"Devour!"
This attack took her by surprise as Agata turned around, finding nine heads coming toward her. All those heads were five times bigger than her body, so it was easy for them to swallow her. And with Alea faking her condition, the surprise threw her balance off.
'Ugh! I can't dodge this one.' Agata thought while summoning a pink shield to protect her.
However, the nine heads came at her from all directions in succession so as to avoid Agata using their timing to escape.
'Will I be able to handle them?' Agata gulped down as she didn't realize one important thing from Alea. Even so, Agata still tried her best to protect herself.
The first head came at her and bit the shield, shattering it into pieces. The second and third heads came from the side and Agata punched both their teeth with all her might to repel them, but the fourth and fifth had already appeared right before her eyes.
Agata clicked her tongue and tried to use another skill, only to find all nine heads were trapped in ice the next second.
Diego stepped on one of the heads while announcing, "With my right as the referee, I announce that Alea has delivered a killing blow to the enemy and Agata has no skill to counter it. Hence, Thersland wins!"
"O-oh?!"
The audience was stunned, never expecting Alea to win this match, despite her earlier condition. At first, both Agata and Alea tried to deal some damage to each other, even if it meant they were injured as well.
It was Alea's strategy since she had the God of Fortitude's Blessing, allowing her to last longer than Agata. However, in the previous exchange, Alea certainly seemed to have no more power to fight Agata after getting influenced by that pink ball.
That was why they couldn't see Alea winning this match. But it turned out everything was fake. Alea made Agata think she was influenced even though she still had enough mental forbearance to endure the desire rising in her body.
The shock didn't stop there. Those who scouted Theo would also consider Alea because they looked good as a couple back in the banquet even though they were not. Alea might become the key to get Theo. Hence, they began to investigate her.
But this battle showed them Alea indeed had the qualification to become the team leader.
"Did she… Did she have twelve skills?" Ignazio gasped as his hands were shaking.
Fortitude Shield, Inch Slash, Melting Sword, Enchant Blade, Flamming Ge-Sword, Herculean Strike and Grand Burst were her seven main sword skills. To add her repertoire, she had two skills that Magician usually possessed, Splash Explosion and Phoenix Talon.
This meant she already had nine skills. Yet, in this battle, Alea actually used three more skills: Great Lion Roar, Devouring Hydra, and Rhyme Hind from God of Fortitude Heracles' Twelve Labours.
Realizing her power, Ignazio shuddered and said, "Impossible. There is not a single person that has more than ten skills."
The room fell into silence as they understood his words. Not only could Theo be counted as two people, but Alea was also someone who broke the norm.
Before the other commented, Enrica suddenly opened her mouth. "No. There are a few people who can use more than ten skills."
"What?!" Ignazio turned to her with a shocked expression.
Enrica started sweating but still explained this phenomenon. "Once, I was curious about the limit of a person. My teacher told me that there were still a few people out there having more than ten skills. This is called Skill Verse."
"Skill Verse?"
"Yes. When someone receives an inheritance skill, they usually refer to their myth, right?"
"Indeed."
"Within that myth, a selected number of people had one skill that could become several skills. I met a person who possessed the same thing when my teacher visited his friend. He received Verethragna Blessing, giving him ten incantations in exchange for five skills. There is also Sun Wukong, who has a transformation ability that allows him to use one skill of a selected few creatures.
"My teacher told me such an occurrence was normal, but none of them have more than twenty skills in total. Looking at her three inheritance skills, I believe she exchanges three labours for one Skill Verse. If she completes all twelve labours, she will have a total of eighteen skills. Well, people like her are uncommon, so it's hard to find information about them." Enrica explained with a serious expression.
"Seriously?" Ignazio dropped to his chair while pinching the bridge of his nose. "I need to fight Theo… Theo and his clone, together with this abnormal girl? I thought we had a chance, but I think they have been planning for this."
"What do you mean?" Enrica frowned.
"You see… With them winning this battle by using Alea, they will certainly throw away the fourth battle and focus on the third battle. Instead of challenging both of us together with Phyrill, he will gain another advantage by using one more comrade. His main body and Phyrill will stop us while his clone and friend destroy one of our teammates.
"This way, Theo will successfully create a 4 vs 2 match. It's better than a 3 vs 2 match on the fourth battle condition. At the same time, if we try to throw away the fourth battle, Theo may strike us by sending their best fighters to completely destroy us in the fourth battle. One of us needs to be on the fourth battle to avoid this kind of situation. We've been had." Although he didn't want to admit it, Ignazio had lost against Theo in battle tactics.
Enrica fell silent and felt the pressure from Theo's plan. As she said, he was indeed dangerous. "And if one of us participates in the fourth battle, they will gain a huge advantage in the fifth one…"
"Yeah."
"Such a talented man. To have this kind of foresight at such a young age… Should I say as expected from the Griffith Family?" Enrica bit her lips and said, "Either way, I've got the permission to take off this blindfold."
"…" Ignazio scratched the back of his head. "It's better than nothing, I guess. No matter the result, we will fight to the best of our ability."
"Indeed. We can't have them just step on us like this." Enrica nodded in agreement.