The Golem Mage

After Alec said it was time to join the race, the whole War God Mage Academy team moved out with Pale and Endrick in the lead, as they neared the base, they found a cluster of mages from another kingdom, ones who’d been thrown back by the stairway’s rebound earlier, loitering around the stairway to recover before trying again.

Despite not being ready to climb now, those mages were still hogging the platform, since they couldn’t go up yet, they chose to bully anyone who tried.

When a clearly powerful squad approached, they would simply step aside, but if they spotted a group they thought they could push around, then they would switch to their full douche-bag mode, acting like they owned the place.

A few strong teams noticed, but didn’t bother to even intervene; as they felt it “wasn’t their problem,” especially since some of the troublemakers’ own elites were already climbing the stairs, the arrangement was obvious, they let their own captains and aces gain a head start while the lackeys below stalled those that could pose as competition so their own colleagues could have a head start, only for them to follow later once they’d healed, at that time they won’t really care about those who had been delayed.

So when the War God Mage Academy team started approaching the stairway, the blockers puffed up, traded loud taunts, and prepared to stir trouble.

Naturally, the four other kingdoms’ institutions didn’t know much about the War God Mage Academy.

Reports from the last Northern Kingdom inter-academy competition had been circulated, but the royal family made sure not to highlight how their king had shamelessly stripped War God’s rightful spot and handed it to another school on a flimsy excuse.

So even when word trickled out that the Royal Mage Academy’s slot had later been reassigned to War God after an internal trial run by the tournament envoys, most outsiders didn’t think much of it.

They had all assumed the duel had been arranged simply because the envoy wanted to compare the two academies of similar strength and determine which really deserved the slot, so to them the War God Mage Academy’s victory didn’t seem like much of an achievement to them.

To them who were the outsiders, it was merely a contest between the two weakest premier academies of the Northern Kingdom. After all, the Royal Mage Academy was ranked last among the Great Eight academies, so War God’s triumph felt insignificant in their eyes as they only defeated the weakest Premier academy of the Northern Kingdom which in their eyes wasn’t anything special.

Thus, when the lounging mages noticed the War God insignia approaching, a sudden wave of arrogance filled them, the chance to humiliate a supposedly “inferior” academy renewed their energy.

Meanwhile, mages from the Northern Kingdom who knew better, who had witnessed the events of the last competition, turned to watch in silence, as they truly understood this wasn’t going to end well for the troublemakers.

“Hey! These stairs are only for the worthy! You War God scrubs should just—”

The leading mage swaggered forward, his tone dripping with disdain, with dozens of his allies behind him, he felt bold, convinced that the War God team, which was outnumbered and had waited this long for the stronger academies to go ahead would simply back down as they wouldn’t want to make troubles with this much crowd.

He was so confident that even if a brawl broke out, his side’s sheer numbers would crush them.

But before he could finish his sentence, a sharp fist crashed into his nose with a loud crack, his words died mid-breath as his vision blurred from the blow, stumbling backward in pain and confusion.

As he tried to steady himself, with blood dripping from his nose, his eyes widened when he saw the culprit, Pale Zero—grinning at him with that trademark mischievous smirk.

“I couldn’t hear you properly, what was it you were saying again?” Pale said, while stepping closer.

The mage stared into Pale’s eyes and saw nothing but cold conviction, a warning that this was not someone to provoke.

Yet, before his fear could take hold, his pride screamed louder, he believed in the numbers on his side too much, and the sting of being humiliated in front of so many drove him into a fury.

“HOW DARE YOU—Cchkkk...”

However before he could rage his outburst ended in a strangled choke when Pale attacked.

First a sharp chop from Pale’s left hand had struck his throat with precision, cutting off his words and air at once, causing the mage to clutch his neck, gasping, and unable to form a sound.

Before anyone could react, Pale’s form blurred, as a faint blue afterimage streaked behind him while he closed the distance, his left hand gripping the mage’s throat and lifting him clean off the ground.

His right hand, which was now glowing an icy white, pressed against the man’s chest.

Frost spread rapidly from the point of contact, crawling across the mage’s body in jagged patterns, within seconds, his skin turned pale blue, his breath crystallized in the air, and his limbs went stiff, he could only tremble helplessly as Pale held him aloft like a frozen doll and he was unable to even muster any strength to break free.

While this unfolded, the rest of the War God Mage Academy team kept moving forward without pause, Alec didn’t even glance back at Pale; his expression remained calm, as though Pale’s brutal display had nothing to do with him, neither was it any of his concern.

“Who’s next?” Pale asked coldly, his gaze sweeping across the crowd.

That single look was enough, the gathered mages instinctively stepped aside, clearing the path after seeing what happened to the game that stepped forward.

Pale smirked and tossed the frozen mage aside like trash, as his body was caught mid-air by his shocked allies.

Without another word, he rejoined his teammates as the War God Mage Academy marched past, the crowd was too afraid to even breathe loudly in their presence.

“Huh!” Alec blinked in confusion, only now realizing he was standing at the front of his group again, a dumbfounded look crossed his face, he hadn’t even noticed when his team had shifted the atmosphere around them, turning it into something so overwhelmingly intimidating.

Before he knew it, he was leading the charge... and somehow aura farming without trying.

Despite all his efforts to stay out of the spotlight, the attention he dreaded had found him anyway, and that was because every big shot who’d climbed ahead had caught a glimpse of Pale’s realm earlier during the fight.

They’d seen his strength and naturally assumed that if someone like that was walking way behind Alec who was the captain, then Alec himself must be far stronger.

“Fuck,” Alec muttered under his breath, realizing he couldn’t avoid the spotlight this time despite trying so hard.

Taking a deep breath, he stepped onto the first stair. Instantly, a crushing wave of gravity slammed down on him, but it barely made him flinch.

As a faint purple hue(his Gravity control powers) shimmered around his body, repelling both the gravitational pressure and the rebound force as he firmly planted both feet on the step without needing a moment to adjust.

He could still feel a trace of pressure pressing down, but it was so negligible he didn’t even bother acknowledging it.

Behind him, his entire team ascended one by one with the same calm composure, no stumbles, no hesitation, no signs of fatigue. The onlookers watching from higher up couldn’t help but smile in admiration, it was clear to them all that another powerful group had entered the competition.

However, not everyone shared that sentiment.

Among the few who frowned was Liam, his expression dark as he turned back toward the staircase, without another glance at the War God Academy group, as he began to push himself harder, climbing toward the thirtieth step with renewed determination, as he felt

he doesn’t need to hurt his mental state by watching them show off.