The Golem Mage

Below Terran's peak, a group of Tier 6 mages waited, these were the ones who still believed they had a chance at victory.

Although they had watched the battles Pale and Katie had been in and realized that such powerful individuals were not to be taken lightly, however they hadn't seen Alec fight yet and were unaware of his true strength.

They assumed Alec was clearly weaker than them, and the fact that he hadn't even shown the courage to face them yet only inflated their confidence, they even started to spread rumours about how they would easily break him into pieces.

They were convinced that Alec wasn't as strong as Lucas, Pale, or even Beatrice, from what they'd heard, back when Alec was the leader of the team it seemed the group hadn't made such progress they were showing now, which meant that the current strength of the group had to be a result of their own progress after they returned home.

And being ignorant of Alec and his Gordons clansmen true abilities, they believed the others strength was all thanks to the support of the powerful clans backing them, and since Alec didn't come from an influential clan, they believed they had already surpassed him too.

All this while they also realised it seems Lucas, Pale, and Beatrice were uninterested in the first position they didn't know if it was because of sentimental reasons or because this new powerhouses of the academy are just busy with something else, the only thing they were sure of was fact that it was left for them to fight and see who would claim the top spot.

Then, they felt a shift in the air, and all eyes turned upward toward the figures descending from the peak, it was the first time since the Gordons' return back to the academy that someone was coming down.

"Those two don't look like the image of Alec Gordons that's been circulating around the academy," one mage remarked.

"Look closer, even if neither of them is Alec, don't you feel like they're incredibly familiar?" another mage observed.

"Yeah, I remember now, they were part of the team that went to the capital—Arthur and Brandon Gordons, Alec's family. One's ranked 6th and the other 7th," another mage chipped in, and it dawned on everyone where they'd seen these two before.

"All this time, we've been waiting for their boss to show up, but he never came, now that we've finally laid eyes on two of his people, there's no way we're letting them go," one of the Tier 6 mages said, waving a fan in an exaggerated attempt to appear refined. "They'll pay for their leader's arrogance, taking down the 6th and 7th rank isn't a bad start, maybe that'll be enough to provoke Alec into coming down to avenge his beaten subordinates."

He raised his voice to rally the others, and soon enough, a chorus of empty bravado followed, as more mages began jeering and glaring at Arthur and Brandon.

Strangely, neither of the two looked even slightly concerned.

In fact, Brandon looked downright bored, arms folded and gaze disinterested, while Arthur kept a sly smile on his face, then, without warning, he leapt forward—no spell, no chant, just raw motion.

As a blur streaked through the air, and in the next second, the ground shattered in front of the fan-wielding mage as Arthur landed directly before him.

"Seems like you're the ringleader. Let's fight," Arthur said flatly, not bothering to banter with the mage before him even if he was good at that, he was more concerned about how the mage was throwing around Alec's name.

The fan-wielding mage froze, talking had always been his specialty—not fighting.

His shock showed, though he quickly masked it with a mock expression of rage, hoping to save face.

Truthfully, he had never intended to fight. He'd planned to provoke a response, then retreat and analyse the Gordons' strength from the sidelines when they fought with the mob of mages, that's how it usually went—send in the fools first, learn from their failures, and avoid being the one crushed.

But now, faced with Arthur's cold eyes and clear intent, his plan was crumbling fast.

Just as the mage opened his mouth to speak, a blur shot toward his face—then came the sharp, blinding pain, before he could process what was happening, darkness swallowed him as he lost consciousness.

The crowd of mages around them stood frozen in shock, a moment ago, Arthur had only just landed, in the next breath, he'd casually asked for a fight, and without warning, had delivered a single blow—swift, clean, and brutally effective.

However what left them truly stunned wasn't the speed of the strike—that much they could at least try to explain—but the fact that the mage on the receiving end, a solid mid-tier Tier 6 mage, had been knocked out cold by a single punch is what made them puzzled and that was because Arthur, on the other hand still had a public record of being a low-tier Tier 5 mage( he is a low Tier 6 now by the way).

"What did you do? You knocked him out without even breaking any bones, Alec told us to make sure to break at least five." Brandon said flatly as he arrived,

Those listening froze, had they heard that right?

Despite the calm tone and conversational volume, the words travelled with clarity through the air, and they were all mid-rank mages with solid mana circulation control, and while the comment hadn't been shouted, their enhanced senses picked it up perfectly.

But it took them a second to process it and the meaning behind Brandon's words—but once they did, eyes widened in disbelief.

Was Alec actually more ruthless than the rumours suggested?

"Wait, are you blaming me?" Arthur replied with a shrug.

"It's not like I even used Qi or mana. I just punched him with my full strength, I figured he could at least take a hit. How was I supposed to know he'd pass out so easily?"

As if the situation hadn't spiralled enough, the two of them kept talking like it was just another chore, and that was the final straw—one by one, the mages began to slowly edge back, realizing that whatever game they thought they were playing, Arthur and Brandon were in an entirely different league.

These weren't students—they were walking disasters.

They couldn't help but feel their blood run cold as they listened to the two speak casually, as if the crowd of mages wasn't even there.

"How dare you act so arrogant! Come on, let's take them down together! They sneak-attacked one of us—they deserve to be punished!" shouted another mage, trying to rally the others.

He carried the same smug air as the first one Arthur had just dropped, clearly attempting to stir the group into action.

By now, it was obvious to everyone that Arthur's speed and strength were far beyond what they could handle in a one-on-one battle, but ganging up on him didn't sit right either, no matter how they tried to justify it, it felt like crossing a line they might not return from.