The Golem Mage

Chapter 956: War Of The Estonia City.

From where Alec stood with his eyes closed, he could hear the cheers of the crowd growing louder and louder as the battle between both academies got to a peak point.

He could tell that both the Holy Grail Academy and the Solarium Sanctum team had matched up and it would take a sideline for any of the team to win, and the battle had gone on for a while.

Eventually, only one name rose above the other after a few minutes passed, and it made Alec sighed as “Solarium Sanctum” was chanted and roared by all.

He couldn’t help it, it was another loss for the northern kingdom academies, another slap to the kingdom’s face.

Normally, he would have worried more about them, but the uneasy feeling gnawing at him wouldn’t let up.

It was getting worse with time, he’d never felt this way before, something like homesickness. Making him wish he could be done with the tournament and return to Estonia City as soon as possible; as something there was calling to him.

–

Estonia City

Above the Gordons Clan house, the golem spirit had already activated the shield array formation Alec had ordered the clan mages to build in the outer region, as they were under attack.

The last time Alec was here, he’d been given full authority over the outer region, which he eventually transformed into a commercial district, creating many jobs for the clan’s non-fighting mages.

They were paid handsomely and weren’t heavily restricted either; as he made sure that nearly every clan member prospered alongside the clan.

But there was one small detail only Alec and the elders knew from the rebuilding: he had not only created an array within the auction house, he had also woven several talismans (random spell cards) into the golem spirit formation array of the clan home.

Though the Patriarch initially resisted the plan, he relented after Alec showed him the blueprint he’d bought from his system shop and demonstrated how integrating those talismans into the clan’s array would strengthen the clan home’s golem-spirit formation.

After getting his grandfather’s approval he had then proceeded to gather the elders using their powers to integrate the Random spell cards (Talisman) into the clan’s spirit array formation, however none of them would have imagined that the very thing Alec kept nagging about would be what saved the outer regions from being invaded like it was in the past.

The Gordons Clan was under attack by the City Lord who had finally grown tired of pretence and also rallied several clans that bore grudges against the Gordons to strike together.

Worse still, he had brought two other Tier 8 mages with him, many would have called it overkill, but only the City Lord knew why he was playing such a heavy hand, he had no intention of starting a war with the Gordons and failing to eliminate them whole.

Those two Tier 8s had cost him dearly to bring to Estonia City, one was hired from the Shadow Guild; and the other was sent by his clan’s branch family.

Now that he held high status within that branch, by being a Tier 8 mage in charge of a bustling city with the potential to rise to High-Rank in the future, they saw reason to help him a little.

They wouldn’t go so far as to send another Tier 8 mage for him normally as there wasn’t that much Tier 8 in their branch family in the first place to begin with, but the City Lord had already enticed them with promises of rich rewards after the Gordons fell.

He told them about the caliber of items that were being auctioned by the clan, and with that written assurance that the Gordons’ would have kept the best for themselves, they wasted no time dispatching five Tier 7 mages and one Tier 8 to the city lord’s aid.

Even to a branch family of the great Ancient Dragonmir Clan, such rewards sounded too good to be true, they believed that, by seizing what he promised after the Gordons’ destruction, they could arm their clansmen, to rise above the other outer families of the Dragonmir clan, and perhaps even challenge the strength of a weaker-inner faction of the clan.

All this support, along with the Gordons Clan’s haters, the clans he’d been secretly funding, and his private City Hall mage army, allowed him to force the Gordons’ to shut themselves indoors, not daring to step out, while low- and mid-rank mages were sent in to batter the array and weaken its power.

Normally, such an array wouldn’t concern the high-rank mages present, but this formation proved stubbornly resilient; as breaking it head-on would take time and drain a large portion of their mana reserves.

And since the City Lord wanted them fresh for the real fight, he forbade them from making a move yet.

Instead, he ordered the low- and mid-rank mages to wear it down by slipping inside and attacking from within; this method took longer and cost him a substantial number of the mages he’d gathered to die under the attack of the Talisman, but he didn’t care.

In his mind, only the high-rank mages would decide the battle’s outcome.

And at this moment, he truly believed he held every advantage.

–

Deep in the core area of the Gordons Clan

The Patriarch sat in his chair, staring down at a water-screen that showed the allied mage army the City Lord had gathered, for the first time in a long while, the elders saw the Patriarch in full spirit-equipment armor, with his spirit katana at his waist prepared for war.

His face was cold, stripped of all emotion, he looked nothing like the lazy Patriarch they knew, what stared back at the screen was his evil alter ego.

“I can’t believe that dog dared to bring war to my clan’s doorstep after all we’ve done for this city, it seems there’s no avoiding this again,” George said, his left hand propping his chin.

As his long white hair was tied back in a ponytail; everything about him radiated a commanding aura.

Before him stood all the clan’s elders and its highest knights, the Gordons’ clan top enforcers are called “knights.”

Normally, the knights are neither summoned nor disturbed, but today that war has come to knock at their doorsteps they filled the meeting hall, standing behind the thrones of the elders who commanded them.

Only the Seventh Elder, the Eighth Elder, and the Patriarch had no mages behind their thrones, for a simple reason: Draco and Zack, once were the Patriarch’s enforcers, but now they too have become elders themselves.

Though the Patriarch still had another disciple, the Second Elder’s grandson that could act as his new knight , but like Alec and his friends, he too still remained away at his academy and had not returned home yet.

“We all knew this day would come; we just didn’t expect it to come this fast, I suppose we underestimated how badly the City Lord wanted us gone, or how much his greed has grown,” the Grand Elder said, letting his gaze settle on the Second and Sixth Elders who had finally shown their face after a long while.

“But despite all this, one thing remains certain, we are Gordons, and we are not to be trifled with, certainly the odds aren’t in our favor as usual, we’re outnumbered three to one, but this is our home ground.”

“We’d sooner fight to the death than kneel and let them walk over us.” The Grand Elder’s words rolled through the chamber, stoking resolve; around the Elders, mages straightened in their finest battle gear, ready for what was coming.

“I believe I’ve said enough, if we fall, the clan members are to move through the secret passage so they can regroup in the future with what remains of our clan, but until we fall, we fight as a Gordons should, with his head held high, until the last drop of blood is vanquished.”