The Golem Mage

The Brood Guard Zergs responsible for what was supposed to be Alec’s assassination couldn’t help feeling as though they had kicked a block of iron.

Unlike the mindless low-rank Zergs, the battle-hungry Ravager Zergs, or the stealth-oriented Stalker Zergs, the Brood Guard Zergs were the type that sought to control the battlefield from beginning to end.

They were planners, observers, and coordinators by nature, and now they had marked Alec as a thorn that had to be removed if they ever wanted this battle to proceed smoothly.

_ _

Meanwhile, on Alec’s side, he noticed that the low-rank members of the swarm had been almost completely wiped out, what remained of them was no longer even trying to climb the city walls.

Instead, they were dragging the bodies of the slain Zergs aside and tearing into them.

However, that wasn’t even the worst part, the body of the Stalker Zerg killed by the Amazon Archer Queen had become the center of a brutal contest, as the larger and more intelligent Zergs began fighting one another over who would claim it.

Watching them cannibalize each other made Alec feel sick, but his real concern was something else entirely, why was he facing a Zerg force this strong?

He wasn’t even worried for himself at that moment, what terrified him was the thought that if this was the level of the Zergs attacking across the board of Tier 6 lords, then maybe no one else would survive.

The Stalkers he had just fought might have only been Peak Tier 6 in realm, but their actual battle prowess had clearly reached the level of Low Tier 7, and that made him deeply uneasy, especially since he didn’t have his golem army with him currently.

But his thoughts were cut short as he suddenly felt every strand of hair on his body stand on end, he looked up and saw another Zerg flying towards the army of zerg waiting.

However, the moment he laid eyes on this new creature, he couldn’t help wondering if he should even classify it as the same kind of Zerg at all, because every Zerg he had seen so far had been a grotesque monstrosity—

and this one was just different.

But this new Zerg before him was different, not only did it carry itself with an air of nobility, but it also looked far more human than all the other Zergs he had seen combined.

Though it still had an exoskeleton running across its very thin skin, along with long claws, however; there were no blades jutting out from its body.

It stood upright while slowly levitating forward, and the other Brood Guard Zergs immediately gave it space, the instant it appeared, Alec swiftly tried to use his mental energy to get a read on it.

However, the moment his mental energy came within the influence of the new Zerg’s presence, it was repelled. Even so, from that single exchange, Alec was able to tell that this was a genuine Tier 7 lifeform or stronger.

He knew his mental power was stronger than anything a peak Tier 6 could bounce away, and even some newly advanced Tier 7s wouldn’t be able to repel it so easily.

That was just how strong Alec’s mental power had become. So, seeing someone in the Zerg army do this left him with only one conclusion, this was truly a Tier 7 Zerg, and considering the fact that Zergs already seemed stronger than their realms normally suggested, Alec believed things were about to get much worse for him and his rag team of Barbarians and Amazon archers that have been cut short after that battle.

Still, out of habit, he used his system to inspect the Zerg before him, and this was what appeared:

[Status]

Name: Brood Lord

Race: High Zerg

Level: High Tier 7

Affinity: Poison, Metal

[Description: If the loyal Brood Guard Zergs are the devoted protectors of the Zerg Queen, then the Brood Lords are their higher-ups, even more fanatical in their service, and they can only be commanded by the Queen of their Hive.]

This time he was just expecting to just see the name of the latest zergs but he seems to have gotten more than he bargained for, as all the info he needed was before him, which seems to suggest to him that this was only possible because of the amount of Zerg’s death he was responsible for.

“You... you’re still able to get a read on me? How is that possible?”

The Brood Lord that had just appeared questioned him, its voice booming in Alec’s ears as if it were standing right beside him, despite the great distance between them.

“Well, it doesn’t matter now, you’re about to die. You have killed far too many of the Queen’s children, and she has redirected most of her high-rank Zergs here. So while others may be getting a brief respite from the wave attack, you on the other hand, will be utterly obliterated by the swarm.”

As the Brood Lord finished speaking, Alec couldn’t help but frown.

Just when he had thought things were starting to calm down—because ever since the new Zerg appeared, everything had come to a standstill, as though they were all waiting for someone or something—he began to hear the cries of the low-level Zergs that had dragged away the body of the Stalker Zerg the Amazon Archer Queen had shot down earlier.

He watched as their bodies contorted violently, bones jutting out from different parts of their flesh while their forms seemed to break apart and regenerate at the same time, as though entirely new cells were being created within them.

The sight only made Alec more uneasy.

At that moment, he wanted nothing more than for the one-hour restriction on summoning to end so he could call out his golems, who in turn would summon their own armies.

Only then did he believe he would truly have the freedom to do as he pleased. For now, all he had been doing was playing it safe, not trying to burn into his mana and mental powers too much as he only augments himself with his Qi to battle instead.

The aura around the shrieking Zergs began to rise, and very soon, their forms completed their transformation, they had changed completely.

Most of them now looked like Stalker Zergs, with the exception of one that had taken on the Ravager form. Even so, they were all still only in the Low Tier 4 realm, while the Ravager had reached Peak Tier 4, seemingly because it had devoured most of the corpse.

Still, its will must have been strong enough that the genes of the higher-realm Stalker it consumed hadn’t been able to fully convert it into the Stalker class.

Alec’s frown deepened.