The strange man surveyed his surroundings, looking down on the weary people beneath. He then removed his hat flipping it upside down when all of a sudden it contorted and stretched, as if it was trying to spit something out.

With an audible “pop” the black box came out of the hat and landed on the man’s free hand as a rabbit appeared following its ejection. With only the upper body exposed, It then silently stared at those below and then quickly looked back at its master who simply smiled.

“Thank you for your assistance Mr Tindy. As promised I will feed you breakfast muffins once we are done here.” The man declared.

The rabbit then continued to stare when all of a sudden it made a sound no one expected.

“Woof woof!”

The Rabbit barked before disappearing back inside the black top hat.

This bizarre interaction left the crowd in a silent daze as if they had forgotten that they were in the middle of a contest. Fortunately this stupor did not last long.

“Sylvester Clearsight.” Maria said in a hush tone as her attention was forcefully dragged to the man who was floating in mid air.

The man dressed as a stereotypical magician continued to look down from above as a silence that seemed to dwell on forever took hold. He looked around the battlefield and was seemingly judging the situation.

He then started toying with the black box, throwing it into the air and then catching it while a sly grin was plastered on his face.

“I welcome all of you to this story's second half!” He started talking in a boisterous showman tone. “Where a hidden antagonistic threat played by me, Sylvester Clearsight, rears his ugly head, completely taking everyone by surprise! Now I wonder what this development would hold for our beloved heroes! ” He declared.

“What is he saying?”

“Who the hell do you think you are?”

“Shut the fuck up you phony! Fuck off!”

"Booooo!"

A bunch of voices reacted violently at the openly mocking declaration. The shouts of contempt were then followed by a myriad of spells all aimed at the Sylvester.

Sylvester simply smiled and made no effort to block or defend himself from the incoming spells, instead he decided to throw away the box high into the sky before the spells reached him. A door then magically materialized just below the expected trajectory of the box.

Sylvester’s body then sank into the air just barely evading the violent explosion caused by the collision of multiple attacks. He then popped out of the door that was previously created and caught the box in one fell swoop.

“Excellent! Ausgezeichnet! Subarashii!!” He smiled in joy as his actions continue to baffle the participants. “It seems that all you are still plenty energetic despite all the fighting! Simply marvelous!” Sylvester shouted in an almost manic voice.

“What is this guy’s deal? Why is he acting like this?” William asked Mary as he moved closer to his teammates.

“I don’t really know, I don’t talk to him at all during the chain casting class.” She explained. “But I guess this part of that showman persona I told you about.”

“Like during our practical test, the moment he went to the front and began his presentation, he had this undeniable presence that commands attention, the same one he is displaying right now.”

“What? Is he doing this on purpose then?” William continued with his questions.

“Yes. And what’s worse is that his spells seem to be unique in a sense that they were made especially for the purpose of being a magician. Be careful, since a magician always has a trick up his sleeve.” Mary continued as Julia and Sharn huddled closer together.

“I see.” William simply nodded in response.

“A genuine article posing as a fake. But why?” William asked himself in silence.

Before Mary could further elaborate, Letisia fired off a spell towards the showman still floating above them. Instead of doing whatever trick he did earlier, he simply avoided the attack by jumping off and landing on the floor with the box still in his hands.

Sylvester’s presence managed to change the flow of the battle singlehandedly while simultaneously taking all the ire of everyone present.

“At any rate, there’s only one of him and a lot of us.” Julia commented.

“It doesn’t matter how good he is or his tricks.” Sharn added.

It seemed the rest of the participants had arrived at the same conclusion plus there was really not much else they could do, time is quickly running out after all. But then William realized something was wrong.

“Something doesn’t add up.” He thought to himself. “Why would he show up all alone. Where are the others?”

As the mob prepared to gang up on the lone magician, a large pillar of light erupted in the middle of the crowd, catching a good number of people off guard and incapacitating them thanks to the traitor barrier.

“What was that?” Letisia shouted in anger and confusion.

“Lady Letisia please get behind us!” Frieda yelled as the rest of her team encircled her.

“As I suspected, that man was never alone.” Ronald declared as three patches of mist started forming from behind Sylvester as three more people joined the fray.

“Why are you guys showing up already? Is this insubordination? You need to listen to the mastermind!” Sylvester joked as his friends slowly revealed themselves.

A red haired wearing green army goggles and an army camo vest, a tall blonde man carrying a sword, and a woman with silver hair and crimson eyes. Their appearance confirmed what William and even Letisia already knew, the four S-rank students were indeed working together.

“My patience can only last as much.” Rossa replied. “I do not like playing as someone else’s puppet, much less a villain. Why did I even agree with this arrangement?”

“Can’t say I can complain though.” Artian interjected. “After all, I get to talk mad shit and act like a complete jackass!” He said in joyful furor.

“Hey look guys, they’re attacking us again.” Estelle declared as she pointed at the people aiming their spells towards them.

Rossa scoffed as she erected her spell called luminous barrier and protected themselves from the torrent of attacks. But instead of just doing it once she called forth the spell 3 times creating three layers of defense in quick succession thanks to chain casting.

A violent explosion of many colors then followed, but once the dust settled the four people were left intact as only two layers of the barrier were broken.

“No good.” Frieda suddenly spoke. “It seems that the fatigue is starting to take its toll, the strength of our spells are starting to get affected.”

“Damn it. These damn cowards! And they’re supposed to be the ones who qualified for the hardest trial? What a joke!” She angrily screamed, her anger directed at the group now in possession of the treasure they all seek.

“And the fact all of you are all tired is our fault because?” Artian spoke in a mocking tone, his words carefully chosen for the sole purpose of getting under their skin.

“Before we continue I would like to preface one thing you all seemed to have forgotten in your uh, let’s call it pride induced delusions of grandeur.” Sylvester cut in

”This entire event isn’t about how many mages you can take down, or just how much more powerful you are compared to the others. This isn’t a contest of strength, but a contest of versatility and cunning.” Sylvester explained.

“And yet you kept coming and coming for each other’s throats. It’s not my fault that you guys are kinda tired right now.” He continued as he continued to toss the black box into the air.

His words fell into deaf ears as ego overpowered reason, however this wasn’t true for everyone present.

William and his friends took heed of his words. While he was definitely a bit irritated with the way Sylvester was speaking, he knew he was only stating the truth.

Still, he didn’t want to give up. The small irritation he felt gave him more drive to try his best and win. While it may be a bit petty, motivation is still motivation.

As he started thinking about what he should try next, the black box in Sylvester’s hand started glowing as the question marks let out a brilliant light.

It then spat out a new item, and with that, a new opportunity.

“Great! This is our chance. If he gets an item he can’t use he will surely lose control of the box and from then on we can try again.” he thought to himself, it was also something Letisia and her group immediately realized.

Right now this little turn of events granted them a little bit of hope and time.

Sylvester caught the item with his left hand and inspected it. It looked like a black backpack with a lot of straps. But most curious of all was a red handle that was attached to a white string that was connected to the bag. On the string was a tag that had the words “Pull me” written on it.

Sylvester immediately realized what this item was at first glance and didn’t hesitate to wear it back immediately and then forcefully shoving the box inside his hat.

He then turned his head to face Artian.

“Artian, it looks like we’ll be doing one of those absurd scenarios we joked about. Man who would have thought? RNG can be scary sometimes.” He said as he tapped on Artian’s shoulder.

“What do you me-OH that’s a parachute isn’t it?” He declared.

“Yup. Now hurry, do your thing!” Sylvester said as he stretched out his hand. A gesture that Artian repeated. He then grabbed Sylvester’s arm and assumed a position that looked like he was about to throw a really strong pitch.

The rest of the participants however did not simply let do as they pleased and tried to attack immediately in order to delay them long enough for the box to trigger. Sadly their effort was in vain as they were easily fended off by a combination of Rossa’s defensive barrier and Estelle firing back elemental spells of her own.

“Hurry up you two!” Rossa declared.

“Don’t worry, I was just about ready to go. Yo Sylvester! Have a nice trip!” Artian said with a smile as Sylvester gripped his hat as hard as he could.

Artian tensed up his entire body as he accumulated a large amount of mana. He then sunk his feet into the sand due to his sheer strength alone.

“Mana fortification-” He shouted

“TIMES 10!” His words rang out loudly much to the shock of everyone around.

“Times 10? What the hell?” William reacted in disbelief over what he heard.

Artian let out a loud roar of effort as he threw Sylvester into the direction of the third quadrant with great force.

Sylvester then desperately held on to his tophat as he was launched high into the sky, screaming with joy as he continued his ascent.

The rest of the participants could only watch in awe as Sylvester’s figure quickly disappeared out of their sights. They wanted to follow him but unfortunately there was a wall blocking their path.

“Now then what shall we do?” Artian said as he faced the rest of the angry mob that seemed ready to lynch them along with Rossa and Estelle.

“Well, Let’s just stick to our “Overlord’s” instructions.” Estelle declared trying to sound evil and ominous and absolutely failing at it.

“Ugghh, Why did I agree to this?” Rossa asked herself again as she let out a sigh.