"Wake up." Marcus heard Xavier's voice in his head and opened his eyes.
"We are waiting for Ashtarh's team, but they must have sustained injures in the beast tide. So no point waiting." Xavier said, and his voice turned solemn.
"Charles Xander is inside. If no one comes, we have to do it ourselves."
Rodey Nial nodded and led the way into the core area.
The Vine Forest was somewhat similar to Aether Garden.
Both plants and animals attacked you and you had to look out for everything.
"Roar!" A two-headed lion appeared in front of the team and a blue light flashed from its body.
It grew in size and turned into a monster with a lion's head, a goat's body, and a dragon's tail.
Chimera.
"Roar!"
The lion's head opened its mouth and was about to breathe out fire.
Xavier locked his mental power onto the creature and snorted.
"Gruuugh" The Chimera collapsed instantly onto the ground as it struggled to control its own body.
Rodey seized the opportunity and smashed its head open, killing the creature.
"A peak level 6, huh." Xavier wiped away the sweat on his forehead and muttered.
Even though the fight looked easy, it wasn't.
He consumed significant amount of mental power to stop the creature's attack and it from moving.
Then, Rodey also had only a small window of opportunity before the creature eventually fought back.
But thanks to the experience of working together, even if slightly, in the Aether garden, they were able to accomplish this feat.
"Tsk." Marcus snickered and walked forward.
They were met with quite a few peak level 6 creatures, plants and beasts.
Xavier would use his mental powers and stop them while either Marcus or Rodey finished off the creature.
Of course, that didn't mean Xavier himself couldn't kill off a peak level 6.
He certainly could. It just cost him more mental power.
He preferred to save it as much as he could.
After some time, they found a trail.
"This…"
The ground was filled with potholes. The trees, even the level 6 ones were blown into pieces and the corpse of a colossal bear laid on the ground, spilling its yellow blood.
"Charles." Rodey said with sharp eyes.
Xavier expanded his mental sense and found a trail of red blood.
They followed the trail and found more and more corpses along the way.
And along with their corpses was Charles' blood.
It was more and more fresh with each new corpse.
Finally, they stopped in front of a huge dome.
It was made of sturdy brown branches and looked like a flipped bird nest.
There was only one entrance to the dome in the shape of a door and it was pitch black, preventing them from seeing the inside.
"This is it." Marcus said.
"Hm." Rodey stepped forward and led the way.
The trio were nervous.
Charles…he's likely in that dome.
Maybe he fought the monster and won the flag already.
But what's scary was that he was so badly injured, yet he managed to make it so far.
Of course, they all held back their strength but still…they had to acknowledge that Charles was on a different league.
As the trio passed through the huge black entrance, they found themselves facing a giant corpse.
The corpse of a half-dragon.
Its wings were torn apart. Its neck was broken and its eyes showed its shock.
A heavy silence filled the room as the trio upped their guards and waited for the inevitable.
Charles Xander.
"Don't worry too much. He came this far, he must be pretty injured." Even though he said it, Xavier found his confidence to be lacking.
Rodey and Marcus also waited in absolute silence for the number one genius of the Federation.
It was an oppressive silence.
But they didn't waver.
Their senses scanned the room over and over, but they didn't find his traces. They did find pools of his red blood and even pieces of his torn clothes.
Yet, the man himself was missing.
Finally, Marcus growled and stepped towards the corpse. "Fuck it! Charles, I'm here. If you have balls, come out!"
"…."
There was no response.
Marcus called out again. "Charles!"
"…."
Silence.
"Are you a pussy? Come out!" With a growl, Marcus's body burst into flames and he kicked the half-dragon's corpse.
The ten meter long creature was heavy, but dead. Its body flew into the air, and crashed into the ground.
"Charles, com—" Marcus suddenly paused startling both Xavier and Rodey.
They both stiffened and were ready to attack.
However, Marcus only bent down and picked up something from the ground.
No. It was two things.
A flag.
The fifth flag.
And…a comm attached to a hand.
"���."
Rodey and Xavier rubbed their eyes to confirm they weren't seeing things.
"Charles' hand."
They recognized and tapped his comm.
It displayed the last message to his messengers. "Move out of the regions with flag."
Once they did that, they'd no longer be able to enter the regions before the competition ended.
Why would Charles say that?
…if only he had no use for them.
Or if he couldn't use them anymore.
"He is eliminated." Xavier muttered slowly. His calm and collected voice was shaken, overcome by a mix of emotions.
Was it jealousy? Helplessness?
Or….Relief?
"Yeah." Marcus nodded and put down the hand with a complicated expression.
Charles' traces ended here. And there was no way out. He was gone.
"…We got the flag. We'll be facing off the others in the laden burrows. Let's go." Rodey sighed.
"Yep!" Marcus clenched his fists and said. "One final bout."
Soon, the trio left the Vine Forest and entered the laden burrows.
And the messengers quickly informed Ashtarh and Sarah teams.
Their reaction was similar.
First, they were bewildered and almost thought it was false. But then after hearing that the Xavier team just left the Vine Forest, they sighed and accepted reality.
All teams would collide in the laden burrows!
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