The Wizard World

All right, so that’s how it works.... Angele stopped flying. He seemed to already have understood the entire situation.

The organization had arranged it in a way the cores would explode so that all wizards would have the chance of getting their hands on the core fragments. Due to this, wizards who did not have high agility would not be in too much disadvantage. However, the battle for the fragments would become much more intense this way.

Chi!

A core fragment flew by the right side of his face.

Pa!

Angele raised his hand and caught the fragment.

It was a glowing core fragment shaped like a diamond. But then, he could feel that the fragment was trying to move away and was now certain that he ought to put it in a closed container.

The traction of the fragment... It will lead me to the location where there is another fragment.... Angele had completely understood this rule.

He surveyed the nearby areas.

All right, it’s still early. I shall now start collecting fragments.

Chi!

His body disappeared from the sky.

In the next moment, he appeared in the area and he was now standing on the peak of a mountain. Angele looked over at an old man in a black robe standing beside the river. The old man had a grim expression as he pulled his hand out of the woman’s chest. The woman was wearing a white armor, but there was a large, bloody hole right in the middle of her chest.

"Hand the fragment over to me." Angele raised his right hand. Black and silver pieces of rocks gathered around right in the middle of his palm and took form into an enormous gray greatsword.

The old man glared at Angele, with a tinge of red light flashing in his green eyes and he suddenly tried to capture Angele from the far side.

Ding!

A silver shield materialized before Angele, easily blocking a translucent hand. A white shockwave spread out after the collision and disappeared within seconds.

It looked like the hand had been formed out of thin air and was about three meters tall and about one meter wide. The hand struck the colossal silver shield with immense force to try to break the shield.

Angele held the greatsword in his right hand and executed a vertical slash. The upper half of the stone blade was broken into pieces and hurled toward the old man in black.

Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!

Like bombs exploding, the broken stones smashed into the ground near the river one by one and mud and grass were blown into the air.

Angele did not care. He once again slashed forth and created some more broken stones.

The earth was shaking and the empty ground beside the river had already become a mess.

There was some black light flashing in the flying mud and stones at first, but it disappeared quickly and nothing else happened.

Angele dropped the stone greatsword to the ground.

The mud and stones here are full of minerals. I can control them with my forcefield. He jumped down and slowly landed on the empty ground slowly with the help of the green smoke.

The woman in the white armor and the old man in black were both crushed by the stones, but it seemed that they were still alive.

The old man in black spat out some blood. He looked at Angele with a face that had already turned pale.

"I’m sorry, but I think I should be the one to keep your fragments," Angele smiled as he moved his hands near the old man’s eyes. His fingers slowly reformed into silver needles.

Suddenly, both the bodies of the woman and the old man became two rays of black light and bolted into the sky like lightning. Three core fragments dropped out of the light and landed on Angele’s palm.

"Huh?" Angele was surprised, "So the organization would actually do help the ones who are about to die." He caught the fragments and stored them in a metal sphere.

"All right, next." He looked at the river’s surface and walked to the next fragment.

Under the riverwater, there was a man spectating the situation. He let out a sigh with a hint of relief.

*******************************

One day later...

Water was flowing across the river. There was a white string in the middle of the river, of which had been formed by the waterfall from the mountain.

Angele stood on the right side of the river, holding two silver crossguard swords in both of his hands and overlooking the other side of the river calmly.

The green mountains on the other side were deadly silent. White mist drifted in the air above the river.

There were several other people watching what was happening at the river from atop the mountains.

"The Swordsman is fighting against the Night Devil... What do you think?" a man asked softly.

"I don’t know about Swordsman’s rank, but he has already killed all the people who got in his way. Hino the Thunderbird, too, lost the battle against him, but Night Devil is also one of the strongest wizards in this competition," another man spoke.

"The magic circles set up by Night Devil have killed more than 20 wizards who were after his core fragments, and all of them were at a high rank. I don’t think Swordsman can win here," the last man added, "All right, it’s not our business. We just need to make sure we can protect our own fragments. Swordsman already knows we’re here. He didn’t attack us simply because we don’t have many fragments in our possession. But Night Devil has two complete cores — Swordsman will not let this chance slide."

The three sighed with mixed emotions. In their respective territories, they were considered to be strong wizards and it was their first time meeting other people who were considered to be in the same caliber as them. However, they soon discovered for themselves that they were weak after fighting against several other elites from the organization. Due to that, they decided to team up in order to protect the fragments they had. The organization had not specifically made it clear, but if they were to fail to collect even a single fragment by the end of the competition — the punishment ought to be far worse than just wiping out their memory...

There were more than 60 wizards in this division, and half of them had already lost during the battles. The remaining wizards knew how strong each other was.

The strongest wizards were called Swordsman, Night Devil, and Deadman.

These noms de guerre were coined by the wizards who were part of the division. The possessors of a nom de guerre were the best of the best within the division.

Swordsman possessed at least one complete core, and the same applied to Night Devil. Deadman was slower, but he had one complete core as well.

Either Swordsman or Night Devil would become the one possessing the most of complete cores after this battle.

Angele was standing beside the river with a calm demeanor.

Zing! Zing!

He was spinning two silver swords in his hands.

He was walking to the other side of the river. The splashing water covered the back of his silver boots.

"Night Devil, huh? That’s the nickname they gave you?" Angele walked as he talked. His long, red hair was flying about amidst the gentle breeze. He slightly raised his chin, and in front of his eyes, blue light was flashing.

Angele could not use the lava balls. Although it could deal a lot of damage, all wizards in the central continent would then know who he was once they view him cast the spell. He could only rely on the enhanced metal forcefield and the one-time spell that was stored in the biochip, the Pyroblast.

He never rested on the first day. Angele followed the leading of the fragment and took away the fragments from all the wizards he had come across with. No one could deter him.

There was one wizard who was called the Thunderbird. He left a burnt mark on Angele’s right shoulder, but that was it.

There was a total of five cores in the area they were in, and Angele was up against a person that was stronger than the Thunderbird, the Night Devil.

He could feel the traction from the two cores Night Devil had.

The problem was Night Devil’s background.

He learned from a wizard he defeated that Night Devil was one of the core members of Dark Wizard Tower and was alleged to have joined the competition because of the desire to obtain the magic circle legacy.

Angele crossed the river while thinking of this.

He stepped onto the muddy soil with his boots. Several white birds flew out of the plant life in the mountains.

The birds departed the area very quickly.

Angele raised his head, watching as the birds flew away. The shadow of the birds brushed on his face, and a white feather slowly dropped from the sky. He caught it and grasped it forcefully, breaking it into pieces.

Chi!

Countless red lines that looked like spider webs appeared on the ground and started glowing right after.

The red light climbed up Angele’s feet, attempting to bind him to the ground.

Invisible waves appeared on the mountain’s surface, and a pretty girl appeared out of nowhere. She had a pale face and was wearing a black armor. Her chest armor barely covered her chest, but her legs were well-protected by the thick pieces of armor. There was nothing around her waist.

"Swordsman... You have already lost the battle the moment you stepped into my gravity trap." Her long, blonde hair trailing over her shoulders looked like luxurious silk. She looked at Angele the same way as her looking at a dead person.

"The gravity of this land will stop you from moving. Hand the core over to me. You have no chance of winning."

When he raised his hand, he could indeed feel the gravity restricting him from moving.

"So you’re Night Devil?" he looked at the girl curiously.

The girl had a pair of black eyes. She was holding a long-reaching weapon that looked like a crescent blade surrounded by black smoke.

"What are you trying to do?" the girl sneered and moved her weapon, leaving a blurry shadow behind. She was targeting Angele right at his waist.

Angele smiled and slowly moved his hand toward the girl. Three silver scars appeared on his face.

Mud and rocks from the land and the mountain around the girl started flying toward her as Angele’s hand moved.

Bam!

Clang!

The two struck each other at the same time.

Angele’s waist was hit by the blade, but the sound it created was akin to a piece of metal being hit. What was left on his metal barrier was a light scar.

"That’s all you can do? How disappointing..." Angele shook his head, "You are too weak... I was expecting better from you."

The girl was surrounded by mud and rocks. Red light flashed around her body, and a black face slowly appeared behind her as a pair of blue wings on her back started fluttering.

Boooom!

Night Devil had cast three of her strongest spells before she finally blew all the rocks away.

Blood leaked out of her mouth. She was now looking at Angele in pain.

"How dare you..."