The Golem Mage

#A few moments ago

After throwing his left short sword forward to help Kaelus close the distance on Takeda, Aeron finally turned his full attention to his own problem.

Which was the two Takedas rushing towards him, seeing this he decided to go all out, no matter what happened next, he believed that if he and Kaelus were able to pressured every Takeda on the battle ring, then the real one would eventually reveal himself, so he just hoped neither of them got disqualified in the process.

Because Aeron knew one thing, the only way they won this was together, and In his current state, he couldn’t imagine beating a captain-level opponent easily, and he believed that with how reckless Kaelus was, he definitely wasn’t calm enough to handle Takeda by himself.

Aeron had been the first to clash with Takeda, and he didn’t believe the man was captain just of the Silent Night because he could summon clones with seventy percent of his strength.

Those clones were annoying, sure, but Aeron could still deal with them, so he believed that the real threat was what Takeda was still hiding.

That caution was exactly why Aeron decided that he was going to go all out, so he tapped into his remaining mana and drew it out, using a new transformation sequence that he hadn’t used before then something different happened too.

Something neither he nor any Blade member had ever shown before.

As he converted his mana into Qi, a wild pressure burst outward with Aeron at the center, as a semi-transparent, light-green armor began to form around his body, wrapping him from head to toe.

It didn’t stop there, the Qi cloak spread over his weapon too, coating the short sword in his right hand.

The armor looked spectacular, but anyone watching could tell the truth, the light-green glow flickered badly, unstable, as if it could collapse at any moment, almost like Aeron hadn’t fully mastered it yet.

Still, the instant it covered him, Aeron’s expression shifted, with confidence settling into his eyes, up in the second VIP level, several Blade elders seated beside their Grand Elder began to smile smugly as he entered this state.

“I can’t believe I’m seeing this again after so long, that boy has reached the stage of Qi manifestation even before entering the high rank realm. Though it’s unstable, sure—but that’s understandable, as this isn’t a power mid-rank mages are supposed to touch, he must be seriously talented.” One of the wiser old men there murmured, stroking his beard with a satisfied smile as he watched.

Though many didn’t understand what Aeron had just shown, however; a few others understood what they were witnessing, they knew fully well that the Blade Clan always awakened a secret power at the high rank realm due to the technique they used for transforming their mana into pure Qi, which is why the clan had still been able to keep its status as an Ancient Rank Clan even up till today and feared, even though they relied on weapon mastery instead of elemental affinity that is more common among the Ancient Clans.

The armor formed from Aeron’s Qi resembled the battle regalia of an ancient Japanese general, though it was still incomplete, as several pieces were missing in the construction, and it was lacking the ceremonial helmet and oni mask that was said to manifest in line with the awakener’s personality.

Still, it gave the entire crowd a new perspective, a terrifying kind of power many of them hadn’t even known existed.

On the stage, it might have felt like time stretched, but the moment the flickering armor wrapped around him, Aeron surged forward to meet the two Takedas head-on.

Seeing him charge, both swung their katanas, one from the right, the other from the left, however; Aeron didn’t meet the blades.

He dropped low and slid across the ground, cutting between them, and as he passed, he snapped his right-hand short sword through the leg of the Takeda on his right.

“Ahhhh!” the clone screamed, then froze as the severed leg dissolved into a puff of smoke.

‘Not the real one.’ Aeron thought as he passed by him immediately he confirmed that Takeda was a body clone he didn’t even hesitate, as with a smooth motion, he hurled his short sword forward.

As it spun through the air and buried itself in the head of the Takeda who couldn’t stand, the Takeda fell on its back before its body dissolved into smoke and the short sword dissolved into smoke

Aeron then proceeded to rise swiftly, only to find the other Takeda already closing the distance, the shinobi raised his katana high with both hands and drove it forward in a clean thrust.

But Aeron was a lunatic of a fighter.

Even without a weapon in hand, he didn’t retreat, with his Qi-forged armor now wrapped around his body he seemed to become more reckless, as he surged forward instead.

No one in the stands was surprised anymore, this was the same man who had stopped a kunai with his bare hands, so charging into a blade was exactly the kind of madness they expected from him.

Aeron raised his left arm in a high block and kept pushing in, as the katana pierced straight through his palm.

A fresh wave of shocked cries rolled through the crowd as they held their breath, then they realized something was wrong, Aeron didn’t even flinch when it pierced into him.

Even when the blade punched through and emerged from his shoulder, there was no blood on the blade.

Takeda’s eyes widened, genuinely perplexed by how it had turned out like that, but clearly Aeron had no intention of explaining the secrets of his manifested Qi armor to his opponent.

Even if it was still crude and unstable, he’d already awakened one of the special traits that came with it.

Before Takeda could retreat, Aeron snapped a right hook into him.

Boom!

His gauntleted fist slammed into Takeda’s jaw, sending him staggering back, Aeron didn’t let him breathe, as he opened his hand and drove his palm against the blade still lodged through him, hammering it again and again, trying to crack it or snap it at the base.

But it didn’t break.

Takeda gritted his teeth and stepped in to stop him, but Aeron answered with a sharp rising elbow, smashing into his jaw and forcing him back a second time, this time, Takeda’s grip loosened.

As his hold on The katana slipped, and Aeron seized the opening, clamping his hand around the hilt and wrenching it hard, bending the weapon with brute force.

Though it took some straining, but the crowd finally saw it, the katana cracked.

With a sharp twist, Aeron snapped the blade clean and flung the hilt to the ground, as the remaining half slid free and dropped from his shoulder, clattering onto the arena floor.

Where the weapon had pierced him, his flesh didn’t bleed. Instead, that section of his body swirled like a tiny portal, only this vortex shimmered with a faint, greenish glow.