Dark Magus Returns

Everyone felt like a large spectacle was about to take place, one that they would only witness at a type of martial arts tournament. Although the figure in the hood had overwhelmed all those who went against him so far, they couldn't count out the Black Tiger just yet.

They vividly remembered the score he had got on the pillar, as well as his strong strikes he had used against the other kid. In reality, the general public didn't know just how strong of a will and body Simyon had, which was why they might have downplayed his achievements a little, but the Black Tiger was plenty strong and that was why despite him seeing someone perform the ten descending steps he still wasn't fazed.

Mantis got in a crouching stance as he powered his Qi in his body. For Raze, he was at a slight disadvantage. The techniques he knew were sword techniques, but he hadn't brought his wooden training sword.

He was hoping he would have brought a real one today, so instead, he would just have to use his hand and secretly add the wind attribute to it when he could. Lifting up his feet, Raze was ready again.

"I have no idea who you are, but you're an idiot to go up against me!" Mantis' hand was starting to spark, as his visual Qi had activated even in his hand, and it was starting to form an image over his back.

Right in front of the two's eyes, in the center of the two of them, something had come from above, or rather the correct term would be someone had come from above. They landed in the center with the back of their clothing floating.

Seeing this, some wondered what kind of fool would get in the middle of these two, but instantly when they saw who it was, both Raze and Mantis had placed their Qi away, and the hostile air they had around them was starting to disappear.

"Hey, do things really have to go this far?" Dame said. "You kids were doing a friendly event, but from the looks of things, you took it a little too far. I don't think someone from the Splitting Fang Clan would go so far against someone who's the same age as them."

Mantis scowled when he heard Dame's words. The same age, was he referring to the kid who he had hit before that was behind him, or the hooded person in front of him. Now that he took a look, his frame was a little smaller compared to a full-grown adult.

However, it was hard to tell without fully seeing his face.

'If that person is the same age as me? There's someone as skilled as him, that doesn't go to the academy?'

It didn't quite make sense to Mantis, but he needed to take Dame's words seriously. Of course, Mantis knew who Dame was, everyone did who was there. Not only was Dame a senior, but he was a senior of one of the biggest clans in the Demonic Faction and was practically a hero to them all at the moment.

From the few words he spoke, it was clear that he didn't want the fight to continue on.

Glancing behind his shoulder, Dame looked at Raze.

'It looked like I just made it in time. Although it would have been interesting to see which is the stronger out of these two. If either of them got hurt, I don't know what position I could take, and not now, not with everything going on.

"I think you should go help your friend," Dame said, directed toward Raze. "And, as for the rest of you, go home. Let's not open the gates of death today."

Not saying anything else, Mantis went to pack up the things with his friends and was ready to walk away, but he had a few last words.n--0In

"For what I did to your friends, and what you did to mine, we shall call this even," Mantis declared. "But if anything is to happen that will cause us two to fight again, I promise you won't act the same way you did today, and who knows, by then not even Dame will be able to help you."

It was a bold claim to make, stating that the Black Tiger would become someone even stronger and bigger than Dame, but with the path he was going so far, that might very well be the case.

When Raze reached Simyon on the ground, the first thing he did was hand over a Red Pill to Safa. Instinctively she knew what to do with it and fed Simyon it straight away. With the situation coming to an end, the crowd around started to disperse and, with no doubt, the name of the Black Tiger and what had happened today would start to spread.

It did well to improve his condition as the color was coming back to him, but it seemed like the wounds were quite serious and would need a lot more than a pill.

"I will take him to a physician," Dame said as he picked him up and didn't say much else, walking away.

Dame was doing all of this because he didn't want to make it obvious that he had a relationship with the hooded person and that he was just acting out due to him being a good Samaritan.

Raze understood his intentions, it made sense to him, what he didn't know was Dame was being even more careful compared to before, because there was a certain person in the crowd.

"Come on," Raze said. "Let's head back to the Inn and rest up, it's been a tiring day."

Raze, Liam, and Safa were headed back to the Inn while Dame was heading in a completely different direction to get Simyon seen. While this was happening, Alba looked at the two groups of people and her head was shifting between the two.

"What's wrong?" Cronker asked.

"Those kids, they're really interesting. I want to know what Clan they belong to," Alba answered. "But at the same time, Dame is here. I heard he was back, but I thought that might have been a rumor. Who knows when we'll see him again. I need to ask him about the Dark Magus and buying more product."

She felt like she needed to make a decision, and in the end, it was clear what the obvious one was to make, as she went ahead to follow where Dame was going, in the hopes of catching him.

When the group had finally returned to the Inn, everyone sat down in separate areas. Liam jumped on his bed, while Safa sat on her chair, still rubbing her eyes and clearly concerned about everything.

While Raze was still standing.

"So, what happened?" Raze asked. "Why were you guys fighting?"

"Ah, well…" Liam said, a little nervous, but in the end, he decided to tell the truth.

Liam had explained the whole ordeal, not cutting anything out. He even admitted it was his idea to take part first, hoping to buy food for them all. In the end, they all took up challenges and Simyon was a bit stubborn with everything happening.

They had tried to stop him, and the result was what it was in the end.

"I can understand where you were all coming from," Raze said.

The feeling that they had felt, he had felt it in the past many times before as well. The reaction of them wanting to protect one of their own, it was the same as he felt.

More than anything from this, Raze realized something great, and that was the feelings he had over the group. Originally, he had kept a distance from Simyon and Safa, trusting no one. As time went on and he spent more and more time with them, even giving both of them the name of Cromwell, he hadn't just given them his family name but treated the two like it as well.

He could tell himself by his reactions to everything. Of course, this wasn't the same for Liam, but he also wasn't hurt in all of the mess.

Because of his previous thoughts and how he had felt, he hadn't put the most effort he could have done into protecting them. So focused on what he had lost in the past, he didn't realize he now had things he wanted to protect in this life as well.

Moving toward Safa, Raze stopped just short in front of her, with a question on his mind.

"Do you want to learn magic?"