John had stopped moving, and a dark mist surrounded him, and completely covered him. Serena and Ariel couldn't see John and he couldn't hear or see them
"Ventus hastam!" Said Ariel Translation: Wind Spear
A wind spear was formed and propelled straight at the man, but instead of dodging, he simply created a dark shield and blocked it, A sturdy Shield similar to John's Ice shield but sinister
"Serena... Try to get john... I'll hold him back..."
"Understood, I haven't used this in a while but..."
Serena started chanting, and the man simply watched, he seemed curious about what the two girls before him, would pull off.
"Fire lion" Said Serena once she finished her chant
A lion made of pure fire was formed beside Ariel
"It'll help you, I'll get john and be-
Serena was interrupted by the man who leapt straight at her with his right arm stretched out as if trying to grab her
She leapt to Ariel's side and looked straight at him
"Doesn't look like he'll let us approach John..." Said, Serena
"But... If we don't do something... John might..."
"Calm down, Ariel. He won't hurt john... He needs him for information..."
"That's correct, but it appears that your black-haired friend can use it too, I wonder if you can use it yourself, Silver-haired elf." He said as he looked straight at Serena
"Ariel... This guys dangerous... Let's use that..." Said Serena
Ariel nodded
"Very well, I won't move an inch off of this location, Go on." Said the man
The mans shield only protected attacks from one direction, So Serena and Ariel decided to go with a multi-direction attack.
"sagitta ignis" Muttered Serena Translation: Fire Arrow
Shortly After Arrows made of flame began to form themselves around 10 feet away from the man. 30 Arrows were formed. Ariel began to gather air behind each individual arrow
"Now!" Said Serena
With the help of Ariel, Serena propelled the fire arrows straight at him. Yet the man didn't move, all 20 Arrows pierced him while the rest were deflected by the shield. They seemed worried about whether or not they had killed him but were more concerned about John
As Serena and Ariel lowered their guards thinking that they had won, a voice came from behind them
"So you can both use magic without chanting..." Said the man
A chills went down their spine as they hastily turned around.
As they did, he stretched out his hand to try and grab on to their necks. But thanks to the harsh conditions and battles they fought in the dungeon, they instinctively jumped back at the same time and avoided him
"That's not good... You're supposed to sit still..." Said the man as he stared at the sky
"A spell which creates some sort of dummy... What do we do..?" Asked Ariel
"We got stronger a lot stronger compared to when we first entered the dungeon... But this is another person... Fighting a person is completely different... Not to mention, he's a strong mage..." Said, Serena
Serena and Ariel looked back over to where the man was a while ago, but this time, he was gone. They couldn't feel his presence or anything
"Don't drop your guard..." Said Serena
"I know... There's no way he'd just leave us like that..." Said Ariel as she hastily looked around
[Where is he? Left? Right? Above us?]
They looked around but found no traces of him, He had either completely sealed his presence or left
They slowly approached john as they stood side by side, right when they were just a few steps away from the john who had been cloaked inside of a dark sphere. Serena felt it
"Ariel! Jum-"
An elf's senses is higher than a humans, a human can achieve senses higher than an elf if it trains enough. Serena not only had sharp senses, but she trained them, making her notice things, considerably faster than others.
But by the time she realised it was too late. The man rose up from their shadows and grabbed on to their necks.
"Caught you~" He said
Serena struggled to release his grip off of her neck but it was tight, Ariel struggled just as much but even with Magic strengthening, he wouldn't let go.
"You know... originally i came here on an assassination request of the merchant Floyd's daughter... But you three are clearly worth a lot more than that..."
Serena began to move her mouth, forcing herself to say something.
"Hm? What's that?"
"D..rop... Dead..." She said as she cast ignis in front of her arms
She then slammed the Ignis and her hand on to his arm, which resulted in it being burnt, He slightly loosened his grip once it happened, but it wasn't enough
"Interesting... So you can cast without being able to talk... A magicians greatest weakness is to only be able to cast once he's said the words... You are truly interesting."
Ariel gathered Air a few feet behind them and secretly propelled it at him as she did her best not to let him notice. She propelled 5 of them straight at his back, and also subconsciously lowered the power so that it wouldn't kill him...
[Just a bit more...] She thought to herself as they were about to hit him
There was contact, the 5 wind blades all managed to hit, but it wasn't watch she wanted, It hit a shield he had formed on his back, shortly after she propelled them.
"Was that your doing?" He asked as he looked at serena
Serena showed smiled at him as she nodded.
"Lying won't work on me. It was you wasn't it?" He asked as he looked at Ariel
Ariel nodded as she had run out of air, her consciousness was fading
"Lea..ve... her... al...one..."
[Damn it... I'm the older one... Why am I so useless... John... Sorry...] Thought serena as tears streamed down her eyes
"P...lease... Don't... Hur...t... the...m..." Said Ariel as tears flowed down her face
Shortly after that, they both fainted.
"What? Done, Already, how boring."
The man let go of serena and Ariel and they fell straight to the ground
"Hopefully this wasn't enough to kill you, ah well it's fine, there's still that kid, speaking of kid. I wonder how he's-"
The man was interrupted by John who said "Serena... Ariel..?" as he walked over to them
"You... How did you break through my dark domain?"
John ignored the man and walked over to them, it was clear that he was drained from the way he was walking, he had used up most of his magic to break out of the Dark Domain.
The man simply watched as john kneeled down beside them
"Serena... Oi... Wake up... Ariel... Come on... Stop joking around..."
John's mind wasn't in the right place. He had spent time in a domain which consumes at the persons mind and exhausted his mana. He didn't even check to see if Ariel and Serena still breathing.
"Can't you see? They're dead" Said the man
"They're not... They'll be fine..." Said John as tears began to stream down his face
"No, they're dead, I killed them"
John turned his head and faced the man as he stared straight at him with a blank expression.
The man stared back with a nervous expression
Shortly after, John fainted and collapsed on to the ground
"Did I really feel threatened by a kid..." muttered the man
Dark clouds began to gather above them, and a storm was coming.
"Well, time to take these three back..." he muttered as he moved his hand to grab them
Before he grabbed them, his hand was stopped. It was john, He grabbed on to his hand. John's grip was strong, the man tried but couldn't shake it off. As he was distracted by that, he failed to notice that john was mumbling something
"Earth Spike," Said John
Once the man heard that, he felt a chill go down his spine. The man used all of his strength and managed to break free of the grip took that opportunity to leap back
A split second after his jump, the earth rose in the form of a spike in the location where he was at. Shortly after the earth regressed back to normal and John stood up.
His eyes were closed and he began muttering something again