“Damn it! He’s gone!” Ashtarh spat on the ground and cursed.
Even though they maintained absolute advantage from the beginning to the end, Ashtarh didn’t feel a shred of pride.
It was Eleven vs One.
The Eleven best geniuses of the federation fighting one.
It wasn’t like they were an unbalanced team.
They had physical attackers, space controllers, and elemental attackers.
The troublesome space controllers teaming up with elemental attackers was one of the deadly combinations.
Add Body Awakeners for the finishing touch and it was a perfect team.
With the formation of a team, their strength didn’t just add up. It multiplied.
Despite that…
“Maybe if you can chase him…you might still catch him and eliminate him.” Ashtarh raised his head and sighed in regret.
“You aren’t convincing anyone to take the bait with your terrible acting.” Helia crossed her arms and looked at him with contempt.
“…” Ashtarh’s regretful expression vanished as he changed back to his expressionless face.
“Was I that bad?”
“Yep. Pretty bad.” His friend Tiama shook his head.
“Whatever. Acting isn’t for me. Fighting is the only thing I know.” He said, and in the end, even seemed proud.
“…argh.” Sarah felt a sense of deja vu.
‘Varian would say the same thing.’
“We’ll go to our picks and decide the winner at the end.” Xavier said lightly.
Everyone lightly nodded as they watched Xavier with caution.
If there was no Xavier, even with Space Awakeners, Charles’ speed wouldn’t slow down enough.
Then, the elementalists would never be able to attack him properly.
In fact, given Charles’ reaction speed, he would be able to hold his own against the three body awakeners.
Xavier was one of the major reasons he couldn’t fight back properly
“With Charles gone, we all have a shot at winning.” Ashtarh said and waved at them.
“See ya!”
Maissa touched the shoulders of Ashtarh and Tiama. Their figures blinked in and out, a few miles between each disappearance and soon, they were out of sight.
They picked the Thunder Region.
Helia didn’t even bother greeting them and grabbed Caleb’s hand.
They too quickly disappeared.
Their destination was the Twisted Region.
Xavier glanced at the Sarah’s team and his gaze paused on Sarah.
“Sometimes, I forget you’re a second year.” With those words, he nodded at Marcus.
Marcus conjured a flame board for Xavier and along with Rodey Nial, they went towards the Psychedelic Region.
Finally, only Sarah, Philia and William were left.
“Let’s go too.” Philia said, nudging William who was looking in the direction Charles disappeared.
Vine Region.
“Is it really alright to leave him like that?” He rubbed the back of his neck and asked.
Sarah shrugged. “You know why we let him escape.”
William recalled Charles’ final outburst and nodded solemnly. “We can eliminate him. But right before he do, Charles will burst out with all his strength and take down at least one of us.”
That was the main reason no one wanted to chase after Charles, even if he was heavily injured.
Even though he was in no way his peak condition, if they really pushed him to the brink of elimination, there’s a very high chance he’d take down at least one of them with him.
Who wanted to take that risk?
No one!
The four teams acted together for a single reason.
They wanted to get the special reward and it needed them to collect all the six flags.
If Charles was allowed to deal with them one team at a team, he would eliminate them one by one and easily win.
But with his heavy injuries, he could hardly be a threat in the end.
Thus, pursuing Charles to just eliminate him wasn’t worth it.
And even if they eliminated Charles, and managed to take his final attack without being eliminated, they would be severely injured.
Then their chances of collecting the six flags would be non-existent.
“Ashtarh’s team is the strongest, then it’s Xavier’s, then us, and finally Helia’s.” William said in exasperation.
The reason Helia’s team was last was because they had only two members.
“Do we really have a chance at winning?”
Sarah looked at him and gritted her teeth. “Don’t jinx! If I can’t win, then I’d rather have Philia win than you.”
Philia’s cold face showed a small smile as she nodded. “If I can’t win myself. Then I’ll also pick Sarah over you.”
“…Fuck!” William cursed in despair and sprinted to the boundary of the Central Plains.
Sarah’s body blurred and a blue hue covered her. She quickly caught up to William and surpassed him.
With blue wings behind her back, Philia was behind William.
They soon stopped in front of a white barrier.
The area they landed was called ‘Central Plains’.
The world of Theodra was divided into Central Plains and the Six Regions.
Each of these six regions had one flag in a specific location.
Ashtarh Team went to Thunder Region’s Thunder Plains.
Xavier Team to Psychedelic Region’s Psychedelic Gardens.
Helia Team to Twisting Region’s Twisting Islands.
They can’t go from one region to another. Inter-travel between the regions is impossible. One must travel back to the Central plains and go to the desired region through the white barrier.
“With us two Water Awakeners, Ice Region is our best bet.” Sarah said and stepped into the white barrier.
The space twisted and she felt like the world suddenly shook.
The temperate dropped and snow fell.
Sarah found herself standing in deep snow, and in front of her were countless snow mountains.
Philia clicked on her comm and opened a map.
“The target is thirty miles north west.”
Her body flashed and she shot into the air flapping her blue wings.
The same scene was repeating for the Ashtarh Team, Xavier Team and Helia Team.
It’s just that none of them knew that a young man was hiding in the mountain ranges of Central Plains and watched the entire battle.
His eyes shone with a sharp light as his lips curled up.
“Master, are you going to hunt for treasures?” Boo asked.
“Treasures? No. I’m going to hunt for the six flags.”
“…but they’re all more powerful than you.”
“So what? I just need to get the flags before the trial ends.” Varian said and his eyes narrowed.
“Fighting isn’t the only thing I know.”
*** **** ***
A/N: Discord link below:
https://discord.gg/kBKaTtsrpb