Auric jumped off the building and landed next to Ellia and the others. "We’re here."

"Good work earlier, but there are still a lot of things to do." Ellia nodded.

"What should we do now? Escape? Can’t we just kill them? The number of enemies has decreased significantly. We still have the chance to do it."

"The people we’ve defeated are mostly those who haven’t evolved. Their number might have decreased drastically, but what’s left are the strong ones. If we want to defeat them, we need more than just a head-on confrontation." Ellia shook her head.

"We need to help Christopher and Maxwell as well." Arina added.

"Milinda, you should help them." Ellia nodded in agreement. "You alone should be enough to make the difference. Try to finish there as fast as possible and come to us. We’ll kill them all at that time."

Milinda didn’t really want to leave, considering her priority was Auric’s safety.

But this was indeed the best option. They needed the firepower, so Vera and Ellia had to remain. Ruka and Arina would be the ones supporting them.

Eric and Tommi could make a difference, but the two captains might want to keep them here so that they can ensure their safety.

It was obvious that Auric should go with the bigger group. Hence, the only person who remained was her. She was their only option.

"Tsk." Milinda clicked her tongue. "Fine."

"We’ll enter the woods not far from here. Auric and I will try to stall for time. In the meantime, the rest of you should start preparing for traps. We’ll then bring them to you guys and we’ll try to turn around the situation."

Eric didn’t dare to say anything, knowing the gap between them. Tommi wanted to help, but someone needed to guard the people who would set up the trap. Vera would be the leader of this group, so she needed to be there as well.

It was only natural for Ellia to pair up with Auric. Auric was also strong, so they couldn’t kill him easily.

Besides, Ellia and Auric’s compatibility was extremely high.

"Got it." They ultimately agreed. Milinda was still with them, waiting for them to lose sight of her before she changed her direction. It would be bad if more people were chasing after her, since she wanted to help Christopher and Maxwell, who were being chased by the scavengers.

The moment they entered the woods, Arina and Vera sped up, leading the group at the front. Obviously, there were beasts outside the cities. So, they needed people to exterminate them.

Meanwhile, Auric and Ellia slowed down as they saw multiple people coming. The leaders of the two groups, Scarface and the bald man, were leading them despite their injuries. Their eyes were bloodshot as though they had no intention of letting them go.

Auric asked, "So, what are we going to do now?"

"Don’t you know my plan already? We think the same way."

"Well, I just know that you have a plan right now, and it may be different from mine." Auric narrowed his eyes.

Ellia chuckled. "Do you know how to dance?"

"Absolutely not."

"Good. I will teach you how to dance right now." Ellia grinned. "Keep up."

"Catch them!" Scarface shouted. They had gotten closer and closer. It was time to unleash everything they had to catch these students.

However, Auric and Ellia suddenly used the trees as cover and never reappeared.

"!!!" Scarface noticed something was wrong.

Auric activated the Plant General to confuse them.

"Hmph!" Scarface stomped the ground. The soil rose and broke the roots apart. "There he is!"

Scarface pointed at the tree where he had last seen Auric.

Some of them concentrated their attacks and blasted the tree and Auric behind it.

Surprisingly, Auric wasn’t there. The next thing they realized, Ellia and Auric came out from another tree.

Auric released his Piercing Thunder with the full output of his lightning. At the same time, Ellia drew her blade, unleashing a sword strike toward them.

"Block it!" The bald man roared.

Two people moved forward and stopped their attacks successfully. As Ellia said, the people coming for them mostly had juvenile-form avatars. They were not someone that could easily be defeated, especially with them going together.

Once they stopped them, several people unleashed their respective attacks to counterattack.

Ellia, on the other hand, used the momentum of her swing to spin her body and leaned her back on Auric’s chest.

"Should put your hand on my waist." Ellia winked playfully as she was still pointing her blade up and Auric was pointing forward after using the Piercing Thunder.

If Auric held her waist at this time, it would look like they were dancing. Then, Ellia used her Void Step, making them disappear.

"!!!" Scarface widened his eyes. "Watch out. The girl must be a space-element user. She can come out from anywhere!"

The people were surprised, but they hurriedly raised their guards.

Ellia and Auric came out from another tree, this time moving in the opposite direction.

Ellia swung her blade again, cutting down all the trees in front of her. Her sword strike continued toward the enemy group.

Meanwhile, Auric used the Lightning Blade to cut them as well. Because of the previous warning, the group managed to block them again.

They launched a counterattack one more time as Scarface said, "Attack them now. There’s no way she can use the same ability again and again.

Both of them actually used their motion to launch an attack and spin their bodies. This way, they immediately faced each other, and Ellia simply put her arms around Auric’s neck. "Grab my waist with both hands."

Auric was a bit speechless, but he got the hang of this plan now. Ellia released her energy, but it was a way to cover for Auric.

As Scarface said, Ellia couldn’t use her Void Step again and again. But during that time, she would cover Auric’s energy, and Auric would activate his Void Step.

What Auric didn’t know was Ellia’s dancing plan. Now that he got the hang of it, he knew where they would teleport next.

Their bodies disappeared right before the attacks reached them.

Boom!

Scarface squinted his eyes, wondering if they had hit him. But if his eyes weren’t playing tricks on him, he was sure that Ellia and Auric disappeared right before it hit them.

"Watch out!" The bald man shouted, noticing the energy signature from the right side.

"!!!" They hurriedly turned around, but they were too late this time.

Auric went one step further in this attack. He used the Plant General, but he combined his plant element and lightning element in this attack.

As a result, lightning roots emerged from the ground and blasted their defenses. The lightning provided him with enough power to hit the weakened defense, as most of them were focused on their previous direction.

One root struck an enemy and electrocuted him.

"Aaahhhhh!"

"What? A lightning root?"

"Is there another person?"

They were confused. There were only two people, but they somehow saw three elements.

"You’re worrying about the wrong thing. Where is that woman?!"

"!!!" They were startled before one of them saw Ellia above them. "Up there!"

It was too late because Ellia had released her sword strike toward the electrocuted enemy. Because of Auric’s attack, the man couldn’t defend himself, so the sword strike cut him down.

Her body spun again and stopped until she faced upward. Her body then fell straight down as Auric caught her.

"Nice. You’re doing great now." Ellia smiled.

Before they attacked them, Ellia had teleported them together. Once again, they launched an attack, and it ended with Auric holding Ellia’s hand above her head as Ellia made the spin, cutting another man down.

Auric then used his Void Step to get away.

Auric and Ellia repeated the same process over and over. When Ellia was waiting to use her Void Step again, Auric would use his Void Step, and vice versa. They attacked the enemy every time they came out.

Auric and Ellia thought alike, so both of them knew where to teleport next and what kind of attack they should release next.

In fact, Ellia took advantage of their same thought process to perform something like this. She had seen that it was possible when Auric asked her to cut him down to get the bat in their previous mission.

Of course, Ellia moved in a way that it would end up with them joining back together, in a way that it would look like they were dancing.

That was why Ellia told him that she would be teaching him how to dance.

"Still, this is not going to work."

"Yeah. Our job here is to stop them and lure them afterward."

"Oh." Auric almost forgot about it as he was too overwhelmed by this ’dance.’

"Shall we end this dance soon?" Ellia smiled. "It’s a man’s courtesy to lead the lady."

"You mean making a fool of myself?" Auric chuckled.

Both of them came out one more time. Ellia unleashed her sword strike, but Auric’s lightning sparked for a second, but it suddenly disappeared as though he had run out of energy.

This result didn’t escape their eyes.

Scarface immediately shouted, "The man has exhausted his energy! The woman alone won’t be able to stop us. This is our chance. Kill the man and capture the woman!"

"Oops." Auric acted according to their script.

"It’s twelve o’clock. Cinderella needs to run." Ellia winked playfully, as she was the first one to run.

"And the prince has to chase after her." Auric smiled wryly and followed right after.

It was a fighting style he had never experienced before. Still, it was elegant and terrifyingly fun.

He suddenly figured out that Ellia’s fighting style might have been a bit restricted before this.

Ellia had been fighting together with Arina all this time. Arina had supported her from the rear, so Ellia might have gotten used to Arina’s presence. That was why Ellia was able to accommodate Auric in her fighting style as well.

But this was probably the first time Ellia found a partner who could understand her. After all, even Arina said that all this time, she had acted as Ellia’s limiter. Now that Auric had taken Arina’s role, Ellia broke free. Her fighting style became much more unpredictable but, at the same time, fun.

Ellia completely controlled the pace.

Auric didn’t even have the chance to get Lindwurm to support him. This was Ellia’s battle sense. She controlled the pace of the battle, kept track of their time, and even had a good awareness of the enemy.

She knew where the enemy was and their positions without Lindwurm’s help. Auric still needed the help of Lindwurm to achieve what she wanted.

It might change after mastering his new eyes, but it would take more time.

Nevertheless, they managed to buy enough time for the team. It was time for them to leave.

"We’re ready," said Vera over the radio.

Ellia had accurately predicted the amount of time they needed to set up the trap and started running before that. This way, they would arrive right after.

The enemy kept charging at them and launched an attack to stop them.

Auric didn’t use his power this time since he had to act as if he had exhausted his element to lure them out. Ellia stopped and turned around, cutting their attacks.

However, the enemy’s attacks were simply too much for her to stop alone. Ellia grabbed Auric’s arm and teleported one more time.

"Keep attacking them. The woman is the only threat now. Exhaust her energy first!" 𝘧𝓇ℯ𝑒𝓌𝑒𝑏𝓃𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘭.𝒸ℴ𝓂

The enemy came with even more vigor. Ellia released her energy to cover Auric’s energy again, allowing Auric to use Void Step without showing that he still had energy left. Both of them continued forward, getting instructions from Arina.

Still, the gap between them and the enemy continued to shrink.

"We’re going to get her." The scavengers looked happy as they were about to catch Ellia.

However, one of them suddenly felt like they had tripped on something.

He looked down and saw a grenade pin that had been pulled out by a root. The grenade then exploded.

Boom!

Ellia and Auric turned around as the rest of the team had gathered. "Time to kill them."