Chapter 20:

  Trial 1? That didn't sound good. Mira was panicking, trying to make the golems back away.

  "What? No! We're not here for the trials, we're guests! You let me in last time!"

  Her cries fell on deaf ears. Shogai had to drag her away from danger, as she was in complete denial. The three of them were surrounded and needed to get away. A golem tried to grab them, but Shogai dodged the arm and jumped on top of it. The golem wasn't nearly agile enough to stop him, and it hobbled backwards. Mira and Jade used the opening to slide beneath it and escape the deadly circle.

  "They don't have minds! I can't break into them!" Jade exclaimed as she got to safety.

  Shogai jumped off the golem once they were safe and felt pain in his hands. Their skin was too jagged to get a good grip on, and Shogai's hands were already bleeding from that brief exchange. Mira was panicking.

  "I-I don't know what's going on! I swear-"

  "We can worry about that later! This is just another obstacle we need to get past."

  The four golems were incredibly slow, but attacking them would be an issue. If things went wrong, was there a safe escape route? Shogai glanced around. There were a few tunnels, but Mira had said that Aberrants roamed all the tunnels except the one they entered. As for that one, it'd be difficult to climb back up, but that didn't matter. One of the golems was guarding it. Would it stay there? If so, that meant Shogai was only dealing with three at a time.

  Mira and Jade were scared, and Shogai couldn't blame them. Neither of them were fighters, so they were forced to leave their lives in Shogai's hands. They seemed to trust him, but did he? The doubt immediately vanished. He cared if they lived or died, so there was no choice here. He would save them.

  The three golems were getting close to the group now, so Shogai met them head-on. He winced as he closed his fist on his bleeding palm, but he endured the pain to see just how threatening this defence system was. Shogai ducked underneath the first golem's slow fist, and he hit it in the chest, ignoring the crack of his knuckle bones as they hit solid stone. It worked, though, and the first golem found a hole in its chest. Some kind of rubber rope was inside, and it must have been what made the golems move. Its red eyes flickered and went blank as it fell forward. Lightning sparked between the severed ropes. Shogai didn't know what kind of power was able to harness lightning to make rocks move, but it was more advanced than anything he'd seen before.

  After the adrenaline from the first victory wore off, Shogai saw a problem. His hand was completely broken. Maybe he could one-shot the golems, but he didn't have enough arms. He could take down one more at the expense of his other hand. Then what? He could kick them? Ask Mira for healing? The first one was never going to work without his arms to balance himself, and he didn't have the leisurely time for the second. He'd just put Jade and Mira in danger.

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  Stop holding back. You can beat them all in a single punch.

  "That'll bring down the whole chamber," Shogai replied aloud. Jade gave a sound of frustration.

  We don't have other options. Do it, or I will.

  Jade didn't understand that she and Mira would be in danger if Shogai used his nuclear punch. It would beat them all, yes, but in an unstable underground room, it could badly hurt them.

  It was true that there weren't other options, but Shogai was sure he could come up with one. He just needed to think.

  A nagging feeling came to the back of his mind.

  "Jade, stop!"

  I'll stop when we're safe. If you won't do it yourself, then don't fight back.

  Shogai tried to fight back, but he was occupied with dodging the other two golems. He couldn't focus on keeping her out. Eventually, he found himself raising his one stable fist into the air with an aura of energy surrounding it.

  Meanwhile, the golems had gotten smarter. They were giving him no more room to dodge. Shogai sighed in exasperation. It was this or nothing. He stopped fighting back.

  "Mira!" He heard his voice yell out, "Hide behind a pillar with Jade. Be careful!"

  That was Jade speaking with his mouth. She had maybe five seconds longer until the golems got to her. Him? Shogai was a passenger in his body and wasn't sure what to think of it.

  The aura in Shogai's fist massively increased. The third golem, guarding the exit, foolishly saw this as a sign to help his allies. He got closer. Jade took the opening to slam Shogai's fist into the floor with all his/her might.

  The last thing Shogai heard in his mind was an apology for breaking his fist.

  The impact from the collision sent winds flying in all directions. The two golems directly next to Shogai blew away into pieces. The third one remained more intact but was still annihilated by the shockwave. Pillars in the chamber crumbled. Some collapsed. The ceiling dropped stones from the sky that Shogai wasn’t hit by, but he lost sight of the others. The battle was won, but dust was everywhere. And Jade's connection with him had broken. What did that mean?

  "Jade! Mira!" Shogai called out, scrambling over debris in the direction they were in. His two broken hands made this exceedingly difficult, and the smoke obscuring everything beyond a couple of meters in front of him didn't help. The minute he was searching was the longest minute of his life.

  But he found them. They were behind one of the pillars that hadn't collapsed, but was eerily wobbling. Jade had an enormous cut on her forehead, and she was out cold. But she was breathing. Mira had a clearly broken arm, but she was awake and healing Jade.

  Her arm must have been killing her, but she ignored that pain to help Jade. How much did Shogai owe her now?

  "Are you alright?" Shogai asked, examining both of their states. Mira smiled.

  "We'll live. I'm impressed and thankful. Just do it again."

  "Again? Wha-"

  Trial 1 complete. Commencing Trial 2.

  "Nexus wasn't going to end at just one trial. It's fine, after that attack, you can beat this trial for sure!"

  Shogai showed Mira his broken hands. Her eyes widened.

  "...oh."

  The ground rumbled. From the middle of the room, a hand emerged like a titan crawling from the depths of the underworld.

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