The Golem Mage Chapter 1090: Chaotic Countdown 2.

Clearly, Carmilla's effortless victory came from her transformed state, fully armored in her spirit equipment set, which massively boosted her physical prowess far beyond her previous normal limits.

Endrick did have a spirit weapon, yet it was designed for ranged attacks, rendering him helpless against Carmilla's superior physical power in close quarters.

Against her in that form, his sole hope for victory would have required some enhancement of his own to close the overwhelming gap.

“Brandon, get her. Lucas, hold that other vampire. Pale, stall the remaining two until backup arrives,” Alec commanded.

The battlefield plunged into instant chaos as Dragov dove directly onto the central rune, his enormous greatsword smashing down with him.

Alec blocked the blow successfully, but the sheer force shoved him back almost eight steps, positioning him mere inches from tumbling off the floating platform.

Meanwhile, the War God Mage Team sprang into action without delay to carry out his orders.

Brandon moved first, charging toward the building where Carmilla waited; as he progressed, sand swirled around his legs up to his knees, while brown totem-like markings spread over his body, obvious indicators of his spirit equipment set activating.

“Carmilla, regroup!” Damien yelled after parrying a heavy Qi-infused blow from Lucas’s blade, frustration seeping into his tone.

He struggled to reach his sister, and the foe he most wanted gone—Brandon—was precisely the one Alec dispatched against her, yet Carmilla merely felt annoyance at his call.

To her, it rang like needless worry; she brimmed with confidence in handling the incoming foe. By the time Brandon arrived at the building, he was fully encased in his Tier 5 spirit equipment set—the Terra Sovereign Set.

“Come,” Carmilla whispered with eagerness, fixing her eyes on him, but the next event took her completely by surprise.

Brandon didn't climb the walls, nor did he leap between structures as she had.

Instead, he barreled straight into the wall, and oddly...

No thunderous crash echoed. No shattering. No ruin.

Only silence, as if Brandon had vanished entirely upon hitting the wall, his presence erased, even his mental aura wiped clean.

Bang!!!

Elsewhere, Alec and Dragov exchanged furious clashes, their speeds blurring them into streaks of light smashing together in mid-air.

Dragov scowled while unleashing a mighty swing that hurled Alec through five buildings in a row; he then lingered airborne, awaiting Alec's return from the debris; multiple factors fueled his growing discomfort.

First off—despite all his efforts, he still couldn't dominate Alec with pure sword skill; since his prior loss, Dragov had trained intensely under his clan's elders, convinced his weak weapon control caused the defeat.

He shifted from pure brute force to honing his precision, control, and efficiency, achieving major gains, now mastering energy conservation, better mana management, and even new skills like his passive wind veil.

But facing Alec once more, it mirrored their past battle too closely, for despite his advanced weapon mastery, it fell short of the level required to overwhelm Alec.

At most, Dragov had hit the peak of Intermediate Mastery with his weapon, while Alec had advanced into Advanced Mastery of his own.

This truth grated on him.

It seemed his edge in the duel stemmed solely from raw power, not technique—something he loathed, especially knowing Alec wasn't even at full strength (no golems).

Then, emerging from the rubble, Alec appeared with a subtle smile, a thin trickle of blood trailing down his forehead; wordlessly, he undid his kimono, letting it slip to his waist and baring his upper body.

Exposing the tattoos inked on his skin, the dark red bat-like emblem on his back, right below his neck, started glowing softly.

His form shifted slightly—he grew a touch taller, his nails extended marginally.

His ears pointed, his skin paled.

The change wasn't extreme, yet it was undeniable, strikingly akin to Damien’s vampiric transformation, leaving the onlookers shocked.

In the VIP section's second level, the Bloodline Academy Dean shot a glance at the War God Mage Academy Dean, as if seeking explanations, but the evident shock on his counterpart's face made him withhold his queries, opting to observe the developments.

At that moment, both Damien and Carmilla found themselves briefly distracted by Alec's completion of the shift; they detected something oddly familiar about him, though it differed profoundly at the same time.

All this unfolded in just seconds, and during that split-second lapse—Brandon materialized again.

The scattered sandy earth on the rooftop abruptly converged, reshaping his form as he rose atop the building; the moment Carmilla spotted him, she whirled into action.

She pivoted and swept her scythe in a broad sweep—

Bang!

The blade collided with Brandon’s uplifted guard, flinging him backward; he quickly anchored his legs to halt the force, but she pressed on without pause, launching strike after strike in a furious barrage.

Still, Brandon parried each assault with his hand guard, holding his guard steady without retaliating; to Carmilla, it seemed she held the advantage.

But right before they hit the rooftop's far edge, something shifted.

Suddenly, she couldn't advance further; her eyes dropped downward, revealing the truth—her legs were trapped by solidified earth, gripped by an invisible spell.

It had activated so stealthily and quietly that even she missed it entirely; undeterred, she leveraged her scythe's length for a distant slash—

Yet Brandon switched strategies.

This time—

He stopped merely defending and began closing in.