"Listen here…"
'Don't be like this muscle-brain Wilder, Lily. Put the weapons down. Otherwise, you'd be disqualified."
Lily was about to walk toward a weaponless Tuan with weapons drawn in her hands. But she heard a distressed voice just as she was a few steps away from the guy.
She looked behind to see Ketsu standing behind her with Wilder standing behind his back. The ranger's medium stature and frail-looking physique created a contrast against the muscular-built Wilder serving as the background.
Lily was confused for a bit before realizing her mistake. She looked at Tuan to see that he was weaponless.
"The safe area… I…"
Lily had drawn her weapons instinctively when she saw Eren attacking her in her invisible form with his weapons. And she got too preoccupied with her range of thoughts afterwards to recognize the clever trap Eren had set for her.
"Forget about Lily getting disqualified. Why hasn't that guy been disqualified yet for drawing his weapons?"
Wilder asked while flaring his nose and looking at Eren with the intention of battle. Ketsu sighed and explained.
"That's because the guy drawing his weapons could be seen as defending the artefact their team just found. Lily drawing her weapons in response at that time would be considered part of self-defence.
But any more aggression from either side would become the reason for either of them, both of them, or all of us getting disqualified."
Ketsu completed his sentence and looked at Tuan with the same curiosity. He had studied every competitor of the finale by watching the recorded copies of their battles with other rankers. He hadn't thought of Tuan as someone this crafty at that time.
Lily quickly stowed her weapons in her storage. She then retreated to where her raid partners were.
Eren clicked his tongue after seeing that his trap was not sprung. He then reappeared from his place and reappeared in front of the safe drop reward. The levitation magic wore off as soon as he grabbed hold of the pair of shoes with both hands.
"Here. Bind them and wear them from this moment on."
Tuan commented after appearing beside still-shocked Katalina. He then gave her the artefacts while still looking ahead– his gaze fixed on the trio that had just crashed the party.
Katalina had too many questions to ask. She also wanted to convey her apology for doubting him. But Tuan's commanding tone made her prioritize what he had asked from her.
She recovered from her stupor and wore the shoes quickly before readjusting her grip on the rapier. Then she remembered that this was a safe area and nobody had drawn
'Haah! Tool late.'
Lily sighed internally as she saw Katalina wearing the shoes she had wanted. She had been attracted to them as soon as she saw them for the first time. As a result, she immediately thought of bending the rules instead of breaking them.
After all, conflict with other rankers was not allowed in the safe area. But there were no specific instructions about what to do.
Too bad, Tuan saw through her plans and prevented her from getting her hands on the artefacts she had wanted. She cursed the guy in her head before speaking up.
"Tuan, Katalina, although we're competitors in the tournament, we shouldn't have to be enemies. I propose that we cooperate in a raid in exchange for…"
Lily was trying to pitch a deal with the duo. The exchange of artefacts for co-op in a raid. But Tuan started laughing like he had heard the biggest joke before coming up with his verbal response.
"Miss Lily, you think too highly of yourself and your two goons. I suggest you get your heads out of your asses and read the situation. We are not interested in any kind of deal from thieves like you. Now do us a favour and kindly fuck off."
A gentle smile radiated from Tuan's face as he spoke. His words, on the other hand, painted a different picture.
Lily narrowed her eyes on Tuan when she heard the vicious words coming from him. But she also couldn't come up with a better reply because she knew she was at fault. So she spoke the only thing she could speak.
"Watch your back in the hunting area in the coming days, Miss Katalina, Ace Tuan. There would be predators roaming to hunt for their prey."
Lily said and responded to Tuan's gentle smile with a gracious grin of her own. She then gestured for Ketsu and Wilder to walk in the same direction they had come from. The trio disappeared from the scene soon after.
Katalina breathed a sigh of relief when Lily and her raid partners left. She knew that no competitor would try to attack another in the safe area only to get eliminated. Still, subconsciously she felt stressed because of the assassin's weird spells.
Out of all the competitors, Kat found Lily to be difficult to deal with because of the assassin's way of doing things. If the involved rankers' ranks were the same, two vs three was never a positive sign for the two.
***************
"Tuan, these shoes are just awesome."
Katalina spoke after the duo returned to the ruined infirmary. She spoke while using her new artefacts. She now understood why Lily was so desperate to obtain them at the cost of being called out as a thief by Tuan.
Katalina was fascinated by the shoes' capabilities. She named them Zephyrus.
This pair of artefacts allowed its wearer to experience a brief flight. Additionally, it enhanced the wearer's wind elemental movement spell. Plus, the pair of artefacts had an inscribed spell.
Untamed Winds!
Swoosh.
Katalina disappeared and appeared some meters away from her previous position in a blink. Even with the casual execution of the artefact's spell, she was a bit faster than Tuan. Or to be precise, Tuan was using the combination of his fire-element movement spell along with his time-element spells while keeping his lightning element movement spell out of the picture.
As a wind-element user, Katalina's speed was already better than normal rankers. But with the shoes on, she broke all her previous records easily.
AN: Little under the weather. Will try to stick to the regular release but there's a possibility it might get delayed.
