Elias stood in the Arena Pit. It was a huge, dusty stone bowl, much bigger than he liked. The air felt heavy and hot. It smelled like dry dirt and too much sweat.
Around him, there were fifty other students.
They looked ready to kill something. They had their magic ready, their hands gripped tight, and their faces were hard. Elias just looked around for a place to sit.
The loud announcer's voice boomed over the arena. It made Elias's head hurt.
"Welcome to the first test! This is the Test of Willpower!" the voice shouted. "Students will face the Academy Golems. These are stone fighters made of magic! They are strong! You must fight until they break, or until you fall down and give up!"
As soon as the announcer finished, four massive rock golems appeared out of nowhere.
They were huge, easily two times taller than Elias. They were made of thick, carved gray stone, and their big, stone fists glowed with dangerous blue lightning.
They started walking slowly and heavily into the pit, making the ground shake.
The other students were fast. They screamed and started casting spells. Balls of fire shot through the air. Ice spikes went flying. Students moved quickly, running around to find a good spot to hit the slow-moving golems. The fight started immediately.
Elias saw his opponent, Golem Number 3, stomp toward him. The golem looked very big, very strong, and looked like it hated laziness.
"This is too much work," Elias muttered to himself. He felt deeply annoyed. He had to think of a plan, and thinking took a lot of energy.
He quickly looked over the battlefield. Running away would take too much energy. Casting a big spell was impossible, as he barely knew any spells, and they required effort.
Hiding was hard in the open pit.
Then, Elias noticed something perfect. Against the far stone wall of the arena, there was a small overhang where the afternoon sun didn't reach.
It made a deep, narrow patch of shadow. It looked cool. It looked quiet. It looked like the best possible spot for a nap.
Elias ran—not a hard, fast run, but a quick, efficient burst of speed.
It was just enough to get him to the shadow before Golem 3 could cut him off.
He ran just like a person running to catch the last train: with speed born of desperation and the promise of rest.
He reached the shadow, collapsed onto the dusty ground, and closed his eyes.
"The new plan is simple," Elias told himself in his head. "If I conserve my energy now, the golem will have to use all its energy just to walk and look for me. It will tire out before I do."
He started to take slow, careful breaths. He was completely focused on resting. He was taking a very important, strategic power nap right in the middle of a deadly fight.
Golem Number 3 was confused. It was programmed to smash the enemy. But the enemy was just lying down.
The golem stopped right next to Elias, its huge, rocky feet barely missing his head. It paused for about five seconds, its blue glowing eyes trying to figure out the problem.
"Attack! Move!" the announcer yelled, clearly very angry that a student was just sleeping.
The golem roared a loud, rough sound.
It raised its giant, heavy fist high above Elias's head.
The stone fist started crackling brightly with the deadly discharge rune—a spell that would hit Elias like a huge lightning bolt. It brought the fist down fast and hard.
Elias did not open his eyes until the absolute last second.
He was too relaxed, too deeply in his resting zone. But when he saw the dark shadow of the giant fist coming down, a sudden, sharp jolt of pure panic hit him.
That strange, deep thrum under his skin—the Void Rune—flared up like a fire alarm. It was powerful, ancient, and completely furious about the fact that it was being forced to do something.
Elias did not cast a magic word. He did not move his arms or legs. He did not even flinch.
Instead, the Void Rune acted on its own. It did the strangest thing possible.
It pulled.
It pulled the electric magic right out of the golem's fist. It pulled the fast movement energy out of the fist. It pulled the energy that held the heavy rock pieces together.
To the thousands of people watching from the seats, what happened next was unbelievable.
The golem's fist just… stopped. It slowed down to a crawl. The blue lightning disappeared. The fist became dull, heavy rock.
Elias, still lying on the ground, felt the huge rush of energy flood into him. His magic, without asking, redirected the power he had just stolen.
The golem suddenly stumbled. It lurched sideways, unable to control its own weight. Its own massive, heavy fist swung out and smacked hard into its own stone shoulder with a terrible CRACK.
The golem's own repair magic did not know how to fix a wound caused by itself. The magic broke down. The giant rock body dissolved into a pile of small rubble, dust, and glowing ash right next to Elias.
The whole arena went silent.
Elias opened his eyes fully, saw the cloud of dust, and felt a huge wave of tiredness wash over him. The Void Rune had protected him, but it had used a massive amount of his life force to do so, and now it demanded payment: rest.
He was safe, but completely drained.
He managed to lift one hand. It was slow and shaking. He waved a single finger at the pile of rock.
"I yield," he whispered, his voice dry and barely audible. He closed his eyes immediately. "I give up on this fight."
The silence in the Arena was broken by a single, sharp gasping sound from the student section.
Seraphina Voss, who had just beaten her golem by using five complex fire runes and looked very tired, stared at Elias in total shock. "What... what was that? He used... nothing? He just made it hit itself?"
The announcer coughed into his microphone, completely unsure what to say.
"C-Candidate Thorne survives the attack! He yields! He is eliminated from the trial, but he… defeated his opponent! He still passes the minimum test! Move on to the next round!"
Elias didn't hear him. He was already enjoying a much-needed, surprisingly restful nap in the shadow of the broken golem.
He had survived the first and biggest test using zero visible effort, proving that sometimes, the laziest way was the most powerful.
He was eliminated from the rest of the trials, but he had done just enough to get in the school.
The trouble, he would soon find out, was just beginning.