The Golem Mage

All the way from where he stood, Alec could tell that Takeda’s aura had grown stronger after swallowing the dark crystal, by a small margin, but that was only the beginning of his avatars falling one by one.

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Shin was panting hard as he stared at the puppet before him, at the same time, he kept a wary eye on Beatrice, who still stood at the back with her left hand raised high.

At the tips of her fingers, a glowing blue-white light flickered, showing that her mana threads were still active, though he couldn’t tell exactly the limit of what they were attached too.

Before him crouched a human puppet with completely white eyes, wielding a sword that seemed to burn with endless fire, that seemed as if it was never once going out, and he was clad in a complete red armor set that was covered in its own blood.

It was the first time Shin had seen a master willing to equip their summons with a spirit equipment set even though they did not have one themselves.

That only made Beatrice even more difficult for him to understand, he knew that the Human flaming puppet before him was probably a genius-level mage back when it was alive, but he still didn’t feel that was reason enough for her to equip it with a spirit equipment set.

What frustrated him most was that the battle had not gone the way he had wanted from the beginning, he had believed that if he could bypass the puppets and reach Beatrice directly, he would have an easier time cutting her down so he had been willing to go for that from the very beginning.

On the contrary, when the battle began, she had been the one to come at him first, riding on top of her wooden spider puppet.

That had shocked him, he had expected her to do the opposite and stay in the back. But even then, he hadn’t thought much of it, since she had been trying so hard to close the distance, he planned to simply show her how dangerous it was to get this close to a ninja assassin.

He swung his hand outward, detonating a smoke bomb, as a thick gray fog instantly engulfed Beatrice’s field of vision, and he vanished from her line of sight.

A split second later, it was as if he had teleported, because he was already in the air behind her, descending for a killing strike, along with a wind-infused kunai gripped tightly in his left hand.

But then—A sharp swish sound cut through the air.

Unlike most mages, Shin didn’t rely heavily on his mental sense, because even minimal use of it would still drain any over time, especially for those mages who had a much weaker mental strength.

Instead, he trusted his danger instincts and the subtle flow of the wind itself to predict incoming threats to him, a skill he had perfected only because of his high affinity with the wind element.

And that sound that he had just heard told him everything he needed to know, a blade was cutting through the air, and it was aimed at him.

He was close—too close, just one more instant and his kunai would have pierced Beatrice’s neck, but he understood the exchange clearly.

If he committed to the strike, he would die alongside her, as such actions would leave his back completely exposed. Without hesitation, he abandoned the attack since he wasn’t seeing a clean way to execute his plan.

He kicked off the back of the wooden spider just as the flaming puppet’s blade swept through the space he had occupied a moment earlier, the attack didn’t end there.

A blazing arc followed, surging toward him, midair, Shin swiped his hand, manipulating the surrounding wind just enough to disperse the flames before they could reach him.

It was his first direct encounter with Beatrice’s flaming puppet, and he couldn’t help wondering just when and how she had summoned her puppets without him noticing

As he stabilized himself mid-air, he took a moment to glance at Beatrice from the corner of his eye—And froze.

Because she was smiling, there was a faint, knowing smile on her face.

Her gaze was already locked onto him, as if she had anticipated his exact movement the moment he disengaged, that look from her sent a chill through him.

A deep, unsettling dread, it felt like he had stepped directly into something he couldn’t see, something already planned out, then, the flaming puppet shifted its stance, placing its foot firmly on the lower half of the wooden spider puppet.

It didn’t hesitate for even a moment.

With a single step, it planted its left foot and used it to launch forward, its right leg never even touched the wooden spider, before it propelled itself further into pursuit, the flaming puppet became a red blur as it chased after Shin relentlessly.

Seeing that kind of pressure, Shin smirked, because he believed as long as he could fall back into the smoke, he would regain his freedom of movement and be able to strike Beatrice from another angle his smoke fog covered.

But then—A chilling sensation crept up the back of his neck, instantly, he jerked his head to the side.

“Arrrghh!” Though he had managed to move his neck at the last moment in order to avoid a fatal strike to his neck, however; he still wasn’t able to escape completely, as the Ice Lord Crocodile, Beatrice’s second puppet, had already been waiting for him in the smoke.

Its massive jaws clamped down onto his shoulder, its bite force tearing through as if his protective gear didn’t exist.

Boom!

Reacting instantly, Shin raised his right hand, extending his index and middle fingers to cast a spell, he inhaled sharply, as the surrounding air was dragged into his mouth like a vacuum, while his cheeks swelled as the pressure built.

Then, he released it all in one move, as a condensed blast of wind energy erupted from his mouth, shooting directly toward the flaming puppet.

Bang!

The explosion sent the puppet flying backward, and even Shin himself was blown away by the recoil, due to using his own body as a conduit without proper preparation.

But it had been an intentional move from Shin’s side, as the force from the attack created enough distance between him and the flaming puppet, giving him the space he needed to deal with his immediate situation.

Across the battlefield, the dense smoke that had once covered their fight was blown apart by the wind blast, clearing the area completely before the watching crowd.

The only area still covered in smoke was the region where he had been blasted into, Beatrice lightly tapped the head of her spider puppet, and it moved forward toward the gray fog.

As it advanced, the smoke began to converge into a single point, and by the time it reached that spot, Shin already stepped out of it, carrying the severed head of the crocodile puppet in his hand before tossing it to the ground, a split second later the head started to dissipate.

As the smoke started to thin, he stood there covered in his own blood, even while trying to act composed, the crowd could clearly see the gaping wound left by the crocodile on his left shoulder, his blood spilling down in steady streams.

It was obvious he was using his mana to keep the bleeding under control so he would not pass out from excessive blood loss, but that still did not stop the damage he had already taken.

Seeing this, Beatrice swiped her glowing fingertips through the air. Instantly, the flaming puppet moved with inhuman speed and appeared before her, crouching low.

Its chest bore a severe wound that it seems to have incurred from taking the wind attack head on, but it seemed unable to feel the pain, it would have been much harder for it to keep moving on its own after being caught in the range of Shin’s explosive wind blast, but with Beatrice using her mana threads to keep it upright, it no longer mattered how much damage it had suffered, neither now many limbs it lost. As long as it could still move, she would keep it in the fight.

At that moment, Shin finally realized he might have bitten off more than he could chew. Still, he forced himself into a stance and stretched out his weapon, hooking his kunai onto the end of the wire hook.