-1543- A slightly tsundere opponent?

In order to avoid being ambushed and sniped upon arriving at the Ninth Artificial Sky Island, the representative teams from the various floating cities make sure to confirm that no other teams are nearby before landing.

Otherwise, if the landing spot is identified, the enemy can easily figure out their location and come to harass them.

Therefore, at the beginning, all the teams scatter and land in different parts of the Ninth Artificial Sky Island, depending on the situation.

However, the S128 Special Unit did not do so. Under Rozen's leadership, they boldly landed in the forest.

This led the observing representative teams to plot against the S128 Special Unit, intending to ambush them and seize their orbs.

Little did they know that their arrival was part of Rozen's scheme.

"Rather than wasting time searching for other teams in the forest and then rushing to fight them, it's better to let them come to us."

That's how Rozen thought.

It was a very risky move.

If not handled well, the team might face not just one ambush but attacks from multiple teams, or even dozens of them.

The danger involved is obvious.

Fortunately, Rozen was confident in his skills and reputation, so he didn't worry about this.

After all, with the titles of "Hero of Humanity" and "Mage King," any sensible person wouldn't directly confront Rozen.

Thus, those who came after Rozen were either too arrogant or lacked self-awareness, hoping to gain fame by defeating Rozen. Such unrealistic individuals would only become trophies for Rozen's team.

As for losing?

Rozen hadn't even considered that.

Indeed, all the representative teams here came from the top floating cities around the world, and each represented their respective cities, possessing extraordinary strength. But even without considering Rozen, the S128 Special Unit's strength was beyond the norm.

This is similar to Mina's A177 team. Although Mina herself had the strength of an S-class Sky Wizard, her teammates were not individually strong. They stood out only through team cooperation and synergy. Individually, they might not even be stronger than Lecty or Rico.

The same is true for the representative teams from around the world. Even though their teams dominate their respective floating cities, there's still a gap when compared to the S128 Special Unit.

After all, the current members of the S128 Special Unit are the top five Sky Wizards in Mistgun, all possessing S-class wizard strength. Coupled with the synergy they've honed over time, they could easily dominate, even if Rozen didn't exert much effort.

At least from Rozen's perspective, the only teams that could compete with the S128 Special Unit were Yamier and her team from Vebel, Josink and his team from Korai, and perhaps Noel's team from Falcion. The rest were not worth mentioning—if placed in Mistgun, they'd only be A-class teams, not even close to S-class.

S-class teams are rare. Before Rozen led the S128 Special Unit to S-class, Mistgun itself had no S-class teams, proving just how special S-class is.

The system of other floating cities might differ from Mistgun, and they may not have an S-class designation. But in terms of strength and rank, teams that could reach S-class are few and far between. Most of them are capped at A-class, and the number of floating cities capable of producing S-class teams can be counted on one hand.

Thus, among all the teams, aside from Korai and Falcion, Rozen believed the others didn't reach the level of S-class.

As for Vebel's team, all of its members could use Collapse Force and were humanoid Armored Beetles, which couldn't be measured by human standards.

Of course, Rozen wasn't afraid of them either, so sweeping through the competition was no problem at all.

Not to mention, Sky Wizards have only undergone aerial combat training, and very few teams have experience outside of aerial combat. Once they fight in such a dense forest, they lose their advantage as Sky Wizards and struggle to adapt. This is why the team that Rozen's group just fought scattered and fled, their shots being blocked by the trees and rendered ineffective. They didn't consider the impact of the terrain and environment.

On the other hand, Rozen's group...

"It's been a long time since I played hide and seek in a forest."

"Brings back memories."

Kanata and Chloe said this as they moved.

Yuri and Mina exchanged glances, smiling wryly.

As Sky Wizards, Yuri and Mina had also never experienced ground combat or jungle warfare, so they were initially quite unaccustomed to it.

On the contrary, Rozen, Kanata, and Chloe moved like fish in water, traversing the forest with ease.

This was the reason Yuri and Mina had to attack from mid-air while Kanata and Chloe used the surrounding environment as obstacles, showcasing their agile movements and unpredictable flight paths, achieving a ghostly effect.

Rozen smiled knowingly.

"When we were in Rune, we often played hide and seek in the forest using flight magic, and even trained in combat there. We're long accustomed to this."

That was the reason.

As a result, within the S128 Special Unit, there were those who excelled in ground and jungle combat. Coupled with the fact that all four members were S-class Sky Wizards, it would be strange if they couldn't crush these overconfident teams.

As for Rozen, while Kanata and Chloe were chasing three enemy Sky Wizards, he single-handedly pursued the remaining two, taking them down.

In summary, Rozen's team had defeated two squads, collecting two orbs. Including their own orb, they now had three.

Next, they only needed to collect one more orb, and they could achieve victory and leave the Ninth Artificial Sky Island after three days and two nights, entering the final elimination round.

However, during these three days and two nights, they still had to guard against other teams trying to steal their orbs.

If the orbs were stolen, it wouldn't matter if they had once collected them all.

In the end, only those who left the Ninth Artificial Sky Island with four orbs would win this survival competition.

For now, it was still early.

Moreover, before that...

"We have to deal with a slightly tsundere opponent."

Rozen lifted his head and looked ahead.

"...!"

At the same time, Kanata, Chloe, Yuri, and Mina also seemed to sense something and raised their heads to look forward.

There...

"Swish!" "Swish!" "Swish!" "Swish!" "Swish!"

Several figures darted out from the forest, appearing before Rozen and the others.

At the forefront was a petite girl with a cold expression, wielding a military saber-like magic sword.

Who else could it be but Noel?

The newcomers were the Falcion representative team.

"Found you."

Noel stared at Rozen, her eyes burning with determination.

Seeing this, Rozen smiled.

A somewhat mischievous smile.