The Mysterious Black Magician

Under the morning sun that shone brightly at the angle of 10 o\'clock, Fwoosh, fwoosh, fwoosh! Three stems of plants veiled with bright crimson mana were shot towards the bushes ahead.

Gyahhh!!

Nghh!

Arayy!

Three cries were heard. Then three silhouettes leaped out from the bushes. One of them was pierced in the shoulder, the other one was pierced to its leg and the last one was hit at the arm.

"This s**t!" Cursed the guy who was hit at the shoulder.

"Damn it! How did he know?" Asked the second one in puzzlement.

"Careful!!" Warned the last one.

.

They took the stems and healed their wounds. "Tsk, [Heal]," each of them cast healing magic. "Good thing that we learned healing ability beforehand," said the first person.

"The heck, that\'s not a good way of greeting us. Wait how did he know we\'re hiding here?!" Asked the second one. But no one knew the answer.

Ahead of them, they saw a person rapidly rushing towards them.

"Damn it! He\'s coming!"

"He\'s alone, let\'s kill him!" Said the third person.

"Yeah!!" The others responded.

The third person gathered lumps of soil on his hand. Until it formed into a boulder with half a meter diameter.

Without a second thought, *Whoosh!* he fired it to the incoming enemy.

Yman ducked without slowing his speed. The boulder passed a few inches above his head.

The third guy clicked his tongue and coagulated another soil, now in both arms.

The other two rushed-in to engage their enemy in melee combat.

Both of them were good assassins that studied in one of the Academies in Encantasia... 

And they believed that they have talents that would not lose against the experts of great noble families.

The two of them did a zigzag movement while rushing to the enemy in order to confuse it. On the other hand, their third member was supporting them by firing hardened soil to the enemy.

A smirk appeared on their mouths when they noticed that the enemy wasn\'t as agile as they thought. \'Hehe, too bad for this person, he rushed in without knowing his enemies," thought the first person.

"Let\'s punish \'em!" Shouted the second one who was in front.

"Of course!"

Just 2 seconds and a half that had passed when they traversed the distance of 70 meters away.

When they collided, \'What the— did he lower his speed intentionally?\' Thought the second person who was sent flying away. He instantly lost consciousness when his body stopped rolling in the ground.

Likewise, the first person instantly died when the back of his neck was hit hard by something.

The range of the group stopped his attack and stood frozen with wide-eyes staring at the person in front.

The moment later, right after that person disappeared, darkness blanketed the third person\'s vision as his head flew away and turned into light particles before it landed on the ground.

[You obtained 500 points for killing the participant 0900]

[You obtained 500 points for killing the participant 0890]

[You obtained 500 points for killing the participant 0970]

[Total points: 3202]

Phew!

"With this, I only need 3798 points to complete this mission," he said while wiping the unnoticeable sweat.

He glanced up and saw nothing other than an empty sky. "Looks like most of the Monitoring Devices already gathered near the boundary." This was what he believed in.

Hilion and most of the experts from the great noble families already entered the first boundary.

Gilion somehow decided to collect more points. He took a detour near the boundary and attacked the other participants who tried to cross it.

However, he was on the other side of the boundary. He came from the east and walked a mile to the west in order to reach it.

Harou and Lyka were able to reunite at the southern part of the boundary.

In the northern part, Ember waited for the group of Hilion to cross the border first while he was hiding far behind them. And also, he was searching for Cinder.

Later on, he entered too when the group of Hilion and his White Leo Knights already went far from the border.

Many other experts from the Encantasia Academy and experts from the adventurers guild went to step inside the first boundary.

After a couple of hours walking,

Yman could finally see the towering wall of golden brilliance ahead. Yet he stopped on his feet when he felt the ground was weirdly vibrating.

He focused his perception. But he could not catch any possible cause at the radius of 100 meters from him.

Yman knitted his brows. Dududududu!!! The vibration became stronger and now he could hear weird sounds coming from behind him.

Yman froze and gulped when he glanced at the back. He saw 5 giant lizard-like beasts rapidly stomping their massive limbs and hastily coming towards his direction. No, it was chasing someone!

"Heeeeeelp! Aaaaaaaaaahhhh!" She cried.

His jaw dropped on the ground. "The heck that girl again!" He screamed, then hastily ran towards the border. He saw the recent naked fire wolf girl. Now she is in her red dress and chest plate.

However, looking at the gaping monsters behind her, with their fangs as big as her,  Yman couldn\'t help but run as well.

"What the heck! How did this girl attract those monsters!? Wait, where those monsters came from?! Yman asked to himself without getting an answer.

"Waiiiiit! Hey! You!" She shouted while running as fast as she could while calling at that person she was tailing for the whole time. Nonetheless, these monsters suddenly showed up.

"The heck! Don\'t come here, I will kill you for sure!" 

He shouted, but suddenly turned grim when he noticed that ahead of him was a flat plain. There was no place for him to hide and the distance of the boundary was about a few kilometers away from them.

"I should have killed her awhile ago!" Yman screamed while sprinting towards the boundary. Behind him, he heard her shouts but he disregarded it and focused solely on surviving.

Yman grabbed a handful of leaves on his way and shot behind him towards the girl. Although she eventually could not satisfy their hunger, she could at least hinder them a little.

Seeing the familiar objects shot towards her, she wanted to cry, "Ruuuude! Insensitive! Heartless!!" She cried out then used her [Lupine Flame Shield] skill.

Patapatapata!

Patapatapata!

"Aegor, someone is coming." In the bushes, someone whispered to the person beside them.

"Okay ready yourselves! Let\'s attack at the same time."

"Wait, Aegor, Taflas, are you sure we have to do this? Isn\'t it better to enter the boundary as soon as possible?" A girl\'s voice said.

"No, it will be hard for us to hunt points after we enter the first boundary," Aegor replied.

"Aegor was right, Tiafel. The enemies we will be going to encounter inside will certainly be much stronger. They are the people who survive the first struggle so most of them are no easy opponent," added the guy named Taflas.

"Hmm… o-okay," Tiafel agreed. Since what Taflas said was logical.

The trio was hiding in the bushes. Unfortunately, Dudududu!

"What is that sound?!"

"Wait! The ground is trembling!"

"What?"

They peeked ahead and saw two people quarreling and were being chased by some giant —giant —-giant monsters!!!

They screamed while their faces turned blue.

Yman and Cinder\'s eyes turned into dots when they saw three people ahead of them, they came out from hiding. They must be thinking of ambushing some passerby just like the people he encountered recently.

Alas, their plan backfired to them, because this girl a little behind him brought bad news to all of them.

Patapatapata!

"Holy shit run for your life!" Aegor shouted while his plump stomach pumping up and down.

"Aaaaah don\'t look back!" Taflas said in a hurry.

With regrets on her face, "If only I know!" Tiafel shouted.

All of them were racing towards the boundary with all their might.

After a couple of minutes running nonstop, Bang! Bang! Bang! The monsters collide at the barrier.

They all successfully reached the boundary and went through it. But all of them were exhausted and unable to speak. 

Cinder and the other three people rolled on the ground. They were gasping for breath. Only Yman was a little better than the rest but even he was also having deep breaths.

It was the first time in his life to run 30 kilometers nonstop without passing out. He remembered getting passed out every day at their morning training of running 20 kilometers per day in the academy. But now, he remained standing even at a nonstop running in a distance of 30-35 kilometers. He felt successful.

The others on the other hand were lying on the ground while gasping for breath. Even that beautiful girl with wolf ears was no exception.

Cinder as an introverted person and a non-athletic type, could not even twitch a finger at the moment. She was laying on the ground while her back facing the sky and was heaving deeply.

Yman wondered if this girl was still alive? She looks like she would never last in a minute.

On the contrary, all of them were staring at him with disbelief. They wondered how this guy remained standing even in that insane marathon just now.

Yman grinned and slowly picked the dry branch on the ground. \'Fufu," he chuckled under the mask. Then enveloped the dry branch with mana.

Cinder and the others felt danger. However, they were too tired to retaliate. "B-Bastard…" she managed to force it out of her mouth.

"Hehe, since you followed me here, after letting you live last time. You must be seeking death," he said with a glint in his eyes.

Cinder who couldn\'t even lift a single finger —replied, "Do as you want…"

Aegor, Taflas, and Tiafel didn\'t know the history of these two, but for some reason, the situation was unfavorable for them too.

They grim when they saw him lift his hand above his head.

Regardless, Yman\'s intentions did not happen. Because out of a sudden, he perceived an ominous aura.

ROOOOAAAAAAARRRR!!! They heard a loud howl.