The Mysterious Black Magician

Some people who were currently looking at the person in a dark cloak narrowed their eyes. Ice, the Ace was one of them. She could feel something from that person. 

In backstage, Keremi also narrowed his eyes towards the same person. Then his mouth extended at both sides, forming a smile.

Bob and the others had their eyes focused on the large monitor. Beside him was Chloe. Most of them were already in their resonance state. They already upgraded the battery of their System Deities to the latest version, so most of them were able to stay in resonance for straight three days without canceling it.

"Who do you think that person is?" Suddenly, Bob heard Chloe's question.

"Hmn… no idea.. Perhaps, someone from a different section." He replied honestly.

"I see. By the way, who do you think will win?" Chloe asked once again.

"That's hard to say. Especially that we don't know who's the person behind that cloak."

"You're right."

"However, against that bastard Bruno, that person will certainly have hard times to win. Especially Bruno's tricky skills," said Bob.

"Yeah, and he's specialized in the defense too." Chloe agreed to Bob.

"Exactly. Well, let's see how that person will handle someone like Bruno."

"Mhm!"

Bob and Chloe knew exactly how hard to win against Bruno. The skill of his wind element was a hassle to most enemies.

Not far from them, Mai and Brai also had the same conversation. They were guessing who would win in this fight. But the two had the same guess. That Bruno had a high chance of winning.

Almina and Maena could not tell if who had a high chance of winning between the two. More or less, they didn't want to guess as they had no idea of the other person's identity. They also noticed that most of the trainees from the Elite classroom were still present backstage, and those people they believed had a chance of winning against Bruno were also present in the room. So far as they didn't know what kind of ability or techniques that person had, they couldn't tell with certainty if who among them would win.

The moment after they heard the word 'START!', everyone fell silent, and all of the attention was on the stage.

They saw Bruno materialized a longsword in hand then hurried towards his opponent. He also summoned wind barriers around him. These barriers were his special ability. With these barriers, his defense was firm and he could only focus on offense.

Seeing that his opponent was yet to make a move, he snorted. "Heh, slow!" Bruno muttered without stopping his feet. In just a span of 3 seconds, he already traversed the distance between them. The previous 20 meters away from each other was now nowhere near 3 meters.

"Kuku, such an easy win," Kiko muttered with a mocking grin.

"What a lucky bastard! Haha!" Marco laughed with a little envy. He wanted to be the first to show off his skills as well. Especially that Miss Almina's group was all here.

Everyone heard a loud yell. "Die, dude!!!" It was coming from Bruno who was raising his weapon overhead. He noticed his enemy was lifting his arm to punch him. But Bruno only snorted at it. He was surrounded by wind barriers. Such an attack would never reach him. It was useless! In his mind, what an easy fast win. Forget 5 seconds this match would end in just 4 seconds!

The audience was lively cheering. Some of them even bet on who would win.

In backstage,

"Uh-oh, you can't just stand there and do nothing while facing Bruno," Kesha commented. Everyone agreed with her. After all, they already witnessed Bruno's abilities several times. Especially when they had a joint exploration inside the dungeon. Bruno's ability was very helpful at that time.

That's why. Everyone gawked in disbelief when they heard a loud, yet dull impact, then they saw Bruno staggering back.

A moment later, he fell on his butt with empty eyes while staring at his enemy. "Y-you…" he muttered with a disbelieving expression on his face. Not just that, his knees lost their strength. Then his vision was murky.

"What? What happened?" Kesha wondered and so the others.

"Bruno was knocked down?!!"

A solemn arena.

Everyone has to process what is happening on the stage.

"How is it possible?!" Marco questioned with a tinge of deep emotion.

Kiko, on the other hand, was staring still at the monitor. Even he could not understand. He was sure that Bruno used the Wind Barriers around him, out of precaution. 

So how did that punch landed?

Although a straight punch was faster than a downward strike of a longsword, the problem lies in the Wind Barriers. By using it, it was almost impossible to land a hit on Bruno since whatever attack would be slowed down because of the Wind Barriers.

Yet, not only that person's punch hadn't slowed down, but it also hit on Bruno's jaw directly.

Now his health points dropped to 75 percent.

Everyone was slack-jawed staring still at the monitor. Only the lively audience around the arena was noisy at the moment. Those in backstage and even in the VIP room were all staring at the fight in puzzlement.

Meanwhile, in the arena, that person in a dark cloak did not follow up with another attack. He was staring down at his opponent who was having difficulty standing. Bruno managed to stand somehow, though with shaky legs. He gritted his teeth. He was supposed to end the fight in 5 seconds. Unfortunately, the result of their first clash, he was the one who fell on his butt in just four seconds after the match started! How embarrassing!

Bruno peered in front of him. For some reason, his enemy was standing still without finishing him. Looks like this person was looking down on him! Bastard!

Then Bruno widened his eyes when his vision came back to normal because under the hood was a familiar face.

"Toad..." He uttered. But suddenly, that person's figure suddenly became blurred and disappeared, a second later he reappeared in front of him!

"What?!"

Out of reflex, he brandished the sword to the front. But the enemy dodges with ease which caused a grimace on Bruno's face.

However, it was enough time for him to retreat.

Bruno, without wasting time, decided to leap backward. At the same time, he summoned the Wind Barriers once again.

Then again, he was hit by something. He felt a strong impact from the back. He staggered in front. Then found himself on all fours.

Inside the backstage were so silent. Kiko was gnashing his teeth. Everyone was flabbergasted. All of them had a wrong assessment of the fight. They all thought the fight would be easy in favor of Bruno.

Yet, how the f##k the situation was different to what most of them had been expected! Right. It was an easy fight, but the situation was the opposite of what was in their minds.

The other trainees darted their eyes to Kiko's group. He didn't like those stares coming from them. It was so painful to bear.

In the stage, Bruno fired multiple wind vortexes. However, the enemy just stood up there without evading or dodging his attack. 

Weirdly though, Bruno's attack disappeared before it touched the target.

And why was the enemy just standing there? He was letting Bruno attack him. From other people's perspective, it looks like he was showing who among them was the real boss in defense. After all, Bruno was almost untouchable in his every fight lately. But now, faced with an opponent who could hurt him and couldn't be hurt by him. Bruno lost in his mind. He was shouting while repeatedly throwing his magical wind and earth attacks. But to no avail.

The surrounding turned silent. Now, not only those people backstage had fallen silent, even those in the VIP room, and the audience in the arena. "Who the hell is that monster?" No one noticed who among the people in the VIP room said this. But at the moment, everyone was wide-eyed staring at the same person.

Even Principal Kim could not believe that there was someone in this academy who was like that. "Is that even a person?" Even though the attack coming from the other guy wasn't strong enough, it was still unbelievable that someone would come out untouched by those relentless attacks. Yet, those attacks did not even reach him!

Principal Kim glanced at Principal Mar Marie who was sitting beside him. But Principal Mar just shrugged his shoulders, emphasizing that he had no idea.

"Hmm, interesting…" The Ace Miss Ice muttered. She wondered who it was.

"How was someone unaffected by those attacks?" Each of them had questions in their mind.

The only noise at the moment was the lashes of words coming from Bruno who seemingly lost his mind while non-stop throwing his useless attacks.

"Damn you! Die die die! Fucking toad! How did, why are you herrrrre!!!"

After hearing his lashes of words, Kiko narrowed his eyes as he muttered. "What? Toad? Could it be…?"

Then they noticed him slowly approaching Bruno. 

Seeing his figure casually coming closer and closer, Bruno stopped shooting and pointed the tip of his weapon at the enemy while charging towards him to stab him.

A second later, everyone heard a dull sound. Then something flew and rolled on the stage.

Standing behind the person in dark cloth was the headless Bruno. His head rolled many times on the arena floor. Everyone saw Bruno's health points reach zero percent.

A hand chop cut off Bruno's head.

BZZZZZZZZTTT!!!

[WINNER CRIMSON!]

Just then, the audience started to shout his name! 

"Woah! Whatta fight!"

"Now I'm your fan!"

Crimson! Crimson! Crimson!

Yman took off his hood and glanced around him. Then he slowly walked towards to get off of the stage.

When he revealed his face, everyone backstage felt like the time stopped, especially to a specific girl. Upon seeing his face, the world seemed to have stopped moving.