Seven meters underground, in a dungeon located in the castle where Team Ten was stationed, Enrico was fighting three opponents at the same time. With the Crimson Gauntlet activated, he charged forward and punched the opponent in front of him, sending him flying.
"Flaming Shot!"
Pointing to the left, he fired a fire arrow that struck another opponent directly in the chest. The impact sent him flying backward, leaving a hole in his chest. His body disappeared into the air, indicating that he had been transported to a safe location. A barrier that prevented participants from dying protected the entire area, allowing everyone to attack with the intention of killing without having to worry about the consequences.
'As always, I really like these barriers. Not having to worry about killing someone is quite nice.'
"You bastard! Fire Magic: Explosion!"
Seeing the fire explosion approaching, Enrico remained motionless. A water barrier appeared around him, extinguishing the flames before they could reach him. The protection had been created by Caelan, who took advantage of the opportunity to surprise the opponent by appearing behind him.
"Cutting Water Jet!"
Caelan's enhanced magic split his opponent in half, even after he summoned a fire shield to try to protect himself.
"Having a type advantage is the best thing in the world."
"Really? Then why are you weaker than me?"
"You don't count."
The two seemed so distracted by their conversation that the last opponent believed he had found an opportunity. Meanwhile, he was preparing his strongest attack, a lava spell that concentrated an enormous amount of energy in his hand.
'I've trained hard to develop this magic after observing magma itself. They'll regret underestimating me!'
Raising his hand, he pointed toward the two. However, to his surprise, his arm was cut into several pieces. Unable to understand what had happened, the last thing he managed to see was his own reflection in a nearby mirror before his body was also cut apart by someone incredibly fast.
"What an idiot. He let his guard down because he thought there were only two opponents."
Elian had his two daggers infused with wind magic. The weapons seemed to have grown larger while he used his magic, the result of his continuous training to create his Ego Weapon.
'The best thing I ever did was pay attention to Enrico's words.'
Of course, there was still a long way to go before he reached the level necessary to develop a complete Ego Weapon, but, as Enrico had said when observing his progress, he simply needed time to reach the Sixth Circle. Deactivating his magic, Elian placed the daggers behind his back and approached the two.
Enrico continued talking with Caelan. Of course, he had noticed the opponent approaching, but he simply didn't care much, since he had already seen Elian behind the boy.
Caelan pointed at himself.
"Besides, I managed to defeat my opponent easily."
Enrico crossed his arms with an amused smile.
"That's because I was distracting them while you two caught them by surprise."
"Don't try to take away my credit."
"I'm not trying to take away your credit. I'm simply stating a fact."
After assessing the opponents' levels, Enrico had divided the team into two groups. Enrico, Elian, and Caelan would take care of the three opponents who had arrived. Since he was at the Third Circle and the opponents were at the Second Circle, it had been easy to make that decision.
Thus, Serenya and Yumeha were responsible for the two remaining opponents, who were protecting the flags. Since both had also reached the Third Circle, defeating them wouldn't be difficult. And that became evident when a controlled magical explosion echoed nearby, coming from the castle on the right.
Elian looked in that direction, while Caelan shook his head confidently.
"Looks like our leader is taking them down easily."
"Of course! I wouldn't expect anything less from our leader."
"Yes, I wouldn't expect anything less from my future wife either."
The two looked at Enrico with completely speechless expressions. After all, he had said that without showing the slightest embarrassment, while maintaining an expression of feigned innocence.
Elian let out a sigh.
"Are you two really not going to hide it?"
"Why would I hide something like that? If my future wives found out I was hiding something, they would be upset."
Caelan snorted and crossed his arms.
"You lucky bastard!"
"It's not luck when we spend so much time together that we end up falling for each other."
Enrico's provocative smile made the two want to jump him.
Meanwhile, Serenya floated in the air, watching from a distance the destruction she had caused by controlling her opponent's magic and redirecting his own attack against him. Farther below, Yumeha had summoned Koma Inu, who was standing over the opponent and delivered a final bite, eliminating him from the competition.
Serenya glanced to the side and, just to make sure, destroyed the enemy team's crystal with her control magic.
"The first team has been eliminated. Let's go back."
"All right. Master said we should only split up if we were attacked."
Yumeha picked up the flag, confirming that all members of that team had been completely eliminated. With that, the countdown for the elimination of the other groups began.
"In Block A, a team has just been eliminated! This is the third team to leave the competition. There are still four teams remaining in the block, and the battle for qualification continues! It seems the three most fiercely contested blocks are beginning to determine their winners!"
As always, the blocks offering the greatest displays of power were the same ones that stood out in the original story: Victoria's, where she had defeated an entire team alone, and the protagonist's, which ranked second in terms of prominence.
'It seems I really am part of the story.'
While waiting for the two girls to arrive, Enrico sat down on a chair that had somehow remained intact in the place where he had fought the three opponents.
'So far, it's been easy, but that won't last long if either of the two strongest teams decides to interfere.'
Since there were only two teams capable of facing them on equal terms, Enrico was relatively calm. Even so, he remained alert, as they could be attacked at any moment.
Noticing the smoke rising from the most distant castle, Enrico realized that it was the territory of one of the three Shengtian teams that had managed to enter the Throne of Runes.
"Looks like Shengtian is having trouble."
Caelan looked toward the smoke.
"I hope they're eliminated."
"It's the team Liang is part of, so that won't happen unless the other team competing against us shows up."
"Then I hope it's them."
In fact, Enrico wanted to fight one of the two teams, so he was beginning to feel a little disappointed. However, that didn't last long, because the three of them felt four presences approaching. And they were somewhat strong.
Enrico looked toward the direction from which he sensed those presences.
"Looks like you were wrong, Caelan. They'd rather fight us."
"Damn it, and my big mouth! Maybe I should have said I wanted to fight them. Perhaps then the heavens would have sent them somewhere else."
Elian, who was standing beside them, noticed Enrico's smile growing wider.
"Wait, Enrico... Why are you smiling like that? You crazy battle maniac."
What could Enrico do? Ever since arriving in that world, he had begun to enjoy fighting more and more. Because of that, he couldn't contain the excited smile that appeared on his face at the possibility of facing stronger opponents.