Re: Love & Magic

“845 points,” Zevien said as he looked at the bracer in his hand. After he got the first orb from killing that bear beast, it was automatically absorbed inside the bracer and a number appeared on it, 10 points.

The more powerful the beasts they kill, the more points they got.

“It’s been seven hours and we’ve already killed so many beasts and even defeated some students,” Vernisia grinned. “Do you think we can get the top spot?”

“Of course, I won’t be satisfied with anything other than the first rank!” Zevien laughed.

Vernisia tapped on her bracer, and it also showed 845 points since they were partners. She tapped again and saw the countdown. “58 minutes until this activity ends.”

“Alright then, let’s quickly hunt on the mountain,” Zevien nodded.

“Yes. Magic beasts should be there, and we can reach the peak as well when the time’s almost up.”

…

After they set foot on the mountain, they encountered a familiar pair: Kaal & Afina.

“Yo, nice meeting you here,” Afina grinned.

“Hi,” Kaal nodded with his usual straight expression.

“Points?” Vernisia asked directly.

“Around six hundred,” Afina answered with a smile. Then she asked, “What about you?”

“Same. Around six hundred,” Zevien replied with a grin. He lied since he felt that Afina also didn’t tell the truth about the points they earned.

*Roar!!*

Suddenly, they heard a powerful roar in the northwest and quickly looked over there.

“That is an early grade-4 magic beast,” Afina said as her eyes glowed slightly. ‘Around seventeen hundred magic power, huh? Not bad.’

“It looks like this mountain finally has grade-4 magic beasts because we didn’t encounter any grade-4 in the forest,” Vernisia said with a fighting spirit burning in her eyes. “Let’s see who kills it first!”

*Swoosh…*

Zevien already started moving as he climbed from one tree branch to another towards the bulky sabertooth tiger with a horn on its head.

“So fast…,” Kaal mumbled as he also hastened. ‘His physical prowess is way above average magicians. Could it be related to the boost he’s having right now that also increased his magic power?’

Afina spread her wings as well and flew forward before waving her hand.

*Doob!*

Suddenly, a hexagonal shield appeared in front of Zevien, startling him as he crashed.

“So that’s how you want to play, eh?” Zevien turned to Afina and Kaal since one of them suddenly conjured a barrier in front of him.

“Hehe, then don’t blame us for doing the same thing,” Vernisia chuckled as she commanded Lyn to fly while each of her hands conjured a ball of shadow with a ghost face: her 2nd awakening spell of Shadows of Hex magic labyrinth, [Shadow Ghost Possession].

If [Shadow Ghost Possession] hit them, then she will be able to control them for a short amount of time. But since she can only control their physical movement, they can still cast their spells. However…once the effect of [Shadow Ghost Possession] expires automatically or by Vernisia herself, the target will be blanked out for a couple of seconds.

The ghost-face orbs flew towards Kaal and Afina, and they quickly tried to dodge them. But the orbs still followed them with Vernisia’s control.

Kaal remembered he destroyed this spell with his flame shield that would retaliate to incoming spells and used it again.

Right before the orb was about to hit Kaal, a flaming shield appeared in front of him. The ghost-faced orb crashed into the shield and the shield spewed out an intense fire in response and self-destructed with the orb.

Afina also destroyed the ghost-face orb with an icy shield that froze the orb before both of them were destroyed into icy sparks and disappeared.

“Nice. But it’s too late,” Vernisia said with a smile as she bought enough time for Zevien to reach the grade-4 magic beast, Sabertooth Whirlhorn Tiger.

Afina and Kaal quickly turned in the direction of the beast and saw Zevien already beside it and swiping his hand as a black claw shot towards the tiger.

*Chriiiii!*

The tiger was cut into three pieces before it turned into black ink and disappeared, leaving behind a golden orb.

“Well, better luck next time. Haha,” Zevien laughed as he picked up the golden orb and lowered it towards his bracer before it disappeared. “Nice, it gives 50 points,” Zevien smiled after looking at the number.

“Let’s go, brother! We gotta earn more points and win, humph!” Afina snorted as she flapped her wings and started flying towards the upper areas of the mountain.

Vernisia arrived beside Zevien as both of them also flew up higher on the mountain riding on Lyn.

…

In the past seven hours, Black Hawk had done much digging and came to a shocking discovery that he didn’t want to believe, but he had no choice.

The people who received the medallion were limited in the first place, and he left Zevien as the last one to investigate. He contacted his other subordinate agents to look into people who won the contests and then matched their data with students who enrolled via medallion.

He managed to match every student except for Zevien. This means that Alucard gave the medallion to Zevien.

‘Tsk…and here I wanted him to join our organization,’ Black Hawk clicked his tongue in annoyance as he looked at Zevien’s photo. He then took out a weird finger-sized device, which was an encrypted calling device that forms a temporary line to headquarters.

Supreme Leader—, “Any findings?”

Black Hawk—, “Yes. Alucard seems to be a relative of Zevien.”

Supreme Leader—, “Zevien? The boy you wanted to rope in? Well, it’s unfortunate. But you know what to do, right?”

Black Hawk—, “I know, but I can’t do it. He is an orphan, so the orphanage is his only family. However, the security there is simply too tight. There are several 2nd class magicians monitoring and even without them, the whole orphanage is tightly secured with defensive magic devices.”

Supreme Leader—, “How about when his family leaves the orphanage? They aren’t holed up there every day, right?”

Black Hawk—, “Those 2nd class magicians always accompany them in secret, and avian bird devices are also looking after them 24/7.”

Supreme Leader—, “Then forget about them and start looking for Zevien’s friends and their families. We will use them instead.”