In an underground tunnel, Ubsher county.
250 Km East of Jadestine city.
A person with a black robe and a black mask on their face was standing on top of a dark purple magic circle, drawn on a rough ground surface. They softly muttered something, and the circle lit up at that moment. A handsome boy with ebony hair and pale skin slowly came out of it, starting from his head to his feet. He had his eyes closed.
When that figure approached him, he abruptly opened his eyes and jumped back. It was Frore, who had leaped back only to realize that there was a stone wall behind him.
He turned to look at the person in front of him and calmly unsheathed the sword, Kaiser which was in his right hand. He used Kaiser's "Flame thrower" ability towards that dark mage. The person used a "mana shield" on top of a "dark mana barrier" and was able to defend against it without much difficulty. The shield broke down as soon as Flames engulfed it. But the flame didn't manage to even put a scratch on that barrier!
Frore created multiple arrows to attack that barrier, however it was no use. The dark mage must have spent a lot of time to form a barrier like that.
It was dark inside the tunnel, except for the mana circle which was lightly glowing on the ground due to the casted barrier. There was no other light source, hence there were no clear shadows, rendering Frore's "shadow snatcher" skill useless.
That person had done a through research on Frore and was prepared for everything Frore could throw at him.
They moved their head in Frore's direction and spoke in a gender-neutral voice at that moment.
"Whatever you do, will be useless. I have already prepared a counter to each and every one of your skills. Don't needlessly waste your energy on fruitless attacks."
Frore ignored them and continued to attack.
"Tsk. You don't listen, do you? Well do as you please."
The dark mage continued to defend like they were in no hurry to attack and kill Frore. They continued their idle chatter while Frore just ignored them.
"Hmm...do you think that S-rank will come to save you? I don't know what your relationship with him is, but I do know that he is not your brother. You both met each other merely a few months ago, isn't that so? He is not obliged to come save you, is he? This place is a highly secured and well-hidden place, there is no way for him to find this place in such a short period of time. Even if he does manage to find this place, I have prepared more than enough 'gifts' to keep him engaged for a while."
Frore frowned and the mage continued with a creepy smile on their face as if they didn't notice that.
"He is quite unique. I couldn't estimate the length of his powers even after careful observations. I want him~ He is going to become my precious test subject. That is why, you should quickly surrender and die quietly, so that I can seriously make a plan to go after him next."
By this time, the dark mage had finished casting their second spell, "Dark Mana Soldiers". They maintained the skill while controlling the barrier.
As its name suggests, 'Dark Mana Soldiers' is a skill that creates human sized dolls out of dark mana. They have no facial features and appear to be like black mannequins with spears or sticks in their hands.
Now, Frore was the one defending and getting attacked from all directions and the dark mage was the one attacking, the tables had turned. He created a shield of rare class and defended against the soldiers' weapons; he used Kaiser to inflict damage on them, but the damaged parts would quickly restore themselves by absorbing the dark mana from the mage.
There were far too many of them and since this was his first time fighting a battle in which he was so greatly outnumbered, it was inevitable that he would have some openings. His waist, back and elbow were cut open by the sharp edges of the spears.
The cuts were deep and there were some other minor injuries too and his blood dripped on the ground. But his focus was not on his injuries, neither was it on the fight, but it was on the things the dark mage had said.
Of course, he was not thinking about how Blaze would not come to save him. They had already moved far beyond that point and he had no reason to doubt Blaze on that matter. As a matter of fact, he already knew Blaze was closing in on the distance between them really quickly, he could feel it through Kaiser.