With the area fully surveyed, Leo refocused on the advancing golem. Each of its heavy steps kicked up dust, the ground trembling with every thud.

"Hm… that turtle shell barrier might be a problem."

A slow smile curled on his lips. "But…"

He instructed Shyra through their link to watch the surroundings for ambushes. Meanwhile, he rolled his shoulders and prepared himself.

"Time to test the new skill."

He commanded Niri to begin charging Solar Beam at maximum output. Her job was simple—warn him a heartbeat before firing. His job was to buy time. The target: the centre of the golem's chest, where its three cores pulsed in a triangular rhythm like a beating stone heart.

With everything in place, he took a step forward and—vanished.

A blink later, he was in the air, fist pulled back, aiming directly for the golem's round, seven-meter-high head.

BOOM!

The golem didn't even twitch before its head exploded into fragments, spraying shards of stone across the clearing. Leo seized a chunk of its shattered skull still attached to the hardened frame, using it as leverage to flip himself backwards. Mid-air, he snapped his leg down like a hammer.

His heel slammed into the golem's back.

BAM!

Spiderweb cracks shot across its surface, crawling over the body in jagged lines. The golem tried to respond, swinging both arms backwards to squash him. But unlike a living creature, it ignored any anatomical limitation—its arms twisted unnaturally, joints bending like loose hinges rather than proper limbs.

The blurred strike came alarmingly fast, like a stone slab trying to flatten him.

Even Leo stiffened in surprise. He'd momentarily forgotten—this wasn't a beast. It was a construct that didn't care about the biology of a living being.

He braced himself, muscles tightening—especially the shoulder blades and deltoids. His vitality-enhanced frame felt like it had been carved from boulders.

The golem's arms crashed into him.

THUNG!

Dust billowed. When the cloud cleared, the result was the opposite of what anyone would expect.

Instead of Leo being crushed, the golem's hands had partially caved inward, leaving deep grooves shaped exactly like his body—almost like the construct had tried to incase him instead of crushing.

Even Leo himself was shocked that he was unscathed. He believed that he would surely take some damage, of course not completely crushed. It was then that he noticed a faint blue colour, a scale-patterned barrier covering his body like a second skin.

"The armor!" He recalled that he was wearing the high blue-tier armour given by Brant, able to block attacks from 3-star enemies. He quietly thanked Brant and refocused.

Widening his stance, he forced the stone apart. As soon as he gained enough room to move his arms, he lifted them and pushed outward, making the hands move apart with sheer force alone.

The moment his arms reached a certain distance apart, he couldn't help but grin—pupils slightly contracted. Right then, he looked every bit like a battle maniac. Anyone watching would think he enjoyed raw physical combat more than magic—maybe even preferred it.

In one single-frame motion, he pulled his arms back—and then slammed both fists outward at the golem's arms.

BOOM! BOOM!

Both arms detonated in massive bursts of rock, the force ripping up to the shoulder joints. Leo hopped back, admiring the result.

What stood before him was no longer a golem—more like a wobbling stone box with legs.

He briefly considered taking out the legs too, but then—

All three cores pulsed at once.

Bright and synchronised, as if alive.

The broken pieces snapped back into place. Earth element surged, layering onto the frame, making it grow—taller, bulkier, a monstrous ten-meter silhouette forming in seconds.

Leo could only watch.

In five seconds, the golem had fully reconstructed itself.

"So this is what Dale meant when he said they found themselves in disastrous condition nearly instantly," Leo muttered.

Even he had to admit—being caught mid-fight during a sudden power spike would've been dangerous. He felt a twinge of respect for the golem's adaptive nature.

He glanced back.

A swirling orb of white aura—already over a meter wide—floated above Niri's extended arm, growing bit by bit as she continued charging the Solar Beam. She wasn't done yet.

But Leo failed to notice the five pairs of eyes locked on him from behind a mound of rubble.

Dale and his team.

They had arrived sometime before the alpha wolf's shockwave revealed Leo's position. They'd intended to help, thinking he might be under attack—only to freeze when they witnessed the wolves retreating frantically.

Then they saw Shyra and Niri's new forms.

And finally… Leo casually bodying the rock golem that was clearly leagues stronger than the one they had faced.

Their expressions said everything: Aghast and dumbfounded, a hint of fear even.

---

From the start of the fight until now, barely thirty seconds had passed. Leo estimated another thirty would be enough to fully charge the Solar Beam. Looking at the golem's newly reinforced body, he shrugged and brushed dust off his shoulders.

"Let's go."

He lunged forward again—this time casting [Vine Estranglement]. Even if there was no vitality for the vines to drain, sheer restriction was what he needed most. He still hadn't tasted the golem's new strength firsthand, and testing it recklessly would be stupid.

It was during this now that the golem's name shifted, the word Puppet appearing before its rock golem.

Ignoring that, he used his skill—vines burst from the ground, coiling tightly around its limbs. The golem's movements slowed drastically. Combined with its massive frame, it became almost stationary. Leo also immediately noticed how different the vines felt—denser, tougher and heavier. He could feel he could now form two large vines at once, and he did just that.

Two trunk-thick vines erupted upward, each binding one of the golem's legs. Previously, the smaller vines were snapping within moments under strain; these ones held the creature in place with a single lock. The downside, however, was obvious: with these active, he couldn't create any additional vines—not even small ones. And their mana consumption was monstrous.

Mana:

10567 / 15552 → 10362 / 15552 → 10151 / 15552 → 9940 / 15552.

Averaging around 210 mana per second!

Using the opportunity, he slid between the gap in the golem's defences and released a flurry of punches, cracking it at several places—carefully avoiding the chest lest he ended up damaging a core and suffering the rebound.

It was at that moment that he received a clear intent from Niri.

"Master, move aside!"

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