The Golem Mage

Bang!

The Caterpillar’s body slammed into the ground with a deafening crash. Elsewhere, Alec was already climbing out of the crater where he had fallen, his werewolf transformation had been undone, and the Bloody Changdao had reverted from its second seal lying somewhere in the crater. Alec spat out a mouthful of blood, his body trembling.

During the fall, he had tried to manipulate gravity to soften the impact, but even then the landing was brutal, he could feel countless bones in his body creaking under the strain, some broken beyond what his regeneration could handle in minutes.

“So this is what it feels like to face a beast with a prowess nearing Tier 8 power,” Alec muttered, gazing toward the spot where the Caterpillar had landed, only to see it already standing again, the ice that once encased it cracked.

The creature’s body bore several injuries, though none inflicted by Alec himself, they were the work of his golems.

For the first time, Alec regretted shouldering most of the attacks the entire fight alone instead of relying more heavily on his golems, at that moment he started to feel perhaps, if he had shared the burden, he might have stood a chance to win without ending in his current situation.

As it was, Alec knew he could no longer pose a real threat to the humanoid Caterpillar, his organs were in disarray, his mana reserves drained from powering his bloodline, and his mental reserves were almost depleted after the prolonged strain of his Energy Eyes.

For the first time, he realized how much of a toll the Energy Eyes truly took, draining vast amounts of mental energy when used continuously in battle.

“I’ll flay you slowly, make you feel pain beyond comprehension,” the Caterpillar snarled.

Swinging its bone axe, it slammed the weapon into the ground, its Qi surged through the weapon, cracking apart the layers of black ice that had weighed it down, with such a higher realm energy targeting it the Black ice was crushed.

Freed from the restrictions, the axe was lighter again, though visibly damaged.

But before Alec’s eyes, the Caterpillar poured even more Qi into it, the bones shifting, locking back into place, within moments, the axe had restored itself, just as menacing and deadly as it had been before.

The Humanoid Caterpillar demonic beast rested its axe on its shoulder and began walking toward Alec with slow, deliberate steps, exuding the confidence of one who believed the battle was already won.

Alec quickly scanned the battlefield and realized the source of that arrogance, Hive Queen and Magnito had perished.

Titan was sprawled helplessly on the ground, unable to move after his last confrontation against the humanoid Caterpillar. Legion, meanwhile, was completely drained of mana, Legion had suffered the most since the ambient mana in the air was barely ten percent while the remaining 90% of the mana in the air was Earth element, replenishing became painstakingly slow for him despite his high recovery.

Worse, he had been pouring out fire-powered attacks since the start of the fight, with that final strike against the Caterpillar having consumed the last of his reserves, though he could still fight physically, he was too far from Alec to offer meaningful support.

Alec knew defeat was likely, but he wasn’t willing to fall without resistance, with his body too broken to fight directly, he resolved to rely fully on his golems once more.

“Butcher,” Alec whispered, sending a direct mental command to the thunder-wielding golem, he didn’t want the Caterpillar to catch even a hint of his intentions, activating his Energy Eyes again, Alec closed his eyes, surrendering himself to the dark void filled with streaks of blue light and three-dimensional outlines.

Butcher stepped forward, positioning himself protectively in front of Alec, with his thunder axe resting on his shoulder, he mirrored the Caterpillar’s stance, almost taunting it, seeing this defiance, the Caterpillar abandoned its casual pace and broke into a sprint.

Butcher responded instantly, his body vanishing in a spark of lightning, before reappearing mid-air as he swung his thunder axe down with terrifying force, the Caterpillar, caught momentarily at a disadvantage, quickly adjusted.

It pushed its bone axe forward, gripping it in the middle, and rotated it smoothly meeting Butcher’s strike head-on.

Bang!

Butcher’s thunderous strike landed, but the force of the Caterpillar’s defence repelled him, sending him flying back through the air, he swiftly twisted mid-air and steadied himself before hitting the ground.

From the left, Oni’s scythe swept in, aiming to hook the Caterpillar’s head clean off, but just before the curved blade could meet its mark, the beast raised its left hand and caught the weapon, halting its deadly arc, though the scythe cut deep into its hand however it refused to let it move any further.

While it was distracted, Saint appeared silently on its right, with no warning, he drove a broadsword deep into its chest with no flashy moves, all 12 of the Caterpillar’s humanoid eyes bulged in shock as it turned toward Saint.

It hadn’t even realized he was there, even as its life drained, its mind held only one thought, and that was to kill Alec.

“ARGGHHH!” it roared, causing a violent surge of energy to erupt from its body, flinging the golems away just with the shockwave.

Behind it, a massive mental image of a monstrous caterpillar began to manifest.

This spectral form bore Golden-covered scales and two horns on its head, clearly hinting that this might be a form for its next evolution seeing as it was something more fearsome than its current form of the caterpillar in its bestial form.

Though on the brink of death, its dying resolve gave it one last burst of strength, with everything it had left, the beast hurled its massive axe toward Alec, the weapon spinning violently as it cut through the air.

Oni and Butcher lunged to intercept, but the weapon’s speed was too great.

Puchi!

The axe embedded itself deep into Alec’s chest, causing his eyes to snap open, meeting the dying Caterpillar’s face.

It wore a twisted smile, satisfied that it had slain him before succumbing itself.

Alec, however, could only sigh at the irony, the beast didn’t know the truth, he would simply respawn back in his world.

Regardless, Alec acknowledged the progress he had made today, hunting down not one but two Tier 7 demonic beasts was no small feat.

He was edging closer to his ultimate goal, becoming strong enough to stand his ground against a true Tier 7 demonic beast in a head-on battle, and with each killed

Tier 7 demonic beast Alec believed he was getting closer.