On the sixth day of the Titus tournament.
The hunting area. High noon.
A man and a young woman were seen waiting outside a large mountain cave that was releasing mixed mana signatures in the surroundings. It was apparent that a large fight had taken place inside. Or it was still ongoing.
"Everything is set?"
Tuan asked Lily. She was serving as his raid partner for the raid arranged by him for today. This was the second last day of the tournament.
The original 32 participants had been reduced in number by the third day of the competition. Now only 13 competitors remained.
The ranking updates for the tournament had also been changed since the fifth day. Now, everybody could see the real-time ranking positions themselves as well as other competitors. Basically, the game was pushing the competitors to fight among themselves instead of just focusing on farming the Titus points by targeting the monster nests and mana beasts.
"Affirmative. Wilder is kiting the Adept ranked Goblin Lord right now. Katalina is trying to distract him with her best efforts using her aerial maneuverability.
Ketsu is also playing his role in making the monster confused and angry by firing sonic bullets at him. All of them are keeping a safe distance away from him. Plus, all that disturbance generated by us is preventing the monster from casting his spells."
Tuan nodded his head after hearing the report. She was being kept in the loop by Ketsu using his sound element spell. Like the Badlands, there were some monster caves in which the usual conversation tools wouldn't work.
But Ketsu's sound element spells were impervious to these effects. His spell output could be adjusted to take into account the fluctuations in mana in the monster nest surroundings. That's why he was able to keep his communication open with his partner during the raid.
Tuan scratched his beard that had been growing for six days and asked Lily while narrowing his eyes.
"I'm sensing a "but" in that report."
Lily smiled mirthlessly before replying.
"Yeah. All three of the rankers we have sent in are at their limits. They won't be able to help us once they draw out the Goblin Lord outside the cave."
Tuan wasn't surprised by her report. Although he had told the rankers with him that they would target the Adept rank monster, he knew their capabilities in executing certain tasks beforehand. He was hoping Kat, Ketsu, and Wilder would be able to help him and Lily in their task after clearing the monster nest by themselves. But he was okay with them drawing away from the battle as well.
That's because he had already taken precautions.
'Should be right about now.'
Alephee said after scanning the monster nest with her soul sense. Hearing this, the butcher screamed out loud.
"Retreat!"
Lily watched as Tuan disappeared from his position. She too faded into existence after hearing his warning.
"Screeeeeee!"
In the next moment, a goblin cry was heard by Tuan and Lily. The first to come out of the cave was Wilder. He was covered in his blood as well as monster blood. The expressions on his face and the way he executed his movement spell told Tuan that he was already using rage mode.
Among the first to come out of the cave were Kat and Ketsu. She was holding him by his hands as she used her flying artifact to keep both of them airborne. Ketsu looked exhausted after keeping the monster busy for so long. He was running on fumes now. Without Kat's support, he wouldn't have made it to the outside of the cave.
What followed them was a Goblin Lord wearing tribal armor. Unlike the regular goblins, he had black hair on his scalp tied into a ponytail. He was wearing gaudy earrings that made his earlobes stretch downwards.
The Goblin Lord was also wearing what looked like to be pants made of thick beastly skin. The front of his chest that wasn't covered by his armor featured runic tattoos. He was a 9-foot-tall monstrosity that was clutching his head as he chased the three intruders that had come to bug him.
'Disperse. And maintain vigilance. You don't have to fight anymore. But keep an eye out for other contestants targeting us or our kills.'
Tuan spoke into the group voice channel. Since everyone was out of the monster cave, ID communication could be used to communicate with each other.
Wilder, who had just come out of his rage state, looked exhausted. He wanted to crash at a nearby place. But he knew the fight with the Goblin Lord would get violent. He didn't want to become a nuisance to the guy who he feared more than the Goblin Lord at the time.
So Ketsu, Kat, and Wilder retreated into the distance following Tuan's orders. He had become the de facto leader of every raid they had made so far. And they were working non-stop to clear the most lucrative monster nests. So sticking to his orders came naturally to all of them by this point.
Plus, they had also targeted other contestants under Tuan's orders. There was no such thing as a rankers code in a competition this fierce. Tuan would target a couple of rankers with his whole group of five rankers including him. And overwhelm them with numbers.
If Layla was here, she would have objected to the butcher's way of dealing with these things. Because these acts were usually performed by antagonists in the stories she had read so far. The thing she hated the most was the fact that Eren had proved her books wrong many times. As opposed to the righteous side winning through sheer breakthroughs, the villainous side that the butcher was usually a part of almost always managed to win. This went opposite to her fairy tale logic.
It was no exception this time either.
"Screee!"
The monster screamed as he felt something had cut the tendons of the backs of his knees all of a sudden. He shouldn't have been hurt by the cut from the Ace Rank artifact. But since his natural defense was compromised due to his mental state as well as the fact that he was caught unaware, it made it easy for the hidden assassin to do the job she was assigned to do.
The monster was brought to his knees. He shook his head and slapped himself to bring his senses back to normal. Then he sensed an odd mana-pulse setting off around him.
'Now.'
Tuan thought to himself as he activated the array trap in which the monster was currently trapped.
