“A 5th fusion rank mage?” Noble Lord Terrom mumbled to himself as his eyes stared at the wiggling shadow of Rezen

From the shadow, a man clad in a black mage robe came out. His face was covered with a mask with the image of a black dog on it

“Shadow Dog… a guardian mage of the Preston Family that is always protecting the younger generation they think is the most talented”

“Is that strange kiddo from the Preston Family? What a surprise!”

Despite the fact that his identity was discovered, Shadow Dog didn’t show any reaction

He didn’t even say anything to clarify Rezen’s background and he just continue to attack

“[Dog Demon’s Coat!]”

A black magic circle formed below Shadow Dog and from it, some sort of purple energies climbed on his body

It started from his feet to his head and even above him

In just a matter of seconds, Shadow Dog placed himself inside a body made from magic

The ‘body’ has a humanoid body with a face of a vicious dog. At the end of its arms were its sharp claws and it has a height of five meters, easily overshadowing the humans around him

“[Earth Staff!]”

Another mystic gem flew out of Shadow Dog’s elixir field and it has the element of earth

From the magic circle he had conjured, a long staff made from rocks sticking with each other formed

The Dog Demon wielded that staff and uses it to hit the bound Terrom but the latter simply smiled

“[Flesh Eater!]”

Despite not moving even a single finger, Terrom still managed to condense a magic circle

The [Shadow Bind] spell only bound his physical body. His soul and mystic gems are still perfectly fine, giving him the ability to continue casting his spell

The flesh eater met the staff made from rocks. The disgusting entity opened its mouth to eat the staff and an even more disgusting scene occurred

The flesh eater suddenly grew in size or more like the staff is trying to pierce a hole in its body but it was very elastic. The flesh eater was stretched greatly but it was not penetrated

When about half of the staff’s length was swallowed by the monster, Shadow Dog clicked his fingers together to create another magic circle that controlled the earthen staff

“[Explode!]”

Boom!

All the pieces of rocks that made up the staff suddenly exploded. This time, the flesh eater was finally damage

No, not just damage. It has been brutally abused with all the holes on its body

“[Gather!]”

Shadow Dog ordered and all the pieces of rocks gathered to recreate the same staff of earlier

“Heh… as expected of Shadow Dog” Terrom commented before he controlled the surrounding tentacles

Some of them went to attack Shadow Dog while the others moved to help free him from the [Shadow Bind] spell

When he was free again, Noble Lord Terrom condensed magic circles again, one for each of his hand

“[Flesh Eater!]”

Turns out that the [Flesh Eater] spell has more than one variety. The ones he uses before were all ‘meat balls’ with sharp teeth

This time, the flesh eaters were long tentacles that has ‘O’ shaped mouths showing sharp teeth

There were ten of such flesh eaters from each hand, totaling twenty in total

In return, Shadow Dog swung its long staff again to block a portion of the flesh eaters while using its sharp claw to rip apart the others

Rezen doesn’t know why a mage from the Preston Family is here but he should be safe, right?

After all, he is ‘close’ to a person that is part of that family and he even has their Token of Gratitude

As such, after saving Lord Keito, Rezen joined the fight

Both his Mystic Tattoos and Mystic Gems resonate with the natural laws of fire causing his eyes to turn crimson red for a moment

“Haaa!”

Rezen punched his fist in the air and a stream of fire was released by him. This is the same thing that Tattoo Warriors does to send long-range attacks

Rezen originally have to practice for a long time as a Tattoo Warrior to do this but the blessing of [Link] helped him achieve this in a short period of time

Rezen might not be able to kill or defeat Terrom but he could still be quite a nuisance for him while he was fighting Shadow Dog, right?

“Heh… got your confidence back, kiddo?” Noble Lord Terrom said with a chuckle while ordering the remaining tentacles around to block Rezen’s attack

“Do you all want to die? What are you doing just watching there? Kill or disable them!” Terrom said to the surviving Lords with him

There were only around ten of them remaining and they have been awoken by Terrom’s words

If Terrom loses the fight against Shadow Dog then they would also die. It was as simple as that

As such, Rezen has to die here

“Hmph!” Rezen snorted as he charged at them

“[Exploding Lotus!]”

One of the Lords sent a fire lotus flying toward Rezen and he jumped in the air, leaping several meters high in the air

“[Whirpool!]”

From the mage that casts the [Exploding Lotus] spell, a magic circle formed. That magic circle causes the water around him to rotate, creating a whirlpool

With the shallowness of the swamp, that whirlpool definitely wouldn’t be enough to swallow and drown a person but that at least causes the mage to be unable to cast his spell

Rezen created more than one of the same magic circle, totaling five of them

Five of the mages instantly loses their ability to fight

“[Spiraling Lance!]”

Five spiraling lances of metal have been created by Lord Keito and he sends them to the disabled mages

Puchi!

Five chests were pierced through by the Lances, harvesting the same number of lives as a result

Lord Keito alone cannot defeat five mages at his level that easy but thanks to Rezen’s spell, things have changed

The past two weeks gave Rezen exponential growth and more spells were added to his arsenal to the point that making a list would be hard if not for the help of the system

When Rezen landed on the swamp, five of the Lords have died already and he charged at the remaining five

“Aahh no!”

“Don’t come here!”

“Stop!”

The surviving Lords cried out. They sent their spells again but Rezen was moving too fast for them to land a solid hit

“[Crow’s Grip!]”

Rezen’s hand turned into the claw of a crow again. His figure blurred and when he reappeared, his claw already penetrated the chest of a mage

“Y-you!”

The mage’s eyes widened in shock, pain, and unwillingness but it didn’t take that long before his eyes were shut closed again

“[Thunder Streaks!]”

From the claw of Rezen, an electric blue magic circle formed and it sent streaks of lightning to the remaining four mages

With the help of Keito, the two killed all the Lords from the Twighlight Beasts in a short period of time

“Sigh… this is not my first time killing but I’m still not 100% used to it” Rezen said with a sigh

To enemies, he wouldn’t hesitate to kill them but it doesn’t mean that the act of killing itself is something that he likes doing

Rezen has more or less adapted to this world where most of the time a person must kill if they don’t want themselves to be killed but it still made him sigh

“[Shadow Strike!]”

Shadow Dog swung his rock staff downwards and when Noble Lord Terrom blocked it using his flesh eaters, the former activated his spell

From the magic circle that formed around Terrom, the shadows moved. They turned into sharp tentacles that threatened to poke holes in Terrom’s body

Terrom tried to dodge but he still suffered two wounds on his legs that hindered his movements

“[Lightning Net!]”

“[Sun Stream!]”

Both Rezen and Keito moved on fast after killing the ten mages. They teamed up against a single enemy and they used the chance when Terrom just received injuries from Shadow Dog

As mages don’t have refined physiques, most of the time, the ones that got injured first would lose

From the exchange that Terrom and Shadow Dog had while Rezen was still fighting the Lords, the stronger of the two was already visible

Shadow Dog is the one that always has the advantage and it was only a matter of time before he can defeat Terrom, especially now that Rezen and Keito were helping him

Terrom himself knew about that but he was still as fearless as before. The injury on his legs made it hard for him to move but he was still smiling

He waved his hand and an object appeared on top of his palm

That object was crystalline and it has the image of some sort of disgusting magic beast

“T-that’s a werebeast nucleus, stop him!” Lord Keito cried out after seeing the object on Terrom’s hand