"Tsk. I really hate this type of fight." Clovis sighed after landing.
Clovis hurriedly pulled Jay up so that they could get away from these people. With distance, they shouldn't do anything reckless like earlier.
"Sorry." Jay extended his hand.
"No problem." Clovis slapped Jay's hand quite hard as if telling him to be careful.
Jay could only give him a wry smile, knowing that he had done something bad. "Now you know why I don't really want to kill my enemies, right?"
"To kill the enemies, we have to corner them first. However, the cornered enemies will fight back since they're going to die anyway, trying to drag us together. Even with such an overwhelming gap, the enemy can simply throw a grenade and explode together or something.
"The fact that we can't kill them in this competition eliminates our only option, which is going for a swift kill."
Jay's expression turned grim since he had just experienced it.
"Anyway, it's good that you're alright." Clovis waved his hand to Kanaria, thanking her for the assist.
Jay looked down, falling into deep thought.
"Also, I should be thankful that you can experience such a thing early on. I'm afraid that the same thing will happen to Ivan pretty soon."
"!!!" Jay widened his eyes. Now that he thought about it, Clovis indeed wanted to eliminate Ivan from the competition by showing the enormous gap and the Drake Group's corrupt method.
When that happened, Ivan might likely be coming in the same manner. However, Ivan shouldn't be foolish enough to face them head-on. With such a hidden danger, they should be on guard all the time.
"I understand. I'll take this experience to heart." Jay nodded with a serious expression.
Clovis smiled, satisfied. He simply chose to regroup first before getting his short sword back. After all, he wanted these people to calm down first.
But to his surprise, right after Clovis and Jay returned to their original spot, Melody and Ragna suddenly reacted.
Ragna stepped to the side and raised his shield while Melody warned them, "Another incoming group!"
"!!!" Clovis and Jay raised their heads, seeing multiple people between the trees.
Kanaria and their sniper were pointing their guns at each other without pulling the triggers yet.
Clovis's expression turned serious after he recognized one person among the enemies.
"That's…" His eyes were locked on the woman with light blue hair. He saw that person talking to Erwin. She was one of the Tier 4 participants, Aileen.
Their gazes intertwined as both of them were holding their weapons. The tension started building up.
Jay raised his blade while Melody prepared the battle plan.
Aileen paused for a moment before sheathing back her daggers. "We're leaving."
"!!!" Her teammates looked surprised, but none of them complained… or at least, not yet.
Clovis clicked his tongue, not because he couldn't fight against a powerful person, but because she must be acting carefully because of Erwin.
"The main competition will be quite hard." Clovis let out a long sigh. "Melody?"
"They're leaving… about to exit the distance of our radar."
"Are there any other enemies around the area?"
"Other than a few beasts, no."
Clovis let out a long sigh and said, "We'll retrieve my weapon first before retreating in the opposite direction. Remember to be extra careful. The closer to the time limit, the more desperate they are."
"They can sacrifice themselves and get the last kill just to get the points from us. If we have five hundred points, they will get all those points as long as we're all dead and they still have one person in the team that is still alive." Kanaria nodded, fully understanding the severity of the situation.
"But they don't know whether we have a lot of points or not, right?" Ragna asked.
"No. That's the reason why they only give us updates on our own points, not those of other teams. However, the other teams don't care. Just imagine how many groups remain after almost two hours. They will think that the surviving groups will have a certain degree of points that will allow them to be among the final 16 groups if they add their own points," Clovis explained.
"Anyway, we'll go around for another twenty minutes and just remain hidden for the last ten minutes. That should be enough." Clovis changed his plan a little bit after seeing the reaction from Aileen.
Meanwhile, Aileen was thinking a similar thing.
"Miss Aileen. Why do we have to retreat? We can crush those groups! They only have three Tier 2 and two Tier 3 explorers. They are too insignificant compared to us." Her teammate complained.
The other teammates were staring at Aileen, wanting to know her answer.
"That was the best choice." Aileen shook her head.
"At least explain the reason to us. Your decision didn't make sense earlier."
"Weren't they the group that you asked me to investigate?" Her friend, Lana, asked.
"!!!" The other teammates raised their eyebrows. It was unexpected for that kind of group to get Aileen's attention.
"Are they strong?" Lana frowned.
"I don't know," Aileen replied without a change of expression.
"They might not be that strong."
Aileen shook her head and said, "Well, you want me to tell you the one thing I do know?"
"Very much so." Lana nodded furiously. The others also fell silent, looking at her with a curious expression.
"I've never really talked about it, but me and Erwin do go pretty far back… ever since we both studied in the academy as rivals. It's true that Erwin's combat talents are inferior when compared to mine. However, I have never seen someone else that can compare when it comes to his eyes for people. If that's the man that Erwin has acknowledged, then he might not be ordinary.
If we clashed with them, we would probably suffer a huge loss as well."
All her teammates dropped their jaws to the ground as they couldn't believe what she had just said.
Only Lana, who was her best friend, looked at her dumbfoundedly as she couldn't help but think, 'Is the comparison for combat talent necessary?'