153 Last Stage

Honestly, Greyson hated this feeling.

Guilt.

It stabbed straight into his heart. Murder was accepted in society as an inevitable occurrence. Obviously, it was still a crime that could be punished, but who would get caught? Magic made murder too easy to get away with unless the criminal purposefully leaves evidence. Maybe commoners without magic could still get put to death for murder, however, this was only because they were weak. The government in charge did not feel any hesitation punishing people with no background. A large percentage of magicians were born in an aristocratic family. Even if they got caught, no one would dare to make an arrest. Ordinary soldiers could do nothing in the face of powerful magicians. Killing and death were concepts that Greyson could accept in his head. Enacting them in real life? It still made him feel uncomfortable in his heart. Were those young men really deserving of death? Was it right? In the end, there was no clear right and wrong in this situation. His teacher and he were targets and in danger of dying. They had to fight back for survival.

Taking a deep breath, he calmed himself. Feeling the already drying blood and almost tasting the iron smell in the air, Greyson willed his body to stop shaking. Sitting down, he began to meditate to recover his mana to its peak state. Leilena watched the entire situation unfold and her heart truly ached for her student. However, every child must grow up. This was the reality of this world. As terrible and dark as it was, everyone must learn and adapt. When she looked at the bodies strewn on the ground in her wake, her conscience no longer felt pricked as it once did years ago. The unfeeling green eyes turned dull before clearing once again. There was no longer space to pity. She followed Greyson's lead and also sat down to meditate.

Both of them sat in complete silence. Greyson was the first to finish and he stood up rapidly before using his water element to clean his body. Changing into a set of new clothes, he looked at the bodies with a conflicted expression. Waving his hand, fire burst out and quickly burned the bodies to ash. The fire burned so hot that not even the smell lingered. Looking down at his hand, he formed a fist and tightened to the point that his skin turned pale and bloodless. When his head rose once again, he no longer thought about the past events. The last stage was right in front of him, he could not afford to be distracted and fail here. That would make everything they suffered and the death of those young men to be in vain. Turning his head towards his teacher, he realized that she was already standing and waiting for Greyson in front of the doorway to the next trial. Her green eyes encouraged him warmly.

"Alright, slowpoke, it's time to go! I'm going to grow wrinkles at this point. I haven't been able to get a wink of my daily beauty sleep! Youthful looks such as mine do not come without any effort." Leilena jokingly grumbled while touching her face. Clearly, she was just lying through her teeth, but Greyson just chuckled at her act. Although the distraction effort was obvious, it did make him feel a little better.

"Apologies, Your Highness. I didn't mean to ruin the princess's daily beauty routine." Exaggerating an expression of piety, Greyson plead guilty.

"Hmph~ as long as you're aware of my sacrifices."

"Alright, alright. Let's go, teacher! I'm sick of this dungeon already. I feel like the longer I stay here, the more likely I'll go as crazy as the dungeon creator."

"Hehehe! That's more like it." Leilena did not wait another second and quickly hopped through the door. Greyson followed right behind her.

Their vision tunneled as the world turned black. Before a bright light burst out and lit up their surroundings. Squinting to let his eyes adjust, Greyson waited to look at his surroundings clearly. Some hints of dread filled his heart as he tried guessing what this stage would bring.

"Oh~ some people made it to this stage... How disappointing..."

Gritting his teeth, Greyson truly wanted to beat this dungeon creator until his mother could not recognize him.

"Hahaha, well, I already got bored at this point of creating this dungeon, so you're in luck. It's pretty easy and straightforward. *Yawn* I was too lazy to put more effort into it. It's simple, all you have to do is beat your opponent. They're all very nice and cute creatures. My absolute favorites. Good luck~"

Not believing his words for a second, Greyson and Leilena both braced themselves for the coming opponents. One loud roar and one screeching caw broke out as two magical beasts appeared. Once they saw them, both student and teacher both cursed the creator to hell and back. In front of them appeared a Light Dragon King and a Blue Phoenix. Two high level magic beasts that were known for their tremendous battle prowess and intelligence. They were restrained by collars so their magic power was lowered to the magister level stage five. But how talented were these beasts? They were stronger than most any other human magicians at the same level because they had naturally strong physical capabilities.

"I should've known it would be like this." At this point, Greyson just had nothing more to say. Leilena just let out a big sigh and shook her head wearily.

"I'll take the phoenix; you should try to take care of the dragon first. Or at least, hold on until I get done with the phoenix." Greyson made these arrangements because the Light Dragons were not known for their speed. Even if Leilena could not beat the dragon, she could draw the fight out with her wind element abilities. Plus, Greyson was more resistant to the ice magic of the Blue Phoenix than Leilena due to his own affinity with the water element and fire element. Leilena understood his intentions almost right away and quickly burst into action by drawing the dragon's attention away. In tacit agreement, Greyson also began his fight with the Blue Phoenix.

Light blue eyes glared angrily at Greyson. Her expression spelled out her disgruntled feelings. If she were not suppressed by the collar, a small weakling such as the child in front of her could never even think to fight herself. Screeching once again, freezing blue raindrops rained down with a flap of her wings. Unable to dodge, Greyson opened his palm in front and a flaming shield appeared. Each raindrop evaporated upon touching the shield. His surroundings did not remain as unaffected as the floor froze over layered with ice. Letting out a short whistle, Greyson had to admit that the Phoenix's power was nothing to look down on. Deciding to focus on using the fire element, Greyson soon surrounded himself in a burning inferno. Raising the surrounding temperature, he could see the Blue Phoenix grow more and more uncomfortable. In retaliation, she also began radiating a frosty aura that clashed with his fire. Equal in strength, both sides were not giving in to the other. However, Greyson soon had the upper hand because the ice mana did not affect him negatively like it did for the Blue Phoenix. Wave after wave of attacks crashed into each other and explosions echoed as the ice shattered and the fire dissipated upon impact.

Inching closer and closer to the phoenix, Greyson soon took a complete 180 to his approach when he reached his target distance. All the fire lost its momentum and the ice started dissipating it all. Instead a white scaled dragon burst out from the dying fire straight at the Blue Phoenix. Snow Dragons, true to their name, were immune to ice magic as long as the opponent's level was not much higher than theirs. Knowing this, Greyson tricked the phoenix into thinking that he could only use his fire element to fight to get close enough then break straight through to the Blue Phoenix in one explosive movement. Closing his fist, Greyson began chanting in the dragon's language. With an echoing roar, he punched the Blue Phoenix as the ice spell exploded. The spell was less focused on the ice magic since Blue Phoenixes were also immune to a certain extent, it was more about the explosive power. Their defenses were not as hard as the dragons. A pained screech echoed as the phoenix crashed into the ground with a loud crash.

Actually, the attack did not seem to scar the Blue Phoenix. Disappointed, Greyson worried about the opponent now. That was a one of his strongest attacks, but it barely left a scratch! Completely enraged, the Blue Phoenix's eyes turned red as it glared sharply at Greyson. It looked prepared to rampage, but, at this moment, a chain sprung out and hooked onto the collar. The phoenix fiercely struggled only to be helplessly dragged away and disappearing into the open space of the dungeon.

"That attack would have completely incapacitated a normal Blue Phoenix at your similar level. Therefore, you have beaten one opponent." This time, the voice was robotic and nothing like the creator's.

Letting out a sigh of relief, Greyson was glad that the test was correctly set up for his corresponding strength level. It was still ranked as a two-star dungeon after all. It could not be that impossible, otherwise no magister level magician could pass.

Leilena did not have too tough of a time dodging around the Light Dragon. She even managed to score some injuries in some sudden attacks that messed with the rhythm of the fight. Greyson was thoroughly impressed by his teacher's fighting tactics that allowed her to fight to the best of her abilities. No wasted movements or fancy spells, just coordinated and well thought out maneuvers that allowed her to play so freely with her opponent. Wind element users did usually suffer from the same issue of weaker brute force attacks when fighting with similar level opponents. They made up for this with their amazing escaping and dodging capabilities which translated into great survival abilities. Wind element users were great scouts and assassins. Each element had positions that they were more or less inclined to excel in. Part of Greyson's issue was choosing a route that suited him since there were too many. Not choosing would only hinder his process of becoming a skilled fighter as sometimes being the jack-of-all-trades meant being the master-of-none. Watching Leilena's masterful movements reinforced this point to him. If he were to verse her with just his wind element, he would be beaten down in the blink of an eye.

Maybe if he trained enough, he could become like that group of young men except all by himself. If he could learn to skillfully maneuver between defense, close combat, and long-distance attacks then there would be very few opponents that could verse him.

Thinking he had watched enough, Greyson was prepared to jump in and help. Unexpectedly, Leilena held up her hand to signal for him to hold. It seemed that she wanted to fight the dragon herself first. Backing down easily, Greyson stood in place keeping his eyes peeled and body ready in case she needed sudden assistance. Being ready was better than just relaxing and watching the show. It would be too late to regret if the dragon makes an explosive counterattack and he was not prepared to help. Almost like a dance, Leilena and the dragon matched each other's movements. However, a dragon's temper could never be underestimated. The longer the match dragged on with Leilena continuously dodging, the angrier the dragon felt. Roaring angrily, he started going completely berserk and attacking wildly. A wide grin broke out on Leilena's face as the situation took a turn. Taking advantage of the wide openings in the now insane Light Dragon, she disappeared like a ghost only to reappear once again at the heart of the dragon. Her dagger actually stabbed through the scales towards the heart, but was stopped prematurely. Confidence quickly turned to shock as Leilena started to retreat almost immediately. The Light Dragon was able to retaliate in time to manage a solid hit. Spitting blood, Leilena slammed into the ground and cracked the floor. It was then that the chain finally came out and hooked onto the Light Dragon King's collar and pulled it away.

Although he was upset that the reaction was late, Greyson did not pay attention to complaining and ran to his teacher. Switching to his light element, he began to cast Heal. He did not have enough mana for a higher-level healing spell. Thankfully, Leilena was already retreating so she only got hit by the tail end of the dragon's attack. Her injuries were relatively light compared to what they could have been if she had taken the hit directly.