BEHIND YOU, Eve yelled at Alan. He turned his head to see the second golem’s arms stretching out; its eye began to glow brighter, aimed directly at Alan. Eve showed Alan the trajectories of the descending cleavers as well as her estimated path for the eye’s blast. She showed a singular path to avoid damage, a leaping, twisting backflip that required Alan to cut through the arms while in midair. Alan attempted the leap.

Almost immediately, he felt something was off, his movements not mirroring the preciseness with which Eve showed them being executed. He simply did not have the experience or skill required for such a maneuver. Still, Eve attempted to correct it, calculating and displaying a new set of blocks for Alan to make. He barely managed to fend off the first two cleavers that cut at him, but he could do nothing but watch as the golem’s glowing eye let out a gigantic blue beam of light. Alan tried to turn himself in midair, even managing to change his course slightly by pushing off of the two other arms that tried to cut him. He almost evaded the entirety of the blue ray, but it still struck a glancing blow, knocking Alan to the ground, eliminating the rest of his shield energy. Any additional hits would kill him.

Alan turned to see the damaged golem had turned 180 degrees, preparing its own eye-blast. Its three remaining arms had dropped the blades. Their fingers were now pointed drill bits, like the ends of a sharpened pencil. Alan didn’t think they would break so easily. The undamaged golem was also preparing another attack, its eye recharging while it stepped forward as its arms began descending.

An image formed in Alan’s eyes of him throwing the two knives, each piercing the direct center of the two golems. A series of calculations, diagrams and projections flashed through his mind, leaving him with the precise angle, force and technique to throw the knives. Alan followed the outline, concentrating, getting up to a kneeling position before attempting the throw. He took the two knives, and released.

As the knives left his hands Alan felt satisfaction, a rightness. Eve calculated they were both directly on-target. The knife headed at the damaged golem flew fluidly through the air, spinning, dead set for its central eye. The golem attempted to defend itself with its arms, but to no avail. Its eye was pierced, the knife’s spinning handle stopped by the golem’s armor. Gravity brought the knife downwards, and it pierced all the way through the golem’s body before slowly falling onto the floor. The golem was destroyed.

The second golem made no attempt to dodge the spinning knife headed its way. The moment before the knife pierced its eye, it instead shifted, blinking like Sidestep, appearing at Alan’s side. Eve instantaneously ran new calculations, displaying to Alan that he had to get away, back to the first knife. He leapt up, sprinting towards the thrown knife lying on the ground, narrowly dodging the four blades that descended, trying to cut him in two. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the second knife he had thrown glide through the air, unobstructed. It tumbled and embedded itself into the ground.