The Ancient Genes

The night passed and the next day arrived….

"Let's divide in teams of two...our objective is to search for missing teammates, searching for a base at a good altitude and to gain additional points by killing beasts while we are at it…" Axel listed out their goals for the day.

Even though this place was good and didn't have many Blood Eating Bats, Max and Axel still weren't sure about making a base here.

If Orca's plan to cause chaos on the last day succeeded, then it would be difficult to protect oneself in this area. So, they had decided to stick with the original plan to look for a base at high altitude...

Max looked at Axel who walked up to him and seemingly had another plan.

"You are not coming with me? What are you planning?" Max asked as he looked at Axel.

"I will go out and scout out the area for today's operation with Ocien..we must get all the benefits. I will make that witch pay the cost for looking down on us…"  Axel said with an evil grin.

Max shook his head.

Lear and Mark went off their way and Axel left as well.

Max was about to go on his way as well and Lisa's voice entered his ears.

"Wait!" 

Max turned around to see Lisa dragging Aria along with her.

Lisa was supposed to stay there with Twice and Juju to look after Venice who had yet to wake up.

As for Aria, Max didn't know what she had planned.

"Take her with you…" Lisa said as she looked at Aria.

"N-No..I will be fine on my own…'' Aria said as she avoided Max's eyes.

Max felt something was off but didn't pay much attention to it. He thought she was just being strong headed like always and didn't want to be a burden on them.

"You are going to find your teammates… why not tag along with him...it will be easier and much safe with him by your side…" Lisa said with a stern voice.

Max didn't mind it. He wouldn't be actively seeking her teammates. But if someone came into his sight, then he would just let her know.

After a bit of back and forth, Aria reluctantly tagged along with Max.

The duo went along the path, slaughtering a bunch of low level beasts with ease.

Max deliberately chose a difficult path and let Aria into fights to help her adjust to her newfound strength after breakthrough.

"Is something wrong?" 

Max asked as he looked at her. He clearly saw that she seemed a bit down and was sneaking glances at him.

"Uhmn..no…." Aria appeared flustered as if she had been caught doing something wrong.

She felt frustrated for some reason. 'I can't let this continue….I have to be decisive..'

Aria took in a deep breath and calmed down before resolutely facing Max.

Max was taken back by the look in her eyes and involuntarily took a step back having a bad feeling about it.

"Is there someone you like?'' Aria looked Max into his eyes.

Max was shocked at first and then sighed inwardly. 

'So, it finally came to this..' Max would have liked to say no. But, he lied and nodded his head.

"Yes, I have a girlfriend…" 

Well, he was partially correct. He had a girlfriend at least, love was another thing....

Max looked at Aria, the fact that she didn't directly confess was a sign that she might not be fully into him or that her love was just at the budding stage. If he stopped it now, it would be better for her…..

Those were Max's current thought...

Aria was a nice girl, but Max had his difficulties. If they had met in an ordinary world, things might have turned differently…but thinking about pointless things wasn't Max's way of doing things…..

"Oh…" Aria had a weird feeling welling up her chest which she was unable to describe. She had expected it. But hearing it directly from his mouth was indeed different.

"Who is it?" She knew but still asked.

"I can't tell you her name…" Max refused. He had never been willing to involve himself with Lisa or Elly in the public.

Even though things somehow ended up like that, he had asked people to keep quiet about it so it probably wouldn't spread, at least he didn't want them to...

"Then do I know her?" Aria further asked.

Max looked at her with a complicated face. He nodded for some reason unable to understand why he did so himself. But looking at her dejected face, he couldn't lie again.

Anyway, Aria was quite popular and had a huge circle of friends and was involved in various activities. If she wanted to deduce the girl among her acquaintances the she could try as much as she wished...

"I see...you have been hiding it well." Aria suddenly seemed to have cheered up and sprang back up to her feet with a smile.

"You better take care of her and be good to her. If you make her cry, then I will fight you to death for girl's right!!'' Aria turned around and started to walk, "Let's move, I hear something in the distance...''

Max looked at her. His ears were better than anyone else and he didn't hear a thing…

Max didn't think much about her words and to him it seemed that she was just mumbling random words to hide her feelings….

Well, he was partially right...

He slowly walked behind Aria and starting at her back. He didn't know what kind of face she had, but it was better to not see it...

'She will provably get over it soon...' Max once again sighed.

Love wasn't easy....

Well, with this the Aria's chapter was closed. At least, Max thought so…..

….

On the other side... 

The new morning brought new teams in the competition and a particular person could be seen to be very energetic….

"It's definitely him…" Lear said with a wry smile as he looked at the purple lightning flashing in the distance and smoke rising from several places around in the same direction.

Someone was definitely bringing on a trail of destruction along their every step.

"We should catch him before he thrashes another student and gets us a penalty…" Mark said as he looked at Lear. He had a proper grasp of his team situation after interacting with Axel and with his personality, he had already become familiar with them.

And after the competition, he would definitely be at the level where calling each other friends wouldn't be uncomfortable…

That was how Mark was...

…

In another place, Axel had bumped into another figure who was currently being besieged by a group of beasts.

The person wasn't easy to deal with. He spinned his axe around sending waves of water and pushing the beast away and breaking through the blockade.

It was Eren.

He looked exhausted. He had been desperately running around and had finally managed to find the way out of the place.

It seems he had appeared in the same area where they were about to conduct a raid today.

"Nice! It seems we already had a scout in there…" Axel laughed joyfully and loaded his rifle before shooting out to cover for Eren's escape route.