Elemental Cats

It hadn't been long until the Flesh Golem was completed, but the Alliance of Kingdoms' troops were still frozen by fear due to the piercing roar unleashed by the monstrosity when it appeared. The cloud of black fog also seemed to have had an effect after it reached the troops. But General Scoll couldn't tell what it was. Not that he paid it much mind since the black fog was incomparable to the Flesh Golem itself.

The hulking grey mass of flesh and bones towered over twelve meters, and its body of twisted muscles rippled with power that surpassed the high levels.

General Scoll had seen transcendents in action, and he knew that there weren't any ways of forcing a transformation of something mortal to something transcendent, no matter how much mortal materials were used. But the black orb had contained an incredible amount of mana of indiscernible quality that had fused with the thousands of high level corpses on the battlefield.

The Flesh Golem might not be at the transcendent level proper, but it wasn't far from it. And due to the power surpassing what the materials its body was made of could withstand, the Flesh Golem probably wouldn't last long. But it would still be able to endure the weight of its own might long enough to finish the war.

In front of the Flesh Golem, General Scoll began having doubts about whether he could eke out a victory, even with the methods he had devised.

He knew that the Flesh Golem would be one of the things that might appear on the battlefield even at the beginning of the war, and he had made preparations in case that happened. But he couldn't concentrate all his efforts on preparing for a Flesh Golem when there were several other methods available to the Tribe of Death. He couldn't put all his eggs in one basket.

And now that the Flesh Golem was in front of him, he began to think that he hadn't used enough metaphorical eggs to prepare for its appearance.

However, General Scoll didn't let his doubts bring him down, and he used the effect of the double trouble tornados to help his troops snap out of their fear-induced shock.

"Earth mages, ready!"

General Scoll's voice reached the troops, and even those he didn't target directly reacted. The threatening atmosphere surrounding the Flesh Golem still made them shiver in their boots, but the troops managed to get some movement back.

Thankfully, the Flesh Golem was breathing in the black fog and seemingly preparing its body. The lich controlling the Flesh Golem was also reinforcing the Flesh Golem with its demonic energy. That gave the Alliance of Kingdoms a few precious moments to restore discipline and prepare. They even had time to launch their first attack following General Scoll's order.

"Get rid of its footing!"

General Scoll's order might be a little too vague for disciplined soldiers trained to follow each word to the letter. But the army he commanded wasn't made of strictly trained soldiers. It was a mix of high level combat able people from all over the four kingdoms. Some were used to fighting since before the war broke out. And others were seeing battle for the first time in their lives.

The various backgrounds and identities of everyone meant that there was no way everyone, even if they used the same element, used magic in similar ways.

So, following General Scoll's order, the earth mages began interfering with the Flesh Golem's movements however they could. The earth mages turned the ground below the Golem to mud and let it sink down. They also hollowed out the ground around it so that it would be able to take a single step forward without breaking through up to its knees. There were also mages who covered the Flesh Golem's body in a layer of solid earth to restrain its movements.

Mages with other attributes might be able to do similar things. However, the Flesh Golem's body and surroundings were covered in a layer of demonic energy that was close to reaching the transcendent level. Its natural defense against magic of lesser quality was already more than enough trouble for the earth mages. They didn't need interference from other attributes when they were having trouble coordinating with each other.

If it weren't for the training all the mages and fighters had done that helped them work together with people of similar attributes, even what they were doing right now would be a lot more difficult.

But it remained to be seen if their cooperation would be enough to keep the Flesh Golem in place. The magic applied directly to the Flesh Golem's body was almost instantly shrugged off and dispelled. Even the mud pool below its feet was quickly losing its fluidity and returning to normal hard ground.

The things that were most effective were the magics that changed the surroundings more permanently by hollowing out the ground rather than simply melting it by using a continuous flow of mana.

As it became more obvious that the Flesh Golem couldn't resist the physical effects of earth magic as well as it resisted pure magic, the earth mages voluntarily began changing tactics without General Scoll prompting them.

Instead of conjuring blocks of earth or temporarily changing the structure of the ground around the Flesh Golem, the earth mages began taking chunks and pieces of the ground as it were and burying the Flesh Golem beneath a mountain of rubble. They also dug out the ground from below it, which led to the Flesh Golem being buried both in the ground and by a mound of boulders.

Since the Flesh Golem's near-transcendent level demonic energy blocked the effects of the magic, the boulders didn't strike the Golem with enough force to damage it. The Golem dispelled the magic propelling the rocks.

However, gravity wasn't magic. And when the earth mages realized that the Flesh Golem only stopped the stones flying horizontally, they began using the power of gravity and started dropping boulders like raindrops from above the Flesh Golem.