Exiting the portal, Cole immediately noticed a sharp rise in temperature. So far, all the trials had been held in a relatively lukewarm environment. I knew it. Cole thought to himself, examining his surroundings. It couldn’t just be easy, could it?

Cole and Lucy stood on a rock slab near the center of the room. Similar surfaces were scattered around the room, all resting on a bed of lava.

Cole coughed and dropped to his knees. He tried to place his hand on the ground for support, but the ground was scalding hot. Moving his hand to his knee, Cole tried to concentrate. The heat was becoming unbearable. Having learned to cover himself in a layer of ice, Cole attempted to do so again.

Phew. Cole thought to himself. He’d managed to regain enough concentration to layer himself in ice. Looking over to Lucy, Cole noticed that she hadn't been paying him much attention. Before he could say anything, Cole breathed in. He’d covered his exterior in ice, but hadn’t done anything to protect his mouth, throat, or lungs.

Cole continued to cough from the scorching air. Now with a layer of protection, Cole placed his hands on the ground to support himself. Taking in short breaths of air, Cole tried to line his insides with a similar layer of ice. He had mild success in his mouth, reducing the heat to a manageable level. However, his throat was another issue. Cole could feel around his mouth pretty easily, making it simple to produce a mental image of how the ice would be coated. His throat wasn’t something he could interact within such a way, making it hard for him to generate a layer of protection.

“You ok?” Lucy asked as Cole continued to cough.

“I’m gettin’ there.” Cole managed to reply.

Looking up at Lucy, Cole noticed something strange. As he’d expected, she was handling the situation in her normal, uninterested manner. The part that surprised him was her breath. Not only was she not struggling to breathe, it looked as though she was exhaling a cloud of cold air, similar to how anyone would in a cold climate.

For the time being, Cole layered his shirt with ice, placing his mouth and nose underneath it. Combined with the layer he’d formed in his mouth, Cole was finally able to breathe without hurting his lungs. There was still a slight burning sensation when he inhaled, but it was far more tolerable than before.

“Looks like we won’t have to find the golems,” Lucy said, pointing to her left.

Cole followed to see a small, floating pile of rocks. Lava flowed around it, giving the golem a semblance of a masked face. Another small golem popped out of the lava, floating towards the first.

This could be bad. Cole and Lucy both used the same magic, and, as far as Cole knew, ice wouldn’t be effective against literal lava.

“These should serve as good target practice,” Lucy said. “Cole, try freezing one of them over.”

“Huh?”

“Remember how you shot out those needles of ice?”

“Of course.”

“Do that again, only bigger.”

Lucy made it sound simple. Cole, however, didn’t see how thin icicles would help him defeat a lava golem.

“And that’s supposed to work?” Cole asked.

“As long as you can condense your mana well enough.”

Cole believed Lucy, but he didn’t have much confidence in his ability. He was already struggling to retain his ice shell while under such harsh conditions. If Lucy could visually show him the process he’d have to go through, then Cole figured he’d have an easier time working his way up to it.

“Could I get an example?”

“No,” Lucy replied.

“Huh? I was just thinking…”

Cole conveyed his thought process to her, unsure of why she wouldn’t want to showcase her idea to him.

“That does make sense,” Lucy said, “but you won’t always be able to ask me how to solve every problem you encounter. You’ll have to figure things out on your own.”

I thought that’s what I’ve been doing…

“Just give it a try.” Lucy continued. “You may surprise yourself.”

“Alright,” Cole replied.

If Lucy had confidence in him, then he had no reason to not give it a try. Turning to the closest golem, Cole placed his hand in front of him. The few golems that had appeared since they entered didn’t seem to pay them any attention, so Cole took his time. After collecting a small stream of mana, Cole visualized the mana shooting out of his fingertips. He pushed his other hand forward, just as he’d done in training.

A set of thin icicles shout out of Cole’s hand going in the exact direction his fingertips faced. Because of this, only the needles from his middle and ring finger hit the golem. The other two flew off to its left and right. To Cole’s surprise, the needles didn’t immediately melt when colliding with the golem. Instead, the needles slightly knocked back the golem, and stuck out from its molten exterior.

“Not bad,” Lucy said.

The golem seemed to share this sentiment, turning and hovering towards Cole as it shook the needles from its body. Small goops of lava fell alongside them, revealing they’d begun to melt from the golems scalding interior.

As the golem approached Cole, he shot another wave of needles at it. This time, he aimed all four correctly. Unable to dodge, the golem was hit by each of the needles, recoiling on impact. Again, the part of the needles that connected with the golem melted away, allowing it to easily shake them off. The golem continued its approach, getting closer and closer to Cole as he tried to improve his attack.

“Uh, Lucy,” Cole said. “It’s not working.”

“You need to condense your mana more,” Lucy replied. “Do you think Felix would struggle with this?”

“I don’t know,” Cole said, surprised by the question.

However, something stuck out to him as Lucy spoke. She’d mentioned Felix wouldn’t have had such a hard time in the arena if he’d brought his mana to amplify the exact area of attack instead of a more generalized part of his body. Could Cole apply the same principle here? He wasn’t sure, but the golem was getting close enough that he’d have to try something.

Mimicking Lucy, Cole repositioned his hand to have his palm facing outwards. She’d shot at Felix with a single, powerful shard of ice when they’d first met. If Cole could concentrate mana in the same way, he was confident he’d be able to at least damage the golem.

Placing his other hand behind the one already outstretched, Cole imagined his mana swirling outward to form a shard of ice. Unusually compliant, Cole’s mana bent to his will as the golem moved within a few feet of his hands.

To Cole’s surprise, the growing coldness in his hands helped him steady himself, and eased his nerves. His training was culminating into something tangible, something he could use. The golem had gotten close enough for Cole to feel the heat it gave off, but this did little to sway his focus. For the first time since he’d entered The Tower, he felt confident in himself.

Without a doubt in his mind, Cole waited for the golem to get even closer. Directly before it was close enough to touch, Cole fired the shard of ice, point-blank, into the golem. The golem was sent flying backwards. Unlike with the needles he’d shot previously, Cole’s ice sank deep inside the golem's body, slowly spreading across its exterior as it attempted to stay afloat.

“Wow,” Cole said. “It actually worked.”

“Your mana control is getting a lot better, Cole,” Lucy said. “As I mentioned before, your magic will develop with practice and refinement.”

Cole watched as the golem fell to the floor, completely iced over. He’d managed to defeat a golem, even if it was small in comparison to his expectations. In a way, this made Cole feel bad, as it was kind of cute in retrospect.

Suddenly, the room started to feel hotter than before. While Cole had been charging his shot to take down the golem, he’d neglected to keep mana flowing to the thin shell of ice around him. Coughing slightly, Cole redirected his flow of mana back to the surface of his skin and shirt.

Turning his attention back to the golem, Cole noticed that the ice he’d sent out had begun to spread on the floor surrounding the golem. It stopped short of reaching him, but produced an oddly shaped circle roughly twice as large as the golem itself.

“Why did the ice spread like that?” Cole asked, crouching down to the golem. “The needles I sent out before didn’t spread at all.”

“Magic produced through condensed mana will naturally disperse to its surrounding over time.” Lucy replied. “There are ways to stop this, but the easiest method should come naturally.”

“Naturally, huh?” Cole said, turning to Lucy. “I guess we’ll s- Hey, look out!”

Cole spotted a golem slowly approach Lucy from behind. Within an arm's distance, it’d somehow managed to reach her without Cole noticing. He expected her to defend herself in the way he had, but that was not the case.

Without looking towards the golem, Lucy reached her hand out to it, grabbing the golem before it reached her head. It tried to wiggle out of her grasp, but to no avail. The lava coating the golem’s body oozed onto Lucy’s hand like a thick slime.

“You do this often?” Cole asked, only half-joking. It was only minutes ago that he’d thought ice would be ineffective against lava, but Lucy was managing to hold the golem in her hand, the only thing protecting her being her own ice.

Lucy shrugged in response. She didn’t seem to think what she’d done was remotely impressive.

“So,” Cole said, “you could jump in the lava and come out perfectly fine?”

“Not necessarily,” Lucy replied. “This golem is small due to its low quantity of mana. Similarly, the lava bound to the golem is fueled by a source just strong enough to prevent the molten rock from solidifying.”

Demonstrating this concept, Lucy formed a long rod of ice in hand. She pressed it up against the golem, making it wiggle in her grasp. Pulling the rod back revealed it to be only minimally affected by the lava, melting slightly at the point of contact.

Moving to the edge of their rock platform, Lucy lined the rod up perpendicular to the surrounding lava’s surface. She slowly slid it into the lava, letting it stay for just as long as when pressed against the golem. Upon bringing it back up, the entire submerged part of the rod vanished, leaving the edge connected to it slowly melting away.

“To be as hot as the lava beneath us,” Lucy continued, “the golem would have to be many, many times larger.”

While Cole was following along well, he wasn’t sure why Lucy would show him this idea, but wouldn’t demonstrate freezing over the golem. He didn’t see the point in ‘re-inventing the wheel,’ so to speak, even if it worked out in his case.

Turning his attention back to the golem, Cole watched as Lucy slowly froze it over, dropping it to the ground when she was finished. Two down, eight to go.