"Are you ready to fight now?" Doggen's taunting voice rang out in the VIP section.
"You seem to suddenly think we're on equal grounds, Doggen." Otto said, his tone laced with barely concealed fury.
Otto then removed his mage robe, revealing his upper body, his toned physique beneath a tight-fitting long-sleeve cloth, the material did little to conceal the outline of his abs and biceps, emphasizing every ripple with each subtle movement he made.
Bringing his palms together, a green glow emanated from his pupils, and with quick movements, he immediately formed a seal. Thick vines began to sprout from the ground, each of them as thick as an average human being. The vines snaked menacingly towards Doggen.
Undeterred, Doggen brandished his axes, his red imposing aura seemingly extending to them, enveloping them in a crimson hue also. Swinging his axe at the fast-approaching vines, a burst of crimson energy erupted from its tips, countering the vines midway, the progress of the vines was interrupted, as the crimson blast rendered them to pieces.
Without wasting a moment, Doggen surged forward, leaving a trail of crimson blazing in his wake, his huge figure arriving In Front of Otto in a flash.
With a downward swing, Doggen's axe was upon Otto. One of the vines then curled and caught Doggen's fast-approaching hand before he could hit Otto. In that split second that Doggen's hand was restricted, Otto quickly used the opportunity to place a hand on his chest.
As Otto made contact with Doggen's chest, a green glow emanated from his palm causing Doggen's crimson aura to flicker for a moment. Breaking free from the vines, Doggen stared at the spot on his chest where Otto had touched with an apprehensive gaze.
A second later, green patches began to appear on his body, rapidly spreading all over his skin, causing Doggen's face to pale.
Gritting his teeth, Doggen roared defiantly causing his crimson aura to intensify, as if responding to his emotions.
His actions caused the green patches to wither away, but he began to pant heavily, blood trickling slowly from his nose.
Wiping the blood off his nose, Doggen refocused his steely gaze on Otto, his breathing labored and his expression pale.
As he attempted to take a step forward, he suddenly staggered, struggling to maintain his footing, he moved as if he was intoxicated.
Witnessing Doggen's struggle, Otto began to chuckle, "for a moment, I thought you dispelled the poison too," Otto said, wiping off the sweat of his head in relief.
"Seems like you were only able to get rid of the seed."
Rushing forward, Otto mercilessly landed a blow on the disoriented Doggen causing him to kneel and cough out blood.
Standing over Doggen's kneeling figure, a smile crept up on Otto's face. He was relieved that their confrontation had come to an end, he was already getting slightly embarrassed at the fact that their fight had taken longer than he had expected.
"This is it, it has been fun," Otto said as his arm took on a wooden blade form, ready to slash the life out of Doggen
Before Otto could make any move further, Doggen's kneeling figure suddenly flashed to life. His ax suddenly swung into the air, and with a swish, an arm suddenly flew into the air.
The slash was so fast and sudden that Otto couldn't dodge it from point-blank range.
Reeling back in shock, Otto stared at the stump where his hand had been Just a second ago with a terrified and shocked expression.
Ignoring Otto's shock, Doggen struggled to his feet, his breath labored.
Otto gritted his teeth and focused on his bleeding stump, a soft green glow gathered on the stump, stopping the bleeding and allowing the area to dry up and turn into hardwood.
The pain was blinding Otto's senses as he gritted his teeth even harder.
'Me a great mage, when was the last time I felt pain like this?' Otto thought to himself as anger began to bubble within him.
'And it was all caused by this trash blacksmith,' thinking up to this point Otto slowly raised his head to look at Doggen, who also wasn't in the best of states, but that fact didn't seem to satisfy Otto.
"You bastard, I'LL KILL YOU." Otto snarled, his eyes red with anger.
***
11:55 AM, five minutes after Ivan had gone to get Dela, the seekers were seated quietly in a wide room just behind the stage waiting for them.
'It's been five minutes already, where are they?' Berg thought to himself in frustration.
Getting up from his seat, he began to pace restlessly, drawing the attention of his students.
Another five minutes passed and With it came the loud sound of a bell that signaled the twelfth hour. With a sigh, Berg stopped his pacing and looked around.
"Alright everyone, let's make our way to the stage. I trust Ivan and Dela will catch up with us."
Heeding his words the seekers all left the waiting room and began to make their way to the stage. Along the way, they encountered the librarians who had also just emerged from their waiting room.
Rodbar scanned the seekers, then noticed the absence of Ivan, which didn't seem to surprise him much, considering his actions the previous day, he had already assumed him to be that kind of person. What truly caught his attention was the absence of Dela.
"Your captain and vice-captain seem to be missing Berg," Rodbar remarked while shifting his gaze from the students to Berg. "Well, not that I'm one to talk, the whereabouts of my team's captain is also unknown, we were just making our way to the stage with the hope that she'll catch up." He added with a tired sigh.
"I was told my team's vice-captain was giving your team's captain a tour around the haven, but don't worry, I sent Ivan to go get them. I'm sorry for the inconvenience my student has caused you." Berg said.
"A tour? And I assume your vice-captain made the offer?" Rodbar asked with a questioning gaze.
"No actually, the reverse seems to be the case. Berg answered, causing Rodbar to raise a brow in confusion."
"Chenai? Asking for a tour? Well, there's nothing wrong with that, but she should be here by now, she's not so irresponsible as to let something like this affect her team." Rodbar remarked helplessly.
He was about to address his vice-captain when sounds of a commotion suddenly reached them. With looks of confusion, they all looked forward and discovered that the sounds were coming from the arena outside.
"What's that?" One of the students present asked in confusion.
"Dunno, sounds weird, the second part of the exchange hasn't begun, what could make the crowd outside so riled up?" Another answered, his confusion evident too.
Berg's brows furrowed, turning to Rodbar, he said, "Let's go check it out."
With a nod of agreement, Rodbar turned to all the students and said, "You all should wait here, we'll be back."
With that, Berg and Rodbar hurried towards the arena where the sounds came from.
Not long after Berg and Rodbar had left, Judith yorr, one of the librarians spoke curiously, "I wonder what could be going on outside."
"You wanna know?" A voice suddenly spoke directly behind her, causing her to flinch nervously.
Turning round to look at the source of the voice, she saw her teammate, Allan, looking at her with his usual grin.
"What's wrong with you Allan? don't scare me like that." Judith remarked with a slight tremor in her voice.
Allan's grin grew even wider. "You asked what could be going on outside, don't you want to know?" Allan asked as he approached Judith with light steps.
"Well, yes, aren't you curious too?" Judith replied.
"Well since you're curious let me show you," Allan said, now standing face to face with Judith.
"Show me? Master Rodbar said we should-"
Judith's voice stopped abruptly, her body shook slightly as she looked down slowly to her belly to see blood flowing down from it with a black dagger stuck there. She weakly raised her head back to look at Allan who had stabbed her.
Allan's grin grew even wider seeing Judith's shocked expression. "Well, you did want to know what was going on outside." He remarked, before adding. "This is more or less it."
"W-why?" Judith forced herself to ask.
Leaning closer to Judith, Allan whispered something into her ear, causing her expression to show further shock.
Looking at Allan with a resentful gaze, Judith's body then slowly slipped from the dagger, falling to the ground with a thud.
The sound of Judith's body hitting the ground caught the attention of the other students. They all looked to the source sound and saw Judith lying in her own blood, with Allan standing over her smiling. Seeing such a scene their faces twisted in disbelief.
"Haha," Allan's soft chuckle brought all of them out of their daze.
"Wh-what's this?" Mark looked at Judith's body in shock, his eyes widening.
Mark then turned to Allan with a glare, as if ready to explode.
"What is the meaning of this Allan?" Mark asked, his angry gaze locking onto him menacingly.
"Oh, what a nasty glare," I'd be dead by now if looks could kill, Allan said with a chuckle, unfazed by Mark's glare. "And to answer your question, well, I just answered hers, " he added with a grin.
"You bastard," Mark muttered, his fists clenched, a sizzling sound coming off his body. Taking a step forward, the air about him shifted subtly.
"Allan you- " Mark's voice started, but was interrupted by Allan's voice.
"Won't you guys help me out?" Allan asked casually, seemingly referring to some of the students present.
His words caused Mark to pause in his tracks, as he scanned the other students warily, considering the possible meaning behind Allan's words.
As Mark hesitated, cautiously scanning the rest of the students, Romnwell suddenly moved, bringing his palms together, flames began to dance about them.
His next actions shocked the students even more as he thrust his arm forward, grabbing Ara's face with his blazing hand, causing her to scream in pain.
Mark reacted quickly, sprinting towards Romnwell. He threw a hand in an attempt to pry Ara away from him whilst simultaneously releasing a fist tinged with a blue hue at him.
The impact of Mark's fist caused Romnwell to let go of Ara. After rescuing her from Romnwell's flaming grip, Mark pulled Ara aside and cautiously scanned the remaining students, numerous possibilities flashing in his mind in relation to the current situation.
"Can you help yourself?" Mark asked Ara.
Still stunned by the shock of being attacked and the burning pain assaulting her face, Ara could only grunt in response. She raised her hand and placed it on her burnt face, a worm glow coming from her palms bathed her burned face, causing her wounds to heal to an extent, opening her eyes, she glared at Romnwell, her once flawless features now marred by burn scars.