Chapter 14

“You’re finally here, I see,” Caleb said as he began to rise to his feet.

As the door to the room that he had been in for the past day slowly opened, Caleb made his way to his bedroll in the corner of the room. It was rolled up, but the bedroll itself was not his focus at that moment. He kept the sword that Lance had given him, along with his knife, right next to it.

By the time the door was completely open, Caleb had the sword and knife attached to his belt.

“You’re already ready, I see,” Lance said with a sly smile.

“I am,” Caleb agreed as his muscles tensed. Thoughts of what the third and final test would consist of fluttered to his mind.

“Good luck then,” Lance said as he took a step back and to the left.

With Lance out of sight, Caleb saw one of the last things that he could have expected. A statue that appeared to be made of marble was standing right behind where Lance had stood. The statue was finely made, looking like a man through and through.

Why did he wish me luck? It did not make any sense to Caleb.

Brushing that thought away, he looked at the statue a bit more carefully. In addition to looking like a six-foot tall man made of marble, it had been made to look as though it wore a tunic, trousers, and a pair of boots.

“That’s a nice statue,” Caleb commented with a puzzled expression upon his face. “But what’s the point of this? A statue can’t test me.”

It was with widened eyes that Caleb saw that he was wrong. The statue moved to a crouching position and dashed towards him, moving as easily as a man.

As soon as the statue walked entered the room, Lance stepped back in front of the doorway.

Caleb had no doubt that the statue would destroy him if he did not move out of the way. Leaping to his right, out of the way of the strange foe, was not exactly easy. It seemed to run faster than the bear that had tried to attack him several days ago.

Still, he hit the ground and rolled away from it just before it reached him. It gave him the perfect view of the statue punching into the wall behind where he had stood.

His hand… it went straight through the wall, Caleb thought as the statue’s fist punched a hole into the wall. The sound of shattering stone was unlike anything Caleb had ever heard.

As the statue turned to look at Caleb, he heard Lance start to speak. He never turned his eyes from the unnatural foe though.

“My friend here is a golem. He… well, I suppose it is the proper word… is a living construct of magic and stone. Just to make this clear to you, a golem of this size can move as fast as a human, hit as hard as stone, and will never tire. You can destroy it, I suppose.” Lance said as he leaned against the doorway. “Anyways, your test is simple. You need to defeat my friend.”

I’m going to kill him one of these days, he thought as he stood up and drew the sword from his hip. I’m getting sick and tired of all this magic.

Seeing Caleb’s sword drawn, the golem dashed towards Caleb again with its fist back.

Exhaling deeply, Caleb jumped out of the way moments before it reached him again. Safely out of the way, he brought his sword down in quick arc that he put all of his weight behind. The timing was perfect, and it hit the golem easily.

The instant that the sword struck the golem’s shoulder, Caleb felt an alarming amount of strain on the blade. It only lasted for a moment though. A sharp echo resounded through the room as the blade of the sword snapped in half.

That’s not good, Caleb thought as he looked at the broken sword. It was the last thing that he had expected.

Before he could process the situation completely, the golem grabbed him by the tunic, spun around, and released him. The actions sent him sliding across the ground until he slammed into the wall across from where he had been.

“You’re not going to stand a chance if you just take it,” Lance said with barely hidden amusement.

“Screw you,” Caleb muttered as he sat in an upright position.

Before he could stand, the golem had reached him and grabbed him by the tunic again. With incredibly ease, it lifted him with a single hand and slammed him into the wall. A wince was heard from him as he made contact with the stone wall. And then, the golem began to repeat its actions.

By the fifth time that Caleb was slammed into the wall, even Lance was wincing, though it did not seem to have any intentions of stopping.

I need to stop this, Caleb thought as he tried to push the pain to the back of his mind.

It was at that moment that pain of another kind filled him.

Pain similar to having fire fill his veins consumed Caleb as he let out a silent scream.

When he hit the wall that time, he did not even feel it. Instead, he seemed to welcome it.

Through pained but determined eyes, Caleb stared at the golem. Seeing it begin to pull him away from the wall again, he kicked out with both feet. Instead of hurting himself like he had almost expected, he managed to force it to drop him and stagger backwards.

Finally free, Caleb landed in a crouch and dashed towards the golem at full speed. As he closed the distance, he leapt towards it and tackled it to the ground. As his shoulder made contact with its stone midsection, more pain gripped him. He did not allow it to control him though.

“Catch,” Lance suddenly said.

Caleb barely looked up to see that a hammer with a handle as long as his arm had been tossed towards him. With exceptional ease, he caught it with one hand.

In a single fluid motion, Caleb brought the hammer down on the golem’s center, sending spider web-like cracks through its torso. He repeated the motion three times before he gripped the hammer in two hands.

Taking in the damage that he had done it thus far, Caleb took a breath and raised the hammer as high as he could. He then brought the hammer down with all of his strength.

With a single strike to the golem’s chest, it completely shattered.

Caleb immediately dropped the hammer and fell to his knees afterword, breathing harder than he had ever before.

“So it’s true,” Lance said quietly. “You truly are a Son of Kirakath.”

“What are you going on about now?” Caleb asked between breaths. “I told you that I was from Kirakath back when we first met.”

“There’s much more to it,” Lance said with a small smile. “Congratulations on passing the third test. I believe that it is now time to give you the answers that you have sought.”