As the figure turned around, devastated expressions could be seen on the faces of David's team.
The man standing was Peter, and behind him was a crater of diameter 40 meters. No one knew what the explosion was but by the looks of it, it caused the crater.
This could only mean that Peter had cast the spell which did that to the ground and David was completely incinerated by the explosion, given that he was nowhere to be found.
Clara and Adam were heartbroken, they had been hunting with David ever since they became mages. Their parents were friends and they themselves have been friends ever since they could remember.
It was actually hard for them to think of a memory which didn't have David in it and now he was gone. A tear threatened to come out of Clara's eye, but she couldn't show weakness in front of Peter, even if he was as good as dead.
Peter looked injured with gaping holes on some parts of his body, however for a mage that would only take a few weeks to recover if one doesn't use drugs or healers.
That didn't matter for Peter though because he wouldn't make it out of this alive. All the mages from David's team were alive.
Two of his teammates were unconscious and he couldn't see one of the twins. The only explanation was that he was dead. Peter only had Candy left, however he also saw her approaching with the enemy so he couldn't count on her anymore.
Peter knew he couldn't win this confrontation, but he wouldn't go down without a fight. Killing his greatest rival and enemy had boosted his confidence by a lot.
"So it all comes down to this " Peter started and water started gathering on his palm. He had gotten a few minutes to regenerate his mana before the group arrived.
"Which one of you is---" Peter stopped talking mid sentence l because a sword made of earth was currently protruding out of his chest. Everyone unconsciously looked at the mages specialized in the earth element amongst them.
Candy looked as shocked as everyone else and funny enough she started moving back towards Adam.
John was as shocked as everyone else, it didn't seem like that was his earth sword.
Looking back at Peter, who was still standing there with his mouth open, everyone realized that the sword came from Peter's back. That could only mean one thing.
A figure slowly appeared behind Peter. This figure didn't have skin and the only thing on it's head were the muscles on it's face. Actually it's whole body was skinless.
The figure was really terrifying. Clara gasped a bit in fright while Candy released a scream and hid behind Adam.
The rest of the men were shocked, well except for Zane, he could only see the outline of a human anyway so to him they all looked like that.
The figure turned Peter around, who was still alive by the way. Peter's eyes trembled in fear seeing the monster who's grasp he was in.
The figure proceeded to remove the earth blade from Peter's chest and slowly cut his neck, uncaring of the blood that rained on it's faceless head.
"Go to hell, asshole" The figure said as Peter's body fell to the ground, however the voice came out twisted as the figure didn't have lips and it's tongue was almost non existent as well.
The figure then threw Peter's head to the side as it looked at the group watching it with incredulous gazes.
Everyone saw the cheek and eye muscles of the figure move, they guessed it was trying to smile, but of course that smile made it look even more creepy.
The figure then set it's sight on Zane, who was still looking on curiously. He could see that everyone was frightened by the person in front of them.
"Zane" it spoke "I...i think i need h..hea...ling' those were the last words of the figure before it collapsed on the ground with a thud.
"It's him! Zane quickly!" Clara shouted at Zane while she was already running towards the figure lying on the floor. Obviously this so called figure was a very badly injured David.
Zane quickly got to David even before Clara, and Clara had moved first!.
<
'Give it to him' Zane answered. 60 thousand points were just 10 thousand over the amount he had got from killing the other twin anyway, and this was David's life.
<
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For the first time ever, Zane didn't manually move the mana in his body. The system did everything and David's healing was extremely fast.
Even Zane's original team were shocked when they saw how fast David's skin was growing back, needlessness to say, John and Candy couldn't believe their eyes. This mortal healer was as good as a high mage specialized in healing!.
In just under two minutes, David's skin was as good as new!. Zane then took out a blanket from his ring and covered David's naked body.
"We better head back to the city" Chris suggested after snapping out of the stupor Zane's healing speed put him in.
"We can't" Clara said. Chris just looked at her, he was obviously waiting for an explanation why they couldn't go into the city.
"Because of them" John pointed at their captives "We don't know what David wants to do with them and as soon as we get into the city with them, we lose the luxury to chose killing them" John explained.
Clara also nodded "Yeah we should wait for David to wake up, then we can decide their fates" she said the last line while glaring at Candy.
Seeing Clara's gaze, Candy dramatically hid behind Adam while peeking at Clara from behind her 'protection'. Adam felt warm inside seeing Candy's childish behavior.
"Huh, what's that?" Zane suddenly said as he looked a certain direction.
"What are you talking about?" Chris asked, looking at the same direction, but he couldn't see anything.
"Someone is groaning about 100 meters that way" Zane explained "I will go check it out, be back soon." he said as he started walking.
"Call if you need help" John said. Zane gave John a thumbs up as he continued walking. The group looked at him in confusion. 'Why is he raising his thumb like that?' they all simultaneously thought.
A few minutes later, Zane came back dragging someone by his hair. The others couldn't recognize this man because of his swollen face, only when Zane pulled up his head for them to see him did they recognize him.
"It seems like the shockwave from the explosion got him before he could escape" Zane said pointing at the man's burnt back.
Zane had gagged his mouth and tied his hands so Tyrone couldn't say anything. He could only glare at Zane with hatred. Yes the man was Tyrone, the bandit leader.
Tyrone's eyes left Zane as he began looking around, the first thing he saw was the giant crater next to them. Then he saw David and his fear intensified.
If David was alive that could only mean his brother was dead. That was when Tyrone knew that his fate was sealed.
"Tell them the truth about what happened that day" Zane removed the cloth on Tyrone's mouth.
Tyrone then told everyone everyone what really happened when they ambushed Zane, all while trying to apologize. It reminded Chris of the situation he himself was once in.
After Tyrone's retelling of the story, Zane took out something from his ring.
"You remember this?" He asked.
"Yes,... it's my knife" Tyrone answered. He already knew his fate so he wasn't afraid of death anymore.
Without wasting time Zane stabbed Tyrone just under his chin, and the knife was long enough for the tip to come out at the top of his head.