"Do not listen to him, Henry!" Right beside Henry’s mother, an old man loudly shouted, "Kita only wants to save a slot for his own family. Give the right of entry to us now before it’s too late!"
At the mountain’s peak.
People divided into five groups had the gate to the elemental fairies’ secret garden surrounded.
Susana noticed Kita’s facial expression changing upon listening to the old man’s words.
"Susana! It’s me! Your uncle Nicole! Just give the right of entry to us…"
"Master Kita, please…" Gill stopped one of his family members from continuing. He and the two other family heads were looking at Angele sternly.
With a smiling face, Angele took a step forward with the Watchers doing the same.
"Just give the right of entry to us. I am one of the core members of Elemental Hand. We will reward you if you do so." Looking at the three teenagers in front of the gate, he spoke in a gentle tone, "You do know you can only send in two people at most, but all of us here want the right of entry, right?
"Just give it to me. We can make a fair trade. I have many resources of great rarity. Just tell me what you need." Angele narrowed his eyes.
"You do not want to see you beloved family murder each other, do you? An argument like that will destroy friendships and it never ends peacefully. Think about it. You are standing on the land owned by Elemental Hand. We can sign a contract. I swear I will not harm your families."
For a second, Angele stopped as he shrugged. "This is the only way in order to bring this matter to a peaceful closure. I am the only one who can control the situation here."
The three teenagers pondered if they should accept Angele’s offer.
Those who belonged to the three families finally regained their composure and began to think of the best plausible solution.
For some reason, Angele seemed to be someone trustworthy—that was what they felt.
"I can actually offer you a bit more than that. Do you want to become a member of the Elemental Hand and work for me? … Why are you still waiting? Are you perhaps afraid of the Blue Eagle Nest? Do not worry. This is our territory, so they cannot possibly be at the helm here."
"You!" Unos gnashed his teeth as he scowled at Angele. Behind him, the wizards were readying themselves for the forthcoming clash.
The Watchers noticed that the situation had changed so in order to protect Angele they formed an encirclement with him located at the center.
Kita opened his mouth, about to say something.
"Now!" Unos chimed in with a shout.
*CHI*
Underneath the blue robes’ feet appeared a massive circle of blue light.
It began expanding to the point of nearly covering the entire summit. Angele heard a noise that of the waves of the sea out of thin air.
Steam that came out of the blue circle nearly moistened his clothes to the point of being wet, causing his eyes to narrow. A strange oceanic smell drifted across the air.
Angele immediately raised his hand. A speck of red light exploded in front of him.
*BAM*
The explosion caused itself to form into multiple rays of red light but these were devoured by the mist coming out of the blue circle.
"Huh? It did not work?" Angele was startled. He hastily looked at his surroundings.
He was now surrounded by blue mist and had a feeling as though he was sinking deep into the ocean. He could still breathe but people near him had all disappeared.
"This is either a strong illusion spell or a strong void spell." Angele controlled his sangfroid. He then took a step and gradually released the full strength of his mentality wave. A blue laser dot was flashing in each of his pair of eyes.
He had already studied the illusion signet and created an anti-illusion technique, but it looked like the spell cast by the Blue Nest Eagle was much stronger than he had expected.
‘My illusion-related skills have already reached the highest a rank 1 wizard can get. The anti-illusion technique I created should be ineffective only against rank 3 wizards but there is no such person in their group…which means…they must have activated a high-quality magic device.’ Angele made his conjecture.
*************************
Kita, Susana, and Henry, the three of them, had already realized that the summit was covered in blue fog. They were getting nervous.
Members of the Blue Eagle Nest had surrounded them.
There was a blue horn in Unos’s right hand. With a pale face, he was uttering the incantation. The blue smoke drifting out of the horn was the source of the fog, and it continued to become increasingly thicker.
The blue smoke created a sea of fog at the summit, such that Kita could barely see anything around him.
"Master, the eagle horn has created multiple divided areas that separated our enemies from each other. The only way for them to escape the fog is to break the illusion spell, but we do not have much time left. What should we do?" the woman with a long, black hair asked.
"Follow the plan. Take a team with you and take out the families. I shall deal with the man from the Elemental Hand." Unos had a heartless expression. "He is trying to break the spell. I must stop him as soon as possible."
"Why don’t we just kill him first?" the old wizard advised.
"We cannot. Looks like he is an affluential member of Elemental Hand. I do not wish to face the possible repercussions." Unos shook his head declining the suggestion.
"All right, let us move. We must take out as many as we can," Unos ordered.
They now divided themselves into two groups led by the woman and the old wizard, respectively. Within seconds, they vanished into the blue fog.
Unos tied the blue horn to his belt and drew the black scimitar from his sheath. He was the last person to enter the fog.
************************
Within the sea of fog.
Angele was advancing at a slow pace as he continued to draw red runes in the air that disappeared after several seconds.
At the same time, the blue fog surrounding his body was becoming thinner and thinner as soon as the red runes disappeared into thin air.
*PA*
Suddenly, he heard a noise made by tiny rocks being stepped on.
Angele stopped and licked his lips. He lowered his hands and looked at the man in front of him.
"A random guy from Elemental Hand almost breaks my illusion spell. No wonder it’s the strongest organization in the area.
The man stepped forward to reveal himself.
Short blue hair, a pair of blue eyes, and a handsome face—this person was Unos, who was wearing a long blue robe and holding a black scimitar tightly.
"Wizard Angele, it’s you and me now. We are the leaders of our groups. Perhaps we can sort things out," Unos calmly spoke as he smiled.
Angele raised his right hand and conjured a silver greatsword. The sword-point was red-hot, and it released heatwaves into the air.
The glowing red sword-point was eye-catching in the fog.
Black smoke rose from the scimitar in Unos’s hand, making the black blade even darker.
He sprinkled silver dust into the air wherein it slowly descended onto the ground.
*CHI*
Unos disappeared from his original location. The black blade seemingly became a black string charging toward Angele.
For some reason, Angele’s eyes lost focus, dropping his guard, after seeing the silver dust. He could not move his eyes away from it in the slightest as if he was looking at a precious treasure.
The strength from his hands seemed to have been sapped away, causing him to gradually lower his sword.
The blade was getting closer and closer, yet Angele still remained unmoving.
*Clank*
Suddenly, Angele was jolted awake by Zero’s warning and barely blocked the incoming strike. Sparks were created when the two weapons clashed.
‘What on earth is that spell?! It somehow made me feel entranced.’ Angele was startled.
The black scimitar changed directions and struck at Angele’s back.
*Clank*
Angele turned around immediately and blocked the strike again.
The black scimitar quickly moved away and Unos appeared once more.
The man’s expression had turned serious.
"Your body is incredibly strong. I have spent so much time increasing my strength, but I am still weaker than you. Looks like I underestimated your ability."
After he finished, he raised his right hand. A strange, slimy, blue substance was discharged out of his right shoulder, covering his entire right arm within seconds and turning into a huge chunk of armor.
A black, diamond-shaped crystal appeared in the center of his right elbow.
*KA*
Unos swung his right arm several times.
"My speed and strength have now tripled. Where is your special ability from the Molten Core River? Why don’t you use it? Ah…I forgot you are still a rank 1 wizard." He sneered and raised his right arm.
*WOO*
Clouds of dust, pebbles, and rocks were blown into the air. Unos’s right arm was indeed terrifying. Covered in a blue glow, it almost had the same size as his body.
Angele narrowed his eyes into slits. Several heart bombs connected with silver metal fluid noiselessly slid into his left hand from his sleeve.
He suddenly raised his left hand and threw five heart bombs into the air.
*BOOM*
Red flames and green venom coalesced together, with Angele at a distance away and Unos standing right in the center of the explosion radius, in great successive explosions.
The amalgamation of heated air and stinky poisonous gas started spreading in the area and even caused a small shockwave.
Angele did not stop but immediately retreated as he threw out several more crimson heart bombs.
*BOOM BOOM BOOM*
The loud noise from the consecutive explosions echoed in the sea of fog.
Angele remained composed. He continued to move around and threw dozens of heart bombs at every angle. At present, he was surrounded by the furious flames and shockwaves generated by the explosions.
The intense light from the flames drove out the blue fog and illuminated on Angele’s body.