Chapter 7

Anssa Roy and her group of mages carefully wrapped the skeletal hand and decided to bring it back to the Adventurers Guild. They were here only to affirm the presence and scout the evil creature and after the battle with the evil creature, Anssa Roy had confirmed that the evil creature was weak maybe only as strong as a one-tier mage but that didn't make this creature any less dangerous. She had seen with her own eyes how the creature had used dark magic and anyone who used dark magic was to be hunted and killed on sight, this was decreed by the Church Of Light.

Night soon fell as Anssa and her group were on their way back to Andrusa Kingdom. As they were deciding on whether to pitch up a tent for the night to take rest or to keep moving, they felt magic elemental fluctuations in their surroundings. Before the group could even make a move, a dark sphere shot out speedily from one of the bushes towards Maylum Max, a two-tier water mage from Anssa's group.

They were all caught off-guard as it all happened in a moment and before Anssa and the others could react, their buddy Maylum's lifeless body lay charred before their feet. There was huge influx of dark elements around Maylum's body and it infused into Charlotte and Nadia sisters, the remaining two mages of Anssa's group.

They quickly casted a earth barrier spell and retreated back and regrouped with their leader Anssa, whose face was now pale as she felt that the magic fluctuations behind that attack were that of a four-tier mage!

Creaking sounds rang out before a very familiar face or rather a familiar skull reappeared in front of them. Jaime had a look of a hunter as he glanced at Anssa and her two remaining mages, "How does it feel for the hunter to become hunted?"

Jaime was never a person to take things lying down, even if they were women. He waved his staff and began casting another dark sphere.

In response Anssa, Charlotte and Nadia started casting their spells. Although they were already mentally drained and had very little rest, they refused to give up. The twin sisters: Charlotte and Nadia cast earth barrier and earth spikes simultaneously, although the two were only two-tier earth mages but being twins, they had a strange connection with each other and as such whenever they casted together, their spells would be enhanced by a level. Together they could even fight on par with a three-tier mage. Whereas Anssa casted water binding chains, the group executed their spells perfectly and as for Jaime, he got the short-end of the stick. He got restrained by water binding chains and then had to experience the onslaught of the earth spikes, nevertheless he was able to escape pretty much unharmed and as for his dark sphere, it collided with the earth barrier spell and destroyed it in an instant and proceeded directly towards Nadia who was sheltered behind the barrier.

Feeling a sense of crisis, Anssa and her group tried to cast a number of quick spells to defend but they were all relatively weak and how could they stop a powerful spell casted by a four-tier mage? Their attempts only served to deplete a portion of the dark sphere's energy.

In a desperate attempt, Nadia casted the quick spell: earth wall, but the wall was torn through like paper. At this Nadia could only smile ruefully and look towards her elder sister as she spoke softly: " Run away."

The next instant huge dark elemental fluctuations devoured her as her and soon her lifeless charred body fell to the ground.

"You vile creature, I will not rest until I kill you!", Charlotte cried hot tears at the loss of her sister and with a sense of vengeance, she decided to risk her life to put down the evil creature but she was interrupted by Anssa who shook her head in response. Anssa was still able to calm herself down at the last moment and she knew that they would not be able to defeat, let alone kill the evil creature.

With a heavy heart, Anssa quickly casted a water fog spell and escaped with the struggling Charlotte towards the Andrusa Kingdom.

Jaime searched high and low for the remaining two mages, but he couldn't seem to locate them. He tsked as he walked back towards his secluded cave. He knew that this issue was far from over, with how those bunch of mages had a first hand experience of him they would be sure to spread knowledge of his existence to the outside world by then, there would be a lot more than just mages coming to eradicate him.

"I need to get out of lumberry forest."