"Young Master. I’ve received a call from His Excellency." The butler knocked on Simon’s room. He couldn’t help but furrow his brows when there was no response.

"Young Master?"

The butler thought Simon was sleeping, so he opened the door, planning to wake him up. The Lightning Emperor wanted Simon to go to campus, so he had to make sure Simon went there.

Unfortunately for him, the moment he entered the room, there was no one there.

"Young Master?" The butler was dumbfounded. He first checked the bathroom, but Simon was nowhere to be found.

The butler’s face turned pale as he immediately called the Lightning Emperor. "Sir. The young master has escaped."

...

At Grand Magica College, the Lightning Emperor had made an agreement with the principal.

Once Maya had sent Auric back, the principal summoned her. She went there to ensure that the Lightning Emperor stayed in this room until Auric reached home.

She acted grumpy as if she didn’t want to accept this deal, but she no longer argued.

It was at this time that the Lightning Emperor received a call from his butler.

"Butler?"

"Sir. The young master has escaped!"

"!!!" The Lightning Emperor was taken aback.

Maya’s energy surged. "You bastard. I’m not going to forgive you if anything happens to my disciple! I will make sure that the entire Lightning Dojo is covered in blood. I will make sure you watch how all those people die before I kill you!"

The Lightning Emperor gritted his teeth while the principal hurriedly stopped her. "Vice Dean Maya. Calm down. The most important thing is to find your student. Hurry up and call him!"

Maya ground her teeth before trying to call Auric, but the call wasn’t connected.

Maya’s killing intent soared.

The principal hurriedly said, "We need to go right now. It’s more important to find your student immediately and make sure he’s safe! The argument can wait until later."

The three of them had no choice but to leave immediately.

...

Meanwhile, the group that had chased after Auric had turned into another alley. Of course, two people turned to the other side, as if they didn’t want another ambush.

The people at the front saw Auric turn to the right, going deeper into the alley. And since the people in the back heard that the others had witnessed Auric taking the turn, they turned around and followed right behind.

Unfortunately for them, Auric had someone to monitor their entire movements. The moment they turned around, Auric used the Void Step to appear behind them.

"!!!" Both of them sensed the energy this time since they were so close.

They turned around, but sadly, they were one step too late.

Auric used the Lightning Blade to slice through their necks.

"What?"

"Lightning..."

The two people were shocked, not expecting Auric to use another element. They thought Auric had the plant element.

The fluctuation of energy from the Lightning Blade was much stronger, so the people in front noticed it.

They couldn’t help but halt their steps. Even the leader was confused. "What? He’s there?"

Simon gritted his teeth. "Why can’t you catch a single rat?!"

Simon charged toward Auric without waiting for the others. This time, there were no other turns, so Auric couldn’t use any tricks.

Even the leader was convinced that in a head-on battle, he could suppress Auric. Because he didn’t want his subordinates to continue to die, the leader sped up, taking the lead for the first time.

Still, before him was the four-way intersection. The moment he passed the intersection, two clones appeared from the right and the left sides, respectively.

All four of them were holding their swords, trying to kill the leader.

"!!!" The leader was shocked, but he knew something was going on. As expected of someone who had evolved, his power erupted as he released a burst of flame to both sides.

"What? This is... a dark element?" Simon widened his eyes. He didn’t expect Auric to even have a dark element.

Nonetheless, the leader managed to stop the swords, so it shouldn’t matter anymore.

Unfortunately for the leader, he had to focus on stopping the ambush. Auric immediately released his Night Arrow.

"Lightning Discharge!" Simon shot out a burst of lightning power, but the Night Arrow actually overwhelmed it in almost an instant before continuing toward the leader.

"What?" Simon gasped.

Auric had been hiding his power all this time. If he had used this element from the beginning, it would be clear who was superior.

In other words, Auric had been toying with him.

’He needs to die.’ Simon’s anger became uncontrollable. The previous anger within him had clouded his judgment, causing him to fall into an endless cycle of hatred. 𝗳𝐫𝚎𝗲𝚠𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝘃𝚎𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝗺

The leader had to abandon his defense against the four clones and focus on stopping the Night Arrow.

Bam!

The moment the Night Arrow hit, the leader managed to put up his guard at the last moment, burning off the Night Arrow. However, because he abandoned his defense on the sides, he could only stop as many clones as his hands allowed. The other two clones stabbed him in the thigh and in the side.

He managed to twist his body at the last moment, preventing it from becoming a fatal strike.

"Boss!" The other thugs rushed forward and released their abilities.

Auric smirked.

Suddenly, another clone appeared from the previous corner with a sword, beheading one more person.

"!!!" The people were taken aback. They wondered how many clones Auric actually had.

In the first strike, Auric might simply use the Void Step, but this time, Auric made his movements even more complicated. He first turned left, then right. Once he disappeared from their vision, Auric used the Night Silhouette, the clone technique he had received from Maya.

He used Imagine from Milinda to recreate his clothes so that the clone would look like him. Then he used the Void Step to launch the first ambush before hiding the Shadow Clones and running in the opposite direction.

The real body became the bait, and it worked perfectly. Once the leader stopped and the others came back to kill him, the Night Silhouette turned around.

It beheaded the person at the back, reducing their number to six.

It also confused the enemy, allowing Auric to gain momentum in the fight. After seeing Maya’s actions, Auric felt a bit enlightened, refining his senses further.

He had killed five people here, but it didn’t mean he could let his guard down.

One of them turned around and destroyed the Night Silhouette, and another one helped the leader. The other two charged forward to intercept him from going to the main street, while Simon followed right behind.

Auric smiled. It was true that he was outnumbered, but this was guerrilla warfare. In this small alley, there were a lot of things he could use as distractions. Besides, Lindwurm had been monitoring them the whole time, allowing Auric to have a clear view of everyone. He knew exactly where he had to go.

And since only two of them came to him, Auric chose to confront them directly.

Auric waved his hand down.

Void Blade.

The crescent-shaped space energy flew toward the two men.

"What?"

"A unique element this time?"

The two men were startled again. "How many elements does this guy have?"

They tried to stop the Void Blade together, but Auric went one step further, using another unique element to suppress them.

"!!!" The two of them suddenly fell to their knees as their bodies became heavy. "Ahhh!"

Auric had just used the Gravity Force, increasing the gravity on both of them. It wasn’t as powerful as the one in the Gravity Room in the Training Hall, but it was more than enough to suppress their movement. As a result, the Void Blade slashed through one of them, killing him.

’Five more to go,’ Auric thought.

"Kh..." Simon, behind him, gritted his teeth and caught the Void Blade at the last moment. His lightning sparked in his hand, dispersing the Void Blade.

He managed to stop this attack, but Auric had used the Wood Wall to launch himself into the air, passing over Simon. His target this time was the leader.

The leader’s eyes turned bloodshot. "Don’t think you can beat me with all these petty tricks!"

The leader punched up. His fire surged and rose into the air like a massive pillar.

Auric pointed down, using the Diamond Wall to act as a barrier.

As expected, even the Diamond Wall, his most powerful defensive ability, melted like butter.

However, Auric hadn’t intended to use the Void Step yet to avoid this ability.

Instead, he formed one more wall by using the ice element. The ice element’s rating was much higher than the fire element’s.

Even though the guy had evolved, he had used the Diamond Wall to absorb a portion of its power, so he took advantage of the elemental advantage to suppress the remaining fire pillar.

The clash between the ice and the fire produced so much mist that it started to get noticed by the people who could see above the rooftops. They wondered what happened, so Auric had to do it fast.

Still, it looked like Auric’s brilliance had angered Simon further.

Normally, they would wait until Auric came down because the mist prevented them from seeing his location.

However, Simon was so angry that he kicked off the wall and launched himself into the air.

"Die!" Simon shouted while entering the mist.

Auric remained calm because he had received a warning from Lindwurm. He knew Simon was coming.

"I will show you something special." Auric smiled.

Simon used his strongest technique, while Auric used his Piercing Thunder. However, Auric used the Piercing Thunder with his White Lightning instead of Purple Lightning, showing that he also had Simon’s element.

"What?" Simon was startled, his face turning pale. The two lightning attacks neutralized each other. Even if Simon somehow won, the rest of his power wouldn’t be enough to hurt Auric since he still had his wind element.

"This is for Eric." Auric covered his fist with the steel element before punching Simon in the face, knocking him back to the ground.

Simon used the body armor to dampen the impact, but his nose was broken, along with one of his bones.

Auric then used the Golden Finger and extended it toward the leader and his lackeys.

The Golden Finger produced a blinding light, making it hard for them to see.

The leader raised his power one more time, burning the blinding light.

Auric, on the other hand, used this chance to shoot his Ice Spike, still using the ice mist as cover.

The ice spike caused them to focus on it, thinking Auric was still up there.

Unbeknownst to them, Auric had used his Void Step to return to the ground, positioning himself behind them.

Night Arrow.

Auric sent forth his fastest attack that erupted further at the last moment, killing two people at the same time.

This meant there was only the leader, Simon, and one more person to worry about.

Auric used all his elements to confuse the enemies, and it gave him a huge advantage. He had to finish it quickly before the enemy could get used to his power.

The leader, on the other hand, realized what was going on and panicked. "This is not what we agreed on."

Unfortunately, Auric had no reason to let him go. He used the Ice Wave to attack him.

Knowing Auric was determined to kill him, the leader used all his power to crush him. In the end, his power was still above Auric’s, so the Ice Wave melted easily.

This time, five clones emerged from the mist, falling on top of them with their respective weapons.

"Boss!" The last guy tried to stop the five clones but failed, resulting in his death.

"You bastard!" The leader was thoroughly angered, but Auric actually shouted at this time. "Simon. Don’t run!"

"!!!" The leader widened his eyes and turned around, seeing Simon trying to flee.

At the same time, Auric used the Piercing Thunder while the leader was distracted. He was angry at Simon at the same time, making the leader unable to react to the Piercing Thunder.

"Aaagghhh!" The leader screamed as the lightning electrocuted him.

Meanwhile, Auric had launched himself upward using the Wood Wall again and pinpointed Simon’s location. He used the Gravity Force to suppress Simon’s movement, not allowing him to get back to the main street. Then, he used Plant General to bind his legs to the ground.

"You..." Simon ground his teeth, glaring at Auric, who had just landed in front of him. He didn’t expect Auric to be this strong.

For the first time since their clash, Simon felt fear, not because of the Lightning Emperor, but purely because of Auric’s strength.