"Wha—!" Rapakha was taken aback, never expecting something coming from that place.

Kai used this chance to use his Sound Blast to increase his speed even further, so Rapakha had no chance to regain his balance back.

Rapakha was startled that Kai appeared in just an instant, swinging his sword toward the crater that Isabelle's bullet created.

"Ha!" Kai used another Sound Blast to increase his power and struck at that spot. He even created another magic circle right behind Rapakha's arm, so it moved to the sword direction, making it easier to cut.

The conclusion came so sudden. Kai completed his swing and somehow struck the ground as well, showing how much force and momentum he put on the sword.

Seeing this, Rapakha couldn't help but smile. Although this was far from his full power, the fact that these kids could take one of his arms was proof of how talented they are.

'It seems the later generation is full of geniuses… And hopefully, that ice girl can understand the concept of trust again. Don't be like me, who ultimately fought alone because I never asked the others to train the magic to the highest degree… If I had friends that fought against the Protector… Could I have a chance to deal huge damage to her?' Rapakha thought.

He didn't dare to think about defeating a protector because the power difference was too far. However, these seven kids might turn into something dangerous in the future. If they grew in number, it would be catastrophic even for a Protector… That was what he believed.

Even though Evan didn't do anything in this battle, he, in fact, turned out to hold the most important person. If they didn't have him here, they wouldn't have fought him with all of their power like this. They would have consciously or unconsciously held back so as to avoid being hurt.

'The young will surpass the old…' Rapakha glanced at them and stopped moving as he said. "Good! I think this is where we stop."

Kai and the others finally put down their strong façade and looked down while panting.

Kai was the most tired one in this group because he had been using so much magic. At the same time, Isabelle brought Evan after seeing how they suddenly looked relaxed. She realized that the fight was over and flew to them.

"Haha… It was a hard fight." Kai said as he walked toward Michelle and Ayaka. Seeing this, they gathered around them… They, except Sofia.

After feeling bad because of their earlier actions, Sofia still had no heart to gather with them, laughing as they just fought a hard battle.

Rapakha slowly moved toward her with a smile. "You are not going to join them?"

"I…" Sofia looked down.

"Well, do you remember what I said earlier?"

"!!!" Sofia, of course, remembered the very details. However, she couldn't bring herself to go there. "I…"

"I am not expecting you right now. I can see that you were devastated by an accident in the past, and you still are… But I believe there will be a day where you can trust your back to someone fully.

"I could see that you acted like you are friendly to them, despite faking it. And I think that boy also realized it. Seeing how you are so distant to them, do you not come from their place?"

"No. I am from far away." Sofia shook her head.

"Then, I believe he is waiting for you to open up a little. I know that he is wary against you, but I think that worry is justified. Just like you who creates your own little fake, he also waits for you and keeps doing things like this despite faking it himself…

"After all, I noticed that he cared for you less from the way he talked until now." Rapakha paused for a moment. "I know that you are a good child, so I think I can expect you to make up with your past in the future.

"I have some expectations in you because I know that we can't do everything alone… And I don't want you to regret not having friends like me."

"I have a friend!" Sofia pouted. "Her name is Julia. She is not with me right now because of a few things, but she will return to my side soon."

"Return to your side huh…" Rapakha let out a long sigh. "You sound like someone above her instead of her equal."

"!!!" Sofia gritted her teeth and clenched her fists, but not a single word came out of her mouth. She simply had no argument to rebuke him.

"Anyway, that is my last piece of advice for all of you. The rest will be up to you, so I can only wish you luck from here. I hope that all of you can reach your end goal and have a new beginning." Rapakha smiled.

As soon as Rapakha left her side, Michelle and Ayaka came to her, pulling her to the group to enjoy their victory… Albeit, Rapakha suddenly said, "Of course. This battle is my win."

"What?!" The group snarled as if they just heard something they absolutely didn't want to hear.

"As I said, this battle is my win." Rapakha smiled. "If you are not convinced, I can let you attack me again and see whether you can defeat me again.

"This time, I won't beat around the bush and attack you. If I can't defeat you within thirty seconds, I lose. How is it?" Rapakha smirked.

The group was obviously provoked by such words. They had fought hard for this victory, but Rapakha claimed it was his victory. And now they thought about it, Rapakha never said who won previously.

Kai looked at the group, who was eager to fight to prove it was their win. They only needed to endure for thirty seconds anyway, so they believed they could do it because Rapakha had a hard time dealing with them earlier.

Having no chance to persuade them, Kai sighed and nodded. "Then, thank you for your guidance."

Kai was the first one to move because he was the captain. He struck his two swords at Rapakha's, but the latter covered his arm with the stone again.

However, Kai suddenly felt something was amiss, especially when his instinct was screaming at him, asking him to retreat.

Rapakha, of course, didn't let him retreat. Instead, he threw a punch directly toward the swords.

Kai gritted her teeth. He had expected the impact, but it felt stronger than before. He thought he could still make it, but…

'What is this? Why can't I deflect it or do anything?' Kai thought with a shocked expression as Rapakha slammed him down to the ground and somehow redirected his punch to the ground at the last second.

*Bam!*

The power of the punch suddenly created a whole new crater with a radius of twenty-five meters. They were completely blown away. Even Kai could understand that if the attack actually hit him, he would be dead.

Everyone's body shook as they immediately raised their defensive stance, only to be greeted by Rapakha's magic.

Suddenly, numerous spikes appeared from the ground, trying to pierce them. Everyone tried to react, but Isabelle and Evan didn't manage to escape, getting locked by these numerous spikes in a very weird position.

"God of Wind, Aeolus!" Isabelle still managed to react by summoning her four wind balls as they shot the spikes so she could break free.

At this time, a box of stone was summoned from the ground. Isabelle immediately shot the wall with her attacks again, but the stone suddenly bent instead of broke.

It was at this time, she realized that Rapakha had enchanted the box with his mystic like that unbreakable mochi wall. And the fact that it was a full box, she couldn't see anything outside.

Sofia, Michelle, Tasha, and Ayaka immediately retreated as they were going to stall time until thirty seconds passed. Even Tasha summoned her Teleportation Magic.

Rapakha saw this and summoned another few spikes to destroy the magic circle before three hands appeared from behind, left, and right. And her front was blocked by the spike. Unless she managed to jump, it would be impossible to escape from this.

She gritted her teeth after noticing that she didn't have enough time to leap, so she released her lightning magic, holding the hands back. The one behind her stopped due to the enclosed space of the left and right hands.

That was why she only needed to stop these two hands from crushing her to death.

This left Michelle, Ayaka, and Sofia. Ayaka, unfortunately, couldn't release her explosion because Kai was near Rapakha as it would only injure him.

Rapakha used this chance to create another arm to hit her. After fighting against her, he realized that Ayaka wasn't actually powerful. Instead, she seemed to have unique coordination that allowed her to increase how much she could hold at a time.

And when she couldn't gather enough momentum to parry this attack, the arm completely suppressed and pinned her to the ground.

"Freezing Field." Sofia summoned her ice field again, but Rapakha only snorted, moving the pillar that Ayaka's burned for light before throwing them to Michelle.

Using this blinding light as they needed to adjust their eyes for a split second, Rapakha took the chance to leap from his position and appeared right before them.

"!!!" It was at this moment Sofia and Michelle realized they couldn't do anything before Rapakha hit them. Yet, when they thought it was over, Rapakha didn't attack them. Instead, he walked past them without doing anything and said, "I think this is enough proof to say I am the one who won, right?"

"…" No one could say anything because the answer was obvious.

"Still, I said that we would fight many times. I stopped you earlier because thirty minutes had passed, not because you win. And since that is the case, who is up for the round two?"

"…" As expected, no one said anything. Not because the answer was obvious but because they were speechless.