Mage Adam

Adam studied the knife closely---it looked like an ordinary, rusty knife, but Adam knew that Kerina used this as a medium to cast her spells.

The egg scooted away from the knife. When Adam brought the egg closer to the knife, the egg whimpered in fear.

"What is this thing?" Adam was careful to not touch the knife with his hands. He used telekinesis to stow the knife away in his portable space, ready to research its properties back at the Academy.

After Kerina's death, the jungle seemed to have calmed down. The light buzzing of the crickets could be heard and there were no beasts around. Adam let the egg lead him towards a clearing.

'There is strange energy here.' Adam thought. He picked up a handful of soil and could see fragments of glass and strange residue on the soil.

Adam shook the egg and it bounced towards another direction.

"Damn it."

...

A few kilometres away from Bran Village, Clarke and Fawn shrouded themselves in the darkness. They led thousands of Wind Wolves to launch a kamikaze attack on the village.

Knights were either dead or severely wounded, and the Wind Wolves' magic rippled against the Rune Barrier guarding the village.

Clarke felt another pang of pain in his heart and saw that Kerina's contract fizzled into ash. "Kerina's dead."

"Is it really an apprentice? How could he be this strong?"

Fawn frowned hearing this; he knew how strong Kerina was. Kerina even acted without Clarke's magic restraining her, but she still died.

Clarke stomped on Kerina's contract and said in frustration, "Damn it! This isn't going according to plan! Why is an apprentice as strong as him even out in this run-down village?! Damn it!" He took Adam's strength for granted, and now, Lalu and Kerina were dead. This could only mean that Adam was as strong as him.

Fawn tried to comfort him, "Could there be a possibility that he was using magic items?" He pointed at the rune weapons that William, Riley, and Terry were using. "He must be using a weapon similar to their rune weapons!"

Clarke chuckled at Fawn's foolishness; he knew that it wasn't that simple. If Adam was relying solely on magic items, he would be dead by now. This meant that Adam was a powerhouse that should be avoided.

"Damn it," he cursed again. "I'm so close to promoting to a full-fledged Antimage, damn it!"

Clarke's original plan was looting and devouring the surrounding villages to increase their strength, but they did not expect this thorn.

"Maybe it wasn't a good idea to let Kerina deal with that apprentice alone," Fawn muttered. "That Rune Barrier would have been nothing to her monster."

Darkness shrouded Clarke's eyes and Fawn knelt down in pain.

"Are you questioning my decision making, slave?!" Clarke shouted, forcing Fawn's head to the ground.

Fawn's face was buried in the ground and his face contorted in pain. "No! No! Master, it's not like that!"

Clarke scoffed, kicking Fawn. "Use all of your potions. These wolves are too damn weak."

...

"These wolves are too strong. There's too many of them!" Riley cried.

She ducked behind a tree. She could see that the wolves were transforming themselves into powerful blasts of wind and blowing themselves up to try and slam through the Rune Barrier.

"William, my mana is depleting. I don't have any ether crystals either." Terry stumbled, grasping his rune weapon weakly.

William built a set of meditation runes for Terry and said, "Riley, it's your turn." He didn't have time to comfort Riley, he needed to force her to take over. Terry was too weak for the rune weapons, which was why they were manning a single rune weapon. If it wasn't for Adam's meditation method, he would have collapsed long ago from exhaustion.

Riley walked over to the weapon, tears clouding her vision as she randomly input magic power to kill the wolves. "Why did Adam leave us? Does he not care about us?"

Riley was getting desperate to find someone to blame for their predicament, and Adam perfectly fit the bill.

Zach saw a water bomb explode in the air and he ducked behind cover, shouting, "What the hell are you doing? Are you trying to kill all of us?"

William glared at Riley as he lowered her hand to aim at the wolves, but at this time, any sort of reprimand would be meaningless. He scooted forward towards Zach and asked, "When do you think support will arrive?"

There were four rune weapons in total. Zach and Thomas manned one of them, and William's group manned another one. The remaining rune weapons were inactive since the townspeople were unable to use any meaningful magic.

Zach launched an energy orb, blowing up a few Wind Wolves. "How would I know?! I hope they don't send apprentices like you!"

Wind Wolves were low-levelled monsters. If they were hit by any sort of magic, they would definitely die. The village persevered and the number of Wind Wolves slowly decreased. All of them smiled and relaxed a little, but a huge Wind Wolf stood outside the Rune Barrier proudly. The Wind Wolf Leader imbued itself with the power of the wind and exploded. The huge energy caused the Rune Barrier to shake and the barrier became unstable.

Thomas's head popped out behind cover and he said, "We're running out of power stones. Thank Prometheus that was the last wolf."

However, as soon as he spoke, a dark orb slammed into the Rune Barrier, causing it to shake violently.

"The antimage is here!"

...

Clarke fiddled with the grey crystal ball in his hand.

"Without Lalu and Kerina, we can't break through the Rune Barrier in time. The mage from the Academy might arrive soon," Clarke muttered, seeing the final Wind Wolf sacrifice itself through the crystal ball. "Fawn, isn't it time to test your loyalty towards me?"

Fawn knew what his words meant. He immediately fell at Clarke's feet, begging him, "No, master, please, I am your most loyal servant... you can't do this to me!"

Clarke smiled, gently patting Fawn's head, "Of course, Fawn. You're my most loyal dog, but now, your master needs your help..."

Fawn trembled as Clarke's grasp on his head tightened. "No, master, please!"

"Shouldn't a slave give their all to their master?"

"No..." Fawn knew he was going to die and he shouted out in anger. "You can't kill me, Clarke! You have to pay for your sins!" Fawn raised his head and opened his mouth. A disgusting, grey light gathered in his throat. He intended to take Clarke down with him.

However, because of the master-servant contract, the light was forced back down into Fawn's throat. The resulting impact caused him to explode. Clarke bent down, grabbing Fawn's essence and placing it in the crystal ball.

The crystal ball shattered and Clarke roared out an obscure spell, hitting the Rune Barrier.

Clarke sneered, looking at the remains of Fawn. "You're stupid enough to try and resist, I can't believe it. If I didn't need disposable pawns like you, did you really think I would stoop that low to talk to you insects?"

Clap, clap, clap.

Crisp, clapping sounds sounded behind Clarke. He immediately turned around and shouted, "Who are you?!"

Not far behind him, Adam hovered gently in the air. Clarke didn't expect Adam to sneak up behind him. Had Adam made the first move, then he would have already been dead. Adam mockingly twirled in the air and he continued to clap, "What a great drama, forcing your subordinate to sacrifice himself for you. I'll give you a chance, show me all your magic and I'll consider letting you go."

Clarke darted backwards, not knowing what Adam's intentions were. "Are you the apprentice who killed Lalu and Kerina? I see. Well, if you want my magic that badly..."

"...bask in Despair!"

A strange wave penetrated through Adam's psychic barrier, entering Adam's mind. Adam could feel a slight buzzing in his head, but the negative emotions caused by Clarke's spell were suppressed and cut off by his system.

"This is negative magic?" Adam said.

Adam's eyes were bright, amazed that this magic was able to pass through his psychic barrier like it was nothing.

Clarke, however, was horrified. He trembled. "How are you fine?! No apprentice could resist my magic! Fear! Anger! Sadness!" Clarke shouted, desperately casting waves of emotional magic to torment Adam. No matter how much he tried, not a single trace of emotion was displayed on Adam's face.

Clarke's magic used the other party's emotion as a medium. For example, if he casted a spell targeting the other party's despair, then the other party will fall into a state of eternal self-denial, their human brains wouldn't be able to process the trauma and they would eventually collapse and die. This nature of this magc made Adam immune to it---emotions were a liability to him, so his system didn't deem emotions as anything important.

Adam was Clarke's greatest nightmare.

"One last chance, hand over all your magic or die."