A Deal

"HELP!"

"!!!" Clovis raised his head while Kanaria asked, "Is that someone who needs help? Or is it a trap?"

Kanaria's concern was not without a reason. There were people desperate enough to trick other groups. Once they were saved, they tricked them and poisoned them. On another occasion, there was a group that chased after a woman while lying in ambush. Once a group came to help her, they were ambushed.

There was even a story about how they used a child to invoke people's pity. This dark side of humans was what actually made people have a hard time trusting other humans. In fact, because of them, a lot of victims who truly needed help didn't get what they needed and died.

Even so, Clovis still said, "Kanaria. Find a position to support me. Jay will hide not far from me."

"Are we going to save her?" Kanaria asked.

"Yeah. I told you earlier that I want to help people, right?"

"I know that, but…"

"I'm not a saint. There is another reason I want to help her, and from the noises, it doesn't seem that she is alone." 

"Understood." Kanaria and Jay nodded, hearing some clicking sounds. 

While waiting for them to get into position, Clovis approached the voice to get a look at the people they needed to help. 

It turned out to be a group of four being chased down by a lot of elasmotheriums. They had been venturing into this territory for more than seven hours, so it wouldn't be weird to see some brave people come to this territory. 

But it was surprising that they got into trouble like this.

Two of them were holding a big shield, trying to stop or deflect the beasts' horns. One was using a spear to stab them from behind. 

The last one must be the woman who asked for help. She was using a dagger, and her speed was rather quick. It appeared that she was looping around to kill the beasts by using her speed, but the enemies were simply too big, so she had a hard time moving around, especially with that number.

If this continued, the two vanguards would have their arms broken from taking their attacks, and the group would be overwhelmed sooner or later. 

Hence, Clovis said in the transmission, "Jay. Don't show yourself for a moment, and get ready to help if they attack me. Don't forget to look at our surroundings to see if there are any groups that are trying to kill us. Kanaria will find a spot and support me. We'll attack them from behind."

"Roger." They acknowledged the order, not knowing what Clovis actually wanted to gain from helping them. Kanaria had heard about Clovis's plan to defeat Ivan's group, but she still couldn't see the connection between the two. 

Nevertheless, Clovis ran toward the beasts silently. The distressed group didn't realize his arrival due to the size of the beast. 

However, it didn't matter. 

*Bam!*

They heard a gunshot coming from the side, killing one of the beasts. At the same time, Clovis moved in and struck another beast.

Several beasts near them ended up realizing Clovis's presence. And the people noticed the gunshot earlier. 

"Did I hear a gunshot?"

"Someone is helping us from the back!"

"Then, we will also push them back from here."

"I know that you are hurting, but keep going until we kill all of them!" 

The group roared, letting out every ounce of their energy to kill the rest of the beasts. 

The table turned around pretty quickly. Clovis killed the beasts one after another. His movement and reaction speed were much faster than usual.

Even Jay was stunned. "Is this really Clovis?" 

He rarely had the time to watch Clovis from the sidelines, so the only thing he remembered was Clovis's movement from the training a few days ago. But compared to this one, he could say that Clovis had transformed.

Kanaria, who had been monitoring both Clovis and Jay, didn't think much about Clovis's improvement. It was because she had been watching them closely that they could see their gradual growth, which made her not as surprised. 

Clovis killed at least ten beasts and Kanaria shot four beasts while ensuring that there were no other people around. 

The others killed the rest, allowing them to defeat a pack of elasmotheriums.

Clovis, still smeared by the rhino's blood, looked at them menacingly. Their group consisted of three males and one female.

They looked like they were three years older than him, approaching their twenties.

One of them stepped forward and introduced himself. "I am Jack, the leader of the group. May I know the person who rescued us?"

Clovis refused to sheathe his sword until he deemed it safe around these people. "I am Clovis."

They were pretty shocked when they saw Clovis. He was still pretty much a teen compared to them. They never expected that a teen like him was so powerful that he killed half of the pack by himself. There was also the mysterious sniper watching from the side.

"I am very grateful for your help." Jack lowered his head politely, showing his gratitude. 

"I've received your intent, but let's talk about the real problem here." Clovis pointed at the beasts and said, "I will take all the essences from the beasts my group killed, that's fine, right?"

Jack was quite surprised. Two of them seemed reluctant, but Jack hurriedly replied, "Yes, that's fine. In fact, you can take them all since some of us would have died without your help."

That was right. They would look ungrateful if they rejected Clovis's proposal. 

However, Clovis surpassed their imagination by saying, "It doesn't need to be that way." 

"What do you mean?"

Clovis pointed at the corpses, saying, "I will allow you to take one ml of essence from them first before I drain their essence."

"!!!" The one ml he was talking about was obviously the essence that the military planned to use to measure their number of kills. So, it was quite shocking that Clovis allowed them to get their essence.

"Are you sure about this? If we take it, doesn't that mean you won't be able to use it?" Jack asked. 

Clovis shook his head. "Of course, we can still use it to increase our kill counts."

"Huh?" Jack and the others were confused. "Didn't they say that they had a technology that could analyze the gene and find the same gene?"

"They indeed said that, but it seems that you have forgotten one thing." Clovis smirked. "They only told us that we couldn't use our syringe to cheat since that item only scanned one syringe at a time. They didn't tell us that the beast couldn't be used two times by two different groups."

"!!!" Jack widened his eyes in shock. When he thought about it, he couldn't really refute Clovis's words.

"Hence, you guys can take one ml first from all these beasts before I drain them. And I have a question for you guys." 

"What is it?"

"Are you planning to leave after this?"

"No. We're thankful for your help, but we're thinking about taking a rest somewhere around here before continuing our hunt."

"In that case, how about making a deal with me?" 

"A deal?" Jack was surprised. 

Clovis approached them carefully and explained everything about the deal. Jack was completely shocked, but he didn't think it was impossible.

If they followed Clovis's deal, they might still get a shot in this tournament.

After explaining all the details, Clovis asked, "So, how is it? This plan should allow us to rise together."

"There is something that I can't understand." Jack raised a finger. "I have seen the cruelty of another group. They don't hesitate to kill people to satisfy their group. However, why would you propose a deal that actually benefits another party?" 

"While it's beneficial to other parties, I still intend to win." Clovis smiled. "Besides, if you take a look around you, what do you see? Enemies? Allies? No. They are your kin."

Jack felt like he understood Clovis a bit. He was trying to imply that they had a common enemy. Before they were a part of their own group, before they were explorers, they were humans. Yes, as humans, they considered the beast their common enemy. So, why would they fight with each other when there was an enemy right before their eyes?

"Since we have a common enemy, why would we fight one another? Even I don't want to kill other people unless it's necessary. If, in the past, our grandparents' generations didn't unite, would they be able to protect the countries? No, the beasts would have destroyed humanity. That's why I hope that you can agree to the deal." 

Jack smiled. "To be honest, I admire you. Your deal doesn't seem like something that will make me and my group suffer."

"Of course. You are free to aim for the second spot since I'm going for the first place."

"Hahaha. I will accept your deal." Jack extended his hand.

"In that case, we'll meet again later at the promised place."

"Yes. It's my pleasure to work with you."