The Golem Mage

At this moment, every mage seated in the eastern stands erupted into loud cheers, unable to contain their excitement after seeing all five appear at once.

For the first time, they had outshouted the northern fanatics, drowning them out completely, and it was all because even the usually dominant northern crowd had been left stunned and speechless by these new versions of Takeda.

His elemental bodies looked more refined than before, their weapons sharper and a little more different, more evolved, almost as if they too had undergone a breakthrough alongside their master.

The way they gathered around him only amplified the overwhelming aura they exuded.

“Are you done? Is that all? Then... is it my turn now?” Alec finally spoke.

His voice cut through the atmosphere, drawing Takeda’s attention, as the Progenitor body which still hovered above a few meters away from the five elemental body, stared at Alec with clear surprise, trying to understand why Alec was still standing there, completely composed.

With the pressure of six High-Rank presences bearing down on him, Takeda had expected Alec to be struggling, perhaps even on his knees, gasping for air.

But instead, Alec stood firm, his gaze filled with eagerness, because to him, he had faced such type of aura oppression every single night in the beast forest so Takeda’s little game wouldn’t make him lose face.

And his calm defiance irritated Takeda a lot, even though Alec’s body trembled slightly, Takeda could tell, it wasn’t because of fear, it was excitement. Pure, unrestrained anticipation.

“Get him.”

Takeda finally gave the command, clearly done watching Alec stand there as if none of this mattered, as the Earth and Fire avatars were the first to move.

Seeing them advance with the intent to close the distance, Alec reacted instantly, with a swift motion of control, the ground before him shifted—

A stone pillar shot out diagonally, angled backward, slamming into him and launching his body backward at high speed.

Boom!

But Alec didn’t stop there, and the moment the Fire and Earth Takeda realized what he was doing, they lunged forward, weapons drawn, the Fire Takeda attacked from the left, swinging a long odachi in a wide horizontal arc.

At the same time, the Earth Takeda moved in from the right, gripping an axe in his left hand and swinging it inversely in an horizontal manner trying to meet the Fire avatars slash at the center.

Meanwhile, flames ignited beneath Alec’s feet, propelling him higher into the air as he watched the incoming Qi from their attacks close in on him.

The flaming slash reached him first.

In that instant, Alec’s right leg became completely engulfed in flames, as the fire climbed up just below his kneecap, no longer confined to his boot, the flames surged outward as he swung his leg forward, like he was kicking a ball, just as the flaming slash reached him.

Bang!

The flaming slash was sent flying upward by the force of his kick, then came the earth-infused strike, Alec thrust his left hand forward, and an earth shield, formed in a circular shape before him with glowing runic engravings materialized on it.

But it didn’t last long against the slash from the Earth Takeda, the moment the attack collided with it, the shield held for only a few seconds before cracking and collapsing under the pressure, and the residual force of the earth slash continued toward him.

This time, however, Alec didn’t feel the same level of pressure as when the attack came at him initially, those few seconds of time he bought himself had allowed him the chance to get ready for another for it, reacting instantly this time, he pushed his weapon—the Blood Changdao which was still sheathed out with his left hand, —in front of him.

Within milliseconds, his right hand gripped the hilt and drew the blade—not fully, but just enough for a portion of it to rise vertically as a shield before him. The incoming energy slammed against it—and split cleanly into two.

Bang!

At that exact moment that the two split energy was exploding behind him , another thunderous explosion echoed through the battlefield, and together a powerful shockwave rippled through the air.

The pressure surged outward, shaking everything below, the mages engaged in combat beneath instinctively paused, their attention snapping upward toward the source of the blast.

The crowd, however, already understood what had happened, the flaming slash Alec had kicked away had collided directly with the dome created by the Creation Stone.

Upon impact, it detonated, the barrier absorbing and containing the attack to prevent it from spilling outward.

Otherwise, the shockwave would have reached the spectators.

Instead, the dome repelled the energy back inward—

And the resulting shockwave, and since it came from a Tier 7 mage it was on an entirely different level compared to anything a Tier 6 mage could produce.

Seeing Alec suspended in the air, completely unmoving, gave the War God Academy mages the confidence to go all out.

“You have the guts to look elsewhere?! I’ll kill you for looking down on me!” Sojin shouted as he dashed toward Arthur, with a swift motion, he flicked both hands forward, sending two kunai flying straight at him.

Arthur remained calm, his hands moved instinctively, his right wrapped in an earth-forged fist, while his left coated in a silver-like metallic sheen, as he knocked the projectiles aside with precise, controlled movements.

Since his golem had improved when Alec had helped him with its evolution, Arthur’s metal element seems to have evolved too, his metal element color manifestation had now shifted to mirror his golem’s body—hence the distinct silver tone, though silver is meant to be weaker than gold but Arthur could tell that ever since it had reverted to silver his control and power had gotten better.

The moment he deflected the kunai, Arthur noticed something—Sojin was gone, however instead of looking around he let out a quiet snort.

He had faced shadow-element mages before, and though Knight’s mastery didn’t match Sojin’s own, except he was equipping his spirit equipment set, however Arthur had sparred with him enough times to understand the fundamentals.

He had seen enough shadow techniques to anticipate what would come next, even without knowing Sojin’s exact position, he could predict his intent.

Arthur moved instantly, he bent low as he could feel his danger sense twinkle, a curved blade sliced through the air just above his head the next second, missing him by inches.

The motion alone told him everything, a weapon had just passed through that space with lethal precision, on the other side, Sojin’s eyes widened slightly. His strike had been perfectly read.

But he didn’t hesitate. A shinobi didn’t stop after one failed attack.

Halting the full motion of his swing midway, he shifted his grip and redirected the blade’s trajectory, angling the edge downward so it hovered just above Arthur’s shoulder, ready to carve through him at point-blank range.

But Arthur had already prepared his counter, using his left hand to anchor his body against the ground, he launched a powerful kick upward with his left leg, cutting diagonally toward Sojin.

Arthur’s swift reaction disrupted Sojin’s attack completely, stopping the downward cleave and forcing him back a few steps as he staggered.

As Arthur adjusted his footing, Sojin had escaped into the shadows again and Arthur suddenly felt a familiar aura behind him, a back pressed against his, someone using him as support, just as he instinctively did the same.

Without turning fully, he glanced from the corner of his eye, till he noticed Brandon’s features.

“Yours being a pain in the ass too?” Brandon asked, with Arthur giving a short nod in response.

“Are you thinking what I’m thinking?” Arthur said, shifting slightly until Brandon caught the sly smile forming on his face.

“Let’s do it,” Brandon replied without hesitation.

At the same time, both of them raised their free hands, forming rapid hand signs in perfect sync before shouting in unison—

“Golem Summoning.”