"Come on. Make your decision already. Are you afraid of me? Why don't you kill Hontar? You don't dare, don't you?"
Under the constant pressure, Theo decided to halt his movement, backing off from this attack.
"Huh?" Laust widened his eyes when he saw Theo stopping.
This hesitation resulted in Hontar blowing Laust away. In addition, Makkal quickly changed his target to his right and released his arrow.
"Not good, Phyrill!" Theo shouted.
Phyrill's body shook as he saw the incoming arrow. He did his best to avoid it, but his elbow was destroyed by that arrow.
"Sh*t!" He took a few steps backward while assessing the situation, but it was also another mistake Theo's group committed.
Aisha shouted and her hand started glowing as she used her skill. "Hontar, grab that hand and attach it to your body."
With both Theo and Laust couldn't move, Hontar had free time grabbing his hand and trying to reattach his hand.
His shoulder then started regrowing muscle and such before a golden light glowed between the body and the hand. That golden light warped the missing part and regenerated all the necessary parts to reconnect them.
This was Aisha's skill. Although her skill wasn't at the level of regrowing limbs, it should be fine to attach a body part to the original body.
Even Theo didn't expect this to happen as he realized how one mistake turned the situation around.
They would have a hard time winning against them since Phyrill had lost one hand.
More importantly, Hontar laughed and showed that his hand finally returned to normal. "This is good. Now, the winner is not yet to be confirmed."
Theo clenched his teeth and pointed his palm at Makkal. A blue light ball appeared and split into ten.
"Magic Bullet."
Suddenly, a giant lizard dropped from the air. The ground vibrated due to the force, but the Magic Bullet also hit the lizard's scale and got neutralized in an instant.
The lizard itself was fifteen feet high and thirty feet long, so it covered a large portion of the area, making it a bit special for a meat shield. The lizard's scale seemed to be powerful too.
Theo raised his vision and their eyes intertwined. The lizard opened its mouth and released a breath of fire.
"Bloom, Ice Lotus."
Three ice lotuses fell from the air and turned into a giant ice shield for Theo. He couldn't take time to observe what happened as the bear threw away that big ice he received earlier.
"Tch." Theo clicked his tongue and jumped to Laust to avoid the ice. And another shout came from Phyrill to wake him up.
"Theo! What the heck are you doing? There is always a risk in a certain plan and everything won't go according to your plan. I'm sure you already know this! Even if it means sacrificing my life, don't hesitate! In the previous Grand Gaia competition, there was a team that utilized this concept and won an impossible match. If you don't have this kind of resolve, you're not fit to make a battle plan!"
Theo's body shook as he sucked a cold breath, realizing what kind of blunder he just made. His expression turned serious again as his gaze became unbearably cold.
"Sorry." With that word coming out of his mouth, Theo started moving forward again.
Looking at Theo's expression, Laust already knew the conclusion. He didn't know why but Theo seemed to be releasing a certain aura that made one want to follow him, knowing it was the path of victory.
'What is this? Something is squeezing my heart that somehow it's more painful than the beating I've gotten this whole time. So, this is a disappointment my father felt when I couldn't do anything.
'I don't understand it myself, but the urge of wanting to follow him… No, it's the urge that makes me want to follow him. Wait… Doesn't this mean I am trash?' Laust's legs went limp and his hands were shaking.
Their eyes suddenly intertwined as Theo released another wave of killing intent, telling him, "Move for the sake of me. We will kill Hontar this time."
Laust was tempted to do that and gained recognition from his family since this team might be able to reach the main stage of Grand Gaia. 'Ah, yes. He is showing me the way to victory. The way I am right now is not good. If I entrust myself to him, we can win and get Alea.'
Yet, when he took a step forward, his legs felt so heavy. He wanted to fall on his knees at this moment.
All the frustration he felt when his father always shunned him and compared his and his brother's achievements flashed in his mind. The frustration told him that if he followed Theo and killed Hontar, everything would end for him. He would always be a useless puppet.
'No. I'm going to change myself in this training. I will show to the world that I'm not less than anybody else.' Laust clenched his teeth and gathered his resolve. He then ran forward with his sword and saw Theo thrusting his spear at Hontar.
The latter deflected the attack with his sword, but he saw Laust coming from behind Theo, planning to attack him.
Makkal didn't let him do his way and released his arrow, but a huge ice spike emerged from the ground and blocked the arrow.
"Ellen?!" Makkal widened his eyes, never expecting her to make another move at this point.
If Laust swung his sword, Hontar wouldn't have any other choice than to stop that big sword while allowing Theo to stab him somewhere in his body. He could still recover with Aisha's skill anyway.
When taking these steps, Laust thought, 'The steps are so heavy… This is the crossroad where I will decide my future…"
However, when Laust arrived in front of him, his foot leaned to the left as if he tried to stop and made an extreme turn.
"And my future won't end in this tournament!"
It was at this moment Laust shocked everyone by changing his direction to Aisha instead.
"What?!" Hontar and Makkal were taken aback and couldn't react to that sudden change.
Phyrill and Aisha didn't know that Laust was coming to them until Makkal shouted. "Aisha!"
Unfortunately for him, it was too late. Phyrill could clearly see how Laust suddenly came into his vision, appearing behind Aisha before slicing her neck.