The Golem Mage

The orc commander cursed inwardly, exasperated by the sheer, absurd size of the mace, a weapon far too massive for a single individual to wield.

Yet, even as he contended with Titan, his expanded mental awareness flared with a sudden warning that the other golem had already reached him.

Snapping his head around toward the sudden threat, the commander spotted Saint crouching low, driving a swift, piercing sword thrust right at him.

Snorting in disdain at the underhanded ambush, the Orc commander lashed out with his left hand, aiming to swat the incoming blade aside.

In that fleeting instant, Saint and Titan exchanged a rapid glance. Titan, still locked in a fierce struggle of power as he tried to force his mace down, suddenly swung out his right leg to smash it straight into the orc’s kneecap.

Once more, the commander’s sharp reflexes intervened, catching the motion through his mental sense, the Orc commander lifted his leg slightly to block the kick with his shin while turning his gaze back toward Titan.

But that was when everything changed for him, Titan who was attacking from his right side, suddenly manipulated a long ice spike, resembling an incredibly thick needle to protrude out of his toe, and thrust it forward, impaling the Orc commander’s leg in the process.

Releasing a low, guttural groan of agony, the realization dawned on him that he had been played; the initial shock of the injury had masked the fact that his swatting hand had met nothing but empty air.

Saint had calculated his move perfectly, allowing his blade to drop the very instant the orc shifted his focus back to the massive threat of Titan.

The sword’s path had been a mere feint, a lure designed to bait the commander’s reflexes while he prepared a fist wreathed in razor-sharp Qi.

In the heartbeat following the ice spike’s piercing impact, while the orc was still grimacing from the pain, Saint’s fist connected with brutal precision, snapping his head back toward Titan.

The force of the blow was devastating, the focused energy tearing deep into his flesh upon contact.

Bam!

Titan on the other end surged forward with a punishing headbutt, while Saint unleashed a Qi-infused kick against the commander’s other leg and forcing him to kneel on one leg, the two golems raining a relentless barrage of strikes upon him.

Trapped in the center of their coordinated assault, every attempt to block one foe only left him exposed to a savage blow from the other, leaving him unable to mount a true defense.

And what had initially started as minor, nagging wounds quickly escalated with their continuous assault; within two minutes of the frantic exchange, a cold dread began to settle in as he felt his very life hanging by a thread.

“Ahhh!” he roared, slamming a hand against his chest as the totem inscribed across his body flared to life, an abrupt explosion erupted around him, violently blasting Titan and Saint backward.

The sheer kinetic force of the blast knocked both golems off their feet.

Titan’s slender, human-like visage expanded rapidly as he reverted to his original ice form, utilizing his massive frame to counteract the momentum while skidding backward.

His heavy legs carved deep, parallel trenches into the frozen earth before he finally ground to a halt, after coming to a halt he swiftly reverted back to his human form.

Saint, relying on his superior agility, executed a frantic mid-air backflip to disperse the kinetic energy, landing heavily on one knee with a sharp thud.

“You brought this upon yourselves,” the Orc commander growled as they all raised their gaze, realising that the atmosphere surrounding him had transformed entirely; even the primal tattoos etched into his skin were now blazing with a vibrant, crimson energy.

His wounds showed signs of closing though at a snail’s pace, however the real shift lay in his Qi, which surged violently, completely berserk.

In that split second, he extended his left hand, causing his axe, which had been left embedded in the ice some distance away, to become shrouded in his wild Qi.

A moment later, it ripped through the air, returning straight to his hand, which trembled only slightly as he caught it.

“Why do I always have to face the most troublesome opponents?” Saint muttered, noting that the Orc commander’s aura was already bordering on high Tier 8.

“Here he comes,” Titan warned, summoning a black mace and bending low, ready to spring into action at any second.

Suddenly, the orc stomped heavily onto the ground, forcing a massive, round boulder straight up from the earth, almost in slow motion, a stark contrast to his actual speed, as the Orc commander twisted mid-air and kicked the stone ball directly at Titan.

He wasn’t finished yet; with a sharp flick of his wrist, he also sent his kirki blade spinning furiously toward Saint, the weapon rotating at extreme velocity long before it even reached its target.

Seeing the terrifying momentum behind the incoming blade, Saint was forced onto the defensive, completely unable to spare a thought for Titan’s situation.

The Orc commander having successfully manipulated the battlefield to his liking, smiled. Bending slightly, he launched himself forward with a burst of speed that far surpassed anything he had displayed before.

In a desperate bid to protect himself, Saint rapidly spun the sword in front of him, hoping to use the rotating steel as a makeshift shield against the thrown weapon.

The steel sword spun rapidly before Saint, but the defense he expected it to provide collapsed instantly. Within a second, the weapon shattered into pieces against the overwhelming force of the kurki blade.

His stoic expression fractured immediately. Stunned by the destruction, he found himself wondering what rare material the kurki blade could possibly be forged from.

Even though the sword failed to withstand the impact, the clash succeeded in deflecting the incoming projectile, forcing the blade off course.

Saint had intentionally infused the spinning weapon with repulsive mana to redirect the attack, but the threat was far from over.

Lunging through the exploding shards and fragments of the shattered steel, the orc commander suddenly materialized right in front of him, swinging his massive axe to cut the golem down.

The assault was instantaneous. Forced onto the defensive, Saint immediately compromised, crossing his arms over his head to absorb a devastating overhead strike.

Bang!

The sheer weight of the impact drove the axe blade deep into his hands, fracturing the frozen ground beneath his feet.

Without granting him a single moment to recover, the orc commander seamlessly drew back his leg and delivered a brutal kick.

Boom!

The force of the blow launched Saint backward, his body tumbling uncontrollably over the terrain like a broken sphere.

[› High Tier Spell - Avalanche Cannon. ‹]

Taking advantage of the commander’s focus on Saint, Titan spent that crucial time casting an immobilizing spell, the Avalanche Cannon conjured a highly compressed and concentrated beam of ice.

The blast was slightly above the size of a basketball, however even the orc commander appeared to have anticipated this move due to how well both golems seem to work together.

Swinging his energy-coated axe in a swift vertical arc, he cleaved the incoming ice beam directly down the middle.