The Mysterious Black Magician

He was aiming at the person's tongue. His eyes had no ounce of pity.

The hand was slowly pushing the fortified dried branch into his mouth.

"Uhh--ugh--urgh!"

The skinny tall raccoon man was struggling fiercely like a chicken who was about to taste the bitterness of life.

However, no matter what he did, the struggle did nothing.

Until the tip of the fortified dried branch touched the flesh of the raccoon man's tongue. 

Blood started to drip, and saliva was gushing out and stocking in his mouth. But, since the person in front of him was uplifting his face with unbudging strength, it made the saliva gulp back into his throat and choked him.

Yet, this thing just added to his predicament as he could not cough. His throat started aching and tears gushing from his eyes and even from his nose. It was torture to himself.

Looking at his friend, the fat raccoon man had his eyes rounded into a ball with his body bathing in his sweats.

His friend tried to say something, but no one could understand his words.

"Hey, bro, stop that. You don't know who that person is?" Said the fat man.

The younger raccoon did not say a thing as he was afraid that this white-haired Encan would turn his attention to him.

However, the fat raccoon man's words were seemingly unheard by the person as he continued piercing the tongue of the fatty's friend while wearing a cold-looking expression on his face.

"ARRRGGG!"

A shrill or howl escaped from the throat of the skinny raccoon man, but they could not understand his words.

"Now, can you spell it?" he asked in a cold voice. It wasn't a problem for him if they didn't say their thanks as he wasn't the type of person who would be bothered by it.

But these idiots were acting high; so, Yman decided to teach them to be grateful.

The skinny raccoon man nodded his head with blood spilling from his mouth. He regretted what he did.

He retreated the pointed fortified dried branch, then stared at the person.

"Ss--shank you--urgh!"

Yman stared at it for a couple of seconds before he turned his gaze to the fat raccoon man.

The fatty trembled when his eyes landed on him. He immediately said his thanks and sorry before even he could stab his tongue.

However, the white-haired Encan didn't show mercy at him and continued what he planned.

Blood was dripping from their mouth together with tears and saliva.

The fatty wetted his pants as he groaned in pain.

<Partner, more worms are coming!>

Just then, everything returned to normal.

The blood and wounds in their mouths suddenly disappeared.

The skinny and fatty raccoon man noticed the puzzled face of the younger raccoon man while staring at them.

"Eh, senior, what happened?" He asked them.

He was wondering why suddenly the seniors went to their knees and murmuring some words he could not understand.

Weirdly though, the fatty senior wetted his pants and looked like he was having difficulty breathing.

And then, both of them were checking their-- mouths? The young raccoon man had question marks floating above his head.

"Senior, are you okay?" He asked again. "Senior?" And again.

The two simultaneously glanced at the white-haired Encan in front of them. They noticed him wearing a mocking face at them.

After noticing that no wounds on their tongue and the younger raccoon man was acting differently a second ago, they concluded that what happened was just an illusion!

They fell under this man's illusion. No wonder they could not move!

They wanted revenge, but they were wary that the things that happened a while ago would repeat.

After sending a glare at him, they ran away and shouting: "Psycho! I will kill you!" Shouted the skinny while the fatty was dragging him away.

"Pufft!"

<Partner, why are you chuckling?> Sistela asked him.

"Nothing, I'm just amused by my new creation!" He replied.

<Oh, that thing you made last night?>

"Mhm!" He nodded.

<I see, that's good. Regardless, more worms are coming to us!>

From the neck of the two retreating raccoon men, insects flew away towards the direction of Yman and the others.

The new fire doll modeled was a mosquito, and it held an illusion spell that could create a hallucination to the target.

It's up to him what kind of illusion he wishes them to see, though it was strenuous to the mind.

He learned that the more he got used to the skill, the better his understanding would become.

Yman did not waste more time and let out the spiders together with his bat-model enhanced fire dolls.

He also let out two birds. The fire dolls rushed to the enemies after they went out from his storage.

They bombarded them with fireballs while the enemies fired poison and vacuum-like force from their beaks.

He gathered some stones and shot the enemies using fortification ability.

"Bro, let me help you!"

"Me too!"

The raccoon man and the wisp offered their help. Even the bees shot stings at the enemies.

The battle immediately broke out. Yman flicked three consecutive stones that landed and broke the enemy's shell. 

Their blood stained the ground till their bodies dropped and crashed to the ground.

He didn't stop with just that and sent another barrage of attacks. Not far from him, his fire dolls were raining attacks on the enemies.

As usual, the spiders shot their webs and fireballs, and also the bats.

The enemies tried to evade, but there went the bird fire dolls. They used aerial attacks and abused their speed to outmatch the enemies.

The wisp was able to defeat some enemies one after another. After all, it powered-up after he swallowed the Heavenly Water.

The younger raccoon man was able to kill one of the flying worms with the help of one of the spiders.

It took them about three minutes to kill all the enemies.

On the other hand, the two raccoon men were already out of their sight. They ran away after they escaped from Yman's hallucination, and no one knows where they went.

After killing all the worms, another wave of enemies came after, and their number went higher than before.

Yman rushed into melee and used the 1-meter fortified branch as his sword. With it, he slashed the enemies one after another, using his strength and speed.

His fire doll's source of existence was waning out as the fight prolonged. Another few minutes had passed before dispatching all the enemies.

'This is weird…' he thought. "This is starting to get suspicious, " he muttered.

<Right, partner. Did the professor ever mention those worms?>

Yman knitted his brows. "No, I don't remember him mentioning it, " he replied.

(Suddenly,)

"Brother, we have a big problem!" Said the younger raccoon man while walking towards him.

Yman glanced at him with a frown. He didn't want to ask about the problem that he mentioned. In truth, it was easy to guess. "What do you mean?" He asked, anyway.

"I mean, the place was littered by those worms. They keep coming on no matter how many we killed. It was also the reason that we were surrounded by them a while ago. We exhaust most of our magical energies in the recent fight.

The seniors ordered us to retreat, but on the way, we encountered more of them. Not just that, some of them are stronger. Probably, the evolved version of them.

They have a more developed body than those worms. Their wings are dark purple, and they flapped faster than those low ranking worms. Our spells were useless against their shells, and our weapons would just bounce back whenever we hit them.

We tried to fight our way, but our spells weren't as effective as they were to the normal one. We had decided to retreat, but the enemies already surrounded us.

It was thanks to Achan that we managed to escape. But we got separated from each other after that..."

His voice had a tinge of worry while saying the last line. Yman stayed silent. He could feel that the raccoon man in front of him hadn't finished talking.

He noticed the sadness from his voice. Regardless, the girl named Achan was the girl who called out to him a while ago, if his memory serves him right.

As expected, he continued saying: "Please, bro, help me find my friends!" He was having a second thought if he would ask him. After all, his seniors said unpleasant things to this person. But after witnessing his unusual summons, he decided to thicken his face, all for the sake of his friends.

<What are you planning to do, partner?>

Yman was not able to answer. He was contemplating if it was a wise choice to help him.

(Just then,)

Bzzzzzzzzzzz!

A bee flew towards the-wisp.

Several seconds later, "Mister, a countless number of worms and evolved ones are heading this way!" the-wisp reported.

Yman knitted his brows; it looks like they had no time to rest.