Dark Magus Returns

It was only for a brief moment that Raze had caught a glimpse of the young man in passing. The two had made eye contact, yet the young man had next to no reaction at all, other than that of curiosity for why people were being brought into the clan, especially at such a big time.

For Raze, though, it had jogged his memory as to where he had seen this person before, why he had heard the name of the clan before as well.

'I never did get to pay him back. A lot happened back then. Unfortunately for him, I remember the faces of everyone who has tried to wrong me.' Raze thought.

Entering the main building in the center, the group was brought to a large mostly empty room with wooden flooring.

There were scuff marks on the floor, as well as weapons and ornaments that had been hung on the wall. There was nothing that stuck out, and Raze could tell that they were more so items on show rather than those of practical use.

"Please wait here while I get the Clan Elder. It won't be long, and I shall inform him of your intention here," Titus said, giving a bow and sliding the door closed.

In the room itself, they weren't alone; there were clan members standing in every corner of the room.

"So what do you think, will they accept our proposal?" Alba asked.

"More than likely, the fact that I am here and the Crimson Crane leader herself has come. I think everything should be okay," Rayna added.

"Not if the apple doesn't fall too far from the tree," Raze commented, yet no one knew what he meant by those words.

When Titus closed the door behind him, his expression from a smile had immediately changed. He walked down the hallways with a heavy storm raging above his head.

Heading into another room, one that was darkly lit with only a few candles for light, Titus bowed his head. The candles gave the image of two others, one old man and one woman filled with grey hair.

"I'm sure by now you two have heard of the news of who has come to visit us," Titus said.

"We have," the woman, who went by Seran, answered. "Why when the opportunity for us to prove ourselves has come upon us, must someone come and try to take it away!" Her words almost had a hissing sound at the end of them.

"We must be cautious," the Clan Head Halan said. "These are the people that managed to battle with the Behemoth Clan head-on and had taken out their pillars; they are by no means weak. How many of them are there?"

"Three females and one male; he looks young, most likely the candidate that they wish to bring forward. However, it is Rayna from the Neverfall Clan and Alba herself who has come," Titus answered.

The three elders sat there in silence as they thought about the predicament they were in.

"They will most likely be here to propose a duel," Seran added. "Which means we have no choice; no matter what, we have to do as we can to make sure that the participant will lose the duel in question."

"And if that doesn't work?" Titus asked.

"I heard that the Crimson Crane only won due to the Dark Magus's pills that he had supplied to an army of two hundred. Right now, with only four of them, it will be our only chance to silence them," Halan answered.

The Clan knew what needed to be done, and just in case the first plan didn't work, they had gathered all of the members to make them aware of what they needed to do.

Informing them of everything for the sake of the clan, after that, Titus, Seran, and Halan all went down the hallway to greet their guests.

The group was patiently waiting in the room, to the point where Lily was getting extremely frustrated.

"Does it really take this long just to go and get someone!"

Right on cue, the doors slid open, and the three elders had entered. They walked over and sat down on the ground, gesturing for the others to do the same, and they soon followed.

"I am Halan, the head of the Necroshade Clan. We are a clan that has a long history but has never been able to shine like that of the top Clans.

"Yet, we had been blessed this year with a talented individual who has been selected by the academy to take part in the Martial Arts Tournament and to represent our clan."

"I can tell that you are here today to perhaps challenge our student for the position. I have to ask, is it possible that you return and try next year? We are willing to give you a few gifts for your journey."

On cue, members of the clan had entered, all of them holding ornaments and jewelry that could sell for a decent amount of coin.

It went to show how much their reputation had increased now that they had bested the Behemoth Clan.

"It seems that you are aware of our intentions," Rayna respectfully said. "Unfortunately, the tournament is something important to us as well, and we too have our reasons for needing to take part in it."

While Rayna was speaking, some of the servants started to place small tables in front of the guests, and they soon brought out herbal tea for each one of them.

"I believe that a duel is also fair for both of us. We are not asking you to just give us your position that has been earned, but for our young talented individual to have a chance to take part. After all, what would be best for the Faction as a whole, is for those that are most talented to take part, wouldn't you agree?"

Halan and the other Elders nodded; they had to agree. Maybe if they were in the Light Faction, they would have considered what was fair, but the principle of the Demonic Faction was that the strongest were the ones that had their say.

Disagreeing to the duel now that Rayna said this would be against the principles of those in the Demonic Faction.

"Very well, you have made a request, and as you said, it is only fair. May the best student win!" Halan said as he raised his tea and took a large sip from it.

He then placed the palm of his hand out, gesturing for the others to do the same. Out of respect, Rayna, along with the others, held up their cup and was ready to drink it, that was until Anna held onto Raze's arm around his wrist.

Raze's heart took a deep beat for a second, but noticed the touch was incredibly cold, and for some reason unlike when others touched him, with Anna, it didn't get his heart pumping the way it normally would.

"They've poisoned your drink." Anna leaned in and whispered.

Raze looked at the eyes of the Elders; he could tell they were waiting for him to gulp it down.

"Is it only mine?" He whispered back.

"I've analyzed what's in the cup; yeah, it seems like it's only in yours," Anna said again.

However, what were they to do in this situation? Should Raze call them out for their actions? Should he just say he didn't feel well and not accept the drink?

In the end, he did neither. As he looked all of the Elders directly in the eye, he gulped the whole drink in one go, placing it on the table.