Dark Magus Returns

Raze was surprised. Out of all the contestants and students they had, why was he selected? Due to him being a middle stage warrior rather than an initial stage warrior, his speed would be faster than most. So, it wasn't a bad choice to pick, if a person had all of this knowledge in the first place. But Lince didn't know that the student called 'Jake' from the Crimson Crane was the Dark Magus.

'I shouldn't put it past him that he would be able to tell that I'm a middle stage warrior as well. These Demonic Clan leaders are quite a bit stronger compared to that of the Dark Faction, if we eliminate Murkel in the matter,' Raze thought.

"Beret is quite fast; our clan focuses on foot techniques, unlike the other clans, to evade getting caught," Lince explained. "Do any of the other students have an objection?"

Kaylie shook her head along with the members of the Seeno Clan, not that they would disagree with someone from the Lost Clan in the first place.

Brack wouldn't mind taking part, but based on the type of event it was, it didn't interest him, and as for Mantis, he only said a few things.

"As long as they win, I have no problem. Just don't make me regret not taking part in every single one of these events," Mantis commented.

Still, based on the results of the last event, why had Raze been selected?

"Why me?" Raze had to ask. This wasn't going along with his plan of going unnoticed, and despite Lince's lesson on the Factions, Raze still thought it was better for him to lay low.

Lince gestured with a finger as he stood up from his seat, telling him to come over, away from the ears of the others.

When they were in the corner of the room, Lince started to speak.

"I have a favor to ask you," Lince whispered. "I have had a bad feeling since we stepped into the Light Faction, and in the past, there have also been a number of deaths that have occurred.

"This time, it feels like due to our weakness in the first event, we will be targeted. I wasn't lying when I said that I believe Beret is the best for this task, but I fear for his life."

"Usually, the Demonic Faction Clans don't care about the life of the weak, even if they are their own blood… but I can't help my feelings."

Not every student was a direct descendant of the clan heads that were taking part. From the look of things, it seemed like none of them were, but that wasn't the case for the Lost Clan.

"I have asked you to join this because I feel you are different from the others, and this may be a gamble on my part. I don't care if you win or lose this event."

"The only thing I ask is that you protect Beret at all costs while out there."

They didn't even know the full details of the event, and people died every day. Raze had killed those that had family and friends as well.

Beret was also a person who he knew next to nothing about. So, there was no reason for him to say yes; for all he knew, it could have been a trick.

Which is why Raze said nothing. The glass door opened, and Beret and Raze walked out onto the field.

While walking out, Raze looked in the direction of the Light Faction; he saw one female and a male walk out. It wasn't the woman that had caught his attention from before. Both of these had thin rapier swords by their side.

"Those two are from the Illumination Clan," Beret commented. "They use light weapons and focus on speed-based attacks, but their attacks aren't the strongest because of that."

The two contestants were Charlotte and Harmon. What Raze was curious about was the bracelets that they were wearing, which had a golden 'I' on them.

"The Illumination Clan is considered the weakest of the Light Faction clans; this should be easy for us," Beret commented.

As someone from the Lost Clan, he had gathered a lot of information.

"The weakest, so what is the standing of the Light Factions at the moment?" Raze asked.

"Similar to the Demonic Faction, there are three Clans in the Light Faction with great power. The Illumination Clan is at the bottom; then you have the Dawnblade Clan, which contains Beatrix and her student Hannah who performed the finale strike on the beast in the last round."

"There is one more student from the Illumination Clan, but lastly, the Aurora Clan is considered the strongest and has one student taking part, Ulyn; that's who I would look out for."

In his mind, Raze was a little conflicted; the Light Faction seemed to have connections with Mages, so he had great interest in them as a way for him to head back to Alter.

But his original task was taking care of the Dark Faction, who also had links to the world but more so, the people he had met in this world.

When looking at the Dark Faction, he saw the two students that had been selected for this task; it was Ricktor and Mada.

'At least, if I run into these two, I won't have to feel bad about hurting them.'

"I can tell what that guy's thinking already," Mada said as he walked out. "He thinks it's going to be fine if he hits us."

"That might not come into play either way," Ricktor replied. "Firstly, if we run into him, we can't just let him win; that would be disrespectful to him, and we need to know if he has the strength to help us."

"Otherwise, we're on our own, and besides, this event isn't an outright test of strength; otherwise, they wouldn't have given us that hint about selecting the fastest."

The announcer, who was now nowhere to be seen, but they could all clearly hear the sound of his voice, was ready to talk.

"Now that all of the participants are on the stage, I will be explaining the following rules. There will be a number of Charging Rats that will enter the stage."

"A beast that is known for its rapid speed, the time limit will be thirty minutes. Within that time, the team with the most power stones will win! The rules are simple, right?"

"However, things won't be as easy as it seems."

The announcer clicked his fingers, and the entire stage started to rumble. Right in front of them, walls were being built up one after the other.

The crowd, seeing this, were amazed at what was happening with oo's and ah's as they saw the walls, and they had also come right in between each of the individuals.

The walls then started to move and come toward the contestants, forcing them to move positions if they didn't want to be hit.

They continued until the stage was finally done.

"Behold, in this assessment, each member will have to also chase the beasts through a maze! And who knows who you will run into, friends, allies, enemies, or the crystals themselves; we wish everyone good luck!"