After a few minutes of walking, Mack came out of the crater. At his border, a few mages saw Mack appear, but instead of attack him, they ran.

And boy, they ran fast.

“Did I became too OP?”

Asked Mack to himself, seeing that he would not need to keep using his ‘bloody form’, he turned off his middle finger runespell. .

“That reminds me that I still need to choose a name for this runespell”

Not a single mage that was still alive close to the crater came to fight Mack. All of them ran for their lives.

~sigh~

“Hey Arcane, don’t tell I will need to chase all of them to the end of Earth. That would take years.”

[You won’t. Because the true trial on this floor is about to start]

Mack was about to ask ‘what true trial?’ but in front of him came his answers.

A mage, a single one, using a golden robe full of jewelry, appeared dozens of meters in front of Mack.

Differently from the others, this mage was not running away, instead, he seemed pissed off.

Mack raised his sword and put it to rest on his right shoulder. It had become a habit of him already.

Mack was not sure how strong this mage was, but seeing his golden robe and his demeanor plus the warning he got from the Arcane, Mack knew it would not be an easy fight.

The mage walked a few steps and pointed his finger to Mack while talking about something that Mack could not hear.

“I bet he is cursing me. Where are the manners these days? People go around pointing fingers and cursing. What have I done to him?”

Said Mack aloud, doing an innocent face.

The mage seemed to somehow understand what Mack said and become even more furious, he pointed his staff to Mack and started chanting.

Mack didn’t delay and ran for it, slashing his sword towards the mage head.

~clang~

The mage blocked with his staff and both went back one step with the recoil of the hit.

Mack and the mage felt surprised at the same time. They didn’t expect to have a draw in close battle.

The mage instantly cast a fireball, and Mack jumped to the side to avoid it.

The fireball passed close to Mack’s body and hit the ground, but the shock-wave made Mack stumble in the air and fall to the ground, rolling.

~clang~

The mage deflected the dagger Mack threw while in the air.

Both were strong and neither of them were letting space for the other to take a breath from the very beginning.

Real fights were like that. What did matters was the dead body of the enemy, not some fancy movements or random righteous phrases in the middle of the battle.

Mack stood up, and another fireball came for him.

This time Mack didn’t evade.

But activated his middle finger runespell.

The fireball hit Mack, but was not what the mage expected to see.

Bright yellow flames consumed everything around Mack but he himself was intact and jumped to the front, slashing his sword against the mage head again.

The mage defended with his staff, but this time he could not hold up the force behind Mack strike and was send stumbling a few steps.

Mack hit the mage again.

But this time, a magic shield appeared in front of the mage.

This mage shield differed from what Mack saw until now and it really had the format of a traditional shield, but transparent.

Mack’s sword hit the shield three times in a row but was not able to damage the shield.

The mage raised his left hand and pointed a small silver object to Mack.

Mack thew himself to the side and a beam of light passed close to Mack grazing his left shoulder.

Blood poured even more from Mack’s body, now with a hole the size of two fingers in his shoulder blade.

Mack didn’t expect this battle to be this hard.

Neither the mage expected to be cornered by a warlock. He never saw a warlock with those red wisps like fire, but he guessed it should be one of those warlock arts.

Mack’s left arm went limp, with a hole the size of shotgun shot. He would not be able to move his arm to fight.

But he still could move his fingers.

~flash~

A bright white light shined on the battlefield and the mage and Mack went blind.

Mack jumped to the sky and deactivated his middle finger spell.

He needed to heal his shoulder, and fast.

The mage hid himself behind the shield, but seeing that no attack came, he quickly took a potion from his backpack and drank all of it.

A healing potion.

Two minutes later his vision came back, but he didn’t see the warlock in front of him.

He looked around and saw another mage pointing to the sky.

Shit. It was what he thought, remembering how that warlock came from the sky in the first time.

He looked up but didn’t see anything, then turned his head to that mage that pointed up, but that mage only shook his shoulders.

He vanished? How? But no answer came, as Mack himself was already miles away.

~tuk~

Mack fell from the sky right beside Raz, still with a hole in his shoulder.

“Come, lets go. I still can’t win against that mage. Not today.”

Said Mack, already walking to the other side of the hill.

Raz could only follow, as he himself saw the fight. That mage was leagues above Raz’s playing field.

He could not blame Mack for retreating. It was better to live and fight another day.

Nevertheless, Raz was shocked by the progress of Mack. To be able to fight the commander of the mage army, an Arch-Mage, to a draw.

What would Mack be able to pull if given time? Raz was more than curious to see the future ahead. Because he knew Mack would not let things end like that.

Raz stopped thinking of the future and speed up the pace.