A sand eagle demon soared through the skies of the inheritance grounds. Raging winds battered its body, but the eagle barely flinched. With a tilt of its wings, it shot upward. The higher it rose, the stronger the winds - yet, the more fiercely the demon pressed on, gaining speed with every beat of its wings.

  “Screeeeech!”

  With a loud cry, the demon eagle came to a sudden halt, mid-flight. The blazing sun cast shimmering rays off its feathers, lending a majestic glow to the creature.

  Looking down, the eagle’s sharp vision pierced through the powerful dust storm and spotted a large, black tower. Numerous black dots were scattered around but were quickly and constantly, moving closer to it.

  What the eagle couldn’t see, was a space underground, carved into various tunnels and pathways, containing a vast amount of a precious material - black iron ore. At the very bottom of this underground mine, two groups stood facing each other.

  Drake, Sylvia, Blaze, Farisa, Elwin, Cain, Imogen, Kurt, Ivan and Derald were huddled together in the final room, on the bottom floor of the mines. Facing them were Theo, Cyrus, and the rest of the dark mages, led by the dark grand mage.

  The dark grand mage stood at the front. In front of him were three, large, lightning rhino beetle spirits, and hovering above him were his vulture spirits - dozens of them.

  For a moment, the dark grand mage was shocked to see Blaze and Farisa still alive. However, he quickly recovered and spoke authoritatively.

  “Move aside.”

  His gaze was focused on the black vortex forming near the end, out of which several rank three artifacts were appearing.

  “You wish,” Kurt spat in response.

  The dark grand mage’s eyes shifted towards their group and he observed them one by one. He spotted Drake, Blaze, Sylvia, and Farisa standing close to each other, and then stared at Blaze.

  “Your entire party was defeated by me alone when you were at peak strength,” he spoke slowly. “What do you think you can do now against all of us?”

  “Bastard,” cursed Sylvia, his words reminding her of Helen.

  Blaze and Farisa clenched their fists. After the fight against the dark mages and the army of shadow demons summoned by the dark grand mage, they still had not fully recovered. The two of them stared daggers at Cyrus - who was standing next to Theo, smiling mockingly - remembering his betrayal.

  Elwin, along with Cain and Imogen, was confused by this situation. He wanted to charge at the dark mages the moment he sensed them but stopped himself after seeing everyone freeze. When the dark grand mage’s spirits began appearing one after another, he grew more and more dismayed, and hearing his words now, a chill went through his spine.

  “Is this true?” he whispered to Drake.

  “Yes,” he sighed in response. “He is a grand mage, and a very powerful one at that.”

  After fighting alongside them, Elwin knew how powerful Drake and his party was. And this dark grand mage managed to defeat all of them on his own? How strong was he? And how was a grand mage even here? Numerous questions began spiralling in his head.

  “There’ll be plenty of opportunities to fight in the main inheritance. You know you can’t win this battle, so scurry along now.”

  “Hmph,” snorted Sylvia. “Don’t get so full of yourself.”

  Saying so, she closed her eyes and focused on her inner realm, drawing out a vast amount of mana. She opened her mouth and a powerful voice echoed out.

  “Dryad’s… avatar.”

  Sylvia’s eyes burst open. Her green pupils expanded till her eyes became completely green and started glowing. An immense amount of mana gathered in her body which started radiating a brilliant white light, illuminating the entire floor.

  The dark grand mage squinted as he observed the incredible amount of mana condense into a large, tree-like figure behind Sylvia.

  As quickly as it appeared, the light vanished, replaced by a huge aura that radiated outwards, pushing everyone back.

  With glowing green eyes, the image of a huge, glowing dryad floating behind her, and radiating an immense aura, she stared at the dark grand mage, and then at his lightning rhino beetles. Without a word, she raised her bow, and summoned and equipped a fire arrow. Behind her, the giant dryad followed suit, equipping a huge, flaming arrow onto a massive bow.

  “Decimate.”

  Sylvia and her avatar released the string simultaneously. Their arrows shot forth at a blinding speed. As they flew, they grew and merged into one; the new arrow radiating an even more powerful aura.

  Before the dark grand mage could even react to her transformation, the arrow reached the lightning rhino beetle directly in front of him. The rhino beetle bowed his head to block the arrow with its horn. However, the horn only lasted a couple of seconds.

  Boom!

  The horn of the powerful rhino beetle spirit exploded into a million pieces. However, the flaming arrow continued shooting forth with full force, crashing against its head.

  “SCHREEEEEECCCCCHHHH!!!!” cried the beetle in pain as it was pushed multiple steps back. With its last step, the beetle bashed one of its legs into the ground creating a crack, and holding onto it for dear life.

  However, it was futile.

  Cracks began appearing around its shell. It would only be a matter of time before it was destroyed.

  What the hell!?

  The dark grand mage was flabbergasted.

  She can defeat my rank three lightning rhino beetle with one attack? How is her avatar so strong?

  Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  Seeing the dark mage, and the rest of the dark mages distracted, Drake seized his opportunity. He poured mana into his ring as he activated shadow steps.

  “Not so fast!” yelled Theo, sensing his movement.

  “Your opponent is me!” screamed Blaze as he raised his sword and met Theo’s charge.

  Normally Blaze would be slightly stronger than Theo. But, in his weakened condition, he may not be able to hold Theo back for long. Realising this, Kurt decided to help.

  “Thunder… strike!” With lightning dancing around his body, his entrance was dramatic. Hence, it caught the attention of the rest of the dark mages.

  “Oh no you don’t!” yelled Cyrus as he charged at Kurt.

  “You!” bellowed Farisa as she sprung at Cyrus, hammer raised. Knowing her weakened condition, Elwin decided to help.

  Cain, Imogen, Ivan and Derald held back the other four dark mages, causing the floor to quickly get split into numerous battlefields.

  Drake appeared above another one of the lightning rhino beetles.

  “Take this - fire dragon claw!”

  A huge, semi-transparent dragon claw, covered in flames, materialised before Drake and pressed towards the lightning rhino beetle.

  Huge alarm bells rang through the rhino beetle’s mind. Instinctively, it raised its head and gathered mana into its horn. Lightning sparks began zapping around its horn, before growing and extending to become large lightning bolts. Each bolt split into numerous, smaller bolts, which all began dancing around the rhino beetle.

  For a moment, Drake was worried, but then shook his head and poured even more mana into his ring, fuelling the dragon claw. Emitting an even greater aura, the fire dragon claw collided with the world of lightning.

  There was no explosion.

  To Drake’s complete surprise, the claw easily pressed through. Whenever a lightning bolt touched the claw, it would begin disappearing, leaving behind a plume of black smoke.

  The fire dragon claw was burning away the lightning bolts!

  Boom!

  The rhino beetle cried as the powerful dragon claw crashed into it. At the same time, Sylvia’s arrow broke the rhino beetle’s defence and pierced through its entire body.

  Boom! Boom! Boom!

  A huge explosion resounded throughout the mines as the powerful attacks collided with the rank three spirits. Powerful waves of mana radiated from the epicentre of the collisions as a large dust cloud rose to the ceiling. The dark grand mage clutched his chest in pain.

  Cough! Cough!

  Cough! Cough! Cough!

  The dust cloud prevented anyone from seeing beyond a few metres in front.

  Drake landed on his feet and jumped back, before beginning to cough as well. Using his rank four artifact so many times drained him of his strength. His mana was critically low right now.

  Biting his lip, he took out a handful of pills from his storage pouch and consumed them, before taking out another and doing the same. A large amount of mana began to flow into his body and filled his inner realm, making Drake feel his strength slowly recover.

  ‘But… I can only use my ring one more time, maximum,’ he thought to himself. If he tried to use it more than that, he may cause himself serious injury.

  By the time Drake finished consuming his pills and recovering, the dust cloud had dissipated. Everyone looked forward, and were greeted by an unbelievable sight.

  Both of the rank three, lightning rhino beetle spirits were dead!

  ‘How is this possible!?’ the dark grand mage screamed internally. Not long ago, he had absolutely destroyed Drake and his party. Had they become so much stronger so quickly? And where did Drake get a rank four artifact?

  The secret inheritance…

  The dark grand mage was furious. That ring belonged to him. Not only did Drake steal it, but was using it against him.

  “Good… very good boy!” the dark grand mage spoke slowly, but his voice carried a powerful depth. He looked up at Drake menacingly.

  “If you give me the rank four artifact, and anything else you got from the secret inheritance, and everything you got in this mines, and scram, I may decide to let you go.”

  “Haha!” Drake chuckled, before becoming serious. “If you want it… come and get it!”

  By this time, Sylvia had prepared another arrow and was about to shoot at the remaining lightning rhino beetle.

  Seeing this, the dark mage came to a decision. He reached into his storage pouch and pulled out… a rock?

  For a moment, everyone was confused, but the rock lit up with four different runes and began emitting a rank four aura.

  ‘He has one too!?!?’

  Everyone gasped, but none more than Sylvia and Drake. If the dark grand mage also had a rank four artifact, they were screwed! The one advantage they thought they had was their artifacts, but now, the dark grand mage could easily counter it!

  Sylvia hesitated for a moment, then sighed.

  “Decimate!”

  ‘Doesn’t change what I have to do,’ she thought to herself.

  “Earth shattering wall!” the dark mage yelled, pouring mana into his rock artifact and slammed it to the ground. Immediately, it began glowing a bright white and a thick, dense, and massive stone wall rose from the ground.

  Boom!

  The arrow crashed into the thick wall. Dense energy waves radiated outward every moment, becoming stronger and faster each time. The rest of the cultivators could no longer continue their fight and had to put up a defence in order to not get pushed back by the violent energy. Everyone looked on at the clash in awe.

  Boom!

  Numerous cracks began appearing on the wall.

  Boom! Boom! Boom!

  With a final push, the entire wall shattered, releasing another wave of energy.

  The dark grand mage clenched his chest again and took several steps back as he suffered a backlash from his defence being broken. However, he had already given his orders to the remaining lightning rhino beetle.

  A large lightning spear condensed at the tip of the rhino beetle’s horn, crackling with dense lightning mana. The beetle pointed the spear at the oncoming arrow and released.

  Wooosh!

  The storm spear left in a flash, leaving a trail of spark and lightning. It collided with the now much smaller arrow.

  Another, smaller explosion resounded out as the two attacks collided mid-air. However, this collision only lasted a few seconds. The arrow had been significantly weakened by the dark grand mage’s wall, and so, it was equally matched with the storm spear. In a few seconds, the two exploded simultaneously, releasing waves of energy.

  Sylvia was slightly panting for breath as she looked on at the dark grand mage with furrowed eyebrows.

  Despite suffering a backlash, the dark grand mage was smiling. He lifted his head and extended his hand that he had clenched near his chest, before opening it. Two orbs of purple mana floated out.

  Not this again!

  Everyone gasped in shock as they saw the two orbs of mana float into the sky. The next second, waves of mana erupted as the orbs transformed into another two lightning rhino beetle spirits. These two spirits stood side by side with the first, and they collectively released their rank three auras.

  Behind them, the dark grand mage was flustered. With the restrictions on him in this inheritance ground, using rank four artifacts for him costed a lot more mana than it would on the outside - a lot more. After having to summon his rank three spirits as well, and dealing with so many backlashes, the dark grand mage was exhausted.

  ‘I need to finish this quickly,’ he thought to himself, and then stared at Drake with a menacing smile.

  By this time, Drake finally recovered his strength. However, it was useless as he couldn’t defeat any of the dark grand mage’s beetles even at peak strength. Not unless he used his rank four artifact, which he could only use one more time; definitely not enough to beat all three of them.

  He clenched his fists.

  I can’t lose… he thought. If he did, the dark grand mage would surely take his rank four, and potentially all of his other artifacts away too. He couldn’t suffer such a loss! He looked to Sylvia who was in deep thought.

  She wanted to use her rank four artifact as well, but using it in her avatar form would deplete a crazy amount of mana. Not only would her avatar come undone, but she would not be able to fight for some time afterwards.

  Sylvia hesitated. The image of Helen flashed through her mind, then the picture of getting defeated by the dark grand mage, and then… nothing. Her mind became blank. She looked up at the dark grand mage and her lips curled into a smile. Not her usual, calm smile, but one filled with an inexplicable craze, as if all reasoning had left her and the only thing she wanted now, was blood.

  She raised her arm towards the dark grand mage and the dryad avatar behind her followed suit. She poured mana into her ring, and the avatar’s hand began glowing - glowing and radiating mana more powerful than any other attack so far.

  Drake gulped.

  This power… was almost on the level of a mage king!