The golem realized that it was going to be overwhelmed soon, so it became desperate.
It threw its shield to block the first vine. Then it jumped back while shooting many bolts at Arthur in order to take him out.
According to common sense, now that Arthur had invested so much of his mental energy into the spell, he shouldn't have any other thing up his sleeve. Either he blocks with the vines like he did before, or he dodges the bolts.
Either way, the golem would be able to resolve the conundrum it was currently in. In fact, it might even be able to counterattack and still win the fight.
But Arthur ignored the bolts. He continued to push the vines to strike the golem while the bolts sailed through the air towards him.
The bolts were the first to reach their target. They struck the energy shield that Arthur had prepared with his other phantom.
In the meantime, the first vine was thwarted by the shield thrown at it, and the second vine failed to grab the golem's hand because it had jumped away. However, the third vine struck the golem head-on.
The golem had jumped back and raised its sword to cut the vine. This move had worked as its sword cut the vine. But only the tip of the vine was cut. This didn't stop the remaining part of the vine from falling down and striking it in the chest.
The golem was struck heavily and was forced to fall back to the ground. It was able to reorient itself and prevent itself from falling on its buttocks.
It fell on its two feet, but it was grabbed by the vine after it coiled around it. As the vine pulled it towards Arthur, it raised its hand to cut it off. Unfortunately, the other two vines interfered in its attempt.
One vine grabbed its leg, and another grabbed its arm. Before they could exert any force, the golem flashed red and admitted defeat.
The two combatants were frozen immediately. Then an update on the situation was provided to Arthur.
FIGHTING EXCELLENCE TEST.
#Level 1: Passed.
#Completion Time: 43 seconds.
#Choose one option.
1. Exit.
2. Retry.
3. Advance.
While he was looking at the words that popped up before him, the golem disappeared, and he regained his freedom.
Since there was no hurry to make a decision, he decided to sit down to rest and think about his recent fight.
He closed his eyes and began refining environmental mana into internal energy in order to replenish the energy he lost in the fight. He also took concentration pills to recover his mental energy.
The concentration pills made his head feel cool. They also made him have the illusion that his thoughts were faster and he was smarter.
Scenes of his recent fight with the golem flashed in his mind. The more he saw of them, the more he realized how wasteful and sloppy he was in the first half of the battle.
He thought to himself, "Fighting with spells and training with spells are completely different things."
He learned a lot from his fight, enough to realize that making simulations of battle in his head and practicing the spells at home are different from real-world conditions during a fight.
So he decided to rest for a while and repeat the test again. When he has corrected most of the mistakes that he has figured out and managed to shorten his completion time to 30 seconds, he will go to the next level.
He wants to correct his mistakes first because the next level will have double the difficulty. He will have to fight two of the same golem in the second level. That number will increase to three in the third level. And so on and so forth.
The essence of the test is to determine how well a disciple can fight by pitting them against a skilled golem of equal power. This is why the test is so difficult.
Order tests will pressure disciples and challenge them in terms of endurance, strength, speed, and attack power. Usually, disciples with the highest cultivation perform the best in those tests.
But the fighting excellence test doesn't rely on cultivation at all. Everyone who takes it will lose their advantage of cultivation.
This way, disciples taking the test won't be able to have the advantage of cultivation. They will have to rely on the superiority of their spells and fighting techniques in order to win.
Or at least, that's how it should be for normal people. It clearly wasn't the same for him, as he still had the advantage of power even though they both had the same cultivation.
This is not an abnormal situation in the history of the sect. S-grade disciples who take this test usually have their own advantages that set them apart and give them an advantage of power in the test.
All of these were mentioned in the guide that Blood Root sent him. That and the one thing that he mustn't do in this test.
He was warned repeatedly not to rely on the power of the body in this fight, as the golem would respond correctly to the physical attacks and neutralize them more effectively than with spells.
The one strategy that was provided to clear this test is to rely on spells. Apparently, spells are more varied than fighting techniques and more difficult for the golem to resolve.
After resting, he stood up, picked an option, and said aloud, "Retry."
He became frozen immediately. While he was frozen, golem appeared in front of him. It rose up from the ground and stared menacingly at him.
The golem was 2 kilometers away from him and some words appeared in front of him.
FIGHTING EXCELLENCE TEST.
Cultivation Rank: Second Mortal Coil.
Cultivation Level (Body Refining): Second Transformation.
Cultivation Level (Energy Refining): Second Transformation.
Test Level: 1
Goal: Defeat the opponent as fast as possible.
Countdown: 0 minutes and 19 seconds.