Dark Magus Returns

Immediately upon joining the fight, Reno released his Qi, and it constantly flowed out of his body. As it struck the warriors around him, all of their senses were slightly disoriented, allowing him enough time to avoid their blows and grasp their faces.

"You know, my poison is most deadly when I can make skin-on-skin contact," Reno said, releasing one of the warriors and dropping him to the floor.

Foam began to appear in the warrior's mouth, and it didn't take long before his heart stopped beating.

Seeing one of the warriors approach, Kizer gritted his teeth and stood up, swinging his leg to kick one of the warriors from underneath them. They fell to the ground, and with both his hands, he smashed right through the warrior's stomach, resulting in a loud cracking sound.

"I'm not out of the fight myself yet. I heard what that bastard said—he called me weak... and you the weakest!" Kizer declared, his fists pumping with blood.

"That's because you are weak!" Clipper jumped in and unleashed a flurry of punches on Reno. Reno deflected the hits, pushing them away with the palm of his hand.

Every time Reno made contact with Clipper, he used his poison Qi, but it seemed to have little effect on him. Then, charging both his hands, Clipper thrust them into the center.

Seeing this, Reno lifted his hands like a wave and pushed both fists down, causing the attack to fall into the ground, breaking part of the flooring beneath it.

"You deflected my attack!" Clipper said, surprised.

However, shortly after, more warriors joined in, trying to attack Reno, and he had to defend himself from the attacks as he moved further and further back.

Clipper hadn't moved in for a second attack; he was covering his hands with Qi to protect himself from the poison. He thought about what had happened.

"I am at the middle stage myself. I thought I would have at least been able to go against the weakest of the Crimson Crane... Were the rumors wrong about him?" Clipper believed that if it were a one-on-one fight, he would have been a match for Reno, at least based on the information he had gathered. So, why were their powers almost equal? If it weren't for them outnumbering them right now, this fight might be more difficult than they visualized.

Reno had been pushed back, but he had also noticed that some were trying to rush into the large metal building behind them. He ran forward, avoiding all the strikes that came his way, then grabbed one of the warriors by the shoulder before they could enter. He dragged them down and flung them back to the ground, then ducked to avoid a sword blow.

Immediately, Kizer threw another two fists, sending two more warriors flying.

"Hey, is it just me, or does there seem to be more of these guys?" Kizer observed.

"You're right. I think I have an idea of which Clan is attacking us right now," Reno commented. "It has to be the Behemoth Clan, which isn't good news for us. We're in the city of Repton, and this is their turf. I'm sure there will be more and more of them."

In the middle of their discussion, both of them were attacked from all sides, but both Reno and Kizer managed to block them. Right behind them, Clipper had charged his two fists and bashed right into the center of their stances, sending them flying and breaking through the walls of the Alchemist rental building, landing in the main hall.

Immediately, members of the Behemoth Clan rushed in, some surrounding the two members of the Crimson Crane, while others headed down the hallways, breaking into several rooms. Reno turned his head and saw them breaking the locks with their fists. After that, a punch and a kick, and they were dragging the working alchemists out of the rooms across the floor like sacks of potatoes, bringing them out of the place.

"This isn't good," Reno thought.

------

The leader of the Crimson Crane, along with her fellow members, was dealing with their own situation, and they were faring slightly better. Having consumed the pills, they had boosted their strength beyond their normal limits.

Consuming the green pill gave them a speed boost, the red pill restored their strength and wounds somewhat, while the blue pill, the cursed one, was kept in reserve for now.

Alba was doing most of the work, slashing down members one by one and sending them off the bridge to fall into the abyss.

Wild Fang was getting annoyed at everything that was happening and everything he could see.

"Do you think you're the only ones we are attacking?" Wild Fang shouted, hoping to create a distraction to find an opening.

"I said this before, but we found every single one of your members across the continent. Wherever they are, all members of the Crimson Crane are going through the same thing as you guys are right now. We will, no matter what, find information about the Dark Magus."

Alba slashed another person down and locked eyes with Wild Fang.

"Do you think you could force the Dark Magus to work for you?"

"Do you think an alchemist can defy us? We will get what we want from him no matter what!" Wild Fang shouted.

A sinister grin appeared on Alba's face.

"If you think he's just another regular simple alchemist, then you're in for a surprise."

------

Reno and Kizer continued to fight, now more desperately than before. With Clipper joining in and being skillful, it was proving to be more difficult than ever. What was extremely distracting for both of them, though, was seeing Behemoth Clan members enter room after room and drag out the alchemists. The alchemists seemed helpless, and some had tried to resist, resulting in severe injuries.

"Reno, we need to do something!" Kizer shouted.

"I'm trying! But these guys aren't just nobodies!" Reno shouted back. "They're skilled fighters, and some are at the middle stage like us. We need help!"

Then, both Kizer and Reno saw it. A group of two men from the Behemoth group were outside the Dark Magus' door. They threw their fists at the door, breaking it off its hinges. After that, they rushed in.

Desperately, Reno fought his way through to get to the door. If anything happened to the Dark Magus, Alba would never forgive them, they were as good as dead.

Reno knocked one person down grabbing onto their face, and when he dropped to the floor, he saw something. The wall beside them cracked, and pushing right through were two large bodies flying in the air. They landed on the ground, both with large, clean holes in their chests.

"What the?" Clipper turned his head and saw a man standing there, his hands down by his side, wearing a black robe.

"Who the heck are you?" Clipper shouted, looking at his two Pagna warriors, hurt and dead.

The hooded man looked to his right, his magic circle ruined and destroyed.

"I spent... so long on that... I was so close..." The hooded man's fists were shaking. "Who am I? Who the f*ck are you? No... I don't care about that. There's no point in asking questions to the dead."