Changing the Aggro

"Ha… Ha… Go forward!" Ivan shouted in frustration while striking at the Glyptodon. Glyptodon was a large, herbivorous armadillo that lived around 3.2 million years ago.

It had a bony shell covering its body. Despite striking it at full power, Ivan only managed to graze its surface. The others produced a similar result, so they had to attack this glyptodon in its weak spot. 

However, the glyptodon mostly rolled around, hiding behind its hard shell. So, they had a hard time hunting this beast. 

They had killed several glyptodons, but they were nowhere near the speed when they hunted the dodo birds. That was why they were quite desperate to leave this territory. 

"This is not looking good. Hurry up and leave this place," said Elina with a serious expression. 

"We can't afford to lose to those people." Vina nodded in agreement.

"This is because you all are overestimating your attack power. See? We couldn't even do anything to the glyptodons." Lovelia snarled. 

"Don't talk about it for now. We have to leave this territory as fast as possible and kill as many beasts as possible. Only after we are done with this competition will we reflect on our choices." Ivan calmed them down so that they didn't argue in the middle of the battle.

Unbeknownst to them, Kanaria was actually watching them from afar. 

"I have spotted them. They seem to be struggling against the glyptodons. Do you need me to stop them?" 

"Buy me one minute. I will bring the snake to them. Also, make sure that they don't shoot me or anything, Kanaria."

"Got it." Kanaria smirked while aiming at the beast not far from them. 

*Bang!*

Without the glyptodons realizing it, a bullet hit one of them before they could even roll around. 

"!!!" The glyptodons and Ivan's group were alarmed, not knowing what happened. The glyptodons obviously noticed Ivan and his girls, who were closer to them. But Ivan couldn't help but raise his head, noticing Kanaria standing not far from them. 

"Kanaria?!" Ivan's eyes brightened, thinking that Kanaria had finally accepted his love and wanted to help them.

However, the other three were not so kind to Kanaria's action. She could actually snipe them from there. 

With them having a fight with her, they couldn't help but say, "She is not an ally, Ivan."

"Don't be fooled."

"She might be trying to harm us."

Ivan wanted to say something, but the glyptodons that Kanaria alerted earlier ended up moving toward them since they were the closer targets. 

"Not good!"

"So, that's her aim."

Ivan didn't say anything but still gritted his teeth. There must be a misunderstanding between them. If only Kanaria could understand them a bit better, they would definitely become good friends.

Unfortunately for him, it was not possible. When he was fighting the glyptodons, Clovis had finally reached Kanaria's position.

A huge snake suddenly appeared in the corner of their vision.

"Huh?" 

"Ivan!"

Their group was startled, finding Clovis running with a big snake on his trail. Kanaria didn't help him but still prepared herself to shoot the snake.

"What is he doing?"

"A Tier 1 snake?"

"Is he trying to harm us by bringing that snake?"

The snake noticed the humans in front but still focused on Clovis. It launched its head to kill him, but because of his pistol, the snake didn't dare to release its tongue again.

Before the head reached Clovis, Kanaria shot the snake's eye, which was blocked by closing the eyelid. 

The snake looked like it was trying to turn around, so Clovis hurriedly stopped and swung his blade at the snake's body, which caused the snake to turn back.

"Okay. Come." Clovis smirked as he rushed toward Ivan and the others.

"What are you doing?"

"Oi!"

"Why are you coming here?!"

The people from Ivan's group shouted, but they couldn't really escape because of the glyptodons that Kanaria sent them earlier. 

"Hello, guys. It seems that you are free." Clovis saw their weapons. While he had to be aware of their long-ranged weapon, it didn't seem that the plan wouldn't be so hard to complete. 

Elina was trying to reach for the pistol on her waist, but Clovis moved in the opposite direction, avoiding her. Only when he was close enough did he suddenly turn to them.

"What?!" Ivan gnashed his teeth and tried to push back the glyptodons so that he could help his team. 

Unfortunately for him, Clovis was faster. He moved between them skillfully, causing the snake to have no choice but to push away all the obstacles in front.

"Gah!" Ivan got slammed by the body's zigzag movement, knocking him to the ground. Some glyptodons were the same. In fact, some of the glyptodons had their shells cracked because of this.

The only person who was able to react was actually Vina. She struck the glyptodon with her sword before moving back, allowing her to reach Elina with her shield. 

When the snake's body reached them, Vina blocked it with the shield, getting pushed back for two meters. Elina got dragged and tripped to the ground, but it didn't hurt her much. 

The worst one would be Lovelia. She got the full brunt of the attack, causing her to be launched several meters away. 

"Kya!" Lovelia rolled a few times on the ground while gritting her teeth. She couldn't feel her left hand, but even Tier 1 wouldn't be this powerful. Because of the damage done to her body, she was the first to realize that the snake wasn't a Tier 1 beast. "Run away! That snake is not Tier 1. It's Tier 2 or higher!"

"!!!" Ivan and the others widened their eyes in shock. They couldn't believe that a Tier 2 snake would appear here. 

However, seeing Lovelia injured this way, Ivan couldn't help but roar while swinging his blade at the snake. "You bastard!"

His muscle convulsed violently as he struck the snake with everything he had… and finally, the skin was cut. 

*Shaaa!* The snake abruptly stopped, noticing the sharp pain in its body. The wound that Ivan inflicted was not high, but it didn't change the fact that it was the first attack that penetrated its skin. 

The snake's attention immediately shifted from Clovis to Ivan.

"!!!" Both Clovis and Kanaria widened their eyes, noticing the change. 

"Did I succeed?" Clovis looked back. 

"Clovis. Are you going to retreat now?"

Clovis couldn't help but furrow his eyebrows. On the one hand, this problem might be related to him, so he didn't really want to kill anyone else. On the other hand, these people were his competitors and might do something to him in the future.

In fact, the conflict between them wasn't that big. It only started with this Ivan acting all mighty just to get Kanaria. Then again, Kanaria was preparing to die in this competition.

"Jay. Where are you?"

"Finishing the last two beasts before going on my way to catch up with you guys."

"Kanaria. Get ready to switch things up. We will kill this snake." 

"Are you going to help them?" Kanaria couldn't help but frown. She was quite happy to see Lovelia injured, so she thought that this would be the end of them. Then again, she also thought about her family as a whole, which would definitely be affected by their deaths.

"No. They won't be able to kill the snake, but we can. We'll use it to kill this snake, so I want you to remain in your position."

"This will definitely create a rift between our group and theirs, you know." Kanaria knew that if these people were alive after this ordeal, they would definitely report this matter and do whatever they needed to do to eliminate Clovis. Jay and Kanaria might be able to escape with their family power, but not Clovis. 

On the other hand, if they died, this matter would be investigated and traced back to them in one way or another. So, either way, the moment they chose to do this, their relationship would be irreconcilable. 

However, this was actually what Clovis wanted. At first, he wanted to create a rift between them so that there was enough reason for them not to uphold the bet. 

And with this grudge, even Ivan wouldn't think much about Kanaria anymore. All that was left was how they should solve this issue. 

If they died, the people behind them would send powerful people to kill them. However, if they were still alive, Ivan would definitely take his revenge by himself. 

With this, the only thing Clovis needed to do was stall for time until he was strong enough to fight the people behind them.

Of course, this wouldn't have happened if there was no Tier 2 snake and they just competed fairly. Still, it wouldn't change the fact that they would be targeted after that. 

Hence, Clovis believed that the snake would be a good excuse to harm them. He could say that they were also surprised that they stumbled upon their group when they were running away from the snake. 

And they were indeed pretty lucky since Ivan was also planning to head to the elasmotherium territory. 

With this thought in mind, Clovis moved back carefully, avoiding angering the snake again until Jay returned. He was pretty sure that Ivan would also run away from this snake sooner or later.

But for the time being, Ivan went berserk. 

"You bastard!" He kept shouting the same thing while waving his blade, giving one superficial wound after another. 

As one would expect from the so-called number one genius in the city, he indeed had the strength to back up that claim. 

Instead of focusing on the snake, Clovis moved toward the glyptodons while thinking, 'They have to die first so that nothing can intervene when I want to kill the snake.'