The Golem Mage

“Igor, I’m really sorry about this, but we’re about to put you on a stressful task despite your condition, can you handle it?” Vladimir said to Igor, who had fallen slightly behind them in the lineup; as only Vincent stood on Vladimir’s opposite side, level with him.

Meanwhile, Igor, who had been asked if he could take on a task he didn’t yet know of, nodded fiercely, showing his resolve to follow through with the task that would be given to him irrespective of what it was.

“Good,” Vladimir said, turning back toward the four Arcanis Dominion mages who looked ready to dash at them at any moment.

“Two against one, I see the odds are stacked against us, but I believe it’s time we stop being complacent and get serious. Am I wrong?” Vincent finally spoke, for the first time since stepping onto the stage.

“Yeah, it’s been fun blocking all this while, if we don’t make a move now, we’ll end up losing, and that’d be bad for the face of the Northern Kingdom academies. Let’s act serious, at least a little,” Vladimir replied to his captain, as the two were trading subtle jabs even as they spoke. Despite the words, their body language still showed signs of the fact that they were joking around.

However that changed the moment Vincent drew his longsword from its scabbard; his demeanor shifted instantly, to an all business look.

As the blade came free, the chain latched on to its hilt hummed as he flicked his wrist, casing the chain to snake up his right arm until it loops over his shoulder.

In his left hand, a kunai was already gripped in a reverse hold; as he slid that hand behind him and set a battle stance, with the sword angled forward.

Beside him, Vladimir was pulling on a pair of dark-purple gauntlets from his space ring and putting them on.

Seeing the captain and vice-captain shift gears, the Arcanis mages dismissed it as a last-ditch effort and charged forward.

Bang!

From the Battle Mage side, Vincent and Vladimir surged forward as well to meet them, matching their speed; from the other side the ones charging to meet them were Elise and Marek.

While Lucius trailed a little bit behind them, Jared was farther back not moving at all, as he hurled two mana-cell storages into the air.

A small whirlpool of mana swirled around the iron triangles as they drew energy from the air.

“Vincent!” Vladimir called as he turned and sprinted toward him instead the moment Jared made his move, with just his name called and no other words exchanged, Vincent seemed to understand exactly what Vladimir meant.

And instantly he turned his right shoulder and dipped lightly, creating a platform for Vladimir; who pushed off the ground when he got closer before planting a foot on Vincent’s shoulder, vaulted, and then kicked off to propel himself higher into the air.

His intent was clear: destroy the mana-cell storage devices before they finished constructing into weapon form and cause irreversible damage.

With Vladimir airborne, Marek and Elise finally closed on Vincent Whitefang, slashing at him from opposite directions.

Both blades came from different angles but were aimed for his neck, vicious strikes, but Vincent didn’t look threatened at all, he just rotated his wrists to either side.

Clang!

Steel rang as he parried both attacks with ease, their combined strength shoved him back, but after eight sliding steps he dug his foot in and stopped.

Then Lucius reached them, with his warhammer raised high, its head gleaming with dangerous mana energy, causing Vincent to frown.

In the sky, Vladimir punched toward one of the mana cells; as a purple hand materialized midair and streaked for it.

“Explode!” he shouted, demonstrating a crushing motion with his off-hand into a fist as the phantom palm struck the half-built mechanism and self-destructed.

The blast destroyed one storage, but it still left Jared time to deploy the second to perfection.

It was a drone with a missile-like weapon mounted on it. If Alec saw this, he would be very surprised and suspicious that Jared was like him , because the weapons seemed too advanced for this world; however, that’s just how the Western Kingdom is: more interested in experimenting with foreign weapons.

Jared raised his right hand, with two fingers pointed as if sighting a shot, and his left hand braced the right.

“Fire!” he snapped, and the second drone that had materialized in midair launched its missiles, as three shells corkscrewed toward Vladimir, who was still midair.

Seeing this, Vladimir brought both hands up in defense as runic tattoos flared across his body, however when the missiles struck it caused a thunderous explosion and shockwave, hurling him out of the sky and into the ground.

With Vladimir briefly out of commission, Lucius’s hammer was already crashing down, and Elise and Marek, who had been pressing Vincent, used his resisting force to spring into the air, timing their escape with the moment Lucius’s hammer hit.

Like dominoes, the ground caved in across a wide swath as large rectangular slabs of stone jutted up in succession, driving toward Vincent’s position.

When he saw the attack bearing down, he tried to launch himself clear, but despite pushing hard he couldn’t get high enough; as the ground beneath him had sunk too far after Lucius’ slam.

Without hesitation, he swung his arm, sending his kunai spinning toward Lucius, the blade whirled at high speed, and Lucius thrust out his hand, rotating his massive warhammer to deflect it.

The kunai caromed into the air after it was hit by the hammer’s deflective force, then fell and lodged in the ground near Lucius as he swung the hammer back with his right hand and thrust his left hand forward.

A stony sheen wrapped his left hand, proof he was still manipulating the terrain, as the earth bricks jutting from the ground widened their spread; over five slammed into Vincent, who tried to block but was blasted into the air.

[> Mid-Air Spell – Wind Slam