'.....' (Character's thoughts)
"....." (Speech)
[…..] (Voice Transmission)
{.....} (Spell Names)
<….> (Telepathic Communication)
Lotus seemed to give me a strange look and when he looked at my glowing eyes and then my grimoire he finally noticed something.
"Ahh, I see. You hold a four leaf clover grimoire, no wonder you are so confident in your abilities to fight me alone and to call yourself a secret weapon of a magic knight squad. But you are way too green as a magic knight to be able to handle a veteran like myself." Lotus said confidently but his thoughts were different.
'Damn, it just had to be him. Even now, I barely sense any magic power from him yet for some reason he is giving me a sense of danger and I feel as if I don't stand a chance against him.' Lotus thought to himself.
Lotus couldn't be blamed for how he felt, it was simply the natural aura that Ranto gave off after his "evolution" in the dungeon that makes those with weaker wills to feel instinctual dread from him.
Since he hasn't had a real chance to try out his improved body and skills from the dungeon, Ranto found that this mage is the perfect candidate for a test, but he isn't yet ready for the others to know about it that's why he told them to leave the Diamond Kingdom Mage to him.
Seeing the others try to leave, Lotus made a move to stop them.
"I'm sorry, but I can't let you leave, my own teammate is busy there." Lotus said as he made more smoke appear so we couldn't even see each other.
I couldn't see them, but I could hear their heart beats and after I closed my eyes and focused on the sound I found that I could actually see their bodies, but it was weird, I could see a vague silhouette and then bright red blood vessels and their glowing heart.
'Whoa I seem to have a kind of vampire sense' I thought to myself, affirming that I was most likely some sort of vampire now.
I cast a few tornados and had them surround the group of three and as they moved the tornadoes cleared the smoke until they could see the exit. Lotus tried to stop them but was stopped by a large bolt of lightning from me and the three managed to escape.
"I'm your opponent and now without any witnesses, I can finally do some tests." I said with my own manic grin.
Lotus could see me through the smoke as it was his own magic and he shivered at the sight of my smile.
I instantly started to run and in Lotus' eyes I just disappeared, but I had simply been moving to fast for him to see.
'Damn where the hell did he go?' Lotus questioned to himself.
Then he sensed something at his right and turned only to have to dodge a red slash that came of nowhere.
'That red slash, I've seen it before, is it Blood Magic? Is he related to the Witch Queen somehow?' Lotus questioned to himself while he was continously dodging slashes of blood.
I was still experimenting with my new powers and I was practicing with my Blood Manipulation, shooting out slashes of blood by having taken out a blood marble to use the blood inside, a red ring of blood was surrounding me.
Lotus had moved after once again avoiding a blood slash from the strange Magic Knight brat.
He then saw him clearly and he was actually intimidated, he saw a huge ring of blood flowing around the kid and saw glowing red eyes that seemed to be seeing into his soul
'That feeling of fear I felt when I first saw this kid is stronger now, I have never feared for my life so much from a simple kid.' He thought to himself.
Lotus then sent a lot more smoke towards the kid, including the Invisible smoke that's supposed to weaken him, in an effort to deal with this freakishly strong kid.
'Oh, I feel a little weaker, I might have actually been truly weakened if it was before the dungeon, but now...? We can't have him escaping as I am pretty sure the coward might.'
As I was thinking I started to create something from the ring of blood around me.
If someone were to walk in and could see through the smoke, they'd see a large part of the ring of blood surrounding Ranto begin to expand until it turned into a large crimson red scythe made from the very blood around him.
I then swung the Blood Scythe around me, with my monstrous strength. The force of my strength caused a shockwave that blew the smoke away from me in a large 360° circle.
Lotus then saw those menacing eyes once again and a feeling of dread overtook him and he saw that all the sudden the kid disappeared from his sight.
'Again? Where the hell did he go? He looked at me with those eyes and I felt dread... No, it's not dread, it's death. It's as if I was staring at my death right in front of me.
Lotus' thoughts were interrupted by a heavy punch to his face and he was sent flying out of the smoke and hit a wall. He seemed to have passed out and the smoke eventually dissipated and I could see him looking bloody and had bones actually sticking out of different parts of his body.
'Damn, I didn't hold back my strength because he was a veteran mage so I assumed he'd be tougher.'
I could hear his heartbeat and could see his chest rising and falling intermittently.
"Well that was anticlimactic, guess I really don't know my own strength yet. Well I guess I'd better make my way to the treasure hall" I said aloud a little disappointed.
'I suppose I won't get to truly test out my strength until I fight that beast guy, that I can't remember the name of, that always talked about despair.' I pondered.
I cast lightning binding on Lotus and left him embedded in the wall
I started to run after my squad mates and after about 2 minutes I could see their figures running through the dark hallway.
Before I got too close, I cast my Wind Wings and started to fly after them as I didn't want them to know about my body's natural speed.
"Hey guys!" I said as I appeared flying next to Asta who screamed in shock.
"Ranto?!?! When did you get here? Did you take care of that smoke guy?" Asta replied asking multiple questions one after another.
"To answer all your questions, yes I am Ranto, I just got here, and yes I took care of that guy. He was a lot weaker than I thought he would be, the fight was so quick I couldn't believe I was actually facing a veteran mage from the Diamond Kingdom." I explained answering Asta's questions one after another.
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'.....'
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'A veteran diamond kingdom mage was weak?!?!?!' Asta and Noelle thought at the same time whereas Luck was simply shocked and didn't really have much of a reaction.