The Golem Mage

Alec knew the only reason he wasn’t feeling much pressure from the stairs was because of the fact that his gravity control which was a sub of his earth manipulation had reached a certain level high level, and even though he wanted to pretend it wasn’t easy for him to move on the stairs, the faint purple hue around his body made that impossible.

It was as if his gravity powers were blending with the elemental particles in the air to protect him, and he had no say in it at all, like he couldn’t wish the light should go off that easily as he didn’t summon it in the first place, it had appeared like a passive ability

“Alec, you know no one’s buying that we can’t move fast on these stairs, so if you keep hanging back, it’ll just look like you’re farming for attention,” Lucas who stood at Alec’s right side finally spoke up.

Though Lucas wasn’t Alec’s closest friend, however; Lucas knew Alec’s tendencies well enough to see what Alec was trying to avoid and decided to warn him.

“Hmmm.” Alec only grunted for a moment to his suggestion, before he then decided to take the competition seriously and began to jog forward.

“Don’t lose to me,” Alec said, letting his arms swing freely as he burst straight to the fifth step in an instant, his sudden explosive speed shocked those waiting on that step as he arrived before them.

The moment Alec’s foot touched it, the pressure spiked again.

“You—!” a guy who had been resting on the fifth step started to curse at Alec for ramping the pressure by blitzing through that way, because every time someone stepped onto a stair, the repulsive force is reactivated.

This force didn’t care that others were already on the step still enduring the gravity that was pressing down, it still crashed down on them regardless.

The only way to cope was to get so used to the repulsive force that no matter how many mages passed by, it wouldn’t matter...

Or to simply attack anyone trying to climb up in order to prevent their ascent therefore they are able to continue resting without bracing for a fresh wave of repulsion triggered by a newcomer.

However, by the time he turned, the Alec before him was already fading like a blur, and that is when he realised that it was an afterimage, he gritted his teeth and braced against the pressure still crushing down on his body.

He wanted to curse Alec, but he knew better. Alec had already passed, moving so fast he didn’t even suffer the repulsive force he triggered; the ones still stuck on the fifth step with him were the ones paying for it.

He glared at Alec’s back, but at that moment the remaining members of the War God Mage Academy surged past, and the repulsive force multiplied tenfold, pinning him flat to the stone this time, most teams had split their people into groups, sending the stronger ones first to reduce backlash they faced.

However the War God Mage Academy seemed to be competing with themselves, as everyone was charging together except for Alec, who had already reached the ninth step.

Mages from the second to the fifth steps had suffered from getting slammed down by the amplified force that occurs when the War God Academy team passed, this time the mage didn’t hold back, he cursed at the entire War God Mage Academy, who were acting like a bunch of abnormal freaks.

“Fuck you all—ahhh!” he yelled, as he finally was able to claw his way back to his feet once the pressure eased on him like three seconds later, his legs were still shaky; and he figured it would take a few minutes before he could climb again.

However at that moment he felt his whole body go cold with fear, and he looked up nervously , to see Pale Zero standing on the seventh step and watching him, while the others continued on.

“Next time, if you’re not strong enough to compete, give up early and don’t blame others for your inability to withstand such a weak force,” Pale said, with his face cold and devoid of any emotions.

The mage had felt it was a cheap tactic which the War God Mage team was employing in breezing through and leaving everyone behind to suffer the repulsive force of their passage.

But even as he thought that, he never stopped to consider that, if their positions were reversed, he couldn’t do the same as them, moving that fast to dodge the backlash didn’t mean they weren’t enduring the crushing gravity.

In fact, only because they had incredible strength and agility were they able to bypass it so easily, so when he finally raised his head and saw Pale simply standing there, he understood why: Pale was demonstrating that he could withstand the force of a higher step.

In other words, they didn’t refuse to wait because they were afraid, they were just that strong, and the weak had no right to blame them for climbing higher.

“Pale!” At that moment Lucas called him,

Because the whole War God Mage Academy team, except for Alec and him, had stepped onto the twenty-fifth stone.

They’d noticed Alec had stopped on the twenty-sixth step instead of sprinting ahead like before, seeing his squad calling to him, Pale finally ignored the mage and moved to re-join the team.

—

While the others gathered on the twenty-fifth step, still unsure why Alec had paused, he turned back to them.

“You all can go on ahead. Don’t worry about me,” Alec said.

When he faced forward again, the illusion swallowed his senses, before him stretched a scene that looked exactly like his favourite place on Earth.

Alec knew it wasn’t real, but he couldn’t help drifting into it, even if he didn’t dwell on it much anymore, he still missed home, if only a little and for a moment he wanted to indulge that feeling.

While Alec took his time getting lost in the illusion, the rest of his team moved on without waiting, such was their confidence in him.

Since he’d told them to go ahead, they assumed whatever held him up wasn’t serious, but while his teammates thought that, the same couldn’t be said for the many onlookers watching to see whether he would reach the same steps range now occupied by the captains o

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