243 Arrival of the Humans and Elves

Eve, Regina, and Aya's father were waiting for Bloed's group outside the training grounds.

When Bloed and the others arrived, they then boarded an airship that was going to take them to the place agreed with the humans and elves.

Ten minutes later, they arrived at the peak of a mountain located at the center of the territory in dispute.

A small pavilion had been constructed there. It was rather simple, with just a wooden roof supported by several wooden pillars without walls or anything else.

Just enough for the representatives of the three races to meet.

Bloed's group was the first to arrive. Counting Eve, Regina, the lionkin general, and Aya's father, plus the six B-Rank participants, a total of ten people had come.

Of them, Aya's father, as an important minister of The Great Savannah, was the person in charge of the group despite not being the strongest.

Not long after Bloed's group arrived, another group of ten arrived floating in the sky.

It was a group of beautiful men and women dressed in light green clothes and with a peaceful and calming aura around them.

They were the elves of the Boerner Forest.

Six of them B-Rank elves just like Bloed's team of six. However, the four people leading them were different.

Bloed felt that their auras were unfathomable. They were people the current him could not go against right now.

In other words–

'Demigods…'

When the elves arrived, the one in charge, a male elf, looked at Bloed's group and bowed slightly.

"It looks like your group arrived first, Mr. Tenon. Are they the young geniuses that will represent your country?"

Aya's Father, Tenon Sharpclaw, bowed back politely.

"Fortunately, we managed to gather a group of young prodigies. With a bit of luck, they will bring excellent results back to the Great Savannah."

"Is it so? I'm surprised, though, I never expected to see a human and a demon in your group." The elf said with a sharp glint in his eyes.

Aya's father did not show any signs of nervousness. With a calm gaze, He just nodded as though it was normal.

"It's not like they are not humans living in the Great Savannah. Plus, there was never a rule saying that only beastmen could participate."

The elf narrowed his eyes, but he said nothing.

At that moment, though, a booming voice came from the clouds.

"Hmph! I expected no less from savages like you. To think you could think of this excuse to search for outside help."

The voice belonged to a middle-aged man dressed in white garments filled with golden decorations.

The man was floating over a cloud with nine other people standing behind him, creating an extravagant and awe-inspiring image.

He was one of the archbishops of the Church of the Sun God and also a demigod, James Red.

Just like with the elves, the four humans leading the group of the Sun Kingdom had unfathomable auras. Apparently, the Sun Kingdom also sent four demigods to hold the fort.

Tenon's face turned dark when he heard the words of the archbishop.

"At the very least, we are not as shameless as the Church of the Sun God that resorted to attacking the participants of other countries, Archbishop Red."

The middle-aged man frowned. He then realized that the elves were also looking at him unhappily.

Without needed to think much, he knew that the elves had also been attacked.

"… I don't know what are you speaking about." That was everything he could say.

"Is it so? Well, I knew you were not going to admit it. Otherwise, you would not be part of the despicable Church of the Sun God."

The archbishop snorted indifferently. For an instant, though, his eyes were filled with an ice-cold chill.

However, he said nothing.

In truth, he knew nothing about the attacks, but when he thought about it, he realized one of his colleagues might have done it without his knowledge.

Something like that was rather possible. Plus, he himself thought it was not a bad plan.

Unfortunately, it seemed like it was not very successful. Otherwise, the beastmen and the elves would be much more enraged than now.

"Okay, it's enough." The elf said coldly. "We are not here to discuss who is responsible for the attacks. Let's talk about the competition."

Aya's father looked at the archbishop for a few seconds before moving his gaze away. "Are we going to follow the rules we agreed beforehand?"

"Yes." The elf said. "Each one of the youngsters participating in this competition is a valuable genius of our countries, and we don't want to put them in risk unnecessarily. Due to it, we will not make the teams fight against each other to the death. Instead, we will organize a game called [Hunting Spree]."

Aya's father and the archbishop nodded. The three countries had agreed to this kind of competition after the negotiations.

"Are the monsters prepared?" Aya's father asked.

The elf nodded. "As agreed, we elves released twenty B-Rank monsters, five A-Rank monsters, and one half-step demigod monster in the place of the competition."

"The Sun Kingdom also released twenty B-Rank monsters, five A-Rank monsters, and one half-step demigod monster." The archbishop nodded as well.

"Perfect." Said Aya's father. "We also released the same number of monsters. In total, sixty B-Rank monsters, fifteen A-Rank monsters, and thee half-step demigod monsters will be roaming the mountains during the competition. The three groups will hunt for the monsters, and the group with the greatest score gets the rights for the territory."

"How will the monsters be scored?" The archbishop asked.

"Let's follow the scores we agreed to before. A B-Rank monster will be worth 1 point. An A-Rank monster will be worth five points, and one half-step demigod monster will be worth fifteen points." The elf said.

Aya's father and the archbishop nodded in agreement. This scoring was pretty fair.

Although killing a half-step demigod level monster gave a lot more points than killing a normal monster, a monster like this was not something a group of six B-Ranks could easily hunt without casualties.

And if one of the three groups managed to hunt one, then they deserved at least that amount of points.

"… Lastly." The archbishop said at that moment. "Is robbing from other teams going to be allowed?"

Aya's father and the elf expressions turned serious. This was something that none of the three groups had decided beforehand.

However, if they allowed it, it could give the three teams the chance to turn the things around at the last minute.

In the end, they nodded.

"… It will." Aya's father said. "However, if we think one of our representatives is in mortal danger, we will move to rescue him."

"Fair enough. We don't want to sacrifice our geniuses pointlessly, so we will do the same. Of course, if a participant is rescued, said participant will be disqualified." The archbishop said.

"I agreed." The elf said.

"Then, let's start the game half an hour later."