The Golem Mage

Brandon, having closed the distance between them, drove his left fist forward in a precise back handed martial motion, disarming Carmilla and sending her blood scythe spinning into the air.

Without hesitation, he followed up that attack.

In one smooth transition, his right fist shot forward in a full-powered punch, the hand guard on his arm glowed with a white radiance, the energy it had absorbed from Carmilla’s previous attacks now condensed into a single, devastating strike.

All that stored force was released at once—

Boom!

The punch slammed into her stomach, the impact sending a shockwave through her body as her back arched violently from the force.

Though she survived the blow, however; she was left completely exposed, suspended in the air from the sheer power behind the strike.

The moment she dropped back down, Brandon didn’t even hesitate, as he stepped in and delivered a clean, direct kick, sending her flying off the rooftop.

Puchi!

Below, the ground had already been prepared, as Brandon bawled his right fist while raising it up, he had manipulated the terrain in that simple action, forming sharp earth spikes across the surface.

As Carmilla crashed down, her body was impaled from multiple angles, losing an overwhelming amount of blood instantly. Survival was no longer even a possibility, as her body began to dissipate into particles soon after.

At the same time, Dragov and Damien received the notification, this was her second death, one more, and she would be out of the match entirely.

Without hesitation, Dragov surged forward, after he had made up his mind that if Alec was eliminated, the War God Mage Team would crumble, so he should shove how he feels aside.

The entire team revolved around Alec; he was their core, their engine, break the captain, and the team would fall, that was Dragov’s plan, however; just before Dragov could reach him—

Alec casually stretched his right hand backward, not even turning to look, behind him, the blood scythe spun through the air, flying straight into his grasp.

The moment it settled into his hand, he moved, without holding back, Alec swung upward, and Dragov’s descending greatsword met Alec’s rising scythe—

Clang!

One clash.

And in that single exchange, both of them reestablished their footing, resetting the balance of the battle once again.

He followed up with several rapid slashes, but this time, he could no longer gain the upper hand against Alec. In fact, he could feel fine scratches forming across his dragon scales, accumulating faster with each exchange, and if he wasn’t careful, those scratches would soon turn into real injuries soon.

While Dragov was locked in combat with Alec, Damien watched in shock, moments earlier, he had cast a Blood Explosion spell and killed Lucas.

It had happened in an instant—more like a sneak attack. Lucas, who had been rushing forward, didn’t even see it coming, right after Carmilla’s elimination, Damien had pushed his floating blood pool forward and detonated it completely.

With his Qi amplifying the attack, the explosion was devastating, as Lucas’s body was blown apart into fragments, Damien’s intention had been clear, he wanted to seize control of the blood scythe that had belonged to his sister.

After her death, the scythe had lost its structure and reverted into liquid blood, beginning to fall from the sky, at that moment, Damien stretched out his hand, attempting to halt it mid-air and pull it toward himself.

But before his control could take hold, the blood suddenly stopped in mid-air, without touching the ground, it reformed instantly into a blood scythe, spinning as it moved—

And then it flew straight into the outstretched hand of Alec Gordons, that moment had erased any doubt Damien had, when Alec first revealed his transformation, Damien had hesitated, unsure of what he was seeing.

But now, he totally was certain that Alec possessed a vampire-type bloodline, and not just any kind, an ancient one, powerful enough to override his own control over blood.

For a brief moment, Damien wanted nothing more than to rush forward and join Dragov in taking Alec down, but he held himself back.

As their priority hadn’t changed, they needed to secure the central rune and close the score gap, however, the moment he stepped into the rune’s boundary—

A chilling sense of danger crept over him again.

[ Mid-Tier Spell – Quicksand Trap ]

Brandon, who was still positioned atop the rooftop, pushed out his right hand toward the rune, at his command, the ground beneath Damien gave way once again, collapsing into a swirling pit that began dragging him downward.

“Not this again!” Pale cursed.

Without hesitation, he raised his right index finger and sliced across his left palm, drawing blood, as the droplets didn’t fall—instead, they hovered around him, suspended in the air.

Having exhausted his reserves, he had no choice but to use his own blood to cast his next spell.

_ _

Elsewhere, Alec was already bringing things to a close, he shifted slightly to the left, letting Dragov’s cleaving strike pass just inches from him.

In the same motion, Alec swung his blood scythe in a back handed motion, using the hooked edge to latch onto Dragov’s neck and yank him forward, with a powerful pull, Dragov was dragged off balance and forced to stumble past him.

But as Alec turned, he frowned slightly, and that was because Dragov hadn’t been pulled quite far enough into the position he wanted.

So Alec raised his left hand, the hand guard there began to shift and reconstruct, reshaping itself into a shotgun-like weapon, entirely black with a grip extending beneath it, at the same time, the blood scythe in his hand dissolved back into liquid form, compressing into a dense sphere of blood.

In one fluid motion, Alec slammed the blood sphere into the weapon, which he had created by imprinting the desired structure he wanted to nano cube’s through his mental power, and imagining the item in his mind.

The weapon pulsed faintly, as the dark metal began being laced with a subtle red glow, as if veins of blood were running through it, without hesitation, Alec raised the weapon, aimed—And fired.

Bang!

A compressed blood projectile tore through the air and slammed into Dragov, even as the wind veil rose to defend him, it wasn’t enough this time.

The attack broke through, dealing direct damage.

Dragov staggered backward from the impact, but Alec didn’t stop, he kept walking forward calmly, pumping the weapon once—forward and back—ejecting the spent blood shell and loading a new one into the chamber.

[ Mid-Tier Spell + Skill – Marked Execution Round ]