The Mysterious Black Magician

After Yman said it, squeaking noises reached their ears.

They hastily came closer and closer to the entrance. "This is bad, it was a trap," he muttered worriedly.

The others also got alerted then focused their senses.

Based on the noises and the trembling of the grounds, everyone's awareness enabled them to surmise that there were multiple monsters hastily coming to this place.

"Rat Slayer, let us handle the monsters, while you take care of the wall, maybe there is an entrance somewhere on it!" Mercenary Ultima shouted in a hurry.

He glanced at the two girls in their party and saw them nodding their heads at him.

"Okay, you guys be careful," he said as he hastily went and check the wall. It was the wall opposite to the entrance..

As the noises were getting closer and closer, Almina and the rest readied themselves.

"Almina Amulet," suddenly Maena called out in her usual aloft manner.

Almina smugged at her but the blonde couldn't see it because she was wearing a mask. She knew what this girl wanted to tell her, "Let's see whoever gets the highest number of kills," Almina declared.

"Heh, don't die before your defeat!" Maena snorted in a mocking tone under her mask.

Almina further smug. "Kuku, be sure your arrows will land on your target," she rebutted.

Maena sent a sharp gaze at her, "Talk big later!" She replied.

When the news that Almina had defeated high-level enemy magicians reached her ears, it irks her.

While she was improving herself, Almina as well was improving at an incomprehensible pace. She could not let herself fall behind her.

The two of them were candidly like predators of equal terms in a small pond. Each of them was trying to overtake the other.

Almina side-glanced at Maena. She too, like this kind of relationship the two of them had. It motivates both of them to improve.

She never expected that Maena would follow her in this academy and did not choose to go to the more advanced academy like Zone 1 or the others; it looks like, Maena's rivalry-complex towards her took the better of her.

"Enemies here!" Mercenary Ultima shouted a warning and put a stop in Almina's thoughts.

The monsters scurried at the entrance while trying to overtake their kins. They were composed of Evil Rats and Evil Bats and they were rallying to reach and skewer their enemies.

Looking at their visage, it was easy to figure out that they were in frenzy mode. All of them had something in common, they both had bloodshot eyes, dripping basil salivas, and their countenances revealed an upheaval.

Before the monsters could near them, "Darn, I was hiding this ability for long, but I guess now is the right time to use it, hehe," said Mercenary Ultima as he chuckled. After saying it, yellowish brilliance shone on his hands.

Version 555 Daffodil Shield! He shouted. His voice was loud and strong and couldn't be defeated by the messy noises coming from the monsters.

He lifted his hand then pointed it to the enemies.

A radiant daffodil shield made of light particles had materialized on the right side of the alleyway. It had five meters in width, five meters in height, a thickness of five inches, and had a design of a daffodil flower on the flat surface. It occupied half of the pathway which followed by low dull sounds that were overheard in the area when some of the frenzy Evil Rats crashed on it. His hands shook at the impact.

"As expected of a junior trainee, Mr. Ultima truly has an interesting technique," Almina suddenly praised his secret technique.

He felt a surge of emotions from within. His hard work had paid off. Praise from the most popular academy goddess brought extreme joy to him.

He called it a shield but in actuality, it was more of a screen than a shield. Despite that, it was able to hinder the sudden escapade to plague them.

The unlucky Evil Rats that crashed on it have to suffer bone-cracking and flesh splattering pain when they were hamburger in the middle of the shield in front and their frenzy kins behind.

To the monster's perspective, only the left side of the alley was blocked. Those who came at the right side originally were able to rush unhindered.

Almina forthwith dashed forward to intercept them.

It was just a matter of seconds that the first victim was horizontally sliced in half. She did not stop and continued swinging her fire elemental sword.

Three Evil Rats leaped to bite her at the same time but met with a quick successive strike instead. Their body turned into a lump of meat when they fell on the ground. Almina didn't stop after killing the three idiot rats. She fueled her fire sword with more mana which caused it to ablaze.

"That's four," she whispered.

She then brandished it at her front, sending her newly learned technique — the Flame Wave.

Flame of unbearable heat bursts out from the fire sword then rapidly swallows six approaching Evil Rats. The unlucky victims were charred.

"Ten," she whispered again. Then she twisted her body to dodge the leaping monster from the side. After her successful dodge, she stabbed the monster's side. The sword pierced the monster's body and it dropped twisting in pain on the ground before it lost its ability to move.

"Eleven," she continued counting.

Three Evil Bats tried to dive towards Almina but before they succeeded, they were met with three arrows instead.

"Nine, ten, eleven," Almina heard the blonde mutter.

She side-glanced at her and saw her raising a brow.

Sparks flew in their eyes.

Mercenary Ultima thought that these two beauties were scary. 'So this is the disparity between me from a normal family and them from a rich family plus talented magicians!' Ultima thought in dismay.

But he could not give up, 'In any case, as a junior trainee I can't let myself fall behind!' He yelled inwardly and summoned more mana to repair the shield that started showing cracks.

Almina and Maena continued their onslaught. Monster corpses were massing on the ground and painted it with blood.

These monsters were of low rank but Almina and the others noticed that more monsters were coming. They were wondering if where these monsters came from.

They also started to feel tired and their mana had greatly decreased.

Ultima's shield had been broken long ago and now he was helping in killing the monsters using his main ability the wave of emerald energy.

Emerald color energy traveled the space from him towards the target enemy. He was supporting the two who charged in a melee to the monsters. Never did he imagine that the blonde was capable of wielding a dagger. She was executing weapon-exchange pretty quickly.

The approaching enemies were met by her arrows and the one who neared her was cut by her dagger. Actually, she was annoyed at the moment because the mask she was wearing hindered her breathing — added more pressure to her.

On the other hand, Almina was wielding a dual sword with two opposite elements.

She was moving agile and killing the monsters with combo attacks.

What made Mercenary Ultima dumbfounded was that these two beauties were counting the number of their kills. Looks like these two were in some kind of competition!

Yman was still scrutinizing the wall. He tapped it, "Errk!" He jerked back his hand.

<Partner, why?>

"This wall is so cold."

<Eh? Does it mean?>

"I don't know."

<Covered your hand with my mana.>

"Okay."

Yman borrowed Sistela's mana. His both hands were now glowing in pure white. He tapped the wall again. It was still cold but it was bearable now than before.

He tried to push it, "Dang, it seemed like something was blocking or holding it from the behind." No matter how he pushed it, it won't budge even a little.

He anxiously glanced at the back and saw the others were already fighting in a melee. It seemed like most of them had spent their mana. 

Yman quickly turned back his eyes on the wall when a piercing gaze from the blonde landed on him. Based on that gazed it was easy to read that she was annoyed at him. She must be asking him if what he was dilly-dallying while they were fighting with the monsters.

A bead of sweat appeared at the back of his head.

A moment later, Yman noticed that the mana he borrowed from Sistela was being consumed by something. He closed his eyes to sense it. The mana that enveloped his hand traveled towards the other side. He thought that whatever was on the other side of this wall, it was no ordinary.

|Wait, if I'm not mistaken, the thing that holding this wall firmly should be a massive amount of ice since the wall is freakin cold. Then how about the thing that absorbs mana?|

Suddenly, his eyes landed on the Iceweeds Cold-Reliever on the ground. Yman's eyes widened.