BXBX NOVEL Chapter 53: Chapter 53:Banquet [2]
Most people would disobey or just ignore Liam, a commoner, but in the past year, Liam has come to be known as one of the most powerful students due to being ranked highly, being part of the student council, and being friends with the main cast.
With all those accomplishments and Lily, Kevin, and Alya behind him, everyone blindly followed his instructions as if he were their leader.
I mean, I swear I even saw Han and Jin following his orders just now when, last night, they had been making fun of him in the group chat!
It was only a matter of time until they cleared their way through the rubble, and I had no more explosives to use.
Grabbing a grass-green colored potion from my pocket, I shied away from the crowd and the watching eyes of the main cast, heading to the corner of the room.
In that corner of the room stood around 5 people who were barely able to stand with the support of the wall, and they were oblivious to the situation happening around them as they continued to laugh their asses off while just staring at the wall.
"Seriously... getting drunk at a banquet is insane."
Well, don't worry, Celestial Academy, I'll punish these delinquents for you!
After taking my cloak off my shoulders, I put it on properly, causing its pitch-black color to disappear and be replaced by a blood-red color.
Taking my daggers out of my pocket, I stabbed both of my hands, and instead of letting the blood fall to the ground, I pulled out my arm and let the blood fall out onto my cloak, creating a flower symbol.
My previous black cloak now had various red streaks along the middle of it, and on its arms, it had a blood-colored flower symbol.
If an unaffiliated random person showed up, Lily and the school's investigators would find it far too suspicious, so I would just have to demonstrate that I was related to an evil organization.
Of course, it couldn't be a real evil organization, as Ruby would probably know all of them, so I was basically faking being part of a non-existent organization—or technically, I was creating an evil organization!
Was I finally moving up the ranks in the villain world? Could... I be... a second-rate villain..?
Nearing the corner of the banquet hall where the drunk students were stumbling about, I stamped my foot down hard on the already weakened floor, causing the drunkards who were barely holding onto the wall to lose balance and fall to the floor.
Unscrewing the cap of the green-colored bottle, I held my bleeding hand above it, allowing droplets of my blood to fall into the potion. Instantly, the potion's green color transformed into a dark purple, signifying that it was ready for consumption.
After delivering a swift blow to the nape of one of the drunks, rendering him unconscious, I held up his head and forcibly opened his mouth before pouring the entirety of the dark-purple potion into his mouth.
Dropping the empty potion bottle onto the floor, I watched it shatter into thousands of glass fragments, making it seem like another case of someone dropping a beverage due to the explosion.
Stepping back, I watched the student's face quickly transform to mimic my exact face. Of course, it wasn't exact, as I had accumulated some wounds from rubble falling on me, but it was good enough to fool anyone who didn't have my enhanced eyesight.
His body type was also different from mine, but I doubted that amidst all the chaos, people would take the time to examine his body type rather than just look at his face.
Pulling the hood of my cloak down, completely concealing my face, I wasted no time as I took out my daggers and watched them light up with a night-black aura from the Corruption of The Night.
Unfortunately, today wasn't going to be an aura farming session.
Swinging my daggers at the air, I sent 3 small elemental slashes right at every chandelier and light source in the room.
*BZZT*
The once fully lit up room was now enveloped in darkness, only small parts of the room visible due to the moon shining through the windows.
Jumping from table to table silently, I reached the pile of rubble blocking the exit, where tens of students were already doing their best to clear it with their bare hands.
As it was a banquet, no one brought any weapons or swords; well, the main cast did, probably due to Lily's warning about the attack.
Seeing the students run into chaos due to the sudden darkness and Lily talking with Liam, Kevin, and Alya, I wasted no time as I sent a night-black elemental slash right at the students, clearing the rubble.
The room, now illuminated by my elemental slash, displayed a scene of ten students standing weaponless and frightened in front of a flying slash that seemed as dark as the night sky hurling toward them.
...
...
...
"Lily, now what? The lights went off."
"I'm not sure, keep trying to find an ex-"
*BZZT*
Instantly capturing the attention of the four main cast members, an elemental slash flew through the room, illuminating its target of the ten innocent students.
Even though not a single word was said, the four immediately sprang into action as Lily pulled out her wand, casting a current of wind that instantly propelled Kevin and Liam toward the slash.
Alya pulled out her ice-covered sword and immediately created a barrier of ice between the helpless students and the elemental slash.
Finally, Liam and Kevin, who were flying right at the elemental slash, had their swords in hand and faced the slash directly.
Confronted by the two's swords, the elemental slash got sent right back to where it came from, hitting a wall near the corner of the room.
Desperate and on edge, Liam screamed out.
"WE NEED LIGHT!"
Instantly, a red inferno of fire appeared in the hands of Irene, who was sitting awestruck at the table beside Ruby and Zach. Unlike Lily's group, these 3 had no idea that the attack was going to happen.
If only they had someone like Lily in their group...
Now, being able to see everything once again, Liam regrouped with everyone at the original table.
Unbeknownst to them, there was one issue. There was a slight difference between magical fire and natural fire. While natural fires are technically light sources as they result from combustion chemical reactions, magical fires do NOT constitute being a light source as they are created from mana.
Looking at Irene, Ruby, and Zach's confused expressions, Lily started off by explaining the situation.
"Look, we're being attacked by a group of djinns who plan to take us hostage to blackmail the academy. I can't say much now as we're low on time, but that's the situation."
Looking at the three nodding their heads, Lily paused for a second before continuing.
"However, there is a problem right now. One of these djinns or another enemy is in this room right now..."
Confused, Zach asked.
"Wait, how do you know that one of them is w-"
Kevin, who had been silent up till now, angrily responded.
"You idiot, where the hell do you think that elemental slash came from."
Interrupting them was Liam, who was in a state of panic after staring at the already injured students from the explosions earlier.
"Ignore them. What do we do now, Lily?"
Pausing for a moment, Lily glanced around the table before asking.
"...has anyone seen Ren?"
"Yeah, I did."
Expanding the fire in her hand, Irene lit up more of the room and then pointed to the corner where an unconscious Ren lay on the floor beside a couple of other people.
"It's kinda his thing to run away when anything remotely dangerous happens."
"... *PFFT*"
"KEVIN, IS NOW THE TIME TO LAUGH?"
"...my bad, dude, but honestly, just look at h-"
"Enough. Our primary goal remains the same. Get out of the banquet hall. It's only a matter of time before more djinns come, and then they take us hostage."
Nodding at Lily's words, Liam stood on the table and loudly announced, capturing everyone's attention.
"WE NEED TO GET OUT OF HERE!"
Picking up the utensil knives from the table, the remaining group of students walked towards the exit alongside Lily's group.
Alya, who had been silent due to the severity of the situation, picked up her sword and manifested 5 icicle spears above her head. Not skipping the beat, the icicles immediately hurled towards the pile of rubble.
However, before the ice could reach the rubble, another night-black elemental slash intersected it. The elemental reaction caused by the ice and darkness hitting each other generated a grey fog that enveloped part of the room.
"LILY, HE'S OVER HERE."
Alya was smart. She knew that she wouldn't be able to destroy the rubble without any interference. She actually wanted the interference so that she could find the location of the intruder.
Lily, who was waiting for Alya's signal, cast 2 wind tornados, but she stopped right in her tracks mid-cast.
The icicles that Alya had created were now flying right back at her, seemingly having a mind of their own... Alya had no idea, as she was looking straight at Lily.
Changing the direction of her attack, Lily sent the tornados right at the returning ice spear and screamed.
"ALYA, MOVE!"
Hearing Lily's urgency, Alya immediately dove to the right, narrowly evading the wind tornado. Looking back, Alya's confusion only intensified as she saw her own icicle spears attacking her while Lily's tornadoes held them off.
As another bout of smoke appeared from the elemental reaction between the tornado and the ice, Liam, Zach, and Irene joined them outside the smoke area.
"What's going on?"
"Liam, the intruder is preventing us from leaving."
"Alright, I'll take care of him, you gu-"
Pausing mid-sentence, Liam noticed no one was paying attention to him. He followed the others' gaze and saw a figure emerging from the smoke.
Clad in a mix of blood-red and pitch-black colors, a figure emerged from the smoke with two ominous dark shapes in his hands.
They couldn't even be identified as weapons. They were just roughly the shape of something covered by a black aura.
Before anyone could say anything, the figure swung the two ominous shapes at them, releasing an elemental slash that was as dark as a black hole right at all five of them.