Dark Magus Returns

Plon and his group were faring better now that they could see their targets. They were still the same type of beasts as before, dog-looking creatures with a flower bud on their back.

However, when the dogs struck, Plon was able to block the attack, and when the beast fell to the ground, the girls knew exactly where it was and where it was going to be.

They could swiftly follow up with more attacks with their swords and then a piercing blow with a spear to really damage it.

"Yes, we managed to get another one as well!" Hammy said as she knelt down and got to work extracting the power stone.

Right now, the group was inside one of the abandoned warehouses. They were in one of the smaller buildings that looked more like a house.

Before entering such a place, one of them would have to scout the area to make sure it was clear, finding that there was only one beast inside the place.

At most, with them being able to see their target, they could deal with two of them at a time.

"Some of the other groups are in this area as well, but I don't think they're doing as well as us," Claire commented.

"Yeah, I think you're right," Hammy said, placing the power stone in her pouch. "It's because we have Plon. Not many groups have someone who has practiced techniques for being a meat shield or having an actual shield."

"For some reason, I feel like I should be annoyed," Plon replied. "But I'm not; I'm just happy that I can help the rest of you."

As they exited the building, they could see other groups arriving in the same concrete-floored area as them.

It was quite a large area filled with several buildings, so it was expected that others would come here to hunt as well.

"It might be good if we head to another area; otherwise, this place might become a little too crowded. We should meet back up with... wait, what was even his name, Iron Mask? Anyway, we should meet up with him soon."

Raze had ventured into one of the larger buildings, and there was a particular reason why he had chosen this building compared to the others.

He had cast a wind spell in the area, allowing him to be more in tune with his senses. Any movement or type of breathing would be alerted, and this place, in particular, had more beasts compared to any other area.

Now inside, standing on the flooring, there were four level 3 beasts, all of them staring, growling as they showed their teeth his way.

"Before coming here, I already killed one of your friends on my own, and there was a reason for that," Raze said to himself as Dark Magic started to surround both of his arms.

He then knelt down, placing them on the floor. "Now that I'm a 4-star Mage, there is something I can do with those of the dead."

"Recreate!" Raze said these words, and the Dark Magic started to swirl out from his body.

Right in front of him, the Dark Magic started to take shape, and as for that shape itself, it looked identical to the ferocious dogs in front of them.

It wasn't a clone since it was clear that it was made out of a magic-like substance, and Raze had only made two of them in total.

"Get rid of them," Raze ordered.

Immediately, the Dark Magic dogs scattered, running right after them. Both of them jumped up in the air, heading straight for another.

As they collided, the dark dogs' bodies disappeared and reappeared behind, biting the beast and hurting it.

'The recreate spell lets me create images out of my Dark Magic of those that I have killed. However, it's not the strongest spell.'

'It doesn't take on any of the natural beast's abilities. Nor is it as devastating as attack spells. Also, each time their bodies are attacked, they need more mana to repair them.'

The recreations were somewhat similar to when Raze was in his Dark Spirit form in Alterian. The larger the recreation Raze wanted to make, the more mana it would take as well.

'However, they do well in two other ways,' Raze said as he held out his hand.

The two dark dogs had been surrounded by the four, having rounded them up.

'They serve as a good distraction and an explosion of magic.' Raze clenched his fist. "Expand."

Right then, the dark magic exploded out. It hit all of the beasts in the area. It was as if a dark pulse had been shot in multiple different directions.

The destructiveness of Dark Magic was being witnessed, as parts of the beasts were completely destroyed, and now they were no longer moving.

"That's four level 3 power stones. These could come in handy to make better Qi pills, or I can hand them to the others if they haven't advanced enough," Raze thought.

After gathering all of the crystals, Raze left the building. His time was about up for when he was to meet with the others.

A short while after Raze had left his particular warehouse, another group had entered, and they could see the bloody bodies of beasts all over the room.

"What happened in here? What group did this?" the men said.

Piercing weapons, sharp weapons, among other things, were what they were used to seeing, but this method of killing was unknown to them.

When outside, Raze had met up with Plon and the others; they were happy to see that Iron Mask was all okay.

"I have some good news," Plon said. "I got a report from one of the other adventurers that we don't have to report back for another couple of hours.

"It seems that this dimension has quite the high limit before the Dimension Boss appears, so we can keep on hunting."

It was good news, and now that this place had been mostly cleared out, they felt like it was time for them to try and move to find a different area.

The group continued on through the tall grass, trying to look for another concrete area, but they were going blind as they had never entered the place before.

However, Raze was using his special skill that he had done before, allowing him to detect signs of life off in the distance.

As his wind magic hit the humans around him, they would just think of it as a small breeze, and it would go unnoticed.

Eventually, Raze had detected another area. "I think there's something in this direction."

Since the others didn't really know any better, they were happy to just go with their new member's intuition and thoughts.

Especially since, to them, he seemed to be clearly the strongest one of the group.

After walking for a while, it was in sight. A building that was different compared to all of the others.

Instead of the normal warehouses and such, this right here was a rundown mansion. It looked to have been untouched for at least a hundred years or so.

When they stood on the concrete path, they could see a worn-down broken fountain. There was no sign of water inside.

'I can feel the presences; there's quite a large number of them inside,' Raze thought. 'And it's these types of places that tend to have something a bit more special inside them.'

"It might be dangerous inside, so I think it's best we all prepare," Plon said.

The girls nodded until something had caught her eyes.

"Um... it looks like we have company."

As they turned around, they could see it. It was a group of around fifteen, three separate groups that had banded together walking through the long grass to get to where they would be.

At the same time, one of the groups was Fin along with his Clan members and the wanderer, the group that had originally turned down Raze.

"What are you guys doing here!" the woman called out quite aggressively from the start, part of Fin's group.

"What do you mean?" Claire replied back. "This is an open dimension; we're searching the area, of course."

It looked like the other woman wanted to reply back, but Fin placed his hand to stop them.

He seemed to be the leader of this allied group as he stepped forward.

"We came across this place a while ago, but it was a bit too dangerous to venture in on our own. So we went to gather more groups to ally up with," Fin explained.

"So what we're trying to say is, do you mind leaving?"

Plon's group was getting extremely frustrated; they couldn't believe the nerve of the said person. Asking them to leave, it was quite clear that they were trying to bully their way into the current situation.

Plon was holding the others back because he didn't want a fight to break out; there were other places they could go to.

That was until he saw the man in the Iron Mask step forward.

"You are asking us to leave? And if we say no, what is your response to that?" Raze asked.

Fin looked at the people behind him. He had gathered them all with a promise that all of the beasts inside, along with the crystals, would be theirs for the taking.

No one would even bother to try and go after them with such a large group.

"Then, we will just have to force you to leave," Fin commented. The others started to laugh behind at the comment, but Raze did have a response of his own.

"Then, prepare to die."