132 Rusty Blades.

"You broke through!"

When Raven heard his loud voice, she slowly opened her eyes. However, unlike what Blaze had thought, she looked uncaring, almost as if she was disappointed!

"What happened? Didn't you just break through Rank-6?!" Blaze asked. But then he had an understanding expression on his face before he sighed.

"You know he's not gone forever..." Blaze tried to calm her down, but it clearly did not work as Raven seemingly didn't even look at him. All he could do was to stand on the side silently.

"You might think that we are geniuses, but we aren't good enough," Raven replied after a while. Her face showed no expressions.

"But-" Blaze was about to say something, but Raven cut in to continue her previous words.

"Not good enough to stand by his side."

Blaze looked down on the ground as he heard her words. He was also aware that although both of them could be considered geniuses, they were just mediocre compared to Ozul!

And it wouldn't have troubled them, but they were supposed to help him. However, because of their level, they hadn't been of any use to Ozul at all.

"Don't you think it's an opportunity? It wouldn't be long before he comes back. We now have the chance to prove that we are competent enough!" Blaze encouraged.

Although Blaze wasn't one of the overly optimistic ones, he would still try to look a way out of the situation. Giving up meant nothing. In contrast, even a useless attempt might have some chances to work out!

"Yes. And our first task would be to take care of him." Raven muttered while giving a side glance to the tree where a shadow hid behind the branches. 

Blaze did not hurriedly try to look in that direction. He whispered, "You noticed it too, huh."

"Of course, I did. I am a Rank-6 mage now. If you as a Rank-5 could do it, why couldn't I?" Raven scowled. She continued, "You stay here. I will deal with him."

"Wait! You just advanced, and you haven't even restored your Mana yet! That guy had been a Rank-6 for who knows how long. I think you will need my help." Blaze stopped Raven before she was about to jump down.

"Just wait and watch, kiddo~," Raven said with a smirk on her face as she jumped down.

Even when she thought that her speed of growth wasn't up to par, Raven still had the confidence to take care of the guy after everything that Ozul had taught her up till this point.

She had a clue from the day when Ozul had asked her if she had the drake cores still with her. And the next day, she had already noticed Brud eyeing them from afar.

Raven knew that he was up to no good, and sooner or later, he would try to do something funny. And it seemed that today was the day.

Although she had just advanced to Rank-6 now, Raven had many other advantages over Brud. First of all, the latter was unaware that she had found him out. At the same time, the most crucial one was the naturally dark surroundings because of the night and the fog doing its work as well.

Moreover, Raven also had the experience of killing people stronger than her before. Only she had Ozul watching over her back then, and now she was alone.

Brud stood behind the tree, still clueless about everything when Raven focused on her Mana. She closed her eyes for a little while, and when she opened it, dark gas started to release out of her and covered the entire 10-meter radius area around her.

It was the Spell that Ozul had asked her to create so he could take advantage of it. However, there hadn't yet been a time when she had actually put it in use. She had named it as the Night's Shade. 

There was naturally no light source around them except for fire torches, but those had now become useless because of the fog.

And now Night's Shade mixed in with the fog had set up the stage for Raven to do as she pleased.

The trickiest part in creating this Spell was for Raven to be able to see in the dark smoke, so Raven had a type of thermal vision where she was able to see anything that moved in that 10-meter radius.

Brud did not even notice the Spell since everything surrounding him at the moment was black, and the black smoke was like an invisible gas. In contrast, Raven had a more accurate understanding of the area.

The next second, two long daggers took shape in her hands as she moved towards Brud.

At this moment, Brud was looking around, trying to find if something was wrong. Although he had not noticed the Spell, he could still tell that something was happening because he had suddenly lost his vision, and everything appeared dark for him.

"Ah, what is happening now?! This was the perfect chance for me to kill them since Boss Barry is discussing something with the Silver Knights!" Brud was frustrated that he might have lost this golden opportunity.

Just as he had said this, the wind blew behind him as he turned around in fright. 

"Don't worry, it will end in a blink," he heard a cold voice that sent chills behind his back.

Before he could wield his Mana to shoot a simple wind blade, a dagger pierced his back and came out from the chest! 

Brud stared wide-eyed at the black dagger covered in blood as it got absorbed by it. He wanted to cast a spell, but when he tried to move his Mana, he felt it starting to disappear from within him!

"Ugh... W-wha are yo-" He tried to speak, but all that came out from his mouth was a bunch of unfinished words.

"You don't need to know that," Raven replied as she plunged the other dagger right in Brud's Mana Core!

Some light flashed within Brud since she had just broken his Mana Core, but no one other than her could see it. The Night's Shade was working perfectly fine.

It took Raven just a few seconds, and Brud died without even being able to see the face of his killer!

"Thanks for letting me test the daggers. They were getting quite rusty..." Raven said before she dispersed the Spell, and Blaze could finally see what was happening.

Her daggers disappeared as well when Blaze suddenly appeared at the spot.

"At least inform me beforehand that you were going to cast that black smoke Spell! I was-"

"Tsk Tsk. You are afraid in the dark?" Raven sneered.

"It's not that-"

"Yeah yeah, whatever. Pick up the body now." Raven didn't let him say anything and pointed towards Brud's body.

"Uh, Okay? But what for?" Blaze asked while grabbing the Brud's corpse by his collar.

"To give them back, obviously," replied Raven with a smirk. She wanted to see the faces of those people when she hands them the corpse, and the most they would be able to do would be to stare at her with hatred.

"Sadist..." Blaze whispered under his breath before following behind her with the corpse.

"So, how were you able to kill him so easily?" Blaze asked. It hadn't even been a minute before Brud had died, so he was naturally curious.

"I just needed the breakthrough to rank-6, and evolving my daggers was easy. I added another ability which disrupted the enemies Mana cycle when the daggers are in contact with their blood," Raven calmly explained.

Blaze looked at Raven weirdly. He wondered how she got such dangerous ideas for her Spell!

He was a genius himself that did not require any kind of focus to cast Ice-based Spells, but it was only because he was able to move the Mana in a much smoother way.

No matter who it was, once the Mana flow was disturbed, they wouldn't be able to cast any Spell in this world!

The method to casting the Spell required the Mages to move the Mana from their Mana Core first, which many did by either chanting or using hand signs to help them.

After that, they would force their will on the Mana to perform the particular Spells.

But if the Mages couldn't even move the Mana out of their Mana Core, how would they cast anything at all?

It basically left them useless!