The Mysterious Black Magician

Czar sent a flaming fist to the face of the insolent man.

With a little twist of his forearm, the fist landed with a dull sound.

No one noticed when the punch was sent as it happened in an instant.

Czar smirked. 'Fool!' He thought after an impact was felt by his fist.

Airi had a scared look, while Cinde blinked her eyes to process what was happening. She heard a dull sound and after that,

"Wha--!" They all heard a surprised utterance from Czar's mouth.

Even his mates widened their eyes in shock that wiped the grin on their faces.

Ever since Czar first showed in the academy, no one dared to catch his flaming fist.

Even the expert with a rank higher than him would think twice to do it. They rather evaded it or try to counter with their attack. 

"Simone, d-do you think….. something wrong with my eyes?" One of Czar's mates asked the person beside him.

"What do you mean?"

"I'm seeing weird things. That person caught the Captain's attack," said the person in a tone that couldn't be understood if he was laughing or crying while brushing his eyes to clear his vision.

But an unexpected reply came to him, "yeah, I also thought it's a hallucination," Simone replied.

"Dammit, how is that possible?!" The uncontrolled volume of his voice reverberated inside the Little Garden Department building.

"That guy caught the fist of a 5-Star False Path Expert!"

"Right, It's hard to believe."

'Who in their right mind would do it, anyway. The 5-Star False Path Expert had different levels of strength. They could even unroot a huge tree with just bare strength. And on top of that, Czar was reinforcing his fist with his flame. Wait…' Simone thought then stopped when he noticed something.

Just then, "fufufu, crazy!" They heard Czar's loud taunt.

Cinde and the others wondered why he suddenly said so. 

Just then: "No, Crimson's hand was on fire!" Airi shouted when she noticed the fire from Czar's hand, slowly crawling on Crimson's hand.

"Hehe! You dared to catch my fist! Then take the recoil of your stupid action!" Czar laughed at him.

"Oh right, there's no way someone can block the captain's fist without paying the price!" Simone said in excitement.

When the smell of the burnt human skin wafted into their noses, most of them smirked at the white-haired Encan in front of them.

Professor Ronnie knitted his brows and glanced at Ella. But Ella also had a frown on her face. In truth, she was bothered, especially when the burning smell reached her nose.

Cinde was also frowning. She never thought that Czar was this strong. He could even burn Crimson's skin even though he had high resistance to it. Cinde thought when she remembered Crimson burning himself inside the cave. She could also feel the massive amount of magical energy circulating inside Czar.

'He's as strong as Roman?'

'Wait!'

'When did he become so strong?' Cinder thought again in surprise.

"Hehehe!" Czar grinned further. But soon he froze.

Crimson was standing without moving.

The pungent smell of smoke was carried by the slight gushing of wind into Crimson's nose.

But they noticed that he seemed to be unbothered by it as he was still gripping Czar's fist.

"What- how did you--!?" Czar was puzzled when he couldn't pull off his hand.

"What a jerk!" He yelled.

"Sigh!" Then he heard him sighed unpleasantly. Czar knitted his brows while twitching his face. He wondered what his sigh meant to be. But the weirdest thing, this person's countenance did not change the slightest even though his skin was burning.

After a sigh, "My Deity," he called out.

<Yes!>

Just then, Czar and his mates noticed something on Crimson's shoulder.

'A fairy?' They thought. But when the person in front of him did resonance with the fairy, "No, it's a human toy!" He changed his initial thoughts.

'"Unbelievable," One of Czar's mates muttered. It was very unbelievable to see an Encan person using a human toy, so seeing him carrying one was out of the ordinary.

Without releasing his grip on his hand, "Heh!" Crimson scoffed at Czar. 

Czar's intuition screamed for a warning, then cold sweats started to pour on his back. 'Dammit! Am I feeling afraid of him?' He couldn't believe that he felt it to someone who wasn't even known in the whole campus. No, it wasn't because he was afraid. It was one of his passive skills that enabled him to sense danger.

Although puzzled as to why he felt danger out of a sudden, without a second thought he summoned more flames to get rid of his grip.

Unfortunately, he didn't succeed, the grip was still firmly holding his fist while staring at him with a face without a change of emotion.

The others were holding their breaths.

Cinde shouted their names to stop. But to no avail. Airi was quivering, and Ella was sighing, wondering why he wasn't using his Spell Canceller. 'Although this place will lower the effectiveness of it, I believe that Crimson can still cancel that flame of Czar,' Ella thought. 'Perhaps, Crimson just wanted to hide that skill of him,' she added.

It was the reason that she felt so relax at first, even though the situation in front of her wasn't a pleasant one. But looked like she could not relax anymore.

The professor was stunned. As a professor, he wanted to calm them to not worsen the issue. But his curiosity defeats him.

Czar had regretted not using all his strength when he punched him.

He used his other hand to punch him again, this time he used most of his strength. The flame on it was fiercer than the first fire-fist.

However, it was caught by Crimson again.

Czar's friends couldn't understand what was happening. They wondered why that person was still catching their captain's flaming hand!? Even though his flesh was burning. Wait! Something was weird! That person, could it be he had resistance with fire? They finally noticed. 

However, Czar's flame wasn't an ordinary flame. It could melt metal in an instance!

After so much thinking, they heard Czar scoffed at the enemy. After it, more flame surged out from his body and enveloped both of them.

The pressure of it destroyed a segment of the ceiling. Ronnie's scream could not be heard by them anymore as his voice dissipated together with the noise coming from the surroundings.

Cinde used her flame-shield to protect Ella, Airi, and herself. Ronnie on the other hand, protected himself and his rare materials using his alchemy magic. After all, his magic wasn't a bit weaker against the students. But Ronnie's magic was more on defensive and healing.

Czar's men stepped-back because they as well could not handle the pressure and temperature of his flame.

Just when they thought that everything would turn to a cinder, the flames suddenly disappeared.

"Cough! Cough! Cough…" then they heard coughing sounds.

They glanced and saw Czar curled on the floor while holding his stomach. Blood was dripping from his mouth.

Crimson on the other hand was standing while looking down at Czar.

The wounds from the burn had already gone like there was nothing in there in the first place.

Czar's men fell into silence as they stared at their captain crawling on the floor while coughing blood.

All of them could not believe what their eyes were seeing.

They didn't notice what happened at the last second as they tried to fight the pressure from their captain's aura.

A second later, they called out his name and ran to his side.

"How dare you!" Simone roared at Crimson but when he noticed that Crimson was unhurt and no little wound on him, he almost chokes himself at the surprise. "How did you survive without getting hurt?" he was able to force a question while staring at him with knitted brows.

At first, he wanted to kick his ass, but after what happened to their captain, he started to question this person's strength. Or is he even capable of kicking him? Even their captain was mysteriously beaten by this person.

From the back, "Crimson, are you okay?" Rea's shout reached their ears. She ran to his side to check if he was fine.

That burn smells awhile ago was just so awful. She expected him to be gravely wounded.

But,

"I'm fine…" he replied and glanced at her.

When Rea saw his face, she was stunned for a moment. No sign of pain on his face. She then looked to his arms and hands. Yet, she could not find any wounds.

Rea was puzzled about where his wounds went.

"Hehe, I know it, don't worry, Ella. Crimson is not easy to get hurt. He is a healer after all," Cinde who also came beside him suddenly said to Rea.

Rea was surprised.

"A-a healer…? Ngh! A mere healer...!" The one who repeated her words was no other than Czar who was currently trying to stabilize his breathing.

'How come a mere healer had defeated me?' He could not fully agree with Cinde's words.