Bang!
A loud sound boomed out from atop the large platform, followed by a pained cry as the disciple who was fighting against the golem flew off the platform and collided against the wall of the room. He tumbled to the ground and remained motionless, while other disciples rushed up to give him aid.
"Like I said,'' the disciples who had revealed the nature of the trial to John and his group spoke up again. "This trial is hard as hell to pass. Most end up like him."
"Most huh?" John mused. "Does that mean some have passed this trial?"
"Sure, some have, but not many. The only ones who have been able to pass are the most talented youths of our sect. This trial tests combat prowess more than it does absolute power," the disciple replied.
"Can we only take it solo?" Adam suddenly spoke up, as he had noticed the youth on the platform was alone. If he had to take a combat trial alone, he was most likely destined to stop here.
"No, you can take it as a group," the youth replied. "But most choose not to. The difficulty of the test scales up based on how many people are in the group, as well as their overall cultivations, but the golem will at minimum be at the same cultivation as the strongest member of the group. Adding members will only raise its cultivation, and some groups have had to fight golems higher in cultivation than their own. So adding more bodies just makes the fight harder. Only those with incredible teamwork have passed this trial as a group."
"Is that so?" John replied while thinking about the trial and how to proceed forward.
Based on what the disciple had said, the opponent was based on the highest cultivation in the group. Gerrid was in the Early Heaven Tribulation Realm, and so the golem would be at that realm, if not higher.
'I can still handle an Early Heaven Tribulation Gole, but if the golem ends up being Middle Heaven Tribulation, fighting against it without my asura body will be quite challenging, especially while having to protect Adam and Chase. Iris is quite fast, so she should be able to handle herself, but still…this may be challenging.'
While thinking about the trial, another group went up on the stage and began their fight with the golem. The group consisted of five members, and as expected, the cultivation of the golem was a minor realm higher than the highest member in the group.
The battle was hard fought, but the incredible durability of the golem won out as the group was slowly defeated by its incredibly powerful blows. The durability of the golem also scaled with its cultivation, making it incredibly hard for those with lower cultivation levels to leave any significant levels of damage on it.
Lastly, lightning attacks seemed to be quite useless on the golem, which further stifled the groups that fought against it, almost all of their most powerful attacks were lightning based attacks.
'Lightning attacks don't work…in a lightning realm. Why do I get the feeling that whoever set up this Labyrinth is screwing with us.'
The group watched patiently as several other groups went up and tested their luck, but all failed spectacularly. Each group would be whittled away one by one until all were defeated, and their defeats were all quite miserable.
After the last group was knocked off the platform, no other group stepped forward.
"Guess it's our turn," John said as he stood up and started walking over to the platform. He was quickly followed by Adam, Chase, and Iris, but John stopped to turn at Gerrid, who was standing there without moving.
"You coming?" John asked.
Gerrid remained silent for a moment before shaking his head.
"No, you go on without me," Gerrid replied.
"You sure? I said I would take you through this realm if you helped me out earlier. I intend to honor those words," John replied calmly. Although the fight would be quite brutal if Gerrid joined, John was still confident in being able to win.
"I'm sure. Based on how this trial works, me being in the group would only cause headaches…besides, some of my friends are in this crowd, so I'll just join up with them and hopefully proceed that way. Good luck," Gerrid replied with a smile on his face.
John stared at Gerrid for a moment before he nodded his head. "Good luck to you as well."
Although Gerrid had never admitted it, he had done nothing to get the group this far. He was being carried forward by a bunch of first years, and as a third year, he felt incredibly awkward, as well as useless. John understood this, and so he did not argue against Gerrid's wishes.
He too would find it quite hard to swallow if someone younger than him all of a sudden showed up with greater talent and power and started carrying him through the trials.
After wishing Gerrid good luck, the group all walked up to the stage and hopped on. Gerrid's friend, who was standing besides him, smiled as he poked him in the ribs with his elbow.
"Just admit it. You didn't continue forward with them because they were dead weight to you," his friend jested with a smile. "You were quite kind to carry them this far forward already. I would have dropped them behind long ago."
"Quite the opposite," Gerrid replied with a wry look on his face. "It was my who was the dead weight through this Labyrinth."
"What? Surely you're joking," his friend replied.
"Just watch," Gerrid said as his eyes gazed forward. "These four will most likely breeze through this trial."
Gerrid's friend knew he was not one to lie, and so his face too became serious as he looked on at the group Gerrid praised so highly.
…
John jumped onto the raised platform, which was around one hundred yards wide. He was followed by Iris, Adam, and Chase, who all stared at the motionless golem on the other side of the platform.
A strange energy suddenly washed over them as it scanned their bodies and cultivation levels. In the group, Iris had the highest cultivation at the Late Meridian Forging Realm, followed by John at the Middle Meridian Forging for his essence cultivation. Chase and Adam trailed behind at the Early Meridian Forging Realm.
After a brief inspection, the energy faded away, and the motionless golem started to power up and move. A casual smile appeared on John's face as the Golem began to flare its power for them to feel.
"Half-Step Heaven Tribulation? That's a bit disappointing. Maybe I should have forced Gerrid to join us after all so I could have had a better fight.'
John shook his head at himself before he slowly started to walk forward towards the golem. The group of disciples outside the platform watched on, curious as to how the group of first years would make it past this trial.
"What? He's going to fight the golem alone?" one of the disciples questioned as they saw only John move forward.
"He had a Middle Meridian Forging cultivation, and he wants to fight a Half-Step Heaven Tribulation golem? Are the new batch of disciples this year all this stupid?" another replied with a slightly mocking tone.
They had been impressed that the group had made it this far, as no other first years had done so. However, they assumed it was Gerrid who had dragged them forward this far. Their curiosity as to how John and the rest would pass the trial turned into surprise and even light mockery, as what they were seeing was beyond what they had expected.
They all watched as John took out a battle axe while casually walking towards the golem. After fully powering up, the golems body suddenly flashed forward with incredible speed and appeared before John in an instant. Its first punched towards John with incredible power.
"He's done for," a disciple commented, but their eyes quickly widened as they watched the scene play out before them.
Bang!
The golems stone fist collided against John's outstretched hand, shaking the entire arena from the powerful collision. The brutal crushing of bone and flesh that was expected did not occur, and the golems fist was instead completely stopped by John's hand as he stood there casually. Johns robe and long hair fluttered behind him wildly from the power of the attack, while his calm gaze stared at the golem before him.
"What?"
"How is this possible?"
Several disciples exclaimed in shock. They had expected John to be violently crushed and knocked off the stage, but he had instead blocked the attack barehanded with complete ease.
His other free hand which was holding the axe began to flare with incredible power and profundity as he raised it above his head and slashed it down onto the golems body.
Sky Sundering Axe!
An incredibly axe battle art slammed onto the golems chest, pausing for a brief moment before it cleaved completely through its body. The golem exploded into pieces of rubble, while the stunned faces of the disciples outside the platform looked on. Only one face remained calm as he had expected this to occur.
Flash!
John and the rest of the group felt their bodies wrapped up in spatial powers, and their bodies suddenly disappeared from the sight of the rest of the disciples watching on.
After a long silence, a disciple couldn't help but speak out and break the silence.
"What the hell just happened? And who the hell is that kid?"