Lord of Charm

The group opened the gate and entered the large yard. They walked unnoticed until the back entrance of the mansion where 4 additional magicians stood guard. This time Norman did the killing by himself, and they went to open the door.

However, the door was locked; they kept only the front door open during the nights. He looked at Emma and they nodded at each other.

Emma cast another darkness spell and a black fog covered the door and passed through the cracks around it. Norman used an extremely condensed stone sword to cut a large hole in the door, and the team could pass through. Not even the slightest noise could pass through the dark fog.

Norman turned to talk to the students behind him.

"Ok, everyone, split up and kill as many as you can, as fast as you can. Do your best not to get noticed so we won't lose our surprise advantage until the last moment. Emma and I are going to the top floor to fight with the expert mage."

Emma then spoke for the first time ever since she was introduced.

"Remember you are operating in pairs to have each other's back. If you face a powerful enemy or too many enemies, you must help each other escape and not try to sacrifice each other's lives. It will increase the survival chances of both of you."

"Yes, ma'am."

"All right. Good luck and come back alive."

Norman wished them luck and every team picked a different direction.

"Let's go to the third floor. The first two floors are probably full of magicians."

Ronda told Gale and went to the stairs. He nodded and followed her upward.

"We should start with the second floor, there might be mages there."

"We can't afford to waste time; this is a competition."

They climbed straight to the third floor and watched the trio of advanced mages going to the fourth floor to fight with the enemy's advanced mages.

They ran through the hall and stood in front of a door.

"ENEMIES ATTACK!"

A scream echoed in the mansion, and the students realized someone was found.

Ronda and Gale looked at each other and nodded. They understood there was no point in walking carefully now; it was better to just barge in amidst the confusion and kill as many as they could before the enemies had a chance to group up.

Ronda generated a strong wind that blew the door away and they both ran inside the room with charged spells. They saw 4 mages inside the room, still in their pajamas, and shot their spells without hesitating. They agreed before that Gale would always attack the enemies on their right while Ronda will attack those on their left.

Gale sent a huge swarm of wisps to attack the two mages on the right, and their defenses crumbled almost instantly until they were surrounded and devoured by the wisps.

Ronda sent air blades that cut through their defenses and beheaded them after their defenses crumbled. Naturally, the air blades were faster than the fire wisps.

"Hmph, you're too slow."

She smirked and Gale rolled his eyes. They left quickly and decided on using mass distraction instead of opening the doors. Gale barraged the right walls with fireballs that kept decaying and eating the walls while Ronda sent air blades that opened holes they could see through.

They just ran forward until they saw another room with 5 mages. This time, the mages were standing together and ready to battle. There was no surprise effect, unsurprisingly, considering the mess they've done.

"Freedom will fight for freedom, and we will slip away from the grasp of the imperial family and the nobles!"

"For freedom!"

The 5 mages had the initiative because of the noise Gale and Ronda made. They shot their spells as soon as Gale and Ronda appeared, but they didn't pose any threat. Gale used 2 compressed large walls of stone to defend them both, and the walls crumbled under the attack. Nonetheless, they still managed to stand until the final attack.

Ronda followed with her usual air blades that cut through the weakest 2 mages instantly but were blocked by the other three.

"No, Ron!"

One female mage shouted in despair when she saw her lover's head roll next to her feet. But neither Gale nor Ronda seemed to be interested in watching the tragic drama; they had a competition to win.

As if they agreed on it before the fight, 2 mages instantly used four spells to attack Gale, while the third kept her two casting slots for defense.

This time Ronda was the one who made a large wall. She used only one because the second one will hinder their own attacks. Her calculations were right; the four spells crashed against the wall, and except for the cracks, the wall still stood.

"They are too strong!"

One mage shouted in despair when he realized the disparity in their strengths. Gale was so used to fighting geniuses in the academy that he forgot how weak the normal mages were in comparison.

Gale sent two large firestorms against the three mages and the firestorms went through the wall, burning it too. The female mage who was responsible for the defense had water and earth affinities, which were the reason she was responsible for the defense in the first place.

She used a huge burst of mana and spent it all on a single powerful sphere of water to block the firestorms, but after the first one was extinguished, the other went through and burned the three of them, leaving nothing but ashes behind.

"Let's go, we still need to kill 10 more."

They ran back to the hall and found a group of 12 mages in front of them. Apparently, all the mages on the floor assembled to fight them off together.

They faced a bombarding of spells and used all four spells to defend themselves. Suddenly, an air blade flew and almost cut off Ronda's right leg. In the nick of time, Gale pulled her, and the blade missed.

"An advanced mage!"