In the location seven meters below the ground, inside the dungeon of one of the seven castles—specifically, the leftmost castle—Enrico was fighting against three opponents at once, his crimson shell activated as he punched the opponent in front of him away.
"Flame Shot!"
Pointing to the left, he fired an arrow straight into the chest of an opponent, sending him flying back with a hole in his torso. The body disappeared into the air, meaning that opponent had been teleported elsewhere. The barrier surrounding the area prevented death, so everyone there could attack with lethal intent.
'Not having to worry about killing is pretty nice.'
"You bastard! Fire Magic: Explosion!"
Seeing a blast of fire coming toward him, Enrico simply stood still as a barrier of flames appeared around him, extinguishing the incoming fire. That barrier was created by Caelan, who had caught the opponent off guard by appearing behind his back.
"Cutting Water Jet!"
Caelan's enhanced magic sliced his opponent in half, even when a fire shield had been summoned to protect him.
"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 may have seemed distracted to the last opponent, who was preparing his best lava spell, concentrating it in his hand.
'I trained hard to develop this spell after observing real magma. They'll regret underestimating me.'
Raising his hand, he pointed at the two—but to his surprise, his arm was cut into pieces. Shocked, the only thing he could do was see his reflection in a nearby mirror as his body was sliced apart by someone incredibly fast.
"What an idiot. He let his guard down thinking there were only two opponents."
Elian stood there with both daggers imbued with wind magic. His blades looked longer as he channeled the wind, the result of training his ego weapon until now.
'The best thing I ever did was pay attention to Enrico's words.'
Of course, he still had a long way to go before reaching the level needed to develop one, but as Enrico had told him after seeing his progress—he only needed time to reach the sixth circle. Turning off his magic, he sheathed his daggers and approached the two. Enrico had created that plan after noticing there were only two opponents who could give them trouble.
"Besides, I managed to defeat my opponent easily."
"That's because I was distracting them while you two caught them off guard."
"Don't try to erase my achievements."
"I'm not erasing your achievements; I'm just stating a fact."
When Enrico saw the opponents' levels, he divided the team into two, leaving two third-circle members to directly attack the first team that would assault them—which turned out to be the right-side team. So Serenya and Yumeha immediately went to handle the remaining two opponents guarding the flags. Since both had reached the third circle, it was easy—and that proved true when an explosion of control magic was heard near the right castle. Elian looked forward while Caelan nodded confidently.
"Looks like our leader is finishing them off easily."
"Of course. I expected nothing less from our leader."
"Yes, I expected nothing less from my future wife."
The two stared blankly at Enrico's face as he said that without a shred of shame, his expression turning into a fake innocent smile.
"You're really not going to hide it, huh?"
"Why would I hide something like that? If my future wives found out I was hiding it, they'd be upset."
"You lucky bastard."
"It's not luck if we've spent enough time together to like each other."
Far away, Serenya floated in the air, looking at the destruction she caused when she controlled the enemy's magic to send his own attack back at him. Below, Yumeha had summoned Koma Inu, who was biting down on an opponent for the finishing blow.
"The first team's been eliminated, so let's return."
"Right. Master said to only split up if we were attacked."
Yumeha grabbed the flag, signaling that all members of that team were completely eliminated, starting the countdown for the elimination of other teams.
"In Block A, one team has just been eliminated. That's the third team to be taken out of the competition. In Block A, four teams remain—seems like the top three blocks are being decided."
As usual, the blocks showcasing the most power—just like in the original story—were Victoria's block, which had already defeated a team solo, and the protagonist's block, which was second.
'Looks like I really am part of the story.'
Waiting for the two to return, Enrico sat on a chair that had somehow remained intact in the area where he had fought the three.
'So far it's been easy, but it won't last if one of the two stronger teams interferes.'
Since there were only two teams capable of fighting them on equal ground, Enrico was calm but cautious, as an attack could come at any moment. Hearing footsteps approaching, he noticed the two drawing closer.
"Looks like one of the teams is busy."
"Yeah, seems like there's destruction happening on the left."
Noticing smoke rising from the farthest castle, Enrico realized it belonged to one of the two Shengtian teams that had entered the Thrones of Runes.
"Looks like Shengtian is having trouble."
"Hope they get eliminated."
"That's their rank-one team, so that won't happen—unless the other strong team competing with us shows up."
"Then I hope it's them."
In truth, Enrico wanted to fight one of the two teams, so he was starting to feel disappointed—but not for long, as all three of them sensed four powerful presences approaching.
"Looks like you were wrong, Caelan. They'd rather fight us."
"Damn it, my big mouth. Maybe I should've said I wanted to fight them—then the heavens might've sent them away instead."
"Wait, Enrico—why are you smiling like that, you crazy battle freak?!"
What could he do? Ever since he arrived in this world, he had started to enjoy fighting more and more, so his excited smile couldn't be contained just because he wanted to.