"Throw him?"

Reed couldn't help but chuckle after hearing Lester's words.

They were actually feeling kind enough to do this to the man they'd targeted. After all, what Lester probably meant was to hang this person on top of a tree or any branch so that he wouldn't get eaten by the wolves or even bears around this area.

"Alright How far was he?" Reed asked as he looked at Addison, who had a Wind Fairy under her command.

Among the four Elementalists, she was the only one who had contracted an Elemental Spirit. The elemental affinity requirement for this was actually relatively high that only 1 out 20 Elementalists can form a contract to a Fairy or Elemental Spirit.

It was due to this reason that they dared to come here with only four of them.

"He's moving. He's probably heading to the Enchanted Linden Forest like us. My Wind Fairy can only roughly find the person's traces about 600 meters from us."

"Alright I'll go ahead and deal with him." Reed said as he used his Wind Spell to boost his speed.

Before Addison contracted her Wind Fairy, Reed was actually the scout of this small group. It was because of his unique Wind Spell that had already reached an intermediate level.

With this Spell, he could move faster than anyone else in the group. Even if there was danger ahead, all of them were confident that this man could survive to warn them.

As Reed left the group, the others also hastened their movement so they won't be separated by more than 400 meters.

"Hunter, why do you look so serious?" Addison suddenly asked after realizing that Hunter was gripping his staff tightly.

She didn't find any danger around them, so she couldn't help but be curious.

Hunter is their Fire Elementalist and their strongest in terms of firepower. He has the most destructive Spells but lacks defensive and decent movement spells.

Apparently, he didn't learn any other spells aside from Fire Element. Even though he was also slightly compatible with Earth Element, he didn't bother learning any of the Earth Spells.

Hunter helplessly smiled after being noticed as he replied worriedly.

"I just remembered the rumors circulating in Melthorn City. Wasn't there a missing Dark Arts Practitioner? There was also that strange phenomenon that destroyed dozens or even hundreds of homes in the slums in the Southern District."

Addison squinted her eyes after hearing this. She was also aware of that news, and it happened on the day they arrived in this city.

"My Wind Fairy didn't react. She would normally warn us if she sensed some negative energy." She said after some hesitation.

"You're overthinking If the missing Dark Arts Practitioner is that man, we would have sensed his Deathly Aura already." Lester added.

Elementalists like them were sensitive to the aura emitted by other Arcane Arts Practitioners.

"However, you're right. We need to be careful since we don't know the man."

Lester also agreed to this, but none of them was worried about Reed. After all, if Reed encountered an opponent he couldn't run away from, then there was no way they could escape as well.

***

"Hmm? Did he notice my presence?" Reed muttered after realizing that the man had stopped moving.

He slowed down after his 30-meter Magic Zone reached the man. It was quite dark, but the moonlight was helping him see the person's back.

He was quite smaller than he expected and must be a teenager.

After realizing that he was only a young man, Reed relaxed quite a lot as he slowly approached him from behind.

"Alright You can't go any further than here. Once you wake up tomorrow, just return to the city and don't loiter around." Reed calmly said as he triggered his Spell.

'Shockwave'

Reed controlled the Wind Spell to ensure that the strength was only enough to put him unconscious.

Whom~

The surrounding grass and dried leaves scattered as the Shockwave Spell hit the young man.

"Ah?" Reed was about to head towards the man since he expected that he would drop to the ground as soon as he was hit.

However, the moment he stepped forward, he realized that the man was still standing

The Shockwave didn't even disturb him at all!

He suddenly had a bad feeling as he activated his Wind Run. It was his unique Wind Spell that allowed him to become the fastest among his group.

Thud!

As soon as he retreated, he realized that he had just escaped being grabbed by a dark hand!

He actually didn't notice it until it reached his position!

Without any more hesitation, Reed prepared to escape. He knew very well that his job wasn't to fight another Arcane Arts Practitioner. He had to retreat and wait for his companions.

However, as he thought of this, the young man finally turned his back.

"Y-you" Reed was shocked when he saw the man wearing a demonic mask.

Without a doubt, he was dealing with a demonic practitioner He may not necessarily be a Dark Arts Practitioner, but after seeing the dark hand a moment ago, he could guess it was probably a Ghost Hand or even the infamous Spectral Hand of the Darkness Path.

What was even more scary was that the moment his eyes landed on that mask, his movement or reaction time slowed.

It was such a scary sensation, especially when you could see three ghastly hands that seemed to have come from hell reaching out to your body.

Furthermore, he tried activating all his other Spells. However, after they formed around him, they would just dissipate into nothingness as if this place had banned the use of Elemental Spells! It was so unfair!

He soon realized he was utterly incapable of moving as three large and ghastly hands restricted him from moving

Then, the next thing he noticed was that this unknown person approached him and touched his chest.

As he thought he was about to die, he gritted his teeth and begged for mercy.

"I I'm sorry I was simply trying to---" His words were suddenly cut off as he felt something coming out of his body before passing out.