The bald man angrily dismissed them. He turned around and urged the rest of the crew to move.
"Make haste! The damn Norvas' are almost upon us. It looks like they really want their ice princess back.", he eyed a woman located in the center of the caravan.
Her disheveled silver-white hair covered her sullen face. Her tall and slender body weakly slumped inside the metal cage. In her mind, she couldn't believe that she ended up as a prisoner to these human poachers.
A few days ago, she and her hunting party traveled to the volcanic grassy plains in order to experience life on 'the other side' of the northern glacial continent.
Never did she expect that one of the members of the party worked with these poachers and trap her in a corner. Unable to fight back, she was poisoned and fell unconscious.
'Mother, father… I'm sorry.'
"Hey, hey princess. Stop acting so down now. Don't worry, you'll soon feel what heaven is like.", the bald man grinned. He wouldn't dare to touch such a precious good. Those nobles were picky, after all.
The woman wanted to punch him so badly but she couldn't gather any strength. The poison was too potent for her to do anything.
The bald man went around the caravan and approached a luxurious carriage, knocking on its door, "Master Brandon, should we set off?", he asked nervously.
The person inside was an adept wizard, comparable to an instructor of the magic academies in the Morning Star Empire. It was just that he was a warlock, a renegade wizard termed by the League of Wizardry.
If anything, the bald man didn't want to earn the wrath of the person inside. That old man once offered the lives of his students in a demonic ritual just so that his magic cultivation would improve.
Now, he moved into the poaching industry and would assist these groups of human poachers in kidnapping demi-humans at the cost that some of their catch would be sacrificed as his offerings.
"Set out now, I sense a faintly strong aura nearby. It must be the Norvas.", a pale old voice responded from inside.
The caravan was about to set off when the horses neighed in disarray.
"Hey calm down! Calm down!", the bald man patted the horses but he was suddenly kicked in the torso.
Although he wasn't flung away, he slid on the ground with gritted teeth.
'What in the hell was that for?', these horses were obedient the past few days. For them to start acting insane confused him.
"Sister!", a young girly voice called out coming from the forest.
Everyone watched over and saw Emi running with tears in her eyes. The bald man was shocked but retained his composure, "Get her! Look at how dumb this little girl is! Running towards us like easy prey! Hahaha!"
His laughter was cut short when he saw his henchmen falling to the ground with bloodshot eyes. Blood poured out of their mouths and noses.
'Is this a magical spell? But how? I didn't see someone casting any spells just now!'
The strength he wielded was comparable to a 2nd tier knight and sensing the mana fluctuations in the surroundings was as easy as breathing to him.
"Move!", the wizard inside the carriage pushed him to the sides. He was dragged like a helpless fly.
Cleng! Cleng!
The metal cages exploded in fury and hit the other poachers who were nearby. Some of them had their eyes pierced while others simply died because of the explosive force.
It was similar to a row of potholes exploding on a street. This caused some of the horses to run away in fear of death.
"May this young one know of senior's name?", Master Brandon bowed in fear. He was just as confused as the bald man from before.
He didn't know when were those magic spells casted because he couldn't trace the magic circles nor the mana fluctuation in the surroundings. If one was to cast magic spells, most mages would have to conjure a magic circle before activating them.
'Are they… adept wizards like me too?'
Once a mage turns into a wizard, lower spells no longer require them to draw magic circles before they are casted. Higher than that and even extremely complicated spells would require no magic circles as well.
Eluard blurred into vision, floating above Master Brandon.
"Are you the leader of these men?", his cold mysterious voice resounded.
[ Name: Brandon Korvic ]
[ Age: 67 years old ]
[ Race: Human ]
[ Status: Warlock, Wanted by the League of Wizardry ]
[ Affiliation: None ]
[ Magic Power: Adept Wizard (Median Ring) ]
[ Magic Root: Elite Magic Root ]
[ Magic Aptitude: 5.5/10 (Adept Wizard) ]
[ Magic Affinity: Darkness ]
'Only an elite magic root?'
After seeing two legendary magic roots in a row, the sight of an elite magic root dumbstruck him.
Meanwhile, Master Brandon was frightened about the masked man in front of him.
'I-I can't measure out his power! Don't tell me he's already a grandmaster magus? No wait, maybe he isn't part of the League. As far as I could remember, there wasn't any magus with an appearance like this.'
He scrutinized the robe and mask that Eluard wore. The robe's outer navy-blue color and the inner white color mystified Master Brandon.
Eluard felt irritated that the old man didn't answer his question, "I ask you again.", the slithered eyes glowed in red, capturing Master Brandon's attention, "Are you the leader of these men?"
Master Brandon didn't like the way how Eluard asked him, "I am, now what are you going to do with me? Deal with me like how those righteous wizards have done before?"
"A measly elite magic root dares to arrogantly bark, I see. It's time to teach you a lesson about what death is like.", five magic circles immediately conjured in front of Eluard.
They were dark in color and gloomed the atmosphere. Even Emi stopped running and backed away from him.
"Nether Grasp!"
The five magic circles dissolved into pure dark air that soon formed into a large dark hand to which only Eluard could see. Master Brandon was about to make a move when he felt that someone grabbed him and lifted his body mid-air.
He then tried to gather his mana but found out that it was locked in tight within, further fueling the fear in his fragile heart.
"An almost instantaneous casting of a formula 5 magic spell!", the bald man crawled farther away like a coward. Only a grandmaster magus could do something extraordinary.
'Fuck! Fuck! Fuck! We messed up big time today! I didn't know that that girl has such powerful backing!'
He didn't know that Eluard received help from his system that's why he was able to instantaneously cast the said magic spell.
"You! Who are you?! How come you can cast such powerful spell this easily !", his muffled voice resounded as he struggled for dear life.
"I am your demise."
Those were the last words Master Brandon heard as Eluard tightened his fists that grabbed ahold of the old man, squishing him to a pulp.
Blood rained down below, splashing towards the face of the bald man as he stared widely at the nightmarish scene unfolding in his eyes.
Eluard noticed him and the latter jolted in fear, wetting his pants in the process.
"Didn't you say that these people were worth money to sell to the nobilities?", Eluard inquired.
The bald man thought that he was here to replace Master Brandon. As such, the previous hint of fear vanished and was replaced with elation instead.
"Yes, yes senior! They are worth a mountain of gold if we sell them. We could negotiate and share the profit, 80:20, no, 90:10!"
Then, he realized something was off and asked Eluard, "May I know why did senior ask me such a question?"
"To measure out how detestable of a human you are. It seems like you have given me a satisfactory answer, indeed."
"Grounded Puncture!"
Eluard waved his hands and roots sprang below the bald man, skewering him to the air without giving him a chance to react. All of his orifices weren't spared as each one of them was brutally pierced.
Fresh blood watered the withering root. As if it was given vitality, the brownish texture slowly became green. Then, everyone noticed the rapid decaying of the bald man's body. The root absorbed his vitality like a leech until only the bones were left.
Clank!
His skeletal frame, or what remained of it, clattered to the ground and broke into pieces. Such harrowing sight traumatized many of the people nearby, including the demi-humans who were glued to their metal cages, afraid that the masked man was another villain who was here to take them instead.
The surviving poachers fled to the distance. They knew that they didn't stand a chance against someone stronger than Master Brandon, and a monstrous wizard at that.
Eluard didn't chase them as he conjured another five dark magic circles.
'Call of the Undying'
The magic circles dissolved into pure dark air, gliding to the air and seeped inside the dead bodies that lay on the ground. The still bodies started to move. They were reanimated and let out low harrowing growls.
Eluard mused at the sight, thinking that these people were like zombies depicted in movies back on Earth. Their hunger for life became a necessity. Eluard then ordered them to chase the runaways until they were all dead.
Little did he know what sort of catastrophe he had erupted on the surrounding lands in the coming days.