Author: M_W Cancer 

Proofreader: M_W Miss Fierce

After killing that man, Veronica then quickly went to the left side in order to assist Vannessa and Jessica. These two were evidently much more weaker compared to Elreen and Erika, considering that Vannessa hasn't been trained in combat for a considerable period of time and her fighting style is also more compatible to work as support like Dan.

As expected, the moment Veronica arrived at their location, she soon saw Vannessa and Jessica completely being suppressed with a Fireshot spell from their enemy. The two could be seen hiding behind a tall rock while being surrounded in all directions by burning trees and grasses. In other words, they are in a passive position.

While Vannessa was trying her best to not let them get suffocated by the smoke caused by the fire around them and at the same time also creating a path for them to retreat to the left side, obviously to meet up with Elreen and Erika and asked them for help, Jessica was occasionally returning some Magic spell attack to their enemy.

Though in spite of all that effort, they were still unable to create any advantages for themselves. In fact, it was getting harder and harder for Vannessa to create a path for them to retreat since the fire was slowly getting bigger and bigger.

"We're cleared in our side. Who needs help?" Elreen suddenly asked through the communicators.

"We need a hand here!" Vannessa didn't hesitate to call out for help.

"Coming!" Both Elreen and Erika responded anxiously.

"No need," Veronica informed them dismissively, before casting, "Tree Slicer!"

Whooooooosh!

A green light shoots out from Veronica's hand swiftly towards the person who was standing on the sentry tower and attacking a continuous barrage of Fireshot towards Vannessa and Jessica's location.

"Argh!"

Afterward, blood could be seen spurting out from the sentry tower as the continuous barrage of attack finally calmed down and halted.

"Veronica!" Vanessa immediately cried out as she launched forward towards Veronica, "Huhuhu, I really thought we were going to be finished at that time without your help!"

"It's alright now," Veronica patted Vannessa's head with a sweet smile on her face like an older sister. While doing that, she said through the communicators, "Clean up the battlefield as soon as possible,"

There's no doubt that their battle just now had attracted the attention of both teams from the top 18 and top 17, and maybe even the nearby Seeker group.

If they don't finish everything now and escape, then they would inevitably risk themselves into another fight or get captured by the Seeker group.

Fortunately, the second target was the enemy that Elreen and Erika were fighting against. So, they simply went towards that person's body and began acting their search. After finishing with their acting, they then quickly went to where they have separated in order to meet up with each other.

Veronica and the others were also now on their way after searching the body of the person she had killed. Also, she needs to search the body of that first person she had killed before finally leaving since she had put it aside for the meantime so as to quickly lend a hand to Vannessa and Jessica.

Meeting up with Elreen and Erika, Vanessa then finished her searched before finally leaving the place and going towards the next target, specifically to the southeast.

There were a total of 6 targets at the south location, two people from the top 19, one person from the top 13, and three people from the top 11, specifically the Wolf Fang Guild, the subsidiary of the Wolf Howl organization.

Unfortunately, because the team that the Wolf Fang Guild had sent out in the game of 'Hide and Seek' were capable men, and additionally the Emerald Elven Battle Competition has still freshly started, they decided to put aside such a troublesome and difficult opponent for the latter games.

It was only after a minute or so passes when Veronica and the all-female group had left that both teams from the top 18 and top 17 finally arrived.

"Damn! They are all dead!"

"How unlucky for us. This is only the first game, yet we have already lost a teammate,"

"A Seeker group is approaching in our 6 o'clock, what should we do?"

"What else, stupid?!"

"Quickly escape to our 12 o'clock everyone!"

Veronica and the others were completely unaware of what had happened. They continued moving towards the southeast, wanting to catch up with Oman and the all-male group that had long already gone there.

Despite being left behind though, Veronica wasn't worried because they have killed two members of the Naughty Elves organization in the south while Oman and the all-male group only killed a single one.

"16 teams have already been eliminated... Wait! Damn, it has unfortunately increased to 18 teams just now. Everyone, we need to be quick if we want to eliminate more members of the Naughty Elves organization," Luke reminded everyone with a solemn tone in his voice through the communicators.

"Veronica," Leo called out soon after, he continued, "Your group's next target is a team from the top 64 located nearby the east. Although there is only a single member of the Naughty Elves organization in that team, still remain vigilant and cautious in fighting against them if you don't want to repeat the same mistake again,"

"I'm sorry," Veronica softly murmured.

"No need to apologize, just perform better in your next target," Selina comforted. Honestly, the situation that had happened back then wasn't entirely Veronica and her all-female group's fault, because even she and Leo wasn't able to expect that the team from the top 19 would actually be hiding in sentry towers that they have constructed on the stem of the trees around them. Also, with the dense cover of the tree leaves, even Elmont, Tifa, and Tila were unable to see them as well.

"This includes you as well, Selina," Leo looked at Selina beside him in disappointment.

Back then, when Selina saw that man had already completed the Magic circle of the Magic spell that he was going to cast and realizing that there is only a few seconds left before the Fireball was going to be shoot towards Veronica, instead of sending a swift warning to Veronica in order to tell her to dodge, she disappointingly panicked and was unable to react accordingly to her responsibility.

Fortunately, he was able to react fast enough and ignored Selina's reaction by his side. Otherwise, Veronica would certainly have a different outcome at that time. Worst case scenario, she would have died.

"I know," Selina lowered her head in response.

Until now, Selina is still immensely regretting her action before. If something bad had truly happened to Veronica at that time, she can't imagine whether she could really forgive herself or not and whether Guild Leader Loki would forgive her or not. She was supposedly one of the people in command of this operation, and with such a responsibility, she should have remained calm and not panicked in that kind of situation. Yet, she exactly did the complete opposite of both and had nearly caused the death of one of their allies.

"I want to see both of you not repeating the same mistake again in this next operation. Otherwise, there would be consequences to pay after the Emerald Elven Battle Competition is over," Leo said threateningly.

"Roger that, Guild Leader Loki," Veronica and Selina nodded their heads in unison to express their clear understanding.

Being encouraged through a threat, both Veronica and Selina's cooperation undergone a huge improvement. The current situation basically doesn't need Leo to intervene anymore as he only watched by the side while they continued towards their next target.

Unlike the previous time, Veronica and the all-female group didn't get careless anymore as they fought against the team from the top 64. They didn't dare get closer before making the situation clear first, and they didn't launch an attack unless they could guarantee an easy kill.

By doing that, they have killed all three people from the top 64 silently and easily.

Afterward, they swiftly began their actions of searching on their bodies and left to move towards their next target.

Veronica and the all-female group, and also including Oman and the all-male group as well, repeated such an attack pattern over and over again, especially on the east side where the alliance of the participants from the top 31 to 40 is located at until eventually the game of 'Hide and Seek' was over.

The situation of the game of 'Hide and Seek' had basically become unclear for everyone watching as they were left asking, "Who are really the Seekers here?!"

What Selina and the others had done was seemingly the opposite, as if they were the actual Seekers of the game of 'Hide and Seek' instead; searching for all the Hiders and once they located their hiding spots they will immediately eliminate them, though not in a way of capturing them, but rather to kill all of them.

Their behavior really added a lot more excitement to the game of 'Hide and Seek' compared to how it was supposedly arranged. This was because they didn't hide like the majority of the Hiders do, but had to keep on moving around all over the map of the miniature replica of the Mountain Wall range. In addition to that, the others, as if hearing the rumors of what they were doing, also decided to begin actively hunting for the other Hiders at the late game.

This behavior of everyone finally causes the game to twist on a thrilling scene, where everyone doesn't care about the Seeker groups anymore as they started killing and eliminating the members of the alliance of their enemies until the eliminated teams reached 25.

Although it causes a lot of trouble to Veronica and the others during that time as they couldn't eliminate more members of the Naughty Elves organization anymore, considering the fact that all of the teams of each of the alliances had unexpectedly gathered together in a single location, they were at least able to unknowingly make themselves less suspicious.

At the end of the game of 'Hide and Seek', the Naughty Elves organization simply concluded that what Veronica and the others had been doing all of this time should be how the game of 'Hide and Seek' was supposed to be played right from the very start. Hide and then Seek, or base on their understanding when it comes to the Emerald Elven Battle Competition which is all about brutal killing; a game of predator hunting for its prey!