The Golem Mage

The moment the separated goblin army began heading toward the Gordons mages who stood atop a makeshift earth hill they’d conjured through elemental manipulation, Marcus felt a surge of satisfaction.

As even if Alec had intended to avoid the battle, he’d be forced to intervene now.

Marcus silently hoped that this time, the Gordons would finally lose at least a portion of their forces, as the only reason they’d maintained their elevated status for so long was that most of their members always survived the Blood Moon unlike the other clans.

And those survivors—seasoned by each event, were the very veterans that made the Gordons clan so deadly in large-scale warfare.

“Tier 1, 2, and 3—execute the first plan,” Alec ordered calmly, without even bothering to look up, as the three sub-tier leaders stepped forward with the surrounding mages parting, giving them space to advance.

Alec had already drilled them through multiple scenarios, and now it was time to act.

The goblins, seeing the movement, grinned smugly, confident in their charge.

From their vantage point, the Gordons watched the advancing enemies, the grotesque grins on the goblins’ faces only fuelled their determination.

“You guys know the drill—let’s work together and aim for the highest kill count among all the tiers, who knows, maybe one of us will win the MVP prize the young master promised,” said the leader of the Tier 1 squad, rallying his group.

The Tier 1 mages moved in organized sets, taking turns as they stomped their feet into the ground, summoning earth boulders. The rocks weren’t massive, but they were solid and well-formed..

“Raise!” barked the Tier 2 leader once the Tier 1 group finished, the Tier 1 mages stepped back, and the Tier 2s moved in, making swift hand signs and controlled movements, channelling their magic toward the row of conjured boulders.

And just like that, they shouted in unison, ending what looked like a coordinated battle dance with a synchronized right-leg stomp, their mana surged into the ground, racing forward toward the boulders, and the moment the energy reached the base where the boulders had been placed, it was as if a volcano erupted—not with flames, but with compact boulders launched skyward.

“Strike!” came the command from the Tier 3 sub-leader.

As his voice rang out, brown blurs exploded from the ground, shooting into the air, it was only then that the observers—both friend and foe realized what those blurs actually were: the Tier 3 mages of the Gordons Clan.

They hadn’t simply leapt into the air, they had launched themselves with precision.

Each mage led with a right-leg thrust, twisting into a mid-air Kung Fu kick as they strike the boulders aimed downward at the goblins charging up the slope.

In that moment, time seemed to freeze, the flawless synchronization across the three tiers, culminating in this explosive ambush, stunned everyone and not just the goblins caught mid-advance, but also the High rank human mages still watching the boulders spin through the air.

The goblins charging hesitated, momentarily paralyzed by confusion as the rocks hurtled down toward them unsure of what to do, even the shaman failed to give commands on time to avert this disaster—proof of just how completely caught off guard the high-rank goblins were.

Bang!

Chaos erupted, as the boulders slammed into the goblin ranks, crushing bodies on impact, and then continued to roll, unstoppable as they followed the hill’s natural slope.

It was like a meat grinder barrelling through the battlefield, pulverizing any goblin unfortunate enough to stand in its path.

It was gruesome and swift, catching the goblins completely off guard, fortunately, The mid-rank goblins at the back lines quickly took control, barking orders for the shield bearers among them to move forward.

They rushed to the front line, forming a tight triangle shield formation with their big body.

The boulders, once terrifying harbingers of death, were diverted off course by the sturdy shield wall, sparing the rest from the initial salvo.

But while they managed to neutralize the threat, the damage had already been done, as over 40% of their numbers had been wiped out in a single devastating strike.

“The Gordons… still being the Gordons. Come on now, we can’t let them outdo us. Push forward! Slay as many as you can before they get here!” the Tier 3 city guards leader shouted from atop his steed, positioned at the center of the rectangular shield formation.

His rallying cry reignited the morale of the city guard mages, who pressed on with renewed vigour, thrusting their weapons through gaps in their shields in an attempt to pierce through the enemy.

Meanwhile, friction stirred within the goblin army targeting the Gordons, the earlier boulder strike had inadvertently split their force into two groups.

The first group, still at the base of the hill, had merged into the triangle shield formation.

This section was primarily composed of mid-rank goblins, a few bluish dark-skinned mid-rank hobgoblins, and low-rank goblins who had managed to slip into formation just in time to avoid the boulders.

They could only stare at the now-motionless boulders, covered in blood and gore, with the remains of their fallen comrades, the sight chilled their blood as fear coursed through them, but with mid-rank goblins still holding formation, they steeled their resolve.

The second group consisted of those who had already crossed a certain point on the hill before the boulders were launched, so they had been spared the chaos entirely and were now the closest to reaching the Gordons at the top.

But now they stood frozen deep in their mind; they didn’t even want to move a single step forward, but they still showed an expression of being unsure whether to charge ahead or wait for the others below to catch up.

The goblins’ cowardly nature was beginning to show, After all these low-rank goblins lacked the support of mid-tier shield bearers like the ones holding formation below, confusion and fear rippled through their ranks.

When they looked up, they were met with the sight of the Gordons clan mages, specifically the Tier 3 group standing near the edge of the hill, each wearing wild, taunting smiles as they posed.

It was as if they were mocking the goblins, mimicking the exact grins the goblins had flashed just moments earlier.

“These bastards are even more fragile than the zombies,” one Gordon mage scoffed.

“So what are we waiting for? Let’s finish off the ones that survived,” another added.

Every mage above was already holding a pulsing earth spear, charged with Qi, the threatening hum of energy made several goblins instinctively gulp, some even began retreating toward the triangle shield formation, lacking the courage to face the Gordons head-on.

They didn’t see humans atop that hill, what they saw were demons, smiling like madmen, but to the Gordons mages, these goblins were nothing more than moving practice targets, and turning their backs only made them easier to hit.