Who is this guy?

Seth grunted, feeling it hard to keep his eyes from closing, but he knew that if he passed away, he didn't know if he would even wake up again. He hadn't sensed anyone coming their way, so the presence of the hooded man was shocking, both for him and the cultists.

The man looked at the cultists with a smirk. Only parts of his face could be seen, the rest hidden by the hood, but Seth could see a rough beard. He took a step forward and the cultists strained their faces.

“I don't know how you managed to get past my barrier, but it would be better for you to leave right now,” the mage spoke, glaring. “I don't have a habit of showing mercy, so consider yourself lucky.”

Vines simmered around him like a warning to the man, but he simply raised his hands in mock surrender.

“Lucky? It's been so long since someone had called me that,” he said, his voice deep with a hint of mischief in it. “It's funny though because I was thinking the same thing. Letting at least one of you run away, so you can report it to your Elder. What was his name again? I keep forgetting since I killed so many of them.”

“What did you say?” The mage narrowed his eyes. Seth saw the brute gripping his hammer and the woman looking visibly annoyed.

“Are you deaf? Or Cultists like you lose your hearing as part of some tradition. It wouldn't be beyond what I have heard,” the man shook his head, slowly moving towards them. “As for your barrier, it was a good one, at least for a beginner. Took me a few seconds to get past it, so you can be proud of that. If you weren't a Abyss loving knob head, you might have became a nice—”

“Shut up!”

Vines shot towards the man, but Seth felt something. A current of mana passed the man's hand and dark flames covered them. He threw them straight at the vines and they burned, falling on the ground before turning into ash.

A gust of wind blew them away as the cultist looked in shock.

“Who are you?” the woman asked, and the man flashed a smile.

“I go by a lot of names. I don't know which one you would recognise me with,” he said before pulling off his cloak, revealing black hair and slanted eyes. His frame was sleek and it was hard to tell whether he was wearing armour under his cloak. There was a spark in his eyes as the man scratched his rough beard. “I would let one of you live if you recognised me.”

He cocked his head at them, but the cultist looked in confusion, not recognising him. Seth felt the same, but something about the man was strange.

Frowning, the man shook his head.

“Here, I thought I was too popular for my own good. It makes sense as I haven't shown my face in public ceremonies for a long time now. It looks like you all are dying without knowing who I'm.”

“You speak a lot of unnecessary things,” the woman quipped, scowling at the man, but he shrugged his shoulders. “The only one dying is you.”

“Is that so?” The man questioned. “And who's going to kill me? Don't tell me it's you three frail cultists. I would be surprised if you could even land a scratch on me.”

He said mockingly and it seemed like the cultist had enough of the man as the burly cultist leapt at him, swinging down his hammer. It left a mark on the ground, but the man was nowhere to be seen.

The burly man looked in confusion before turning around and swinging his hammer again. The black haired man stood there, unblinking as the hammer struck what looked like a barrier.

Not even a crack appeared on it as the cultist yelped in pain, getting thrown back by an invisible force.

“I thought you would be more powerful going by your size,” the man said, shaking his head in disappointment and turning back at the same time to dodge the longsword cutting through the air. “You are also a tad bit too slow for my tastes. I was hoping for a good battle.”

Saying that, he kicked at the woman and she dropped to the ground, blood coming out of her mouth. She looked up, trying to gauge the extent of the man's powers but he squatted her away as she rolled on the ground, knees scraping.

The man walked towards her, hoping to finish her off, but vines came in his way, lashing at his arms. He squatted them away like they weren't filled with thorns. As his hand touched them, the vines withered away, dropping into heaps of sand.

With a flick of his wrist, the man conjured up dark flames and shot them at the mage who shot up in surprise at the casting speed of the man. His hands glowed and he slammed them into the ground as vines erupted just in time to protect him from the flames.

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Though, it had no effect as the flames burned the barricade standing in their way. The cultist poured more mana and intertwined vines together, but it was for nothing as their fate was to become ashes.

“Fuck,” he cried out and dodged to the side, barely escaping the flames as they burned parts of his cloak. He gritted his teeth and looked at the man with hatred beyond his mask. “You will suffer for this insolence.”

“Aren't you haughty for someone who's going to be dead soon. Or do you really think you stand a chance against—”

His words got cut off as he felt the swing of a hammer behind him. He ducked under it and conjured up an ice shard, aiming it right at the burly cultist foot. Due to the close proximity, he wasn't able to dodge it and the shard dug into his foot, making him yelp in pain.

He tried to push through it, but a knee landed on his stomach. He wheezed, falling onto the ground and stared at the black haired man who smiled.

“I don't like being interrupted,” he said and mana swirled on his hands, a blade of wind hit the brute's neck, cutting it off. His body fell on the ground with a thud as blood pooled on the ground.

With just one spell, he was dead.

Seth stared at the dead body of the brute and couldn't believe it for a second. Although he had managed to land a few strikes on him, killing him was difficult for him. Here, he had been killed in just one spell.

The black haired man hadn't even broken a sweat. Looking up at him, he wondered whose side he was on. He clearly was against the cultist, but he didn't know if Seth was safe from him.

If the figure tried to attack him, Seth knew there was no way he would survive in his current state.

“You bastard!”

The woman rushed at the black haired man in fury, swinging her longsword in an arc. He jumped back, avoiding it, but the cultist didn't seem to be in any mood to stop, too enraged by the death of her fellow cultist.

She launched a barrage of strikes at the man, moving her longsword like a snake leaping at prey, but the man dodged each one of them expertly. Despite Seth only seeing a blur of her moments, the man was dodging the strikes like he was fighting against a kid.

It was a display of strength Seth had never seen before.

“Did you really care about your friend there? I didn't know Seven Seals were such a close knit group. It's almost making me feel a little bad.”

He kept talking as he dodged, infuriating the woman more and more.

Gritting her teeth, her longsword shone with a blue hue before it turned into ice. She slammed the ice covered weapon into the ground and the ground around her froze, slowly heading towards the black haired man.

He conjured up flames again, but vines grabbed his hand, trying to hold him in one place.

“Ah, you were a bit faster this time.” He said, looking at the mage. “I will give you props for it.”

More and more vines came for him as he talked, trying to grab him, but the man's eyes shone with a glint.

“Sadly, I'm getting bored now. Let's end it.”

Dark flames covered him, burning off the vines and he slammed his foot on the ground. Immediately, flames burned the ground around him, melting the ice heading his way.

His whole arm burned, but it didn't seem to affect him as he lunged towards the woman. She slid back and aimed at his neck, but he was too fast. Grabbing her throat, he burned her neck as she screamed in agony.

“I know you miss your friend. Let me send you to him.”

Flames engulfed her whole body as screams filled the forest. Seth widened his eyes seeing such sheer display of power and horrific way of killing someone.

The burnt body of the woman fell into the ground as the man turned back, looking at the last cultist remaining.

The mage was the most versatile and strongest out of the three, but under the gaze of the black haired man, he trembled, not knowing what to do. His comrades were dead and his vines hadn't worked against the man at all.

Seth knew the mage was next and nothing could help him.

The mage frowned and opened up the vine barricade he had constructed earlier and made a run for it.

Unfortunately for the mage, the black haired man didn't let him go. Dark flames erupted just in front of the mage, making him come to a halt as he felt the temperature increase around him.

He turned back, looking up at the mage who walked towards him.

“Who are you…” the mage said, his voice breaking. “Such power. Only the one reigning over the abyss can wield so much—”

“I don't give a dragon’s ass about your abyss,” the man snarled. “You should have run away earlier. I might have let you go, at least one of you with a message to the rest of your members, but I changed my mind. That train left the station a long time back.”

“Seven Seals would go after you if you kill me. You don't know…”

A wisp of flame passed by the mage and his words died in his throat. Clicking his tongue, the black haired man frowned.

“No one goes after me if they have a semblance of a brain in them,” he said. “I'm the one who goes after them. Even the Seven Seals.”

He crouched down enough for the cultist to stare in his eyes and then, his expressions changed like he realised something.

“You… you are…,” the mage tried to speak as the man touched his shoulders.

“You are Noah, Archmage Knight… and the strongest adventurer to live.”

The mage widened his eyes as he said that name out loud, his voice trembling.

“You got it!”

Noah said as the mage's face paled.