The familiar sun rose again the very next morning, giving life to the creatures as it awoke Lyrian and the others. Today was the 16th day of the exam, with not even half left to pass.

By this time, Lyrian had taken into account his individual points from the cores he gathered, and in total, he had no more than 185 points. This was by no means little, but if he was to want to pass the exam with this progress, he would surely fail.

Still, passing via points was only a plan b, an insurance of sorts. His main goal was to get the core of the golden-tiered creature. He wanted its core to pass, the prize that came from it, and also the soul of the creature.

Thinking on it, Lyrian said to himself, 'Even when I get its soul, I'm not going to fuse it with the Hobgoblins. It's too valuable to let go to waste like that. I'll just have to wait until there's another soul storage slot open...'

Lyrian packed what he needed, and so did the others. After this, they all prepared sufficient food for the journey, as they wanted this entire process to go as quick as possible. There weren't many days left for the exam, so it wouldn't be wise to waste time.

After everyone was ready, they followed Arthur's lead and headed toward the southern entrance to the main cave system, guarded by the Earth Guardian.

To conserve time, everyone decided to lightly run there instead of just walking, which lowered their arrival time by multiple hours. In just two, they had already reached their destination.

Arthur was the first to notice they arrived, "It should be right here!" He proclaimed.

Seeing the massive entrance of the cave carved into the side of a stone hill, Alten exclaimed in joy, "Finally!"

As everyone celebrated, Arthur raised his hand and gestured for them to stop right there, "Don't celebrate too early. We still have to fight the guardian."

In front of them was a round area that was very flat, looking almost like an arena to fight in.

"Most likely, the guardian will show up once we enter a certain distance from it, so here's the plan. Before it shows up, everyone has their attacks ready, and when it appears we will unleash everything at once to speed-kill it." Arthur announced as nods waved through the group.

"Okay, let's go."

The eight slowly approached the cave entrance as they neared the middle of the stone area. Everyone had their attacks ready to go. Lyrian prepared to unleash a burst of fire using fire magic since that was the most powerful long-ranged attack he could do with his limited magic spells.

Cedric readied to throw his sword, not caring about the consequences of retrieving it. Leon readied to take his sword out of his sheath and release a sword slash as Alten stretched the rope of his bow as aimed his arrow.

Hugo, the large kid, held his giant ax in hand, ready to throw down. Han, the leather armor-wearer, also prepared his sword, while both Arthur and Silas, the white-robed boy, pointed their wands out, looking to cast their spells the moment something happened.

Finally, as they reached the middle of the area, the ground began to suddenly rumble beneath them. All of them were slightly caught off guard but remained composed while looking around.

*BANG*

The ground in front of them abruptly exploded, causing rocks and dust to fly everywhere. Lyrian covered his face to avoid damaging his eyes, as he saw a figure outlined within the dust.

"Shheeeeuuuu!" A loud, ear-piercing screech that sounded like it came from multiple beings suddenly rang, clearing the dust.

Within, a giant stone figure revealed itself, standing over 30 feet tall in the air. Upon first impressions, Lyrian noted its powerful aura, and also that it was floating off of the ground and looked to have no feet.

Instead, its entire body seemed to be just its torso, hands, and head, everything being covered in inscriptions and deep lines filled with a golden essence. Its eyes were filled with the same essence as well, as it dominated the area with its fearsome prowess and presence.

Lyrian realized in that split second that almost everyone was stunned, so he yelled out, "Attack!" before releasing his own burst of fire that cleared up any dust that wasn't erased before from the guardian's screech.

On hearing this, everyone released their attacks consequently. All being long-ranged attacks, they flew together and hit the guardian at once, causing another storm of dust to explode on impact.

However, as the dust cleared once again, the guardian stood tall with no scratches on its body.

Seeing this, Arthur was taken aback by shock, "What!? How is this possible!? Even boss creatures have fallen to attacks like that!" He yelled.

Not wasting time, the guardian formed its fists into a giant hammer and slammed it into the ground, causing a massive rumble along with a crack that flew straight below the group.

"Watch out!" Silas yelled, noticing the ground in front of the impact zone start to suddenly rise.

Instantly, giant pillars of stone began coming out where the crack was, even reaching all the way to the kids, as all of them quickly dashed out of the way just in time.

The pillars immediately sunk back into the ground, before the guardian began quickly hovering towards the group.

In distress, Alten yelled, "What do we do!? Our attacks didn't do jack!"

They all began to run away from the beast around the arena as Lyrian replied, "Just run for now!"

"I'm going to get my sword back and kill that thing!" Cedric suddenly shouted, breaking away from the group and heading for his sword, which happened to be behind the guardian.

"Cedric! What the hell" Arthur yelled in shock and frustration.

Lyrian quickly followed up, "This might actually be a good distraction! Everyone, when it goes for him, go in for the attack!"

"Alright!" Han replied, his agreement echoing in unison with the others.

As the guardian approached Cedric, its hand swung toward him with formidable force. Acting swiftly, Cedric dropped to his knees and slid beneath the impending attack, cleverly evading both the strike and the floating guardian above.

Without delay, the guardian spun around, prompting Lyrian, Hugo, Han, and Leon to unleash a barrage of long-range assaults. Meanwhile, they sprinted toward the beast, preparing for close-range combat.

Anticipating potential issues, Lyrian spoke before they reached their adversary. "Be quick!" he urged.

Lyrian, charging his fist with Enhance, sprang onto the creature's back. 'I won't waste mana on Shock Fist just yet. It might prove futile against this creature,' he contemplated as he closed in on his target.

Leon, brandishing his blade, became the first to engage, dashing towards the creature's rear with astonishing speed. A trail of brilliant white light followed in his wake. Under his breath, he muttered, "Iron Puncture," before forcefully driving his sword into the guardian's back, pouring every ounce of his strength into the blow.

However, upon impact, the sword ricocheted off, dissipating its force into nothingness. Leon was hurled backward, crashing onto the ground with a jarring thud.

Han leaped into action, swinging his sword overhead with immense power, gripping it with both hands. Yet, as his strike connected, it too was repelled as if it had no strength, sending him flying several feet into the air before crashing face-first onto the ground.

Hugo, wielding his colossal axe, swung it to the side, then repeated the motion, creating a whirlwind of force. With his axe now spinning with incredible momentum, he slammed it into the beast's side. But instead of delivering a devastating blow, the force rebounded, launching him skyward.

Finally, Lyrian unleashed a mighty punch to the creature's back. Unlike the others, his strike wasn't instantly repelled. For several seconds, a fierce struggle ensued, accompanied by a radiant green glow. Yet, despite his efforts, Lyrian was eventually thrown back by an overpowering force.

The magic attacks unleashed by the remaining three, who had stayed behind, proved equally futile against the beast. Meanwhile, Cedric, recovering his fallen sword, turned back to face the creature.

"It ends now!" he yelled, storming towards the guardian before jumping up to attack it.

Just as he entered the air, however, the beast suddenly drove his hands together to form a clap around him.

Seeing this, Arthur couldn't help but exclaim, "He's done for!"

"There's no way he can escape this." Silas also said.

Just as the palms of the guardian neared only 5 feet away from each other, with Cedric in between, a sudden glow came from his shirt pocket.

Lyrian's eyes widened as he saw this, "A magical item?" He said in confusion.

"Aren't those banned?" Han added.

As the palms came inches from slamming into him, the glow from his pocket suddenly exploded into a cluster of light, forcing the palms away and even pushing the guardian back a bit.

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