The Monk Mahinder, or rather, the High Elf Ashcroft who had possessed the former's body, was getting stronger with each passing second.
"Let the young acolyte go!"
Not willing to hurt the young possessed acolyte, Grand Magus Yvere could not do much besides tightening his restraint even more, still it only managed to hold the target a few more seconds, before the white roots splintered apart releasing the golden shining figure.
It was at this moment that the three grand magus arrived, surrounding Mahinder in three directions. The three were not only the ones who came, as dozens of magus enforcers swiftly followed right behind.
"How dare you come here, elf?!"
Grand Magus Api's shout resounded loudly in the air. The dark-skinned with buzz-cut hair, who was the head of the Fire Institute, glared at the entity possessing the Monk's body, hatred clear in his eyes.
"You are surrounded," added Grand Magus Obrien of the Earth Institute, an intimidating muscular figure with towering posture.
Meanwhile, the last figure was Grand Magus Ororo, who came to a stop close to Klea, preparing to attack, while putting her disciple behind her protection as well.
"Master, you must quickly stop him," Klea said in an agitated tone as she could see time ticking down on her palm.
As for the two who attacked Mahinder earlier, Olivier seemed to try his best to stand up in spite of the struggle, Zach, on the other hand, picked up his sword he had dropped as he swiftly took his stance.
Regaining his feet, the Sword Saint cast his time spell [Accelerate] on himself as he said, "Elder, we need to quickly snatch the staff from him!"
Even though they still didn't really know what was going on, the fact an infamous elf figure was standing before them was enough for these grand magus to follow the acolyte's words. Without further ado, they all took action in unison with the sole aim of seizing back the Headmaster Staff.
The sky rumbled and the ground growled violently as if it were the apocalypse, the bombardment of the three great instructor magi's powerful spells struck the possessed Mahinder without mercy. The resulting explosion was so great that it forced Zach, Olivier, Klea, Eeshoo, and the magus enforcers to take several steps back.
Most of the spectators, who still hadn't caught on to what happened, were extremely confused to see three grand magus attacking the champion of the Magus Tournament. They were puzzled as to why such powerful figures worked together against one young acolyte.
Unfortunately, their confusion was destined to go unanswered for now.
Despite his cultivation having reached two cosmos, Grand Magus Yvere was not a combat-type grand magus due to his speciality; thus he stayed behind his three colleagues, acting as support by utilizing his spells to restrain the Monk or give supporting spells.
A calamitous amalgamation of fire and lightning devoured the monk's figure as Api's [Blazing Ring of Fire] and Ororo's [Thunderstorm Descent] unleashed their might.
The two focused their entire attention bombarding the elf, the last one – Grand Magus Obrien – was seen charging forward. With his dark, rock-like body, the man went into close combat trying to snatch the staff from the latter's hands.
Alas, a minute passed, and even though the Monk seemed to be in pain, a smile could still be seen hanging on his face as he said, "I may not be able to use my full strength with this body, but still, I won't be defeated by four washed-up grand magus."
Saying those words, the pressure he was giving off increased once again, as he empowered himself to fight against the four grand magus. Despite the situation being clearly at his disadvantage, he made it look completely like he had no worries at all.
A few meters away from the heated confrontation, Olivier wore an exasperated expression. He hated the fact he still couldn't do something to stop all of this even though he had experienced it before.
"We have two minutes left!" He shouted to remind the grand magus, which succeeded in obtaining Klea's attention. It was at this time she realized they apparently had a different countdown from each other.
"I still have three minutes," Eeshoo said from behind, before he asked what the notification meant and where they would be recalled to.
"Is there no other way to stop this!?"
When she heard that, Klea quickly told them about part of Emery's story, on how the process could be blocked by space or gravity. Unfortunately, this information wasn't of any help for the majority of them.
Then to everyone's surprise, Zach grabbed his sword and decided to cut off his lower arm. There was no hesitation seen in his action as he sliced his arm in a decisive manner.
Splllaatttt!
However, seconds after, everyone's faces changed for the worst as they all could see that Zach's figure disappeared without a trace as he was teleported away. It was clear that cutting their hand with the symbol was not working.
Apparently, Zach was the first to go and with him, Klea heard a ruckus as several other acolytes behind were also vanished from the crowds.
This situation caused an upheaval amongst the group of acolytes. Some, whose time was nearing, decided to fly away, only to disappear right in the air as their countdown reached zero. Amidst the chaos, Olivier shouted out words that caught everyone's attention.
"Watch out, they are coming!"
After saying those words, Olivier swiftly closed his eyes and focused on casting his time spell [Temporal Shift] close to himself, trying to stop the recall.
At the same time, finally they came.
The figures of 30 dark elves appeared in the arena, bringing shock to both the acolytes and spectators. Especially when these elves started to charge towards and fight the nearby magus enforcers.
More acolytes teleported away, followed with more elves appearing on the arena.
In a matter of seconds, there were more than fifty elves in Grand Hall already, with almost half of them being a magus level, there were even a few powerful grand magus levels spotted amongst them.
It suddenly occurred to everyone it was an attack of high scale, an invasion planned by the elves.
All the magus and grand magus present quickly jumped into the arena and joined the battle, as they tried to suppress the coming elves.
Klea realized Olivier seemed to have managed to stop his countdown, meanwhile Eeshoo, whose countdown seemed to be arriving soon, decided to take out his golden ball artifact which he used against Emery, one that could affect space magic.
As for Klea, she glanced at the reminder of her time and she looked up at the sky, hoping that a certain someone would arrive for her.
0:10
0:05
0:03
"Emery… I am sorry I failed…"