"Young master, Young mistress, do you remember the training your families forced you to attend?" Marcus asked.

The two of them nodded.

"Good, get prepared to fight, and this time you might actually die if you're careless."

"Marcus, We're only fighting one man, all three of us together could easily deal with him." The young man said, but Marcus shook his head, "I had a feeling something was off about the three of them, and now that we know that the cloaked one is a demon who knows about the other two."

In the carriage, Cayden sighed, and muttered, "Let's get this over with."

Lapsa and Cronix exchanged a glance before following after Cayden. The crow stayed in the cloak with Cayden, she was getting ready to fly out.

Right now, if she had enough magical energy inside her, she could easily skip the resting, and eating parts of life, and when she enters the Star Core Magician phase, she wouldn't need to breathe either.

Marcus and the two companions looked at the three demi-humans with solemn expressions, and when the two companions noticed Cronix and Lapsa following behind Cayden, a complicated expression appeared in their eyes.

"Were we really defending those two for nothing?" The young man couldn't help but ask. His companion couldn't answer him.

"Maybe we can convince them to turn on the demon." The young woman carefully suggested.

Marcus butted in, "I wouldn't count on it, and do you see the one with horns, I have a feeling he's also a demon."

"Lapsa, you should stay back, you aren't strong enough for this fight." Lapsa honestly wanted to argue against Cayden's words, but he knew Cayden was right.

He was still only in the three star Caster stage, yet this kind of felt familiar to him, in a way he couldn't place. But before he left, he had to ask, "What do I do if a stray attack comes my way?"

"You dodge." Cayden smiled, but he actually seriously thought about this matter. He then began taking off the cloak.

The crow came out of the cloak when she had the chance. However when she came out, Marcus and company immediately froze, this crow wasn't a Caster.

"A Core Creation crow, do we have any chance of winning against that?" The young woman questioned.

Marcus frowned, he could tell this was definitely a Core Creation magic beast but, "The bird is weakened, I should be able to fight against that, this could also mean the cloak boy's true power is only a three star... Caster..."

Cayden fully took off the cloak while they were talking, not only revealing his true power as a five star Caster, but while this may not cause too much trouble while they fight, there was one thing he revealed that was more important.

On his head and tail bone were his badger features, displaying his identity as a demi-human out to the world.

"Is this fight even worth fighting anymore? I mean, if we think about it, he could've learned how to use the dark element by the Magic Scholar Trance." The young man asked his two companions.

Marcus was frowning, he wasn't so convinced, I mean what were the chances all of this was happening to them, after they just offended another family, something was definitely up.

Not only that, but how does a group of demi-humans end up with equipment that could hide their aura from flawless five star Casters, or a beast companion that was in the Core Creation stage.

"Don't let your guard down young master, this can't be the end of things." Marcus said as the wind elements were slowly being drawn to his palm.

"Wait, Marcus can't we just smooth out his misunderstanding, I mean we haven't done anything too bad." The young woman asked, she, like her companion, didn't believe they should continue this fight.

Marcus shook his head, "There's something off about this whole situation, I refuse to believe this group doesn't have any other motives."

Without wasting any more time, Marcus made the first move, sending a blade of wind towards the crow. The crow, easily dodged by flying higher in the air.

The dark elements around gathered and formed into multiple arrow-like objects, sending them towards Marcus. There was obviously something different in the crow's fight style, it seemed a bit more refined, compared to before.

Cayden quickly threw the cloak at Lapsa and commanded him to put it on.

"She's gotten better." Cronix said to Cayden with a smile as he watched the crow's fight. He then shifted his attention to the two companions in front of them.

The young man and young woman were both conflicted whether they should participate in this fight, but they remembered their families orders before going on this trip, they had to listen to Marcus completely, besides Cronix and Cayden didn't really give them a choice.

Cronix's mental energy expanded forward like a wave of water, their surroundings slowly becoming colder.

The wave split apart into countless strands, all those strands condensed to form icicles, before he directed them towards the two.

The two companions glanced at each other, then sighed. Electricity began covering the young man's hand as it slowly expanded out to form a whip.

The young woman touched the ground and the water elements in the air and ground were being pulled towards her, these water elements turned into mist.

When the icicles got close, the young man whipped the lightning whip, but when it touched the icicles, its energy went berserk, spreading in all directions. Cronix frowned, "I think you should handle the lightning magic user."

Cayden nodded, and turned his attention to the young man. His hand reached into the magic bag, and took out a very low quality advanced crystal.

His grip tightened around the crystal, and the magical energy creating the crystal rushed inside him, quickly filling up his stars, his first star almost instantly became flawless followed by his second.

Seeing his power increase just by this, caused the two companions eyes' to widen, and a small feeling of danger appeared in their hearts, this feeling only continued to grow as more magical energy entered his stars.

The mist around the young woman quickly became like a torpedo, and under her control, it shot towards Cayden.

But Cayden didn't let this mist interrupt him, he stomped forward, and a thick pillar of dirt extended from the ground up into the sky, blocking the mist.

However, while the pillar may have stopped the momentum of the mist, it didn't completely deal with the mist.

The mist splitted apart into two, before each went around the pillar going in different directions, but when they got close to Cayden again, a formless force enveloped them.

Under this force the mist solidified and turned into ice crystals, falling to the ground.

Shortly after that, the advanced crystal completely disappeared as its magical energy was completely refined into Cayden's stars, at this point his third star became flawless.

"Your stars always seem so easy to fill." Cronix bitterly mumbled.

Cayden ignored him and touched the pillar, it broke apart, only to reform into five lances. He didn't send them to the companions' way immediately, no, instead he began to run.

Earth pillars started to extend under his feet with every step, allowing him to reach higher places.

Lightning slowly began circling the pillars before it took the form of a serpent, ready to devour Cayden, but the earth under his feet shifted around to create spears at its borders, stabbing into the lightning serpent's body, and disrupting the attack .

The young woman was about to help the young man, as more mist began forming around her body, but her surroundings suddenly went cold, and a trace of danger enveloped her body.

She sensed it before she saw it, water elements coming towards her, however these elements were different from the one Uvira provided, instead they felt foreign.

But she couldn't focus too much on the difference, the mist around her body spread out before she physically dodged the attack.

With the mist spreading out, Cronix's vision was occupied, and even with the water elements, he couldn't pinpoint her destination, this would've been a great technique for hidden attacks, except there was one problem, Cronix didn't just use his eyes to see.

Cronix's eyes closed, and strands of mental energy quickly expanded out of his body into his surroundings, because his mental energy was the combination of mental energy and the water elements, he was able to see through everything just fine.

His energy spread out just in time to see himself about to be hit in the side, by a punch infused with magical energy.

But even if he saw it coming, he couldn't react fast enough, all he could do is have his mental energy and magic to shield his side before it was filled with pain and his body was launched out of the mist, his groans traveling with him.

His landing would've caused him even more pain, if a strong wind didn't slowly carry him down. Cronix didn't have to see him to know this was Lapsa's doing.

The young woman frowned within the mist. That punch should've gone right through him, but she felt some resistance, and it wasn't just from his magic.

She started to approach him again, the mist following her movements. Cronix's face paled as he struggled to get up.

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His mental energy spread out, and enveloped some of the mist, his goal was to freeze it to provide him some visibility, but she saw him do that to help Cayden, this time she was prepared.

As his freezing began, the water elements in all the surrounding areas, even some in Cronix's own control, began to turn into mist.

It even affected Cayden's and the young man's battle, but not by much. Soon everything in a fifteen foot radius of Cronix was mist.

Cronix stopped trying to freeze the mist, it'll only be a waste of his mental energy at this point, yet he didn't withdraw his mental energy.

He still used his mental energy to see through the mist, though everything was in third person, which felt very unusual, and was kind of confusing to get used to.

However he didn't have time to familiarize himself with this, as through the mist, he saw a figure rapidly approaching him, magical energy filling her body, and the mist around her hardening to form more attacks.

Cronix frowned, although his mental energy has grown a considerable amount compared to three weeks ago thanks to his work on the teleportation array, but it wasn't tireless.

So if he used his ability to freeze water with his mental energy, he would tire much quicker compared to using it for simple attacks.

Just as this was about to become a problem, an idea hit him, but he didn't know how effective this idea might be.

The young woman watched Cronix, who had his eyes closed with a small frown, something was wrong she was sure of it, but it didn't make sense, she had the obvious upper hand.

Not only was he inside her mist domain, but he was also below her in the Magic Path. She silently made her way to him, The mist around her ready to attack.

If she had mastered this technique, then this wouldn't have been a problem, and as long as Cronix was inside the mist domain, she could attack him from anywhere, atlas that wasn't the case.

When she got close enough, she stopped trying to be so silent, as the mist and herself charged at Cronix, yet when the attacks came he dodged, and it didn't seem like a dodge that he pulled at the last minute, no it was more like he was expecting them.

The young woman didn't stop her attack, and she threw a fist at him, but he still was able to dodge. The mist next to him suddenly hardened and like a bat, swung at him, this time he couldn't simply dodge.

Cronix turned around and grabbed the mist, the moment it touched his fingertips, it instantly froze. This time Cronix's eyes were opened, and when the young woman saw them, she gasped.

His eyes were glowing, and they seemed colder than before, and although she didn't notice, an ice aura was being emitted from his fingertips.

Inside Cronix's mental expanse, the place where his ice wraith once stood, was empty.

If a more powerful mind master or magic user was here, and they sensed Cronix, they would see a faint outline of another entity that looked like Cronix, overlapping his body, but it was only in certain areas, it wasn't nearly big enough to completely overlap.

The young woman's face paled, but she didn't retreat.

The mist below him suddenly solidified and attacked his legs, since it happened below him he didn't have enough time to react.

His legs collapsed on itself, his cries of pain filled the air, and using this moment, the mist next to his face solidified and hit his face, sending him spiraling to the ground.

She again charged up to him, her leg swinging, but he rolled away, she was now definitely sure there was some way he could see, because the mist was still there, and even if he was a water magic user, this technique was also made with them in mind.

But before she could dwell on this topic a sudden feeling of danger arose from behind her, as an icicle shot towards her created by one of Cronix's strands of mental energy.

When she turned back to Cronix, he had already gathered some mental energy and turned them into multiple pieces of ice with the tip of his fingers. There was an exhausted look on his face as if he had overstrained himself, before he sent them her way.

The attack was too close for her to dodge and if she was the first one to be severely hurt it would be detrimental for their battle.

But she remembered something her father once taught her, it usually only comes into play at the Star Core Warrior stage and above, yet now it seemed like the best time to use it.

Using her control over the mist in front of her, she infused it into the attack sent by Cronix, since they were both water elements it was smoothly done.

Using all her strength she managed to manipulate his water elements using her own as a conduit, however it was only enough to shift some of the water elements away, she could dodge some of them, but not all of them.

A few still hit her, and some dug deep, she screamed as they impaled her arms and legs, and one grazed her side.

There was also another element in the attack she couldn't influence, one Cronix hasn't used in a long time, his dark elements continued onward hitting her in the chest.

She was knocked back a little, but surprisingly, compared to his other attacks, the dark element attack was very weak, and seemed suitable to his five star Caster strength.

But it confirmed what Marcus said, he was a demon.

Cronix slowly stood up, this battle was draining him in more ways than one, but he didn't stop, he began to slowly move, one of his feet dragging the whole time while mental energy was being infused into it.

The young woman calmed down as she gripped the icicles and yanked them out of her.

When she looked back at Cronix, her eyes lit up a bit, although she was injured it seemed like that attack took a lot out of him. She felt thankful for his exhausted state, even if he could fight her evenly, he was still in the end a five star Caster.

But she didn't allow herself to be completely relieved, because until he didn't have the energy to walk, he was still a threat.

This time she stopped using the mist for her next attack, it already proved it wasn't effective enough, instead her hands made strange movements, the water elements around her flowing along.

Slowly fish appeared around her, Cronix frown and his heartbeat accelerated, but he didn't stop dragging his feet everywhere.

When she was done a whole school of fish was around her, and the mist was their ocean as they swam towards Cronix.

Cronix frowned, his mental energy spread out once more, and he used a technique he never used for battle.

A vortex was created in front of him by his mental energy and at the center were the incoming school of fish, using this vortex, his mental energy ravaged the insides of the fish separating them back into the water elements.

But behind the fish was the young woman, and once her fish were gone, her fist appeared. Cronix saw this coming from his remaining strands of mental energy that were still behind her.

He managed to twist his body just enough to dodge, but a kick was quickly followed by the dodge. He was sent recoiling, but his feet continued to drag onto the ground.

Cronix didn't allow himself to remain on the ground, he used the rest of his mental energy to fill the rest of his body, but most of his mental energy was still focused on the dragging leg.

Without the use of mental energy, Cronix had to rely on the water and dark elements, but that put him at a disadvantage, as his five star Caster strength wasn't enough to compete with a three star flawless Caster.

Cronix was slowly being pushed back, and the young woman seeing this got excited, she gritted her teeth as more force was applied to her punches, and eventually Cronix was knocked back to the ground again. Now he was also fighting for air.

However during this whole exchange, one of Cronix's feet never left the ground, not even to take a full step. There was always one dragging onto the ground.

This obviously confused the young woman, but she didn't understand what he was doing so she ignored it, chalking it up to him being tired.

So she went at him again, Cronix rolled to the side, his expression was horrid, but his eyes were getting bright.

He stood back up, and his hand touched the young woman's arm after she threw a punch.

He aimed for the injury on her arm, his fingers dung into it, and ice began to form in the inside once his fingertips made contact

She yelped, but she quickly moved that arm so her other could throw a punch, this time, Cronix lifted his legs to fully jump back, with the young women chasing after him, determined to finish him off.

There was blood all over Cronix's body at this point, and he was exhausted, but his confidence was slowly being rebuilt as the young woman came closer.

Cronix smiled faintly as she took that final step to reach him, unfortunately for her, she didn't notice the smile, and she took that chance to make a punch that would send Cronix flying, Cronix didn't dodge and took the punch.

But as he flew in the air, he sent one last strand of mental energy her way, it hit the ground below her, and just like her predecessor, Tornic, she didn't realize she stepped into a trap until it was too late.

A formation created by the dirt and the mental energy he had on the dragging foot lit up, it had 15 lines, and was very complex.

Yet this teleportation array was nowhere near completed and instantly collapsed.

When the formation exploded and the young woman was launched out of her own mist domain, it interrupted the other fights, especially Cayden's and the young man's.

"Rebecca!" The young man yelled, but he still should've been paying attention to his fight because a lance made of earth suddenly stabbed itself into his leg, and Cayden's foot kicked him right in the jaw, knocking him to the ground, his screams filled the air.

The two were thoroughly defeated. Lapsa suddenly came from behind Cronix, who was barely conscious at this point and helped him up. The glow in Cronix's eyes were gone, and his wrath was back in his mental expanse.

In the crow's fight, blood dripped off Marcus's face as the crow's talon's pierced his cheeks, and as she was there, a blast of dark magic formed blasting him right in the face.

During this whole fight, her strength as a Core Creation magic user was slowly coming back to her, and with this blast their fight ended.

On the ground, even though she was blasted by the formation, the young woman was still conscious and she slowly crawled to her companion, muttering, "Sam."

Cayden didn't stop her, and Cronix was too weak to fight anymore.

"Lapsa, Cronix, come here." Cayden called to them, and thanks to Lapsa helping Cronix move, they both arrived.

"Okay Cronix, I remember you mentioning something, it was about you having trouble with killing, so you're going to be given the honor of killing these two."

Lapsa's hand shook and he looked at Cronix. Cronix looked at Cayden, "Why don't you do it?"

"Because I don't have trouble with killing these two." Cayden replied with a cold tone.

At this moment, while Cronix may have been classified as a demon, to the two companions, Cayden was the true demon.

"Fine, since you don't want to do it, Lapsa, why don't we test your courage?"

Lapsa's hands began shaking even more violently, and his heartbeat accelerated, it wasn't that Cayden didn't notice his hands or his heartbeat, he just chose to ignore them.

A sigh came out of Cronix, "FIne, I'll do it."

The two companions were panicking, and they decided to risk it all, using whatever magic or attack they could gather, they released it all.

Using the remaining strength he had, Cronix pushed Lapsa out of the way, but he also fell on Lapsa, which kind of saved him.

Cayden merely constructed a wall between them three and the two of them, the wall did the trick, and blocked the attacks.

Lapsa looked on from the ground, he looked at the wall separating them from the two companions.

Even now they don't accept their fate and refuse to die, would I be like that in the future? It kind of reminds me of...

This brought up a feeling within him, so bitter it couldn't be described with words, and old memories were resurfaced, his hands were shaking.

Then another memory rose up from his memories, looking back it was quite silly, and completely wrong.

This memory was a conversation with Cronix, the moment before they were about to start helping the crow's breakthrough.

He told Cronix, he wasn't going to have a problem with killing, and Cronix brushed him off, saying something along the lines of, you never know until you actually have to kill someone.

But he was now certain he didn't need to kill someone to know the answer, he knew for sure, Cronix was right.

Using the wall he created, Cayden toppled it onto the companions, it knocked them out, but didn't kill them, he still wanted the other two to get more comfortable with ending someone else's life.

Lapsa helped Cronix up again, and he looked at the two companions with pity, he said, "Bring me closer to them."

Lapsa obeyed, and brought Cronix closer to them. This wasn't going to be easy for Cronix, but an idea popped into his head that might make this process easier.

He performed cognitive gathering backwards, bringing in some of the water elements, he then entered his mental expanse, he spread out the elements to cover the expanse.

His head started to feel some pain, as his eyes began to glow once more, and at the very base of his hair, instead of black hair, light blue hair began to grow.

But Cronix wasn't using the ice wraith, instead he was recreating what happened to Mr. Williams.

Cronix's personality suddenly changed, he no longer felt as much emotion, and viewed everything with a hint of indifference, but this wasn't going to last long before his mental energy dispelled the water elements.

"Lapsa, close your eyes." He ordered, and Lapsa once again obeyed. Cronix then looked at Cayden, and he understood what he wanted. A spear made of earth was created into his hand, and then handed to Cronix.

Taking the spear, Cronix put his hand on Lapsa's shoulder to support his body, he raised the spear over the young woman's chest, where her heart laid, and thrusted down.

The spear pierced through, and she stopped breathing permanently, Cronix then did the same to the young man.

By the time he was done, the glow in his eyes vanished, and his grip on Lapsa's shoulder tightened, but for a different type of support.

Marcus laid some distance away, but he was already done in by the crow, his death was quick. Originally she was going to keep him alive for the others to handle.

But after seeing what Cayden made Cronix do, and he was no doubt going to make Lapsa do next time, she did it herself, she was leaving him more time, but maybe that was already too late.