40 Adapt, Improvise, Overcome – Master Of Deception(2)

The sentry, who was about to jump on the 'young man' with his longsword held high, suddenly stiffened in his place.

"S-Save me! T-This guy suddenly started killing everyone, saying they were some kind of 'impostor' or 'traitor'!! He's going to kill everyone here!!!"

While screaming his lungs out, the blood-covered 'young man' quickly stumbled closer to the two men who came out of the bigger carriage in the middle, shakily taking refuge behind their backs.

One of these two men was holding a sack of what seemed like food ingredients in his hands, while the other one was carrying all the necessary cooking utensils.

When the loud commotion from outside reached their ears a few moments ago, they had immediately rushed over here from the storage cabin, thinking that their campsite was being ambushed by someone.

On their way out, they even sensed subtle fluctuations in the surrounding mana – a clear indication of someone casting spells during battle!

But to their surprise, when they reached the source of the commotion, there were absolutely no outsiders in sight. Instead, amidst a bloody scene of carnage, stood the trembling figure of their group's young apprentice-mage, as well as the menacing figure of their sentry openly brandishing his sword with a grim expression on his face.

"...What kind of lunacy is this?"

Right, it seemed like their guess wasn't very far off from the mark. Their camp was indeed under attack. 

But the perpetrator here wasn't an outsider, it was one of their own…!!

Now, they didn't even want to understand what kind of events had taken place for three dead bodies of their companions to be lying around, with all of their throats cleanly pierced through.

"Decan, disperse your spell and stand down now!"

Logically speaking, no matter who was the perpetrator, it was only right that they neutralized the stronger threat as soon as possible. Especially when the only trace of mana they could feel nearby unmistakably belonged to the menacing figure of the sentry!

"No…I didn't…"

Due to his extreme agitation, Decan – the menacing sentry – looked at both of them with his eyes wide open, his breathing quickly turning rapid and shallow.

He clenched his teeth even harder, while giving the trembling figure of the 'young apprentice' hiding behind the two older men an intense death-glare…

"...don't let that creature fool you! He's an impostor! He's not our Eddy!!"

…not realizing that he had unwittingly stepped into a trap by opening his mouth without carefully considering his words.

Hearing his almost deranged-sounding words, one of the older men stepped forward with a dark look in his eyes.

"...What kind of delusion are you having, Decan? Stop this right now and explain everything!"

Not wanting to take any risk, the older man immediately started to prepare a glowing spell circle above his palm, while silently contemplating the sentry's previous words.

"Ah…"

Maybe if this Decan didn't say anything at all, those two older men would naturally suspect both of them until they were both neutralized.

But now, by saying that the apprentice in front of them was an 'impostor' and a 'fake', he ended up giving the impostor's previous words far more credibility than they deserved.

Well, from his point of view, this impostor had to be captured as soon as possible. Because if they didn't, soon enough, he might just get away in the darkness of the night!

The sentry didn't even consider the notion of this impostor not trying to run away. After all, what kind of madman would want to stay around when their boss was a third-level dark magus?

Unfortunately for them all, this specific impostor was never planning on running away from them…

The older man pointed the glowing spell circle spinning above his palm in the sentry's direction, his brows scrunched up in frustration.

"You better stop your foolishness when I'm still being nice, Decan. I really don't want to believe that you did all this, bu—"

The sentry's gaze was almost spitting fire as he looked at the impostor standing just a few meters away from him, unscathed. While he was being threatened by the older man to dispel his magic.

He was just about to begrudgingly comply to show them that he was innocent, when his heart suddenly skipped a beat. 

The impostor was starting to move again!

"Look out!"

His warning came a bit too late, as a straight knife suddenly appeared in the young man's empty hands out of nowhere, before swiftly moving towards the unguarded throat of the older man shielding him!

But luckily this time, that impostor's victim wasn't as weak and unguarded as the previous ones were. 

With an inhuman level of reaction speed, the older man moved his neck out of the knife's path, while twisting his hand in the young man's direction.

"[Shockwave]!"

*Whoosh–!*

A small spell circle rapidly spun in front of the older man's hand, before immediately erupting in a weak blast of air – slightly pushing the young man away from him.

"Ugh…"

The young man staggered back for a moment, before he swiftly recovered from the sudden attack and lunged at the stumbling man again, a murderous glint flashing in his eyes.

The older man was stunned by the young man's sudden change in behavior. 

The young apprentice-mage they knew all this time couldn't move like that. It was simply impossible, even if he reinforced his body to death!

The older man didn't freeze up in fear or surprise, however. After repelling the 'young man' away from him, he calmly began casting another spell – one that was far more powerful than before!

The moderately intricate spell circle quickly took shape in his hands, glowing with a putrid dark green color while spinning at dizzyingly fast speeds.

Although he didn't believe whatever that sentry said at first, he had no choice but to believe it now. And due to the excessive measures their organization took to filter out their members, this 'young man' in front of him couldn't possibly be a mole.

Then, there was only one conclusion left: This 'young man' was an impostor, just like the sentry first said!

The older man forcefully pushed the rapidly spinning spell circle in the young man's direction, his eyes gleaming with a chillingly cold light.

"[Corrosion Swamp]!"

Right now, it didn't matter what kind of method this impostor was using to mimic one of their own. Because soon enough, this spell would melt him down into a puddle of gooey liquid. 

They could just ask their boss to capture this guy's soul later and extract everything they needed to know after returning to their organization.

*Swiish–!*

The 'young man' had closed in the distance between them by quite a bit in the meantime, his knife almost about to pierce through his throat. 

Unfortunately, it just wasn't close enough…

The spinning spell circle suddenly pulsed, seemingly on the verge of erupting as the older man locked eyes with the 'young man', hoping to see the look of this impostor realizing what was about to happen.

Knowing that this guy had killed their people, he really wanted to see a final look of despair and helplessness in his gaze!

However, for some reason he couldn't seem to fathom, even on the verge of dying in the most excruciating way possible in their world, when he looked into the young man's eyes…

He seemed to be wearing a.....smile on his face?

A cold, indifferent, bored.....Or was it an amused smile instead? Strangely, he could no longer recall how different kinds of smiles looked like…

A soft whisper drifted into his ears.

"[Aura Of Evil]"

His mind suddenly paused, a crushing pressure descending upon him as his thoughts began to slow down and his body threatened to collapse on the spot. The rapidly spinning spell circle in his hands began showing signs of destabilization as the mana powering it suddenly turned chaotic.

He could only look ahead with slowly widening eyes as the sharp, gleaming knife approached his forehead, almost about to pierce through—

*tink–!*

—when a transparent barrier spell automatically materialized over the man's body, deflecting the knife away as a small scratch appeared on its surface.

"Tsk!"

The young man clicked his tongue, realizing that his perfect murder attempt had been foiled by some kind of damned artifact.

"[Earth Spike]!"

The young man's eyes snapped to the side, where the other older man was pressing down his hands on the ground, flooding his mana into the earth with a grim expression on his face.

The older spellcaster had expected his friend to easily take care of this 'young man' after his surprise attack had failed, but it seemed like they all had severely underestimated this impostor.

*Rattle~*

As his mana seeped in, the ground shuddered once, as a sharp spike rose up from the ground at a shallow angle, and then immediately shot off toward the young man's torso.

*Swish–!*

The young man gritted his teeth, before moving out of the spike's way and causing it to crash into a barren tree further away.

*BANG–!*

The trunk of that barren tree violently exploded on contact, sending a shower of wooden shrapnel everywhere!

"Shit…"

Seeing the devastating amount of power contained in that single spike, a curse suddenly left the young man's mouth.

But the spell wasn't over with just a single spike. 

Another spike quickly formed on the ground in front of the older man near the sentry, before launching itself in the young man's direction again!

*Whoosh–!*

This time, however, the 'young man' didn't move from his spot. He stared at the incoming spike with a stiff look on his face for a moment, before pulling something in front of him to block the incoming blow!

Despite seeing the power contained in that spike, the guy still decided to block it?

A cold sneer was about to emerge on the older spellcaster's face, when his eyes suddenly widened in abject horror!

"NO!!!"

But the spike that already left the ground didn't listen to his plea, continuing straight ahead toward its intended direction. Before…

*BANG–!* 

*Shatter–!!* 

…the earth spike exploded, kicking up a cloud of dust around its impact spot as a loud glass-shattering noise echoed in the air.

*Whoosh–!*

Soon, the 'young man' emerged from the cloud of dust, holding in his hand a badly mangled version of what used to be the upper-half of the older spellcaster's friend, dripping with fresh blood all over.

"I must say, that barrier was pretty resilient. I didn't even feel a tickle after all that…"

Saying those words with the most serious voice he could muster, the 'young man' then threw the mutilated corpse towards the shocked spellcaster.

"Harris!"

Both the older spellcaster and the sentry watched with horror as the mutilated body soared through the air…

*thud–!*

…landing right on the spot where the spikes were forming. A small disk-shaped device then rolled out from his clothes, immediately destabilizing the spike-shooting spell circle!

"Dammit!"

*Boom–!*

"Ugh!"

The spell circle disappeared after blasting apart the ground it was tethered to, creating a small crater in its place.

Thanks to the huge commotion, the remaining three members of their group – excluding the boss and the one who took the Lycan to him – had also appeared before the dust cloud from the previous spike could settle.

"AMBUSH!! WE ARE UNDER ATTACK!!!"

They cried out to their fellow members to assemble, not knowing that most of them were already dead.

"Ahh, dammit. So this is how far the easy way goes, I guess."

Seeing as everyone's attention slowly shifted to him, the 'young man' heaved a light sigh, before shaking his head in slight disappointment.

As soon as he raised his head again, the young man's skin began to crawl with what seemed like millions and millions of small protrusions.

*creak~* *creak~!* *crackle–!!*

His body suddenly began to twist, crack, and then reform into a completely different body structure compared to before.

"Urgh…!!"

Soon, two small, yet majestic jet-black horns appeared on his head, both of them proudly pointing towards the sky.

A blood-red pair of eyes opened, glowing with an eerie crimson light that seemed to pierce into their very souls, looking down on their insignificant figures with cold indifference.

"YOU!!!"

The older spellcaster immediately recognized that face, as his eyes became even more bloodshot than before.

"[Inventory]"

*Shiinggg~!*

Not paying him any attention, the Demon King mumbled something under his breath and pulled out an unsheathed sword out of nowhere, before pointing it towards the remaining 'Dark Magus Society' members.

"Kill him!!!"

The sentry roared, and all the remaining members of their group rapidly started to conjure up a multitude of different colored spell circles!

"I have already wasted enough time. Let's wrap this up quickly now, shall we?"

Even as all this happened, the Demon King simply lowered himself in a lunging stance, a cold glimmer shining upon his blade…

"Ready or not, here I come."

…before suddenly disappearing from his position, leaving an exploding crater behind on the ground!