The Ancient Genes

'What? You can't do it?' The old man's voice once again rang in Max's head. He sure was fully aware of Max's situation. And, he even knew that what he was asking for was almost unreal. He sure was not showing any mercy.

"You want his head, right?" Max asked with a frown.

"Yes, and don't try to play games with me. You will won't be taking any help from the people I send and the forces here to help you. So when the time comes, you will not just slice his head from the dead body.." The old man seemed to have seen through Max's thought process.

Max clenched his fist as the frown on his face deepened.

Let's be honest. He could be barely considered at the mid grade of Master Tier. There was a late stage, peak stage and then the huge barrier of the Grandmaster.

There were two small stages and one large stage of difference between them only if Max put himself in the category of mid grade Master Tier and this was also while assuming that the opponent was at early grade of Grandmaster Tier.

This was a recipe for death.

It was almost impossible to fight above levels when one reached Master Tier and now he was being asked to fight at such a huge difference. He could barely stand in the fight between Grandmaster Tier mages. Hell, some at that level could kill him while taking his last breath if they really wanted to.

"You know it's impossible…" Max muttered in a grave tone.

"Then I will make it easy for you. You can select anyone from the younger group of people to tag along with you," The old man said with a laugh.

Max understood that the old man wasn't going to cut corners here.

If he took anyone around his age with him, that would be equivalent to taking them to their graves.

"Good luck kid.." That was the last thing that Max heard from the old man.

'What to do now?' Max stood there with a frown on his face.

"Sir, we have spotted enemy movement. It seemed that they are trying to regroup their forces." The old man who had been assisting Max all along, spoke as the information came up.

"Ask Ragnar, Bell and Synthia to begin pushing in from the three sides. Let Rihanna be on stand by and Argus be the one to manage the situation if I am out of contact."

"Out of contact?" The old man asked in confusion. The Commander of the operations usually stayed behind so how the hell would he be out of contact?

"I will take part in the battle…" Max said with a calm look as he walked ahead, and disappeared before the old man could stop him.

…

'What are you planning to do?' Andriel's voice rang in Max's head as he travelled through the district heading towards the place where he had felt that surge earlier.

"I am think-"

"Boom!"

An explosion rang out at the east side of the district. It seemed that the battle had begun.

Max suddenly felt several presences around as he walked into one of the main streets of the district. The roads and shops had all been deserted, but he could feel people hiding around.

"Whoosh!"

Shadows suddenly shot toward him, and Max could see the sharp shine of blades coming right at his neck.

But before they could reach him, the air suddenly began to twirl around him like a tornado. In a moment, the people found themselves in trouble to even maintain their footing.

The tornado began to twist and the wind around became extremely chaotic. It was just bizarre. No one could tell which way it was flowing.

"Roar!!!"

Suddenly, a roar resounded as the tornado behind Max began to change shape, and it slowly gained more details beginning to resemble that of a tiger.

The beast opened its mouth and sucked in all chaotic winds leaving only the littles one around it's own body.

But, before people could take a calm breath, it's eyes shone with a white light and it opened its mouth.

"Whoosh!"

What came next was disaster.

"Bang!"

The compressed jet stream of air blasted it's way right across the district destroying almost everything in its path.

"Send people behind me…take care of anyone who gets in my way.." Max opened the transmitter and passed the instructions. He didn't have time or energy to waste here.

If the leader made a move, Max wouldn't be able to order people to not kill him. Or ask them to wait until he came up with a plan to do the job himself.

...

On the other side, the old man who was observing the scene from high in the sky couldn't help but be impressed by the might of that move.

And, he wasn't alone here. There was another old lady by his side. She was Progenitor of the Leviathan family.

"You really are planning to force that absurd condition on him?" She asked, looking at the old man. "You know how important he is?"

"I never forced anything on him. It was him who had accepted it." The old man just shrugged. "Besides, don't you think it will be interesting to watch what he does next?"

"Well, as long as he knows his place." She shook her head and sighed. She just hope that Max would realize his limits within the time and use the people at his disposal to sort everything out. If not, only death would await him.

….

Trinity Academy..

"This will never cease to amaze me.." Terry looked around in surprise. They were once again transported to some different kind of place.

The theme for their battle was a forest.

"Drip!"

Axel looked above. It had already started to rain. They sure weren't even allowing them to catch their breath.

"Let's go.." Axel led the team to the base which by the competition's rule were allotted to both parties. Unlike the previous event, they had a lot of freedom here. They had maps and even communication devices.

"Crackle!"

Lightning flashed and in a second, it began to pour heavily.

"Luckily, we made it here soon." Eren muttered looking outside from the balcony of the base. The base was nothing but a three floor building under construction.

"What should we do now, wait?" Terry asked, looking at Axel. It was raining heavily, not a good environment for long rangers like them.

"Let's wait for a while.." Axel nodded. "But be on the lookout, snip them if they dare to come out."

"Ok!" Terry gave him a thumbs up, and moved to get a good place before putting up his gear.

Axel went up on the third floor and set up his sniper rifle as well before putting his eye near the scope to look around.

"The visibility really is low.." He muttered with a frown before a formation circle appeared on the lens and activated. The next instant, the surroundings immediately changed colors and most of the things began to appear in blue.

There were exceptions though, he could see three dots in the far distance appearing in the combination of red and yellow.

This was Axel's improved version of thermal scope. More like he had taken inspiration from it.

After all, all one needed was a mana barrier to escape from a thermal scope. But, this thing here instead was a Mana Scope. It could literally detect mana.

"Too far…I can't guarantee a hit.." Axel knew that the chances of hitting was less than 1 percent at that range.

"Should I give it a try?" He frowned. If he shot now, he might miss and even make the enemy aware that he had the ability to find their location. Not to mention, he would be giving his position away as well.

'Well, if they really dare to come here in this downpour, I guess it won't be a problem.' Axel suddenly made his mind up, and after aiming properly. He pulled the trigger and a back colored formation appeared around the barrel of the rifle. It was the first short of the event so he decided that he might as well start it with one of his precious bullets.

"Bang!"

As soon as he fired it, the people watching the competition in the Arena and around the world, all went silent. Even Axel's eyes widened.

Bullseye!

The shot sent everyone into a frenzy.

That was definitely some god level skills. It hadn't even been ten minutes, and an impossible shot was made at more than 25000 meters.

"That certainly went better than expected.." Axel smiled as he saw the guy fall to the ground through the scope. "I wonder whose face I saw in the morning to have such good luck."

He instantly regretted saying that when he remembered that it was Erina.

The two of them were on the adjacent beds in the hospital after all.

'Damn! That guy couldn't even arrange a separate room for both of us!' Axel cursed Max for ruining his mood before once again leaning into the scope to see what the two guys were doing.

"Hmmn?" A frown immediately appeared on Axel's face, "Just what is West Gale trying to achieve?"