Chapter 69 - The Oncoming Storm

-Half an hour before Ellen confronted Griff.-

"Damn it she went off on her own!"

Sylvie was stomping her feet in front of the labyrinth. Ellen had already went after Lance, so only her and the other two of her teammates were left looking at the entrance of the labyrinth in frustration.

"Don't worry about her. No one in the other team's a match for her anyways. We should take out the others that are probably hiding in fear."

A boy with sleek, orange hair said. His name was Jelhad, the heir to a small Viscount house. He had smug eyes and a narcissistic grin.

"You don't know Griff. I know for sure that he won't be sitting idly, waiting to be defeated."

"Well then you just don't know your so called friend then!"

Jelhad said with a mocking tone as he snickered. Sylvie grit her teeth, but decided that the orange monkey was not worth her time.

"Hey, Liliane. You said you could use Clairvoyance Magic, right? Can you try tracking down their movements?"

"Un... alright!"

A shy girl that was standing behind Sylvie nodded hesitantly. She had long, snow white hair that covered one side of her face. Her timid nature coupled with her looks made her the target of most boys in the class.

She opened her palm and extended it outwards as she closed her eyes. Slowly a blue magic circle started to appear around her hand.

"Clairvoyance Magic: Mental Imaging."

Slowly a small projection of mana started to appear in her palm. It was a rough 3-D image of the opposing team and the labyrinth behind them from when they hadn't entered the labyrinth.

"I can't believe you're asking her to search this area. Who needs to be wary of those bumpkins. Come on, I'll protect you both, and you two won't even have to lift a finger against them when we come across them."

Jelhad had given an annoyingly confident grin as he started to walk to the entrance of the labyrinth.

Sylvie just sighed and turned to Liliane.

"Nevermind him. So, can you see what they did here?"

"Uhm... I can only see that all of them entered the labyrinth... sorry! My magic is supposed to be supportive, and even then I can't read their moves properly."

Liliane bowed her head as she apologized which startled Sylvie.

"Hey now it's no problem! At least I know that all of them entered the labyrinth, so this means they're planning to use it against us. Come on, let's go after the idiot before he kills himself."

Liliane slightly chuckled at her last sentence as she nodded and followed her.

-A few minutes later-

"Hey! Losers! Come out wherever you are! I don't have all day!"

Sylvie was facepalming as she walked behind Jelhad who was shouting at the top of his lungs.

"Great, if we ever had the element of surprise, you probably blew it away Jelhad."

"Eh? We don't need to resort to those kinds of cowardly tricks! We're trying to be knights! The important thing is to fight them head on!"

"...Yeah... you keep that up then."

Sylvie was internally screaming.

'How the hell did I end up teamed with a fiery tempered red head and an arrogant prick! At least Lily here is a sweet person...'

Sylvie turned to Liliane and smiled who slowly smiled back in embarrassment.

Just then Jelhad stepped on something.

"Huh?"

The ground around Jelhad had caved in, trapping him in a 10 meter pit-fall.

"WHAT! WHO PUT THIS UNDERHANDED TRAP HERE!"

Jelhad was screaming in anger as he looked up to see that he was trapped in a pit-fall.

Suddenly, laughter echoed through the corridor they had been walking through, and with that laughter, as if on queue, A few runes started to glow in the pit-fall, shocking Jelhad with non-lethal electricity.

A few seconds later he was lying on the ground with foam coming out of his mouth.

A/N: Yikes... that's not very impressive for the girls, is it?

"Well well, if it isn't the ever so pompous Jelhad Heirnck."

The voice chuckled.

Sylvie was looking around in anxiousness with maximum alert as Liliane slowly backed up to her in fear.

"Whoever you are, you should know that traps like these only work once!"

"Of course I do! But our goal is already completed. The fight will be even now."

And just then, a few meters in front of them the wall started to crack, and it broke! From the crack Jewels and Kato, who was holding a voice amplifying magic tool.

Kato put the tool in his pocket as his smile slowly widened.

"I told you it would work Jewels."

"I could have still taken all of them out alone..."

"And risk exhausting yourself? No. Who knows if Griff would later need back-up!"

"You don't trust him?"

"No no you don't get it! It's because I trust him is that I have this B-plan. I don't want to see him lose."

Sylvie's eyes widened as she slowly understood what was going on.

"You left Griff to fight that red head! What kind of teammates are you!"

She was angry now, thinking that Griff was being used.

"What? No, he chose to do that. Well, enough chit-chat. Let's not reveal all our cards now."

"Not like it would make a difference..."

Jewels muttered under his breath.

Sylvie took a step forward as mana started to course through her veins. She could use shapshifting magic to return to her old self with her demi-human strength back, but that would be risky, even under the guise of shapeshifting. She started to course mana through her body. Maybe not an entire transformation, but a partial transformation seemed that it wouldn't raise any suspicions.

"Alright then! Come at me."

Sylvie's hands were glowing as they slowly started to shapeshift.

"Me? Oh no no! You're not fighting me! You're fighting him."

Kato pointed at Jewels who was walking towards Sylvie now. Electricity was dancing around his body as his purple hair slowly levitated.

He yawned as he walked towards her.

"I want a good nap after this."