Simon breathed heavily. If he didn’t do anything, he might die here, especially with how ruthless Auric was to the other thugs. 𝕗𝐫𝐞𝕖𝕨𝐞𝗯𝚗𝕠𝘃𝐞𝚕.𝐜𝗼𝚖

Simon raised his energy further, but he knew that he couldn’t win against Auric, who had been hiding his power all this time.

"You... You have been keeping this power a secret. You should have shown this power from the beginning!" Simon shouted.

Auric’s face remained cold. Lindwurm warned him, "Auric, get this over with. People will soon start coming. I’m afraid the police will come too."

Simon’s body trembled. He bit his lip before falling to his knees. "Please... don’t kill me. I will make sure to never appear before you again. I promise I won’t say anything about your power."

Simon started tearing up, realizing that this was the only way for him to survive.

Auric never thought he would see Simon becoming this pathetic. He had tried to kill him twice. He should have prepared for these consequences.

Without saying anything, Auric raised his hand, preparing to kill him.

"Aaahhhh!" Simon raised his energy at the last moment, trying to kill Auric.

However, the leader of the thugs couldn’t remain passive anymore. Since he was going to die, and Simon had also been dragged to fight against this monster, the leader bet everything on this one attack.

Simon and Auric were aligned, so he released his powerful fire toward them, planning to kill both of them with a single attack. "Die!"

"!!!" Simon panicked and tried to get away, only to have his entire right arm burned. "Aaahhhhh!"

On the other hand, Auric activated the Diamond Wall, the Ice Spike, Plant General, and Imagine to create four layers of defense.

Once people evolved their avatars to the juvenile form, the strength of their element would increase by fivefold.

Normally, someone with only a baby-form avatar wouldn’t be able to withstand that power. However, Auric simply had to use multiple abilities to stack them together, creating a shield strong enough to block the attack.

Then, Auric used the Plant Outburst to pierce through the leader’s right leg, preventing him from getting away.

The leader was trying to free himself, but Auric gathered his power and shot out the Night Arrow.

The leader pointed forward, trying to burn the Night Arrow. Unfortunately for him, Auric sent a thin strand of energy that the leader couldn’t notice toward him.

Bang!

The strand of energy made enough impact to throw the leader off balance, allowing the Night Arrow to pierce through him, killing the leader.

If not for the trip to the ruins, he wouldn’t have been so confident in dealing with someone at this level.

Fortunately, the ruins served not only as his experience but also as the refinement of his power.

Auric finally killed someone whose avatar was in the juvenile form. He just had to unleash everything he had to confuse his opponent. Of course, he didn’t know whether he would be able to defeat a second-year student at this rate, considering he relied on Lindwurm, and the arena of this fight was to his advantage.

Nonetheless, all the obstacles had been cleared away, leaving only Simon.

"No. I don’t want to die. I don’t want to die. Don’t kill me! I will give you anything you want." Simon panicked. He had already fallen to the ground, clutching his shoulder.

"You don’t even realize that you’ve been manipulated all this time by the man named Abel." Auric shook his head helplessly, looking at this pathetic man.

"Abel?" Simon wasn’t in a situation to think, but if it could help him survive, he wouldn’t hesitate to say, "That’s right. It’s Abel. You should take it up with him, not me. I wouldn’t have done this if it hadn’t been for him."

Auric sighed, unable to bear the pathetic sight in front of him any longer.

The spikes rose from the ground and pierced Simon’s heart and throat.

He could already hear the sirens on the way, knowing that the police might have arrived because of the commotion.

Lindwurm said, "Now what? I mean, this is self-defense, but how are we going to explain this? Are you going to say that you have killed all eleven people by yourself, not to mention their leader? Well, they might be suspicious of your ability."

"I know, but I’ve never really intended to hide my abilities. Still, I’m not going to reveal anything to them unless it’s necessary."

"So, do you have a plan?" Lindwurm asked.

"Thanks to what my teacher said... I now know how to handle this problem," said Auric with a sly smile.

...

The principal, the Lightning Emperor, and Maya were looking for Auric, wondering where he had gone.

They thought that if a fight was going to break out, they would find out soon. But they didn’t know how long Simon had been gone.

Anything could happen during that time. In fact, the fight might have ended by the time the butler called the Lightning Emperor.

With so much uncertainty, they had to search the entire city.

Whether it was fortunate or unfortunate, just as they passed the campus gate, another call came through.

It was Maya’s phone this time.

Maya hurriedly checked her phone, hoping it was Auric. It looked like her prayer had been answered. "Auric? Where are you? Are you all right?"

Auric said with a tired and hoarse voice. "Sorry... Teacher..."

"Where are you?" Maya panicked. The Lightning Emperor and the principal had their hearts skip a beat. They couldn’t imagine what would happen if Auric was harmed like this.

"32... block..."

Auric didn’t finish his words, so Maya immediately headed to the address while following Auric’s usual route. He was supposed to go home, so that address should mean something.

And as she expected, she could hear police sirens near the area. She hurriedly landed in the area as the police seemed to be investigating the commotion.

The Lightning Emperor and the principal followed right after.

"What happened? I am Maya Relesha from Grand Magica College. I believe that my student was attacked on his way home." Maya introduced herself.

The people there didn’t recognize Maya, but they certainly recognized the Lightning Emperor.

So, they realized something big was going on.

The police said, "We are not sure right now, but there are bodies everywhere."

"!!!" Maya rushed into the alleyway to confirm Auric’s safety.

It was there that she found him. Auric was leaning against the wall, covered in blood. There were wounds all over his body, and he was barely conscious. His hand was still holding the phone, but there was no strength left to hold it.

Not far from Auric was Simon. He was dead with two holes in his body.

Normally, the people who were connected to the deceased would be the ones to get angry, but this time, it was Maya.

"You bastard. I won’t forgive you for this." Maya glared at the Lightning Emperor.

The Lightning Emperor couldn’t say anything. He had just lost his most talented disciple, but there was no way to explain because this disciple was supposed to be under house arrest.

Auric might be the one who survived, but it was clear that Simon was the one in the wrong.

The principal waved his hand down. "Calm down, Maya. You should take your student to the hospital right now. Deal with the rest of the matter later."

Maya bit her lip, unable to refute him. She just carried Auric and leaped into the air, as it was the fastest way to reach the hospital.

But on the way, Auric suddenly said, "Teacher, don’t be surprised. I’m fine. Completely fine..."

"What?" Maya felt like her ears were playing tricks on her, but when she looked down, the wounds on Auric’s body started to disappear. She could see the trace of the gray energy, symbolizing the power of his unique element. "You..."

"My body hurts, but I don’t have any wounds."

"But your condition..." Maya gasped.

Auric smiled. "I used a unique element to create realistic-looking wounds and used the blood element to cover myself with blood."

Auric used Imagine to create those wounds. In addition, he acquired the blood element after seeing Eric’s battle. In the past, he couldn’t acquire the blood element because Eric hadn’t learned the battle technique.

After seeing the battle, Auric could finally use his power. Of course, Maya’s way of solving problems had given him this idea.

"You almost gave me a heart attack." Maya was speechless.

"I’m sorry for that, but it’s for a good reason." Auric smiled.

"Explain it to me. Watch your words, because I may feel like punishing you for making me worry." Maya’s eyebrows twitched.

"If I explain it to you, will you also help me in this small play?"

"Fine."

"Okay." Auric nodded. "For now, we should go to the hospital, but don’t treat me there. The doctor or the healer will probably know I’m fine. Still, I will use the Imagine and the blood element to show that I had been treated.

"I’ll ask you not to call my mother so as to not worry her. During that time, you will tell them that Simon said he would kill me, Eric, and Abel.

"People will understand why my name and Eric’s are involved here, but Abel? This will be a clue for the Lightning Emperor. You will lead him to the Phoenix and Dragon Society.

"Do you remember that informant? That guy is actually the vice president of the club, the one with whom I previously had a conflict. He will probably take this chance to snitch to the Lightning Emperor, using the Lightning Emperor’s influence to clash with Abel.

"And Abel will do everything he can to withstand the Lightning Emperor’s pressure, even if it means using other members. Surely, this will give William the chance to gather his forces and replace Abel as the club’s president, which means he will owe us as well."

Maya gasped. Auric’s plan had truly transformed into something greater. This way, she could lead the Lightning Emperor directly to the Phoenix and Dragon Society, which would make the Lightning Emperor owe her.

The Phoenix and Dragon Society would take a hit, and the next president of that club would owe Auric a favor.

"I have a few questions. Why Abel?"

"That guy orchestrated the entire thing, so I definitely had to pay him back. This should be enough for now. Ellia would probably take care of the rest."

Auric remembered that Ellia wanted to take down the annoying Abel.

"Ellia?"

"Yeah. From what I heard, this guy has been chasing Ellia, and because I helped her and we went to the ruins together, this guy was planning to harm me by orchestrating this entire scheme."

"Oh?" Maya finally understood the desire to take down even Abel as well. "I can do that. How about your mother? Won’t she worry about you? Or are you going to lie to your mother?"

"No, I will act like this outside. Since I used my element to fake my condition, I can simply retract it once I get home. My mother won’t know anything, so she won’t really have to worry about me." Auric winked playfully.

"If that’s the case, we need to keep the media quiet. I can make up an excuse, and the mayor will probably want that too." Maya nodded. "Last question. Did you kill all of them?"

"Yes. There will be no witness, but the fact that Simon is there should be enough to link everything up. There is no need for evidence. Still, I don’t know where he managed to find those guys. He was able to gather them so fast."

"We’ll see what the police say about that. Let the police handle the matter. For now, we should get you a VIP room in the hospital. You should stay there for an hour or two. Call your mother and tell her that I have decided to give you a supplementary lesson so that she doesn’t worry. Just don’t go home too late."

"Is the VIP room necessary?"

"With money, you can buy everything, including fake check-ups. We won’t use the doctors. Just say that I asked a healer whom I know personally to treat you. There is no healer, so you will probably have to treat that pain yourself."

"I understand." Auric smiled.

"Still, you did well. To think that you’re able to pull off something to this extent."

"I have a good teacher."

Both of them grinned.