Now Rhodes understood why, during their first meeting, Malfurion had greeted him with such a massive hug.
Immediately after inventing the spell to summon Clay Golems, Rhodes summoned Cenarius and Malfurion.
In Azeroth, earth elementals exist, but traditional elemental summoning requires communicating with the Elemental Plane or petitioning elemental spirits as a Shaman would. Rhodes wanted something more direct and controllable: creation. He spent two full weeks combining his understanding of the laws of earth and life to refine the Summon Clay Golem spell.
The new spell no longer pulled a pre-existing elemental from another plane; instead, it extracted clay and stone directly from the earth, imbuing them with temporary life and intelligence via life energy. When the first refined Clay Golem rose from the ground, even Cenarius marveled.
Standing five meters tall, the golem was composed of dark brown clay and granite, its surface covered in moss-like green veins—the flow paths of life energy. Though its movements were slow, its strength was staggering, leaving deep indentations in the stone formations of the training grounds with a single punch.
"How many can you control at once?" Malfurion asked curiously.
Rhodes closed his eyes to gauge his capacity. "With my current energy and mental focus, about seventy."
While he had mastered methods for the permanent summoning of Light or Fire elementals, the Clay Golem spell was newly developed using Azerothian magic. Making it permanent would require a constant supply of life energy, as this was a world of conservation of matter, unlike his system-based elemental troops. Since he didn't lack "cannon fodder," Rhodes decided not to develop a permanent version. The skill would remain a Druidic spell—a meat-shield guardian to protect the caster in battle. That was its true purpose.
Encouraged, Rhodes continued his research. A month later, he began developing a new spell: a "Life Version" of the Light Giant. Originally, he wanted to follow the same blueprint he used for the Holy Light Giant, but life energy and Holy Light were fundamentally different. Holy Light could be materialized under his control, but life energy was an ethereal force inherent to living beings. To manifest a "Life Giant," he needed a physical medium—the earth, or something else.
A flash of inspiration hit him. Since I've already "borrowed" the Uchiha clan's Susanoo and developed Light-version Sharingan illusions, why not take something from the Senju clan? Like the First Hokage?
Wood Style.
The term flashed through his mind. When it came to internal life energy manipulation, warriors excelled by burning their vitality into rage. For external manipulation, Druids were masters, alongside Pandaren Monks who channeled chi—the energy of life and nature. Trees are life energy. Cenarius and Malfurion were already experts at summoning trees, treants, and vines.
This was effectively "Wood Style." With his current level of life energy, it was entirely feasible.
Rhodes began experimenting. Druid magic already had "Entangling Roots" and "Nature's Grasp," and Malfurion could summon mobile Treants. But those spells either controlled existing plants or invited nature spirits from the Emerald Dream to possess them. Rhodes wanted "growth" and "shaping."
"The key lies in 'templates' and 'energy conversion,'" Rhodes recalled from his discussions with Malfurion. "Trees take time to grow, but life energy can accelerate that. If I construct a complete 'wood structure' in my mind beforehand and then use energy to catalyze seeds or timber, I can make them grow and shape themselves according to my will instantly."
This was possible, provided he used high-quality materials to satisfy the laws of energy conservation. Huge structures needed immense density for support; fortunately, some ancient trees in the forests of ancient Kalimdor were as hard as steel. Rhodes selected a species that could reach 300 meters in height, possessing incredible hardness and fire resistance. Without that resistance, a giant wooden man would be useless against fire magic.
He even envisioned an "Ultimate Version": summoning the giant wooden man and then draping it in a Holy Light Giant as a suit of armor. In terms of cool factor and raw combat power, it would be peerless.
After careful selection, Rhodes began the formal experiment. He opened his palm, a small green twig resting there, and injected pure life energy into it. The twig expanded and branched before his eyes. Within seconds, it grew into a sapling. Rhodes concentrated, visualizing an arm—not of flesh, but of toughened wood with flexible vine joints.
The sapling's branches twisted together, the bark lignifying into a dense structure. The tips of the twigs bunched into five short "fingers." A moment later, a wooden hand the size of a human arm floated before him, its fingers twitching according to his will.
"It works!" Rhodes's eyes lit up. The hardest step—making plants grow into a specific, solidified shape—was a success. This was far more refined than simply letting plants run wild; it required exquisite energy control.
"But it's not fast enough, nor big enough." Rhodes released the energy, and the hand collapsed into ordinary wood. "In battle, an enemy won't give me minutes to 'grow' an arm. I must compress the time and summon it instantly from the earth. Perhaps I should create a 'core'—a control hub. As long as the core is intact, the construct won't collapse. I'll act as the energy source, and the core can be recycled after battle, returning the nutrients to the earth. The perfect solution."
He tried again, focusing on "weaving" rather than raw force. Life energy seeped into several acorns acting as the core, guiding cell division and lignin deposition. A dense "Wood Core" formed in seconds. Using this as a base, he channeled more energy and natural force from the environment, using it like scaffolding to make the wood rapidly grow along preset paths.
After another month of grueling practice:
"Wood Style: Wood Hammer!"
BOOM! The ground exploded as a hardwood stake two meters thick, with a massive head like a mallet, slammed into a stone pillar.
"Wood Style: Deep Forest Bloom!"
Dozens of thick, dark green vines erupted like pythons around a target, binding it tight. Surface roots acted like suckers, draining the target's life force through Rhodes's mastery of energy.
"Control skills: check."
"Wood Style: Four-Pillar Prison!"
A row of heavy wooden walls, five meters high and a meter thick, rose instantly. The planks locked together, the wood gleaming with a metallic sheen. Rhodes wasn't entirely satisfied with this; its defense was far inferior to his Holy Crystal Wall.
One month later—the fourth month of his "Wood Style" development—Rhodes finally completed his masterpiece: the Wood Golem Technique. He invited Cenarius and Malfurion to witness the demonstration. No fancy gestures, just a sharp clap of his hands.
"Wood Style: Wood Golem Technique!"
"BOOM—!!!"
With Rhodes at the center, the ground for a hundred meters around shook and cracked. A massive silhouette surged from the earth in mere seconds. An eighty-meter-tall giant, composed of dark brown and deep green wood with a blend of rigid and fluid lines, stood majestically in the center of the testing grounds! It had a humanoid shape, broad shoulders, thick arms, and legs rooted firmly in the earth. Sunlight filtered through its wooden frame, casting mottled shadows.
The golem stood silent, like an eternal wooden idol. But Cenarius and Malfurion could feel the terrifying life energy surging beneath that silent husk—strength capable of shattering mountains.