Dark Magus Returns

Cronker specialized in assassination techniques, focusing on taking out an opponent quickly and silently. He had been with the Crimson Crane group the longest and was by Alba's side before anyone else in the group.

There were rumors that the Crimson Crane had managed to grow larger because of him. The hardest jobs requested of wanderers were assassinations. This was because it would either involve them angering one of the other factions or the kingdoms and empires across the land.

If a person completed such a job, no one was to know who had actually done it. This was why it was simply rumors that Cronker was part of the mass growth of the Crimson Crane.

But then begged the question: Nearly every faction and even clans had groups of people specializing in assassinations or spying techniques, so why did the Crimson Crane have such a person? Maybe the rumors were true after all.

Right now, Cronker was dealing with an opponent he couldn't outright beat or sneak up on. Whatever he had tried didn't work, so he looked to his side, at the three students he had trained, and also at Froma, his fellow ally.

"I know you don't usually work with others and like working on your own, but it looks like you could do with some help," Froma said. "I think it's best you take it."

After finishing those words, she shot out arrows fast and powered with Qi. They were perfectly aimed at Akron, who looked unfazed as they came at him. He carefully stepped forward from side to side.

It looked like he was taking a peaceful stroll through the arena, but each time he would completely avoid the arrows no matter what happened.

"Will you keep him still!" Froma shouted.

"Fine," Cronker said as he lifted up his black covering from his mouth to just slightly over his nose and dashed forward.

The arrows had stopped attacking, and Cronker went from being directly in front of Akron to suddenly disappearing. Quickly, Akron lifted up one of his sword-like needles and stopped a dagger from reaching him.

He then swung both of his needles several times. Cronker, who had attacked from the side, was ducking and weaving each of the attacks, perfectly keeping attention on both of the needles this time.

Froma was carefully aiming an arrow pulled back, and then let go. The arrow went faster than the others before it. In the middle of attacking Cronker, Akron turned his needle weapon to the side and sliced the arrow completely in half.

Seeing this, she couldn't help but click her tongue.

'This is hardly better than when he was just moving toward him. He needs to be on the back foot. He's so much in control of the fight that he can even block an arrow like that. Just Cronker alone isn't going to be enough.'

She then looked down and could see the students were tense.

'Based on what I saw, these little ones weren't so bad. Cronker isn't going to hurt them, and he's going to get hurt at this rate. He's not made for long drawn-out fights.'

"You three, when you think there's a chance, just like I did just then, you need to help your teacher, and then I'll strike. I don't want to rely on you guys like that… but I think we're going to have to," Froma asked.

The students didn't need to be told twice. They were tense because they wanted to help Cronker but feared that the fight was at too high a level and they would just end up getting in his way. Now that they had been given the okay, they were ready.

"Just like we trained," Tilson said, and the other two nodded.

They moved out in separate directions like a blur. Their footsteps were silent; their Qi could be felt by Froma, but she was a skilled middle-stage warrior trained to see these things.

"I'm counting on you little ones," Froma said.

Cronker was putting up a good fight. After dodging several hits, he was getting used to the rhythm and was now throwing in strikes of his own. However, each of them was still easily blocked by Akron.

It was the most skilled fighter he had been up against. With Cronker's specialty being assassination, he was naturally quite strong at the start of the fight. Sharp Qi, with fast attack speed.

Cronker still hadn't reached the stage where his attacks were slowing down or weakening, but Akron was still blocking everything and had the same smile on his face.

Cronker then took a swipe with his dagger at Akron toward his neck, and Akron took a firm step back.

Immediately, three of the students appeared from all sides. They had been waiting for this chance, and it appeared it was time for them to do their work. Froma was ready, expecting Akron to block the attack, which would leave the perfect opening.

That was until Cronker could see a smile on Akron's face.

"I never make mistakes!"

The three students stopped short of reaching Akron, as they felt large stinging pain in their abdomens. When Tilson, Joe, and Violet looked, they could see a strange thin black substance had gone through their stomachs and had pierced the floor.

It wasn't just them, but it was Cronker as well. When they looked at their opponent, they could see the black needle he had, it had branched out like spikes, sharp thin needle-like structures had come from the base of the blade and had gone through all of them, including Cronker's stomach as well.

"You were the one that thought I had shown you all that my sword had to offer," Akron said. "But you should have gotten the hint when I told you that I don't make mistakes."

Cronker looked at the students that had been pierced by the sword, blood starting to swirl out of their mouths. It was clear these weren't any normal weapons.

He started to wonder, why hadn't Froma fired her arrow? What was she doing? But with the second needle, he saw Akron's arm stretched out, it went across the arena and had pierced the arrow, then hitting the bow, it looked as if it had deflected slightly, but just like the other needle, it had spread out branching like a sea urchin.

Several of the spikes had pierced Froma in different areas, stabbing right through her body and piercing her to the floor, making it impossible for her to move. She was still alive, but she felt like she couldn't even use her hands.

"You bastard!" Cronker shouted and moved forward, allowing the needle to go further into him, but he did not care.

"The first mistake you made." Akron retracted the needle that had pierced Froma. When the needles exited out of her body, she fell to the floor. "You relied on students to do work that should be done by adults. I guess that's what happens when you follow a student that has gotten you into all of this mess."

Akron glanced at Raze when making that comment. He then lifted his hand with the other needle and pointed it toward Joe.

"When people make mistakes, they need to be punished so they don't do it again."

Cronker knew what Akron was intending to do. With this, he pushed forward through all of the pain, and allowed the needle to go deeper into his body, he ran to the side, allowing the needle to cut part of his body, and dived forward with his dagger.

Reaching out, his dagger moved right in front of the extending needle, stopping it before it hit Joe. At the same time, though, Cronker suddenly felt as if he was falling.

His dagger was dropping onto the floor and so was the rest of his view, until he finally felt his chest hitting the floor.

Cronker had his legs sliced off. Akron had already taken out the other needle from the other students. They had fallen to the ground, and Cronker had done so, but it was because the other needle had been used to completely slice his legs off.

"You need to learn, how are you meant to protect those you care about if you don't protect yourself first? You could have kept fighting against me if you didn't try to protect these, and now I will teach you that protecting these students was a stupid endeavor in the first place."

Both of the black needles were in Akron's hands, and once again he looked to Joe, who was on the floor. While on the floor, Joe looked toward his teacher, looking into Cronker's eyes.

"I'm sorry, I just wanted to do something," Joe said, his mouth red.

"No… I was the one that started to like you guys, and I should have protected what I liked... I didn't know the Dark Faction were so cruel!!" Cronker shouted.

Violet and Tilson were looking at the situation. The needle had done something strange to them. They had only been pierced in one area, yet for some reason, they were unable to move. It was almost as if the needle also had a poisonous numbing effect that worked on them.

It showed how amazing it was that Cronker was still able to move despite all of that.

Akron placed his needle right above Joe's head, ready to extend it out. Having it over Joe's head, a strange shadow-like wolf jumped from the side and almost went to bite his hand.

Quickly, Akron sliced through the shadow, and it disintegrated, but the lingering part of the dark shadow from the beast fell onto Akron's skin, hurting him.

"I think you are the one that has made a mistake," a voice said.

Looking up, Akron could see a man standing and walking over to him with his sword covered in a shadowy mist.

"The mistake of touching these students," Raze said.