The Mysterious Black Magician

Inside the Training Pavilion Lobby, people were kept coming. The news of someone had surpassed the record of Lord Gregor had reached the ears of many residents on the campus.

Students kept coming to the Pavilion to secure the validity of the news. But upon arriving, everyone was surprised. They were as surprised as the other people that were already inside the lobby.

In everyone's face, the anxious expression of waiting could be discerned. Everyone was waiting for the result of the fight against the boss.

Those who came later had to ask the people who came recently.

Good thing that the Pavilion Lobby was spacious enough to accommodate hundreds of people or maybe thousand if they cram-up like fishes in the sardine's can.

The Training Pavilion was one of the most popular establishments inside the campus..

And every day it was crowded with people who wished to train and some came to relax.

Right at this moment, the lobby was noisy with people's curious conversations.

"What! 2 minutes and 45 seconds only!" A person with unique bunny ears exclaimed upon hearing the reply of the person next to him.

"How could someone capable of that?!" Another person in the lobby asks in bewilderment.

Almost every newcomer had identical reactions when they heard the news. But the more they ask the more curious they get.

Some people were checking all the remaining dummy-fighting rooms that were currently in use. They knew that one of these rooms was being used by the new rank 1 trainee.

The ones who came out of the room were ambushed with questions. The person could only gawk and be puzzled by the current situation. 

Just before they entered the rooms, it wasn't as crowded. But now, it was seemingly they were waiting for a celebrity to come out of the room.

But unfortunately, once they knew that it wasn't them, they scattered like rats that saw a cat. Then the person soon joined the group of curious people.

Around this time, Yman lost the ability to clash with the enemy's fin blades. And he had only one option to avoid getting slashed by it, to dodge with all his might.

The battle between them had become a chasing and catching game.

"Looks like Crimson is at the disadvantage. He cannot engage in a fight against a fully equipped enemy. Especially that it was fairly agile and strong," Rea commented.

"But I still believe in him!" Cinde said resolutely.

"Eh? What are you-- a blind loyalist? Or his wife?"

Rea said in haste. She could not believe this girl's out of sense.

"E-Eh? C-Can be both…?" Cinde said shyly while fuming in red.

'She's not even denying it…' Rea thought.

Bang!

The two immediately glanced when a loud impact created a loud bang that rang inside the room.

They saw Crimson and the boss crashed to the floors away from each other. They wondered how it happened. 

But Rea noticed it at the corner of her eyes. While she was conversing with Cinde, her focus didn't turn away from the fight.

In truth, the enemy sent combos of attacks to Crimson, and he evaded it by twisting and waving his body.

He crouched and successfully evaded the slash aimed to decapitate him.

Then he backflipped to evade the attack that was coming from below. While he did the backflip, the enemy failed to notice the kick he sent to its jaw.

Because of this, the enemy was sent flying back.

(But…)

Right after Crimson's feet landed on the floor, the last sphere shot towards him. And it was the biggest one, so the explosion was stronger than the first three bubbles.

He tried to dodge it by kicking the floor so hard and leaped back. But the impact of the explosion still got him.

Rea and Cinde widened their eyes and their faces turned grim at Crimson's current situation. Although it was training only, the pain that the trainee felt was very real. It was systemized like this for the trainee to have real feelings against the training dummy. It would be bland training if they could not feel the same pain as the real wounds.

Crimson lost his arms and feet and light particles were gushing from the wounds. He was breathing heavily also.

Even though he was on full alert the whole time, he was still hit!

<Partner, are you okay?> Sistela asked. But she knew that he wasn't. That is if he was a normal person. However, her partner has a high pain tolerance. So she believed that he was fine. Their combined strength was weakened that they could not execute a strong attack. Because of this, their attacks barely damage their enemy.

And the enemy's restoration spell was kind of troublesome. If not by it, he already defeated it earlier.

However, not only the enemy has it.

An ant crawled to its neck and injected something in it. Then Crimson's wounds were glowing for several seconds until all his wounds were slowly restoring.

"He truly can restore his lost body parts!? Is he even a human?!" Rea mumbled a surprise. 'So, it was a battle between two  Restoration Spell users!'

Even Cinde was as surprised as her, to see him restoring his lost part. At first, they were skeptical to believe it. But now there's no doubt anymore.

In truth, there were two types of Third Version Ant-model Fire Doll he created. The first one was the Third Version Ant-model Fire Doll Type A — this type of Fire Doll was the carrier of elixirs.

And the second was the Third Version Ant-model Fire Doll Type B — this was the type of Fire Dolls that was carrying a spell in their body. It had identical concepts to the Second Version Ant-model Fire Doll and the scout bee.

The only difference that the Type A and Type B Third Version Ant has was their stomach size.

After his full restoration, he sprung on his feet once again. The enemy did not waste another time and directly flew towards him.

<Partner, be careful!> Sistela warned.

The dummy boss threw the fin blades at him. Yman squinted his eyes at the fast-approaching fin blades that were spinning like boomerangs.

He ran horizontally to get out at its trajectory. Oddly enough, it followed him like they had eyes of their own. He decided to continue running and tried to lose its trail.

At the corner of his eyes, he took a glimpse of the boss. It was rapidly flying towards him while spreading its arms. Protruded on its back was a pair of fins.

Its eyes were bloodshot and reddish energies were oozing from its body.

"I wonder what Crimson will do? His path was cut off from both sides. But no matter what... Crimson you can't lose!" Cinde asked, then shouted at him.

Rea remained quiet and had her eyes at the fight. She was excited to see what he was going to do in his predicament. He could jump to the sides. Yet Rea shook the idea out of her head. If he did it there was a possibility that the situation would get worse.

(gasp!)

He gasped for breath.

Beads of sweats were visible on his face. It wasn't the first time that he was fighting such an opponent, though the situation right now was kind of different. There were some reasons why it was different from before.

First of the reason was, of course, he was weakened. Second, he was restricting himself in using his other abilities such as the Time Warp because of a certain reason. The other reason was, he wanted to wear out his body in the training. Especially that he was fighting a strong opponent at the moment.

Having a perfect 10 attributes at his breakthrough gave a huge increase in all his stats.

Besides, even if he was defeated by it, he would never die as it was training only.

From his back, the seeming boomerang fins were getting closer at him. And at his front was the boss that was hastily flying to intercept him.

No doubt that the situation wasn't in his favor.

However, Cinde and Rea couldn't find a tinge of worry from him.

His face was tranquil. Like he was in deep concentration. Perhaps he was enjoying the fight. Rea thought so.

<Partner, be careful, we already used up all of the type B third version ants with restoration spells. If something like before will happen to you again, we can't regenerate your body anymore… And that will be the cause of our defeat.> Sistela notified him.

'Okay, thanks!' He replied via thought communication. 'By the way, how many Type-A ants left and what kind of elixirs they are carrying?' He asked as he had no time to memorize all his creations. That's why he passed the job to Sistela.

<There was only a total of 7 types A ants left. 3 of them are carrying the mana and health replenishments. And the two are carrying the antidotes. The other two are carrying the booster elixirs of speed and dexterity.> Sistela reported.

"....." he remained quiet for a second but his feet never stopped kicking the floor.