The Mysterious Black Magician

After a couple of minutes of scrutinizing his Status Screen, he decided to close it. He decided to cure Sistela's gangster behavior while at it. Although he wasn't as good as this girl, he had a little knowledge about it. Hopefully, it won't get any worse.

About half an hour had passed, he was finally able to return her to her original way of talking.

He glanced around him and saw everyone was resting.

Aegor was lying with his stomach facing the sky. Out of boredom, Ember was poking Aegor's stomach using dry wood.

Taflas was blowing the bonfire to kill the fire, but the fire just went bigger. Tiafel and Cinder were leaning at each other with their eyes close. Both were noticeably tired..

Without him knowing, everyone became close to each other; though if they successfully entered the last barrier, all of them would become an opponent to each other.

Looks like he had to wait after she woke up before creating new dolls.

The leftover participants who joined them were also resting around. All of them were as exhausted as the others. While resting, some were gossiping about something which Yman did not bother taking interest in.

He closed his eyes and shared the vision of the [Fire Doll] monitoring on the sky. But soon, he opened his eyes while squinting towards the direction of the bridge.

When Ember and Taflas noticed him stood up. "Hey, Bro, aren't you going to rest?" Asked Ember. "Crimson, where are you going?" Taflas asked too.

He glanced at them, "I'm not too tired, I'm just going to check for something while waiting for the others to wake up."

Hearing him saying not too tired, Taflas just forced a laugh. Well, they already used to him. Even the Expert from Canine Sect who were known for their high stamina had to rest for a little.

Taflas nodded his head, Yman was about to walk away when, "let me go with you, bro."

He was slightly surprised, he stared at him, then he noticed something within his eyes, looks like Ember had something to say.

He nodded.

The two of them walked towards the bridge. They climbed down the 30-steps stair which was at the east part of the wall. Then they walk about 200 steps to their southeast. There, they saw the bridge not far from their location. But Yman and Ember were weirdly cautious as they walked closer to it.

When they arrived, they noticed that it was made of stone pavements. It was old and some leaks were visible on it.

"Did you notice also?" Yman asked.

"Yeah!" Said Ember while focusing his eyes ahead.

Yman was surprised. Even his 100 meters perception did not catch it. However, this person perceived it! Wait, wasn't Cinder's keen smelling unusable because of the mist? Then how come this guy perceived it?

Noticing the surprise of the person beside him, Ember grinned while brushing his nose using the back of his hand.

My smell was 2x better than my sister. And it could reach 150 meters away.

"....."

Yman was surprised for two reasons. First was, he didn't expect for him to have such a sharp smelling ability. Second, he was surprised at how casually he told his capability to a potential enemy.

'Is this guy an idiot? Or perhaps, he is just easy to trust a person.' He didn't know which one this guy belonged to.

"I see, it's good for you to have a reliable sense of smell," he replied.

"Fufu, in any case, those guys are planning some dirty tricks!"

Yman glanced in the front, he could perceive some silhouette ahead of them.

About 5 people, but weirdly, two of them were covered with strong magical power. Not just that, they were flying!

They rushed forward, but right after they arrived, they saw two beast-like creatures with dragon-like wings on their backs. Their faces and skins were similar to those of reptiles. And also, both were huge. Besides, each of them was carrying a huge chunk of rock.

(Flap! Flap! Flap! Flap!)

"W-Winged-man?" Yman subconsciously let out a word.

"No! That's a full-transformation Artefacts!"

"Wha-? Wasn't Artefacts for summoning a Spirit Beast?" But Yman realized that Ember used a partial transformation Artefact before.

"No! There are many types of Artefacts!"

"Wha—?"

(Woosh! Woosh!)

Yman wasn't able to finish his surprise as the two chunks of rocks were thrown at them. He shouted a warning while hopping at the back, "Damn! Watch out!"

(Baaaaang!)

(Baaaaang!)

(Dum Dum Dum!!!)

(Russssssstle!!!)

The two of them hopped two times behind them and successfully evaded the attacks. However, the bride shook terribly like it was going to collapse at any moment.

(Criiisssssssh!) (Craasssssshh!)

Their feet skidded when landed. Yman used his hand to stop the slide.  Ember, on the other hand, balanced himself.

"Guhehehe!!!"

"Ehehehehe!!!"

Two impish-laughters were heard by them.

"Hahahaha! Let's go!" Someone shouted.

On the other side of the bridge, they noticed 3 people.

"Tsk! Jura, Nicholas! You tricky bastard!" The person beside him clicked his tongue and shouted some names he couldn't recognize.

"Do you know them?"

"Yes! Grrrr! Those bastards!" Ember angrily gnashing his teeth.

Seeing the retreating figures of the people below and the two flying reptiles, "heh!" He scoffed.

The next second, "!!" At the corner of Ember's eyes, 

(Fwoosh!)

(Fwoosh!)

Two red flashes trailed towards the flying enemies. It was followed by, (Ngh!) (Arrgh!) Two groaning sounds when the flying reptiles were hit by something. The first one was hit at the shoulder, and the second one was hit at his left leg. Blood spurted from their wounds. 

For a moment, their flying became unsteady before they completely flew to a distance where their eyes could not perceive anymore.

"Fuck off!" Ember shouted.

Regardless, he wasn't expecting those shots. This guy was certainly not ordinary. 'What did he do just now?!' He glanced at the hand of the person beside him. It was enveloped by red energy. 'D-Did he uses a stone again?' He was surprised by how quick he thought of using the stones to give a little pain to those bastards.

Ember could not understand this person.

Those were stones that he grabbed when he tried to stop himself from sliding.

Anyhow, they have a big problem. The bridge started to collapse.

They hastily ran to their back.

Good thing they successfully avoided becoming part of the collapse. A few moments later,

"Crimson! Ember!"

"Crimson!"

"Mr. Ember!"

"Hey! Guys! What happened!"

"You two! Are you okay?!"

The shouts from the others came to their ears. They saw them rushing towards them. Together with the leftover participants.

When the group finally reached them, "we have bad news…"

"....."

Everyone fell silent.

"What happened?" Cinder was the one who asked.

"Look behind!" Ember beckoned at everyone to look behind him.

"WHAAAAT?!"

"What you two did?!" Cinder asked again while furrowing.

"Tsk! It wasn't us…" Ember replied.

Yman just staring at the distance, to the collapsing bridge.

'Tsk looks like, they were late,' who would have thought that there was someone as shameful as them among the participants. 'Well, it's only to be expected since it was a competition. Looks like I let my guard down.'

Regardless, there are five of them only. It was doubtful that they rushed towards the castle with such fewer numbers.

'Could it be, they knew already what was at that place?'

Yman mulled.

"Crimson." Suddenly his attention was stolen by the sudden mention of his nickname.

He glanced from the source of the voice and saw the red-haired girl staring at him, "Hm?" He made a low groan from deep in his throat, emphasizing a question.

"What will we do now?" She asked with a troubled face.

"....."

He fell silent and glanced at everyone.

On the palace balcony, 

Ella glanced at her aunt, "isn't it a violation?" 

"Fufu, no rules are stating that a participant cannot use tricks to outplay the others. After all, it was a competition. Each of them is bound to fight each other at the end. It's up to them when they want to stab everyone's back. It's not a sin for the clever and wise person. The one who is to blame is the victim himself."

"...b-but it's just too wicked," Ella mumbled.

"Fufu, in the real battlefield. One must not lower his guard at all times."

Ella could not argue anymore against her empress aunt who was known for her wittiness.

She did not expect Jura and Nicholas to do such a thing. Well, her aunt was right. And it might also be a good opportunity to see the extent of that person's ability.

If he could not overcome such a hurdle. Then, he wasn't a perfect bodyguard for her. Power without a brain is just an empty vessel.

Around this time inside the painting, Harou and Lyka together with the other participants were coming closer to the west. On the north side, Hilion and his White Leo Knights decided to retreat first to take a break. The gate was heavily guarded. They also received news that Roman and the others were coming to help them. So the group decided to retreat and wait for the backups.