He couldn't put down the golem before it reached him, which meant that they had to fight in close quarters. And by the looks of things, close quarters will be very difficult too because the golem is as fast as him and has learned his fighting tactics.
The golem was behaving as if it could predict his actions. It was able to resolve his every move as soon as he made it. Every little action of his was a tell tale signal of what he was going to do next.
It wasn't unexpected, but it was still frustrating to see. It made him grumble and say, "This is one 43 points that will be very difficult to earn."
The golems are getting more and more difficult to fight because not only are they getting stronger, but they are also learning his strengths and weaknesses. Unless he does something new to catch them off guard, this fight will be a slugfest just like last time.
His second skin should protect him somewhat against the golem's dagger, and the golem should be weaker than him in terms of strength and durability, so he should come out on top in a prolonged fight. But he had no intention to have a prolonged fight.
When the golem got within 2 meters of him, he grabbed his bow by one end and swung it in a horizontal arc. He swung the bow as if he was swinging a giant sword. Or in the case of what his mother said, he used the bow like a club.
His move was new and unexpected. It caught the golem off guard. The bow smashed into its chest and caved it in.
The golem flashed red runes all over its body immediately after the bow made contact with it. Then it was thrown into the air by the force of the blow.
The golem landed on the ground, still and defeated. He earned 43 points for his victory, but he didn't care about that. He was too busy fussing over the bow to care.
He checked it all over for damages and scratches. When he didn't see any scratch, he sighed in relief.
Then he said solemnly to the bow, "I promise not to use you as a club again. You're too beautiful and delicate for such a thing."
He was lying. He is still hesitant to use his bow as a club, but the odds are that it will happen again in the future when he needs a club.
He didn't want to use the bow as a club before because he feared that it would get damaged. But now that he has tried and tested it and saw that the bow was undamaged, it is unlikely that he will restrain himself from using it in the future.
After lying to his bow, he went forward to pick up his arrows. Then he checked the golem's properties.
Model: Fast Dagger Golem (43)
Strength: 7 > > > 18
Speed: 8 >>> 28
Defense: 6 > > > 18
He sneered at its still figure and jeered, "How do you like that? I saved the best for last."
After making fun of the golem, he checked his ranking again.
Name: Arthur Red Mane
Performance Points: 4,558
Ranking: 1/5,193,725
He smiled and said to himself, "Not bad."
Then he shouted, "I surrender."
His body froze immediately he said that. Then the world turned white around him.
His body felt a sense of vertigo. He felt dizzy and disoriented even though he had closed his eyes.
When he regained his senses, he found himself on the large teleportation platform in the middle of the other ten platforms. He steadied himself for a while and walked away.
Many people saw him, and they noticed his wild red hair, but no one linked that to the name of Arthur Red Mane. Apart from the people who knew his name, no one else knew who Arthur Red Mane was. So he was able to walk back to the ship without any commotion.
On the ship, within the room where the adults of the inner court of the Dyson family were, the whole room was silent. They were silent because no one wanted to say anything that could offend Patriarch Calcetti.
As people familiar with the patriarch, they recognized the bow that Arthur had used. At first, they thought the bow was only similar to the patriarch's.
But then they saw Arthur use the bow to smash the golem. This action reminded them of the patriarch's bow and how identical it was to the one Arthur was currently using.
They wanted to ask the patriarch if the bow was his, but they noticed that the patriarch was glaring at Augustus, and Augustus had his head down, avoiding the patriarch's gaze, so they decided to keep their mouth shut.
After Arthur chose to surrender, the patriarch finally smiled. He was unhappy that his beloved bow had to be given away because of Augustus's blunder, but he was glad that the person he gave the bow to was using it very well and deserved it.
He smiled again after checking the ranking list and seeing that the first ten positions hadn't changed. From the looks of things, Arthur's position wouldn't be threatened anytime soon.
Then he said to the room, "If you have a child participating in this regional sect examination or if you know one in this family, go and tell them who Arthur is."
He warned them sternly, "Don't tell them to apologize to Arthur if they have offended him. Just tell them who the identity of the number one is, and let's see what they will do. I want to see which of them is smart."
The blond men and women bowed their heads and said, "Yes, patriarch."
He nodded and said, "You may go."
They stood up from their seats and left the room. This left the patriarch alone in the room. But the room wasn't dark and gloomy. It was as bright as ever because of the patriarch.