On the third day of the tournament. Hunting area. Right in the middle of the seemingly vast wilderness.
"Are you sure they'd come today? And how would they know that we are here anyway?"
Katalina asked as she waited for her raid partner to finish setting up something on the ground. The latter stood up from the ground and shook his hands before disappearing from his position. He appeared right next to Katalina and replied.
"I'm sure. We should never underestimate our opponents, Kat. I'm sure they might have a thing or two that can enable them to spy on our location. Especially that ranger fellow who was with Lily.
Hehe! I have prepared a special treat for them. It'll be sad if those guests don't show up for my party."
Tuan commented as he looked into the distance. These three days were very lucrative for him. He had hunted a lot of monsters and mana beasts with Katalina supporting him. They had divided the Titus points as per their contribution in the battles, courtesy of the manual sharing of Titus points offered by the wristband's spectral menu.
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Tuan had also battled solo in a bunch of his battles against the beasts and monsters. He tested his Total Control spell effectively and learned how to use it within a few days.
He also took control of his new set of weapons, Anduril. He would often use the spells engraved on the blades to give himself a breather from his constant close combat engagements.
Unbeknownst to most rankers, Tuan had successfully targeted three contestants and taken them down. The battles were brief and one-sided. They all took place in areas with poor live-feed compatibility. It meant that Tuan's battles were prone to glitches when the organizers tried to broadcast them to the outside world.
The organizers considered it odd that Tuan would find such places with ease. They started looking for the cause and found out that Tuan would also use fire-element arrays before commencing his battles with the monsters and mana beasts. They were part of his trap mechanisms.
The array experts commented that Tuan's use of arrays might be the reason behind him creating a disturbance in the live feed. Upon hearing this, the organizers decided not to prevent Tuan from using the arrays. Because that was not against the rules they had already stated.
As a result of Tuan's battles with other contestants happening in the glitch prone recording ground, most of his battles remained a mystery to the viewers and the organizers alike.
And since the upper management had isolated the eliminated contestants until the end of the competition, there was no way to know what took place in the battle.
Despite Tuan's wins, his battle points didn't increase by a large margin. That's because he had battled with top 15 opponents in the Titus list.
The majority of run-of-the-mill and official battle experts concluded that Tuan's opponents had quit on him by opting for the emergency protocol. They must have destroyed the wristbands themselves before the protocol summoned them back from the isolated subspace.
Some battle experts called Tuan unlucky because all his efforts to take down the opponents had gone down the drain. Even if he had managed to stay within the top 15 himself, the gaps between the number 15, number 10, and number 3 segments were exponentially getting wider by the day. It won't be enough to finish in the top fifteen to stay in the tournament.
Still, the footage that the organizers could salvage from Tuan's battles made his fans cheer for him with newfound enthusiasm. That's because, in that footage, he looked nothing but even more dominant than before.
All his fire-element attacks had taken a new leap in terms of raw firepower. Tuan's attacks were more precise than before. His speed shocked most of those who had carefully observed him throughout the competition. They were the ones who linked his overall progress with his higher attainment in the fire element.
Katalina didn't slack around either. She completed cleaning out various pockets of areas in the hunting area. She also sparred with other contenders. She managed to eliminate contestants who placed 23rd and 26th in the Titu list and made their points hers.
She also ran her solo raids and gained a significant amount of Titus points. She and Tuan would form a raid team whenever one of them found a monster nest that was packed full of Novice ranked monsters.
Of course, the duo had their difficulties because of a lack of variation in their classes. Both preferred close-range combat. Plus, none was proficient in ranger spells, making it difficult for either of them to gauge their targets' strengths. The most they could do was identify if the horde of monsters had an Ace or Adet ranked entity in them or not.
Still, that was enough for the two rankers. They would only choose nests they were capable of clearing. Most of the planning was done by Tuan. But Katalina executed her part with just as much efficiency as Tuan had expected from her and then some more.
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"We gained a lot during these three days. That's because your decisions are always on point. But sometimes I wonder if you assume too many things will turn out as you expect.
You predict things as per your logic, Tuan. But not every ranker thinks with that much profundity when they make a move."
Katalina commented while resting her back against a giant rock wall that was part of the natural rocky protrusion in the area. This was the site they had used to slay a lot of monsters not too long ago. This was also the site where the glitch of video feedback was going to be present because of Tuan's recent work in the area.
It seemed random. But with Alephee's soul sense, Tuan controlled the timing when the video feed would stop working completely for the viewers and organizers. He just needed to cut the feedback at the very end when the battle was about to conclude.
Katalina had said that they should change the place. But Tuan stopped her and told her that they should be expecting company. But even after an hour had passed, there was nobody around. So Katalina started doubting the predictions made by Tuan.
Tuan didn't open his mouth to explain. In just a few days, Kat had come to recognise the grin he flashed in front of her as he followed his gaze in front of her. She understood that something was up and stretched her mana sense in front of her.
'I don't expect my opponents to move according to my assumptions. I expect them to move according to their schedule. In short, I like to bait my fish. Wouldn't you call me a skilled fisherman, Kat?'
Tuan told Katalina about The latter smiled mirthlessly and drew out her weapon. The battle between the duo of close combat experts and Lily's team was about to unfold.
