Friend Or Foe? 2

"I told ya."

Saying this, Deus rested his back comfortably on the chair. He had already foresaw this to happen, so it wasn't a surprise to him that the latter won against his opponent, but what surprised him was that the student was actually a shadow crest user.

This crest was included in the Legendary Class, of course. It works almost similar to my Darkness. The only thing different was that unlike darkness, the shadow crest requires shadows from shades of an object, person, or other things like trees, walls and etc., as what said from it's name, to work or function. And also, unlike the darkness crest, light magic can either give shadow an advantage or disadvantage depending on the situation. For example, if the battle is on a mountain or forest, shadow users will have most of the advantage since they could easily blend themselves in the surroundings with the help of their skill, [Blend Shadow], as well as their power might get buffed because of the effect of having more shadow in the area.

Not only does the shadow gets overpowered the more shadows are there in the specific area, but it can also give speed and stealth buff to the user whenever they're hidden under the shade of something like trees.

If there's a lot of advantage, then obviously there's also a lot of disadvantage. One of those that the crest will become useless if the whole area were filled with lights, not leaving a single trace of shadows around. This was also the main reason why the crest of shadow is not as valuable like darkness. Yes, it has it's own unique value, however, it certainly cannot surpass darkness in mobility, power, and many more.

The moment you are exposed to this kind of problem in a rather worse situation, just pray that your other crest can be as useful as it is, or rather learn to use your brain properly, so that you can utilize the shadow to your advantage.

"Damn, that was unexpected," William voiced out, nodding his head to himself. "I never thought that there were actually hidden shadow users in this school."

"Ah, yeah... I guess the fight really is unexpected." Arthur said this sentence suspiciously, gathering the attention of the four as they all looked at him with 'what's with you?' look.

He became flustered because of this, and let out a dry cough before speaking up, trying to change the subject. "Uh... Anyway, what number did you guys get? Mine is 18."

Raising what seems to be a badge that had number written on it, William responded, "Mine is the highest. I got 684."

"Is that it? Mine is 943!" Lumine didn't want to feel left out as she spoke up, raising her number above her head.

Chuckling, Leigh patted Lumine in the shoulder with a charming smile. "You guys do know that number can also represent how long you'll have to wait for your match, right? Anyway, mine is 26. Just a few numbers above Arthur."

While they were talking to each other, Deus couldn't help but get confused. Numbers? He doesn't have those. What does it meant for anyway?

It didn't take long for the group to notice his confusion. Seeing him all confused and left out made William ask him a question, "The professor didn't give you this after you enlisted to the tournament?"

"No... I'm not sure if my name is listed yet. I've already talked to the principal and ask her to let me join the tournament yesterday, and I'm not even sure if the professor handling the list of the participants had agreed to her till now..."

"Oh, that sucks." Said Lumine, making Deus click his tongue out of frustration. But before he could even say something, a gentle voice spoke up from the huge speaker that travelled into the whole school.

[Attention to all students, to anyone who see Athan Von Lohengramm, please--Urk!? Hey!]

Suddenly, before the announcer could finish her announcement, someone else took the microphone away from her and began speaking.

[Oh, brat! Hurry up and get over here to the principal office if you want to participate. I don't have enough patients to wait for you. If you're not here in five minutes, I won't write your name on the list.]

At this sudden announcement, Deus' expression brightened as he hurriedly got up from his seat and created a barrier for him to sit on before flying up in the sky.

"I gotta go, guys. See ya later."

Before the others could even say something, the barrier he was sitting on flew away with him towards the huge building in the school.

"Well, off he goes," William watched as Athan's back disappeared from the view before shrugging his shoulders and returning his attention back to the middle of the arena.

"So, who do you think will win this time? Why don't we all take a bet?" He said, grinning at them mischievously.

Smiling inwardly, Arthur spoke up confidently. "Okay, I'll bet 20 gold on the student that had a scythe for a weapon on the right!"

𝘐𝘵'𝘴 𝘵𝘪𝘮𝘦 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘮𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘯 𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦 𝘮𝘰𝘯𝘦𝘺!

[𝘍𝘪𝘯𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺! 𝘠𝘰𝘶 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘶𝘴𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘩𝘦𝘢𝘥 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘳𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘥.] The system spoke inside his head with a mocking tone, however, the reaction Arthur had was not the system was expecting.

𝘛𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘬𝘴 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘱𝘭𝘪𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵.

[𝘛𝘩𝘢𝘵'𝘴 𝘯𝘰𝘵... 𝘐 𝘮𝘦𝘢𝘯, 𝘯𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳 𝘮𝘪𝘯𝘥.] The system felt like shaking her head, if she ever had a body, and sighed exasperatedly in defeat.

"....?" Arthur became confused by the sudden silence, at times like this, the system would normally try to insult him in some way, to tease him, but Arthur was too dumb for him to understand what she meant.

𝘚𝘺𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘮... 𝘞𝘩𝘺 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘶𝘱𝘴𝘦𝘵?

***

Deus flew over the sky and headed towards the opened window at the very corner of the building. He went inside and didn't stop from flying because it's almost 5 minutes. If he ever decides to hop off now, he knows that he'll surely be late.

"I'm almost there..." He increased his pace and ignored his surroundings. Even the workers and teachers of the school, he only went pass them at a speed that was similar to a jet, ignoring the mess he was making.

"-Hey! Stop that child!" Other professors tried their best to stop him with magic and by making obstacles, however, none of them were able to match Deus' explosive speed.

By the time he was a few meters away from the door of the principal's office, Deus tried to decrease his speed. But because of the momentum, he couldn't stop it on time when he reached the door.

"Coming through!"

He covered his head to protect it from the possible impact as he reinforced his whole body with barrier like an armor. His body flew over and hit the door, smashing it open as he rolled on the ground before stopping with him on his head bowed and knees.

"I'm here!" Deus panted heavily and took a deep breath to calm himself down. He was carefully observing his surroundings when a loud ringing sound was heard next to his side.

-Riiiiiiing!

"Ack!" He abruptly stopped looking around and covered both of his ears from the noise, his eyes closed from the suddenness and opened them when the ringing sound stopped.

With his arms crossed, the professor, Sariell looked down at him. He then spoke after Deus noticed him standing silently, "That took you long enough. Now, you're coming with me." He pulled him on the collar, dragging him to the mirror.

"H-hey!?"

Deus was taken aback by his actions as he tried struggling free, however, Sariell's grip was strong enough to hold him down without problem.

"Stop moving!" Feeling annoyed, Sariell smacked him on the back of his head. "Miss principal, can you please open the mirror world?"

Without even saying anything, Eva waved her wand as the colors of the mirror beside her began to divert. The blue sky turned red; the green grasses turned gray; the wall of the academy turned black, and many other things had their color either diverted or removed.

"Hey, I haven't even have enough time to-!?" Before Deus could finish his sentence, Sariell lifted him up by grabbing ahold of his collar, and threw him I inside the mirror. When he was inside, Deus tried his hardest to get out of the [Mirror World] by knocking on the mirror portal, however, he ended up failing as expected.

Although he wanted to use his body sword to get out, after thinking things throughly, he eventually gave up and sat on the ground while looking at the mirror in front of him with annoyance. His expression brought happiness for Sariell for some reason.

"I'm coming in."

With a sharp great sword on his shoulder, Sariell walked forward and went inside the [Mirror World] before kicking Deus away from his sitting spot.

"I'll be the one taking care of you today."