The entire Crimson Crane group was still trying to get over the fact that this person in front of them was the Dark Magus. His smooth skin, his smaller body frame that had yet to fill out, as well as the lack of deep wrinkles in certain places, all pointed to him being at least a student.
An older teenager who had yet to become a full adult. This was the person they had been working with, this was the person they had been fighting against literal demons to keep by their side.
There were quite a few that were a little unhappy with the fact that they had done so much and gone against so many to get him on their side before. One of them was Kizer, but he had been convinced after receiving a new item from the Dark Magus, and he had done his best to try to convince the others, but it was hard for them to see.
Nonetheless, they would listen to Alba because she was their leader, the one they trusted, and the person who had allowed them to get so far.
Now, though, after hearing the words out of the Dark Magus’s mouth, they all thought this was a step too far. “We can’t do that… can we?” Tilon asked, his voice fluctuating slightly high at the end, as he wasn’t so sure if the others felt the same way.
“Of course we can’t,” Cronker answered. “The Dark Faction Pagna Academy isn’t like the other academies; the principal of that place is the head of the Erupting Fist Clan.
“They are the strongest Clan in the whole of the Dark Faction. This isn’t like when we went up against a single Elder that belonged to a clan in the Light Faction.
“Do you even understand what you are asking us to do, Dark Magus? Right now, we might as well be declaring war on the entire Dark Faction!”
It was more dire than Cronker even realized, since he was unaware that currently five main disciples had been in the academy, the five major clans of the Dark Faction had been keeping a close eye on the academy.
It wasn’t a question of if the other clans got involved but more so when.
After hearing Cronker’s explanation, they all turned to look at Raze, to which he had nodded slowly, understanding he knew the situation.
“I don’t think that the Dark Magus would try to enter a fight he thought he could lose,” Kizer replied.
“Yeah, which is why he’s asking us for our help!” Elivin replied. “You know, we could end up dying because of this, and even if we fail, and somehow manage to escape, we’ll be hunted by the whole of the Dark Faction.”
Many at the table nodded their heads.
“So it seems like we are in agreement that we can’t do this,” Cronker stated. “Going against the Pagna Academy is not something we can do on behalf of someone else just because of a favor.”
So far, Alba had been keeping quiet. She had her finger on her chin and was stroking it back and forth. Cronker was a bit worried as he saw this, wondering what she was thinking and why she hadn’t just outright refused the Dark Magus straight away.
“Don’t you think the Dark Magus has a reason to do this?” Reno said. “At the time, when the Light Faction Elder attacked, I’m sure of it, if he wasn’t there, I would have lost my life, and the reason we had run into them was coincidence on my part.”
“As Kizer stated before, the Dark Magus has fought by our side, he knows our strength, so I assume that he has some sort of idea of how to face the academy.”
“Not just that,” Kizer added. “If we pull this off, won’t we practically have taken the Dark Faction down ourselves? We will have a place we can permanently stay, where we don’t have to worry about the Light Faction or the Dark Faction, and our names will be placed in history books to be read on.”
“We will be Pagna warriors with a legacy left behind.”
These words had ignited quite a spark in many of their lives. A legacy, a name to be remembered, these were some of the main reasons why people became Pagna warriors in the first place.
“In order for it to become a legacy, we need to succeed, and I very much doubt that can happen,” Cronker replied.
The group seemed torn, some of them undecided, and when this happened, they would often look at their leader for an answer.
Now all eyes were on Alba. Seeing how it was her time to talk, she placed her hand down by her side and had a large smile on her face.
“I want to ask you all a question. If I was to ask you to go up against the Dark Faction Pagna Academy, would you follow me into battle?” Alba asked.
Nearly everyone nodded with reassuring grunts immediately.
“I mean, I would have some questions as to why you would want to do such a thing, but I would agree, of course,” Cronker answered.
“Exactly, my favor was he could take control of the Crimson Crane as if it was his own one time. The Dark Magus’s request is the same as if the request was from me, so I expect all of you to treat it that way.”
After finishing her talk, there were no more arguments between the group, they now knew what they needed to do.
In that instance, she started to walk towards Raze and looked down at where he was sitting.
“You’re in that state for a reason; I’m hoping that you aren’t asking us all to fight to the death for some petty reason such as revenge,” Alba stated. “I hope you have something bigger in mind.
“The favor you asked for is bigger than I imagined, so I hope you can create even better weapons than I imagined as well.”
Looking up, Raze managed to break a smile as he gave a nod.
“Very well, from now on until we finish this task, you can be the boss,” Alba said. “So when are we going to do this? It will take us quite a while to head to the Dark Faction.”
While Alba was mumbling along and making plans, Raze had stood up and walked to an empty part of the floor; he started to draw away.
“The Dark Faction aren’t hostile towards us so it should be easy to enter. The problem is entering the academy; maybe we could come as guests?” Alba said, talking to Cronker and devising a plan.
That was until a blue glowing light was shining on her back. She could hear a strange ominous floating sound from behind.
Slowly she turned around, and all of the eyes of the Crimson Crane, they were all stuck on the sight in front of them.
The glowing large oval shape that was floating in the air.
“It’s a portal,” Alba said. “The Dark Magus, did he just open a portal? How is that even possible?”
Raze lifted his hand to his throat as he gave the command.
“We leave now.”
Chapter 410 Eliminate the Lethal Bite Clan
Entering through the portal, the group exited, and Dame was the last one to enter this time. When they landed in the new dimension, Dame and the rest found themselves among an area filled with sand.
“These dimensions really do vary a lot, huh,” Liam commented. “I mean, this is so different from the world I was in.”
“It was the same for me as well,” Simyon replied. “We only heard and knew about dimensions from others but never really experienced it ourselves.”
Safa went and grabbed a part of the sand. As she did, a strong gust of wind blew out the particles.
“All of these are clearly different worlds from Pagna. I wonder what happened to them,” Safa mumbled.
The strong gust of wind had hit each of them, and it was then that Dame realized that there was something more than just wind blowing out toward them; he could feel energy as well.
“That’s Qi, there’s a strong energy of Qi coming from the distance,” Dame commented.
The others looked out, trying to see where this Qi energy was coming from. Unlike Dame, they could hardly feel it; it was so faint.
Safa, using her God Eyes, could see that Dame was right. Although she couldn’t sense it with her skin, she could see it.
“They must be really strong then, right?” Tinson asked. “If we can feel their Qi, but not actually see them.”
“You’re right,” Dame answered. “It means that a strong fight is going on, and it’s most likely the Clan Head. If they’re still going up against her and are alive, then it has to be Raze!”
Wasting no time, the rest of the group went on to follow Dame as they sprinted forward, all of them wondering what sight they would see.
—
Feebie couldn’t understand what was happening, but all she knew was that there was now a person in her way, and she needed to get rid of her to get to her target.
She charged forward and jumped in the air, throwing out her fist. Large visual Qi emitted behind her, looking like that of a giant bite mark.
Equally, Alba bent down slightly, and her two swords continued to glow red. She charged forward and swung her sword.
In the air, the two powerful visual Qis clashed, letting out waves of Qi and stirring up the wind.
Raze, who was close to the fight, had to lift his hand up to stop the sand and dust getting into his eye.
“I am a member of a main clan of the Dark Faction and you still dare to stand in my way!” Feebie shouted, firing fist after fist.
They were tough blows, but equally, Alba was able to block each one of them with her sword. Slowly the Qi was starting to rise over her body as well.
“You know, I’m getting sick and tired of you telling me who you are!” Alba shouted, swinging from above. Her blow was blocked, and Feebie’s legs buckled into the ground.
“You make it sound like I’m a nobody as well, I’m the leader of the Crimson Crane!”
Putting more Qi into the strike, Feebie had to raise both hands to stop the attack, and seeing an opening, Alba thrust her sword forward, piercing right into the center of Feebie’s stomach.
Her body went through the air until she crashed into a building, causing the bricks and more to crash on her, but moments later the sandstone was seen flying in the air, and Feebie standing on top of the rubble.
She used her wraps on her arms to wipe the blood off from her mouth.
“You’re comparing a clan like mine to a wandering clan! Your reputation is known only because of your uniqueness, a small clan full of strong warriors, all of them warriors.
“Ours is a clan that is full of history, legacy, and one that is full of power. There’s a large difference between a clan like mine and yours; you will see!”
Feebie started to laugh, but behind her laughter, she was filled with thoughts. Whether she liked to admit it or not, Alba was certainly strong and skilled.
Whether or not more skilled than her, time would tell, but she didn’t want to bother waiting; what she didn’t want was her target to disappear.
‘Come on Royo, what is the hold up? I thought you would be done by now and here to support me. If you were here, you could hold off this B*tch, and I could get the White Dragon.’
“Raze!” A voice called out.
From the side, Feebie went to have a look at where the voice had come from, and she was surprised to see a group of people together.
Not just any number of people; she had seen them before and recognized the red headband that they had on their heads.
“More students, what are you doing here!” Feebie shouted.
Dame stood in front of the others, the one who had called out, surprisingly, was Tinson. He was surprised to see him and see everyone else.
“Hey, it looks like you were right, he really was fighting against the Clan Head!” Simyon said, his anger boiling into his fists.
He wanted to run out and help, but he hadn’t done because Dame was there with his hand held out.
“If you guys look closer, it looks like Raze has his own help right now,” Dame stated.
Safa, Liam, and Simyon couldn’t believe it. They had recognized her from before. The others hadn’t put two and two together, but they could tell that this was the Crimson Crane.
‘What are they doing here?’ Simyon thought. ‘And why is she defending Raze?’
Feebie was looking at the other students in disgust at first, but she figured that it was just more for her to take out.
Soon, though, the smile faded from her face, as a realization was starting to come over. Her hands started to shake with anger.
“How… how are all of you here… that’s impossible,” Feebie asked.
“Oh right,” Dame answered. “You must be talking about your clan members that you sent after us, right? Unfortunately, all of them were taken out. It looks like the Lethal Bite Clan isn’t that impressive at all, to be taken out by a bunch of students,” antagonizing Feebie. The look on her face right now was what he had been waiting for and what he wanted to see.
“A bunch of students killed our clan members, that’s impossible. Where’s Royo? Where is he!” She shouted.
It wasn’t all of the students currently present, so there was a chance that they hadn’t run into Royo yet either.
“Royo, the one with the pointed straw hat, the last I saw him, he was dead,” Dame almost laughed.
Of course, he wasn’t the one responsible, but what he wanted to see was her reaction. Dame still remembered very well the smug look Feebie had the first time she had appeared down in the underground cellar.
And when she had set the students upon all of the others.
“That’s impossible, it’s all lies, it’s all lies. I will kill you all for your lies!” Feebie roared into the sky.
“I was never worried about them,” a weak voice said.
Looking in the distance, she could see it was Raze holding onto his throat again.
“You keep talking about your clan, about your legacy, but after I’m done, there will be no legacy left, and no one will remember the Lethal Bite Clan ever existed!”
Shouting those words, right at that moment, jumping from the river, jumping from the side of the other houses, and appearing from different areas, were the rest of the Crimson Crane; all of them had arrived.
Chapter 411 The Mystery Man
The other members of the Crimson Crane had been there the whole time; after all, all of them including Raze himself had come into this dimension through the same portal.
Their reason for hiding in the first place was all because Raze had asked them to. He wanted to talk to Feebie and try to find out more about this Noctis Clan, the original Dark Faction group.
In the end, it looked like he wasn’t going to get an answer, and when his life was on the line, Alba had stepped in.
However, the others didn’t move. For one, they could see that Alba on her own had the situation under control and didn’t need their help.
The other reason was that they needed Feebie and them to be in the right position. If all of them had appeared at once, there was a good chance that Feebie would know she wouldn’t be able to win the fight.
And if she decided that her best option was to escape, they would lose the element of surprise in taking down the rest of the Pagna Academy.
Out from the river, standing by the side of Alba was Cronker, and his black clothing was soaking wet.
“Hiding in the river wasn’t the best idea,” Cronker commented.
“I told you so,” Alba replied.
“Yes, but it was the most unexpected place,” Cronker answered with his face turning slightly red, luckily hidden behind his mask.
The rest of the Crimson Crane members had practically formed a circle around Feebie. It wasn’t a complete circle, but there was enough distance between each one of them to cover the area in case of an escape.
“Hey, did you hear what they said?” Froma commented, holding out her bow.
“Yeah, she’s the clan head, and she was planning on killing a student,” Llily replied. “Honestly, I don’t really know what’s going on here from what we heard, but it’s clear the Dark Magus is in trouble.”
They were all listening in on the conversation Raze had. What had become a big surprise to them was the fact that Raze was a student.
The legendary Dark Magus that was being sought after by the biggest clans in the Demonic Faction was just a student at an academy.
They were imagining the look on the Clan Head’s faces when they found that out.
Still, they assumed the Dark Magus must have done something for it all to play out like this.
“Haha, haha!” Feebie started to laugh out loud, placing her hand on her face. “This has to be all a dream, the members of the Lethal Bite Clan dealt with, the whole of the Crimson Crane Clan now here in front of me, to deal with this situation.
“It has to be a dream.”
“Is… she okay?” Violet asked, staying close to Dame and the others down below.
“I think she’s having a breakdown,” Dame answered. “The fact that Royo, her right-hand man was defeated, although the clan is still large in number, now with the way it is, it will never be the same again.”
“The Lethal Bite Clan has lost a lot of power, all for what, because she was chasing revenge on a single student, and that student was a no-name with no clan.”
“If it was any other situation, or going up against one of the other clans, she could accept it, and expect it, but this situation, it was something she never expected to happen, something she was confident in and now it resulted in this. Accepting defeat, when not expected and to someone who has never experienced it, is a hard thing to do.”
Feebie, seeing the situation as it was, was coming to a small realization and felt like she needed to get out of there.
She saw an empty spot to her right and ran full force ahead. In doing so, though, Lilly, the spear user, had dived in front and twirled it in the air before slamming it down in the sand, pushing a large gust of wind toward her.
“I am the Lethal Bite Clan Head, did you think I was so weak that I can’t take care of one person!” Feebie shouted.
Charging forward though, an arrow came from one of the rooftops. She sensed its power and used her fist to spin and knock the arrow away.
At the same time, though, Lilly had charged forward and thrust the spear, hitting her right in the stomach.
It had shoved her right back, her feet skidding through the sand until she was back in the position she was before. It had hurt, but not as hard as the hit she had gotten from Alba.
Looking up at the rooftop, she could see the bow and arrow user who had struck her.
“I think you might have forgotten something, we are the Crimson Crane, this is our entire clan,” Alba stated. “As you said, our clan is small, but we are stronger than your typical clan when working together and we cover each other’s backs.”
“Escape is impossible, I think you should make this less tiring for ourselves and just give up.”
However, Feebie refused to give up, and jumping from her position, she decided to head in another direction this time.
It was Tilon who was present, and he held up his shield, blocking the two large fists that had hit him.
It took everything just to block the attack, and he could even feel slight pain. However, Kizer, who was close by, had quickly come from the side and struck her.
She had blocked with her hands, but her body went flying again, before she had even crashed into a building, this time, Elvlin with her glaive, lifted it up and struck her right in the stomach, sending her to the ground.
‘This fight, it’s extremely different from the Light Faction Elder,’ Raze thought. ‘I didn’t notice it back then, but the Crimson Crane are all really strong warriors.
‘The reason they struggled was because they were dealing with the Elder’s Lightning magic, which they didn’t understand.
‘Magic plus Pagna skills make the whole Pagna warrior stage thing unreliable but here it’s quite accurate. Many middle stage warriors against a single one.
‘Although I wonder how they would fare if they were to go up against the Neverfall Clan Head.’
The image in Raze’s mind still hadn’t disappeared from what Belil was able to do. The entire city practically being blown away.
It was quite likely that Murkel, the Dark Faction Academy Principal, would be in the same position as well.
The group by the side continued to watch Feebie struggle; she was fighting desperately, and they were also seeing the Crimson Crane use a number of unique and interesting skills.
Skills and techniques they hadn’t seen before. Since they had mostly been limited to Dark Faction and Clan skills, it was the first time they were witnessing so many open Wanderer skills that could be picked up.
They were learning a lot just from watching the fight go on, but there was one person in particular that was learning more than the others, as he was taking in all of the information.
“You’re catching all of this, right?” Liam asked.
[Affirmative, I am analyzing all of the techniques and skills being used and will store it in your database. Lesser versions of the skills will be made that are suited to your body.]
“Thank you,” Liam replied.
“Did you say something?” Simyon commented.
“Ah, just thanking us for being able to see all of this, it’s amazing to see what we might become in the future.”
Chapter 412 The End Of A Clan Head
In the same dimension, while the battle between the Crimson Crane and Feebie was continuing, there was a certain individual that no one was aware of.
Past the river that split the town into two halves, on top of one of the buildings, further than one could see with their eyes, there was a man standing on top of one of the buildings.
One of his hands was up against the side of his eye, and he was watching everything carefully.
“It doesn’t look like they will need my help with this one,” Zon commented. “They should be able to handle the situation, and as for the mage, he seems to be alive for now.
“If I intervene in this situation, then I can’t be sure if you are the right one or not to help me. Get stronger, and get out of this situation yourself.”
“For now, things should be a little safer for your group, so you will have time to grow, as long as you don’t go ahead and do something stupid.”
After saying those words, Zon turned around and threw a device onto the floor. It was rectangular in shape.
It popped open, having two pairs of legs and looked like a little spider. From the top of its head, it started to shoot a laser out, and with that, a red portal had appeared in front of them.
Zon looked behind him for a moment at the fight that was continuing, before deciding to step forward. A short while later, and the spider device had jumped through, with the portal closing up behind them.
—
Feebie was huffing and panting. She might have been more skillful and had better techniques compared to most of the Crimson Crane, but fighting so many members at once was draining for her.
While they all were at full strength, and it was clear they knew what they were doing.
‘Because all of them use different weapons and techniques, this is even harder than going up against a special formation group.’
‘Surely formations are built of all of them knowing the same art. Allowing them to combine their skills to produce stronger techniques.’
‘Something like this, where everyone has a different art, it should be weak, but as Alba stated, it’s strong because they’ve fought together so many times before.’
Now, with Feebie weakening, Alba thought it was time.
She turned to Raze to look at him.
“It’s up to you, you saved our lives, and we made a deal. It’s clear she is out for blood, but I just wanted to make sure if you really wanted to start this, start this war, do you want me to kill her?”
Alba had said it herself, after everything that had already happened, they had no choice. Raze nodded, giving the order.
To which Alba placed her two swords out, stretching her arms. Slowly a red Qi started to cover them from the tip, and it extended all the way to the base.
Right after she made an X shape as she charged forward.
“X marks the spot!”
Alba shouted as she slashed in a big X shape. The visual Qi showed a large red X appear in the air and in the sand.
It was a powerful hit that caused Feebie to spurt out blood from her mouth, but she was still standing.
Right after, Alba bent over in a low position almost crouching across the floor.
“Adrenaline Rush!”
She pounced from the floor, lifting her sword, clashing it against Feebie’s arm. Right after, she struck again, with the other sword, and it was still blocked by Feebie.
The strikes went on, again and again, and Feebie was able to block them each time. Right now, there was no support from the other Crimson Crane members; they were just watching their Clan Head get to work.
The strikes, they were getting more powerful with each hit, and not just that, but they were building up speed as well.
At first, Feebie was able to block them elegantly, now her body was swaying, the frown on her face was growing larger as she was stopping hit after hit.
‘This is humiliating, I’m really going to lose here. My legacy as the Lethal Bite Clan Head will be that I died in the middle of an initial stage dimension to wanderers and a no name.’
While blocking the hits, her arms were feeling more numb by the moment. She started to think what was the cause of her downfall, who was it all due to.
The answer, it was quite clear, it was all because of him. Her eyes were locked onto Raze at that moment.
‘It’s you, it’s you, if there’s anything I’m going to do, I’m going to get rid of you!’ Feebie screamed in her head.
Lifting both her arms, Feebie decided to take a strike to her center, but it was expected. Covering it with Qi, she didn’t get knocked back as far.
Then her hands slammed into the ground. It had interrupted Alba’s technique with the shaking and the explosion of sand hitting her in the face.
Alba was ready to protect herself, but Feebie wasn’t in front of her.
“Oh no!” Alba turned around and could see Feebie had run right past her.
She was heading for Raze. There was still one person protecting him though, and that was Cronker. Jumping up in the air, he held his daggers.
They were laced in Qi, and he swung them down. When he did, they had cleanly gone into her shoulders, but he was surprised by this.
He thought she would have blocked the attack, or used something to stop it. Instead, his attack had worked.
That was because Feebie had allowed it to hit her. She then, with her fist, had grabbed onto Cronker’s arms and threw him as far as she could behind her until he crashed into another building.
Feebie was too far, moving too far ahead now.
“Crap, I should have known!” Alba bit her bottom lip.
When a person was fighting with their life on the line, or knew that they were going to die anyway, they would fight extremely different.
Feebie knew she had lost this battle, so what were a few wounds to her? What was using up all her Qi in an attack worth?
Feebie just needed to get away from them for a moment, so she could reach her target.
Raze was right in front of her, and still in his weak self, but Feebie was hurt as well. Blood was coming out from her mouth from the direct hit from Alba and the fighting from before.
And she had just been stabbed by the two daggers from Cronker.
“I’m still strong enough to take you out!” She shouted.
To which, Raze held out one hand toward her, and then with the other, placed something in his mouth. As he swallowed it down, swirling darkness appeared out from the palm of his hand.
‘Your Qi, it should be weak enough for this to finish you. I’m happy that I could at least kill you with my own hands!’ Raze thought.
‘Dark Pulse!’
Out from the palm of his hand, a single beam that would have just been deflected, or hit away from her fists. It had shot out, and went right through Feebie’s head.
A large hole appeared in her forehead as she collapsed right there to the ground.
Falling to the floor, Raze stood there looking at her, and noticed something else himself, his vision was blurring, and his legs—
they were failing before he knew it.
‘I took a third mana pill, before my body could recover, right after taking the Cursed pill… my head… am I… going to die?’ Raze thought, as everyone there witnessed him collapsing onto the ground, unmoving.