The Mysterious Black Magician

It was surprising to see a building on the mountain. 

He wondered what the building used to be. But he believed that it was an abandoned building because of its rundown appearance.

The people from the department landed near it. They glanced around, seemingly alerting themselves from possible attacks from the monsters.

Yman, who was peeking from the bushes, saw the Senior Leader went inside with three people. The remaining four were guarding outside. There were a total of seven people in their group, together with the Senior Leader and Betty.

Betty was left guarding outside together with three other people. On their waist hanging different kinds of weapons while storing their staves inside the spatial ring on their fingers.

About a minute after the Senior Leader went inside, everyone heard low growls. Even Yman heard it. It was coming inside the building. The Senior Leader probably encountered mutated beasts or an evolved one inside.

After the growls, explosions, and cries followed. Based on the sounds, Yman believed it was coming from the monsters.

Regardless, he also perceived some presence coming from beasts around. He sneakily jumped to the tree branch and hid under the veil of its mass of leaves.

He sent one scout bee to act as his eyes. With it, he could hide while also spying on them.

A few seconds after he leaped on the tree branch, some mutated beasts and evolved ones came out of the woods.

The battle immediately broke out when they rushed and attacked the people from the Department of Security.

Salivas was dripping from their gaping mouths while growling eerily.

Bang bang bang!

The people from the Department of Security immediately summoned magical energies on their hands and fired them to the waves of monsters. It was followed by random explosions when their magical attacks hit the enemies and on the grounds.

"Ow, what a show, hehe." 

Yman commented and laughed. He was about to reach the magical fruit dangling above him when he noticed it was affected by miasma. Then something came out from it and excreted something on his face.

'Dammit! A worm!'

He exclaimed inwardly.

It was fortunate that he was wearing a mask; who knows what might happen to him if not. He might have fallen to the ground before he could do anything about it.

The worm was only as tiny as his pinky finger, and its hairy body had purplish color. On its head, he noticed a little horn.

It quickly sunk back after tucking out its tongue to him.

<Hahaha! What a cute little spoiled creature.> Sistela laughed at its cheeky behaviour.

Yman's brow was twitching. A second later, he snapped the fruit. He didn't know what kind of fruit it was. But, anyhow, he would be going to punish this little creature, later on.

<!!> 

<Puffft! Partner, you're like a kid, you know that?>

"Thanks for the compliment."

<Puffft!>

Sistela was making fun of him. But he had no time for jokes at the moment.

When he was about to transmit to his scout bee, he noticed something unusual.

<Partner, we are surrounded!>

Just right when she said it that he suddenly perceived multiple presences around him. He also saw multiple eyes peeking on him from the miasma. For some reason, he felt like-- they were glaring at him?

"The heck!?" he grumbled and leaped into the air.

Whoosh! Shing!

The branch on which he stepped on a while ago was sliced in half! It was fortunate that he sensed a strong killing intent towards him.

While he was still in the air, he used his Air Dance to make a quick maneuver; because from the corner of his eyes, he noticed some shadows.

They were leaping to reach him. They probably wanted to attack him. 'Aggressive!' he whispered in mind while making a flip, then used his Rapid Leap.

He landed on the branch of the opposite tree. Then he made a quick scan of his surroundings. He learned that he was surrounded by different kinds of monsters.

He was puzzled as to why the monsters were able to notice him. "My Deity, what happened?" Yman asked Sistela.

Right now, they were all around him.

Sistela quickly made a brief scan. A second later, <This is bad!>

"Eh?"

<Partner, you are under a debuff!>

"Eh? What debuff?"

<That excretion from that little worm wasn't an ordinary one!>

"Please tell all the details."

He said while bending his body backward to evade the attack of a monster that looks like a crossbreed of a cat and monkey!

It had the face of the cat and the body of the monkey. But it looks fiercer than the two.

Shing!

It drew marks of claws in the air when its attack hit nothing.

Shing!

It was followed by another one, but it was evaded too.

Bang!

The monster was sent flying went he sent a punch to its guts.

The monster balled its eyes, and tears were visible from them when his attack landed to it.

It then crashed on the tree. With it as the signal, the others started attacking as well. They were composed of different kinds of monsters that seemed like a cross breed of two mutated beasts.

Their growls and roars enveloped the area.

They were fighting in the middle of the woods, surrounded by purplish miasma. 

Yman took a branch and fortified it. He then used it as a sword and waved it to the two leaping enemies.

His left hand materialized a small fireball and fired it to the one heading from above.

After the mini-explosion, It immediately charred the enemy.

Yman continued attacking the other monsters while dodging their attacks. From time to time, he had to leap to the other trees to escape from their entanglement.

From the rundown building, the people from the Department of Security were showing puzzled faces.

The monsters who came to attack suddenly retreated to the woods.

"Tsk, it looks like something was amiss in this place, " Said one of their members.

"Well, looking at this miasma, it wasn't difficult to guess, really," Betty replied with a stern face.

"And those monsters, didn't you guys notice something from them?" Asked the second woman member of their group.

"Aside from that, what do you think is the reason that those monsters suddenly retreated back?" Asked the fourth person.

"Hmm... Beats me..." said Betty.

But they stopped conversing when they suddenly heard and explosion coming from the woods.

"!!"

"What was that?"

Asked Betty.