, laughing weakly. “Next time… we’re sticking to warm-ups…”
The field was torn. The earth scarred. The silence afterward was eerie.
But the boy had survived.
And something inside him had awakened.
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