Zephyr kept his guard up at the sight of such a strong attack. “Hmph, that dumb*ss didn’t know a lifeline when he saw one!” a young man said, his hands still ablaze in reddish flame, he was the source of the great attack. He then picked up a scoreboard off the burnt ground. “Bunch of dimwits, didn’t know when to quit!” another spoke up. Behind the man with the flaming hands were seven others, the one who spoke up was dressed in fine, tiger-skin clothing.

“We must get more if we are to help our prince enter the Academy,” another continued.

“We must help him reach the top! He must become an initiate!” another chimed in.

The eight of them started to debate amongst themselves. ‘All eight of them are Strength of level nine, this is trouble!’ Zephyr thought. ‘They must be some of the strongest fighters in this Tournament, why are they bothering with helping the prince get points?’ he pondered further, troubled with their odd actions. “Wait!” Suddenly, Zephyr turned his gaze onto one man, the man who started it all, the one dressed in tiger-skin. Although he had not made any moves, Zephyr could feel the power that emanated off of him. ‘Sh*t, it’s an Agile of level one!’ Zephyr thought, extremely alarmed. The man had kept his true power under wraps, were it not for Zephyr’s Might, no one else could have guessed at his true power.

“We’ve killed all there is to kill here. Come, let us hunt down that three-tiered beast, the Garuda!”

“Unless we find its nest, there’s nothing we can do!”

“Once we kill the Garuda, our points will definitely skyrocket! It doesn’t matter how the prince is doing by then, as long as we get the points, he’ll definitely treat us right!” the tiger-dressed man said.

“Indeed, once the prince enters the Academy, our clans will definitely receive great boons! The Ahi Dynasty will treat us like kings!”

“Don’t forget, apart from us, there’s still eight other royal teams, each with an Agile with them!”

“I hear the Prince himself was with one of the teams. With so many helping hands, there’s no way the prince won’t be an initiate!”

‘Nine royal squads?’ Zephyr thought, he recalled how Bruce grimaced at the news knowing the royals were now involved. One of the Ahi Dynasty’s princes was here too.

Although the Tournament’s rules were different than before, emphasizing one’s performance over their background through scorekeeping, the Royals have found a loophole to circumvent this. No doubt they had made preparations beforehand. After all, as long as one had the most points, one would be enrolled regardless of how one earned them.

“Hmph, that Garuda is mine!” Zephyr huffed quietly, before he quietly and carefully tailed behind this group of people.