The Team Finals

The next day our team made its way to the festival grounds where we found a new set up. There were four pillars made of a rough dark stone that had numerous glowing runes and glyphs carved into them. Flowering vines wrapped around them and other flowering bushes were growing around and on them. Dirt paths connected each of the pillars by a square and an x through the middle. The areas between the paths were filled with vegetation.

"By the Spirits they're having us do a golem battle! We're lucky since it's so rare that they do." Lariss said.

"I'm a little surprised, those activation pillars are hard to make and their creation consumes a lot of resources." Adalgard said.

"I'm not familiar with these." I said.

"Me neither." Thelora said.

"The basics are that you send your aura, arcane magic, spiritual energy into them and they produce a golem. In this case they are most likely spectral golem pillars, since those are the easiest to make. But there are ones that create dirt, stone, metal, and even ones that can create golems of pure elemental energy." Lariss said.

"There are rumors that necromancers can create ones that make flesh golems known as zombies." Adalgard added.

"Don't talk about that, thinking about zombies freaks me out." Lariss said.

As I was about to ask how the competition worked a Union representative called for the attention of the gathered teams.

"The Union and Grand Coven of the North have spent a great deal of effort to produce these Spectral Golem Pillars. Since it's rare that the Union uses this type of competition, let me give you a brief overview. By placing your energy into the pillars you will create a spectral golem based on the type of energy and the amount you put in." They said.

To demonstrate three junior representatives each put in some energy into the pillars. They all had a transparent humanoid body devoid of specific features. Aura created the largest spectral golem that was wearing armor and had a spectral sword. Arcane magic created ones with robes that were capable of shooting energy blasts. Spiritual energy also created ones with robes but these didn't have legs and floated a few feet above the ground. It wasn't apparent what they could do.

"Your teams will produce golems to take over the central area. The more energy to put into the golem the larger and stronger it will be. There are roughly three sizes of golems. You can also direct your golems to attack the other teams. Please try and refrain from damaging the pillars though. It will take time for us to fix them between matches. You all have the next hour to discuss strategies." The representative said.

The teams separated to their respective corners. The Rainbow Blades were opposite us with the Burnished axes to the left and the disciples of the former Union Master to our right.

"So it's an endurance match. Whoever can create golems the longest will win." I said.

"Not necessarily. If you can overpower the center in the middle you can get closer to winning with brute force. You can also attack the other teams to disrupt their golem creation. There aren't many tactics but there are a few." Adalgard said.

As I started to think about the different strategies some memories from Earth came to mind. This situation reminded me of some computer games that my son played. The main difference was that the heroes that the player controlled would move around the board also. I started to regret only passively watching a few times and not trying to play with him.

"What about the ones created by spirit energy? What are their abilities?" I asked.

"They can be made to strengthen allied golems or weaken enemy golems. Those will be the fewest since each team has a limited number of those that can use spiritual magic. But I think I'll be able to create the strongest ones." Adalagard replied.

The Burnished Axes had a Holy Knight, the Rainbow Blades had a priestess of the Holy Light, and the disciples had a witch and a Holy Knight. There was a good chance that I had more spiritual energy than any of those in the match, including Adalgard, but I wasn't sure I wanted to expose that part of myself just yet.

"What is our strategy going to be team captain?" Kay asked. He had become very respectful towards Adalgard since she was officially made team captain yesterday.

"I'm open for suggestions." She looked in my direction as she said this.

"I think we should hold back. The other teams are very aggressive. They'll most likely rush the center with a lot of their strength in the beginning. Let them fight it out." I said.

"That's sound logic but I think you might be overlooking the fact that at least one team near us has a grudge against you. There's a good chance the Burnished Axes will ruch us with all their strength right off the bat." Thelora said.

"Good point. Do we have to send our golems away once they're created? If we can create them and keep them here that might be better." I said.

"That's a good strategy. I have a few other ideas to add." Adalgard said.

Over the course of the next hour we discussed our plans of action. Then, as the crowd excitedly filled the hills around us the Union representative called everyone's attention. Once he gave the signal the last competition for C rank began.

Kay and I didn't create any golems while Adalgard created a massive spiritual one that stood near us. Sundri created many small arcane ones and Lariss created a few medium sized aura ones. The aura ones and a few arcane ones were sent to the middle while the rest were held back.

Just as Thelora predicted, the Burnished Axes ignored the center and sent a large force directly towards us. I was right in that the other two teams sent strong forces to battle it out in the middle. We were much stronger than the spectral golems so Kay and I focused on attacking the ones that were sent our way with Sundri's arcane golems giving us ranged support.

As the spectral golems reached the middle and began to battle each other, a glyph appeared above our pillar. It grew and became more vibrant the more we controlled the center area. The Rainbow Blades and the disciples also had ones but the Burnished Axes didn't

"Wilmaer we have problem on our right." Lariss said.

The disciples had sent two large golems, one arcane and one aura based. They seemed to be taking advantage of the fact that we were being rushed by the Burnished Axes.

"I'll take care of them." Adalgard said as she engaged. Lariss also took some time from creating golems to help her out.

For a moment it looked like we might be overrun but soon the stream of golems coming from the Burnished Axes started to let up. The Rainbow Blades had diverted some of their golems to attack them. This allowed us to evenly divide our defenses against the two attacks and hold them off.

Once the golems from the disciples started to let up and they began to focus on the center again, we turned to the next part of the plan. I went to the pillar and began to send in my aura and arcane magic at the same time. This was something that most C rankers weren't capable of but I had been combining aura and magic with my Moonlight Lightning Slash for months now.

The golems I created started making their way to the Burnished Axes. As they swung their swords, beams of energy were sent out. Gunnar and the others had to let up on golem creation to take care of the issue. But unfortunately for them the Rainbow Blades had seen that we were attacking and joined in by sending the majority of theirs that way as well.

On the other hand the disciples saw an opportunity and began to rush the center with everything they had. The Rainbow Blades and us couldn't keep up the joint offensive for long before needing to refocus on the center. Gunnar must have also noticed that they were about to lose and sent their golems to the center for the first time. By now their energy had started to run out and their golems were the weakest and fewest battling in the center.

Not long after the glyph above the Burnished Axes completely disappeared and no golems started to come from them. Seeing that a stalemate was developing among the three remaining teams, I created my largest golem yet and sent it to the disciples. It had the effect of disrupting their work but they then countered with a few golems of their own.

It also allowed the Rainbow Blades to slowly start to take over the center. While I wouldn't mind Vesta winning, I didn't want Kalfr to win. We had to stop sending golems against the disciples, as it was only allowing the others to win. They also stopped attacking us directly.

In the end it really was coming down to endurance. I could see half of the Rainbow Blades and disciples had started to run low on energy and their golem production was lessening. Sundir and Kay had dropped out on our side and Lariss and Thelora didn't have much more in them.

It was time to gamble. I started to create small aura and arcane golems that had a little spirit energy mixed in. The added buff from the spirit energy stacked with each new golem making them nearly twice as powerful as they would have been otherwise.

Seeing that we were starting to take the lead, the disciples started to send their golems directly at us. Adalgard stopped what she was doing and defended me as I continued golem production. By now only Njall and Verdandi were creating golems for the disciples and Kalfr and Vesta were creating them for the Rainbow Blades.

My spiritual energy ran out first with my arcane magic running out not long after that. The others weren't doing much better than me, but I had something that allowed me to keep going as they started to falter.

With three Intermediate auras I had a greater reserve of aura energy and in the end my aura golems were able to take over the center and block the paths of the other two teams.

Our glyph began to form over the center and in the end we won the match and the C ranked team competition.