When Darren, Chantel, and Daniel arrived to meet Toby in the woods, the portal magic mage tapped his foot impatiently. Darren sighed and wanted to apologize for their lateness, but Toby did not want to stall any longer. Not even exchanging greetings, the man pulled out his wand to create a door shaped portal in the middle of the woods.

“Walk in. We don’t have much time until the portal closes!” the portal mage snapped. Hearing how blunt Toby was being, Darren wished that his sister, Amelia, helped him with this task instead.

Without hesitation, the group walked into the door portal, taking them to an unknown land. Coming out to the other side to see a small village with a sign read, “Witching Hill.” Darren observed the small houses and a couple of buildings in the far-off valley where the mountains were. Continuing into town, the roads looked decently paved, considering that this village was far from Melicona and City Square.

“Stay close. I’m going to talk to an old friend I have here,” Toby told the group sternly.

“Witching Hill? How come I never heard of this place?” Daniel asked.

“Because it’s a secret place for mages who want to live in isolation. It’s a place where they want to study their magic in peace. The only way you can get here is by portal or foot, considering this place magically barred people from entering it. You’re lucky that I have the connection to someone here to get us in,” the portal magic mage explained.

Toby motioned the group to stop at the edge of Melicona's Townline. Darren watched Toby tapping the air with his fingers, seeing small, colored, glowing lights. The light flashed in sequence: Red, Purple, Red, Yellow, Red, and Purple. As soon as Toby finished the sequence, he walked through the barrier as it allowed him to enter.

“Hurry, get in now!” The portal magic mage ordered the group to move forward.

The group quickly moved through the barrier to follow Toby into the village. Darren observed around the area, as there were few people around. The entire village was not a complete ghost town. As the group kept on moving, Toby directed them to a small cafe building. It was the only colorful building in the area, which looked like a small cottage. The cottage was bright yellow and white, decorated with small, red lamp lights on the windowsills.

Darren and the rest of the group stayed closed when they stepped on the path into the cottage-like cafe. When they arrived inside, they saw a couple of people in there, as well as a blond, short, plump young woman standing in the bar area. Toby signaled the group to stay back while he went to the woman. Darren sighed exhaustedly, wanting to get this whole "find Marco" task done with. Observing Toby chatting to the women, the lady pinched the portal mage’s cheeks.  

The plump woman waved at the group when she looks up at them. “Hey, come on over! You must be friends with Tobias! Please make yourself feel at home!”

The group went over to sit in the coffee bar and chatted with the plump woman. Within a couple minutes, Darren got to know the woman’s name: Celesta, and she bragged about how she used to date Toby. He also learned that she was a lighting magic mage and a graduate of Ruxarath Academy. The group exchanged their names.. well, at least, their fake names for Darren and Chantel, that was. Once the niceties got out of the way, Darren was ready to ask the lighting magic mage some questions.

“So… Celesta… We are looking for someone named Marco Barks… Um.. We heard rumors of him being in this area?” The mage asked.

“You mean Mr. Barks, the music healing mage? Ah, he comes around here around this time to get coffee…” Celesta’s head turned around as soon as the cafe’s entrance bell rang and said, “Ah, speak of the devil, Mr. Barks has arrived already…”

Looking at the cafe's entrance, Darren saw a dark brunette man in a long beige trench coat and black boots. The man tumbled over to the bar area, looking very exhausted. It has been years since he has seen Marco and now before his eyes that he was seeing a washed up man, living it out in the wilderness in a secret mage village. However, Darren also felt a slight sense of anger rose within him once he saw the older mage's face. Marco used to be a friend of Mark, just like Jasper was. The three of them were nothing but cruel to him, bullying him for a variety of reasons. Still, despite all that, he never wanted Jasper to die, nor Marco to suffer as much.

Walking up to the man, he waited for the older mage to finish ordering his coffee from another barista.

“May I help you…?” Marco asked, while taking off his gray leather gloves, putting them on the counter.

“Um… You’re Marco Barks, right? I was wondering if we can have a chat in private with my friends over here?” Darren’s eyes darted over to Chantel and Daniel, who was watching him closely.

“Um... Okay, if you say so, sir," Marco replied, moving away from the counter.

“That was easy,” Darren thought to himself, while he directed Chantel and Daniel outside of the cafe.

He glanced at Toby’s eyes for a minute to signal to watch them if anything goes wrong before leaving. However, the minute that he stepped outside, Darren dodged a random spell that was randomly shot at him! His eyes moved where he saw Marco, holding up and pointing his wand at him.

“You can’t take me, you motherfuckers. I kept your secret! Leave me alone!” The music magic mage shouted.

“Hey, it’s not like… Ow...” Darren covered his ears while Marco makes another spell that created sounds so powerful that it would be enough to mess up anyone’s hearing.

Darren kneeled down to the ground for a bit, still covering his ears, then quickly pulled out the earplugs that Toby gave to him earlier. He also observed his surroundings to see that Chantel and Daniel were also on the ground in the same position as him. The young mage just hoped that they put in their ear plugs before the surprise attack. Suddenly, he remembered one thing that he learned from practicing magical combat with Amelia.

“When battling a music magic mage, they have a tendency to use different sounds to throw you off guard. The trick is to use anything at your disposal to take them as quickly as you can. In other words, being quick and smart is the key to winning a battle,” Recalling Amelia's explanation of magical combat in his head, it was now or never for Darren to put everything he learned into practice!

He knew he had to do one thing: get away from the sound source. The further away from the sound, the better chance he has of winning. The good thing about battling a music magic mage? Most of their attacks were close range, not long range.

Running away as far as he could from Marco, he needed to fall back for a moment before thinking of a way to attack him. This all reminded Darren so much when he was younger. Mark and Marco used to chase him around, shooting random harmful spells at him all the time. Somehow, knowing the older mage’s abilities well and thinking back to those days, it prepared him for this moment. Taking what he learned from Marieum's lessons, he needed to use his shadow magic for this situation.

Finding some shades from pine trees in the forest, he ran in and muttered a spell, activating his shadow magic. Without thinking, Darren’s body blended into the tree shade and, for once, his magic worked this time! All he needs to do is wait it out until Marco has given up. Sounds of tree leaves crackled while Darren kept moving between the trees' shadows. Did Marco follow him into the forest?

Briefly taking out his earplugs for a moment, he heard Marco’s crazed voice, “Come out here! You know, your aura is so familiar… It’s Darren, right?” Marco laughed to himself in amusement before continuing to scream some more. “I know your aura from anywhere… I see you have got stronger a bit, haven’t you? No matter, I outrank you, as always. I also remember your weak friend’s aura as well. The authorities have a hefty reward for your friend and your capture. I need that sweet green!”

“That asshole,” Darren thought to himself, while he still waited a little longer.

He needed the right time to trap Marco in place. The Shadow/Light mage did not even want to use the full magic on the older mage at all. However, Darren would have no choice if it came down to it. As soon as Marco stepped on one shadow, Darren used one spell that shot shadow knives out, then quickly moved to another tree shade. He heard a thump on the ground, signaling to him that Marco fell down on the ground.

“Darren!” Chantel’s voice shouted, hearing Toby and Daniel were following behind her in the forest.

“Come out, you coward! Your bastard brother was a coward too!” Marco screamed.

Soon, Darren had to move out of the shadows as he felt sound in the ground! The ass directed all of his sound magic to the ground to force Darren out of hiding. Now he was standing in front of Marco. All he had to do was to give himself up. So Darren pushed himself out of the shadows, then laid down on the ground, exhausted from quickly using up his aura.

“Okay, Marc, you got me. I give up!" The young mage exclaimed, holding his hands up in the air, declaring defeat.

“Good… I’m going to be so rich now that I will turn all of you in!” Marco was walking up to him, directing his wand at the mage in triumph.

“Ah, that’s a shame… Too bad you haven’t got smarter,” Darren smirked at him, which the music magic mage responded with a brow raised in confusion.

Quickly, Chantel and Daniel appeared behind Marco, coming out of a clear portal. Daniel pushed the older mage down on the ground with Chantel, holding out her hand to use her Bio-Kinesis powers. On the ground, Darren watched his friend touched his head as the music magic mage screamed in pain. All the young mage could hope was that Chantel did not give Marco too much pain, enough to give the guy an aneurysm. Once Marco passed out, Chantel got off of him then walked up to Darren, putting her black glove back on her hand.

Daniel moved away from Marco and closely followed her to Darren. All three of them looked down at the unconscious older mage on the ground, wondering what to do next.

“Well, good job, Chantel! Just like we practiced, which makes me pretty useless here. Sad,” Daniel sulked as Darren watched his friend rolling her eyes at the boy.

“I need you here, just in case something goes wrong with my powers. Plus, I don’t trust leaving you behind if you aren't going to keep your part of the deal!" Chantel spat at him.

Darren took a deep breath, thankful that this was over for now. He saw Toby running up to the group, panting between his breaths. 

Stopping in his place, the portal magic mage huffed, “I guess this is good work. Well, I’m not sure if I was of any use, but…”

“Yeah, you were just as useless here as me,” Daniel told the portal magic mage, putting his hands in pockets and kicking the dirt on the ground.

“Watch it, asshole! Without me, Chantel and you wouldn’t get this guy down faster without my portals,” Toby remarked, pointing at Daniel, which the young man only yawned in response.

The good thing about this whole fight was that both Chantel and Darren were making progress. Little by little, they were understanding their abilities enough for the both of them to fight back. This was only just a start.