Aqola's reputation didn't betray him. He was able to actually think of a plan. He spread a rumor to the other groups so they would rush in the cave. It is all for Vera's team to get alerted and check it. And just as he planned, they really was baited. He was planning for the Vile brigands to clash with her team. As talented as Vera is, she was still a student and won't be a match for the bandits.

As for the scout, he really is not worried by him. Even though he lied to the scout that Ortix would appear if he took hostage of Vera's team, he thinks that he was not really in danger. First is because the scout doesn't really know who sent him the letter. Second is that the military from the camp would soon rush here after he closed off the cave which would led to the capture of the brigand.

Still, there are still some deviation to the plans he made. One was that the scout took hostage of other teams that entered the cave so he could interrogate them about Vera's team. Second was the scout didn't really care about killing the other students. Third was that Ortix actually came with Vera's team. Fourth was that the scout actually has another person with him.

But all of that doesn't really have much impact on him. He doesn't care if they kill the students inside. It was even better if the students inside are all killed and the two brigands were also caught or killed by the military. He would even be fine if the brigand was able to escape after killing or just maiming some students. The problem was that there was a last deviation in his plans that would soon cause everything else to crumble.

The cave that the group entered, as expected, was really dark. Vera took the initiative to cast a magic of light so the rest could follow her. The path inside the cave started to be safe at first but after reaching a few hundred meters, it suddenly became a steep rocky path like a mountain edge with trees. Vera knew that they would need to slowly descend the path if they want to continue but then Cyziel smiled at her before he took action.

Cyziel touched the ground after him and closed his eyes. Nether energy and Earth essence started to gather in his hand, painting his hand dark brown. The part of the cave they were standing at started to shake a little. Cyziel was sending some kind of vibrations towards the ground.

Ru looked at Volus. "What is he doing?"

"No idea. He is the only one here with high Earth affinity." Volus answered.

"It's similar to the spell seismic scan. He must be trying to get information on the path." Vera was focusing on Cyziel and she was thinking of how many elemental affinities does Cyziel have? Did the mark that he mentioned before allowed him to do this. "Its one of the rarer Earth Nether spells. Most Earth spells are Aether based."

Vera was actually right. The spell is really a seismic scan and Cyziel's mark allowed him to have a connection with all the elemental planes like the mark of the sage. He could technically cast all available elemental spells. Unfortunately, unlike the mark of the sage who was awakened with huge amount of knowledge, he needed to manually learn those spells and having only lived 15 years in Venturia, it was not enough to learn all the known elemental spells.

"You actually have a good name for all spells..." Ortix remarked as he saw the sudden changes in Cyziel's hand. "huh?"

The Nether energy in Cyziel's hand disappeared and Aether energy replaced it. The ground shook even stronger then the path after them started to change. The stalactites and stalagmites were cut off. The boulders were grounded to dust. The path became smooth that it had become like a slide. Cyziel just altered the structure and texture of the path.

"Let's go!" Cyziel jumped and slid down the path. The people behind him were not even surprised. He has already done a lot of unbelievable things. Seeing as Cyziel has gone, the others reinforced their clothes and body then they followed. No one knew but Cyziel on how long the path was, so they were surprised that it actually took them a couple of minutes to reach the end.

The end of the path was actually a cliff and they soon fell one by one. Luckily most of them have their own tricks. Ru and Vera can at least try to float with wind magic. Volus can fly while Ortix can run on walls. As they reached the ground, they could see some ropes. It must have fallen off when Cyziel cut off the stalagmites where they are connected to. These must be what the other people in the other groups who could not fly have used to go down.

The sounds of fighting has also gotten stronger as they have gone down. It was already clear that it was pretty near so after everyone arrived, they immediately rushed to the scene. Following them was the cloaked man with the brigands. Not long after, they heard sounds of explosion from where they came but they ignored it first and continued on their objective.

In one part of the cave where luminescent crystals and insects shone to give off some minimal light, 8 figures can be seen fighting.

It was one versus seven but the seven were disadvantaged.

"Estelle.. Please don't die!" Lucia was crying as she was all spent trying to heal a Lucrim woman with light orange hair on her lap. The only thing she could do right now was to hope that Estelle would survive. The woman was badly wounded and she has a stab wound on the side of her stomach.

Estelle tried to move her right hand holding Lucia's left hand. "I won't die yet! Help them first. Let me rest here." She was trying hard to talk but then she coughed blood.

"How sad- but don't blame me. My actual target was not anyone of you. I was just getting bored and you can't even help me answer a simple question. I just asked you where is that Ortix or even that Vera." The brigand scout was currently holding a dagger in each of his hand. His whole body was enhanced by wind magic and combat arts. "You don't think that this barrier would last against me don't you?"

Currently, 2 woman from Draka's group and another 2 men from a different class were helping each other sustain the barrier in front of them. Draka on another hand, was full of wounds around her body. She was currently trying to recover inside the barrier. She was the only one who could fight with the enemy face to face. Even so, she knew that she was outmatched. They needed some miracle to survive this.

Draka activated reinforce arms and body as she walked out of the barrier. "Even if you defeat us. I will make sure that you won't be able to get out of here unscathed." Draka charged with explosive feet.

"Wind steps!" Tarak used magic without using a chant. Apparently, he already reached a high level of magic on the wind element. He easily dodged Draka as he sent his own attack. He slashed the air with his dagger. "Wind blades!"

Draka tried to block the attack again with her hands and another set of wounds appeared.

"You really are persistent! I give you that but if you think you could fight me head on then you are mistaken! Agility!" Tarak activated an advanced combat art and coupled with his wind steps, he charged quickly at Draka. He stabbed with his two daggers and he was successful with one. It pierced Draka's abdomen but his other hand was caught.

"I have been waiting for this!" Draka was finally given an opportunity. She just needed for her attack to connect. She was using her right hand to stop the scout's left arm. She then punched with her left hand towards the scout's face but he just smirked and tried to dodge it sideways. "Tegar Stiz! Rock fist!" Draka's fist was suddenly covered with rock increasing its power and size. The edge of her fist was able to hit the scout's face.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

Tarak was staggered and his mouth was bleeding. He also left one of his dagger on Draka's body. "You were actually able to hurt me! I didn't think that you can also cast magic. I thought you were a pure fighter but that won't work the next time!" Tarak was a little bit furious but seeing his dagger embedded on Draka's body. It was all worth it.

He immediately charged toward Draka but Draka ran back in the barrier. She was still grazed in her back by a wind blade but her stomach's injury was much more lethal. Lucia left Estelle and immediately ran to Draka but unfortunately, she could only do so little due to the amount of Aether she has left. The barrier also started to weaken. Her friends Maria and Lily was also spent.

As the scout saw the barrier weaken, he attacked it which almost caused it to crumble. He only stopped after hearing a number of steps towards them.

"Looks like we just arrived on time!" Cyziel uttered as he scanned the people in the area.

"Draka! We are here to save you!" Ru shouted as he tried to run towards the barrier but Cyziel stopped her. She looked at him with some tears on her eyes. "We need to hurry! Estelle is in danger!"

Tarak saw Ortix and he suddenly laughed. He finally found his target and he was preparing to release all the hate he has stored. He was punished by his captain due to some kid that his captain's brother had a fight with. Isn't that shameful? Why do he need to lower his self to kill some nobody? He was a strong member of the brigands. Only captain levels and above outrank him.

"You actually came! I can't believe that letter was actually true! I can finally finish my task." Tarak pointed his remaining dagger to Ortix.

"Is he talking to me?" Ortix was suddenly looking at the people on his left and right. He was thinking who the guy was talking about. He didn't even know him. "Do I know you?"

"No! And you won't have a need to." Tarak looked at him with malice. "Just know that you offended the wrong people."

"Vol. Help those people in the barrier!" Cyziel commanded nonchalantly as he looked at Ru. "Don't worry they would be fine."

Volus dashed towards the people in the barrier but the scout intercepted him.

"You think you could just run in and go save everyone?" Tarak activated reinforce item and enhance sharpness on his dagger and he hacked at the dashing Volus. "Go die!"

Unfortunately, his attack just passed through. It didn't hit him. Volus just continued dashing and arrived inside the barrier. He then activated a wide area healing light magic.

Nether body? Fade step? Shadow step? What did he do? Why did my attack not hit. Does this mean that he is a high ranking mage or fighter? That's impossible. This would be dangerous for me. I have no knowledge of this. Jaza said that they are just students. The scout was now in a panic. If one of them here is actually on his level then the field would be turned around. He wanted to escape but would they allow him? He needed to at least try to find a way.

"Cy let me handle him since he seemed to be looking for me!" Ortix then now smirked at Tarak. "Why are you suddenly getting scared? I can see it in your face. Volus didn't even attack you. If he did then you would already be dead."

"You think I would be scared of some petty tricks? I will show you how I played with the people here! Wind blade." Tarak sent a single wind blade with his remaining dagger to test Ortix but the result is what he actually feared. The kid was also strong. The only thing that the blade did was tore a part of Ortix' clothes and it only left a very small scratch that isn't even noticeable.

"Isn't this thing that you are doing the petty one?" Ortix reinforced his feet and explosively jumped up towards Tarak. As he was about to land, he then punched down, aiming at Tarak but Tarak activated wind steps and agility to dodge. Ortix instead hit the ground. It smashed a circular area in the ground around his fist and it caused a shockwave that hit the fleeing Tarak. Tarak almost fell down but he was able to stabilize himself.

What the hell is that punch? He didn't even reinforce his hand! That would have killed me! This guy is the one who beat up Jaza? Of course he would lose! This guy might even be stronger than the captain. That stupid idiot! Trying to get us all killed here! Tarak could now acknowledge that he really has no chance of winning. He needed to report back and he wanted to tear Jaza to pieces. It doesn't matter if he was the brother of his captain. He was now looking for a direction to escape.

"Hmm. You actually dodged that! You see. I just learned something new from my new instructor although he is not stronger than me. It is that we could attack someone from a far without touching them but still using the strength of our mind and body." Ortix started to narrate some things that he learned.

But Tarak was not hearing any of that. He could feel that he is really in danger so he immediately dashed away.

"Force grip!" Ortix made a gripping motion in the direction of Tarak. Suddenly an almost imperceptible hand made from nether energy materialized behind Tarak and caught him in his neck. He raised the guy up then pulled him towards him. "You see. I am still talking. As mentioned, this force arts are really advance combat arts. My instructor said that it was pretty hard to use but I actually managed to learn it after a day."

Tarak was starting to not be able to breath but he can still hear what Ortix was saying. He can't believe that Ortix was able to learn force arts in just a day. Even he could only use reinforcement combat arts. He hasn't learned any soul, mind or force combat arts. "Please please don't kill me! I was only ordered to! It was Jaza and his brother! I have nothing against you!" Tarak has now no choice but to plead but then he saw a cloaked guy from a distance. "Gabo! Help me!"

"You bastard! You even involved me!" The other cloaked man named Gabo instantly fled. After watching for a few minutes, he gave up trying to help Tarak. There are two monsters on the enemy team and he doesn't care if Tarak dies. Unfortunately, Cyziel has already knew that someone was following them.

After Cyziel used the seismic scan previously, he was able to detect some guy keeping distance from them but he doesn't know if he was an enemy or just a curious bystander. But now that he knew that the guy was actually with the scout, he would not let him go. Cyziel's foot was then filled with Aether energy and Earth essence. He then stomped his right foot on the ground. The foot of the escaping enemy was suddenly encased by the rocky ground underneath it. Following that, the rocky ground kept creeping up Gabo's body until only his head is visible. He was now not able to move.

"Vera! What do you think we should do with them?" Cyziel smiled at Vera. He was so committed in not being the leader. Cyziel was actually no saint or demon. He was fine with killing people but he won't also kill just anyone just for fun.

Vera was startled awake from the fast development of the battle. It was the same for everyone else. The impact was more so for those inside the barrier. The five from another class was the first one to get down here but what they encountered was a murderous bandit. Draka's team followed and they tried to help the 5 when they saw them but eventually they were all still pushed back. It was 10 versus 1 but 3 of them died.

Vera, on another hand was finally able to see how strong the friends of Cyziel. She was expecting that they were not normal but they were actually really scary people. They are even more scary than Cyziel. At least Cyziel was always having this friendly smile. The one called Ortix has always a sarcastic smile or even an evil one while the one called Volus didn't seem to have any emotions that she can't read him.

"Please kill him! Avenge our friends!" The remaining two from the other group shouted. "He killed our friends!"

"No! No! I was just trying to defend myself!" Tarak was trying to remove the hand that was gripping on his neck but he was not able to touch it. It was intangible. He needed to use a Nether technique but he has no affinity with the Nether. The only thing he could to is to reinforce his neck.

"Kill him!" Vera coldly said. "Spare the other one but its better if he is incapacitated."

"Goodbye!" Ortix crushed Tarak's neck and a crisp sound could even be heard. Tarak died with full of hate for Jaza.

"Volus." Cyziel uttered.

Like a ghost, Volus reappeared in front of Gabo who was incased in rock. He was not even able to shout when Volus' left hand turned non-physical as it pierced through the rock and Gabo's soul. Gabo immediately lost consciousness. As one from the Dielif race, he was proficient with the use of Nether techniques. In addition, he was in a soul based sect which means he had already learned various soul attacks. Combined with the new knowledge he got here in Venturia, it only made his soul techniques even more effective.

"I am sorry about you friends." Cyziel spoke as he turned his head towards the dead people. "Do you need help carrying them?" Cyziel felt bad for those who died because they were killed by someone who was looking for his friend. Not knowing that it was also related to him but nonetheless, they were not the one who killed those people so it was not really their fault.

"No. We'll carry them ourselves. We just need to take some rest." One of the two spoke with a saddened face.

The people in the cave took a couple minutes to rest then they went towards the place near the entrance. What they saw was that the place has crumbled and the path they went through disappeared. Cyziel even flew up to check it more clearly but it really was in a bad state.

They even thought of using force to clear up the path but there is also a possibility that the whole cave would collapse on top of them. Cyziel might use a barrier or other abilities but it would not change the fact that they would still be under tons of rocks. Note that they were actually hundreds of meter underground after sliding and dropping from the cliff. It doesn't help that they are full of injured people that needs attention.

If it was just him, Volus and Ortix then he have many ways to do. But right now, they are stuck inside the cave with the rest of their classmates.