The Golem Mage

Boom!

The deafening sonic explosion reverberated through the arena as Alec propelled himself forward, flames erupting beneath his feet before Orion could fully comprehend what was happening.

Alec appeared before him, acting swiftly, Orion raised his hand, conjuring a water barrier that instantly cracked upon contact with the black flames emitted by Alec’s Bone Katana, realizing the unfavourable turn of events, Orion quickly changed his hand sign at the last moment.

Just as the Bone Katana was about to pierce through his water barrier completely, it became encased in ice.

Reacting to this sudden turn, Orion swiftly landed back on the ground, completely altering his tactics.

As hundreds of ice shards floated close to him as he prepared his next move.

”This bastard!” Alec cursed, retracting his Changdao and the still-embedded iced Bone Katana into his space ring.

His hands now encased in earth fists, and a transparent light cloaked his hands—a move inspired by the leader of the sea demons he had faced.

Observing how the leader used water as a landmine-like attack upon impact, Alec’s creativity was sparked, leading him to develop a spell he believed could serve as a substitute for the sea demon horde leader’s unique technique with using his Qi to wrap his hands.

”Shoot!” Orion, gripping an ice staff, slammed it into the ground with his left hand while extending his right hand towards Alec.

As countless sharp, elongated ice shards were sent hurtling towards Alec.

”I’ve faced this attack way too many times already, so come up with something more interesting!” Alec retorted.

As in return he sent fist after fist in mid-air, causing numerous rocky fists to materialize and clash with the onslaught of ice shards, the collision of both attack created an explosion that left behind a white fog which enveloped the battle ring, obscuring Alec’s whereabouts in the air.

While the students squinted their eyes, attempting to catch a glimpse of Alec within the fog, the watching instructors could still clearly see him, they were thoroughly surprised at the turn of events. Initially, they had expected Orion to swiftly end the fight.

However, not only had Orion failed to defeat Alec, but the battle remained at a tense stalemate, they had gone head-to-head, each holding their ground without one prevailing over the other, making some of the students bite their fingers when they remember how much they bet.

Although Orion was putting Alec under immense pressure, but the instructors and great instructors present could perceive that he had yet to land a critical hit on Alec.

Alec had effortlessly absorbed every attack directed at him, suggesting he was concealing even greater power, the instructors couldn’t comprehend how Alec had transformed from a low Tier 3 Mage, dedicated to upholding the academy’s reputation against the Royal academy, to become a formidable High Tier 4 Mage capable of challenging Orion, who had recently ascended to the peak of Tier 5, the gap was just too much especially considering how hard it was crossing ranks in the middle rank .

Alec’s gradual ascension spoke volumes about his untapped potential, leaving the entire crowd enthralled and captivated.

They anxiously awaited the dissipation of the ice fog, and as the smoke dispersed, they witnessed Alec floating, adorned in red armor accentuated with intricately designed brown and black linings.

Alec descended gracefully to the ground, surrounded by floating earth boulders and towering earthen pillars. In stark contrast, the area around Orion was transformed, teeming with countless ice shards and glistening icicles.

Stretching his hand forward, Orion summoned five water drills, compressing them until they became icy projectiles.

He then hurled them towards Alec, who swiftly tilted his body to the side and dashed towards Orion, evading the assault.

The ice drills altered their trajectory in mid-air, attempting to strike Alec from behind, however, an earth wall abruptly rose from the ground, intercepting the attack.

Orion grew fatigued with his distant assault, realizing it was proving ineffective against Alec.

So with determination, he dashed towards Alec, his hand enveloped in an icy gauntlet as he decided to Close the distance between them,

Alec on the other hand finally achieved his desired proximity, as he believed that being in close quarters with Orion would allow him to unleash even greater damage than he could from a distance.

Since he lacked any mid-tier spells, Alec had to rely on his physical prowess to inflict damage, Orion launched a hook punch with his right hand, but Alec countered by using his own right hand to intercept and lock Orion’s hand in place.

Alec sensed a beam of ice shooting past him, freezing the rock pillars behind him from the hand he hooked, with his right hand immobilized by Alec, Orion swung his left hand instead, However, Alec had anticipated this move and halted Orion’s left punch with an open palm strike.

His entire left hand was engulfed in scorching red flames.

Bang!

Orion’s fist met Alec’s fiery palm, but the flames enveloping Alec’s hand were extinguished almost instantly as the ice from Orion began to crawl over it, turning his hand a light blue.

”What are you going to do now?, you’re at a significant disadvantage against me, not only is your flame weak against my water element, but even your earth element can’t seem to evade being frozen by my ice,” Orion taunted, head-butting Alec with a helmet of ice, causing Alec to stagger backward.

Now with both hands free, Orion aimed a jab at the staggering Alec. But just as his fist neared Alec’s face, Alec moved with unbelievable speed, sidestepping the blow and delivering an uppercut with his left hand through the gaps of Orion’s hands, as his fist easy coated in scorching red flames.

Bang!

The fist connected with Orion’s jaw, sending him spiralling as Alec followed up with a right jab cloaked in black flames, propelling Orion across the ice-spiked ground he had created.

Orion’s body uncontrollably shattered each icy obstruction until he crashed into the Arena’s transparent shield.

”I don’t care if your element counters mine; all I have to do is pummel you into submission with both fists!” Alec declared with a grin, just as Orion vanished from the ground and reappeared before Alec.

But this time, whenever Orion attacked, Alec defended himself with the black flame that seemed to devour the ice, all the while aiming to smash Orion’s face with a fiery jab.

The attacks began to accumulate, deforming Orion’s face beyond recognition, but most of the student mages could no longer keep up with the battle with their eyes; Alec and Orion were moving at such a blistering speed that the students could only discern who was attacking by the elemental attacks streaking around the arena.

Whenever Orion launched an assault, huge ice spikes flew across the ring, while Alec’s attacks resulted in large explosions of flames.

The students lost count of how many times they witnessed black or red flames erupting.

Each movement created what seemed like a mini explosion to the onlookers, and even the aftershock of their attacks left many student mages in awe, wondering how these two had grown so powerful so quickly.

They had even forgotten that Alec was still just fifteen years old and was not in the same class year as Orion as they were branding them equals.