"What are you two doing?" Max was surprised when he found those two wrestling on the ground.

Seeing that as Max had arrived, Axel let Erina go and at the same time, he secretly messaged Max.

«Pretend that you don't know me...»

Max looked at him weirdly but still followed.

"Is everything fine?" He asked Erina while pretending to give Axel a cautious look.

"Max…" Erina looked at him with a hint of joy as she quickly slid away from Axel to his side.

"Who is he?" Max asked her.

"Uh..I have just temporarily teamed up with him." Erina said while glaring at Axel. Since they have promised to pretend that nothing happened, she would do so…

"Boom!"

Erina suddenly realised that her teammates were still fighting the group of Bronze Head Mantises and immediately rushed to help.

Max turned his head towards Axel and raised his brows asking what was going on….

"She is no better than Wilson…" Axel said as he sighed.

"Let's go, give her a hand and earn some points at the same time. We will then move away from here…" Max said and as he was about to move, Axel suddenly stopped him.

"I suffered a lot because of her and Wilson." He said looking at Max.

"Fine, I will let her take some hits…" Max sighed and stopped, "So, what happened?"

Axel explained everything without hiding any detail.

"I see. You really did your best to save her. You did nothing wrong…" Max said on the surface, but inside... he was truly dumbfounded by his action.

But from a certain perspective, it was Wilson's fault for pushing him to such an extreme limit by taking his things as hostages.

And if Axel really didn't help Erina, she would be surely out….so reasonably Axel wasn't at fault…

But were Lunatic Scarlet siblings reasonable?

No.

Things wouldn't end well if Wilsok found out what happened and the same would fellow if Erina found out that the person was Wilson's friend.

"I understand why you want to hide. But, if she actively seeks for you, it wouldn't take her long to get to you." Max replied as he looked at Axel.

"She won't. She wants to forget it as much as I want to forget what happened that evening at Fragrance Dining….so she definitely won't find me…" Axel replied with a sigh.

"Anyway, let's go and help….it should be enough now…" Max said to change the awkward topic.

"Give me my stuff first…" Axel said to Max who nodded.

The duo then entered a nearby building.

When they returned, Axel was fully equipped. He only had his sniper rifle missing now which was with Valko.

"Let's go…" Max moved while Axel casually pulled over his cloak and walked to the side planning to support from behind.

…

Erina and her two teammates were actually doing pretty well holding out. But being outnumbered was exhausting for them.

Especially Erina who hasn't fully recovered yet.

"Watch out!" Zeld, Erina's teammate, suddenly yelled when a beast pounced towards Erina from her blind spot.

Erina tried to move but her body didn't do as she expected it to. The scythe was almost about to slice her when a gunshot rang and several rounds followed after.

The Bronze Head Mantis screamed as it brought its scythe to defend while retreating.

But it hadn't even taken a few steps when a spear zoomed past its body tearing a hole right through its abdomen.

Erina took cover under the bullets and hurriedly made her retreat. She looked at the cut on her cheek which was from the first bullet. It actually had grazed past her cheek.

She looked around but couldn't find the source of the gunshots. It seemed to be defying logic and coming from all over the place and were even making curves in the air.

But she knew that there was only one person firing bullets around…

"Tsk...It wasn't deep enough…" Axel clicked his tongue seeing that the cut on Erina's cheek wasn't deep enough. He really knew how to hold grudges.

Max on the other hand was already swinging his spear and coordinating his movement with Zeld to help them get through the Mantises.

The pressure on the ground decreased drastically especially with bullets which were being shot with extreme precision.

Max suddenly released his domain and Erina and other's felt that the beasts became easier to deal with.

On the other hand, the beasts began to panic and as they fell into disadvantage, as they numbers decreased so did their courage abd when a few of them were left.... they immediately fled the scene.

Well, it was not so surprising as Bug type beasts weren't the type of go made so easily.

"You are quite strong…." Erina was surprised to see Max fight with the Mantises with such ease. He was no worse than Zeld who was one of the few Advance Tire in the competition.

Max smiled at her and didn't say anything.

Zeld thanked him for help as well but the other guy Neo seemed a bit hostile to him for some reason.

"Why do you two look so exhausted?" Erina asked as she looked at the two.

"That…." Zeld stopped as he glanced at Max.

Erina smiled at Max and then walked further away not knowing that it was pretty useless in front of Max.

"I actually appeared in one of the areas designated for securing. It's not that far from here. A few kilometers towards the east."

"There were too many beasts there...so it took me a whole day to get out. After that I met Neo in the morning…" Zeld said as he looked at her.

Erina immediately understood his intentions.

"Let's wait for others and when we get together we will think about securing the area…." Erina commanded and Zeld nodded.

"But that will be too late...what if someone else moves before us…." Neo intervened.

"We should form an alliance with another academy and secure the place. As long as we have enough people to draw the weaker ones out, we can take on the leading beast." He further added.

"But the stronger the allies are, the more points they will take away from us…" Zeld opposed the idea.

"Isn't he there….we can use that Arcane guy. Even though they have two to three strong people, the rest are weak. They surely will serve as a nice bait….I bet they won't be able to take much points away from us even if they tried.." Neo said with a smile.

Erina frowned first but when she thought about it again, it didn't seem that bad. Even if Arcane couldn't get much points, they should still be able to garner much more than they could do alone.

It wasn't bad to allow them this opportunity to get some points. Beside, she saw Max's strength. It shouldn't be that bad...he could possibly do well.

In her eyes, except for Max, Lear and Wilson, there was no other person much stronger in Arcane. So, she thought it was a good way to help them.

It seemed she still hadn't received some much needed information.

So, in the end she decided to ask Max with good intentions in mind.

"Fine...I don't mind…" Max replied with a smile.

"Great..then we shall meet here tomorrow in the evening. Try to find as many of your teammates as you can…" Erina said with a smile.

As long as days passed, it would become much easier to find people as the number of contestants would increase.

"Where is that guy?" Erina suddenly asked as she failed to see Axel.

"I don't know. He must have left…" Max said casually.

"Oh.." Erina still hoped to thank him once again no matter whatever had happened. But this was fine as well…

A few minutes later, she left with her teammates.

"Finally…" Axel appeared beside Max and sighed.

"Shall we go as well?" Max asked.

Axel nodded as they began to move.

"So, did you notice it?" Axel suddenly asked.

Max was surprised at Axel's words, "You did too?"

"Kind of….something felt different about that Neo…" Axel replied with a nod.

Max thought so too. There was something different about him. He was sure about it, but it wasn't something that he couldn't deal with. If he had to be more accurate about this guy, h

Max looked at Axel with a calm look in his eyes, "Yeah…it seems the competition isn't that simple..."