Novel Full Chapter 481: The Group of Five [1]
Chapter 481: The Group of Five [1]
The five looked up at him, standing atop their bodies.
Staring into his eyes, they realised that refusing would only make things worse, so the team chose to give up. They couldn’t even fight back, a single fireball each had seriously injured them all.
"Okay! Okay!" The leader stammered a little, raising his hands in complete surrender. "Just please, let us continue in the tournament! Don’t disqualify us! Our families are rooting for us, we beg!"
"Do as you please." Moon said calmly.
Their faces lit up hearing that, "Thank you! We will not show our faces to you again! We promise to not seek revenge for this!"
"You can try..." Moon said, his lips curving.
The team of five shuddered. The five hurriedly tapped their watches and transferred their points to him using his candidate number. Moon watched the transfers come through one after another.
While they worked, he scanned each of them with Eye of Truth.
Unfortunately, these were the weaklings of the tournament. The kind who wouldn’t make it past the first day. Their classes were average. Their skills were unremarkable. Common-rank abilities he already had stronger versions of. There was nothing worth copying.
The point transfers completed.
They provided him a total of sixty points.
Moon’s display updated.
Total: 570 Points.
He turned and walked away without another word. The five Evolvers watched him go, none of them moving until he was completely out of sight.
The five Evolvers lay scattered near each other, nursing their burns and bruises. None of them moved for a long time.
Healing potions weren’t available in the tournament. The rules forbade external consumables that could rapidly restore health.
The only way out for a competitor who was too injured to continue was to surrender and exit the tournament entirely or by finding a healer that would heal them in the tournament.
Which meant they could only rest. Let their natural regeneration do its work over the next hour or two. Hope that nothing else stumbled across them while they were vulnerable.
"We need a healer in our team." One of them muttered, grimacing as he shifted to a more comfortable position. "But solo healers don’t really join the tournament. They know they wouldn’t make it far on their own, unless they’re at the very top of their class and confident in their own combat ability. And those types don’t join groups like ours to begin with."
The others nodded in tired agreement. Healers were a rare breed in competitions like this. The good ones were already locked into established teams or had personal sponsors. The bad ones knew better than to expose themselves to the meat grinder.
"By the way." A second member spoke up, staring at the sky through the canopy above. "Who the hell was that monster? He was a wolf hiding behind a sheep’s clothing. His acting deserves a trophy. I genuinely thought he was exhausted and worried about whoever was following him."
A few of them laughed bitterly.
"Based on his strength, he has to be somebody at the top of the leaderboard." The leader said, his mind working through the problem despite the pain in his ribs. "His power level was leagues above ours. Someone fighting at that level has to be raking in points fast."
He paused, an idea forming.
"Maybe we can pinpoint which ranking he is. Does anyone remember the points of the top competitors before we got jumped? If we check for anyone whose total just jumped by sixty points, we can figure out his ranking. Even if the system hides his name, we’ll know his position."
They exchanged glances.
"I didn’t memorize the exact numbers." One admitted. "I figured the top spots were too far above us to bother tracking closely."
"Same." Another grunted.
"I have a general idea." The leader said. "Let me check."
He pulled up the leaderboard on his watch and compared what he could remember to the current standings. The five of them gathered around, ignoring the pain to focus on the numbers.
After a few minutes of analysis, they arrived at a conclusion.
"Based on my observation and memory, I believe that there is five possible candidates. First place, third, fourth, ninth, and tenth all gained roughly the right amount. He’s one of those five." The leader said, his frown deepening. "But that doesn’t narrow it down enough to be useful."
"Forget it." The second member sighed, leaning back against a tree. "We’ll find out eventually. For now, let’s just rest. We’re not winning anything else for the next few hours."
The others agreed without a word.
Five battered competitors, sprawled across the forest floor, waiting for their bodies to heal enough to fight again.
"Oh? What do we have here?"
A young male’s voice interrupted the resting period of the five evolvers. They turned sharply, their hands reaching for weapons they had set aside moments ago.
Standing just a few meters away from them was a young man with a sword in his right hand, accompanied by a woman whose expression was as calm and unreadable as still water.
The five struggled to their feet, dropping into defensive stances. Their faces twisted in pain as their injuries protested the sudden movement. Burns from Moon’s fireballs still ached across their bodies, and their reflexes were sluggish, dulled by the lingering damage.
Marcus took one look at them and smirked. "They’re injured. We can take them easily." He glanced at Sarah for confirmation.
"Yeah."
The fight that followed wasn’t really a fight.
Marcus moved in with quick and efficient sword work, his strikes precise enough to increase injury without killing. Sarah supported from range with her own barrage of spells she had recently gained from her evolved class. The five surrendered within a minute, dropping their weapons and raising their hands.
"We yield! We yield!"
Marcus stopped his blade an inch from the leader’s throat. "Hand over your points."
The leader grimaced. "We don’t have any. Someone took them ten minutes ago."