Chapter 322: Restless Night. (1/2)

Raven and Blaze hadn't yet tested why they were feeling considerably weaker all of a sudden when a deep voice rang out in the woods,

”Turns out you aren't as weak as I expected. Hmph! It doesn't matter since you will all be dead soon anyway!”

While Ozul already knew about the exact location of these three Mages, the others were clueless. Even Zier had only become aware of the trap and couldn't locate nor sense the enemy's presence.

The sudden shout caught them off-guard as they immediately readied themselves.

No sudden appearance of any Mage in this competition was going to end without conflict. Especially given their circumstances, they instantly understood the intentions of the other party were no good.

Only a few moments had passed when the three guests revealed their appearance from behind the tree on which Zier was standing guard.

All three of them were men of solid build, but a relatively average height. The most noticeable feature of this group was that all three of them had a scar or a tattoo in the middle of their forehead. Though they were barely visible in the shadows of this restless night.

Others failed to notice, but as Ozul could feel the emotions of people, he knew that these three men, although looked calm from outside, were actually not feeling so good from inside.

He guessed it was either that this poison was affecting them as well or everything that had conspired until now wasn't going according to their plan. The former was unlikely.

Nevertheless, their momentum right now could not be shaken since before even the fight started, Raven and Blaze were already at a disadvantage.

Facing this situation, only Ozul remained calm. Zier's panic was a given since he was merely a low-ranked Fighter, but it was rare to see such a grave look on the duo's face.

It was because precisely at this moment, they came to a realization that their physical weakness was the least of their worries right now!

From the moment they had heard the voice just now, they had instinctively tried to surround their whole body in a layer of Mana which would have boosted their focus and control on their own strength.

Yet, it quickly became apparent that controlling Mana outside their body had become even harder than regulating it inside their body!

”Urgh! Just what did you do?” growled Blaze as his Mana fluctuated wildly.

From his words, Ozul realized that except for him and that purple-haired kid, they really couldn't smell the foul stench in the air.

The leader of the assailants sneered in response. It came as no surprise to him that they weren't able to detect their poison.

”You're asking too many questions for a soon-to-be-dead man,” he uttered before he nodded towards his companions, ”Leave him to me. He is a wild one.”

His companions nodded back but not before one of them questioned, ”What about the other two?”

For a moment, their leader seemed a bit conflicted but his grave expressions quickly subsided, replaced with a solemn face. ”Stay vigilant from that 'fragile beauty'... just in case he is hiding his strength. As for that kid, ignore him. He looks like a frightened bunny.”

The fragile beauty that this person talked about was obviously Ozul as from a stranger's point of view, he really appeared to be a weak and sheltered second-generation noble.

His instructions were steadfast and he didn't waste another moment before speeding towards Blaze as he shouted, ”Remember! Don't let that woman escape or I'll hang your heads on a spear myself!”

It seemed clear who was in charge as the two peak Rank-7 Mages followed his commands without question and rushed towards Raven at the same time.

At any other time, facing a Rank-8 Mage with two subordinates at peak Rank-7 would have been an easy victory for either Raven or Blaze. However, they were poisoned right now and their enemy didn't seem to want to give them any time to think over their situation either.

As the leader of the assailants closed in on Blaze, a sphere of black formed around his hands which gradually grew in size.

Atop the tree, Ozul quietly watched the show. The so-called poison had no effects on him.

As he comfortably watched the violent Mana of the enemy's leader manifest spheres of dark around his hands, a rare smile stretched across his face, 'This has gotten more interesting...'

Having spent decades on the continent, Ozul's group had almost never come into contact with 'Dark Mages' except for the time when that cult was raising a Monster that fed on his limb to grow in unmatched power.

'They must be from some hidden organization or cult of Dark Mages.'

Even with the Three-Eyed Strangers under him, he had very scarce knowledge about the Dark Mage cults around the world as they were all very secretive. They would never leak their information to the common people — the biggest source of information for the Three-Eyed Strangers.

He had also never seen or heard about an organization that used these kinds of methods before.

Raven and Blaze had obviously read about poisons as well but they hadn't heard about one which would decrease their overall prowess many times over without even alerting them.

From the distance, Zier noticed the calm smile on Ozul's face and felt something cold pressing against his back, 'He is a lunatic! What if we die here today?!... though that smile... he looks good smiling...'

Suddenly coming back to his senses, Zier shook his head to throw away these distracting thoughts and focused on the fight which would determine his fate.

Against the grown spheres of darkness in the enemy's hands, Blaze took his stance and willed to raise a spike of ice from the ground.