Everything in the forest was just as Cronix left it, all the paint was there, the paint roller was on the floor, and the three giant lines of the teleportation array were still intact.

Cronix felt a bit relieved, it was a real hassle to get everything here. Yet, he stared at the floor for a while, he was too embarrassed to admit, but the formation he made green to hide from outsiders, apparently worked on him too.

It took a few moments to find, but when he did, he immediately went to work. Picking up the paint roller, and dipping it into the green paint.

He paused for a second before drawing the fourth line of the teleportation array according to his memory of the formation book.

Cronix still wasn't proficient in the teleportation array in the slightest, he was only able to complete four lines by heart.

He then felt the eyes of a living creature on him,

Probably just the crow.

Cronix ignored the feeling, he took out the formation book, and began studying the next set of lines.

But the moment he opened the formation book another weird feeling came over his body. It was dreadful, it caused all his hair to stand up, and chills to go through his body

He frowned, but didn't have the time to think before he suddenly felt a violent heat coming from behind him, and it was only getting hotter.

He only had time to look over his shoulder to see a huge ball of intense red hurling towards him, the blazing red ball hit him and... Nothing happened.

The cloak was completely fine and wasn't burnt in the slightest, because of this Cronix's back was also completely fine.

Behind Cronix a snort sounded out, "I didn't expect that to kill you, but I thought it would at least hurt you."

Cronix looked toward the sound of the voice, he thought it sounded a bit familiar.

The voice came from a young man, about 18 years old, his dark hair and eyes would've made his face look stern and respectable, but because of the dangerous gleam in his eyes, it gave him a completely different feeling.

That's... That's Tornic! Why... Why did he attack me?

Tornic fixed Cronix with a stare, he wasn't going to waste any time, and said what was on his mind.

"I know you took a water attributed crystal from the mines."

Cronix's blood immediately went cold, and his heart rate rapidly increased. The water elements around him became more active.

Tornic's lips tilted upwards, he didn't know about the physical reactions happening inside Cronix's body, but the active water elements was all he needed to confirm his assumption.

So he continued, "Don't worry, I don't want the water crystal, I just want to know how you did it."

Cronix's eyes narrowed.

Why does he want..? Is it for personal use or to increase security? How many other people know...? Ahhh... Fine, let's just test the waters for now...

"I'll give it to you, for a price." Cronix said, while his thoughts were trying to calm him down.

We're both five star Casters, there is no reason to be afraid of him.

Tornic frowned then laughed, "Just because we're both five star Casters, doesn't mean you stand a chance against me." His words were like he read Cronix's mind, "Let me show you, there is a big difference between us."

Tornic no longer spoke, he gathered the magical elements in the surroundings, or more specifically the fire elements.

They formed three large fireballs the size of watermelons, and launched towards Cronix. Cronix gathered the water elements and created a shield

Cronix's shield was hardly enough before the three fireballs, once the first fireball hit, both shield and fireball collapsed, and with nothing to obstruct the other two fireballs, they both continued towards their intended target.

Before the fireballs arrived, Cronix's wings appeared from the inside of his cloak and shielded his front. Shielding against the remaining two fireballs.

Cronix's body was still launched back five feet with everything besides his cloak burning up, but he was still okay overall.

But Tornic still wasn't done, he continued to gather more of the fire elements, and this time formed five fireballs, sending them all Cronix's way.

Cronix quickly stood up, his hand went inside his magic bag, and took out several formations, all of them failed, or incomplete teleportation arrays.

He surrounded one of them with his mental energy and threw it at the first fireball, activating it the moment it got close.

This teleportation array had five lines complete and a messed up sixth line that went off the paper; Cronix created this formation a few weeks ago, and it took several days at the time for him to get that far.

The explosion was effective, and it took out the first fireball.

Tornic frowned; he couldn't see what was happening because his own fireballs were in the way, but the explosion was not promising.

Cronix sent more teleportation arrays towards the fireballs with mixed results, not all of the teleportation arrays were as strong as the first.

Cronix gathered the water elements, and created his own ball of magic, but it obviously wasn't as powerful as Tornic's fireball, his waterball lacked the ferociousness Tornic's fireball held.

But it played its part as Cronix extinguished the remaining bits of Tornic's fireball, however the moment the fireballs disappeared, Cronix's face instantly turned pale, he only saw more and more fireballs coming his way.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

During the first wave of fireballs, Cronix used all his failed teleportation arrays, and his strongest failure was used against Arthur in the mines.

Damn that Arthur, if he hadn't attacked me that day, I would've still had my strongest attack! ...Wait... I still have that, I just need to find it again.

Cronix tried his best to shield himself against the fireballs, gathering as many water elements as he could, and using his mental energy to create a shield.

Cronix's mental energy ended up working better against the fireballs than his water element, the mental energy shielded against the fireballs well, but the mental energy was eventually broken through.

Cronix ended up having to use his wings to shield against the remaining fireballs, but this wasn't as effective as the first time, and again he was launched back.

So far this fight was like a martial artist against a regular person using only simple punches and kicks.

Cronix's face distorted with pain and he saw Tornic slowly approaching.

As Tornic approached Cronix's writhing body, he gathered the fire elements in his right palm, it made his hand look like he was wearing a glove of fire.

Tornic crouched down beside Cronix and smiled, "This is how we're different."

Tornic raised his hand, and slammed down on Cronix's chest.

Cronix couldn't help but scream, as he felt the palm of fire burn into him. Tornic raised his palm again, and slammed it back down.

Cronix's screams only got louder.

After six times of Tornic repeating this process, he moved it to a different part of Cronix's body, the head.

Tornic raised his hand higher, and slammed down faster and harder.

Just as his hand was about to hit Cronix's face, a bird's cry sounded out, and Tornic's body was knocked back, it wasn't far, just a bit off Cronix's body, near his right leg.

Cronix gritted his teeth, thanks to the calming effect of his pendant, he was still able to think clearly despite the pain.

Cronix raised his left leg and slowly kicked Tornic in the side, while this kick was slow, it wasn't a normal kick, but one backed up by Cronix's mental energy!

When the kick connected almost all the mental energy in Cronix's body pushed against Tornic, causing his body to be knocked back a few dozen feet away.

Cronix used his remaining strength to gather the water elements to cool down his body.

Tornic stood back up, while he was hurt, it wasn't nearly as bad as Cronix, in fact he was more surprised than hurt, "So you do have mental energy! Now it makes sense how you were able to sense me that day."

Cronix frowned, but he didn't ask any questions.

"But mental energy isn't going to give you any advantages." Tornic then did something that surprised Cronix, Tornic started releasing a formless, colorless power.

"You... you have mental energy too!?" Cronix's heart shook, although Tornic's mental energy was weaker than his own, it still gave his mentality a huge blow.

As Cronix struggled with the fact that Tornic had mental energy, a frown soon surfaced on Tornic's face,

There's nobody else here.

The first thing Tornic did with his mental energy wasn't attack Cronix, but scan his surroundings. He had to find the origin of the magical attack, or he couldn't be completely calm while fighting Cronix.

But like he said, there was no one else besides the two of them here, the only other creature he found was a crow perched on a tree, its feathers had a very weird silver color scheme.

If there isn't anyone else here then maybe it's the crow...

That thought was brushed off the moment it arrived. The blast that attacked Tornic was a magical blast, and it was definitely from something in Caster stage, but that crow wasn't even a magic user.

It seems like I'm not going to be able to let my guard down.

While Tornic was lost in thought, Cronix used the remaining mental energy he had to help him stand, five shining orbs of different colors slowly appeared behind him.

This was the sign a Caster stage magic user was going all out, all their stars would appear behind them to grant them support.

Tornic was pulled from his thoughts when he saw the five stars, "Still trying to fight back? Fine, I'll show you something that will erase all your resistance." Five orbs also started to appear behind Tornic.

But Tornic's stars were different from Cronix's, instead of Tornic's fourth star being white, it was completely blue like the fifth star, only a bit lighter.

Cronix's eyebrows started to tremble,

A step away from the flawless Caster stage! How can I win this fight, is this really hopeless? No! We still have that, I found it, he just needs to take fifteen steps!

"Your stars are really impressive, but if you think that'll make me feel hopeless, you've overestimated yourself!" Cronix reached into his magic bag and took out several pieces of paper.

Tornic's eyes narrowed, but he didn't feel intimidated from Cronix's actions, he was actually more confused.

Why is he taking out pieces of paper in a fight? Whatever he's doing I don't like it.

Tornic gathered more of the fire elements and formed more fireballs, this time reaching a total of seven, he didn't hesitate to send them in Cronix's direction.

When Cronix saw the incoming fire balls he immediately pushed all his mental energy into the paper to make three lines of the teleportation array.

He threw the formation and rushed to make more.

The formation instantly collapsed, and the explosion dispersed a bit of the fireball. Cronix threw more formations at the rest of the fireballs, and one by one they all dispersed.

"Is he creating formations during a fight?!" Tornic gathered more and more fire elements, forming more fireballs sending them in one after another towards Cronix.

Cronix created more arrays in an instant, and started charging. Cronix threw out multiple incomplete teleportation arrays, exploding them and dispersing the fireballs.

Tornic was getting impatient, he created more and more fireballs, so much that he was starting to get out of breath.

Cronix's consumption of his formations were beginning to get out of hand, his paper supply was starting to run low, and the instant it did, it would be over.

Tornic was about to form even more fireballs when he heard another bird cry and he was hit with another ball of unknown magic.

While it didn't hurt him in the slightest, it did make him lose his concentration dispersing the fireballs on their own, and it was very irritating to keep getting hit from an unknown force.

Cronix broke through from the barrage of fireballs, and continued charging at Tornic. Tornic's face darken, and he also charged at Cronix, the fire elements gathered into his palms, and his mental energy also gathered at his palms.

Cronix was paying attention to Tornic, counting the steps he took,

one... two... three... four...

Cronix focused all his mental energy into his legs, and he sped up.

Tornic seeing Cronix speed up also sped up.

Bingo...

Cronix and Tornic met right where Cronix planned, but he wasn't fully prepared for what Tornic had in store for him.

When Tornic raised his palm to attack, Cronix's eyes widened, there he saw in Tornic's palm was both the fire element and mental energy, but they weren't separate like one would expect, they were integrating.

Cronix saw the process on how, but didn't have enough time to think at the moment, he also attacked with his mental energy using his legs and brought his wings to cover his chest.

But Cronix's mental energy attack was more directed at the floor than Tornic, missing Tornic completely.

While Cronix's mental energy didn't hit Tornic, Tornix's palm hit Cronix right in the middle of his wings, Cronix was sent flying about ten meters for the last time, blood leaking from his mouth.

Tornix sighed, as he saw Cronix finally dealt with, but there was also a frown present on his face,

What were those black things that shielded his chest?

Tornic was about to check Cronix out to further investigate the mysterious black objects, but his face instantly turned pale, he finally noticed the mental energy on the floor.

He didn't realize it before, but he was standing on a formation made from green paint that blended in with the grass, and the mental energy was being infused with the formation.

The formation obviously wasn't finished, but that was the problem. Tornic didn't have enough time to run before the explosion occurred.

This formation had comparable power to the one Cronix used against Arthur in the mines, where even he had to admit that it was strong enough to seriously injure a flawless one star Caster.

The explosion was big, it could be seen from the mines.

Tornic was in the blunt of the attack and had no chance of survival, even Cronix's body, who was ten meters away was pushed back an extra 15 feet.

When the explosion ended, Tornic's body was still there, but there was no life in his eyes.

Somewhere in the city of Klavor, in a room with many jades, a jade with the name Tornic cracked and shattered, surprising the old man keeping watch.