The Golem Mage

“And the win goes to the War God Mage Academy.”

A heavy silence fell over the Arena, not out of celebration, but from the sudden tension that came with the scoreboard levelling out again, with both academies now having only two fighters left, everyone knew the next few rounds would decide everything—victory or bitter defeat of their respective academy funny enough only the Dean seems worried at the War God Academy zone.

The atmosphere around the Royal Mage Academy’s seating area was especially grim.

Their side wasn’t taking the outcome well, when they had arrived, they believed the War God Mage Academy would be easy prey. After all, they had all grown tremendously since the last inter-academy competition.

Many of them didn’t even consider the possibility that the War God mages could keep up.

Their arrogance wasn’t unfounded. The Royal Academy students had backing from ancient-ranked clans, vast resources, and the support of the royal family itself. Meanwhile, the War God Mage Academy had lost its royal support after the Inter academy competition, making it easy for the others to assume they couldn’t keep the pace in cultivating their students.

But that assumption had been flawed.

The truth was that the War God Mage Academy had been surviving on scraps for years, even before they decided to cut ties officially with the Northern Kingdom, the academy had been neglected for far too long.

Now, the only real change was that the school instructors and battle hardened students no longer took mercenary jobs in Northern Kingdom cities to supplement the academy’s income.

Everything else had already been stripped away long before, the fact that the team of War God Mage they faced still looked like a component of a reserved team and a few main fighters made the Royal Mage Academy team more ashamed at how it was going, because they knew truly the War God Mage Academy Team had held back in the line up selection.

“Austin, I don’t care how you do it, just don’t you dare lose to that boy,” Liam said through gritted teeth as Austin stood up.

But Austin only ran a hand through his blond hair, brushing it back to reveal his sharp, handsome features, his confident smirk said all that needed to be said.

“Why do you all think I care about your opinions?” Austin muttered, his tone laced with annoyance.

“I just want to get this over with and get back to my ladies. I’m practically sick of being in this academy. If you weren’t all so incompetent, I wouldn’t have been forced to join this team in the first place.”

Austin’s words were sharp, and though he spoke casually, his irritation was clear, he had wanted to fight earlier, but Albert insisted he had things under control, only to get thoroughly humiliated.

Now, Austin wasn’t just annoyed with the team, but with the entire situation.

Unlike Liam, who took his responsibilities seriously and cared about the academy’s reputation, Austin was famously known as the academy’s carefree lover boy; he would rather spend his time charming his many girlfriends than bothering with anything that resembled effort—especially fighting.

Liam clenched his jaw at Austin’s words, but he had no real comeback.

Despite being equals in rank, Austin was the more talented of the two when it came to time related abilities, his time-related abilities were far superior to Liam’s low-affinity version.

Liam’s strength mainly came from his rare mimicry skill which acted as a sub branch for his time abilities, and it made him versatile, but in the Tudor Clan, time users reigned supreme.

By all rights, Austin should have been the one the Tudor Clan invested in most heavily, but his complete lack of ambition had left them frustrated. Eventually, they stopped trying to change him and shifted their support to Liam.

What burned Liam most, though, was that even without trying much, Austin was still able to keep up with him in cultivation speed.

Austin Tudor strolled up to the stage with a lazy sneer, casually glancing at two Royal Academy teammates as they carried Albert’s unconscious body down to be treated by the healing mage.

“Are you prepared?” asked the judge mage, raising an eyebrow at Austin’s laid-back demeanor.

“Yes!” Austin replied as he summoned a sword from his Alec ring, casually eyeing Brandon, who stood with his great sword embedded in the ground beside him.

“Begin!” the judge declared.

But neither of them moved.

Brandon had assumed the mage in front of him would come at him and try to test his stamina, to see if he was worn out from his last match, however he swiftly realized how much he had underestimated Austin’s arrogance.

He was being underestimated.

Despite everything Brandon had shown in the last round, Austin looked completely confident in his victory, that alone made Brandon decide to push himself further.

With a calm breath, he gripped his great sword in a reverse hold and began walking forward.

His slow, deliberate steps soon transitioned into a sudden sprint, the screech of his blade dragging against the ground ringing out across the battle ring.

Once he crossed the center line, Brandon launched himself into the air, spinning his massive blade with him in a 360-degree arc before slamming it down toward Austin.

Austin raised his broadsword just in time, meeting the descending strike, Brandon’s great sword was enveloped in powerful Qi, while Austin’s weapon shimmered with temporal mana.

The moment their blades collided, Austin felt the raw strength behind Brandon’s swing, and something else.

The Qi felt as if it had a penetrating edge, biting into his defence, causing his right hand which was holding the blade to become numb.

Reacting quickly, Austin slid his blade downward, redirecting Brandon’s weapon along its edge and breaking the momentum, as he followed up instantly, slamming his right elbow into Brandon’s jaw.

Brandon stumbled two steps back, a copper taste flooding his mouth.

“Hmph,” Brandon grunted, spitting blood to the side.

[> Mid-Tier Spell – Temporal Bullet Mid-Tier Spell – Time Freeze Mid-Tier Spell – Earth Fangs Mid-Tier Spell – Time Jump