After being pummeled with one attack after another the golem unexpectedly went completely dark but it was only for a moment before one by one more and more runes started lighting up on its head.
In fact, in the blink of an eye, its head was completely covered!
It did not stop there. After the head, it was the torso and then the hands and the legs. In a second every single rune on the damn thing had lit up.
Liam tensed up as this clearly couldn't be anything good. Before he could finish his thought a blast of power hit him in the face.
The force of the blast knocked Liam backward, his feet skidding across the stage to stabilize himself. This surge of power from the golem was unlike anything it had exhibited before; the runes covering its body not only amplified its strength but seemingly granted it new abilities that Liam hadn't anticipated.
Liam quickly regained his composure, narrowing his eyes as he assessed the golem. The entire construct now pulsed with pure unadulterated mana and the real attack hadn't even been launched yet.
This trial had escalated to a level far beyond a simple demonstration of Dao mastery. At this point, Liam could only gauge things by a ballpark and his instincts told him that he needed to go on full power even to end this in a stalemate. There was no way for him to escape using another dao seed either. He had already tried it and for some reason, his other dao seeds were blocked. Liam did not know if it was Spire intervening to do this or if the Dao trial itself possessed such a feature. If the latter was true, then this academy was truly a frightening place. To manipulate another person's inherent ability was not something that could be done lightly. Even the divine temple high priestess would not be able to do these things.
However, Liam did not have time to think about this at the moment. He needed to push himself right here and now. Otherwise, the results were going to be dire.
He tried to calm himself down as much as he could and his brain started spinning. What was he lacking? He began to go through his recent improvements in the dao of nether and the dao of ice one after the other. Perhaps most of it could be applied to mana as well?
The first thing that he noticed he lacked was a proper consolidated dao seed. His nether dao seed had the shape of a small sun and it was perpetually shining within him. His ice dao seed was in the shape of a sharp shard emitting a chill that threatened to freeze everything around it. But his dao seed of mana manipulation did not have anything like that. It was just a vague presence inside him. If the foundation itself was so weak, then how would he ever be able to bring out the full power of the dao seed?
Liam hurriedly started consolidating every bit of knowledge he had acquired so far. Even though he was not in a true life-death situation considering that this was not a slaughter trial and failure would mean that he would at most be kicked out of the Spire, he still felt the pressure of the time crunch.
He definitely did not want to get kicked out just yet. So his mind worked as fast as it could. He only had time until the golem finished casting its attack. Perhaps a couple of seconds. Would he truly be able to bring out much in this meager amount of time?
Liam had a small nagging self-doubt in the back of his mind but the next instant he surprised himself. It was as if a dam had broken down somewhere within him. As soon as he willed it, insights and inspirations started flashing across his mind.
Everything that he had learned so far, even his lessons from the elf back in the tutorial, every single concept he had pondered over suddenly clicked together and he was able to access even more than he had expected.
In that crucial moment, with the golem charging its potentially devastating attack, Liam's understanding of mana manipulation deepened exponentially.
Drawing on this epiphany, Liam shifted his stance, closing his eyes for a moment to fully attune himself to the mana around him. He could feel the energy from the stage, pulsating with power, waiting to be harnessed. Instead of drawing it forcefully, Liam let the mana come to him, merging with his own energy. He immediately grasped the chance and consolidated everything in his mind. Quickly a new dao seed started materializing within him.
This dao seed was a little different. It was vague and spindly like bunched-up spider web threads but each of these threads was made of extremely condensed mana and they contained tremendous power.
The formation of this new dao seed was like the ignition of a star within him, a burst of insight and power that radiated through his very being. The threads of condensed mana wove themselves into a complex, ever-shifting pattern, symbolizing his mastery and deep understanding of mana manipulation. It was as though Liam had discovered a new language, one that spoke directly to the essence of mana itself.
As he tapped into the dao seed, the ambient mana on the stage, which had been a subtle aid, now felt like a roaring river, eager to follow his command.
Liam raised his hands, and the mana responded, swirling around him in a mesmerizing dance. He directed this flow towards the golem, not as individual attacks but as a continuous stream of force, guided by the intricate patterns of his new dao seed.
It was a turbulent, destructive stream of pure energy and for the first time the defense erected by the golem cracked. As mana crashed into the golem unimpededly, the construct shuddered and let out the attack it had been preparing until now.