Orena, 300 Km from the Border

" Where the hell have they been? It's already been an hour.", Axel grumbled as he gritted his teeth in anger. He had almost reached his limit.

" Calm down, Axel. Besides, Isn't it good that they aren't here. We don't have the band of the squad leader. We can just relax here until it is all over.", Kevin said as he took out the bag of dried ration and began munching on it.

" Y..You..we just ate a while ago!! Do you want to finish it all at once?", Axel said as he snatched the bag from Kevin's hand.

" As for us relaxing here. You really are an idiot. I know that the students won't target us. But can you say the same for a beast.", Axel said in an annoying tone as he kept away the bag.

Hearing him, Kevin finally realised the problem. The more he thought, the more he became worried.

" Tap! "

" Tap! "

..

..

The sound of footsteps immediately caught their attention.

" It looks like they are here! I will go out and see.", Kevin said as he ran out of the cave.

Axle shook his head. But he too breathed in a sigh of relief. With all of them together, this place was definitely safer.

After all, who knew when something would go wrong. This isn't human territory after all.

Axel too got up wanting to go out of the cave and have a look. But as he stood, he felt something pass along with a breeze of air.

" Boom! "

The whole cave shook and the dust fell from the ceiling. Cracks had stretched out on the surface of the cave extending up to the ceiling.

Axel turned his head slightly to look back and his face turned dark.

It was Kevin.

His eyes had turned white and he was bleeding from head to toe.

Axel rushed forward and brought his fingers towards Kevin's nose.

He was breathing.

But it was...faint

Immediately veins began to pop out of Axel's face and his eyes turned red. Apart from James never did he feel this urge to kill someone so much.

" Hm...interesting. He is not dead. Did he have some kind of defense artifact on his body?"

Hearing the voice, Axel unhooked the gun on his waist as he turned around with a grim look on his face.

There was a man in front of him in a black cloak. He had a silver mask on his face. But strangely Axel felt the silhouette of the man to be familiar.

But that wasn't his main concern. His main concern was the mana this man was trying to hide.

But it was impossible for him to not notice it. His element was affinity with runes. In other words, he was good at sensing and guiding mana.

And for the amount of mana this man had.

It was terrifying. He was just like the head instructors only a level below the Headmaster of the Academy.

" Haha..kid do you think that toy would work on me?", the man said with a laugh as he pointed towards the gun in Axel's hand.

Axel continued to stare down the man while he tried to calm down.

' I need to calm down. I am not his match. I need to get away. The exit is being blocked by the man. But there should be another exit. The stream beside us is flowing into the cave. That means there has to be a way out of here. If I can make the cave collapse. I can definitely buy myself some time to out run him. But what about Kevin? No..he will get buried too. F*ck!…..think! ...think!...I need to find a better way...what about that..'

Suddenly, Axel thought of something and looked towards the place where the man was standing.

' No..its dangerous. If I want to reach the activation zone of the formation below his feet, he wouldn't just stand there."'

Yes, it has been his habit to lay out formation around his territory and this time it was not different.

But, the man was standing at the wrong place. He needed to push him back. But was it within his power.

" I see that all of you are not here. Then I should finish you quickly and go looking around for them.", the man said as he took a step forward.

' F*ck! Do I even have to care if it's dangerous at this point. Even if I die, I will put on the greatest show before leaving. It is a nice chance to test that. Let's see how it works.'

" You really have pushed me to my limits. I was living a peaceful life away from it. But you really had to come knocking at my door.", Axel said with a melancholic look in his eyes as he shook his head.

" Have you gone insane due to fear?", the man asked with a hint of amusement in his tone.

"Bang!"

The sound of gunshot echoed in the cave and a bullet shell fell on to the ground.

The man in the black cloak immediately pulled a few steps back as he touched his face.

The lower edge of his mask around his cheek was broken and blood was flowing through the cut on his cheek.

He turned to look at Axel with a wary look in his eyes.

" What are you looking at? Do you really think I won't kill you? ", Axel said as he took a step forward.

…..

In another area, Orena

" Crackle!"

The sound of lightning could be heard along with the purple bolts of lightning sizzling around. It was accompanied by the terrifying screams of students.

" Zap! "

" Zap! "

" Ahhh!!"

"Ahhh!!"

" Haha..I have one more band.", Wilson laughed happily as if the bodies of several students on the ground who were screaming in agony didn't even exist.

There were four bands on his arms which clearly showed why this crazy person still hadn't returned to his base.

" Oh! It's already this late. I should get going and save some fun for tomorrow.", Wilson said as he looked towards the sky in realisation.

The sun was a bit above the horizon and within an hour at most it would turn dark.

Wilson turned around to leave. But after taking a few steps, he stopped and turned around.

There was a guy in front of him covered in a black cloak along with a silvered colored mask on his face. There was a strange eerily aura leaking out his body and Wilson could feel the terrifying pressure building up on him.

" Hm..you are still able to stand. You would have a good future if you didn't come to Arcane.", the guy spoke with indifference.

" Who are you? ", Wilso asked as he continued to stare down at him.

" It doesn't matter, you will soon all be dead.", the guy said as he looked towards the student on the ground who had burn marks from lightning.

" Y..You..killing is not allowed...w..what.. ..are you d..doing! ", the group of students on the ground clearly felt the killing intent as they started to shout out in fear.

But the man didn't seem to care. A gust of wind started to form around his hand as his black cloak and sleeves started to flutter.

Wind drill, A mid level spell.

Seeing that, the student's eyes widened.

The guy in black cloak moved and stabbed his hand towards the face of the student on the ground.

But just as his hand was about to pierce the head of the student, he stopped.

No...he was stopped.

The guy turned his head to looked at his hand being grabbed by the red haired guy.

" What are you doing? It's not your turn yet.", the guy in black cloak said in indifference.

" I hate waiting."

Wilson replied with a smile as purple strands of lightning began to sizzle around him.