The Golem Mage

Chapter 973: Coming To A Conclusion 2.

The final match between the Northern Royal Team and Ember Citadel finally began, and funny enough, despite the Royal Clan finding a way to bring back Liam to support the bunch of mages they had gathered, he still wasn’t able to help them advance past this stage.

As the Ember Citadel mages crushed them in under ten minutes without even losing a single member, while displaying the Southern Kingdom’s ferocity.

It was like they were trying to make a statement—that just because Ashmaw Academy was out didn’t mean the other South Academy would fall as well, and like that, the ten teams that had moved on to the next stage were decided.

Now all that was left was for the losing teams to fight it out until a winner among them could be chosen, it is supposed to be a full-on royal rumble between all the teams, where the last man standing from any academy would make his team eligible to participate as the academy representing the loser bracket of this stage.

And they would then get to fight against the winner of the loser round from the next stage and, if they won, they would be able to take their place to participate again.

But if they lost, that would be the end of their participation in the competition, and they would simply be ranked as the 11th position academy.

Pretty much, the royal rumble between all the academies was just a way for the judges to measure their power and rank them from 11th place down to 20th.

And that was how Witches and Wizard Academy, Onyx Academy, Holy Grail Academy, Arcanis Dominion Academy, Ashmaw Academy, Axis Arcanum Academy, Gate Academy, Shaolin Temple Academy, and the Northern Royal Team were all thrown into the battle ring like a bunch of bugs, while the judges tried to see which one would become the “king bug.”

Before this battle even began, there were already a couple of teams who stood up and were prepared to leave, not very interested in watching the chaos that was about to unfold.

But since Alec stayed to watch, the entire War God Mage Academy team remained as well, as they didn’t feel it would be right to leave their captain sitting there alone.

Unknown to them, Alec was only staying because watching the match gave him a bit of peace, and the unrest he’d been feeling finally settled down a little.

He looked up and realized night was fast approaching, and most of the Northern Kingdom executives and those from other kingdoms who had been watching earlier—had already left.

The only ones remaining now were the representatives of the academies about to begin the all-out brawl, and the judges of the Origin Tournament.

Alec could still hear the cheering from outside, loud and clear, even though the main academies for the next stage had already been confirmed, it didn’t seem to dampen the crowd’s enthusiasm at all.

If anything, they had become even more rowdy, for a competition that rarely took place, they treasured every moment of it.

There were young mages in the crowd who had just awakened, watching closely to see what they could one day become if they focused properly on the path of cultivation.

And there were those who had already exhausted their potential, who only wanted to experience—through others—what it felt like to be that strong.

To the citizens, this type of mage tournament was a blessing because not many of them are actually organized, and that is why they didn’t really care which group they were watching—

whether it was those who had qualified, or those battling in the loser group.

They simply came to witness the hot-blooded clashes of mages in their full glory—battle in its truest form. And to them, there was no better spectacle before the finals than the loser bracket matches, because those mages would always fight recklessly and give their all, because they have nothing left to lose.

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#Estonia City

Above the Gordons’ clan house, the City Lord, the other two Tier 8 mages, and the remaining Tier 7 mages who had come to help him wipe out the Gordons Clan hovered in the air.

“That’s all for today. You all should go and rest—we’ll continue again tomorrow,” the City Lord said since night time was already coming, and the few mid-rank and low-tier mages on the ground who had been attacking the array bowed slightly toward him before walking off.

Many of them looked completely drained, while others seemed just a step away from collapsing.

The high-rank mages watching from the sky couldn’t help but frown, as things were not going the way the City Lord had claimed they would.

“I didn’t know you had such a fierce clan in your city, but still, I want to ask—are you sure about your plan to take them down? Because with the way things are going, not only are we losing a lot of low-rank mages, but those same mages have started to doubt whether we’ll even be able to break through.”

The Tier 8 mage sent by the branch Dragonmir clan was the one who asked this, and the City Lord only grunted lowly in response.

“When going to war, one must always be ready for necessary sacrifices, and as of right now, the low-rank mages are the sacrifices.

“If we high-rank mages attack the array system now, no doubt we would be able to break through the barrier of the array in under a day—but what then? What are the consequences?

“None of us would be in peak condition afterward, and we would still have to face the Gordon mages, who are definitely waiting inside, ready to go all out to protect their clan or die trying.

“We can’t afford that. I do want to overthrow and destroy them, but at the very least, I only want to lose a few high-rank mages, because whether I like it or not, getting rid of them will already cause a huge gap in the power my city normally deploys during the Blood Moon wars.

“Now imagine if, on top of that, many of the other high-rank mages of this city are killed because of this clash, even if I wipe the Gordons out completely, I would be signing this city’s death warrant, because we would still have to face the foreign invaders from the second dimension.”

“That is why I’ve resorted to this draining approach, on the bright side, we’ve already forced them to stay locked in, and with each passing day, the average clansmen trapped inside will start dying from hunger once their food rations run out.”

“I don’t really care how long it takes—I’ll drag this out as slowly as I can until they become desperate, and in that desperation, they’ll make the one mistake I need to kill them all.” The city lord explained his thoughts out

Causing the mages around him shivered in fear as they finally understood what he was truly trying to accomplish.

Right now, he wasn’t ready to fight the Gordons Clan head-on, even though he had the numerical advantage and seems to have the higher winning odds,

The City Lord had watched the Gordons defend the city during the blood moon wars , they took to battle lines first and he knew just how fearsome their battle prowess was and how strong their will became when pushed to the wall.

So unlike the Tier 8 mage his branch family had sent, who was clearly impatient to get his hands on what the City Lord had promised their clan, he on the other hand was willing to wait.

He didn’t want to make the mistake of underestimating the Gordons Clan because he had the advantage.

He didn’t care if he lost many low-rank mages; to him, they could be replaced, what he wanted was to keep the losses among mid-rank mages to a minimum and preserve the strength of the high-rank mages.

After all, he had gone as far as requesting help from his branch family because he wanted to win in an overwhelming fashion, and if that meant dragging things out for days after forcing the Gordons to lock themselves in, then he was fully prepared to do so.