The Golem Mage

It was quite surprising that the actions of just three mages could bring the entire battlefield to a standstill, clearly, the high-rank battle was the most crucial and often determined the true victor in any large-scale clash.

As the smoke began to clear, the state of the goblins behind it slowly became visible to the many who had been watching, red, who had been at the center of the explosion, stood with his right hand completely blasted apart, with exposed bone jutting from his mangled limb.

Though he was coughing up blood, however, it seemed he had managed to survive the blast, as he had been protected by a flickering, transparent, oval-shaped barrier—an indication that the spirit armour he wore was of high rank.

It was clear to those observing that the only reason he was still alive was because of that armour, though even it had not been enough to spare him from serious injury, as he must have activated it only at the last moment after realizing he had been deceived.

He had assumed Alec's attack was similar to the Qi strikes launched by the two elders from the flanks, but Alec's move had been a trap, and Red had fallen for it, had he been better prepared, two things would have prevented such damage: first, if he had activated his defences in time, he might have suffered some internal backlash, but he would have remained whole and not be in such a critical state; second, the spell cards Alec sent were definitely no super fast, instead he had thrown it at a normal speed as the only acceleration it had was the Qi and arm strength from Alec's throw—which means he could have easily dodged them had he not been so focused on demonstrating his superiority.

Fortunately for the Goblins, Red had been the only one at the front if not the damage would have been worse, even the two hobgoblins who had moved to intercept the Gordons elders' attack a the flanks had been caught in the blast radius even if they weren't the targets of the explosion, and it left them badly injured just not as Red.

They were clearly bleeding, as their armour was unable to withstand the brunt of the blast, due to it lacking the high-tier resilience Red's gear had provided.

The rest of the high-rank goblins who had yet to move felt a cold shiver run down their spines, as they couldn't comprehend what had just happened, let alone how fast it had all unfolded.

Bang!!

Everyone was still frozen when two distinct gunshots rang out, fired in rapid succession with only a second between them, but that one second was all it took for chaos to reign.

The first shot jolted them back to awareness from the shock, and before they could process the source of the sound, one of the two injured hobgoblins at the flank dropped dead, with his body crashing.

With frightening speed, Legion had already racked the bolt of his sniper rifle, adjusted his aim, and fired again, his second shot tearing through the air and killing the second hobgoblin instantly.

It was only then that the goblins fully grasped the danger that had appeared, but by the time Legion lined up his third shot, Frizzle and Griz had already appeared in front of Red.

With Frizzle swiping his hand, and summoning a powerful gust of wind that surged upward to deflect the incoming shot, though the wind formed a thick barrier, but the bullet had been coated in refined Qi, so it continued to push forward with resistance.

And after three tense seconds, it began to pierce through the veil.

Just before the bullet could reach its target, Griz swung his spiked club which seems to have been made of black obsidian and deflected it, yet, the bullet didn't stop.

It continued flying, now off-course, but still deadly, its momentum carrying it downward toward the battlefield below, where every soldier had paused to watch the high-rank clash in the sky.

Without warning, the bullet embedded itself into the skull of a Tier 6 hobgoblin, killing him instantly with no chance to react, that was the sheer power of the sniper round—unstoppable, even after being deflected twice.

"Alec, boy! I hope you haven't forgotten—those two are mine," the third elder called out with a wild grin, eyes fixed on Griz and Fizzle like they were already corpses.

"Tell your golem not to steal my prey."

And just like that, Alec swatted his hand, signalling Legion to stand down.

And Legion calmly dismantled his weapon, breaking it into components before swiftly reconstructing it into a fragment gun (a close-combat firearm in the same category as shotguns and pump guns.)

On Alec's left stood Titan, now in his human-based form, with his half-ice crown levitating above his head, the summoning of both Legion and Titan had been instantaneous.

Now, the Gordons side had six individuals on the battlefield, the fourth elder had also summoned his wooden golem—facing off against eighteen remaining high-rank goblins.

Red glared at Alec, who stood calmly at the center of this formation.

Resentment burned in his eyes as blood dripped steadily from his ruined right arm, which now hung limp at his side, deep down, he knew that if not for Fizzle and Griz, he would already be dead.

So he did the only thing that made sense to him at that moment.

"Kill them all! None must leave here alive after delivering themselves to us!" Red roared.

Immediately, over fifteen high-rank goblins surged forward.

In response, Alec turned to the stunned high-rank human mages behind him.

"What are you all waiting for? Don't tell me you need a personal invitation to join the fight," he said, just as the two elders dashed ahead while Titan and Legion remained at his side.

The High-rank human mages clearly didn't appreciate taking orders from someone of a younger generation, but they couldn't deny reality—Alec had already taken out two Tier 7 enemies, and with two goblin elites staying back to guard their commander, that left fifteen high-rank goblins charging toward what was now twelve human high-rank mages.

And if they Included Alec, the human side had thirteen.

This was what fuelled their confidence to move, human mages had never fought under such favourable terms before.

They were almost always at a disadvantage, forced to hold their ground against two enemies of the same realm or more, but now, for once, the odds weren't stacked against them.

This was the kind of injustice the human ranks had long endured, their only saving grace was that most who ascended to the high ranks were top-tier geniuses, and those who were greenhorns among them—usually were the pampered children of rich clans—who wouldn't even dare step out under a blood moon unless escorted by a squad of elite guard mages.

So even though they resented Alec for acting like their leader, that grudge quickly faded as they joined the two Gordon Elders in restraining the high-rank goblins and hobgoblins.

With the high-rank battlefield now engaged, Alec summoned the Hive Queen and sent her to assist on the Mid battlefield, while he, Titan, and Legion levitated toward Red, who was being guarded by Griz and Fizzle.

"You little demon... I see you've gotten even scarier than before," Fizzle said, eyeing Alec, who remained bare-chested.

Alec though raised an eyebrow at the comment—clearly, the goblin claimed to know him with that statement, but Alec had no memory of him, not that it mattered, since he had a mission.

"I'll say this once. If you want to live, move out of the way. My elder has his eyes on both of you, so I don't want to incur his wrath. I just have some unfinished business with that stubborn bastard behind you who refuses to die," Alec said, pointing at Red with his right hand.

But they both shook their heads.

"I don't know where you get your confidence from," Griz replied, grinning.

"But we can't let you do that. And really? You're threatening us with two Tier 6 golems? Come on, this'll be over before it even begins." He laughed wildly, casually spinning his spiked mace.