The Golem Mage

Without wasting time, Wind Takeda raised his hands toward the sky, as the small tornado he had formed mirrored his movement, lifting Patches who was caught inside it higher into the air.

Once Patches was high enough, he pushed his hands downward, and this time the tornado changed direction as its descent was dropping far faster than its ascent, and the wind that had been mirroring his motion accelerated violently as it crashed down.

Bang!

Another loud explosion rang out as dust swiftly blanketed the arena, wind Takeda hovered effortlessly with his wind wings flapping behind him, while the Water Takeda had already risen into the air.

Both stared into the dust cloud, even pushing their mental senses forward in an attempt to locate Beatrice or her remaining active puppet.

But no matter how hard they tried, they couldn’t get a clear read on either of them.

“Have you been able to sense the puppet’s realm?” Water Takeda finally decided to ask the one question that has been bothering him in his mind, as he fixed his gaze on the Wind Takeda.

Hearing the question, Wind Takeda’s brows lifted slightly, truthfully, he hadn’t been able to gauge the puppet’s realm since the fight began, he had just simply assumed it was a strong peak Tier 6 puppet based on its battle prowess.

“I didn’t get a proper read, but judging from the battle prowess it has shown so far, it should be Peak Tier 6, if not for its master supporting it, we should’ve gotten rid of it by now,” Wind Takeda replied confidently.

Just then, the dust slowly began to clear.

At the center of the arena stood Patches, casually cracking his neck and twisting his stitched arms together. Seeing how relaxed he looked forced Wind Takeda into deeper thought, because with the spell he had just casted he doesn’t believe there is any Tier 6 mage that would be able to bypass and survive it so casually without serious injuries.

“That is no Tier 6 puppet , it’s Tier 7 Puppet, she clearly hasn’t been using its full strength, as there must be a restriction or something” The Water Takeda who already had suspicions said as he dashed forward, noticing Beatrice had moved behind Patches, the frozen wooden spider puppet had disappeared which could only mean she had recalled it, as she was making slight adjustments on Patches by pressing glowing mana-lit points along his back.

“Shit,” Wind Takeda muttered, and he instantly didn’t see the need to keep holding on as he summoned his spirit equipment set, after the tattoos spread around him it appeared, with two new katana materialized on his back, parts of his black ninja attire shifted into a cyan hue, and the upper hood covering his hair retracted.

Only the mask from his nose downward remained.

His grey hair, not very long, flowed freely in the breeze, the moment the transformation finished, he began forming hand seals, but at the same time, Water Takeda’s body was suddenly blasted backward by a back hand punch from Patches sending him back towards Wind Takeda location after he had charged at him to stop whatever Beatrice was doing.

Wind Takeda instinctively tilted aside letting Water Takeda’s body fly past him, as his attempt to summon the Wind Gate spell was interrupted, from the corner of his eye, he saw Patches standing there, now emanating a far more dangerous aura than ever before.

It was completely different from earlier, just one look at Patches and it told him that the puppet was truly more dangerous than before.

Meanwhile, Beatrice looked close to losing consciousness, she sat cross-legged a short distance behind Patches, thick mana threads visibly linking her to the puppet, as she had her eyes closed.

Patches raised his upper right hand and used it to brush the hair away from his face, for the first time, the entire crowd saw his features clearly.

Contrary to expectations, he wasn’t grotesque or monstrous despite the stitched body. Many had assumed his face was hidden because it was ugly or disfigured.

Instead, what appeared was a strikingly handsome face, in fact the only irregularity on his face was the long stitch running from his lower right jaw across his cheek, almost as if it were holding his face together.

“Finally,” Patches said as the blue glow in his left eye burned brighter.

“Ten minutes — no, at most seven — is all I can maintain you at full strength, if you start casting spells, it’ll drain much faster,” Beatrice said, her face pale.

She was clearly straining herself to allow Patches to access his true power, all this time, he had been fighting purely with physical strength, even while restrained without Qi and without mana, he had still delivered blows comparable to a Peak Tier 6 mage.

“That’s enough time to get rid of the two of them,” Patches replied, raising his upper right hand and pointing at the two Takedas hovering in the air.

“Count again, bastard. I’m still in this,” the Earth Takeda said in a shaky voice, after remaining down for so long, he had finally gathered enough strength to stand.

“Oh... just you? You’re already exhausted. Get lost.”

Patches’ tone began amused but turned ice-cold by the end, his lower left arm, the scaled one that seemed taken from a reptilian humanoid beast, lifted and pointed toward the Earth Takeda.

At its fingertip, a purple-green energy began to gather, it compressed into a small sphere before Patches flicked his index finger, sending it hurtling forward.

Boom!

The projectile traveled so fast that the Earth Takeda, who was still recovering, couldn’t even react, it struck him square in the stomach and launched him high into the air.

His back slammed violently against the arena’s protective light shield before he began falling back down toward the field, even though the spectators knew the shield would prevent him from crashing into them, they still flinched as his massive body was hurled so effortlessly.

The Water Takeda reached him first, twisting his chain mid-air and tugging sharply, using the rotational momentum to accelerate the sickle toward Patches.

But Beatrice, who had her eyes closed as she floated slightly off the ground behind Patches, drew her right hand back, as a few of the mana strings attached to that hand came into view.

In response, Patches gave a slight nudge with his right shoulder, letting the Kusarigama pass just beside him, and he stepped in immediately with very few movements.

His lower right arm (the orc arm) slammed forward, the Water Takeda raised his leg to block, but a sharp crack echoed out, his face contorting in pain.

Before he could recover, Patches’ upper left hand seized his head and flung him outward, as his body shot into the air, hurtling straight toward the edge of the arena, clearly on course to be thrown out of the ring.