Crushing The Team (2)

Ervin had no choice but to deactivate his Complete Invisibility to conserve his Mana.

At this time, only a sliver of the airwave stream was left. That tiny sliver still contained a higher order of Mana power. Adept Magical Energy still remained supreme over the Novice Stage. 

'Chi!' 

Blood shootout into the wind. The sliver of airwave completely slashed through Ervin's stomach, peeling off his skin to mercilessly tear into his flesh. 

"Ngn!" Ervin's body faintly trembled. A horrific large gash was now sprayed all over his stomach. The unbearable pain forced Ervin to take a knee. 

The Adept Mage narrowed his eyes onto Ervin, his gaze overflowing with suffocating killing intent. 

Now wasn't the time to ask questions. The Adept Mage gritted his teeth even harder to suppress the pain threatening to also force him to his knees. 

He directly dashed straight back to Ervin, slicing down his palm that glistened with azure Wind Mana. 

While he's not using a magical weapon, the force behind the Adept Mage's Wind Mana palm was more than enough to shatter Ervin's head into a terrifying display of blood and white brain matter! 

The force of an Adept Mage was quite immense. But Ervin didn't even show a trace of panic. He was already prepared. 

Complete Invisibility completely engulfed Ervin's head. There was nothing left for the Adept Mage to actually hit. 

"What?!?" The Adept Mage completely froze with utter horror when seeing Ervin's head instantly vanish away. 

Never before had he seen such ability come from a mere Middle Stage Novice Mage. 

The Adept Mage desperately tried to back away. But it was all too late. 

With one hand, Ervin sent out a stream of Telekinesis Mana that briefly locked down the Adept Mage. 

Feeling a sudden immense force weigh down on his body pushed the Adept Mage into further shock. 

Ervin slashed out his magical sword when the Adept Mage was frozen with shock. 

With barely any Mana, previously injured and now with his lungs completely punctured, the Adept Mage could no longer put up any resistance. 

'Chi!' 

The magical sword mercilessly slashed straight through the Adept Mage's lung, the tip of the blade piercing out of his back with a shower of crimson blood.

 A wave of Mana simultaneously released from the blade, unleashing a suppressing force that locked down the Adept Mage for good. 

The Adept Mage spat out a mouthful of blood. His body trembled before flopping backward in a similar manner as the Novice Mages. 

In only a matter of seconds, four Early Stage Novice Mage and one Adept Mage were completely suppressed by Ervin, a single Middle Stage Novice Mage. 

Despite how many other Mage Enforcers would heavily condemn Ervin it was impossible to not see this as a terrifying feat. 

Even with the fact that Ervin used a variety of surprises, a flashbang, and everyone being heavily damaged before the fight started, no other mere Middle Stage Novice Mage would be able to pull a feat like this off. 

Ervin even felt a sense of elation spike through his mind. The twitching bodies lying in their blood did not gross him out or make Ervin revolt in regret. 

Instead, it proved to him that his highest dream really will be possible. To one day reach the depths of Magic was now a goal rather than some kind of faraway dream! 

Still, Ervin didn't do anything foolish like basking in the sense of victory. He quickly took a Life Vial of healing Mana the very moment the Adept Mage collapsed to the ground. 

Healing Mana flowed through Ervin's body, rapidly healing the gruesome gash on his stomach back to perfection. He then took a Mana Vial to regain most of his lost Mana reserves. 

Throughout his healing process, Ervin could just feel the look of hatred being directed his way from the fallen patrol team. 

Just seconds ago they all were simply expecting to get back to the city after a rather painful day at work. They all expected to live on another day with their friends and families. 

But all of that was mercilessly taken away by this random Novice Mage! 

Seeing how calm Ervin was about everything only fueled more hatred in these dying souls. 

Ervin was rather glad the fallen team could sum up such intense emotions. It was all the better for his Demon Orb absorption. 

Minutes passed for Ervin. Back to near full health, he then took out his Demon Orb to begin absorbing everyone's blood. 

The Demon Orb wildly shook in what seemed to be immense excitement with every ounce of blood it drained. The intense hatred blooming from the Mages caused the Demon Orb to absorb their blood quickly while also gleaming brightly. 

A few minutes later all that was now in the area were a bunch of corpses and Ervin. Each withered corpse died with an extremely unwilling expression, leaving the world with everlasting regret. 

Once finished with the absorption, Ervin then dug through everyone's Mage Robes. 

The spoils he got were quite hefty. Combined together gave him a considerably large amount of white magical crystals and even a small amount of green magical crystals. 

Green magical crystals have a five times amplification from white magical crystals. One can buy a lot more and experience faster Magic Energy absorption. 

There were some Common Magical Arts that Ervin got but nothing he saw was that particularly useful for the current him. 

None of the Mages had any Innate Abilities for the Demon Orb to absorb. However, that was to be expected when considering the fact that they all were only average Mage Enforcers. 

With everything finally done, Ervin began his trek back to his apartment. He swiftly moved under his Complete Invisibility state. 

Making a direct beeline for the city, Ervin soon arrived within just several minutes. 

It took more twists and turns until Ervin finally made it back to his apartment's living room. 

Once inside, Ervin let out his spoils, but he did not take the time to rest down and explore them. 

Ervin actually began to quickly change his clothes into all black while wearing a mask. He had a reason for doing this. There are places he can go to where nobody would bat an eye at him covering his identity. 

Ervin mainly wanted to begin his stockpile of aura-suppressing pills. He had no doubt in his mind that his Magical Energy would advance at a far quicker rate than probably higher core talents from using the Demon Orb. 

To avoid questions and any suspicion cast on him, Ervin needed these pills to maintain a weak facade. 

Ervin also thought about buying one-time-use weapons such as magical grenades, talismans, or other variety of weapons. But he knew that such items were expensive, almost a bit too much for his budget. Less magical crystals mean a decrease in his magical energy absorption.

As for using Invisibility, Ervin knew that was an option to simply steal. But these shops were fortified with various magical defenses that quickly drained his Mana. Once that happened, the situation would turn terrible. He has to wait until he gains a larger Mana reserve pool and stronger magical power.

With goals in mind, Ervin directly got down to completing his business to calmly absorb the Demon Orb for the next several weeks. 

... 

Days flew swiftly. 

Instead of having a sense of peace like most other days, this period of time left some senior Mage Enforcers a bit frizzled. Some even felt slightly spooked. 

Without any warning, an entire patrol team was mysteriously killed. 

Death was fairly common to happen in this line of work. But what left so many scratching their head was the fact that it was impossible to identify who truly killed them. Whether it was the Demonic Gorilla beast they fought or some kind of rouge Mage. 

Mage Enforcers with the best detective skills were hard at work to solve the case. 

None of that mattered to Ervin. When a week and a half passed, he saw a boon to his Magic Energy. 

At this time, on the cusps of early morning, wisps of flames were glittering within Ervin's living room. 

The heat of the living room turned completely unbearable for any non-mage. A single step inside would cause them to heavily pant, gasping for air, and break out in a dangerous bout of sweat. 

The heat would actually burn their skin, frying their nerves in only a matter of minutes. Even other Early Stage Novice Mages wouldn't be able to here without using their Mana to protect themselves. 

The source generating this heat came from Ervin's hand. A swirling pile of dangerous flames was condensed at the center of his palm. 

There was a strange sense of beauty to the pile of swirling flames. The destruction it could cause would rampage through cities with a relentless power to kill anything in its path. 

But at the same time, one wouldn't be able to look away from the beauty of the flames, forcing everyone to look at the majesties of fire Mana.