Dark Magus Returns

Raze stood there as he took the Qi pill. As the pill broke down and his body started to absorb its contents, he could feel the rings that made up his magic core spinning around his heart with vibrancy.

His power was returning, and he soon stood as strong as his usual self right in front of Murkel, despite the amount of Qi Murkel was letting out, Raze was unaffected.

"You seem to have gone through a lot; you finally managed to reach the middle stage and you have a number of tricks up your sleeve," Murkel said. "But I think it's far-fetched to say that I have underestimated you."

Swirling around Raze's arms in that moment was the same magic as before; it looked like large currents of wind. He hadn't even drawn out his sword yet.

On top of that, the pill that he had consumed was the Cursed Qi pill; it restored all of his mana, but it would only last a minute, after which he would be completely drained and back to the same state as before.

The only ones present who knew what Raze was thinking were Anna and Alba, who moved in front of him.

"It looks like we should go ahead and join the brigade," Amir said as he jumped from his position and landed in front of Raze, and it didn't take much longer for Dame to do the same.

The four of them had formed a type of wall right in front of Raze, which caused Murkel to let out a loud laugh.

"Hahah, look at this," Murkel said as he looked at Crine and Gavin, leaders of the Moon Shield and Flowing Force clans.

"You say that I am underestimating you, and then you decide to hide behind this pile of trash. I have no idea what you see in that child Amir, but I will make sure you know you chose the wrong side."

Murkel started to walk forward; with each step, a condensed form of his Dark Qi would leave a lingering footprint that would last a few seconds on the ground.

Murkel moving forward, all of the others who were with him, the members of the Dark Faction, were unmoving and calm.

"We are a bit outnumbered, and those people seem quite strong," Dame commented. "With just us, are we going to be okay?"

"Let's just deal with the one in front of us first!" Amir said.

He could see Murkel coming close; he lifted his hand. Like a black hole, his Dark Qi surrounded his fist completely. It was swirling around the air and then condensing down to his fist.

"Unlike you, I don't need to hide behind anyone else!" Murkel then jumped forward with the fist aimed right at Raze.

Up Anna's arms, red energy could be seen activating as she moved forward. Alba drew both of her swords covered in a slight red glow and swung them down.

At the same time, both Dame and Amir came forward with the full strength of their Qi; they all struck at Murkel.

When they went to attack, they could all feel their movements, their attacks being drawn into the area of where Murkel's fist was.

The large amount of Qi erupted in the air, causing physical cracks to be seen. Immediately, all of those on Raze's side could also feel a heavy weight on their legs, a great force pushing them down.

All of their attacks had landed on Murkel's fist, yet not a single one of them seemed to damage him or push it back.

"Ah, impressive; you managed to stop my attack," Murkel said with a smile. "But look at you, it took every single one of you just to stop a single attack of mine. Now who was underestimating whom."

The Qi from Murkel's fist started to spread out. Visually, it was like a black shadow that was reaching out, trying to grab them all.

"Break away!" Amir shouted.

That's exactly what all of them did, pushing themselves back and forming a line back to where Raze was.

"He is considered the person closest to the Divine Stage for a reason," Amir explained. "He has the strongest form of condensed Dark Qi. His attacks will suck you in, and linger around them long enough, and the weight will push you down like an extreme gravitational force.

"A straight-up battle with raw power or Qi against him is useless."

"Thanks for the explanation," Alba said. "So do you have any ideas of how to beat him?"

Amir looked at the people behind Murkel, all incredibly strong members of the Dark Faction. He knew who had come along.

"With them behind him… none… which is why I'm betting on him," Amir said.

Up in the stands, Hannah, Beatrix, and Ricar were watching the confrontation going on between the two sides. Just seeing Murkel's power gave them a shudder.

He knew instantly, in that one exchange, that his power wasn't strong enough to best this man, and while he was in the Dark Faction, it would be incredibly hard to ever best or beat them.

"Should we help them? It looks like they're going to struggle," Hannah claimed. The student Jake had promised her safety, so in a way, she felt like they were on their side.

"We aren't on the Demonic Faction's or the Dark Faction's side. Besides, the Dark Faction hasn't even threatened us in any way," Ricar stated. "There is no need for us to help either of them."

Ricar's original goal was to eliminate Mantis. He had been flung by the shockwave of Qi toward one of the edges of the arena; he was still lying on the floor in a type of resting state.

It was tempting for Ricar to finish him off, but it all depended on the victors of this entire thing. Right now, based on just the single interaction, he didn't think the Demonic Faction stood a chance of winning.

Beatrix was having a hard look at Dame from the Demonic Faction, the white-haired boy with him as well. She remembered meeting both of them, but then was looking at Cronker, the students with him, and Amir as well who were helping out.

"I have a feeling with all of this, that it might not be as simple as Demonic Faction against the Dark Faction though; something is going on."

In the Dark Faction group itself, Safa had her hand on the statue Stoney, wondering when to use it or not.

Ricktor noticed this.

"Not yet, we don't make a move yet, not until we know what's going to happen. Look at Raze; he's still confident; clearly, he has something planned."

Raze started to swing his arms in an odd fashion, and in doing so, lines that were glowing were appearing underneath his feet.

The lines were matching up; his Magic was being condensed into certain areas until it had formed a circle with several runes and symbols inside.

He continued, and he was making something just like it, yet no one knew, and finally, he pulled out several Power Stones and threw them all around him.

"You should use your head a bit more," Raze shouted to Murkel. "If I had the power to suddenly make everyone in this place disappear, don't you think I could do the opposite?"

The Power Stones started to vibrate and lift in the air with sparks coming from above.

"I'll say it again; you have no idea who you're dealing with!"