Simon flew above the trees, eying someone he had been looking for the entire time.
'He's still a Rank 1, what an idiot. Did he think he could run from a Rank 2? Or does he have an artifact?'
Simon stopped in the air to release his natural aura. The pressure increased a ton, making anything standing fall to the ground. "Stop running, you can't move under a higher beings-", Simon wanted to lecture the hidden party, but seeing them pull out a special aura to counter his own surprised him more than he'd like to admit.
Still, he was much faster, so it didn't really matter, in the end it only prolonged the chase. Speeding up, it didn't take that long before he was behind the thief again. 'What is this aura?', Simon never bothered to retract his own presence, making his aura destroy anything in the way.
As he got closer to the thief, his own aura started to clash with the hidden player's. Because the aura's started to mix together, he could get a grasp on their life. An aura was the personalization of a person's strength and feelings. If a Rank 6 got sad, his aura could influence others to be sad as well. In the same way, mixing aura was a way of conversation.
'What is this feeling? His aura contains so many emotions. Anger, hatred, despair? How could he build an aura around such a negative headspace? The easy but terrible path, strong in the beginning, but weak in the end. What a foolish decision, anger subsides through time, no matter how deep. Rank 3's live for hundreds of years, whatever hatred they had would've long been settled or faded away. Still, to create an aura that can counter my own while being Rank 1 is impressive.'
At a certain point, Simon felt more intrigued by the thief than anything. Since they both had jades but neither used it meant that there were still some plans that hadn't been set in motion.
Simon wanted to kill him immediately, but his energy reserves weren't doing so great, so he would rather save some of it. 'After all, no matter what he'll do, it'll be useless.'
Only a few seconds later did the thief run into a pretty well obscured cave. Simon stopped in front of the entrance and peered inside.
'There was no info of a cave system, this is a dead end except if he bothered to excavate a bunch of extra tunnels.'
Just as Simon entered the cavern, he could sense something was off. 'This is the entrance to the pool of Darkness. Oh, what a sad sight.'
Strolling inside, Simon didn't feel the slightest bit intimidated. Light started to disappear, nothing but a pitch black environment was left. Descending even deeper, Simon didn't hide his relaxed demeanor.
"I don't know what you're planning next, but so far you've certainly made some of my plans harder to fulfill. I can say that much, although I think your next step is already a failure."
His foots echoed deeper into the cave, with nothing but his own breathing as noise, most people would start to feel uneasy, yet Simon kept his confidence.
"The Pool of Dark, only reachable if you can survive its guardian. And unlike the other pools where the guardian is a being to defeat, this one has a unique challenge. A test of will and determination. How long can you keep walking down a complete dark path? There should be some whispers, but I guess my intel isn't perfect.", Simon tried to talk to his adversary, but didn't really get an answer, so he ventured further down.
Simon kept walking until he reached the open space in the cavern. He couldn't see it with his own eyes, of course, but his willpower accurately portrayed the surroundings in his mind. It was mostly empty, except for a single being standing at the very back.
He felt magic activate behind him, a small rumble occurred as the entrance of the room collapsed. A bunch of rocks were keeping the exit shut tight. For normal humans, it would take a long time to escape, but for mages, this was a pretty weak barrier.
'Locking me in here? Is he prepared to struggle to the death? A strategist like him shouldn't be so careless.'
Simon pushed away his internal analysis as he looked in the direction of the man who had been quite elusive during the entire competition. He never heard of him, and yet he was capable of changing the outcome of the national competition by a few moves.
'Introducing the mutated humans were a great distraction, I never bothered to look for him, but now he can't escape anymore.'
"Finally, we meet, mysterious man. You've done well, making me alter my plans, mister. Combining the parasites and humans wasn't something I was expecting. After all, I thought we were all civilized students, I wasn't expecting someone like you to enter this competition as well.", Simon said with a bit of a smile.
He obviously wasn't so righteous or empathic to care for those who died at the hands of the monsters, but he still had an image to keep up.
"So it seems. Still, if you know I've already sabotaged some of your plans. What makes you think I don't have any other tricks up my sleeve?"
"Oh, that's easy. Information and preparation. I already know everything about this place, the only piece of intel that I was lacking was that the pool of Dark is already gone, making the whispers disappear. This place simply makes people insane, but if you're mentally strong enough, this is nothing. A trail of the mind, nothing more. If you think I'll fall into a mad spiral of fear, then I'll have to disappoint you."
Talking in complete darkness felt strange, since they couldn't really see each other that well. The horrible silence mixed with the lack of sight would make most people pretty uncomfortable.
"You're quite arrogant, but I guess being Rank 2 gives you that privilege. Still, aren't you afraid of losing because of your pride?"
Although they were clearly enemies who should've been battling it out, both sides didn't feel the need to immediately attack. There was a sense of respect between them. Both knew that if Simon acted, this would be over in a mere second.
"No, I'm quite confident that my plans have accounted for everything. Even when you appeared and changed the course of a few things, the end result will be the same. I'll get the most tokens and the special token. The Ice Princess was meant to follow me, but it seems Mino has taken her place. Although I do have to ask, what would you have done if she survived?"
Simon, someone who never acted before thinking things through, felt intrigued by this man who was capable of overshadowing his strategy with an entirely different plan. Rather than ending the competition right away, he wanted to see how much he could gain from him.
"If I thought the Ice Princess would survive, there wouldn't be only three mutated humans running around. It would've been very easy to create a few more, and while they might've seemed weak, it should've been enough to drain her mana reserves."
Simon stood in silence as he thought about the other possible outcomes. He then shook his head in disappointment.
"So in the end you're weak and have to rely on others to do your dirty work. I could've appreciated such a tactic if you yourself were strong as well. Sadly, you're weak and destined to die here. It was a fun chat, but I need to find my followers before this competition ends."
"Sure, I understand, then I'll use my final card."
Simon felt curious enough to feel it out. To him, this person was nothing more than a dying old man who wanted to show his magic trick. There was no need to entertain him at all, but out of kindness and respect, he waited a few seconds. After all, it wasn't easy to foil his plans, so finding someone who did, deserved appreciation.
The darkness around him started to slowly start eating away at his mana and skin. The bites were very tiny, as if microscopic insects were nibbling on his tissue. 'He made the darkness start consuming things? How strange, although easy to replicate. With this amount it should be enough to consume a normal Rank 1, I guess he thought I didn't have much mana left.'
Simon let out a sigh. "Since you'll be dying here anyway, I don't mind sharing a piece of information. When you reach Rank 2, you'll realize that every element out there is both extremely powerful and weak at the same time. You simply need to find the right circumstances. Darkness if often misunderstood as the strongest, since it does the most damage. But that's simply a myth among the lower Ranks. Darkness is incredibly easy to counter. You want to know how? Light."
Right as he said that, his entire body shone with a light so bright it lit up the entire cave. Simon could finally see who had been derailing his plans. Simon thought it was about time to end this charade, so he lifted his arms at the man before conjuring a spell.
"Hahaha! You're a massive idiot, aren't you!"
Simon didn't understand what the man meant, thinking he might've just lost him mind laughing like that. Without waiting, Simon launched his spell, a simple Wind Blade, but powerful enough to end the man's life in an instant.
The blade flew before it somehow disappeared on the way there. Darkness was settling back in, hiding the man. Simon noticed his bright light was shrinking at an extreme pace.
Simon fueled his light again, making him see the entire cave once more. The man, was now sitting down with a large grin.
"And you even said you were confident. Tell me, what intel do you have to counter this?"
The darkness hastily covered him again while eating away at his light.
"This doesn't make any sense! This goes against every principle of magic!", Simon saw the darkness eat up his magic at a rapid pace. He didn't have enough information about what was happening, he couldn't figure it out as well. He tried to analyze it with everything he got, but his mind was too distracted. While he had to think, he had to constantly fuel his light to keep the dark at bay.
'This darkness is consuming my light, no, my mana! How can it multiply? Every magic theory in the academy goes against this!'
The only thing he could think of was simply escaping now. He could get the special token after he figured out how this darkness worked. He was confident that with enough time he could come back and be victorious.
Trying to fight back against the dark, Simon created a pure mana shield, one of the more basic shields that were quite sturdy, especially since it's from a Rank 2. Yet it did absolutely nothing, as it started to crack mere moments after its manifestation. His light was dimming as well. Running to the exit, he quickly used earth magic to move the rocks away, but the moment his mana left his body it was consumed by the pitch black.
'Did he block the exit because he knew this was going to happen? Then he's stuck in here as well? No, if he can activate the darkness, he can probably shut it down as well!'
Running away from the wall, he spread his willpower again, but the moment it exited his dome, it was evaporated. He couldn't see in the dark, his willpower was but mere prey for the abyss in front of him. Trying again, he kept sending out mental waves, yet he could only see as much as the light.
"Hmm? Are you getting scared? Afraid of the dark?"
The voice felt like a whisper that came from every direction. Simon tried to find the source, but by turning around, he couldn't orient himself anymore. The exit could be anywhere now!
Running forward, he kept conjuring his light, but the darkness kept getting faster at destroying it. Consuming more mana, he could keep his light active, the only issue was that he wouldn't be able to do so forever.
Simon started to panic! His breathing became rough, his movements fast and erratic. "Where's the goddamn exit!"
Simon had to trace the walls until he found the pile of rocks blocking his way out. Using magic was useless as the darkness ate it up. At this point, he could only see right in front of him, as his mana pool was running out, the all consuming abyss only grew larger.
Clawing at the rock, seeing what could come loose, he didn't hesitate, using all his strength to remove them. Rock by rock, stone by stone, Simon tried to create a path out. His light was out, he still had mana, but it couldn't exit his body before being consumed.
The abyss was starting to eat away at his skin and flesh. Trying to heal himself while doing everything in his power to move the stones away, his nails were starting to break off. His skin absorbed by the black, his flesh came in contact with the open air. Simon had never experienced a worse pain.
He knew that getting out was an impossible task now, "I don't know who you are, but I'll make you pay!", reaching for his jade, Simon crushed it without hesitation.
...
The look on Simon's face couldn't be described, as all his hopes and expectations were crushed in an instant. He couldn't come to grasp with reality as he tried to crush the jade further. Madness wanted to take over his mind and completely panic, but his serious demeanor came back once he realized this was the end.
His mana pool empty, his escape blocked and emergency teleportation disabled, Simon looked at the back of the cave.
"...how.."
He couldn't even speak before his body was completely consumed by the abyss. Out of nowhere, a magic impulse was released from Simon's body, a small spark fought through the darkness as it approached the onlooker. Small it may be, it didn't do any damage, but the receiver was anything but happy once he realized what it was.
A mere minute later, all that was left in the cave were Simon's clothes and a few of his items. Blocked off from the outside, nobody would ever set foot in here again, and if someone was so foolish to do so, they wouldn't see the light of day again.