The Golem Mage

The scene was captivating yet perilous, however; sensing that something was amiss, the bearman watched as Alec tilted his head slightly, to show his face as they realized that he was biting on his lower lip as if he was enduring some type of severe pain and was struggling to suppress a groan.

As they observed him closely, they noticed that his red hair was extending in length while a malevolent, blood-red aura began to radiate from his body.

When Alec finally stopped moving his head around they got a full view of how he looked now, the bearman general was instantly stunned by his appearance, mesmerized by the extraordinary charm that he was displaying as he couldn’t understand how a human could possess such an impossible charm.

[? Low Bloodline Skill - Merge - Lesser Sanguine Bat?]

[? Mid Tier Skill - Iaido?]

Alec triggered his skill, causing time itself to seemingly grind to a halt, the moment his hand moved to draw the weapon, he vanished completely from the bearman’s line of sight, a split second later, he materialized fifty meters behind the bearman general, with his unsheathed changdao pointed forward, blazing with intense red flames.

The black wakizashi that was previously in Alec’s left hand was nowhere in sight. Instead, a black flame raged fiercely across the bearman general’s chest as he coughed up dark blood.

Despite channeling his mana in a desperate attempt to douse the black blaze, the general still couldn’t take it out which left him with only suppressing it enough to prevent it from consuming him entirely.

Mid-air, Alec turned to face the bearman general, a frown gracing his features, this marked the very first instance that an opponent had survived his execution of Iaido.

Alec had pushed this quick-draw technique to its absolute limits. Enhanced by his agility that had entered the realm of high-ranks and his fusion with the sanguine bat bloodline, he was confident that with his current speed the execution of the skill should have been fatal enough to take out the bearman. Yet, the general proved far more resilient than anticipated.

Alec had deliberately refrained from pursuing the weretiger first, knowing that doing so would have left his back completely vulnerable to the bearman general, which he believes is just acting weak to deceive him.

Another reason why he believes this is because despite the bearman general appearing slow, its spellcasting speed and battle reflexes were deceptively fast. Earlier, when Alec seemed to vanish, he had actually accelerated to extreme speed and decided to throw out the black wakizashi as a distraction as it spinned through the air dangerously.

However, the general had recognized the feint in time and refused to take the bait, ignoring the flaming blade. As a result, when Alec’s primary strike hit( that flaming Changdao which he was using to execute the Iaido skill, it had failed to deal the type of fatal damage Alec wanted since the general managed to guard its neck in time.

Despite suffering a deep gash between its fingers for stopping the attack, the bearman general remained undeterred, now standing side by side with the weretiger general, both generals stared at Alec in disbelief.

“You are a formidable man, human lord of this realm,” the bearman general admitted. “Yet, we have sacrificed too much for the chance to invade your territory to simply cut our losses and flee. From this point forward, we will fight you with everything we have.”

Looking down at the battlefield, he could not help but realize how severely they had miscalculated. Although they had initially believed their forces were more than sufficient to overrun Alec’s border city facing the forest, however;the near-total destruction of their army proved otherwise. Now, their sole remaining objective was to eliminate Alec, convinced that taking his life was the only way to halt the region’s rapid growth.

They had started the siege with complete confidence. Supported by the sea race, they expected an easy victory against a newly established human lord, though the unexpected arrival of the Zerg army had not been part of their plan, yet they had still welcomed it as a fortunate turn of events that would help wear down Alec’s defenses, which was supposed to make their ultimate victory certain.

Yet, just twenty minutes into the engagement, their entire force lay nearly decimated, and standing before them was the very lord responsible for transforming this modest human territory so rapidly. Despite the ominous sense of danger radiating from him, they remained resolute in their determination to cut him down.

Their strategy boiled down to a single goal: which was to sever the head to collapse the body; they were more than convinced that if Alec fell, no other human lord could replace him or match his extraordinary achievements.

The bearman general raised his left hand as earth particles coalesced into a stone brace around it, the binding squeezed his severed fingers back together, steadying the hand that had been faltering from Jake’s previous strike that sliced it in the middle.

Moments later after he was done patching his left hand a heavy war hammer materialized in his right hand.

“Again!” the bearman general roared, charging toward Jake, the sluggishness that it had once displayed like he was plagued by it since the battle began vanished entirely as a glowing brown aura surged across his body.

Surprised by the sudden display of power, the weretiger general quickly realized what was happening, as he began burning his own life force too to bolster his power, immediately he burst forward with heightened speed as the golden lightning around his body increased, he intercepted Alec even before the bearman general even arrived, which ignited a series of fierce clash of strikes between all three of them.

_ _

Meanwhile, in Estonia City, the patriarch of the Gordon family touched the floating cube suspended in the central hall of the city hall, successfully claiming the title of City Lord.

The moment he acquired the title, he was automatically connected to a chat interface where a broadcast from the former king of the Northern Kingdom was resounding, while he was still receiving the imparted knowledge that was given to all city lord at the first time they connect with the city heart:

“Citizens of the Northern Kingdom, I urge you not to panic or succumb to fear, we have all been transported to a place known as the Origin Realm, a vast world where our entire kingdom is merely a minor region. Divided, we will fall; but united, we can withstand any threat that those outside the boundary of our region poses.”

“I am certain that those of you who have just secured the City Lord title have already received detailed information regarding what life in this realm entails. Therefore, I appeal to all clan leaders and mages who have claimed a City Lord position: surrender authority to the capital, making it your primary city and yours a sub-city. Through this unity, the Northern Kingdom will not only be restored, but it will emerge stronger than ever before.”

“This transmission is strictly received by those who have claimed governance over a city within the Northern Kingdom’s jurisdiction, so choose your next set of actions wisely, for those who view this upheaval as a chance to revolt, understand this: our arrival upon your city would only bring but a single outcome—YOUR DEATH.” The broadcast cut off as abruptly as it had begun, leaving numerous city lords attempting to comprehend the newly imparted knowledge of this realm and the benefits now at their disposal, only a few felt threatened about the king’s threat.