Outside of the city ruins.

King Arlen Firstmane was observing the battles inside the city ruins with an interested expression.

Occasionally, he would give a comment or two about one or two contestants, but most of the time, he remained silent, as though he was gauging the abilities of the contestants.

Suddenly, though, he seemed to find something that attracted his attention.

Without hesitation, he enlarged one of the many scenes showed on the screen and grinned.

"Miss Eve, two of these three candidates are from your Moonlight Glow, right?"

Eve furrowed her brows. Just like the king said, two of the candidates showed on the screen belonged to Moonlight Glow. One was the wolfkin, Gorde, and the other was the racc.o.o.nkin, Tyke.

"They are, Your Majesty. Is there a problem with them?"

"Oh… No no no, there is not a problem. It's just, I'm curious about the route they are following." He then enlarged the scene showing Bloed and Aya.

"What do you think?" The king asked.

Eve's expression remained unchanged, but inwardly, she was cursing the wolfkin and the racc.o.o.nkin.

Even if she was an idiot, she could understand what they wanted to do.

"Fools." Regina, standing beside Eve, smirked disdainfully.

"Oh?" The king raised an eyebrow in curiosity. "Miss Regina, right? You seem very confident about your companion."

"Of course." Regina did not hesitate to smile and show her pride. "There is no way master will lose to enemies like them."

"Woah, you are very confident. I hope you are right." The king smiled and returned to watch the screens. A considerable part of his focus, though, was in Bloed.

But at that moment, Regina spoke up.

"Your Majesty, I'm curious about something."

"Mm? Do speak."

"… The Rank that chased master before… He was a bit too tenacious; don't you think? None of the other Ranks have acted that way."

The king did not reply. Instead, he looked at Regina with a small smile.

Almost instantly, Regina's face turned cold, and a strong pressure started to surround her body.

Fortunately, Eve grabbed her arm at that moment.

"Calm down."

Regina said nothing. Instead, she stared at the king for a few seconds.

After that, she moved her gaze away.

At the same time, her hostility disappeared.

When Eve saw that, she sighed and relief and looked towards the king.

"Your Majesty, don't you think it's unfair?"

"He is not a beastmen, miss Eve. Even if he is part of Moonlight Glow, as a human, the bar for him to pa.s.s is slightly higher than others."

Eve did not reply. Her displeasure, though, was obvious for everybody to see.

But contrary to her expectations, Regina did not seem angry after hearing the words of the king.

Instead, she was staring at the screen silently.

Eve did not know it, but in Regina's mind, there was no way her master was going to lose.

It didn't matter even if the test was more difficult for him or not.

To Regina, her master was that outstanding.

…

"I found another contestant," Bloed suddenly said.

Aya was surprised. They were currently traveling in the two wolves' backs, and she had not found any sign of an enemy nearby.

However, she had already noticed Bloed had an unknown way to get information from the surroundings.

Since they started to travel together, Bloed had told her to change directions more than once. Each time, he did not explain the reason.

At the start, Aya did not understand his intentions. But on one occasion, she felt an outburst of mana coming from the direction they avoided.

Aya immediately understood that Bloed was avoiding the hunters.

Although she did not know how he managed to detect them, the method seemed very effective.

"Where is the contestant?" Aya asked.

"One kilometer away from us. It's a male foxkin, so he is probably a mage. What do you think?"

"... Let's go to defeat him."

Bloed nodded. With a thought, the two wolves advanced in the direction of the new prey.

By Aya's suggestion, Bloed decided to leave the attack to her and only support her if it was necessary.

Aya acted fast. When they were two hundred meters away from the enemy, she jumped down from the wolf's back and hid in the shadows.

Then, she advanced quickly towards the foxkin.

Less than one minute later, Aya was already close to him. She then hid in a shadow nearby and waited for the foxkin to approach.

When the foxkin was less than ten meters away from her, Aya moved.

Almost at the same time, the foxkin expression changed.

Without hesitation, he cast a defensive spell around him and shot a barrage of arrows in Aya's direction!

But Aya moved faster. Her body was engulfed by shadows, disappearing briefly and appearing behind the foxkin.

Then, she wielded her daggers deftly and stabbed his spine, easily piercing through the barrier the foxkin cast.

One second later, the foxkin collapsed on the ground, immobile.

Bloed whistled in surprise. That was fast.

Moreover–

'As I thought, her battle style is very similar to Javelin.'

Nevertheless, Bloed realized another thing from that battle.

Although Aya's battle style was very similar to Javelin, she was slightly inferior to him.

When Javelin attacked, he did not leak the slightest bit of killing intent. His enemies only felt his presence in the instant he delivered the blow.

But Aya was a bit inferior. Before attacking, she leaked a bit of killing intent.

That was the reason the foxkin managed to cast a barrier and unleash a spell when she attacked.

Fortunately, Aya managed to break through the barrier with her attack. Otherwise, the battle would have taken much longer before it was decided.

Thinking about it, Bloed noticed that barrier was broken too easily.

For an instant, his eyes were drawn to the daggers. Immediately, Bloed's eyes flashed with an expression of realization.

These daggers were special.

"Well done." Bloed nodded to Aya as soon as she returned.

Aya nodded indifferently. However, the happy glow in her eyes betrayed her true emotions.

A wry smile appeared on Bloed's face. He could see that Aya was still a bit immature. She lacked a bit of battle experience.

Well, she was just fifteen. That was normal.

Bloed shook his head. He then ordered Leto to continue advancing towards the center of the city.

But not even ten seconds later, Oculus sent an image to his mind.

Three beastmen were advancing towards Aya and him.

Moreover, Bloed recognized the three of them.

Bloed wrinkled his brows. He did not want to risk fighting against three enemies. If the fight took too long, it could attract the attention of a hunter.

Soon, however, he realized a battle was unavoidable.

Through Oculus, he could see the three beastmen were coming straight towards him.

Even when Bloed tried to change directions, the enemies seemed to know his movements and moved accordingly.

With a sigh, he told Leto to change its direction. If he needed to fight, then he wanted to fight as far from the Ranks as it was possible.

At the same time, he spoke up to Aya.

"Get ready. Three enemies are coming for us."

Aya was startled, but she nodded promptly. Then, she grabbed her daggers with an unafraid look.

Soon, Bloed and Aya arrived at the place Bloed chose for the battle. It was a small square located in the middle of several destroyed buildings.

This square was the farthest place to the Ranks. According to his calculations, the closest Rank would need around three minutes to arrive here.

This was the perfect place for the battle.

...

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