“Fuck off!” before the man even landed, Thomas raised his silver shotgun and opened fire, a barrage of silver pellets shot right at the third man with a staff. The man immediately retrieved his staff into a guarding position when he saw the gun, and a energy shield made of wind magic absorbed all impact from the pellets.

Aimee swiftly moved to the side, with her silver crossbow in hand aiming at the man’s waist. When the crossbow bolt was fired, the man already landed on the ground and the bolt was now flying towards his shoulder.

The man had to reposition his staff once again to knock the crossbow bolt away from its original trajectory. And he also knowingly conjured a wind energy shield behind him and the next second, the ice shards exploded from the head of the bolt were just blocked in time.

“He’s studied us.” the same thought occured in both Thomas and Aimee’s heads. The man’s defensive moves were way too specific and prepared - he seemed to know how their “signature” attacks were - at least when they were in the student duel.

Thomas opened fire two more times, and one time firing pellets and the other time a slug, while Aimee prepared another bolt and shot at the man. Both of them advanced on the man while they were firing at him.

The man conjured a spherical wind energy shield and covered up every possible angle around him. The pellets, the slug and the silver crossbow bolt were all stopped in midair and then dropped on the ground.

“My turn.” the man showed a smug smile, then stomped the blower tip of his staff on the ground, and a shockwave erupted from around him and blasted both Aimee and Thomas away.

Aimee and Thomas both felt like they were hit by a truck, and their bones and joints made all kinds of cracking sounds from the shock, like they were going to have all of their joints dislocated.

But their trajectories in the air were instantly cut short when the man raised both his arms, while his staff was still standing on the ground. Two invisible ropes made of wind magic energy wrapped around their bodies and pulled them closer to the man.

“Tell me, ” the man asked with a victorious smile: “Where’s the key?”

“Wouldn’t you like to know.” Thomas spit and asked.

“Wrong answer.” the man clenched his fist extended towards Thomas, and the invisible rope just squeezed in harder like an anaconda was about to kill its prey, which made Thomas moan in pain.

“Wait!” Aimee begged: “I’ll tell you! Don’t hurt him!”

“That’s more like it.” the man looked back at the fight between Caroline and the man with a wand, and the one between the man with a short sword and Jason: “This could save my colleagues a lot of time and energy. Now, tell me...”

Before the man finished, Aimee spit at him, and it was no ordinary spit, a dense ice shard with concentrated ice magic energy within was shot out just out of Aimee’s mouth, both made of and soaked in her blood. The man sort of saw the spit coming, but he was never prepared for the blood ice shard, and his right eyeball was never strong enough to withstand this attack at point blank range.

The man screamed in pain, and the invisible wind magic ropes disappeared, leaving Aimee and Thomas to fall to the ground.

Aimee jumped up and swung her silver scimitar at the man’s neck. Though in pain, the man still raised one arm to guard himself. The force of the scimitar was only enough to cut into the man’s bones after breaking through a wind barrier, which made the man scream again, but it was not enough to completely debilitate him.

“Bang!” just when this man seemed to be casting another spell with his other hand, Thomas opened fire on him again, even though his body was still in a lot of pain, and the silver slug pierced through the man’s waist, then left a gruesome exit wound on his body.

“No!” the man with a wand fighting against Caroline cried out, and after shooting a powerful energy bolt at Caroline to knock her away, he rushed to the side of the man who wielded a staff.

The man fighting against Jason backed away from Jason to give himself a moment to examine what happened, then he yelled: “Take the fucking key from them! Kill them if you have to!”

The man with a wand was clearly devastated by his colleague’s grevious and possibly fatal injury - in fact, now that Jason, Caroline, Thomas and Aimee had a chance to look, they looked kind of alike.

The man with a wand screamed again after taking a look at his colleague lying on the ground, blood started coming out of his eyes, his nostrils, his mouth and even his ears, and his entire body started radiating unsettling energy waves.

At the same time, two more men flew towards their position, neither of them seemed familiar to any of the four students trying to leave as per Josephine Wong’s instructions.

Two energy bolts shot from somewhere above and forced the incoming two men to back away, and then another two energy bolts came down on the man Jason was fighting against and the man who was about to explode with power.

“Boom! Boom!” the man with a short curved sword leapt back to dodge the energy bolt, while the man with a wand in his hand just blocked it without even breaking a sweat - aside from the fact that he was still bleeding through his eyes, nostrils, mouth and ears.

“Thomas! Caroline!” a dark purple SUV was descending from above, with a loudspeaker on, and a familiar voice was shouting at them through it: “Hang on!”