The team quickly fell apart under the attack of the trees, their strength was weaker than the Mages, but quite a few more trees were fighting. The tier 4 also put himself in a place of weakness, the gas quickly filling the space leftover in his mana core.

It would just be a race to the bottom now. How fast would the tier 4 lose all abilities to fight? The trees were overwhelming in their numbers. They slowly decimated Ben's team. There trunks and branches were ripping through their weak flesh.

Only stopping when the tier 4 finally collapsed from mana purification. They had emerged victorious, but almost none of Ben's squad had emerged unscathed. They had managed to take out the strongest team in the competition but crippled themselves in the process.

They were left in an open position far from any flag or defensive location. The only benefit from that was that they were also quite a distance from any other squad that might have decided to lurk behind and strike when both teams were weak. They had managed to avoid such a fate.

The arena was silent. The result from that match was genuinely unexpected. When it was revealed, there was a tier 4 participating in the game. There was consensus that they would be coming out on top. I was sure lots of gamblers in the arena would be holding their head for the next few hours—Ready for the night of drinking to forget about all their losses.

Now his squad just had to get lucky in the next few hours while they were recuperating. They had a healer who was quite potent. So they managed to get back on their feet and get moving within a few minutes even though the majority of them were in no state to fight anything.

Ben was the only one in the peak of health, so it forced him to perform all the scouting jobs. They had turned to a more fruitful direction luckily. A few weak teams were in the process of fighting over a flag.

All mixed squads without any proper leadership. Both the natives and the outsiders fighting were far from the cream of the crop.

Their movements slowly began to speed up as they began to recover. They were rebuilding their team back to their full form. They had gained a lot of confidence from that battle. Their team felt solidified in a way they weren't before.

I focused on the other matches during that time. I was scouting out the other competition, making notes at the standout mages and teams. I was trying to pay as much attention as I could as the punishment for bad tactics was getting strict. It had moved from a simple bout of extra training. Straight to sparring with the real army warriors who were told implicitly not to hold back.

"What are you up to?"

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The silky voice approaching me just filled me with annoyance, so focused as I was. Couldn't they see I was busy? I looked up to complain, but any words were soon caught in the back of my throat.

She sat down beside me before I responded. Her long purple hair hitting against me with surprising force as she sat down.

"Oh, great hells, I am sorry. I didn't mean for that to happen."

Her touch nearly electrified me as she leaned in to check my face. Her gentle green eyes came closer than I could have hoped. My heart almost leaped out of my chest and into her arms. Her arms were laced with sinewy muscle but also seemed so beautiful. Her perfect face filled with concern suffocated me. I immediately called for one of my summons to check on my condition. I couldn't speak. Years seemed to pass as I stared into the angel's eyes. I could feel my summon come close and tell me an impossibility.

There was no magic of any kind affecting me.

"Hello, Is anyone in there?"

Her joking tone failed to rouse me from my stupor. How could there be someone this beautiful existing in this world naturally?

"Nice to meet you."

My mind finally seemed to catch up and give an opening that indeed would have made any great casanova proud.

"Same to you, so what are you up to."

Was the beauty interested in me? That took me a second to get my head around. Before I could even fathom an answer, she turned to face the center of the arena, her eyes flitting from broadcast to broadcast.

Her cute nose was scrunching up at the results from the group stages so far.

"I can't believe Team 67 managed to fuck up that badly, the Heri training has truly gone downhill."

She said. Finally, I could see my opening. All the tactical knowledge I had crammed into my head would finally pay off. That was the team that had fought Ben and his team!

"He couldn't have known he was facing off Ben..."

My reply was stopped by the graceful goddess halting me with a stare. I was arrested by it all. Her focus on me had taken any wind I had out of my sails.

"Who's Ben?"

My breathing seemed to halt. I had to remind myself to breathe. All my nose was good for at the moment was taking in the sweetness of her scent. My mouth was too busy dreaming of how her sweet lips would taste.

"The gas mage."

My reply seemed to satisfy her. It had been what felt like the hardest thing I had ever done in my life. Rushing through the golden dome to try to save my town was like casting a tier 1 spell in comparison.

"Oh, that little ratbag, yea, his magic is a tricky one. Luckily Daner has assistance from the Grand shaman to help get his mana back in order. Would be nasty for his future otherwise."

I had no idea what she was saying. The tier 4 was named Daner, that much I could figure out. The grand shaman, however, was a figure on par with the warlords in the hordes. The fact that he could get one to heal him spoke to his influence.

I had to worry now how this beauty had any idea about all that.

"Who are you."

It was out of my mouth before I realized anything had happened.

"Oh, I forgot to introduce myself. My name is Eloise, daughter of Warlord Briru."