The Golem Mage

Chapter 1065: He Is Back 1.

The battle between Ember Citadel and Shinsei Academy began almost immediately, for this match, it was a clash between the Southern Kingdom mages fans and Eastern Kingdom mages fans in the stands.

As for the other three kingdoms, they mostly remained neutral spectators; as they didn’t feel the need to cheer loudly for either side, especially since a Northern Kingdom academy wasn’t involved, they didn’t feel that much excitement shading any team that wasn’t a northern academy as it won’t rile up the northern fans they have found so much pleasure in disturbing.

Still, that didn’t stop many from placing bets and sharing opinions about who they believed would win.

For most, they already felt it would be an easy victory for the Eastern academy — mainly because of Hoshino Ren, the Shinsei captain.

Many held the biased view that no one amazon the Ember Citadel team could match or stop him, given his Tier-7 spirit, conveniently forgetting that this was a team battle, not an individual duel.

At the same time, Ember Citadel wasn’t rated highly, mainly from the fact that they were a Southern Kingdom, this major fact worked against them; and there was also the fact that every other southern academy had already been eliminated, leaving Ember Citadel as the lone representative of the Southern Kingdom.

And in addition was the lingering prejudice against their darker skin and cultural background, and many assumed the judges themselves would prefer not to see what they unfairly labeled as “barbaric” or “local” mages advancing further.

_ _

But ten minutes into the fight, the entire stadium fell silent, no one could quite believe what they were witnessing.

The Shinsei Academy had been completely defeated, and Babatunde stood over Ren, who had collapsed on the battle stage, to the spectators it still felt so unreal to them.

Bare-chested, Babatunde displayed totem-like tattoos across his body, as it resembled a natural armor set, his flaming bracers glowed intensely, with faint steam rising from his body as if his power was still radiating outward.

He looked down at Ren’s unconscious body with a sly smile on his face , calm and composed despite the shock his victory had caused.

#Ten minutes ago.

When the judge called for the start of the match, the very first thing Babatunde did was swing his greatsword toward Ren, who stood at the front, the power imbued in the blade was so immense that a booming shockwave rang out as it cut through the air toward Ren on the opposite side.

With that single move, Babatunde effectively stopped Ren from summoning Akagami, as the weapon was already bearing down on him.

One of his teammates, Shun, immediately moved to cover him, stepping in front while Ren was already retreating backward from the incoming strike.

Shun raised both hands. Unlike Ren, he had just already begun summoning his beast power the moment the match started, so when he realized his captain was in danger, he reacted first.

Black smoke engulfed him, and a dark spirit shield appeared before him, its surface engraved with the face of a living Oni, seeing the shield, many watching mages quickly connected it to the vague demonic image they had glimpsed in the swirling black smoke.

Bang!

The sword finally struck. Shun instantly felt his arms go numb and silently cursed the sheer force behind the attack, he began wondering just how physically strong a mage had to be to unleash that level of power.

But while he was lost in those thoughts, the sword rebounded and flew back into the hands of Babatunde who had already begun dashing forward, Babatunde caught it smoothly, spun once, and hurled it forward again.

This time, the throw carried even greater force, leaving Shun barely any time to register what was happening before the blade was already on its way, the rest of the Ember Citadel members participating were Kwame, Olumide, Obi, and lastly Asha.

Kwame, Obi, and Olumide dashed forward just behind Babatunde, while Asha remained at the backline, forming rapid hand signs as flaming runes and sigils began to appear around her.

Soon, flaming familiars shaped like beast animals materialized, there were three in total, but the last one to appear stood out the most, it was a lion seemingly formed entirely from fire.

At that moment, Babatunde’s greatsword slammed down for the second time, and Shun, who was far less prepared to withstand such overwhelming force this time, was sent flying into the air.

His body crashed into Ren, who had been a few meters behind him trying once again to summon Akagami, seeing Ren’s attempt disrupted for the second consecutive time, Babatunde broke into a wide laugh as he and his teammates quickly moved aside.

Giving a line of sight to the flaming lion spirit that had just been summoned as it roared toward the spot where Shun and Ren stood, releasing blazing rings of fire that blasted toward them.

This time, another Shinsei mage stepped in to block the attack — Seishō Suijin.

He clapped his hands together, and about five spirit barriers formed in front of him, all facing the incoming flaming roar.

Three of the barriers shattered instantly they came in contact with the roar, but the fourth finally held firm.

Suijin was just about to sigh in relief when he suddenly saw cracks spreading across the light-green barrier.

This time, another flame spirit was responsible for the damage, a massive woodpecker made of fire had darted in at incredible speed that even Suijin didn’t notice until it was already before him, it repeatedly pecked at the cracked barrier.

Though the strikes were rapid and continuous, it took less than a second for the remaining barriers to collapse completely, at this point, anyone watching could clearly see Ember Citadel’s strategy.

They knew Hoshino Ren was their biggest obstacle to victory, so before he could summon Akagami, they intended to eliminate him first.

Normally, summoning a spirit shouldn’t have taken this much time, but Akagami was already a spirit whose realm was being restrained because of his host.

Since Ren hadn’t stepped into the high-rank realm yet, it was far harder for him to properly summon Akagami who was already a High Rank Spirit.

The process of summoning took several seconds between 40 to 45 seconds, and it couldn’t be interrupted or he would have to start all over again, if he were already in the high ranks, that wouldn’t be the case.

However, since he was still in the mid ranks, he remained limited by such restrictions, and this crucial detail was one Babatunde had carefully taken note of.

That was why he was going all out to knock Hoshino Ren out before he had any chance to summon his bound spirit, even though Babatunde believed he could win regardless, he wasn’t about to put himself through unnecessary stress when he could eliminate the problem early.

_ _

Meanwhile, elsewhere in Estonia City, the space axis had finally been repaired, and it began operating again with a whirling sound.

“Quickly send someone to the clan house to inform the young master that the teleportation axis has been repaired,” a mage instructed those nearby.

Without hesitation, they dashed out of the city hall at high speed, eager to deliver the news to Alec, who had been waiting for confirmation that it was fixed.