In the meantime, Ignazio took another look at Velio one more time, knowing that he had fulfilled his objective. Still, Theo just proved his words again since he had already disappeared from the group, not waiting for the conversation to finish.
Theo just showed him that listening to their conversation was meaningless and he didn't need to explain whether the entire plan was true or not.
Hence, he managed to arrive at his destination first.
To his surprise, the moment he stepped on the destination, the objective changed.
[Objective: Fight other groups to eliminate their members. The fight will continue until only twelve people are remaining.]
The change didn't stop there. He finally got another update to his map, showing nineteen dots in total. In other words, these nineteen people were left in this competition.
'Seriously?' Theo narrowed his eyes as he realized he was the only group that expelled someone in the first objective. The rest did it without any scene. He looked down and thought, 'Still, the fact I have eliminated both of them, I don't think I need to worry about those two helping other groups. I only need to watch out for Ignazio.'
He took another look at the map and noticed several dots approaching him.
"Ignazio, Riccardo, and Alice are behind me, so these three…" Theo realized he was being targeted.
Since there was a tracker to show his position, it wasn't a good option to use his clone to flee, so he ran to the left instead of returning to his teammates.
This simple movement confused the three enemies into thinking Theo had set up a trap on them and his three teammates were going to help him.
In the end, the enemies ended up moving away from him and chasing Ignazio and the others instead.
"…" Theo fell silent for a moment, wondering if he should help them. However, he soon retracted his thought when another dot moved toward his position at a very fast speed.
"Huh?" Theo widened his eyes and turned around.
Soon, a figure appeared. He had spiky green hair and wide blue eyes. He wore long sleeves and pants to cover almost all his skin as if he didn't feel the heat.
"Hah! Found the newbie! I am lucky today." The man laughed out loud and raised both hands. "Name Giordo, I choose you as my playmate. I hope you can entertain me, newbie!"
Theo had no idea what the man was talking about, but he hurriedly raised his spear.
Giordo raised his hand as if he planned to punch Theo, but the latter was surprised when a blue light shone beneath Giordo's sleeves.
Suddenly, the blue light ripped the sleeves and formed a sharp blade as if it was a claw.
He tried to strike Theo from two directions with this sudden sneak attack.
"Blade Enhancement."
The blue light was covered with golden light, sharpening the blade even further.
"Three Great Defense."
Three tombstones emerged from the ground and formed a shield in front of Theo, blocking the claw.
Giordo struck Theo's shield with both hands.
Crack.
"!!!" Theo soon widened his eyes because of the crack. Although it was still a C Rank Defensive Ability, this skill was considered among the top Defensive Skill, so he never expected someone was able to break it.
He hurriedly ducked down as the two blades sliced it, allowing Giordo to pass him from above.
Theo then spun his body and kicked him as soon as he landed, but another blue light shone from Giordo's elbow, forming a blue shield right in front of his chest.
The barrier stopped Theo's foot.
"Heh." Giordo smirked and used his hands to stand up before moving his foot sideways, trying to hit Theo.
Not only that, he found another blue light coming from the foot as another blade extended from his shoe.
"There's a blade on his foot?" Theo clicked his tongue and used his spear's handle to stop Giordo's foot.
"Tsk. I guess I can't defeat you with only this." Giordo clicked his tongue and hurriedly pushed the ground, launching him into the air. After that, the blue light turned into a dagger in his right hand as he threw it. "Sonic Enhancement."
Boom.
The dagger created a low-pitched sound and flew to Theo like that of a bullet.
Theo formed a shield from his Ring of Honor to block it, but to his surprise, a crack appeared as soon as the dagger hit his shield. At the same time, the force from the dagger itself was strong enough to push Theo a few feet back.
"Oh, you can even withstand that." Giordo grinned. "You're pretty strong despite your level."
Giordo didn't know Theo's level, so he assumed Theo barely reached Hero Rank in six months, so he looked down on Theo a bit.
To buy him enough time to observe Giordo's attack, Theo summoned his Magic Bullets and shot right at him.
Giordo leaped backward and placed his hand on the tree. "Channeling Enhancement."
He suddenly snapped the tree to half before positioning the fallen trunk in front of him, blocking all the Magic Bullets.
Boom.
Boom.
Boom.
A series of explosions hit the tree, yet Theo opened his mouth in amazement when he realized his Magic Bullets couldn't take down a single tree.
Before he could react to this bizarre event, Giordo kicked the tree toward Theo.
"What is his power?" Theo muttered while pulling his left hand back. He concentrated his Magic Power there, formed a blue spear, and launched it to the tree.
The spear hit right in the middle of the trunk and snapped it into two before making its way to Giordo.
"You can even do that? Wow." Giordo was amused by Theo's strength and formed two more daggers on his hands, striking the spear with all his strength.
Due to the trunk, the spear lost the majority of its power, so the daggers soon cut the spear.
At the same time, Theo already summoned his Magic Bullets again and combined them, shooting it to Giordo.
The Magic Bullet made a parabolic movement and almost landed on Giordo's body. Luckily, he managed to react at the very last second and jumped backward while covering his front with another barrier.
Boom.