As soon as they sensed those presences approaching, Enrico was the first to advance, beginning to fight all four opponents at the same time. His opponents were surprised by his audacity in facing so many enemies alone.
Enrico noticed, while dodging their first attacks, that they were possibly all at the Second Circle.
"What is this? Didn't they bring one of the only two Third Circle users from their continent here?"
Two boys advanced, evident irritation on their faces.
"You shouldn't underestimate us!"
"That's right! The two of us are a team capable of facing someone at the Second Circle level!"
Enrico couldn't help but become interested in the words of the two twins standing before him. On their continent, there were only two Third Circle users, both considered prodigies. In the original story, there had only been one, so the broadcast of the battle between classes months earlier seemed to have contributed to the emergence of at least one more.
"Really? Then, while those two keep themselves busy, let me fight you."
"Busy?"
Caelan and Elian advanced against the other two opponents, dragging them away, while Enrico watched the situation with some excitement.
"I hope you aren't lying."
The two boys began sweating nervously when they saw Enrico approaching with a smile that frightened them.
"Brother, I think we picked a lunatic."
"You think so, brother? I'm sure we did."
Meanwhile, Elian was trying to keep his opponent occupied, but he was having difficulty keeping up with his movements. On the other side, Caelan defended himself against a counterattack while the blade hidden beneath his opponent's sleeve searched for an opening.
"Tsk, I missed."
Caelan jumped backward, dodging another attack.
"Of course you were going to miss! I've trained hard so that no one could hit me. For you to manage that, you'd need to have a speed..."
"You talk too much."
His opponent's blades turned dark as his speed increased. He began moving around Caelan, leaving afterimages in his wake. In his homeland, he was known as one of the fastest Second Circle users in the first year. Ranked seventh, Tariq Mahzen belonged to Zandorah's best academy, Dawn Academy.
Watching those movements, Caelan remembered Enrico, especially when he noticed that Tariq had created three afterimages of himself.
"Even so..."
With a whisper, Caelan turned around and slapped Tariq in the stomach, sending him flying backward with great force. In his palm, a whirlpool of water spun continuously.
"Enrico is much faster."
Tariq didn't seem to be as strong as the opponent fighting Elian. Caelan could face him confidently because he had dealt with Enrico's abnormal body and speed countless times, even when he wasn't using Fire Steps. The difference between the two was enormous.
"Wind Slash!"
Launching a wind slash with his dagger, Elian tried to hit his opponent, who protected himself by raising an earthen wall. His name was Khalid Ben Oro, the fourth-ranked student at Dawn Academy. He carried a spear made of obsidian that seemed to possess a life of its own.
Swinging his spear, Khalid delivered a strike that split the pillar behind Elian. After crouching to dodge, Elian concentrated his mana into his dagger, strengthening it and creating a green blade made of wind.
"Wind Slash!"
This time, the slash left his blade with much greater speed. However, to Elian's despair, it only managed to leave a superficial scratch on his opponent's earthen protection.
After advancing with a sudden burst of speed, Khalid delivered a slash to Elian's stomach. Then, he kicked him in the chest, making him spit blood.
'Damn it! I can't deal any damage to him because of that protection!'
He was at a complete disadvantage in that fight. Khalid possessed abilities that neutralized practically all his advantages, making it extremely difficult to find a way to counterattack.
'No... I still have the advantage in speed!'
However, when he tried to move, he felt his feet becoming heavy. Looking down, he noticed that earth was covering his ankles and increasing his weight. His body seemed to be at least thirty kilograms heavier.
"Aaaahhh!"
Several cuts appeared across his body. When he tried to defend himself against the next strike, he raised his hand, only to feel the thumb on his right hand being cut off. The following attack came straight toward his face, with Khalid aiming at his head to finish the fight.
"Hold on. Make sure you don't eliminate my companion."
Enrico grabbed Khalid's spear with one hand. Upon realizing that his companion was about to be defeated, he decided to quickly defeat his two opponents.
Elian, realizing that he had been saved once again, bit his lips. He felt that he was getting stronger, but a sense of uselessness had begun to emerge within him ever since his fight against that Minotaur.
'He seems disappointed...'
Indeed, Enrico had a disappointed expression, but it wasn't because of Elian. The two brothers had lied about being capable of facing someone at the Third Circle level, so he wasn't in a very good mood.
Elian looked in the direction where the twin brothers had been and realized that they were disappearing. Possibly because of an extremely powerful attack from Enrico.
'It seems I'm useless and only good for being made fun of... But even so, I wanted to win...'
Enrico released Khalid's spear, and he retreated several meters, with a drop of sweat running down his face. Enrico's eyes turned toward Elian, who was clenching his fists tightly.
"What are you doing, Elian? Don't you want to continue the fight?"
"What? I..."
Enrico tilted his head toward Khalid, inclining it slightly to the side. His expression seemed confused, which ended up leaving Elian himself bewildered. He looked down and clenched his fists even tighter.
"Aren't you here to take over the fight as usual?"
Enrico raised an eyebrow.
"I only stepped in because you were about to be eliminated. If you want to keep fighting until the end, I won't interfere again. After all, you need to win."
When he raised his head, Elian was surprised to realize that Enrico was quite calm, even as he watched Khalid prepare another spell to attack him.
"Why do you trust me so much?"
"Because you're about to reach the Third Circle."
Elian's eyes widened slightly.
'How...? No, I shouldn't be surprised by this.'
Letting out a smile, Elian stood up with determined eyes and took a few steps forward, passing Enrico. Apparently, his leader's right-hand man had absolute confidence in him.
"Be careful not to hurt yourself too badly. Losing your beautiful fingers would already be bad enough for me. At least they'll recover afterward."
"Stop doing that, idiot."
Even as he said that, Elian was smiling while staring at Khalid.
Khalid watched the two with suspicion. Upon realizing that Enrico didn't seem to intend to interfere again, he began regaining his confidence.
'It seems I might even lose this fight, but at least I'll eliminate one of them.'
His team's mission was to eliminate the weaker members of their opponents and, if possible, defeat at least one of the stronger ones, while their leader put the plan to eliminate the other two into action. However, everything seemed to have gone wrong. Even so, at least one part of that plan would be accomplished.