Warlock Apprentice

The combination effect of Dust and Frost was not really a mist.

Rather, it appeared more like a haze.

Angor named his new composite cantrip as "Dusty Haze", the name of which described the nature of the cantrip.

It only blocked the enemies' view in a really small area. Also, it had a serious drawback compared to other similar spells: haze could pollute people's lungs.

For this reason, Dusty Haze was not a perfect cantrip. Still, as long as its user can hold his breath for some time, the cantrip could be used to obstruct people's sight just fine.

This was what Angor was doing right now—covering his nostrils. His wizard robe had a built-in Dust Removal spell on it, so he did not need to worry about getting all dusty.

"Toby, go!"

Angor ordered Toby to take care of the Blood Vixen. The bird tried its best not the breath the particles lingering in the air and began to assault the fox.

A Blood Vixen was a bloodthirsty, high-leveled summoned creature which was skilled at using illusions. A Blood Vixen at its peak condition could create an illusion that covered hundreds of square kilometers wide. Fox Master's animal, however, was only 5-10 years old. As one of the most longevous creatures out there, it was still far for this one to reach its maturity.

It did not take long before the fox completely lost its sense of directions under Toby's kicks. Angor told Toby to stay as quiet as possible, or Toby would have already killed the animal.

As Toby pinned the Blood Vixen down, Angor tried to look toward the other direction of the arena. As an improvised cantrip, Dusty Haze had blocked his own vision too, so Angor could only notice the faint figure of Fox Master.

A faint figure was enough.

As Angor expected, when everything was covered under the haze, Fox Master remained far, only letting his Blood Vixen do the job.

Angor checked the thickness of his haze and waited until it was time.

Next, magic ripples came from Angor's body.

When Fox Master saw Angor's "mist", he was really afraid that Angor might do something dangerous. However, he soon saw more or less of what was going on inside the mist and quickly calmed down.

It was not clear, but Fox noticed his Blood Vixen engaging in a heated fight with Angor. When he checked through his mental connection with the beast, he also sensed that the animal could not respond because it was busy fighting.

"Oh my. So Baron Milk is good at close combat? He managed to survive from my Blood Vixen quite well," Fox Master thought and revealed a wicked expression. "But that's it. Once I get my spell done, you'll be dead!"

Fox Master began his "performance" confidently.

He cast various tricky and dirty cantrips toward the Baron Milk's figure that he saw in the mist.

The audience did not know what was going on. They were too far from the arena to see anything clearly in the haze. Also, there was a special magic array around the arena to prevent them from using their spirit feelers to observe the stage. As of mid or low-leveled apprentices, they could only stay put.

Baroque was the only one who could watch the battle clearly, but even then, he was still confused by what he saw.

Baroque thought Angor had further moves after casting his haze. However, he grew speechless when he saw the kid constructing a fighting scene in the haze by using basic illusion spells.

A scene where Baron Milk was fighting with the Blood Vixen in full swing.

Using illusions with mist was a common tactic for people, but… what was the point of that fighting scene?

Fox Master did not see through the illusion at all. He kept using his long-range cantrips at "Baron Milk's shadow" and was completely unaware that he had been hitting his Blood Vixen instead.

Baroque took a guess that Angor was trying to wear down Fox's mana. Yet… Angor could simply use his alchemy weapon right now to take down Fox Master on the spot. Why all the extra effort?

"Youngsters these days… I can never understand what they're thinking about." Baroque sighed.

Seriously, what was the kid trying to do by leaving the illusion there?

Baroque did not know that Angor was trying to figure out whether he should kill Fox Master. Human natures were complicated. "Bad guys" might possess something good, while saints could have their dark sides. Angor did not intend to waste time on such matters though. He only needed to know one thing; whether Fox Master was trying to kill him.

If Fox Master wanted him dead, Angor would not show mercy no matter what kind of character Fox was.

The fight in the illusion remained in a stalemate. With the help of Fox Master's cantrips, "Baron Milk" slowly fell into a disadvantage.

When seeing the miserable condition of "Baron Milk" in the haze, Fox Master grew more excited and began to direct deadlier attacks at Baron Milk's vital points.

"Baron Milk" yelled, "You—damn! I surre—"

"Surrender? Not so fast!" Fox Master cast another spell and knocked Baron Milk to the ground.

In Fox's view, Baron Milk now had two broken arms which meant he could no longer toss his profile card.

Seeing how Baron could no longer move, Fox Master finally approached him slowly with confident steps.

"Why are you doing this? I already gave up," Baron Milk's voice reached Fox's ears. Fox Master was now too excited to notice that the voice was too calm to be true.

Fox humphed. "You know well. Think about what you have done!"

"What did I do?"

"Don't deny it. You're the one who killed Potongue, no?" Fox Master was no longer using his "wise hermit" act. He looked furious about something.

"So you already know." Angor sighed silently. Just like Dave said, Fox Master wanted to get revenge for the death of 'Canine Master' Potongue.

"Heh, even if I don't do it now, Braunk will. You might as well die here on the arena. A more honorable death that way, so you should be grateful."

According to Dave, Braunk was an admirer of Red Butterfly. However, that man was away from Brute Cavern for now, so Angor did not need to worry about him at the moment.

Fox Master did not try to hide his killing intent at all.

"Too bad then," Angor grimaced.

Inside the haze, Angor watched as Fox Master walked toward his dead Blood Vixen and sighed. A shining, enchanted bolt was released from his sleeve.

Fox Master only had his attention on the fake shadow in the illusion. He failed to realize the imminent danger.

Until a bolt enchanted with Sharpen Rune sunk into his throat… Fox Master widened his eyes in fear.

And it was already too late.

When drawing his last breath, Fox Master saw the dissipating illusion and pointed a finger toward the real Baron Milk before dropping to the floor as a cold corpse who had no time to regret his decision.

…

After watching the entire fight and eavesdropping on their conversation, Baroque finally understood why Angor put up such a dragging display.

The kid was… trying to find a reason to get over his decision to kill people.

Baroque knew why Angor acted so. Still…

The kiddo is such a soft a*s!

Just kill someone if you want! You find all those excuses and didn't change your idea in the end. Why waste all that time?

Sunders, who was famous for his swift and firm decisions when maiming people, found such an innocent student? This would be such a giant laughing stock if people heard about it.

Since he had watched enough, Baroque picked up the Refreshing Summer from under his bottom and walked away from the audience stand while carrying the look of a pervert when reading the book.

…

When the haze finally disappeared and exposed the corpses of Fox Master and Blood Vixen, all the spectators were still attempting to register what they just saw.

In the previous moment, Fox Master was still tossing spells into the mist in an elegant way. The man even looked confident as if he already won. But… he was dead! Along with his animal!

There was no crater in the ground like the one during Selena's fight. Whatever did Baron Milk do??

Like always, people were wondering how Baron Milk defeated his opponent. But this time, more people began to sulk over Fox Master's fall.

Most of the audience were witches. Fox Master's admirers. They were totally not expecting the death of their beloved star. Baron Milk never killed a single fighter in Sky Tower. Not even those who offended him orally. Yet this time—

The audience stands were now filled with great sadness. Angor could already sense the terrible emotions coming from the fans of Fox Master.

He looked around and as expected, he received lots of angry stares in return.

Angor began to hesitate and pondered about whether his decision was wise. He killed Canine Master, so he needed to get rid of Fox Master. Now, more fans of Fox Master might come looking for trouble… This would never end. Angor did not wish to be some kind of big boss that opposed the whole world.

Angor wiped some beads of sweat off his forehead when thinking about his possible future. He walked off the stage with the audience hissing at him in disgust.

At least no one troubled him again in the backstage this time.

He did not really want to do this. However, the decision to kill did not stress him out either. It was just like when he killed Red Butterfly and Canine Master.

He read it from a philosophy book from Earth that those who tended to kill people already gave up their rights to live. Especially here in the wizarding world, where there were no laws or regulations to restrict people. Angor might come across more similar situations in the future.

He never considered himself a saint. In this dog-eat-dog place, the only thing he wanted was to follow his own moral standard. He would appreciate kindness but he would not disregard the dark sides of mankind. He would walk down his own path while perfecting himself.