Ch 29 - Benjamin's Trial (Part 2)

I quickly steadied my breath and tried to bear the pain.

Supervisor Canith was eagerly watching from a distance while scribbling on his notes. He had the right to cancel a trial and deem the candidate failure if he feels the candidate's life is in danger.

Although the candidates who failed the trial were barely able to survive this trial, thanks to Miss Urza's superior healing. Otherwise, more than half of those who failed would have died. Supervisor Canith was merciless and waited for the last moment until the candidate get injured. He could have saved a lot of candidates from getting hurt but he didn't bother to do so.

After bearing the pain for a minute and maintaining a steady breath, I waited for the coronation ceremony to begin.

Supervisor Canith seeing that I was okay finally put away the register and his pen back in his shirt pocket. He then stretched his arms towards me.

"Candidate Benjamin, do you feel the need to continue this trial?" asked supervisor Canith.

His voice had no concern or empathy, it was just a cold voice waiting for a yes or no answer.

"Yes Sir!" I replied.

"If so, then I shall now begin the coronation."

Saying so he waved his arms.

There was a sudden jolt in the ground before I knew it, the statue beside me started to move. As the statue moved the small trickles of rubbles fell from the joints of the statue. The statue was old and eroding slowly but surely.

In the next few seconds, the giant statue opened its glowing eyes giving away an ominous presence.

I held the handle of the sword tightly while gritting my teeth.

The presence of a high-class earth spirit was too powerful. I had trained my young frail human body to a certain extent but it still felt like my bones would be crushed just by standing in front of this earth spirit.

Normally, every mage can control particular elements depending on the affinity the mage has towards a certain element. But even those mages can only use their mana arts to a certain extent learning the basics of mana arts. After that, the mages can form a contract with a divine spirit to further expand their mana arts.

The mages who successfully manage to establish a contract with a divine spirit are then classified as battle mages. The weaker mages who could not form a contract are labeled as lesser mages who don't have a spirit contract.

Meanwhile, the battle mages receive a fragment of their divine spirit's essence through the contract. This essence contains the memories and skills of the divine spirit which are later passed down to their contracted mages. Thus further expanding the mana arts and empowering the mages.

The spirit fragments also continue to grow along with their partner, side by side.

But the spirit fragment lack is consciousness which only develops later after the mage has become powerful enough.

Canith who has summoned an earth spirit into this statue had sentience.

Although the level of consciousness was newly born it is still a powerful spirit. This just goes to tell that supervisor Canith was a high-class image.

The statute harboring Canith's earth spirit finally looked at me with a steady gaze.

I who held on tightly to the sword didn't even bother to move a muscle and kept watching the statue's movements. My instincts were screaming to be on my guard.

As the statue looked at me as if he was studying carefully. I could feel like an omniscient presence had stripped me down to my pants and while looking at every nook and corner of my body.

My own presence felt tiny like a mere ant in front of the powerful earth spirit.

The earth spirit finally lifted its gazes and its hands started to get closer, moving towards me.

In its hands, he held that old rusty crown.

I still didn't drop my guard as I carefully tried to examine the crown.

Only god knows what the hell was the crown even made of.

The hand holding the crown came closer to my head.

But all of a sudden it stopped midway for some reason. The distance from the crown and my head were just 1 foot away.

The spirit just stopped moving altogether with its hands in still the position to put the crown on my head.

Just when I was about to ask the supervisor Canith, the statue dropped the crown from its hand down the puddle. The rusty crown fell in the puddle with a plop and sunk down to the bottom.

I who was waiting for the coronation ceremony quite surprised by this.

What the heck is going on?

Even the rest of the candidates were surprised.

I glanced at supervisor Canith to my surprise he was the most confused than us.

The statue suddenly lifted its head glared at me with a full ominous aura leaking within.

The look in its eyes of the serene calm appearance changed into that of furious look.

What in the hell was going on?

Why was the statue suddenly so pissed?

I finally asked,

"What the heck is going on, Supervisor Canith?!" I asked.

Meanwhile, Supervisor Canith suddenly held his head in pain.

It looked as if he was trying to communicate with its contracted spirit through telepathy but was in pain for some reason.

But there was no time to waste in the hopes of waiting for that stupid Canith to do anything.

The statue suddenly raised its arm in the air while maintaining its steady gaze right on me.

He opened his palm like flat as if he was about to squash me with a single hit.

There was no time wasted here waiting for Canith who was stupidly sitting on his knees while clutching his head. He lost control of his earth spirit and let it go amok.

I quickly let go of the mana sword and tried to move away from the statue.

The faraway the better.

But the orange corrosion in the water slowed down my movements and there was not enough time to evade the statue's incoming attack.

Shit!

Why the fuck is this happening to me again?

Is this some sort of trial or a crappy prank!

There were supposed to be two types of candidates, those who failed the trial and those who passed the trial. But there was nothing about a giant statue trying to kill a candidate from the get-go.

Why is the statue directly trying to kill me?

The statue who lifted its arm in the air slammed its hand down towards me to deal a finishing blow. Meanwhile, my instincts were screaming 'danger' awaiting my impending doom.

I stopped running as evading the blow was impossible.

Dying while my back is turned around, that's a coward's way to die.

Although, I did die from getting stabbed in the back by the holy weapons.

But that was different circumstances.

A massive weight felt on my body as the giant hand rushed towards me like a meteor.

Just when all hopes were lost,

"Hey, kid! Move your arse over here." a scream of a girl echoed.

It was supervisor Miss Urza who appeared in thin air beside the statue.

She suddenly waved her arm and suddenly massive vines appeared all around the statue. The big vines quickly grew in size wrapped them around the statue.

The statute was now was restrained by vines and bound the statute in place.

"Canith! Get your shit together!" shouted Miss Urza, "Control your, goddamn contracted spirit!"

Canith who held his head in pain heard Miss Urza and lifted his head,

"I can't… She~ She wants to kill~ Urgh"

But Canith just stayed on his knee mumbling like a stupid.

I tried to move but the arm of the statue still continued to break through the vines and descended towards me.

Miss Urza spawned new more vines trying to grab hold of the arm in place but to no avail.

The statue didn't even glance at Miss Urza who tried to restrain it. It only focused its attention on me and killing me was its goal.

As the arm approached I strengthened my resolve.

To fight the giant palm with my own palm.

I unconsciously waved my palm towards the incoming giant hand.

"Fuck! I ain't gonna die by the hands of some dumb rock." I shouted.

Suddenly white glowing white light gathered in front of me as if it answered my call. The white mysterious light gathered in an arc-shaped like a shield. It was a mana barrier I created subconsciously just in the nick of the time.

All the onlookers watching this unfold were shocked and surprised.

I was surprised but there was no time to rejoice yet.

The restraining vines by Miss Urza had already slowed down the statue's movements. With my new barrier if I could withstand the blow, only then could I have time to rejoice.

The arm of the statue had slowed down considerably but it still followed me.

I continued to channel mana to strengthen the shield barrier I created.

But as soon as the statute's hand came in contact with my shield, the shield crumbled like glass.

"!!!"

The next scene I remember was flying in mid-air as I vomited blood.

I rolled in the puddle as the world spun around me.

I was thrown away like a rag doll.

After that my vision started to go blurry eventually I could see nothing.