The Mysterious Black Magician

Without lowering his defense, he summoned a crimson aura to form a thin shield. It was the same shield he used to cancel the ground attack of Vince.

Just right after the shield materialized around him and Ella, the robed man who disappeared awhile ago reappeared below the stage, about 15 meters away from them.

Shockingly, the golden sphere was still on its hand.

Without wasting time the robed man's feet flashed with dazzling brilliance, then again the robed man leaped high in the air. The next second, he threw the golden sphere towards Yman and Ella on stage.

Seeing the rapidly approaching sphere, some people shouted a warning. Ella heard the scattered shouts from the people around, but her face was still deep on his chest. Yman grinned.

Sistela already warned him about the structure of the magic used by the enemy, thanks to her high appraisal ability..

When the golden sphere bumped to the thin shield, both of them disappeared at the same time. In truth, if he used his hand to cancel it, there was a little chance that it might paralyze him. Yman didn't want to let the little chance become his demise. Even though he was using elemental armor at the moment, which lowered the effect of any elemental attack towards him. 

For him, being careful was much better. It was also the reason why he used the same thing with the ground attack of Vince last time because that attack contained a bash effect.

"What? It disappeared?" 

"He canceled the spell!?"

Some random people exclaimed.

"Cancel?"

"Don't tell me….. it's him…"

"The Crimson Canceler!"

Although not all, some people from the adventurers guild who came here today were able to recognize him because of this ability.

The experts were baffled; people in the public square suddenly shouted the name Crimson Canceler.

"Crimson Canceler? Who's that?" Harou muttered.

Ember frowned. He had no idea who it was. But based on how they called the person, it must be a nameless person.

Most of the experts from the great noble family only had an interest in the experts of the same great noble families, but the person on stage had an intriguing ability that piqued his interest.

Most of the people in the public square were still unaware of the situation and were still puzzled at the current happenings. So the number of them just stood and gawked like scarecrows.

After the golden sphere disappeared, the robed person who threw it vanished again at the same time.

After a few seconds, Ella finally noticed that she was still alive and she didn't hear a loud explosion.

But what situation was this?! Why was she in the arms of this person?! Did he save her?!

Feeling embarrassed at her situation, she tried to free herself. But before she could push him away from her, she felt his arms tighten his hold on her waist.

Her face immediately flushed red. A second later, he dragged her with him as he stepped back abruptly. She could feel his arm's strength as he dragged her with no difficulty.

'So this is the man's arms?' She thought.

Right after they stepped back. She noticed a mark of vertical slash in the empty air — at where they were standing a split second ago.

"An invisible enemy?!" Her shocked remark was noticeable by him.

Not only Ella was the one who was shocked at their enemy's ability, even the people around did too.

Invisible ability wasn't an ordinary ability that could be trained easily. Only gifted individuals could use it.

So seeing this kind of ability was a big surprise to all. It even had a big impact on Gilion Gustav. Because of this ability, he endangered the life of a precious girl to him. And on top of that, she was saved by that hateful person. Just looking at the skill he used, he could already guess who the person behind the hooded black armor was.

'The Crimson Canceler!' Gilion shouted inwardly while forcefully gritting his teeth. More on, when he saw Ella was hugged by that person.

The girls inside the room of Miss Ice had seemingly paused as all of them were staring at the monitor with stunned faces. Only Kesha had a different reason for being stunned. But the three girls with her had the same reason.

Ice knitted her brows for a reason that the person who protected Miss Ella has a familiar ability.

She glanced beside her and saw Almina Amulet glued her eyes towards the screen. Emotions of affection were obvious on her face.

'Could it be the reason she was absent-minded sometimes is because of the disappearance of that boy?' Ice thought.

She also noticed the blonde had a similarly surprised expression on her face.

Ice remained quiet as she also was curious about who was that person in a hooded black armor. But she had a strong feeling that it was the same person who she initially thought he would be. Based on the expressions on Almina and Maena's face, she bet that they also thought the same as her.

However, if they couldn't see his face, it was only a baseless assumption. Since Demi-Humans were known for their unique abilities. What if he was a different person with a similar ability to that guy. So as of now, as long as his face won't reveal they could not say for sure that it was him.

On the stage of the public square in the main city of Encantasia Empire,

"Tsk!" The robed person clicked his tongue between his teeth when his attack hit empty air. 'The f**k with this man! How was he able to guess my attack?!' He thought with a frown. It was the first time that his surprise attack was dodge by the target. He didn't know how this person knew his intent even though he was in invisible mode.

It was just a brief moment that he was surprised, then he promptly chased towards them. Actually, their mission was to abduct the girl, but in order to do that, he needed to dispatch the annoying guard first!

The distance between them escalated to 7 steps in just a single step back. However, he wasn't bothered by it as he just needed a single leap to shorten the distance.

Unexpectedly, before he could take a leap forward, the two instantly reappeared in front of him.

"!!"

"The fu—!" He exclaimed, startled by their sudden reappearance. He wasn't able to finish his word because out of a sudden a numbing pain in his stomach cut his strength to talk.

He slowly glanced below and saw an outreach arm bore deeply to his stomach.

His body curled down as his knees gradually lost strength until he fell curling on the ground while twitching in pain.

It seemed like an angel had passed by when out of a sudden everyone turned silent.

"A….. Amazing," someone among the crowd muttered.

"He blinked?!"

"Did he use instantaneous leap?"

"Probably!"

"He defeated him without using a magical attack…" someone added. 

Yman disregarded the murmurs and glanced at the two remaining enemies. He saw the other two were already captured by the experts and royal knights. At first, they tried to fight back, but their struggle bore nothing as they were easily defeated.

The royal knights and other experts that saw the fight narrowed their eyes at the person in a hooded black armor.

Each of them had similar thoughts, that his strength was nonordinary. They wondered who was the person behind the armor.

'Looks like Miss Ella found a reliable guard,' most of them thought.

The empress who was watching at the scene in disbelief forthwith ordered the soldiers for additional security and to bring the prisoners to the underground prison cell for further investigation.

She then asked the Royal Knight Captain to escort Miss Ella.

After arresting the three robed people, Yman and Ella were startled when Gilion suddenly barked, " Impudent, get off your dirty hands from the prin- Miss Ella!!" He roared when his feet landed on stage.

His friends were puzzled as to why Gilion was angry at that person who saved Miss Ella, while Hannah was shaking her head for Gilion's childish act.

However, Hannah was surprised by the person who saved the princess. 'So it was the reason why the headmaster of the adventurer's guild talked to them in secret,' she thought.

Looks like the headmaster appointed that handsome guy to be the princess's personal guard.

After Gilion roared at him, the two looked at each other and noticed how close they were from each other.

Ella's mind went back to reality and noticed that she was still in the embrace of Crimson Canceler. Her face instantly became redder.

Yman then immediately released her.

Ella said her thanks to him without looking at his face when the soldiers of the empire came to escort her towards the empress.

When she left together with the guards, Yman was left standing on the stage together with Gilion who was raising his brow at him and declared a challenge that he would be going to defeat him.

"Kuku," Yman smirked. He wondered why this person was always challenging him without a proper reason.

Gilion could not argue further with him as he was the one saving her. However,  this guy annoyed him to the bone! Just seeing that ability would boil his blood. He would be going to defeat him and that ability of him in this competition.

One girl inside the room of Miss Ice could not settle her feelings. She wanted to believe that it was him. But it was impossible to be him. Almina wanted to believe it was him and also wanted to deny it at the same time. Especially after she saw him hugging the beautiful Miss Merea Ella.

However, the skills he used were similar to him. 

Regardless, more soldiers came to secure the place, no matter what happened the competition must go on.

Actually, it wasn't the first time that terrorism like this happened in the Empire. So such a kind of event wasn't an unusual event for them. The only thing that made the people bemused by it was the fact that this time the target was the famous artist Miss Ella.

Faye the trickster went in front again and announced the rules of the competition.

The painting seemed to be 3-dimensional geography of the world when Faye toggled it into a bird view.

The painting wasn't an ordinary painting as it was made through magic.

"The first round of the competition is known as — Cross The Boundary.

As you can see, there are 3-layered circles from the small, medium, to large. Each circle had an estimated distance of 20 kilometers each. These three circles would act as boundaries.

For you to be qualified for the next round of competition, you needed to enter the center-most boundary. Which is inside the smallest circle. However, these three circles are made of magical barriers. One can only pass it when he or she gains a total of 1,000 points at the first boundary, which is the larger circle. Then you need at least 3,000 points at the second boundary. And in order to enter the last boundary which is your end goal, you needed at least 7,000 points…"

"Woah as expected of the Empress. She came up with a new kind of competition again."

"Yeah, this competition seemed to be interesting!"

"But how to get the points?" 

"Maybe we needed to defeat other participants to earn it."

"Right."

Some participants muttered.

Thud! A dull sound was heard which caused the noise to die down.

"Chuchu chuchu chuuuu, I see everyone was excited to start the fight.

Remember! Each one of you holds 100 points. When you defeat a participant your points will become 200, then it will become 300 when you defeat another again. Continued defeating the other participants will gain you more points until you reach the amount needed to enter the boundary. On the other hand, the defeated participant will automatically be summoned out from the painting. 

"100 points only?"

"Damn, then we need to defeat 10 participants in the first boundary!"

"Bwahaha, this is exciting!" Ember laughed.

"Fufu, indeed!" Added by Harou.

"Fuu! Good thing that it seemed I don't need to fight with this muscle brain brother of mine," Cinder muttered which caught the interest of the other people around who managed to hear her.

"He's right, hey do you want to team up with us?" Whisper the person to the person beside him.

"Keke, that sounds good," replied the other.

The whisper escalated until more participants formed a team.

Yman forced a soundless laugh upon noticing the undergoing secret recruitment from the other participants.

He glanced at the person beside him.

"Hey, do you want to team up with me?" He asked.

Gilion didn't expect this person to talk with him. And, 'What the heck this guy was talking about?! Does he look like he needs it to win this elimination?! Damn!'

"F**k off!" He replied annoyingly.

"Kuku," Yman smirked. Well, he wasn't serious though. He just wanted to annoy him.

"Chuchu chuchu chuuu, aside from participants there are also beasts in the area which contained different numbers of points. You can kill them and earn additional points. The points they hold depend on the ranks of the beasts.

Just remember, 

When you enter the painting, each one of you will be sent randomly outside the boundaries.

Alright!

I wish you Goodluck everyone! Chuchu chuchu chuuu!"