Tricks

As she was staring at the scene in front of her Madeline couldn't help but suddenly clench her teeth in pain, as she then turned her attention to her fingers.

Staring at her nail, which had been broken by gripping the spellbook to hard, Madeline couldn't help but silently curse.

'At least the entirety of the nail didn't fall off,' thought Madeline, when suddenly she heard a voice call her.

"Madeline, we need to go," said Shane as he and the rest of the group began walking on their way, looking at Madeline, who seemed rather distracted at the moment.

Hearing this, Madeline quickly began running, catching up with the rest of the group.

...

Two days later,

At this moment, the group of four teens was standing around a campfire, all of them staring at Shane, who was reading a map at this moment.

"Are you sure this is the right place?" asked Madeline as she looked at Shane.

"Yea, I'm completely sure, I mean all of you have seen the map, after all since it's a treasure, It's alright that it's buried underground, isn't it?" asked Shane as he looked towards Oliver, who let out a sigh.

Without any hesitation, Oliver got up from the ground, being quickly followed by Shane.

"It should be this place," said Shane as he walked over to an exact spot in the grass.

Seeing this Oliver closed his eyes for a few moments, and then, a few moments after that, the earth began moving.

"Looks like I found something, but I think I need your help opening that, Catherine," mumbled Oliver as sweat filled his forehead.

And then, only a moment later, a large amount of dirt then began flying out of the ground and onto the side, creating a hole large enough for a human to walk through.

In only a moment, Oliver had managed to dig a hole which would have taken several workers at least a few days of hard work.

Hearing this, Catherine quickly got up, before walking next to the hole and staring inside of it at the thick metal door clearly visible.

Suddenly, Catherine jumped into the hole, touching the large metal lock on the door for a few moments before turning her head back towards Oliver speechlessly.

"It looks like the enchantment on the lock wore off," said Catherine as a relatively loud sound suddenly emerged from the lock in her hand as it easily opened, not causing any sound in the slightest.

Seeing this, Oliver couldn't help but scratch the back of his head, when suddenly, Catherine walked into the door, causing him to nearly fall down into the hole himself.

"Shouldn't you check for any traps?" asked Oliver as he suddenly jumped into the hole himself.

"Since even the enchantment on the lock has been destroyed, what sort of traps are you expecting?" asked Catherine as she walked into the underground metal compound.

Hearing this, a few moments later, Oliver, Shane, and Madeline quickly jumped into the hole as well, following behind Catherine, who had walked through the door.

The moment Shane walked through the door as well, a small flame suddenly appeared in his left hand, lighting up the entirety of the room the group was in.

At this moment, Madeline was about to close the door to the room, but before she could do that, Shane spoke.

"Don't close the door, leave some way for air to enter this place," said Shane, causing a small frown to appear on Oliver's face.

As soon as the flame appeared, Catherine suddenly turned her head sideways, staring at a skeleton that was laying on the ground in a corner of the room, as well as a small metal cube sitting next to it.

Without any hesitation, Catherine walked up to the skeleton, then picked up the metal cube sitting next to it.

At the same time, Shane walked up to another door, looking at the text written above it.

"It looks like this place has a laboratory inside of it," said Shane as he ripped of some of the moss covering the text above the door, revealing the word 'Lab'.

"Be alert when entering labs like this, although all the enchantments and spells have already been destroyed by time, you might never know what might be alive in the shadows in labs like this," said Catherine as she walked up to Shane, staring at him as he opened the door.

A wall of wind suddenly appeared behind Oliver, as a small black bolt flew towards the latter's head.

Only a few moments later, three other small bolts flew toward Catherine, Shane, and Madeline respectively.

But it seemed as though this small amount of time was all that Oliver needed, as a large wall of earth suddenly rose behind the group, blocking the attack.

Suddenly, Madeline opened the door to the lab as she turned her head towards Oliver.

Seeing this, without any hesitation, Oliver increased the size of the earth wall, making it surround nearly the entirety of the group, leaving only a small hole near Shane's hand.

Before the attacker could react, a tiny spark appeared next to Shane's hand.

Boom

Before the attacker could react, a huge explosion then shattered the walls of the underground abode, as well as his body and the earth wall that protected the group.

Thankfully though, at the very last moment, a wind wall suddenly surrounded them, protecting them from the explosion.

Only a moment later, Catherine took action, leaping in a certain direction, towards a broken body, still being wary that the attacker might have had something else up his sleeve.

Thankfully though, under the huge explosion, the body of the attacker had been completely smashed to small pieces.

"Hmm, that's very impressive," mumbled a soft female voice from behind Shane.

At this moment, the entirety of the group had completely lost the ability to move their bodies, as if something was controlling them.

"Tricking him into thinking that the door was the only source of air here, making him think that closing it would disable the little girl's Wind Detection, making him confident in attacking you," said the voice, as a smooth hand gently touched Shane's cheek.

"After that, you secretly created a small hole to the outside world using your earth magic, tiny and nearly invisible towards ordinary mages, but extremely useful for Wind Mages," said the voice, as it's hand slightly patted Oliver on the head.

"But I'm most impressed with you," said the voice as a pair of hands suddenly embraced Madeline from behind.

At this moment, other than the voice of the figure, a complete silence ensued in the small metal room.

"You took a risk, gambling on whether the lab contained a lot of biological material in the past, and whether the material had already decayed into Methane," said the figure as a smile appeared on her face.

"But it looks like your gamble paid off, and your friend's little flame completely set off the Methane, destroying your opponent," said the figure as it suddenly disappeared from behind Madeline, appearing behind Catherine.

At this moment, the metal cube in Catherine's hand suddenly disappeared.

"You impressed me very much little guys, hopefully we meet again," said Beatrice before vanishing into thin air, alongside all of the group's elemental stones.