I AM EARTH

Leo slammed into the arena wall with bone-crushing force. Stone cracked behind him as he slid down, gasping for breath. Blood trickled from his nose and a gash above his eye. The colossus had batted him aside like a child's toy.

"Earth armor!" Leo wheezed, summoning the protective shell around his body. The familiar weight of five hundred kilograms settled over him just as the golem's foot came down. Instead of being pulverized, Leo merely felt his ribs creak under the pressure.

He rolled away, the earth armor grinding against the stone floor. Without it, he'd have been reduced to paste ten minutes ago.

The colossus pivoted, its obsidian fist whistling through the air. Leo activated earth glide, sliding across the ground with supernatural speed. The massive arm crashed into the spot he'd occupied a split-second earlier.

"Nothing's working," Leo growled, frustration mounting as he circled the construct. He'd tried earth spikes—they shattered against the golem's hide. Earth bullets barely left scratches. Even his earth crusher spell, which could pulverize boulders, merely staggered the beast momentarily.

The colossus charged again. Leo raised both hands, summoning a wall of compressed stone—his strongest defensive technique. The golem didn't even slow down. It burst through the barrier, sending Leo flying across the arena.

He tumbled across the ground, his stone skin spell absorbing impacts that would have broken every bone in his body. Even with three defensive spells active simultaneously, he was barely surviving.

"I can't beat this thing," Leo spat blood onto the arena floor. "It's too strong, too fast."

The golem's eyes flared brighter as it stomped toward him. Leo glided away again, narrowly avoiding another devastating blow. His mage core burned with exertion—maintaining three high-level apprentice spells simultaneously was draining his reserves rapidly.

A massive fist caught him mid-glide. Even through his earth armor, the impact felt like being hit by a runaway carriage. Leo crashed into the opposite wall, creating a Leo-shaped indentation in solid stone.

"This isn't working," he gasped, struggling to his feet as chunks of his armor crumbled away. "I've tried everything."

The colossus loomed over him, its shadow blotting out the sun. Leo's muscles screamed in protest as he forced himself to move, to survive for just a few seconds more.

The colossus raised both massive fists above its head, preparing to deliver a finishing blow. Leo's earth armor had cracked in a dozen places, his mana reserves depleted to dangerous levels. He tried to summon the strength for one last earth glide, but his legs wouldn't respond.

"The boy is finished," Old Water's voice echoed through the arena, a hint of genuine concern breaking through his usually harsh tone. "Call off your construct, Stone."

"Silence!" Old Stone roared. "The test continues until completion. If he cannot overcome this obstacle, he is unworthy of my teachings."

Leo watched death approach in slow motion as the golem's arms began their downward arc. His vision blurred from exhaustion and pain.

"This is madness," Old Wind hissed. "He's merely an apprentice, not a full mage. His core hasn't even fully formed!"

"He showed promise," Old Water agreed. "Give him more time to develop before such a trial."

Old Stone's laughter boomed across the arena. "More time? The elements wait for no one. Our enemies certainly won't. If he falls here, he was never meant to rise."

The golem's fists continued their inexorable descent toward Leo's broken form. He raised one trembling arm in a futile gesture of defiance.

"Look at his connection to earth," Old Wind insisted. "It's growing stronger even now. Can't you sense it?"

"I sense weakness," Old Stone replied coldly. "And weakness must be purged."

Leo's fingers scraped against the stone floor, his consciousness fading. The shadow of the golem's massive fists darkened his vision as they plummeted toward him. In that moment, he knew he couldn't dodge, couldn't defend. The next impact would shatter what remained of his defences.

"You're making a mistake," Old Water said, his voice suddenly quiet. "This one is different."

"Different?" Old Stone scoffed. "They all look the same when they're broken."

Leo's vision tunnelled as the golem's massive leg descended. His heartbeat thundered in his ears—each pulse a defiant reminder that he wasn't dead yet. Something primal stirred within him, a desperate refusal to accept his fate.

The connection he'd felt with earth since childhood suddenly deepened, transformed. It wasn't just an element he could manipulate—it was part of him, and he was part of it.

Blood vessels burst in his eyes as understanding crashed through him like a revelation. His irises turned crimson as clarity struck with the force of lightning.

"I AM EARTH!!!!" Leo screamed, his voice cracking with rage and desperation.

The golem's leg, poised to crush him, suddenly halted mid-motion. Leo wasn't just commanding the earth anymore—he was feeling it, becoming one with it. The stone construct's limbs were extensions of the very element he'd trained with for years. How could he lose to the element he wielded all his life?

His hands clawed at the air, fingers twisting in unnatural patterns as he poured every remaining drop of his magic into the spell. The golem's limbs began to twist, its legs fusing together as Leo manipulated the stone with unprecedented control.

"Impossible," Old Stone whispered, his arrogance giving way to genuine shock.

Leo's magic surged beyond anything he'd previously achieved. Veins bulged at his temples as he bound the golem's arms to its torso, rendering the mighty construct immobile. Stone ground against stone as the earth obeyed his will rather than his spells. He had never felt something like that before. Even an enemy earth golem was under his control.

Blood trickled from Leo's nose and ears as he pushed beyond his limits. His consciousness flickered like a candle in a storm, but he refused to let go. With one final, desperate push, Leo extended his awareness into the golem's core—the nexus of energy that animated the construct.

"Earth crusher," he gasped, no longer needing elaborate gestures or incantations.

The golem's stone heart imploded, crushed by the very element it was made from. The massive construct froze, then crumbled into a pile of ordinary stone.

Leo collapsed beside the remains, his bloodshot eyes rolling back as consciousness finally abandoned him. His final thought before darkness claimed him was simple - he had survived.