Chapter 84

Tom’s mana recharged as he waited out the bat’s sonic assault. The thumps continued on the plug he had installed to seal himself off, but it was taking too long. He was worried about the air going bad, so he used his Remote Earth Manipulation to create a pipe as thick as his finger to bring fresh air into his little stone coffin from the wider tunnel system. Tom was not reckless because he took the time to put several sharp turns into the construction and dead ends that would hopefully blunt any attacks that came through it. It wouldn’t be perfect, but he was confident nothing dangerous could get through the maze he had created.

Another wave of vibrations struck him.

The tiny body of the elemental appeared in his box. There were mental thumbs up and it encouraged him to stay still. Tom agreed readily enough. The rock wall still thudded occasionally like someone was physically hitting it and the small hole he had formed breathed little puffs of dust in concert with the bigger vibrations that came through the rock.

Minutes passed, and finally they trailed off.

Tom couldn’t help himself but to count the time between blows. One cat and dog… two cats and dogs… then reset and start again.

Sixty cats and dogs he counted a full minute and decided that was sufficient. The bats were either all dead which seemed improbable or had gone back to their cave to roost. Bored off the chase or assuming he had succumbed to the monstrous amount of power they had poured into killing him.

“Time to go.” With a touch, followed by a push the slab of stone defending him slipped out and down. Tom pulled himself out of the alcove, walking briefly on his hands in a plank position before he could extract his feet. With his heart thumping, he looked around the cosy room his magic had let himself form. The space had been transformed. Long gouges were on the floor and walls. The ceiling had been blasted and in a line cut from the entrance to the opposite wall into the floor. It had carved out a rut almost half a metre deep through the soft rock to reveal a new type of shiny stone well beneath the floor he had created.

In disbelief, he touched a cut on the previous smooth hard wall of his little room. Then he looked towards the entrance. The golem was on the bottom left of the opening, which was eighty percent filled with stone. The golem, despite having mostly protected itself had gouges cut out of it. Tom stroked its surface. It was no longer smooth and instead was pitted and cut. Its mass had been reduced by almost twenty percent during the fight, but there was no core damage, but its mana was also empty. Tom suspected five minutes ago it had been in a far more precarious state.

No damage. No bats got past. The elemental thought proudly back to him.

The rock that acted as a plug between them and the cave system shifted and cracked and the elemental pushed it aside to open up a gap large enough for Tom to crawl through. Before he did so, he examined the rock the elemental had created to seal the gap. It looked like it had been patched multiple times. The elemental shared images of him. Sonic boom attacks continuously blowing holes in the barriers and then some of the destructive sound waves would leak past. It had been a frantic battle of attrition where the golem had striven to keep the room sealed while the power of their enemies even undirected had worn away at his efforts. Based on the damage to the golem’s actual body Tom suspected the elemental felt like it had failed.

You did good. He thought through their bond unwilling at this point, before he had assessed the wider situation to make any noise that might give them away. You did awesome, Tom corrected. From the devastation unleashed, Tom felt fortunate to have survived and to still be in the challenge.

He dropped to his hands and knees and crawled partially only far enough so that he could see what was happening in the corridor.

He winced.

A bat had presumably been caught in friendly fire and torn to bits. One, maybe two bats. It was hard to tell from the pieces. The centipedes were a different story. Tom wasn’t sure he could even estimate the numbers. They weren’t as crushed as what his golem did to them, but they had been cut into bits. Twenty in the small stretch of corridor. Practically when they left, he would walk on top of the corpses because he doubted he would find bare rock.

With a sigh, he retreated into the safe room and subconsciously positioned himself next to the elemental in a spot where the wall was clear of scratches. His numb mind was processing what he had seen. Those sonic attacks packed a larger punch than he expected. If he was caught in one of them at a minimum, he would need to use stone skin. Normal skin, even his enhanced version from his skills at his vitality would be torn to the bone and if he based the assessment off the damage to this room, even a glancing blow would be dangerous.

Tom remembered how casual he had been when destroying the bat in the first room. He had gone as far to be amused when its head had exploded after his pebble had interrupted that attack. Given the evidence of his eyes that was no longer that funny. That explosion had been the attack capable of dicing a centipede, being cut off a few milliseconds before it would have struck him at point blank range.

Too close and too arrogant.

As his mana regenerated, he pumped the power into healing the golem next to him. Time was no longer the primary concern. Tom would settle for survival and finishing the stage even if it denied him any further rewards. Having witnessed the devastating offence of his opponents, he would not rush things.

“I wonder about the centipedes?” He murmured to himself and the elemental. “Do they pack a similar punch?”

The elemental said nothing in response to his question. Tom had paid them no mind after seeing how easily the golem had disposed of them, but if the bats were this strong, then he suspected they carried a comparable level of threat.

Five minutes later the golem was rebuilt and there had been no more sonic attacks. He guessed it was time to continue their exploration.

Or to retreat and leave.

Challenge trials were not supposed to kill those who were taking them, but there was never any guarantee of survival.

Tom shook his head. No, he would not do that, not when an extra stage might give him an additional spell or higher special levels or maybe even a title. He would be careful.

Cautiously, he returned to the tunnel. Centipedes were everywhere. None of them moving he began moving back towards the target.

Another dead bat. At least a head.

Then a pile of them where the tunnel turned abruptly. They were so mangled that he could not even accurately estimate how many were there. Over ten for sure, but there could have been twenty and unless he picked through them and counted heads he would never know.

Tom kept going and paused at the last bend before the previous cavern. He peeked around the corner and started counting. Six, seven and then eight of the bats were there. Six of them hung from the ceiling though two were on the ground injured but still alive. They looked intact enough to unleash sonic attacks.

Tom frowned to himself. It was probably too much. His Throw Rock skill was his only true offensive weapon in this situation and while part of him wished for a bow because of its deadly accuracy the smart, rational section acknowledged that his thrown pebbles hit harder and could be thrown faster.

While some bats survived, the centipedes had suffered worse. Previously, they had been a carpet on the floor and now there was only a scattering of them around.

The golem caught up to him and his fingers trailed overs it surface. “I think we stand and try to kill them all.” Tom whispered.

The elemental appeared on his shoulder. Just be ready to run.

I will, he thought back immediately. If a couple of his stones missed, then he would have no choice but to run. Yet if he started in a large cave he had more hope. Sound was the sort of stuff that could get focused in close confines. If he faced them here in the open where he didn’t have to worry about reflections and potentially he could run out of the dangerous space close to the bat.

At least, he hoped. “Let’s do this.” he whispered as he rehearsed what he needed to do. Kill them quickly.

With four spare rocks in his left hand, he crept into the large room.

Tom moved silently, picking each step carefully while ensuring smooth movement. He didn’t want a flutter of motion to alert any of the enemies. Unnoticed, he paused fifteen metres into the room where he decided that there was little benefit in trying to sneak closer. There was a nearby centipede that had definitely shifted in response to his last step. If he kept pushing further, he was risking drawing its attention.

This was it. He would stand his ground right here. His foolish plan was to kill them all instead of taking out a couple and retreating. He hoped the open space would give him a chance to avoid sound attacks if they got that close.

Tom pulled back a hand and threw having already decided on his kill order. He would target the furthest first because his intuition told him they were the more dangerous. They looked slightly larger, and it was the sort of silly thing a trial would do. Order the difficulty of enemies by distance and he didn’t want one of the stronger ones blindsiding him.

Tom lined up the largest of the bats and threw. When the first one was on mid-flight, he was already in motion to throw the second.

Six primary targets.

He could do this.

The third rock was on its way when the first bat exploded.

None of the bats had reacted to his presence yet, but it would happen soon.

He launched the fourth rock even as his second pebble shot past its target, missing by almost a human body length.

A terrible throw.

There was no time to curse. He was already preparing his fifth rock.

The third slammed home.

The bats recognised that they were under attack once more and were moving.

His fifth rock was sent on its way to kill the bat he had missed even as the fourth one clipped its target. The aim had been perfect, but it launched itself from the roof a fraction too soon.

Three left!

But all of them were grounded. His flicking eyes noted that the injured ones would not be an issue. The two on the ground had not responded to his presence and the one he had clipped had a broken wing and even if it pulled itself across to him, the fight would be over before it got close enough to hurt him.

His sixth rock was in his hands. The one who had started closest swept straight toward him and pulled up almost twenty-five metres away to prepare the blast. The stone crashed into the ceiling above it.

Cursing his poor throw, Tom retreated. He jogged backward even as the golem came out to protect him from centipedes.

He had missed the throw, and he wasn’t going to go after it. It was a screwup and now he would find out if his hypothesis about their attack decaying in the open with business was correct or not.

Tom identified the threats and focused on a bat coming down the left wall of cavern and was far too close for his comfort. Less than fifteen metres away.

His eighth rock caught in the chest of its target before it even started forming its attack. There was a satisfying thump, and it cartwheeled backwards in the air.

The sonic attack from that first bat hit him but like he had gambled he was outside its deadly range and it felt like wind was battering him, but it was not sharp like whatever had destroyed rock and the animals within the tunnel. It didn’t even pop his ears.

He was down to two healthy opponents.

With a ninth rock in his hand, he waited for the flood of noise to finish. The slicing attack forcing his eyes mostly shut. The front on attack stopped.

Tom raised his arm to throw.

There were two threats, the one in the centre of the cavern that had just fought him and another one to his right up high that was positioning to attack. Tom weighed the risks in an instant and then threw at the one right in front of him as his feet position was already set.

The instant the rock left his fingers he smiled and dashed directly away from the soon to be last enemy.

A tenth rock in his gasp.

The golem swept past him and crushed a centipede that had been driving toward Tom’s legs. That was as they had planned. Tom’s job was the bats and the golem would protect him from the bugs.

Vroom!

The one high on the wall unleashed, and the wind knocked him off his feet, and he tumbled and slid into the cavern wall. As best as he could tell, it was a few bruises. Despite that, his head was ringing. He could hear crunching sounds and was confident the golem was more than capable of protecting his ankles.

One left.

It was the second bat that he had tried to kill. One of the strong ones. His eyes found it, swooping closer to get a better strike in.

He threw a rock, but even as he released, he saw it beat its wings to propel it sideways. The rock blasted from his fingers and accelerated to almost bullet speed, but the pre-release evasive manoeuvring was sufficient for it to flap to safety.

Tom was already throwing the next rock. It went high, but the bat saw the motion and had dived desperately towards the floor. A stalactite tumbled down.

He threw his twelfth rock. The bat was within ten metres of him and frozen for a moment, as it had started its attack.

Got you!

He threw.

Its mouth distorted in a familiar shape

Instinctively, he engaged the stone skin. Noise struck him and his body even with the extra weight was pushed backwards and sent tumbling along the wall.

The attack stopped abruptly, and Tom discarded his defensive ability and opened his eyes. The bat was falling from the sky its entire chest carved in.

Tom’s front stung. He looked down and his blue skivvy had been shredded. Thin lines of blood covered his legs and arms as well when he pushed the sleeves back.

The wounds hurt and could see the red line but no dripping blood. He prodded and blood swelled up. The cuts themselves were fine and one or two he would not have noticed the hundred plus that he guessed had got him was a different matter. Touch Heal would usually close these injuries instantly, but that was not available.

His head was ringing, and he remembered that not all the bats were dead. Only the ones that had been in the air. Groggily, he looked up ready to take on any other targets.