A legend has passed across the world since the beginning of time, that those who complete the Trials of Stone shall attain the power of the three Lords of Stone: Sindile of Obsidian, Zaman of Granite, and Adio-Baha of Marble. Now a new challenger ap...
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His head fell to the side, and he saw the mouth of a narrow tunnel, obsidian shards still slowly spinning away outside. Then the exhaustion of his feat hit him in a single crash, and he started sucking down great gulps of air, fighting to get the wind back into him. The bones and muscles in his legs felt as if they were burning from within, and his lacerated skin felt like it was being scalded by acid. He lay still in the tunnel for what felt like hours, until finally he strong enough to haul himself to his feet and face the end of the tunnel.
It opened on the far end onto a long, tall cavern, of course of the same grey obsidian, pillars of it scattered sporadically throughout. At the far end of that cavern was a truly unearthly form.
It was shaped like an egg, over twenty feet tall, and formed from a latticework of long, thin lines of jet-black obsidian. Each of those lines converged on a black disc, engraved on which was the knife-like sigil that he had seen on the obsidian pillar before. Beneath the web-like surface, at the center of the egg-shape, was a sphere of obsidian that emitted a sullen, pulsing red light.
He knew exactly what he was supposed to do. He strode forward, the pains of his body temporarily put aside by a reborn sense of purpose, and with a deft swing of his entire body, brought the hammer slamming into the engraved sigil.
The entire latticework exploded in the same instant, and as he stepped back the broken pieces began to reconstruct themselves into new shapes. The sphere inside rippled like a tightly clustered swarm, and took on the form of a glowing read, glassy human head and face, rock-solid and expressionless. The shards of black obsidian reformed into long floating legs and a whip-like tail with a wickedly curved barb at the end, falling into positions around the head. The Obsidian Lord Sindile stood before him, the floating pieces creating a form something like a massive spindly scorpion.
The being seemed to shudder in some form of alien anticipation, and then it leapt at him with absolutely mind-blurring speed.
He had stepped far enough away from it that he just managed to leap behind an obsidian pillar. Sindile curved its path to follow him, and he heard several shattering sound of impact against the pillar. Then two of its legs came whirling around the pillar, and dove towards him like spears. With no time to move out of the way, he swung his hammer in two deft strokes that shattered the crystal limbs as they approached him. Smaller shards pierced his upper body, but he kept himself from being skewered. The pieces whipped back around behind the pillar, reforming along the way. He turned the momentum of his last swing into a blow against the obsidian pillar, and though it was thick, the glassy material cracked, and the pillar buckled to one side. The Obsidian Lord skittered around to face him again, and he was forced to strafe to his left, keeping the pillar between him and it. He kept that up for a few seconds, but the being was drawing closer on each shift. When he came back around to the position he had started, he swung the hammer again at the same side of the pillar, this time higher, and with a crack and shriek of glass scraping on glass, the column of heavy obsidian came crashing down on top of Sindile.
The pieces of the being flew apart in different direction, all of them avoiding the pillars weight. It shattered when it crashed to the ground, and for an instant Sindile seemed to struggle to reform itself amidst the flying debris, and it gave him enough time to sprint behind another pillar.
He had maybe a second or two to think. He couldn't keep running from Sindile; if he did, it would eventually tear him apart, and it had to be destroyed for him to complete the Trial. Its limbs were just floating stone, like the platforms outside, therefore the red-glowing head had to be the things itself. He had to destroy that to defeat the Lord, but to do that, he would have to get close to it.
He spun around and again slammed the hammer into the pillar, waited until he saw Sindile blurring towards him, then hit it again to send it crashing down, sprinting around it before it had barely begun to fall. He had expected Sindile to fly apart again, giving him a chance to close on the head, but the Obsidian Lord hadn't fallen for the same trick twice. Its tail whipped forward and wrapped around the pillar, catching it before it hit the ground, and with a long, sinuous flick sent it scything toward him.
He couldn't turn out of the flying pillars path, so instead he dropped to the ground and slid under it, feeling several long gashes open on his back. The slide brought him too close to Sindile to have a chance of fleeing, so he popped up onto his feet and started swinging the hammer in the same motion, rushing, praying he could get past the reach of its long limbs. All of the beings left legs clustered together and came drilling towards him. He swerved his upper body out of the way of one, two, three of the crystal spears...and then he saw the fourth rush into his vision, and a flash of pure fire-like pain appeared on his face as half of his vision simply vanished.
He screamed in agony and faltered in his step, and only the momentum he had already built up kept his swing going and slamming into the side of the obsidian head. It didn't break, but it was sent tumbling away from him, and the limbs of the being seemed to become less dexterous, tangling with themselves, and as they all came hurtling towards him they knocked each other out of the way. He felt deep slices opened on the side of his calf and his ribs, they were invisible against the absolute blaze of pain he was already in. He turned and followed the head, putting all of his attention on each step just to keep himself from falling. The Obsidian Lord's head slowed and righted itself in midair, and as he drew close to it, it swept up to face him, and it's blank black and red gaze met his.
He brought the hammer around in a final, sweeping blow, and landed it between the Obsidian Lord's eyes.
The head shattered into pieces, there was a screech so loud and high-pitched he could feel it make his ears bleed, and then crimson fire leapt from the exploding remains, swept towards him and engulfed him.
