The Golem Mage

Immediately Damien pointed him toward his next target, Connor turned and what he saw was Caelum’s massive halberd already twisting through the air toward him, with nowhere to hide, Connor dashed forward to meet the attack.

But just before the blade could bite into him, he kicked off the ground with his powerful legs and lunged into the air, barely evading it in the last split second.

He jumped so high that he landed on all fours, fully embracing the beastial stance, he didn’t even seem to care at all as moving like that felt natural to him, he surged closer, driving himself forward with both hands.

Seeing his attack miss, Caelum stretched out his right hand, and as if an invisible pull had been activated, the halberd which was still rotating in midair froze for a heartbeat, then snapped into a new spin and started coming back like it had been recalled.

“Raaaarrr!” Connor roared as he finally entered striking range, his glowing claws slicing forward.

Caelum, realising his weapon wouldn’t return fast enough before Connor reached him, adjusted instantly, as he wasn’t ready for a repeat of what happened earlier when he had been shoulder shoved by Connor, so he raised his shield with both hands, while imbuing it with his mana which caused the shield to flare with light energy as he charged, trying to bash Connor off the stage.

Clang!

But Caelum wasn’t fighting a mindless beast. Connor was locked in, fully in control of his werewolf transformation, he drove his claw Qi into the glowing shield that was heading for him, before then twisting his body at the last moment like a quarterback slipping a tackle and let Caelum rush past him.

Caelum tried to turn back instantly—

—But then a sharp pain tore through the back of his left leg as Connor grazed his left claw on his leg as he passed by like he was toying with him.

Caelum groaned, forcing himself through it just to face Connor, but by the time he shifted and looked up, Connor had already circled behind him in a blur of motion.

Staying low, Connor dug his claws into the ground at intervals, scratching grooves across the arena floor, almost like he wanted Caelum to know exactly where he was.

But every time Caelum turned toward the sound, Connor was already gone, vanishing like a ghost.

Still in a crouched state, he burst in short, violent sprints as he circled around Caelum, flaunting the sheer physical gap between them, after getting tired of spinning and catching nothing but air, Caelum finally decided to commit because he felt just turning in place like that wasn’t doing him any good.

The next second, he heard the scrape of Connor’s claws again, like a deliberate taunt, and he swung his halberd behind him, but that proved to be a major mistake.

Connor had been waiting for that exact move, as he dropped even lower, letting the axe head of the Halberd graze past his fur, and with Caelum now exposed facing him wide open, Connor surged in before the shield could come back into play.

He closed the distance with his right claw spread wide.

Puchi!

“Arrrgghh!” Caelum screamed as the claws sank deep into his flesh, in the same motion, Connor rose from his low posture, lifting Caelum up with him like dead weight.

Caelum could feel the claws anchored inside him, precisely—missing his heart by only a few inches, being held up like that made it worse, the pain was flooding his body in waves, and the only thing he could do was stare into the eyes of the werewolf who had engineered it all.

That was when he understood, those eyes were sharp, focused, intelligent, there was no mindless beastial madness behind them.

What stood before him was disciplined savagery: a predator’s power fused with a crafty human mind, knowing exactly when to strike, when to retreat, and when to rip everything apart.

At that moment the Halberd finally arrived and slammed at Connor’s back, while Caelum shoved his light-aspected shield toward Connor’s face in a last-ditch effort.

The glow scorched Connor’s fur, and the smell of singed hair rose, yet Connor never groaned, never screamed, never even flinched, he simply reached up with his left hand, clamped down on Caelum’s neck, and snapped it sideways.

Just like that, a second opponent fell, and like the first, Connor didn’t take any chances; he swung his right arm and hurled Caelum out of the battle ring instead of letting him crash onto the stage and risking some sudden turnaround from overconfidence, because that had been what happened with him, if Lucien had smashed him out of the battle ring he would be unable to cost his teammates such damage because he would have been disqualified irrespective of how good his regeneration was.

He turned toward where Damien had moved to while removing the axe logged at his back, his burn wounds were already knitting back together, slowly, but still far faster than when Lucien’s blade had been the one carving into him.

But the moment Connor looked over, he knew Damien wouldn’t need him again.

Elara and Orion were already down, on one side Carmilla stood with a blood-forged scythe in hand, while Kira faced the other flank with two daggers held in inverse grips, at the center of it all was Damien, who was overseeing everything as he conjured blood chains, shackled them, and dragged them off the stage.

—

Five minutes after the Solarium Sanctum team was wiped out by the Bloodline Academy, Dragov also defeated their captain, sending the Northern stands into a frenzy, as it was now two wins out of two for the northern academies.

After the jeers and mocking from the other four kingdoms the day before, the North finally had something to roar about.

But while the crowd screamed themselves hoarse, one member of the War God Mage Academy team remained in the stands, frowning at what she’d just witnessed, she didn’t leave, because Alec had tasked her with analyzing the remaining matches.

—

With the first two matches ending in Northern academies victories, the Northern fans only grew louder, chanting for three wins out of three, then the third match came and stunned them, as the Battle Mage Academy was defeated.

They were completely overwhelmed, unable to eliminate even a single member of the Ember Citadel team, in the end, the match concluded with a surrender, one that came directly from Vladimir himself.