...

While Shin and the others were sent into the prison island, Shiella and the other top prodigies of the other countries were not fooling around either. After forming their respective groups and separating from their rivals, they quickly started hunting down the monster beasts that were swarming at them from all directions.

Earthen Lizards might only be 5-star monsters, but their defenses were way tougher than the other monster beast in the same ranks. And due to this fact, taking them down is going to be very hard if they were taken too lightly.

Unfortunately for them, Sheila and the others had no plan of playing around with them. The moment they regrouped with each other, they quickly went all out and started taking down the Earth Lizards that were swarming at them.

They didn't need to have a plan or a formation to defend themselves; all they needed was a single look at each other and a quick glance at their current position to know what to do next.

"Hu! Your academy sure knows how to take advantage of us," said David as he sat on the pile of corpses of the Earthen Lizards that he killed.

"To think that they are going to use this opportunity to lessen the overgrowing number of the Earthen Lizards from the south, they sure are productive," he added skeptically while turning his head at his current partner.

On the other hand, Elijah was standing in the middle of the dead Earthen Lizards that he cut into multiple pieces.

He strongly swung his sword downwards to remove the remaining monster blood on his sword before sheathing it.

"I don't have any idea of this either, so don't talk to me as if I'm conspiring a crime with the academy," said Elijah in a cold manner, responding to David's previous words.

In the meantime, Jerimiah stood in the middle of a devastated spot. Around him lay the corpses of the Earthen Lizards which had missing parts of their bodies.

Those parts turned into a meat paste after being blasted by Jerimiah's punch. Some of those corpses even had huge holes on their bodies, signifying how much strength did he put on each of his punches.

On the other hand, the spot that Vincent was guarding was pretty neat. He was also the one who dealt with his targets the cleanest.

He killed all of the Earthen Lizards that were swarming at him with just a single blow. Their sizes didn't matter, all of them didn't last a single strike from Vincent.

The defense that made those monster beasts troublesome was useless in front of Vincent daggers. He struck each of his targets under their heads; right above their throat and below their skulls.

After successfully penetrating their defense, all Vincent needed to do was to channel more Natural Force on his daggers before making it explode inside the head of the Earthen Lizards. Even if these monster beasts were famed for having a very tough defense outside, their innards were not as strong as tough of their scales.

All of his victims had an intact corpse aside from the hole that was left by Vincent's daggers and their blasted brains.

Standing not too far from his spot was Shiella who was surrounded by burned corpses of the Earthen Lizards that she killed.

"Is this everything that they have? I think I saw some 6-star monster beasts among them earlier," she said with a deep frown while turning her head to Mariel.

Meanwhile, Mariel was currently lifting the corpses of the monsters that she killed using her Mental Energy before neatly piling them up on a single spot. And when she was done, she nodded her head, fully satisfied with her work.

Only after that did she turn her head at Shiella and responded. "Well, you are right about that. There were even some of them in the rank of 7-star monster beasts."

"But given that we didn't encounter any of them, they are most probably hunting down the other groups in not biding their time to chase after us," she added after a brief moment of pause.

Overhearing the topic of their discussion, Jerimiah couldn't help but chimed in and joined them. "But from what I can see earlier, those monster beasts seemed to be being controlled by someone; probably one of the academy teachers?"

Hearing those words, the two couldn't help but nod their heads in agreement.

"It is also highly likely. Miss Shane indeed has some ability," said Mariel noddingly.

"Professor Billy seemed to be a Beastmaster too. The same for Madam Peng," added Shiella before falling into deep thought.

Then David and the others walked over and joined them before starting to discuss what to do next. And after a few moments of discussion, they decided to start hunting more Earthen Lizards to thin down their numbers before starting to hunt the ones with a higher rank.

They also decided to ignore the other teams for the time being, so as long as the others didn't bother them, the group would not be going to trouble themselves at dealing with them either.

Unfortunately, not everything was going according to the plan. While they were busy hunting down some Monster Beasts, the Umbras of the Dark Continent bothered David and Elijah once again.

Moreover, they seemed to team up with the Decastars and Supernovas of the other countries as they were not grouped together.

"Tsk! Tsk! These guys sure are persistent," muttered David with a deep frown, glaring at the two Umbras.

In the meantime, Shiella suddenly released a helpless sigh before saying with a displeased tone. "It is really hard to have a troublemaker in a group."

Hearing that, David whipped his head towards her and raised both of his hands in the air helplessly, trying to defend himself. "Come on~! You can see that these guys are the ones provoking me. I didn't do anything at all!"

Unfortunately, Shiella didn't buy his words and refuted with a raised eyebrow. "Is that so? But how come I remember that you are the one who provoked them first earlier?"

The corner of David's mouth suddenly twitched when he heard those words as he could also remember that what she said was indeed true. The problem was he only did that to warn the two lecherous guys earlier.

He wanted to further prove his innocence but experience had told him that talking back to a woman would not lead to anything good. So, he decided to keep his mouth shut and not say anything.

Instead, he turned his head towards the opposing side and especially glared at the two Umbras, planning to vent out his frustration to them. "Now, you guys did something that you shouldn't have done. I guess I need to teach you a lesson, so that-…"

He was still in the middle of talking when Shiella suddenly cut his words off. "Look, you are about to create some trouble again."

Cough! Cough!

Hearing that, David suddenly choked with his own words as he tried to swallow them back. He then turned his head back to Shiella before helplessly asking. "So, what do you want me to do?"

In the meantime, the other guys in their team were trying their hardest to suppress their laughter after seeing the world-famous Wanderer acting so tame in front of Shiella.

'D*mn it! This is embarrassing! But I have to endure if I want to continue pursuing this Ice Queen,' thought David to himself while throwing a sharp glare at Jerimiah and Vincent who were currently giving him some meaningful looks.

On the other hand, Shiella ignored David's question and turned her attention to the opposing side before asking. "Are you guys sure about this? You should know that both of us will not gain anything if we fight each other now."

"We are going to weaken our strengths and let those opportunists take advantage of our weakness," she added while pointing towards two different directions where the Marines and Bright Feathers were observing them.

The opposing group only took a quick glance in those directions before ignoring what she just said before saying. "All we need is for you to hand over that arrogant guy and his swordsman partner. If you do that, then we are not going to bother your group later."

"Are you asking us to weaken our group by leaving them behind and letting you gang up at them? You sure have some wild imagination," said Shiella mockingly.

She then paused for a few moments before continuing with a sneering tone. "How about we do it the other way around? Offer your heads as an apology to how you looked at us earlier and we will forgive your crime?"

"Heh!"

Then Liebert and his group couldn't help but laugh at her words before looking at her body lecherously once again while saying. "I'm not interested in your offer either. Though, I'm really interested in tasting you if that is what you mean."

Boom!

Then an immense killing intent suddenly exploded from David's body while whispering with a heavy tone. "I swear that I'm going to kill this guy sooner or later."

Not only him, Shiella and Mariel were now looking at them even colder. But they also knew that they couldn't kill these guys yet since those two still had a special status; if something happened to them while they were under the protection of the Soaring Continent, the Dark Continent would surely hold them accountable.

Understanding what they were thinking, David quickly rephrased what he just said earlier. "Okay, killing them might be impossible for now, but breaking a few ribs and bones should be fine, right?"

...