Seeing Laust coming to her, Lavinia frowned while destroying Clone Theo's Magic Bullets. Clone Theo went straight to her with his back facing Enrica, protecting Laust with his body while allowing him to strike Lavinia from the side.
"I am not that easy to defeat!" Lavinia raised her hand and gathered a huge amount of power on her legs as she prepared to launch herself to the wall. Even if it meant injuries for her, she should be able to stop Laust if she also caught him in the process.
Laust raised his sword when the distance between them remained ten feet. Yet, when Lavinia was about to use her skill, Laust released a bit of his killing intent as if he wanted to kill her, only to use another skill to leap to the right.
"Wha—" Lavinia widened her eyes, thinking Laust wanted to hit her from behind.
However, Laust had used his skill once again and leaped to Marco.
"I won't lose if it's only a one-on-one fight." Marco smiled as he grabbed Phyrill's swords.
Phyrill squinted his eyes as he believed in Theo and Laust. "I am here just to buy them time."
"Hmph." Marco also knew about it since Ignazio already told him. However, hearing it straight from his opponent somehow pissed him off. "I'm—"
Before he finished his words, he sucked a cold breath as he felt someone killing intent coming from the side.
He took a glance to the right, but the presence already arrived behind him.
"You what?" Laust's voice echoed in his ears as if ice cubes just entered his ears.
Laust had been waiting for this moment. He utilized the same strategy as the one he used in Thersland. Luckily, Theo understood his intention without even exchanging a single word and created a perfect opportunity for him to strike Marco.
In that instant, Clone Theo positioned himself between Lavinia and Enrica, allowing Laust to go past her through her blindspot. At the same time, the real Theo used Magic Bullet and covered Enrica's eyes.
Theo just defeated him once more, but Laust somehow didn't feel like hating him anymore. Although he also didn't like him, Laust seemed to have a more important goal in his mind, surpassing his hatred.
Instead of hating Theo and comparing himself with that guy, he should have just solved it from the roots. After all, the roots of every suffering he had were none other than his father.
That was why when Minotaur mentioned it, Laust came to a realization that the one thing he wanted to see was his father's face filled with regret and despair after knowing he was an irreplaceable son.
Solving a bit of his hatred for Theo made his heart feel a bit refreshed. This situation allowed him to see the entire situation even clearer.
"Dragon Claw!" Marco spun his body while waving his hand, trying to stop Laust, whose blade was already on top of him.
However, Laust's giant blade was already covered by a red aura filled with anger and bloodlust. Laust took a deep breath and used all his strength in this one strike. "Let me test my new skill on you."
"Raging Bull Strike."
Before the two collided, another palm grabbed the sword and stopped it as a shock wave shook the arena, going past the man and brushing everyone's skin.
Fwoosh.
"Sir…Diego?" Marco widened his eyes and recognized the man who intervened with their fight.
Before another comment, Diego disappeared together with Marco, bringing him to the side of the arena.
"If I didn't take that attack, Marco's hand would be chopped off. I can guarantee it by my name and title." Diego declared that Marco had dropped out due to that one particular attack.
"Sir Diego! I am—" Marco wanted to protest, but the referee's decision was final.
Diego simply left him and returned to the arena before two men in black suits came to Marco to lead him inside so as to not bother the rest of the fight.
"…" Laust only stared at them in silence, feeling a bit anticlimactic.
…
Meanwhile, Enrica had enough of this smokescreen and summoned the same star-shaped golden light above her head.
"Holy Smite."
The golden ray descended on the arena and swept all the dust away, revealing Theo and Enrica's position.
Due to her being enveloped by the light, her outfit began to disperse like the previous battle with Theo. However, her situation seemed to be a bit better because Enrica called a yellow screen to protect her head and body.
The same applied to Theo, who used his Elemental Shields to withstand the power of this Holy Smite, using it like an umbrella.
Crack.
But the first shield soon shattered into pieces as Theo had no choice other than to use his Blink to escape from that attack.
"…" Enrica frowned after blowing the smokescreen away before she was stunned by the situation.
"W—What is this?!" Sheira shouted. "When Laust was about to sneak attack, he actually turned around to hit Marco? It turned out Thersland's real intention wasn't Lavinia but Marco? This… How high has the strategy in this battle reached?
"I have no words right now because this situation will give Italy Team even more problems." Sheira was speechless. She wanted to talk more, but no words came out of her mouth.
Listening to her words, Laust clicked his tongue but soon calmed his heart, cursing inwardly, 'I was the one who spontaneously executed that plan…'
Because of his meeting with Minotaur, he realized his rage was misplaced and turned him into an unreasonable being. The rage and bloodlust Minotaur released was pure and refined. Unlike Laust's hatred of Theo, his had a clear goal.
That was why Laust calmed down a lot after that meeting and it was also probably the reason why Minotaur wanted to meet him as soon as possible, even if it meant endangering the whole team.
However, Enrica had a distorted expression on her face. She never thought that one of them was defeated just like that.
Ignazio had warned him about Theo's trick, but she realized that was Laust's plan. With her focus remaining on Theo, she simply couldn't see it. Theo even used his own body to help the execution despite them not saying anything.
'This team is more amazing than I thought…' Enrica sighed inwardly while looking at Lavinia.
"Laust, Phyrill, handle that girl before helping me." Theo recalled his clone and walked closer to Enrica. "She is mine."