Conquering The Novel

[Your teammate Livia had eliminated a member of Team Blitzeirg Academy!]

[Your teammate Livia had eliminated a member of Team Blitzeirg Academy!]

[Your teammate Livia had eliminated a member of Team Blitzeirg Academy!]

The notifications kept coming, indicating Livia's continuous elimination of the members of Team Blitzeirg Academy.

!?

[...Livia, I am near you. Do you need any of my assistance?]" Emi suddenly asked through the voice chat, concerned.

However, Ares didn't say anything as he was not worried about Livia's safety and knew she was more than capable of dealing with anyone in this match - no, in this entire tournament.

In fact, he believed that Livia could even defeat Hercules easily if she put her mind to it.

In the novel, Livia became the youngest transcendent being to ever exist, sitting at the top of the ranking list of this new era.

She sat alone at the top with no one as her competition, as even Lucas was no match for her at one time, though later he would surpass her.

Knowing all of this and witnessing Livia's incredible abilities firsthand, Ares had complete trust in her strength and would not have stopped her even if she wanted to go solo in this match. This only served to demonstrate the amount of confidence and trust he had in her abilities.

"I've dealt with them already, but I can't find the last of these potatoes here," Livia muttered as she picked up the machete of the student she had just eliminated, thinking it might be useful to Ares if he couldn't find any weapon.

"Don't worry, I'll take down the last one," Diana declared with confidence, reaching for a quiver of arrows she had found after a thorough search of the forest. She deftly nocked an arrow onto her bowstring and took a deep breath to steady her aim. With practiced ease, she let the arrow fly.

Swish—

The arrow cut through the air like a streak of lightning, propelled by the force of her skilled hand. It sailed straight and true, hitting its mark with a satisfying thud.

The last member of Team Blitzeirg, who was attempting to flee the area after realizing all of their teammates had been eliminated, stumbled and let out a heart-piercing cry before falling to the ground, defeated. In a flash of light, their body turned into particles and disappeared.

[Your teammate Diana has eliminated a member of Team Blitzeirg Academy!]

[Team Blitzeirg Academy has been eliminated!]

With that, the whole team Blitzeirg Academy was eliminated in just a matter of minutes.

However, even after taking down the last member of the opponent team, Diana was not satisfied.

She had made a bet with Livia at the beginning of the match, since this particular battlefield was advantageous for archers to snipe and score kills from a distance.

However, Livia had managed to take down four opponents while Diana had only eliminated one. She began to wonder if her suggestion for the bet had been a mistake.

"Great work, Livia and Diana. Let's regroup before we proceed further," Ares instructed the team.

The group converged at the edge of the forest where Diana was already waiting for them. They exchanged the weapons they had collected with each other.

Diana handed over a broken staff made from a sturdy branch to Emi. She could use it as a temporary staff to channel her defensive spells. Emi and Ares gave the arrows they found to Diana. Livia gave the machete she had acquired to Ares.

"Well, we'll have to make do with what we have," Ares muttered.

Diana armed herself with a bow and a quiver of arrows, and Emi was satisfied with the makeshift staff. Hiro had discovered a broken door that he intended to use as a shield. Ares, on the other hand, was carrying a knife and a machete.

"Did no one find a sword for Ares?" Diana asked, looking concerned.

The team shook their heads, but Ares didn't seem bothered. He believed that he could make do with the weapons he had, despite their flaws, by coating them with mana to deal enough damage.

However, Livia quickly crafted a katana made of ice and offered it to Ares.

"Can you use this, Ares?" Livia asked, holding out an ice katana for him.

Ares took the weapon and was pleasantly surprised to find that it had the perfect weight and size for him. Despite its lack of durability and has cold grip, the katana felt as if it was made specifically for him. It was a definite upgrade from the broken machete and rusty knife he had been carrying.

"This is impressive! Thanks, Livia, you're a lifesaver," Ares said, smiling gratefully at her as he swung the ice katana with ease, impressed by the weapon's performance in his hands. "This is much better than what I was carrying before. I can fight much more efficiently with this," he added, twirling the katana in his hand to test its balance.

"I can create as many as you want!" Livia replied enthusiastically, beaming at the compliment.

Meanwhile, Diana gave Livia a twisted look as she offered to create more weapons for Ares. But before anyone could say anything else, they heard a notification that the battlefield would be shrinking in the next two minutes, urging them to move to the center.

[The battlefield will be shrinking in the next 2 minutes, please make it to the center!] The announcement was made across the battlefield.

"Considering no other teams have been eliminated yet, they're probably all waiting for us in the center," Diana analyzed as they made their way through the forest.

Hiro voiced his concern, "What if they have special weapons, outnumbering and outmatching us? How are we supposed to deal with them?"

There was a brief silence as the team considered Hiro's concern. Ares broke the silence, "Diana, keep an eye on the surroundings for any ambushes."

As they continued to move forward, the sound of battle began to grow louder. Diana suddenly spoke up again, "I see movement up ahead."

The team slowed their pace and approached cautiously, eventually seeing the Cherry Blossom Academy and Royal Knight Academy engaged in a fierce battle. The Cherry Blossom Academy appeared to be trying to convince the Royal Knight Academy to join forces.

"...."

***

Ava and Eva were fighting off a group of students from the Royal knight academy while trying to convince them to team up.

"Why are you always coming after us? Can't you see that the other five teams are already teaming up against us? We should team up too," Ava said as she dodged an attack.

"Yeah, let's team up, team up!" Her sister Eva's voice echoed as she blocked another attack.

"Teaming up is not an option for us. We from the Royal Knight Academy fight with honor and integrity. What will be the difference between us and them if we do the same thing as they did?" the student replied firmly.

"But your so-called honor and integrity will get you eliminated from this match, you idiots!" Ava retorted.

"Yeah, idiots, idiots!" Eva added, jumping around the battlefield to dodge the incoming attacks at her.

"We won't get eliminated if we eliminate your team first," the Royal Knight Academy student insisted.

Ava scoffed at that student's words. "What kind of shitty logic is that? Your team will eventually end up eliminated by the other teamed-up teams even if you managed to somehow defeat us."

"Yeah, shitty logic, shitty logic!" Eva repeated.

"...."

As they observed the fight from a distance, Diana turned to Ares. "...So what should we do about this situation? I thought we could team up with these two teams that are fighting against each other to deal with the rest of the five teams teaming up against us, but it seems like the Royal Knight Academy won't budge on their principles."

"We don't need these idiots from the Royal Knight Academy. They'll only be a liability to us with their stupid beliefs," Ares replied.

Emi looked up from her makeshift staff, concern etched on her face. "But what about the other teams? They're teaming up against us. We shouldn't resort to violence just yet. Maybe there's still a way to convince both of them to join forces with us."

Hiro tightened his grip on the broken door he was using as a shield. "Yeah, and we're outnumbered. We need all the help we can get."

Ares shook his head in frustration. "We'll have to come up with a plan, but we don't necessarily need to team up with those fools from the Royal Knight Academy to do it."

Just thinking about having members with such beliefs working with him made his expression twisted. He already had his hands full with that stupid protagonist.

He had also given up on his idea of befriending Lucas to use him to fight demon lords and decided to focus on remote controlling him instead.

As they discussed their options, Livia began to ready her spells. Suddenly, she spoke up. "Can I take them down, Ares?" she asked, her fingers twitching as she readied her spells.

Ares looked at her, then nodded. "Sure, go for it."

Swish—Swish.