The golems didn't charge. They simply began to advance. Their heavy steps shaking the ground with dull thuds. Each movement was deliberate. Powerful. Their glowing eyes locked onto Jack.
This suited Jack as well. The wolves tested his ability to handle multiple, fast threats. The golems, instead, would test his raw striking power and endurance against hardened defenses.
He needed to break through hard rock. Not just fragile pulp flesh and ice.
He didn't wait for them to cover the distance. Jack roared a challenge. Rumbling like distant thunder. And charged the nearest golem.
The ground vibrated with his own momentum as he ran. His immense size was dwarfed now by the advancing stone giants. But it was no less formidable.
The first golem raised an arm. A colossal club of fused rock. And swung. The movement was slow. Telegraphed. But it carried the weight of a collapsing mountain.
Jack didn't dodge entirely. He used his speed to angle his approach. Letting the majority of the blow whistle past his armored shoulder. The wind impact jarred him. But not stopping his advance.
He was within striking distance. Jack brought the Judgement Warhammer down horizontally in a mighty sweep. Aimed at the golem's leg joint.
This wasn't the same instant obliteration as with the wolves. The heavy impact echoed like a quarry blast. Rock splintered and cracked. Showering the ground with debris.
But the golem held on. It stumbled. Its movement momentarily disrupted. But the joint remained intact.
The golem retaliated with a heavy stomp. Attempting to crush Jack beneath its boulder-like foot.
Jack sidestepped. The force of the stomp created a shockwave that rippled across the arena floor.
He pivoted and swung the Warhammer again. This time aiming for the golem's torso. Where the molten light pulsed.
CRACK! CRUNCH!
This time, the impact was more rewarding. The hammer head bit deep into the stone. Cracking the golem's chest plate. The internal light flickered.
Jack didn't stop. He unleashed a barrage of rapid, powerful strikes. Against the same spot. Each blow chipped away at the stone. Sending larger chunks flying.
The golem lumbered. Trying to swat him away. But Jack easily stayed close. As he was much faster than it. He became a relentless engine of destruction targeting its core.
Meanwhile, the other four golems were closing in. One attempted a pincer movement with the damaged one. Another raised its arms. And shards of rock ripped from its own body. Hardening into projectiles that zipped towards Jack.
Jack ignored the incoming rock shards. His armor was more than capable of deflecting them. He focused entirely on the first golem.
His strikes growing faster. More desperate. He needed to drop one quickly. Before he was completely surrounded by five of these resilient foes.
With a final, thunderous blow, Jack shattered the golem's chest entirely. The molten light within flared once. Intensely. Then it was extinguished.
The golem shuddered. Its form was crumbling. It let out a deep, grinding groan that sounded like rock strata shifting. And then, it collapsed into a heap of rubble. One that quickly dissolved into fine dust. Absorbed by the arena floor.
Four left. But the remaining golems had learned. They advanced in a tighter formation Their movements were somehow synchronizing.
They didn't just swing wildly. They used their mass to try and pin Jack. Creating areas where his movement was restricted.
One golem stomped the ground repeatedly. Causing localized tremors. Another extended a rocky arm. Attempting to grab him.
Jack was forced to alter his tactics slightly. He couldn't just stand and pound. He had to use his own bulk and the reach of his hammer to keep them at bay. Creating space to target individual golems.
He parried a sweeping arm with the hammer shaft. The force of the impact rattling him to his core. Then, he used the momentum to swing the hammerhead in an overhead arc. Bringing it down vertically onto the head of the golem trying to grab him.
BOOM!
The impact was immense. The golem's head cracked. Fissures spreading like spiderwebs from the point of contact. Revealing a hidden molten liquid underneath.
It swayed for a moment. Then collapsed forward. Its massive form turning back into dust before it even hit the ground.
Three left. The remaining golems pressed their advantage. They didn't have complex strategies. Just persistent, grinding force.
They cornered him near a large pillar. Two golems sealed off his sides. While the third advanced from the front.
Jack was trapped. The air grew heavy with the earth magic the golems wielded. The ground beneath him felt solid. Unyielding. Threatening to anchor him in place.
But, he wouldn't be defeated. Jack planted his feet wide. A defiant stance. He lifted the Judgement Warhammer high above his head with both hands.
He drew upon the internal energy that fueled his armored form. The contained energy flared. Visible through the joints of his armor.
He brought the hammer down with every ounce of his strength onto the ground between the three golems.
The impact was catastrophic. Not just a thud. But a shatter of the arena floor itself. A crackling burst of stored power from the hammer meeting the solid floor enhanced with resistant earth magic.
BOOM!
A localized shockwave erupted. Not of wind. But of raw, concussive force.
The three golems were caught between the hammer's point of impact and their own positions. They were violently shaken off their feet.
Before the could restore their balance, Jack struck. A repeated sound of hammer strikes rang. Again and again. Loud and powerful...
As the dust settled, three more golems gone.
Jack stood alone. breathing heavily. The tremor in his hands was slightly more pronounced now.
Five Stone Golems. Defeated. Raw power had met unyielding resilience. And Jack's power had prevailed.
A moment passed. Then, the ancient voice echoed in his mind once more.
"Round 2 complete. Clearing arena."
The arena Floor reset again. The fissures from Jack's final blow was smoothed away instantly.
Jack adjusted his grip on the Warhammer. Shaking out his arms. The trial was escalating. Forcing him to use different aspects of his strength. What would Round 3 bring?
"Proceeding to Round 3."
The new portal shimmered into existence... right above him.
The portal was hanging in the air like a volatile, shimmering bubble. It wasn't of ice or earth. But it pulsed with a blinding, intense yellow light. Radiating heat.
From it, poured not solid figures, but beings of pure, unstable energy. A swarm of them. Dozens, maybe scores, of crackling, buzzing entities.
These creatures resembled sentient lightning bolts. Or contained sunbeams. Each was small. No larger than Jack's fist. But their numbers were overwhelming.
The heat they radiated was also immediate and intense. Cutting through the ambient air of the arena like a furnace opening.
They zipped through the air with blinding speed. Their movements were erratic and hard to track. They were Shock Wasps.
They buzzed around him. A living cloud of dangerous energy. They didn't attack immediately. Instead, they were circling him higher up.
The air around them thickening and growing. Charged with static electricity. Their collective hum rose in pitch. An unnerving sound.
Numbers and speed again. But of a completely different nature than the wolves. Speed, heat, and volatile energy against his armored bulk.
It was a test of his ability to handle multiple, hard-to-hit targets that also inflicted environmental damage.
They struck. Not with physical force. But with bolts of concentrated energy. Pinpricks of blinding light shot from the swarm. Impacting his armor with sharp, metallic crackles.
Each hit wasn't individually devastating. But cumulative. They stung. Leaving lingering heat spots on his skin and armors.
Jack roared in frustration. He couldn't just stand and tank this. He swung the Judgement Warhammer in wide, sweeping arcs.
It was like trying to swat flies with a tree trunk. The hammer passed through the air where a Shock Wasp had been moments before. A few were caught in the near-invisible shockwave of the swing. Dissipating with faint pops. But dozens more remained.
He needed to draw them in. Or create an area effect.
He slammed the hammer butt into the ground. A localized tremor. Less powerful than his heavy golem-tripping blow. But enough to disrupt the air around him for a moment.
It startled a few Wasps. Causing them to dart away. But the majority of them recovered instantly.
The Wasps began to dive. Attacking from multiple angles simultaneously. Their energy bolts were more frequent now. Heat built up within his armor. He could feel the integrity of the energy containment field within the armor being tested.
Judge Jack changed tactics. He stopped trying to hit individual Wasps. Instead, he began to rotate rapidly. Swinging the Warhammer in a brutal, continuous circle around him.
It was a whirlwind of steel and contained energy. The sheer centrifugal force and the disruptive energy field radiating from the hammer created a zone of danger. Extending several meters from his body.
Any Wasp that ventured too close was caught in the vortex of the swing. Or disintegrated by the hammer's active energy.
The air was filled with the constant crackles and pops. Of dissipating Wasps. He kept spinning. The movement was taxing. But it was effective.
The swarm thinned. Less constant energy bolts hit him. The heat began to subside slightly as their numbers dwindled. He could feel the moment the swarm was mostly gone. Just a few stragglers buzzing near the edge of his reach.
He stopped the spin. Leaning heavily on the Warhammer for a moment. Breathing hard. And then, he later calmly cleared the last few tenacious Wasps.
Silence. The buzzing stopped. The airborne portal flickered and vanished.
He was still standing. Battered, but unbroken. The Strength Trial continued. Three rounds down, six to go.
The opponents were unpredictable. Forcing him to adapt his brutal strength to different challenges.
The ancient voice, once again, echoed in his mind.
"Round 3 complete. Clearing arena."
"Proceeding to Round 4."
Jack straightened his body. Gripping the Warhammer tighter. He felt the strain, the fatigue, but also a surge of grim satisfaction. He welcomed the challenge. Each round tested him, pushed him. He was ready for whatever the trial threw at him next.