The Golem Mage

"Don't even think about resting!, The Matriarch Hyena isn't dead yet!"

Agnes shouted at Arthur, who was about to slack off after Brandon's combo move.

Agnes was certain that the Matriarch Hyena was still alive; otherwise, the organized pack would have already fallen apart and lost their coordination, resembling a legion of soldiers without a general's command.

Alec managed to finally dispatch the three Hyenas that had kept him busy.

As he jogged towards Brandon to provide support, he had been the only one attacking with his sword Qi, that was powered by his sword intent.

This gave his attacks a lethal edge and his strength allowed him to gain the upper hand in combat against the demonic beast.

On the other hand, the rest of the group had to rely on their mana to boost their attacks, as they had not yet comprehended any intent yet.

And despite their tired bodies, they continued to move and evade, fully aware that even a slight mistake could make them easy prey for the hyenas.

As the smoke from the explosion cleared, Alec and Brandon stood their ground, their eyes fixed on the location of the explosion, waiting to see if the Matriarch Hyena would emerge heavily injured or only lightly injured from the attack.

But before the hyena appeared, they were startled by loud laughter, followed by two sets of claws swiping towards them.

Without wasting a moment, they both instinctively slashed their weapons reinforce with Qi to counter the claw swipes.

However, the force behind these attacks was so powerful that it sent them both flying into the air.

Alec quickly summoned his Red Salamander tattoos in the air, enveloping himself in the protective spirit equipment armor that deflected the residual attacks of the claws, creating a series of clanging sounds till he landed on the ground.

Beside him, instead of a soft landing, Alec heard a thud and saw Brandon heavily injured, covered in cuts that resembled the work of different beasts' claws.

While Alec had the protection of his Salamander armor, Brandon only wore a Tier 2 armor they had managed to acquire from the War God's Armoury counter.

It was gotten ever since their initial visit to the Abyss, where Igor had generously covered the expenses for their armor and necessary equipment, but the armour had proved not sufficient to withstand the Matriarch Hyena's attacks.

Although Brandon had suffered cuts in various places, none of them proved fatal.

As His strategic defense with is saber had effectively thwarted the claws' light attempts to strike any critical areas, resulting in a multitude of wounds across his body.

"Ouch! Shit!" Brandon groaned in pain.

[> Low Tier Spell – Earth Bullet. <]

Alec sprang into action, unleashing a spell as Ten bullets materialized, swirling around his outstretched fingers, before he unleashed them into the dissipating smoke, hoping to force the hyena out.

His plan worked, as the Matriarch emerged from the smoke and charged towards Alec.

Simultaneously, six hyenas, who had evidently been patiently watching the battle unfold, pounced from three different angles.

It was clear that the other hyenas were following the Matriarch's commands.

However, this was not Alec's main concern, Rather, he was troubled by the fact that the Matriarch Hyena showed no signs of injury.

He couldn't fathom how it had managed to evade the explosion unscathed.

Even the Tier 4 Orc chief had been heavily wounded when he had been caught in the blast of five spider golem babies instead and bore the brunt of the damage.

Alec now realized that the explosion of the five babies had a wider radius than the two babies, it was as if the damage increased with each babies included in the explosion

Lost in these thoughts, Alec had a brief moment of distraction, allowing the Matriarch to close in on him, jaws agape, ready to clamp down on his legs.

Reacting swiftly, Alec shifted his body, leaving an opportunity for two other hyenas to sink their teeth into his left hand.

He let out a cry of pain but retaliated immediately, as One hyena met its end as Alec plunged his bone katana into its skull, while an ice shard sent by Pale found its mark in another hyena's skull.

Shaking off the lifeless hyena bodies, Alec counted himself fortunate.

His wounds were limited to his elbow region, thanks to the protective power of his Red Salamander gauntlet, which had effectively restrained one hyena's jaws.

Wamp!

Alec couldn't help but be taken aback as he witnessed the Matriarch's body being flung back towards the location of the earlier explosion.

It had been brutally attacked by Titan, who had finally been freed to join up with Alec and the rest.

Oni and Tempest had too it place creating a blockage and began slaughtering the Hyenas that tried to link up with there Matriarch.

The Matriarch rose to her feet, blood streaming down one side of her head where it had been crushed.

Letting out a cry, she caused the few surrounding Hyenas to fall back, forming a protective semi-circle around her, while the rest still troubled Agnes group not allowing them Join the main fight.

As Alec observed the Matriarch Hyena standing among the dead bodies of her pack, he realized how she had managed to survive the explosion and avoid Brandon's exceptional blade style.

She had been using her pack members as shields, sacrificing the males to protect herself.

Alec couldn't help but imagine how those Hyenas must have died, thinking they were proving themselves to their leader.

However, the confident and scheming Matriarch had not anticipated someone stronger than Alec, as Titan had been concealing his true power and feigning slowness.

The critical injury to her head caught her off guard, leaving her weak and vulnerable.

Pale and two others from his group were about to move forward and finish her off seeing her she was swaying weakly.

"Hold on," Alec said, trying to reason with them.

"We don't have any reason to act rashly, Their numbers are already dwindling, and killing the Matriarch will be easy."

But his words fell on deaf ears. Pale was desperate to prove himself and he was ready to take the kill.

Since joining Alec's group, he had felt insignificant, and the other two noble mages had been encouraging him to make a move.

They believed that stealing the glory for themselves would elevate their status, as they would also have a feat to bragged about.

These were the types of words they said to Pale, aiming to incite a petty rivalry between nobles and commoner Mage clans debate.

It was this rivalry that compelled him to join them, as he wanted to be the center of attention in the group too, just like how Alec and Agnes was being treated.

He felt if he couldn't even impress the Gordons while they were weak, he wondered how he would do so when they were at full power.

It was at this moment that he realized just how much stronger the Gordons clansmen were.

The two mages positioned themselves on either side of Pale, with him leading their operation to kill the Matriarch. Your next chapter is on My Virtual Library Empire

Even Kate tried to bring him back, but he had made up his mind to be the one to kill the seemingly weak Matriarch Hyena.

The pack of Hyenas gave way to them as they tried to approach the Matriarch, which they saw as a display of their cowardly nature finally coming out due to their injured leader.

"Pale, something feels wrong about this. Fall back!"

Kate shouted as she fought off another hyena.

While the path cleared for Pale and the two mages to reach their Matriarch, the same privilege was not extended to the rest of the group.

The hyenas made sure to cut off the group from linking up with Pale's three-man team.

Their strategy seemed to be isolating them in order to eliminate them quickly and reduce the level of danger they would face.

When Pale finally reached a good attacking range, he heard the giggling sounds of the hyenas around them, which Enraged him.

He brought out his ancient Dagger and cut his palm to summon a mid rank spell

[> Mid Tier Spell – Frost Lance. <]

The ice spears, engraved with ancient runes, appeared and moved towards the hyenas at high speed, making it difficult for them to escape and killing many in the process.

However, the Matriarch managed to use another pack member's body to avoid injury and swiftly closed the distance between her and Pale.

Just when Pale was anticipating her attack, she twisted her body in an astonishing manner, eluding the hidden ice trap he had set in front of him, hoping she would step on it.

The trap trigger as a ice spear erupted from the ground, but to Pale's dismay, it had missed its intended target.

As he finally realized that the attack against him had been a feint all along.

The Matriarch's laughter echoed through the air as five hyenas closed in on one of Pale's supporters, that had been isolated.

They viciously bit and tore at his limbs, leaving only his head attached to his body.

The gruesome scene filled Pale with rage, causing him to unleash a barrage of ice spikes towards the hyenas.

However, they stood their ground, barking in unison and releasing a combination attack of sound waves to dispel his ice assault.

They prevented any of the ice from reaching their leader, the Matriarch Hyena, who slowly approached the Tier 3 Mage on the brink of death from excessive blood loss.

With her claws, she plunged into his chest, ripping out his heart and swallowing it.

In that moment, Alec had a foreboding feeling and used his analysis skill on the Matriarch once again as he was trying to force back the huge number of Hyena's that just seems to be coming for them.

[> Quasi Tier 4 Demonic Beast <](Evolving)

Name: Demonic Spotted Hyena

Sex: Female

[Note: Has consumed the heart of a wind element mage, breaking through the barrier hindering its evolution, Its evolution will now be directed towards the wind path due to the heart it has consumed. After evolution, it will have access to all wind elemental spells the owner of the heart learned and may even be more proficient, as it enters the Mid Rank Realm.]

"Stop that creature! It's trying to evolve!"

Alec shouted, no longer concerned about Pale's mistake, All he knew was that they had to halt the Matriarch Hyena's evolution.

Everything she had done up until now, all the sacrifices of her pack's soldiers, were merely to evolve by consuming a mage's heart.

She was using it as a substitute for obtaining an attribute power stone instead, as a mage's heart was also seen as a power stone from the second Dimension races point of view, just as how the humans used there power stones for cultivating, unique intelligent demonic beast could grow by consuming hearts of powerful mages, if they didn't have an attributed power stones.

After all, the heart absorbed the purest mana produced by mages, and all mana circulation techniques were connected to the heart.

But This level of intelligence the Matriarch Hyena had shown was terrifying, and Alec was unwilling to witness its true prowess once it fully stepped into the Tier 4 realm.