The Golem Mage

Chapter 992: Five Element Bodies.

Aeron used his right hand to pull the kunai free from his left palm, then he used his left hand to unwind the steel wire that coiled around his right wrist.

As soon as he did, he twisted his arm back into place, even with blood running down his hand, he still looked ready to fight, as light-green Qi spread over his palm as he stretched his fingers toward where his two short swords had fallen.

They lifted at once, as if yanked by an invisible force, and flew back into his grip, the moment he caught them, Aeron turned—only to see Kaelus’s body hurtling straight toward him.

Calm and calculated, Aeron simply leaned aside, letting Kaelus’s body fly past him, then crashed onto the ground not far away.

“That bastard!” Kaelus snarled as he pushed himself up, but he didn’t fully rise, he stayed low, resting his right hand on his knee as he glared ahead, in front of them stood three Takedas.

Aeron couldn’t tell which one was real, as he hadn’t paid much attention to Kaelus and Takeda’s battle exchange because he had been busy dealing with his own Shin’s problem, but even Kaelus, who’d been fighting Takeda directly, couldn’t be sure anymore who was the real Takeda too.

Before he got flung, he could still track Takeda’s position, even when he switches during battle. But now? He had nothing.

“Tell me, are you ready to team up?” Aeron said, settling into a stance.

“Because I’m not in any state to take him alone. And you’ve already had your ass handed to you. For someone as talented as you, it’s obvious he’s above your league—not by too much, but enough. If we pool our strength, maybe we can win.”

Kaelus stared at him, unsure whether Aeron was being serious… or just mocking him with a sarcasm that cut deeper than the wire had.

“There’s no one more talented than me, keep your talk of cooperation to yourself. If I lose, then you can have your turn. I’m not sharing my prey.” Kaelus said coldly.

As he dashed in again, with his right hand extended, and his Qi covering his hand and a sharp, humming edge sound, went outward with him as the sender, in one smooth motion, he too completed the same weapon-pull technique Aeron had used earlier, as he tried to recover his katana back into his palm without breaking stride.

“You never learn at all,” The Takeda in the middle said, as the two bodies beside him blurred forward to meet with Kaelus.

“Got you!” Kaelus barked, convinced he’d finally figured it out from that single move from those two Takeda who the real Takeda is, to him, the one that stayed behind had to be the real Takeda.

Because from the start of their fight, Takeda had carried himself like someone with a main-character syndrome, someone who treats his clones as disposable sidekicks, and wouldn’t stoop to cheap stage tricks.

But in his rush to prove he was superior, Kaelus forgot one thing, he was fighting a bona fide ninja, deception wasn’t an option, it was a foundation.

The moment the katana settled into his grip, Kaelus kicked off the ground and leapt, as he compressed his Qi tightly around his legs to give him some type of temporary flight advancement.

Behind him, Aeron dashed forward too, just about five steps slower, unlike Kaelus, Aeron was still in rough shape after his clash with Shin Jae-Hyun, and because of that he was being extra cautious and didn’t want to make any unnecessary movements.

Even in midair, Kaelus forced himself to stay mentally aware of his surroundings, so when he picked up the fact that the two charging bodies didn’t react to him diving for the third one, almost as if they’d been waiting for him to choose it.

He swiftly looked ahead and then he saw the third Takeda smiling up at him, which gave him a bad feeling crawling into his gut.

So before he could commit to the landing, he twisted his body and threw his blade downward instead, and the moment the tip of the Katana kissed the ground—

—a set of talismans flared into existence around the point of contact.

They flickered into view, with thin lines of light that snapped into place, Kaelus didn’t know what Ninjutsu art had been used to conceal the talisman, but he felt lucky that he hadn’t stepped fully into the trap.

As sealing runes ignited and curled around his katana.

Worse, when he glanced down, he saw it clearly, black glyphs crawling along the blade, sinking into the ground like roots.

With the speed he was falling, Kaelus could already predict the outcome of what would happen if he too was to land like that into that region where he was already falling into, the seal wouldn’t just bind the weapon, it would bind him too, and due to the fear of not knowing how this sealing ninjutsu worked he was really not interested in flaring his Qi when he was slightly closer to the ground.

Before he could react, Aeron acted, as he flung his left short sword forward, after coating it in mana until it gained a temporary flight—just long enough for it to reach Kaelus, the blade shot forward and slid beneath Kaelus’s feet.

“Use it now, that’s an order,” Aeron snapped, reading the hesitation on Kaelus’s face. Pride or not, this wasn’t the time to argue.

Kaelus on the other hand didn’t waste another heartbeat, as he pushed off the sword which Aeron had subtly bent with his Qi control in order to steady his own footing on them, as he then proceeded to launch himself forward.

Bang!

A sonic boom cracked through the air, Kaelus felt it immediately he pushed off the sword that was repulsed backwards now, Aeron’s Qi which was laced into the short sword like his mana clung to him for a split second, helping accelerating him even further, and adding weight to the strike he was about to deliver.

“Die!” Kaelus roared, summoning his Aether Blade, as it reformed in his hand in an instant, while the version of it that lay somewhere on the ground dissolved as if it had never existed.

Kaelus had clearly redirected himself midair to face Takeda and dove forward, this gave the Takeda in front of him no time to dodge his move as it was unexpected.

Takeda tried to form a defense, by snapping his hands together as shadow energy began to gather, another shinobi technique merged with spell, but it was half-born, when Kaelus crashed through it.

He tore straight through the brewing shadow spell and drove the Aether Blade clean through Takeda’s chest, but he didn’t stop there.

Carrying the momentum, he forced the body back, driving it all the way to the edge of the battle ring,as Kaelus smiled down at him, certain it was over.

However, Takeda smiled back, as the body he’d impaled dissolved into white smoke, Kaelus was left standing there, with his weapon outstretched, arm extended with nothing to show for it.

The moment he turned toward Aeron, his stomach sank, Aeron was sprawled on the ground, and beside him stood two ninjas different from the other two he had leaped over.

Two Takedas to be precise.

This time, Kaelus felt real dread crawl up his spine, because all these while all the clones that he had seen Takeda summon had copied him perfectly, in stance, presence, rhythm and even weapon wielded but the two in front of him now were totally different from even the Takeda he saw at the beginning.

One Takeda carried a massive greatsword which he rested on his shoulder while standing upright, while the other held a katana which it had facing the ground as he bent over Aeron barely beat body with his left hand resting on his knee, and a curved wakizashi resting at his waist.

It was wrong, they were way too different, and this was too far from anything Kaelus understood since the battle started.